Ideas for a new game

[thomasd3]

For the gameplay itself, I see pretty much SIL as the base, but I would add a few things:

- destructible walls
- possibility to drop traps on the ground
- merchants in safe areas
- a level of water per cell which would affect speed and a variety of other things
- the ability to have fire; either limited in time as fallout from an explosion, or spreading if material allows it. This would affect enemies as well.
- an indicator when you hear enemy sound
- independent enemy AI, where creatures may kill each other; this could be very useful to try and get followed by an enemy just to bring it to his own enemy, etc.
- adding lock picks
- I'm on the fence about crafting
- add optional indicators that shows the chances of success in a fight (will be useful for debugging, not sure about the final game)
- be able to drop a note in that cave for future adventurers of the same faction
- weapons and armors wearing out so that they require repairs to not lose them
- showing clearly the differences between 2 pieces of equipment.

this will force graphic tiles instead of text since more information needs to be conveyed, but I am planning to keep it very basic visually.

As far as muti vs. single, I think it covers both:

The world will be automatically generated; since it only takes a seed and a few parameters per cave we can have a world larger that your lifespan could handle.
My idea is to have a central zone of activity which is actively maintained, balanced, etc but if a player wants to travel to a remote area to make his own fiefdom and adventure there, it is not a problem; this can be handled at the start of the game; It is possible that other players reach that area through adventure, but with the mechanics I have in mind, it would take a considerable amount of time until it has a chance to happen; then you can always set defenses there as well.

So we really have 2 main elements:
- a dynamic world map with the lore, strategical decisions to make that will affect the world in general
- cities, caves, castles, dungeons similar to SIL, but with improvements that are the areas to visit from the main map.

From the lore perspective, we need to figure out 'who' you are, and what your main motivation is; saving (the world, someone? rescuing? looting? etc
what makes the different forces in the world and what they're trying to do as well.
it would make sense that players would be taking opposite sides.
if a player dies in a cave, etc his property will be converted to value that the factions owning the area will be able to spend; so maybe you find that your calling in life is to fortify lines, or to organize economics to make prevent other players from taking an area, etc.
you don't necessarily have to be the good guy here, but the lore should explain each point of view so you'd feel compelled to belong in one place or another.
a bit like how Ultima IV did it (or was it the III?) where you go to a gypsy and she's doing some tarot reading; based on your choices, it determines where you'll belong; something like that can be a playful way to make you start in different scenarios so that you fight for good, for bad, or just ignore everything and try to loot anything you can or any other thing we can think about

[Guest]

I'm staying firm to my belief that this game should be singleplayer, it would make each world unique and you can interact with "heros" (Hurin, Turin etc) that may be killed by other players leaving you no chance to interact with them, you should also be able to recruit these heroes to your cause

Also crafting should DEFINITELY be a feature

[thomasd3]

Actually single vs multi is not very relevant: if you start the game on a single instance, you're essentially the only human player in the world.

As a first step, I'll make a tool that will generate small maps.
I call a 'small map' anything from a castle, city, dungeon, cave, etc. Anything that has a layout with objects, etc and can be explored.
In contrast to the big map that is the world itself, etc.

I'll write something that takes a file with settings, etc and outputs a map in text; so we can see what makes sense and what doesn't and iterate until we get a satisfactory solution.
The first focus will be really on layout: walls and empty spaces, then we can add stuff.

[Guest]

Ok so the different sides can be a bit complicated but I'll give it a shot

Elves - there is a bit of strife between some houses but maybe the "types" could be Elves of Gondolin, specialise in stealth/hunting and could be effective against Orcs and Trolls and another interesting "type" of Elf could be "of the grinding ice" , highly resistant to cold and gets hungry very slowly, high strength and stamina. Another "type" of Elf could be a Dark Eld, accustomed to the being in not well lit areas they would have high perception and high stealth

The "types" of Elves could be like houses so you could have the option to pick eother a house or type same will go with Orcs, Balrogs, Trolls, Dwarves and Men (maybe Werewolves) which I will cover in a while

[thomasd3]

once we have all the main races in place, we have a couple options to build the history of the world since the main story needs a background, or we can do like dwarf fortress where they build a rather complex history every start you start the new world

[Guest]

The Men could be trying to rescue Hurin from the top of Thangoridhrim were he was set by Morgoth

Elves could be trying to avenge the death of Fingolfin by killing Morgoth

Dwarves - I'm not too sure

Orcs/Trolls/Balrogs - could be trying to kill all who appose Morgoth

Ents (if you want them) - will want to protect their forests

You should also include "vaults" which are manually made rooms that have a random chance of spawning (see vault.txt file in Sil) and special vaults, these are basically named buildings that appeared in the Silmarillion, they will resemble the description in the Silmarrilion but could have a chance of spawning with slight variation, so take for example "Zirakzigil" where Gandalf fought the Balrog, you could have a fixed location for that to spawn but you could have different "layouts" made out for that vault and one has a chance of spawning in that spot each time a world is made

By "layout" I mean the general shape of structure and what is in the interior, number of statues, size of armories, size of the main gates etc

[thomasd3]

yes, I wanted to be able to take pre-built pieces and connect them together because otherwise it will look too much like a non sense maze; I'm looking at this right now.

[Guest]

Sounds very exciting, i'm looking forward to seeing your progress and diving into this game

[thomasd3]

I will build something similar to the vault format from SIL; less block types to get started, but we'll add them as we go.

we need a few ideas for a name as well so I know how to call this

[Guest]

Peoples of Arda

Strifes of Arda

Scourge of Arda

Troubles of Arda

Arda means "The Realm" it is the name for Earth aka "The kingdom of Manwe"

The names are horrible but it is a start, "The kingdom of Manwe" does not sound that bad

[thomasd3]

Manwe will work better because the 'rd' will be difficult to pronounce for some nationalities; ideally 2 syllables and no hard consonant is the best

[Guest]

When do you think we will have a playable version? I am very eager to play!

[thomasd3]

I started to do a map generator, so that's the first step: getting maps that work and don't look like mazes.

I'll put the executable out so everyone can play with it, try different settings and then once we all agree that the maps are good, I'll move to the next step: putting objects and monsters on them

[Guest]

Jolly good, i'll try come up with item ideas

[thomasd3]

I have done a few things:

- I figured out how Sil's map generator works; it's quite simple and it also happen to have a bug where it doesn't properly check the bounds in some cases.

- I have built a system based on the same idea that is making rectangular room, then connecting them horizontally and vertically and then through L shape corridors.

- I started to look at how to incorporate vault like features where we'd build a library of predefined rooms to be added to the system.
The syntax I came up with can be found here: https://pastebin.com/A10gdxPb

In this format, you have a bunch of functionalities ("Elements") that you call by name and for which you assign a letter.
There is a global list and you can add / override local ones, per map.
I have also added the concept of affinity where some rooms will want to be close to each other, but some will not.

For example, a treasure room may *like* to be close to a room full of guards; a room full of food, maybe not as much.
A chapel may not want to be next to a place with food as well, etc.

For now, these are the base types:

OpenSpace,

WallEdge,
WallIndestructible,
WallStone,
WallWooden,
WallStoneHalfHeight,
WallWoodenHalfHeight,

DoorClosed,
DoorOpen,
DoorHidden,
DoorLocked,
DoorLockedWood,
DoorLockedKey1,
DoorLockedKey2,
DoorLockedKey3,
DoorLockedKey4,

StairsDown,
StairsUp

These do *not* include any object, monsters, etc yet. It is only the layout structure.
I had started to add traps, etc but I removed it because I want to nail the layout first.

Does the format make sense?