Research tree mock-up

[Danimal]

A proposal of how it could be, press a button and it opens;

The colour represent focus (or Paths of Evil) Red: strength - strong minions, Grey: neutral - versatile and defensive , Blue: magic - lots of spells.
The darker rows show research difficulty tiers (3 or 4 ? i think we only have enough content to fill 3) they could be locked on campaign until completing some level and awarding access to the next tier.
First row is free and pre-unlocked, since they are the most basic and essential rooms, we should block the research button to the condition of having a library
You need to research at least 1 item to proceed to a lower row of the same branch (Path)
Overall you could research all items of the low and medium tier for versatility or rush to the end of the highest tier and get some heavy firepower if you are faster than your opponents, or research everything on the same level if you feel god-like

I put rooms where i feel they could fit into a Path, they are just propositions and we need to create more research topics anyways:

Red:
Heal and call to arm spells
Guard room
Arena -> Faster training, creatures do a battle royale and get hurt

Grey:
Prison -> free skeletons
Casino -> +Morale
Torture room
Sweatshop-> creatures die working for money

Blue:
Ligthing -> damage spell
Eye of evil -> dispel Fog of war on a small zone
DarkTemple-> pray for mana and sacrifice creatures
Cript -> cheap cannonfodder to cover your mages

We still need to define more traps, doors, rooms, spells, room upgrades... and mix them, for example on the lower blue path a magical door could be unlocked that translates all damage to your mana pool until you run out of it and starts taking direct damage, for the red tree a camo-cannon or a trap that releases a small swarm of creeps, an upgrade for creature obtained in Cript (Necrophage -> Bone Demon)... a bit more here: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=5528&start=175#p59804

[hwoarangmy]

IMHO, we should not bother with having too much stuff. First, players will tell us what they want. Second, we are building the engine. Content will come later ^^
But the overhall idea seems good to me.

[Bertram]

I think the overall idea is good. I do also think having a start of an overall vision can't hurt, so for once, I'll contradict hwoarangmy.
That said, I agree the available items and their order will obviously change along the path of implementation of course.

I must say I don't remember whether one needed forge points to earn new skill or whether it was only about research.
Also, I would use lines to link skills/spells/items between them and not a grid but it's just a visual thing.

Best regards,

[hwoarangmy]

I think the overall idea is good. I do also think having a start of an overall vision can't hurt, so for once, I'll contradict hwoarangmy.

Well, you cannot be always right, i guess

BTW, I'm not saying we should start with an empty shell but that we shouldn't start with a 120 spells + 90 rooms. Half of those will be enough

[Danimal]

Truthfuly i can only think of the armory room and bridge outside of what we have planned, no more rooms are needed. We wont have more that 6 or 7 spells, but we can be alitle original with traps, which shoulnd be more than 5-6

[Bertram]

Well, you cannot be always right, i guess

Eh eh.

Truthfuly i can only think of the armory room and bridge outside of what we have planned, no more rooms are needed. We wont have more that 6 or 7 spells, but we can be alitle original with traps, which shoulnd be more than 5-6

Then, I guess we're not far from having all the rooms/traps/spell first pass decided, right? Seems good to me.

Btw, about the research tree,
I assume the first row is the stuff available from the start, right?
Also, could you add the bridge, and armory room in it? And why not add the corresponding name below each skill/spell/room/trap?
IMHO, it will be cool to have a visual mockup as definite as possible before starting on this.

Ah, and I do think the icon on bottom left (the crossed-swords) is wrong as it is the one use to grab fighters AFAIK. What is the icon used for in that case?

Best regards,

[Danimal]

ill brainstorm a bit and upload a new one

[Bertram]

Cool, thanks.

[hwoarangmy]

@Danimal Where does your screenshot comes from ? Have you already a gui for the research tree ?

[Danimal]

kind of, it was a quick and dirty job of a gui in OGA and icons from our usual source:

http://opengameart.org/content/inventory-gui

http://game-icons.net/

[Bertram]

Hey there,

I'm working on something but I'd like you guys to tell me what it looking the nicest for you between those three possibilities, what's right/wrong, what you like/dislike and why...:

1. The most usual one. Efficient, and simple:

The same, just with 100% more tabs:

2. A more roundish one, with more conceptual style already:

3. An even more conceptual one:

There are other examples but all I could find seemed complex to grasp at first glance so I didn't add them.

Best regards,

[Danimal]

i like the first one best (kings bounty) from what game is the last one?

[hwoarangmy]

I also like the first one. It's pretty easy to understand and already has some kind of "path of evil" ^^

[Bertram]

i like the first one best (kings bounty) from what game is the last one?

The Witcher 2.

Ok. As for the style, is it ok, too? Styled backgrounds + arrows behind skill square icons, anyone?

[hwoarangmy]

Ok. As for the style, is it ok, too? Styled backgrounds + arrows behind skill square icons, anyone?

Yep. Seems good

[eugeneloza]

Yes, the first variant is the best. Arrows look cool and descriptive, if it's possible, it's better with arrows.

I think the following variant is worse for OD, just for 'statistics'. I liked the idea of constellations for different 'research' areas. http://i.ytimg.com/vi/k9B2GUCrI-o/maxresdefault.jpg

[Bertram]

Ok, I'm on the mockup with the preferred concept in mind.

@eugeneloza From what game is the given skill tree?

[eugeneloza]

@eugeneloza From what game is the given skill tree?

It's Skyrim.

[Bertram]

Small teaser and the basic layout file, in the wait for a better one:

ResearchTree.zip

(786 Bytes) Downloaded 374 times

I'll be on the patch once hwoarangmy's work will be merged.

[eugeneloza]

Had a random idea (very raw) on a few spells:
1. Claim a tile. Instantly claims a tile in an enemy dungeon, enabling your troops to be dropped into their heart (really disbalancing, maybe some restrictions should be made)
2. Fortify. Instantly fortifies some walls dependless of nearby claimed tiles. Or, better, creates a fortified wall at an claimed tile.
3. Plague. Infects an enemy creature, which in its turn infects every creature it meets (your and your enemy's). The infected creature can infect others and is weakened for some time. The creature cannot be infected again by the same plague, but each spell produces different plague ID.

[hwoarangmy]

1. Claim a tile. Instantly claims a tile in an enemy dungeon, enabling your troops to be dropped into their heart (really disbalancing, maybe some restrictions should be made)

That would really be a game breaker since it would allow to kill a trap by claiming its tile and to drop creatures in an enemy dungeon heart. Note that if you want to send your troops, there is the call to war spell that can be cast everywhere (on tiles you have seen once) and that doesn't require vision.

2. Fortify. Instantly fortifies some walls dependless of nearby claimed tiles. Or, better, creates a fortified wall at an claimed tile.

I also had in mind a de-fortify spell that would allow to unclaim a wall to avoid someone to turtle and not being able to do anything. But that would have to be a high level spell.

3. Plague. Infects an enemy creature, which in its turn infects every creature it meets (your and your enemy's). The infected creature can infect others and is weakened for some time. The creature cannot be infected again by the same plague, but each spell produces different plague ID.

That's an interesting idea. We would need some animated mesh to display something over the creature to show it's infected.

[Danimal]

All of those were in the original DK, destroy wall was the before to last spell (armaggedon was the last, it summoned every single map creature to your dungeon heart) and Plague as well, it was depicted with flies flying around the infected creature and it coughed like hell. I liked both of them, even if plague was too overpowered.

[Vandar]

All of those were in the original DK

Sure? I can't remember them from DK 1, but maybe I just missed them ...

[Danimal]

Guess for which room this is?
Should i give it a hovering animation (over 1 meter from the ground and lazily going up and down) so it looks more magical?

[hwoarangmy]

Guess for which room this is?

Easy: for the hatchery

Should i give it a hovering animation (over 1 meter from the ground and lazily going up and down) so it looks more magical?

Yes, please, as much animations as we can