The hunt for the lost rainbow jewels

[Vandar]

In the Imp City thread I had mentioned, that there is a sister project, using the same codebase. So I think it's a good idea to write about it, particularly since I'm working on it once again.

The rainbow jewels which preserve the worlds colors have been abduced from the temple of the rainbow colors! The world will fade to gray if you can't retrieve the jewels in time.

This is more or less the background story for the project. More elements, details about the setting and the game world are in work. It will be an action RPG, inspired by games like Diablo and Diablo II

The temple map:

A dungeon area:

Player equipment and inventory:

Starting village:

Some artwork I've made myself, much is from opengameart.org

Project site at Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jewelhu ... =directory

The project currently has the state of a walkaround demo.

[Vandar]

I started to work on a magic system and made a nova type spell effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLMGeJ1OGYg


I'm not quite happy with the results, but it works and a start has been made. Bolt, beam and chaining/arcing type spells will follow (some day ...)

Also I've been working on more naturally looking walls for caves and tunnels. I must also make a matching floor, and I'm a bit cluless what to do about the front side walls for rooms and tunnels. But a start has been made here, too.

Next steps will be to expand the magic effect code, complete the work on the tunnel graphics, set up a test map to fight with real enemies and also to begin adding gem sockets to items, so that players can expand or enhance item abilities with gems and jewels.

[Vandar]

Ha! Now I know what monster are thinking!

I needed to debug the AI, and it's awkward through the debugger. Now I can see the AI states right on screen, that helps to see what's going on.

The combat and damage calculation code is making good progress, so the idea to develop this into an action rpg comes closer.

[Vandar]

I think I've got the melee combat done now, including attack and death animations - the code for them that is. No new graphics yet, the prelimininary test animations just use the existing ones to show some action.

Starting location for the player has changed to the village, where it should've been anyways since some time. Imps in the sewers have become devilish and are all hostile now, so the move was neccesary.

[Vandar]

I've published a new development snapshot, including the new combat code, basic animation code and some improvements to the character sheet, which now shows the current resistances given by the equipment. Also, a new title screen which is shown while the assets are being loaded.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/jewelhunt/files/r015/

It's still a long way to a real game.

[Vandar]

Finally, I managed to complete the character dialog and related code. It now shows the "real" values instead of dummies, and all the internal calculations should be in place, too. I noticed that there are no item mods yet to affect player stats like strength or intelligence. I'll add those some day soon, hopefully.

Life is currently str+dex, Mana is wis+int. Magic devices skill will be used for "autocasting" items like wands and rods, which have inbuilt spells and "just" need to be triggered. This skill is (int+dex)/2. And I figured that a mix of (str+wis)/2 will be the base resistance against harmful influences, the more you know and the stronger you are, the better you can deal with such. Well, at least it makes a little bit of sense

Stealth is wis+dex, the more you know about the creatures and the better you can move, the easier it is to escape their perception.

[Vandar]

Finally, I've made new walls and proper pieces for the different sorts of wall ends and connections. Left to do are matching front walls, but I have an idea meanwhile how to those and replace the current ones.

I'll also have to rework the tunnel walls in the same way. And then I need a different type of brick wall, for a temple environment. Brighter and more friendly looking than these "catacomb" walls.

[Vandar]

I'm still undecided if I want to keep the black top of the front walls, but it's an improvement in any case.

Also, nova is an effective spell against imp hordes. It seems Imps carry a lot of things with them ....

[Vandar]

Now. Final version of the front walls. The ancient spirits of good looking walls are pleased.

[Akien]

Now. Final version of the front walls. The ancient spirits of good looking walls are pleased.

Hehe, I confirm it's looking pretty good

[Vandar]

Thanks. The next wall sets should be easier, having the workflow in place now. Difficult will be the ice walls for the ice castle. But first I need to complete the games starting area.

[Vandar]

I've published a new development snapshot:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jewelhunt/files/r016/

Since r015, it's been mostly bugfixes and cleanup work. Item prefixes have changed, and the item-color-depends-on-mods feature is currently disabled. Some item graphics underwent some adaptations too, in lightness and size. The new walls are included as well.

Melee combat still is very clumsy, but it works. Right mouse button is bound to a fire nova spell in this release, which is handy to handle bigger groups of imps. Mana costs and mana recovery is in the demo, but there is not limit ... you can continue to cast spells even if your mana is negative already.

Same for life. You can take damage, but your character won't die.

Slain foes drop items now. 50% chance to become a magic item, 20% chance to become a double-magic item, and a 3% chance to become a rare item with 3 or more mods.

This versions almost feels like a little RPG now.

[Vandar]

With the rainbow guards at his heels, the thief had no time pick up the jewel that dropped from his bag, when he tripped over an old bucket in the darkness near the village well. The jewel bounced, rolled, and was gone in the sewers as quickly as the thief was in the shadows, before the guards arrived.

The imps like shiny things, they fetched the jewel from the sewers and keep it deep in their catacombs since then.

First quest to be. The other jewels will be much harder to find, but I want an early moment of success for the player. What bothers me, is that I still have no convincing design for the rainbow jewels, something that really strikes, even in 64x64 pixel size ...

[Imerion]

Looks like a really nice project this as well! Will be keeping track of it.

[Vandar]

Thanks. At the moment it's really just a demo, no game yet. I'm still busy to improve it, the current version is 0.18, and it includes a new lighting feature for the dungeon - better said, darkness with a lit area around the player.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jewelhunt/files/r018/

Between the r017 and r018 are mostly performance related fixes, since I got a report about performance on one persons laptop. I don't know if this is a singular problem or more common, since my two test systems run fine, but both are Windows systems with Intel i5 and i7 processors, so fairly similar.

Next steps will be to enhance the magic system, improve the combat system and modify items by putting gems in sockets like Diablo II allowed it. I think I'll laso borrow an idea or two about the "gem in socket" idea from Path of Exile - in addition to the socket idea from Diablo II, Path of Exile's item have typed sockets (three types) and gems are divided into three matching types. Also in PoE sockets can be linked so that gems can interact, and one gem can modify the effect of another gem in a linked socket.

I think I'll borrow the idea of linked sockets, but not the idea of typed sockets. And from Diablo II I want to borrow the idea of runes and runewords. Not sure though if these ideas go well together ...

[rogerdv]

Will keep an eye on it too.

[Vandar]

Wall mounted torches are something fine ... and these don't even stain the walls!

[Vandar]

I've published a new development snapshot:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/jewelh ... hunt/r019/

Changes since v0.18:

- Improved visual feedback in combat.
- Fixed 'undying' invisible enemy bug.
- Added shadow effect for player character.
- Added wall mounted torches with a light effect.
- Changed pathfinding to use a thread pool instead of creating new thread instances for each path.
- Added frost nova spell effect.
- Added magic rod graphics and item data. They have no function yet, even if you might find one.
- Added a first draft of the rainbow temple map.
- Improved temple graphics.

[Vandar]

I've started to work on overlay graphics and code to show the equipment of the PC. I've started with a shield:

It's fairly time consuming to create the overlays. I'm not sure if it was a good idea to start this, even if I only do overlays for the most frequent types of equipme, I quickly end up with a blade, an axe, a club, two or three sorts of shields, armor, helms ... that looks like a weeks worth of free time just going into the equipment overlays.

[Vandar]

I've tried to work on floors which better match the walls. Seems though, that the difference to the old floors isn't that big ...

[Vandar]

Working on a new location, a sort of temple. So far I've got parts of the walls and the ground tiles.

[Vandar]

Seven jewels have been stolen. So far, the location of the first one was known, it went down the sewers and ended up in the imp catacombs.

Among the classic locations of importance, pyramids always have been among the most impressive.

And as it seems, the second jewel has been hidden in a particularly pale place, the uncolored pyramid, home of the grey mummy.

[Vandar]

I've published a new development snapshot. This time it's a more "in-between" version, because the pyramid interiors are not done yet, and the pyramid map is done only partly.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/jewelh ... hunt/r020/

[Vandar]

I wish I could make better looking water surfaces - today I made a pond for the rainbow temple map:



And the village map got a waypoint:



Today I feel a bit disappointed - the project isn't looking bad, but I can't get it the way I want. The controls are clumsy, the magic system is largely non-existing, I have no real idea how to make good looking graphics effects with OpenGL, and still the project feels like bloatware: 12MB download for a walkaround demo - which even stalls on slower systems.

Maybe my winter depression is creeping at me again. There is little to be happy about these days. It's dark, cold, and the autumn leaves are dropping, soon the world will be brown and gray, dirty. Pale, colorless, like baddies in my project want it to be, too.

[Andrettin]

I like the look of the pond. 12mb doesn't sound like too much to be honest, in this day and age.

To be honest, I love Winter =P No hot hellishness like Summer But, well, tastes differ I suppose =P