Omnimaga

Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => TI Z80 => Topic started by: Jeremy Avalon on April 19, 2006, 04:34:00 pm

Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on April 19, 2006, 04:34:00 pm
The Project: The Lord of the Rings for the 83+ family
Le Projet: Le Seigneur des Anneaux pour la famille des 83+

Features:
- A gripping story of love, war, adventure, betrayal, forgiveness, and such 'n such... lovingly ripped off from J.R.R. Tolkein
- 9 playable characters, each with their own special ability
- Status ailments (paralysis, poison...)
- Best of all... FEATURE CREEP! Keep checking this post to see it at work! :Ptongue.gif

The Status:
Movement: 90%
Separate collision routine implemented, as well as detection of buildings (or whatever). Collision routine also optimized now to squeeze as much speed as possible out. Event triggers / conversation system implemented and all nice and working.

In-game menu: 75%
Must implement separate save slots and in-game help files. And the QUIT command. And actual saving - this routine has been found to not work properly. Oops.

Saving/Loading: 70%
Must actually give a loading option as opposed to automatically loading my test save file.

Combat: 95%
Battle engine renders basic screen and combatants, and is capable of executing the Flee and Fight commands, as well as Legolas' Multi(shot), Aragorn's Heal, Gimli's Rage, Gandalf's Zap (spell), Boromir's (Shield) Bash, Frodo's (One) Ring, Sam's Hold (Fast), and Merry's Steal. Can complete battles and award EXP and gold. Characters know when they have died and skip turns accordingly. In-battle items are all done. Pippin's character ability must still be implemented, as well as player status afflictions. (Enemies can be stunned, but not poisoned yet.)

Item management: 16%
Store items complete (but not necessarily accessible). Weapons, armor, and items can be bought/sold. Note that arms are bought on a trade-in system - only one weapon or armor per character. Item list, besides weapons and armor: kingsfoil (restores 20 HP), meat (restores 50 HP), herbs (cures status afflictions, which are not implemented yet), entwater (revives dead companions), lembas (increases max HP), and miruvor (increases EXP). Kingsfoil, meat, herbs*, and entwater can be used within battle.

Map implementation: 0.8%
A very small, clean map that is closer to the final design.

Story implementation: 0%
Not really a priority right now.

Graphics: 13%
Party graphics are done, along with about a third of the enemy sprites. Very few overworld tiles, much less dungeon- or town-specific ones. Need LOTS OF SPRITES to start serious work.
BCTurk did the PC sprites. (That would be Player Character.)

Startup and other Stuff: 11%
Using the One Ring intro - thanks VERY MUCH to lolje and Spellshaper. :)smile.gif

Editors: 50%
Map editor, done. Save editor, not started.

La traduction
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: tenniskid493 on April 19, 2006, 04:45:00 pm
Yay...I'm glad we didn't lose this project.  It looks extremly promising.

As for the title screen...I'd recommend talking to spellshaper.  He's one of the best I've ever seen.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 19, 2006, 05:54:00 pm
Yeah, spellshaper would be able to make a great title screen (he has a talent!). I am happy you are still working on this, and I hope you can get it done too! :Dbiggrin.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 20, 2006, 01:46:00 am
Nice to see you back that project looked promising I cant wait for it, can you repost the screenshots?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Spellshaper on April 20, 2006, 01:49:00 am
QuoteBegin-Jeremy Avalon+Apr 20 2006, 05:34 AM-->
QUOTE (Jeremy Avalon @ Apr 20 2006, 05:34 AM)
Requesting Help With:
A title screen  

 How should it roughly look like?

And have you any graphics to spare? :Dbiggrin.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 20, 2006, 05:40:00 am
Something with flames, like the wizard (Gandulf?) with his staff and flame coming off it. Or the eye thing flaming!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Radical Pi on April 20, 2006, 09:43:00 am
I saw the movie trilogy last week, and now I can't wait to see it on my calc!
I vote for the Eye in grayscale. :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 20, 2006, 11:02:00 am
That's two votes for the eye! :Ptongue.gif I hope to see something in gs! haha
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: shadow on April 20, 2006, 11:07:00 am
WOW, i never thought LOTR would come to calcs, i can't wait to play it, good luck with it
is the game turnbased?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 20, 2006, 11:12:00 am
I think it would be best to be turn based. But if you could make it just have one enimie on the screen at a moment than it would work, but be kinda boring.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: BCTurk on April 20, 2006, 11:40:00 pm
Yay!  I was wanting this project to get back posted.  Good luck Jermey...Spelli, try http://home.att.net/~mlbr24/LOTRSprites.PNG for sprites.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 21, 2006, 05:18:00 am
Oh yeah, those sprites were on the old board. They look really good!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on April 21, 2006, 08:25:00 am
Make that three votes for the eye. :)smile.gif

Well, I have an almost-finished battle system (sans most special abilities and enemy AI, currently), so I should have a little "techdemo" release up soon.

As for the system, it's turn based, with a 3v3 battle screen. (up to three enemies at once, three active party members)
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 21, 2006, 08:29:00 am
Wow that sounds very cool, kinda like FF! :Dbiggrin.gif I can't wait for a SS or demo !
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 21, 2006, 02:33:00 pm
I cant wait, do you have any screenshots? Maybe I should move this to featured section as well, this look pretty cool
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on April 24, 2006, 11:33:00 am
Okay, I apologize, but I have some *VERYVERYBIG* History projects due in the next couple of weeks, plus a video to finish and burn several DVDs of for other, only-partially-recreational purposes, so this will be on hold probably for another two to two-and-a-half weeks. Sorry, everyone.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 24, 2006, 11:34:00 am
It's ok, school should come first. We will be awaiting your return to the project when your done :Ptongue.gif.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 25, 2006, 02:12:00 am
I cant wait to see what you'll come up with afterward :)smile.gif but please put homework and school stuff before calc programming, as school is more important ;)wink.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on April 28, 2006, 07:53:00 pm
Update, see front post for details.
I should have a testable beta sometime next week.
HOWEVER, it will be devoid of an inventory system, a lot of enemies and maps, and all the story - more of a "techdemo" than a beta.

Projected Beta 1 date: May 5, 2006.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 28, 2006, 08:03:00 pm
Cool, I look forward to this week now ;)wink.gif....Just need to add a Intro screen.
*hits Spellshaper with a big fish!*
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 29, 2006, 01:46:00 am
Wow cool I cant wait to try it!

EDIT: http://omnimaga.dyndns.org/index.php?showforum=46 ^^
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 29, 2006, 04:34:00 am
Congrats on the feature ^_^!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: BCTurk on April 29, 2006, 04:58:00 am
Nice, gj on the progress.  I'll certainly test the beta out.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: crzyrbl on April 29, 2006, 09:45:00 am
yay, another featured! i was all alone.  too many staff projects...
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: elfprince13 on April 29, 2006, 09:50:00 am
this looks cool. please stay true to the books.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on April 29, 2006, 10:00:00 am
:Ptongue.gif As much as can be done in that field, I will. Now it is a little unlikely that the Fellowship encountered Orcs constantly on the road to Moria, but I have to do that for the sake of making it an RPG.

But yes, I will stay true to the books.
Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on April 29, 2006, 10:09:00 am
Btw I like your sig, it's pretty! XDsmiley.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 29, 2006, 12:24:00 pm
wow nice sig
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on April 29, 2006, 03:52:00 pm
Heheh, thanks. *points to images.google.com :)smile.gif*
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Dragon__lance on April 29, 2006, 03:56:00 pm
looks pretty sweet! Keep up the good work! :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 02, 2006, 07:35:00 am
Okay, sorry, but I have to push back the beta date by about a week. My AP Calc exam is this Wednesday and I've lost a lot of time to studying. (Shoulda paid attention earlier in the year. :twisted: )
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on May 02, 2006, 07:37:00 am
It's understandable, and I hope you do well!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: BCTurk on May 02, 2006, 10:58:00 am
QuoteBegin-Jeremy Avalon+May 2 2006, 12:35 PM-->
QUOTE (Jeremy Avalon @ May 2 2006, 12:35 PM)
Okay, sorry, but I have to push back the beta date by about a week. My AP Calc exam is this Wednesday and I've lost a lot of time to studying. (Shoulda paid attention earlier in the year. :twisted: )  

 We're in the same boat on the whole paying attention thingy  ;)wink.gif:lol:laugh.gif:rolleyes:rolleyes.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: lolje on May 19, 2006, 04:57:00 am
I formated the two most popular lotr-backgrounds into 96*64, so you can use it as background for your title. (I would recommend that you create this with rigview!):

user posted image
http://home.arcor.de/lolje/bg%20eye.jpg

user posted image
http://home.arcor.de/lolje/bg%20ring.jpg

If I were you I would take the one with the ring because the quality (in grey!) is a LOT of better as the quality of the eye!

I hope that can help you  :)smile.gif (you don't have to hurry, the study has first priority - but I think this is clear for you)

lolje
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Spellshaper on May 19, 2006, 05:51:00 am
QuoteBegin-lolje+May 19 2006, 05:57 PM-->
QUOTE (lolje @ May 19 2006, 05:57 PM)
user posted image

 lemme mess with that a bit ^_^
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Spellshaper on May 19, 2006, 06:03:00 am
user posted image

boo! :lol:laugh.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: tifreak on May 19, 2006, 06:52:00 am
That... looks... Amazing... O_O
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Radical Pi on May 19, 2006, 11:04:00 am
Can you post a screeny of that on calc? I have a feeling that the rising gray flicker will go well with the flames. ^_^
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Spellshaper on May 19, 2006, 11:21:00 am
lolz ^^

nope I can not, I got animated SS working, but a part of the right screen is blank O_O and it's flickery (Tilem)

prgm for testin here:
http://www.filespoint.com/point/2519563/EYE.8XP.html
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Radical Pi on May 19, 2006, 11:44:00 am
I got the first download! :Ptongue.gif

That eye is ZOMGzoring w00tastical! *Radical Pi
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: kalan_vod on May 19, 2006, 01:15:00 pm
Looks great, and I am glad that progress is being made even though you are busy XDsmiley.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 19, 2006, 01:29:00 pm
last post: may 2 :(sad.gif i hope he finish it
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 21, 2006, 10:14:00 am
Yeah, finals are coming up. I haven't had much time to program this, but progress has been made. I will post a beta, regardless of status, next Saturday.

In the meantime, I will go to update the first post. *does*
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Dragon__lance on May 21, 2006, 02:02:00 pm
yay! i can't wait! I'd love to test it! :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: elfprince13 on May 21, 2006, 02:51:00 pm
I think the ring would make an awesome title.

It has less color depth than the flames, so a higher proportion of the original color is retained.

does anyone know if TrueGray can make standalones?

that would look even better.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: lolje on May 22, 2006, 08:37:00 pm
 :huh:huh.gif I think you first need the name on the title ... ?
btw I'd prefer the ring and add 'Lord of the Rings'...

p.s.: progress?
that rockz
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 23, 2006, 02:42:00 am
i would stay with "the lord of the rign" title
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 26, 2006, 07:35:00 am
Update. See first post for current status.

And I've decided to release the game as all three books in one (this will be HUGE) instead of carrying stats over between three different games.

Also, I need to update the readme, and then I'll post something later tonight.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2006, 01:00:00 pm
coool to see this updated :)smile.gif keep it up! Cool to see it will be all in one game ^^
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: BCTurk on May 27, 2006, 04:03:00 am
Sweet!  I'd talk to kalan or xlibman or CDI as far as the save compression goes, they seem to produce some awesome basic stuff, but if you hop on IRC, I can try to help.  Also, if you need any NPC/Enemy sprites, feel free to ask, its summer now, I've got time.

Looks really good, keep it up!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 28, 2006, 10:45:00 am
OKAY!

http://nightwind.0nyx.com/lotr.zip

I don't know why my GOOD host said there was a virus. I checked all the files. This has happened before with .doc files, so I think I may have to reinstall Word.

Anyway, there's techdemo release 1!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 28, 2006, 11:15:00 am
it says the compressed file is invalid or damaged. I tried 7 zip and Windows XP defalut zip view  
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 28, 2006, 02:06:00 pm
Hmmm... *fiddles with it* Is it working now?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: tenniskid493 on May 28, 2006, 02:20:00 pm
I get accessed denied :(sad.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 28, 2006, 02:26:00 pm
Argh.... *keeps trying*
http://nightwind.0nyx.com and click the second link. I can't turn off my host's hotlink protection, so this is the workaround.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 28, 2006, 02:26:00 pm
EDIT: I see the pb, go to http://nightwind.0nyx.com/ then click on the LOTR link  and it should work
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: elfprince13 on May 28, 2006, 02:54:00 pm
hey. pretty cool, I like it.

[edit]
please remove the macro from the word document though.

Get OpenOffice. It pwns MS Office out the window.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on May 29, 2006, 05:30:00 am
What macro? It's all text.

As for OpenOffice, thanks but no thanks. I can already save .doc files with TextEdit, so I have no need to go out and download another... howevermanyMB of stuff.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 29, 2006, 09:12:00 am
Does Open Office exists for mac OS? I use windows but I like it, I dont even have MS word installed on this compy
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: BCTurk on June 22, 2006, 05:59:00 pm
How's LOTR coming Jeremy?  I just started to re-read the Hobbit, and I'm getting back into it. :D
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Mic on July 28, 2006, 09:41:00 pm
Do U have any screens ?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on July 29, 2006, 12:53:00 am
The author quitted calc programming, he told me on AIM, he said he was gonna release what he have but i dunno if he'll ever do it :(sad.gif

welcome back Mic btw, your avatar doesn't work
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on August 23, 2006, 01:19:00 pm
Okay, it's official, I lied (but I didn't know it.) I have started working on this again in my spare time, so progress was actually made this summer.

Updating front post.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 23, 2006, 01:39:00 pm
O_Oshocked2.gif I was sure it died, I was pretty sad when you told me you quit on AIM :(sad.gif and then no release of beta :(sad.gif Great to see progress!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on August 23, 2006, 01:55:00 pm
Once enough features are complete that I'm pretty sure you won't be able to crash it without mucking about in the code, I'll put another beta up.

And this time it won't be in that weird 8XO format. :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 23, 2006, 02:27:00 pm
aaah good to hear I couldnt run it last time :(sad.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Dragon__lance on August 23, 2006, 03:49:00 pm
looks great, time to move back into featured projects? :Dbiggrin.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 24, 2006, 02:49:00 am
I should do asap >.<
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 24, 2006, 06:29:00 am
moved back to Featured RPG projects
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: BCTurk on August 24, 2006, 05:30:00 pm
Yay! Glad to see you reconsidered, welcome back, not that I should be doing any welcoming, but nonetheless.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 25, 2006, 09:36:00 am
*xlibman
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on August 25, 2006, 02:05:00 pm
Houston, we are CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF!! :Dbiggrin.gif

Beta release today, and I think I even ironed out most of the bugs!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: necro on August 25, 2006, 02:16:00 pm
I will try it out.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 25, 2006, 03:13:00 pm
w00t I need to download this asap! I cant wait

I hope this version work on Windows tho O_Oshocked2.gif last time it crashed my calc due to ti connect corrupting :(sad.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: PoisonedV on August 25, 2006, 09:15:00 pm
Screenies please? Or did I miss them?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 26, 2006, 12:38:00 am
There was screenie on the old forums see thread here: http://omnimaga.dvrdns.org/index.php?showtopic=1529

but they seems to have been deleted now :(sad.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on August 26, 2006, 04:58:00 am
My (good) host decided that it was in the interests of their server to cut the free accounts. (That's phrased a bit demonizingly, but they had good reasons.) As a result, I don't have too many places to put those, so I packaged them in the download. (Which, yes, is kind of pointless.:)smile.gif)
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Halifax on August 26, 2006, 09:52:00 am
Yea I want screens cause this game looks awesome. I'm looking forward to like 8 games that are in production by omnimaga its crazy, and this is one of them.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 26, 2006, 01:00:00 pm
aaah I c, well ppl like to see the screens before installing it most of the time, it should be fine if they are included with the download :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: necro on January 04, 2007, 08:06:00 am
any chance that the number of programs will be consolidated...cuase there are alot
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: necro on March 06, 2007, 03:19:00 pm
so, any progresss?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: lolje on April 25, 2007, 08:36:00 pm
Well, that game was looking pretty good... are you there ... !?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: necro on June 09, 2007, 07:20:00 am
I guess its dead
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Delnar_Ersike on June 09, 2007, 09:39:00 am
QuoteBegin-necro+9 Jun, 2007, 13:2-->
QUOTE (necro @ 9 Jun, 2007, 13:20)
I guess its dead

Wasn't that kind of obvious?

Oh, and BTW, does anybody have the source for this project?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on August 30, 2007, 06:51:00 pm
Yes, in fact, I do. Would you like a copy? Better yet, would you like the whole beta?

Because that's what I'm going to post tomorrow afternoon. It hasn't seen *much* improvement since I abandoned the project, but I am now resurrecting it and so I'd love to start getting bug reports again. (Go figure why. :Oo:fou2.gif )

Why? Because I decided not to pursue computer science as a career and so now I can do the programming I AM good at as a hobby again. :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Halifax on August 30, 2007, 08:30:00 pm
What made you not pursue computer science as a career. And also what branch of computer science were you trying to get into?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 31, 2007, 12:22:00 am
wow nice to see you coding calcs again :)smile.gif it has been so long since I saw you on AIM. I can't wait to hear more of you.

Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on August 31, 2007, 12:55:00 pm
Aaaaaaand it's up on the headline post. Start sending me bug reports, please. :)smile.gif

Halifax: I decided I'd rather do astrophysics or astral engineering. Beyond that I'd rather not go into it, 'cause it's a boring and long story, actually.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on August 31, 2007, 01:13:00 pm
wow I am playing it atm, despite of the walking engine that could use some optimization (to run faster), it is pretty good so far, I like the battle interface. You inspired yourself from RL3, right? Also the menu is nice, and I even see you added a team member changing option. Guess what? this is the only calc games besides RL2 that has this feature :)smile.gif, keep up the good work!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 02, 2007, 06:14:00 pm
Alright, today I started work on actually allowing items to be used while in battle. This is slightly slow going as I have no debug menu in the game so I can't just play with variables. I got the menu working (and switched the order of the items around to facilitate it, but no one needs to hear that), but items won't work yet - again, they skip a turn. Although at least you can cancel the act of choosing "Item" - which is more than can be said for other options.

The item menu in battle uses "smart" item detection, so it has some obnoxious gaps if you don't have any of certain items. Similar to how the pause menu's status overview works.

I also cleaned up the battle engine a TINY bit - i.e. now an arrow will appear by the character whose turn it is so it's easier to tell. Gandalf's special ability works too. Flawlessly, thank [your deity of choice]. It paralyzes an enemy, forcing them to skip their next turn, and does a TINY amount of damage. Look forward to this and many more special abilities in 0.3b!! :Ptongue.gif

Also, if ANYONE has any optimization suggestions I would LOVE to hear them, because I've never really coded anything that required it. In addition - and more importantly - I would like advice on balancing the numbers in the game, as they are grossly out of whack at the moment.

Also, Thank you, Kevin. Consider those features tributes to you. ('Cause after all, they all are to an extent inspired by ye who showed us RPGs on the calculator were possible. :)smile.gif)
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 03, 2007, 05:07:00 am
wow niceto see progress again :)smile.gif, I will be sure to try next version! Btw could u post the walking engine source? Maybe i could take a look into it and see if i can optimize something if i manage to understand the code ?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 03, 2007, 06:21:00 am
c1-->
CODE
ec1PROGRAM:ZGA
:While 1
:DelVar B
:If not(L3(1 // This detects whether Aragorn's in the party. He's the de facto party leader.
:8->B // Otherwise the sprite for Frodo is used when moving around.
:real(2,0,1,1,12,8,0,12,0,8,1,0,0,0
:real(1,8X-8,8Y-8,1,8,1,A+2(B>0),B+32,1,0,0
:real(1,8X-8,8Y-8,1,8,1,A+2(B>0),B,3,0,1
:If not(N
:prgmXTEMP015 // Runs the random battle check
:If K<106
:DelVar K
:Repeat K≠0
:getKey->K
:End
:real(1,8X,8Y,1,8,1,0,0,0,0,0
:"ZCOL
:real(10,0,8
:If K=24
:Then
:2->A
:X-1->X
:prgmXTEMP008
:If (theta)<0
:X+1->X
:End
:If K=25
:Then
:3->A
:Y-1->Y
:prgmXTEMP008
:If (theta)<0
:Y+1->Y
:End
:If K=26
:Then
:4->A
:X+1->X
:prgmXTEMP008
:If (theta)<0
:X-1->X
:End
:If K=34
:Then
:5->A
:Y+1->Y
:prgmXTEMP008
:If (theta)<0
:Y-1->Y
:End
:real(10,1,8
:If K=45 or K=106 // to give me an escape route from anywhere within the game, i.e. the "quit" function on the menu
:Then
:"ZQUIT
:real(10,0,7
:prgmXTEMP007
:real(10,1,7
:real(10,1,0
:Return
:End
:If K=105
:Then
:"ZMENU
:real(10,0,8
:prgmXTEMP008
:real(10,1,8
:End
:If X>12 or X<1 or Y<1 or Y>8
:Then
:M-(X<1)+(X=13)->M
:X-12(X=13)+12(X<1)->X
:L-(Y<1)+(Y=9)->L
:Y-8(Y=9)+8(Y<1)->Y
:"ZMI // "Zee Map Index"
:real(10,0,8
:prgmXTEMP008
:real(10,1,8
:End
:Endc2
ec2

Whoof. That's my walkabout engine.

I also found an oversight in Frodo's special ability that allowed you to make him put the Ring on turn after turn even though he was already wearing it. That's now been cut off. And, out of sheer boredom, I made Gandalf's special attack flash a bunch of random bits of the arena before it actually hits. Now, on to Pippin.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: dinhotheone on September 03, 2007, 08:36:00 am
very cool, this game looks like its shaping up to be quite the rpg. good luck with that and your astroscience.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 03, 2007, 04:43:00 pm
What does A and theta do? Because I can't seems to optimize without removing it
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 03, 2007, 05:27:00 pm
Theta is the tile number of the square the player tries to move to. If it's anything other than blank, the move is canceled.

A is used to determine which direction of walking sprite to use, because in the tilesheet, they're all right next to each other.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 03, 2007, 05:54:00 pm
Wouldnt you prefer to check if the tile is blank before moving, so the move isnt done if it is? Altough this may not change a lot in speed it would make optimizing the code much easier because instead of doing stuff like (example) If Z=24:X-1->X:If Z=26:X+1->X you can use boolean logic like this: X-(Z=24)+(Z=26->X
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 03, 2007, 07:23:00 pm
Hmmm... have to rewrite a lot of code for that...

See, what I tried to do was make it so the move would be made, then any special actions would be triggered (such as the shop):

c1-->
CODE
ec1PROGRAM:ZCOL
:[A](Y+1,X+1->(theta)
:If (theta)=24
:Then
:"ZSTORE
:real(10,0,12
:prgmXTEMP012
:real(10,1,12
:DelVar KDelVar N
:-1->(theta)
:Return
:Endc2
ec2
(just an excerpt)

and then move back. I guess the alternative is to? wait.

Oh my. I know what the problem is. Continuing the code:
c1
-->
CODE
ec1:If (theta)=0 or (theta)=25 or (theta)=26 or ((theta)>31 and (theta)<36) or (theta)=38 or (theta)=39 or (theta)=41 or (theta)=58 or (theta)=60
:Return
:If (theta)=46
:Then
: // didn't write this bit yet
:Return
:End
:-1->(theta)c2
ec2

So I'm running that WHOLE STRING just to make sure the next square isn't a wall. Anything that doesn't make it through this check stores -1 to theta and thus gets blocked... so I guess I'll have to re-code all my sprites. >_< Ouch.

AMENDMENT: I just coded it so sprites 25-35 are all free, changing (theta)=25 through <36 to "((theta)>24 and (theta)<36)", and it's already a bit faster. Amazing how much it helps to actually look for the problem rather than do a rain dance. XDsmiley.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 04, 2007, 02:35:00 am
I hopee you can fix it, I'm sure speed increase will be signifiant :)smile.gif Personally if only one tile is walk onable I would just make an If of this one and a condition and an else if it doesnt meet the condition to save space
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 04, 2007, 03:50:00 am
Oh, no, see, that's for all the road tiles/bridges/etc. So we've really got twelve walkable tiles right now.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 04, 2007, 04:02:00 am
oh ok x.x, i hope it can be made faster anyway, you should use boolean logic tho  
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 04, 2007, 07:31:00 am
Well, I cleaned up the sprites and it's running a little faster, but I have another couple of ideas that I'll apply later this afternoon.

Also, as I keep saying, help with balancing the character stats against the enemies' and against XP would be great.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 04, 2007, 07:58:00 am
great to hear :)smile.gif keep it coming!
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 05, 2007, 04:51:00 pm
I've decided that having Pippin's special cause the battle order to need recalculation on-the-fly is too heavy a drain on the limited memory I'm playing with, as well as my limited patience, and I'm changing the function of his special. Instead of simply increasing his Agility (which would really serve little useful purpose anyway), "Hide" now hides him and launches a sneak attack a number of turns later (i.e. at least 1 full round, and the gaps will widen overall as his level increases). You can't make him do it before the game decides he will, but it causes a guaranteed *critical* hit. The idea is to make the ability moderately balanced, since his damage and Agility increase at similar paces.
Which reminds me, does anyone think the other specials are too imbalanced right now?
(If you want to test Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, open up LFOTR1 and change items 1, 2, and 3 in that list to 1.)

Speaking of critical hits, they are next on my implementation list, as soon as I re-code Pippin.

In other news, I can't really speed up the walking by much more. It's about on par with RL3 right now, so it isn't TOO bad... but MAN I wish these things ran just 1000Khz faster sometimes.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 05, 2007, 05:27:00 pm
i understnad how you feel, as long as it run fine on my SE (it did, i was just wondering if it did on the reg 83+) i'm fine with it :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Halifax on September 06, 2007, 01:53:00 pm
Wow...I thought this was dead a long time ago. I am so glad it got revived! And yeah I agree with DJ_O that it only has to run fine on an SE if that's all you can do.

*Halifax
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 06, 2007, 04:44:00 pm
Good thing I'm CODING it on an 84+ SE. :Ptongue.gif

Bad news. I attempted to run the map editor today and evidently my 84+'s RAM is pretty consistently corrupted by xLib, because I had my fourth crash in six days. I lost my improved sprites (and collision code) as well as all the work I'd done on Pippin's special and all the changes to the battle "human player's turn" routine. Fortunately, the other programs lost had no significant changes made, and Gandalf's special was archived. Give me about two days to get all that back together, kay?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 06, 2007, 05:54:00 pm
:(sad.gif sorry to hear, it sucks when this happens. Thats why i backed up in group files every 15 mins or so
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 07, 2007, 02:00:00 pm
It struck me that since I lost ALL data of Pippin's, and since I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with his special anyway, I'd like to throw this open to public debate. Anyone have any ideas for what Pippin's special should be, or prefer one of the possibilities I listed?

(I reconstructed my sprite code today. Yay.)
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Halifax on September 07, 2007, 03:33:00 pm
Hmmm I don't know. How about super energy?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 07, 2007, 04:00:00 pm
doe sit have to be a very powerful one? Could it be something that increase stats or cause a serie of damage instead of causing damage once? kinda like a meteor rain
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 07, 2007, 07:03:00 pm
The only stats are Attack, Defense, and Agility. Attack and Defense are already taken by Gimli and Sam respectively, and abilities shouldn't be redundant.

No, it SHOULDN'T be too powerful. The idea is to strike some sort of balance so that sometimes it's a better choice to perform a regular attack. Y'know, to add SOME element of strategy to the battles.

Continuous damage... Hmm, I like that. I'm planning on doing poison for the bad guys anyway... maybe I'll give him a venom-coated blade to return the favor.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 08, 2007, 12:57:00 am
ok what abilities do you have so far? So i wont suggest something alerady done :Ptongue.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 08, 2007, 09:13:00 pm
Aragorn heals another member of the party. This ends up making the Kingsfoil and Meat items redundant at higher levels, but it's not NEARLY as effective at lower ones.

Legolas has a multi-shot, which splits up his normal attack damage amongst all the enemies, i.e. 1 enemy = full damage, 2 enemies = half damage to each (round down), etc.

Gimli has an Attack boost. He loses the turn, and a bit of health, to gain attack power.

Frodo has the One Ring, which makes him "disappear" for a few turns. If he's attacked while invisible, the enemy's turn is wasted, while he can retaliate with impunity. Unfortunately, he's also one of the weakest characters in terms of power, and the Ring causes him to lose some health when he uses it.

Sam has a Defense boost, similar in all other ways to Gimli's except for the specific attribute.

Gandalf has a zap spell which does minimal damage (only 1-10 points, regardless of his level) and paralyzes the target for one turn. I'm thinking of adding a chance to the paralysis to negate its battle-deciding ability against single enemies, which would be a MAJOR game balance problem against bosses.

Merry "steals" an item from the enemies, ending up with (most likely) nothing, Kingsfoil, meat, herbs, or (rarely) ent water. (This one's not implemented yet.)

Boromir has a charging shield bash attack, which has a 50% chance of doing triple his normal damage. The rest of the time he misses completely and is winded for the next turn (essentially paralyzed). (Also not implemented yet.)

I haven't mapped out Faramir, Eowyn, or Eomer yet, because I'm not sure if they'll end up in the game. They probably will, though. At any rate, we're not focusing on them currently.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 09, 2007, 12:02:00 pm
hmm i cant think of anything lotr related to add yet, hopefully someone get an idea tho

keep up the good work anyway :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 11, 2007, 06:52:00 pm
Fixed up Boromir's ability and the item code today. The items menu now works completely, but the items still don't. They're next on my priority list.

(Sorry for the delays, but school keeps getting in the way.)  
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 11, 2007, 07:04:00 pm
I totally understand about school, I think yoU're still showing great progress tho, providing you wont quit calcs I'm happy :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 13, 2007, 08:25:00 pm
Merry's ability works now too, so that just leaves Pippin. XDsmiley.gif Also, some cosmetic touches were applied to clean up the status line. >_>

Also. I finally got around to the items!! Kingsfoil and meat can be used within battle now, although the only way to currently GET any Meat is by having Merry steal it.
Their effects are, in case you 1) forgot and 2) are too lazy to look at the front page (heheh):
Kingsfoil - recovers 20 HP.
Meat - recovers 50 HP.

I've decided the next beta I release won't be until the game is feature complete, sorry. On the plus side, it means we won't have any nasty placeholder commands that detract from gameplay.

By "feature complete" I mean that I still want to:
1. Implement Pippin's ability, whatever it is.
2. Implement poison (and herbs to cure it).
3. Allow use of items while in the overworld.
4. Implement entwater, lembas, and miruvor.

The beta will NOT have the save file editor, the help system, or event triggers yet.

Anyway. That's my progress log for today.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 14, 2007, 12:29:00 am
this game look more and more interesing as it progresses, it will make change from all those rpgs where all you do is fight, level up, fight, shop for heal items, fight, beat boss, and repeat the process about 100 times. At least yours has some different things :)smile.gif
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: dinhotheone on September 14, 2007, 05:53:00 am
i've got a good one. have pipin's special be a cool attack called launch firework which does big damage on 1 guy and splash damage on the other guys in the same row (assuming enemies have rows too).

obviously this neds to be balanced however you see fit though

thats all i got, from there it goes to hobbit spaz.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 19, 2007, 12:22:00 pm
How is it progressing right now?
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: tama on September 22, 2007, 09:33:00 am
oh I didn't see this topic !
Looking great ! Keep up the work
Btw, what nationality are you ? ^^
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 22, 2007, 09:55:00 am
i think he's american, english is his native language but he is pretty good at french from what I saw so far, he must be studying it now
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on September 22, 2007, 08:42:00 pm
Oui, je suis am
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 22, 2007, 08:56:00 pm
aw this sucks, I'm glad you're still working on it tho
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: tama on September 23, 2007, 12:18:00 am
ok :)smile.gif

("L'anglais", "MA langue" et "LE fran
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 23, 2007, 04:16:00 am
same here, but usually I mostly end up making people rephrase or do a pause in convos to check google translate tools
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on November 11, 2007, 07:41:00 am
Okay, sorry for the extreme delay, but as you don't know, I'm taking a heavy courseload this year, which includes after-school classes, Drama Debate & Forensics, and orchestra and dance performances. In addition, this is my junior year, so I need to actually work to get good grades, so LOTR has been getting dusty.

However, I picked it up yesterday and started mapping.

In addition, I've implemented an event system, using the OSR, so the only feature I still need to implement for beta is Pippin and his poison attack.

Still no new release, sorry.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Liazon on November 11, 2007, 10:51:00 am
don't worry too much.  school's important so ya.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 11, 2007, 11:04:00 am
true, but nice you're still around :)smile.gif

By OSR I assume you mean Omnimaga speech routine, right? You may want to modify it if you use xLIB because my version use Codex
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: Jeremy Avalon on November 11, 2007, 02:57:00 pm
QuoteBegin-DJ Omnimaga+11 Nov, 2007, 14:04-->
QUOTE (DJ Omnimaga @ 11 Nov, 2007, 14:04)
By OSR I assume you mean Omnimaga speech routine, right? You may want to modify it if you use xLIB because my version use Codex  

 Heheh, yeah, I actually did a scratch re-implementation of it, but it's mostly the same. I'm thinking of trying to speed up the display by having it detect blocks of two characters at once, but I haven't gotten to that yet.
Title: The Lord of the Rings for 83+
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 11, 2007, 04:51:00 pm
sound cool, i cant wait to see next screenies :)smile.gif