Can we make suggestions to the game engine?

[Taledus]

With the current state of Andor's Trail there are 3 main types of suggestions:

1. Additional new content for stuff that the engine supports - items, quests, maps, graphics

2. Changes for content that the engine supports - items, quests, maps, graphics

3. Additional RPG elements that the engine should support - NPC targetting, NPC artificial intellignce, pathfinding, crafting, magic system, dynamic sprites that turn based on sprite sheets, character gender, paper dolling, combat animations, weather layers for maps, music, sound effects, graphical mirroring, sprite layer changing, multiplayer, internet-based anything, etc, etc, etc...

The last noted is the most difficult to do because it isn't just changing a few things here and there, but most of them require complete reworking of the base game engine - something that essentially is an empty shell for building an entire game off of.

A lot of the ideas that I have posted fall in category #3. Others have posted substantially great concepts, but they do not fit within the scope of this game...which brings me to the scope of this game.

Clearly this is not an open source project for a game engine...it is an open source project based around a main storyline, with characters, NPC's, items, maps, quests, etc. That being said, the dynamics of what the engine will support in the finalized version needs to be layed out, in detail, in order to inform the volunteers the limits of what they are allotted to suggest.

Everyone on here has real lives, families, jobs, and other hobbies. The time spent on furthing the game is done so on a very timeline free ranged basis in order to keep development going and peoples commitments in order. And not everyone volunteering time on here is a programmer, meaning they have to not only hope their idea fly's over well with the community, is accepted by the developers, someone takes the time to implement their idea, then whenever the next release comes it may or may not be in there...

Formalizing the idea submissions was an attempt to organize the ideas suggested into proper categories for better clarity to members of the forum here, who seem to have tons of great ideas. Yet a lot of traditional RPG elements are not in the game, which people request to be included (or some variation thereof), and are abruptly turned away because the idea doesn't go along with the game...in turn, the elements that the engine will support should be publicly available in written detail, in order to keep the focus of volunteering efforts on the same line as the engines development.

And yes, I know all about the Design Outline. It is a paper written by Oskar on the generalized areas of the game. However, a Design Document will explicitly list everything in detail for #3 that the engine will support...this is a coding practice that streamlines programming because then people know exactly what the game will support for its final version. This has nothing to do with the main storyline either, although it could be included so additional side quests can be written to appropriately flow with it rather than contridict it or over shadow it making the main storyline seem pointless.

There is a lot I would like to see in this game, but I am not a Java developer which I have stated many times. My experience is in C# and VB.NET, in and which I have written several personal independant games during my time in college studying Multimedia & Game Design. I am a very organized person, which is why I was Secretary of the Game Design Association at my school...however, my time was focused on learning games for career advancement, and other younger group members were focused on playing Halo 2 and Call of Duty instead of actually producing something, so the group fell apart into the now Gamers Association. Now that I have 2 autistic boys to work with all the time, my programming days are essentially gone because it takes too long to be involved with...everything else I do doesn't require the same level of attention that programming does, or I'd still be pounding away on my desktop. That's about all I feel I should share of a background on myself.

At any rate, this my new topic for discussion so that once all areas are addressed I can go back to assisting with wherever I can help out for the game.

[nyktos]

Clearly this is not an open source project for a game engine...

this is kind of a grey area...
we have a few contributors that have submitted code & had it accepted, but not so much as of late....

example: Samuel wrote a script to deal with how the PC deals with "bumping" into mobs
(currently, this initiates combat - but we wanted to be able to make him more passive at times)
he wanted to implement a slide bar, or something to physically adjust to tweak the PC's threat range...
at any rate, this code is written - but unused. (?) i think we were waiting on a matching skill or something?

unfortunately he is on hiatus (new family) and his work may get sidelined a bit?
but if you scour the code pages, you can see their discussions of how to handle certain things in the game (engine).
the next big change i see is the combat overhaul - and that could be a big change to the engine.
maybe then we could have the start of a "Design Doc"?

but what's ringing in my head is - suggest ANYTHING!
i know i do!!!

...a lot of traditional RPG elements are not in the game, which people request to be included (or some variation thereof),
and are abruptly turned away because the idea doesn't go along with the game...
in turn, the elements that the engine will support should be publicly available in written detail,
in order to keep the focus of volunteering efforts on the same line as the engines development.

...a Design Document will explicitly list everything in detail for #3 that the engine will support
...this is a coding practice that streamlines programming because then people know exactly what the game will support for its final version.

don't get me wrong, i think this could be a great resource!

At any rate, this my new topic for discussion so that once all areas are addressed I can go back to assisting with wherever I can help out for the game.

again, nice thread!

[Taledus]

Well, if all the mechanics of the engine were detailed, then certain ideas could just be replied to with: It is not listed as something that is planned for the engine... or something to that effect.

Then for the stuff that is decide to be included for the engine, details could be hashed out for them, then volunteers would know exactly what is needed: (i.e. if sprite sheets were going to be used, then an example of one that would be used for graphical ideas could be listed, as well as the number of sprites on each sheet, and how the engine would use them for displaying an actual turning/walking sprite.)

It has been said paper dolling would be used if graphics were available, yet no example of the style to move towards has been listed, making it difficult for volunteers to deternime if their skill would even be suited for the game...no one wants to waste time doing a lot of work for it to be rejected, and guidelines would set standards that are easy to follow.

Likewise, one of the posts in this forum (somewhere way back) Oskar stated he wanted different graphics that looked "darker", but nothing has ever been decided on what to do. Not that this should be a priority of the programmer, but lining up an exact style example would allow others to provide matching styled graphics for the "darker" feel for the AT Verse.

And there has been varying topics on crafting. I'm not saying to use my idea...I think it's great, but after the discussion on my thread I do not feel it is suited for this game, but perhaps another one. However, if crafting is wanted for the game, then it needs to be listed if nothing else. The volunteers would be able to strategize a very decent system to work for the AT Verse.

All I am saying is that all the needed elements dealing with a single player RPG should at least be listed, then details can be hashed out from there. If this is all there is going to be for this game, then everything I listed need to go under rejected ideas for the engine. If things are wanted, then make a list if there are no details...the community would then do the rest of the work for additional ideas for the needed areas, then the dev's can do what they do best - dev

[nyktos]

have you seen the Modify Character Image thread?

i am sure we will have paper-dolling by the time the final version rolls around...
even if i hafta finish what we dont have.

(should have time, by then...)

and...

it's not universal crafting, but we will be dealing more with potion making soon...

really, i support anything that brings things together in a more understandable package...
especially if it will increase productivity (make the most of the time you can devote to AT)
and with all these great ideas floating around, it's been said before, sometimes they get passed over.

i am curious to see what happens at the meeting, so much to discuss!

[phydeaux]

Wait till you hear my idea on the combat fix... I swear, the only reason I'm not a dev is my time vs money constraints oh, and the fact that I can't get home internet atm...