[WIP] Hexen RPG

[Dancso]

I worked a bit on this today, got some more of the attribute/stat system for the monsters done. It turns out that for now, I made monsters gain a hell lot more attributes each level due to their lack of real brain; should be an interesting fight. I've spent like an hour getting the damage/hp/regeneration rates and times kinda fine. (I've typed like two hundred lines of code :O)

I also got rid of the exp/levelup bug that instantly made the player level 99 upon killing a random ettin... it was because the script that ran for each ettin has actually revived the ettin and killing it after it's dead got this weird result
I also invented a fairly fine exp/level system, each monster will give 10*11/10 exp with a power value of the monster's level. The needed exp is just a bit more than the increase rate, 100*10/11 which is slightly more than 1/10 increase each level.

I also thought out a nice way to have mouse-menu interaction with tooltips and stuff! Hopefully doing that soon.

Finally, I've made a template for ability buttons... here's an example of how they would look:

High resolution version:

Scaled down with photoshop (might be a little clearer ingame):


Now imagine a bunch of similar styled buttons/icons in the place of A, B, 1-5 in this statusbar!
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/884/hud2preview.png

[RaVeN-05]

WOW Nice statusbar looks like Diabolic mod)

[Dancso]

Once again I am working on the exp formula.
I even made a little flash tool that draws a graph.
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/489/grapho.png

The red number indicates the scaling of the graph: Y position is equal to the exp needed to gain the next level, which is then multiplied by the scaling number.
That might give you an idea about how powerful a 1/6 increase each level is.
Do not worry however; Monsters also scale pretty nicely to this: their experience given has an increase of 1/10 each level which only means a few additional monsters to kill each level at first, and by the highest level this means nearly 200 additional monsters to kill for the next level. level 99 from level 98 is achieved by killing about 3194 enemies of the same level.

Hexen has around 2568 monsters on highest difficulty, which means you'll be nearing level 40 if you kill them all (not counting the extra ones that spawn later!)
that is not taking boss or champion monsters into account either.

I have also played around with spell projectiles.
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/3360 ... 100101.png
The left one demonstrates the full path of the special effect of this particular projectile (its a lot of projectiles fired after eachother), the one on the right shows a single projectile. It looks awesome in motion, trust me.

More to come. I hope to get my abilities/buff system done soon: I'm trying to figure if it's possible to use SBARINFO effectively to display buffs properly spaced between eachother (think about world of warcraft's buffs that are shown in the upper right corner of the screen by the default UI. that's what I'm trying to get to work with sbarinfo)

I'm afraid I won't be able to make the cooldown on abilities will be a simple semi-transparent vertical bar instead of a rotated one like in WoW. (well, if you know how to make rotating bars.... tell me pl0x)

[NeuralStunner]

I hope to get my abilities/buff system done soon: I'm trying to figure if it's possible to use SBARINFO effectively to display buffs properly spaced between eachother (think about world of warcraft's buffs that are shown in the upper right corner of the screen by the default UI. that's what I'm trying to get to work with sbarinfo)

If you are inheriting from the various [wiki=Classes:Powerup]Powerup[/wiki] types, just setting Inventory.Icon for those powers will work (Like the Boots of Speed, etc.)

[A.guy]

looooooong time Hexen player here, in fact i'm constantly offering ideas for a mod in the project-ideas thread... anyway, i was browsing through this topic and i've noticed you like feedback, well, here's some from me

first and most importantly, even if Korax Mod came up with the basic premise, you should absolutely keep going with this, why? because it is ZDoom-based and you even thought of us, the Skulltag guys

regarding the HUDs, i think you should go back to the minimalistic style of the "ancient" screenshots in the first post of the thread, it's just classy, plus it works better in multiplayer situations. You could have a couple of small fighting game-like bars, two (for Mana and HP), one that pops-up when you kill a monster to show the Exp gained and how much more Exp you need to increase your level

on the topic of monsters, if you do decide to add custom creatures just make sure the sprites look good and actually fit Hexen's theme, this is where most modders fail

i'd also like to add that i fully support your weapons approach, two "equipped" weapons, with the others being stored in a special inventory of sorts, perhaps even basing the Exp-system on your preferred weapons, for example, if you use the Quietus most of the time, you can gain different powerups for it depending on Baratus' own stats, if he has all strenght, then the Quietus does alot of damage, if the player decided to focus on speed then the Quietus can attack alot more often, or if the player focused on defense then the Quietus can deflect projectiles; 'course, this would be alot of work even with the classic weapons alone, new weapons would be very difficult to add-in (and i'd actually prefer to keep the "traditional" Hexen weapons alone)

finally, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NO NEW CLASSES!!! let's not turn this work of art into another GvH with a giant Parias holding a bow, Ghostbusters and Santa Claus

[Dancso]

looooooong time Hexen player here, in fact i'm constantly offering ideas for a mod in the project-ideas thread... anyway, i was browsing through this topic and i've noticed you like feedback, well, here's some from me

first and most importantly, even if Korax Mod came up with the basic premise, you should absolutely keep going with this, why? because it is ZDoom-based and you even thought of us, the Skulltag guys

Yes I have realised it recently that game concepts might be similar but play differently. For example Warhammer online and World of Warcraft. The people who abandon either to play the other one usually have at least one argument about the similarities between the games, but most of the features these games have should be considered "common" in the genre, as almost every mmo/rpg has them.

regarding the HUDs, i think you should go back to the minimalistic style of the "ancient" screenshots in the first post of the thread, it's just classy, plus it works better in multiplayer situations. You could have a couple of small fighting game-like bars, two (for Mana and HP), one that pops-up when you kill a monster to show the Exp gained and how much more Exp you need to increase your level

I plan to make good use of the screenblocks feature: The original hexen statusbar should get replaced by the diablo style statusbar, and I shall make a light HUD showing only the most important things on the screen. I have actually planned to make Unitframes for friendly players in cooperative style gamemode(s). If all goes well, there might be even some comfortable options via an ingame menu, being able to toggle the unitframes on and off. Let me also mention that since skulltag supports using custom SBARINFO lumps online, nothing stops the players from customizing or creating their own "UI".

on the topic of monsters, if you do decide to add custom creatures just make sure the sprites look good and actually fit Hexen's theme, this is where most modders fail

For now it seems I won't add any custom monsters: All regular monsters will look much like the originals, except for the randomly spawned champion monsters, which should usually have some color translation to them, so they are easy to recognise.

i'd also like to add that i fully support your weapons approach, two "equipped" weapons, with the others being stored in a special inventory of sorts, perhaps even basing the Exp-system on your preferred weapons, for example, if you use the Quietus most of the time, you can gain different powerups for it depending on Baratus' own stats, if he has all strenght, then the Quietus does alot of damage, if the player decided to focus on speed then the Quietus can attack alot more often, or if the player focused on defense then the Quietus can deflect projectiles; 'course, this would be alot of work even with the classic weapons alone, new weapons would be very difficult to add-in (and i'd actually prefer to keep the "traditional" Hexen weapons alone)

I'm not sure if I will be able to manage two weapons at a time (since the spells and abilities should be already using the weapon slots) but maybe I can figure out a way to make the spell slots bound to a weapon. No promises, though. If I can't do it, switching weapons should be pressing two buttons anyway (beside selecting the other weapon in your inventory )
I'm not sure about the arsenal. It is really hard to get sprites that fit the game, so I might just go with some color translations again... A red wand? A serpent staff that has blue colors instead of green? Anyways, the addition of skills should make it easier to live with just a few weapons.

finally, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NO NEW CLASSES!!! let's not turn this work of art into another GvH with a giant Parias holding a bow, Ghostbusters and Santa Claus

It's been a while since I decided I won't use any new classes... Instead, I am aiming to make two or three skill trees for the 3 already existing classes, each featuring a different playstyle... Imagine a "Dark Mage" who heals himself for damage dealt and can summon a minion, or an "Arcane mage" that concentrates on burst damage, perhaps area-of-effect spells aswell. I haven't decided on all these skills yet, but it is likely that I'll play around with the spells' cooldown, damage, critical strike chance/damage, and passive abilities like "mental regeneration" which would lead to faster mana gain.

As a little side note, I also intend to make good use of MAPINFO's skill settings: "Few but tough monsters, A lot of weak monsters" with the hopeful addition of custom Console variables which could define an exp/monster difficulty factor. Maybe even something like "Additive monster power" to toggle the monsters' level between "adjust to highest level player" or "add all players' levels together" which might result in a level 3168 monster with 32 lvl 99 players, not even chuck norris could beat that!.. And that makes me think that I have to figure out a better formula to calculate the current monster level. Things might change before release.

[A.guy]

hmm, sounds like it'll need alot of key-bindings... which kinda sucks for me because i use a PSOne-styled Gamepad

i'd also like to add that i fully support your weapons approach, two "equipped" weapons, with the others being stored in a special inventory of sorts, perhaps even basing the Exp-system on your preferred weapons, for example, if you use the Quietus most of the time, you can gain different powerups for it depending on Baratus' own stats, if he has all strenght, then the Quietus does alot of damage, if the player decided to focus on speed then the Quietus can attack alot more often, or if the player focused on defense then the Quietus can deflect projectiles; 'course, this would be alot of work even with the classic weapons alone, new weapons would be very difficult to add-in (and i'd actually prefer to keep the "traditional" Hexen weapons alone)

I'm not sure if I will be able to manage two weapons at a time (since the spells and abilities should be already using the weapon slots) but maybe I can figure out a way to make the spell slots bound to a weapon. No promises, though. If I can't do it, switching weapons should be pressing two buttons anyway (beside selecting the other weapon in your inventory )
I'm not sure about the arsenal. It is really hard to get sprites that fit the game, so I might just go with some color translations again... A red wand? A serpent staff that has blue colors instead of green? Anyways, the addition of skills should make it easier to live with just a few weapons.

well you could sacrifice the items (such as the Disc of Repulsion and Quartz Flask etc.) to keep Spells in the Inventory, that way you still keep all the weapon slots; btw, since you're making skill trees, then there's your answer, different weapon-colors for each skill, gold-wand for speed, ruby-wand for power, jade-wand for defense etc.

[Dancso]

hmm, sounds like it'll need alot of key-bindings... which kinda sucks for me because i use a PSOne-styled Gamepad

I got a gamepad for christmas, I'll do my best to make it use as few keys as possible (I also know that the average player hates to make new keybinds)
I'll try to integrate everything I can into a menu that you can navigate with the movement buttons and use button, so no extra keybind is needed beside opening the menu. Selecting the needed spell might be possible by pressing next/previous weapon but not sure if it'll work.

well you could sacrifice the items (such as the Disc of Repulsion and Quartz Flask etc.) to keep Spells in the Inventory, that way you still keep all the weapon slots; btw, since you're making skill trees, then there's your answer, different weapon-colors for each skill, gold-wand for speed, ruby-wand for power, jade-wand for defense etc.

I do not intend to make the inventory a cluster-f*ck, i would like to stick with the common mmo style hotbar.

There might be room to support controllers with very few buttons like a gamepad later.

[A.guy]

how about "Hexen - Cronos Quest" for the name?

it certainly sounds like a RPG

[A.guy]

yeah, um, if any mod reads this, i'm not sure about the double-post policy but the last one was made 4 days ago

anyway, any progress? i can't wait to play this and Korax Mod is insanely buggy

[DoomRater]

Double posts aren't taken super seriously around here unless it's within hours or something.

On the other hand, asking about progress usually gets frowned upon. It's the modder's responsibility to keep our interest.

[A.guy]

i see, thanks for the heads-up

[Dancso]

No actual progress in the last few days. I'm still alive though. *insert portal's still alive song here*

I'm trying to figure the best way to handle all the character information.
Inventory items are good, but I think it should be more flexible to use arrays for whatever I can.

I think I'll have all spells have a special spell ID, and additional information stored in the array like the cooldown, spell school, etc.
I have already figured out a way to make SBarinfo display the cooldown with this method.

Been playing Oblivion... sorry. :\ damn addictive despite all the flaws and the lack of stuff to do after a while.
I'll try to spend some proper time on this soon, but my main "worktime" (past midnight; that's when I usually do all the modding) has been slept through lately. I keep getting tired around 10 PM, damn.

[A.guy]

just make sure the spell text (all the text for that matter) sounds... dark? you know, HeXen-esque

as much as i look forward to this mod, i also fear it could turn into "Final Fantasy HeXen" when it should be more of a "HeXen - Symphony of the Night"

[Kristus]

This looks interesting. Reminds me of the Korax Mod.