Denial

The graphics are stunning!

R'zo wrote:

tonyrocks wrote:very nice! Hey, can I be a model for one of the characters? HEHE. I give you permission to use my avatar.

That could be a fun idea, have people from denial donate pics for npc graphics.

Graphics are looking awesome so far. I can't wait to see this game in action.

That could be an interesting idea -- make NPCs out of Denial community members. I haven't written any specifics to the Storyline yet (I want the game engine in place before I do so).

Thanks all for the positive contents. Today, I worked on boring game mechanic stuff -- like the menu interface. I did a right-click properties on the PRG files I produced so far -- 18.4K out of a game that I envision to be around 650K (4 disk sides!).

I uploaded a small demo of the menu system. Keep in mind that it is very limited -- you can just see the portraits for the inn, market, guild, temple and castle. And you can also view the characters in the test party.

Download here: https://sites.google.com/site/gdbsite50 ... ects=0&d=1

To run it just load"rq5.demo",8 from the folder and RUN (using VICE -- make sure that true drive emulation is turned off). Just press F1 to start new game into the castle menu.
Also, if somebody can be kind enough to run this on real hardware on a real TV, please let me know if it looks OK, particularly if the resized screen fits on a TV set (I'm especially curious how it looks on an NTSC TV). That would be very much appreciated.

Ghislain wrote:
Also, if somebody can be kind enough to run this on real hardware on a real TV, please let me know if it looks OK, particularly if the resized screen fits on a TV set (I'm especially curious how it looks on an NTSC TV). That would be very much appreciated.

I got my vic out and hooked it up. It fits perfectly on the screen (ntsc). Some of the graphics were a little harder to make out than in VICE but the color and saturation are a little off on the tv and I don't have the remote I need to adjust them.

R'zo wrote:

Ghislain wrote:
Also, if somebody can be kind enough to run this on real hardware on a real TV, please let me know if it looks OK, particularly if the resized screen fits on a TV set (I'm especially curious how it looks on an NTSC TV). That would be very much appreciated.

I got my vic out and hooked it up. It fits perfectly on the screen (ntsc). Some of the graphics were a little harder to make out than in VICE but the color and saturation are a little off on the tv and I don't have the remote I need to adjust them.

Well thank you. I'm glad to know that it at least fits. Is your TV a CRT or a modern flatscreen TV? When I get the time to do so, I'll pull out my VIC-20 and also test it myself.

I love being able to take advantage of resizing the VIC-20 screen, it opens so many more possibilities.

I've been working on the character creation process. I just got as far as selecting race, sex and alignment.
As you can see, the alignments restricted for the Dunedain race are Neutral and Lawful (Chaotic has been blotted out).

The next part I will be working on is the fun part -- rolling for stats and choosing a class.

I want the interface to be as menu-driven as possible -- I'd like people to be able to play the game just using the joystick (or cursor keys) as much as possible and that the only interaction that they absolutely require with the keyboard is to type in the character names.

Ghislain wrote:
Well thank you. I'm glad to know that it at least fits. Is your TV a CRT or a modern flatscreen TV? When I get the time to do so, I'll pull out my VIC-20 and also test it myself.

It's a crt. One of the short lived Era of digital tubes. But a square screen not a flat screen. When I have the extra time i'll hook it up to the flat screen but I also have to get the flat screen away from the wife and kids long enough.

R'zo wrote:It's a CRT. [...]

If you are so kind to provide a photographic screenshot (ideally for both of your viewing equipment), that'd help a lot to assess how much leeway is left at the sides.

The next step in the character creation process is rolling the stats and choosing the class that the player is qualified for:
Should I roll again, or pick a class?

Oh, I also renamed the 6 basic attributes as well -- just so that they can fit in the Window system here.

Looking good!
The font looks great for blocks of lower case text. The capitals are rather difficult to read though.
For the stats, I can barely make out I.Q.

(I like to make things balanced, so I would probably change all the stats to equal letters:
muscle, brains, reason, bounce, fettle, charms.
brawn, brain, sense, verve, vigor, charm.
beef, wits, lore, zeal, life, lure.
vim, wit, ken, zip, pep, awe. I love these words
That's just me though.)

Kweepa wrote:Looking good!
The font looks great for blocks of lower case text. The capitals are rather difficult to read though.
For the stats, I can barely make out I.Q.

(I like to make things balanced, so I would probably change all the stats to equal letters:
muscle, brains, reason, bounce, fettle, charms.
brawn, brain, sense, verve, vigor, charm.
beef, wits, lore, zeal, life, lure.
vim, wit, ken, zip, pep, awe. I love these words
That's just me though.)

Those are pretty cool attribute name suggestions. As for the font, I know it can be a bit off putting at first. What I might do (after the game is done) is give the player the option to switch between the new "Deluxe" font, the "Legacy" Realms 1-3 font (but with lower case letters as well) and the VIC-20 "System" font. My intent is not to alienate the potential audience too much.

Today, I had barely over an hour to work on my game so I programmed the "type in your name" interface (the final step of the character creation process). Of course this code will be neatly re-used with the Rename feature available to the player in the castle.

Ghislain wrote:I uploaded a small demo of the menu system. Keep in mind that it is very limited -- you can just see the portraits for the inn, market, guild, temple and castle. And you can also view the characters in the test party.

Download here: https://sites.google.com/site/gdbsite50 ... ects=0&d=1

To run it just load"rq5.demo",8 from the folder and RUN (using VICE -- make sure that true drive emulation is turned off). Just press F1 to start new game into the castle menu.

realms5.jpg

Also, if somebody can be kind enough to run this on real hardware on a real TV, please let me know if it looks OK, particularly if the resized screen fits on a TV set (I'm especially curious how it looks on an NTSC TV). That would be very much appreciated.

Hey this is looking nice. I wonder since there will be up to 10 player characters if they will all be able to fight in melee combat like the previous realms games or will the characters in the back be limited to ranged weapons and spells?

Mike wrote:

R'zo wrote:It's a CRT. [...]

If you are so kind to provide a photographic screenshot (ideally for both of your viewing equipment), that'd help a lot to assess how much leeway is left at the sides.

There you go. I'm sorry ito took so long. As you can see it fits nicely. Could maybe even fit one more row and column.

R'zo wrote:

Mike wrote:

R'zo wrote:It's a CRT. [...]

If you are so kind to provide a photographic screenshot (ideally for both of your viewing equipment), that'd help a lot to assess how much leeway is left at the sides.

There you go. I'm sorry ito took so long. As you can see it fits nicely. Could maybe even fit one more row and column.

The first one (title screen) is 22*25, but the second one is 23*26 -- which is the one we're really concerned about. It looks a little bit cut off in the upper right corner there, but it looks like it's still useable. The NTSC screen size has less room to play with than PAL.

Thank you for posting this.

rubygolem wrote:
Hey this is looking nice. I wonder since there will be up to 10 player characters if they will all be able to fight in melee combat like the previous realms games or will the characters in the back be limited to ranged weapons and spells?

Thank you.

I'm still mulling over this -- whether it's every player is allowed to engage in melee combat or have a Wizardry-type system were only the first few characters in the front will be allowed to engage in it.

I'll probably stick to previous convention of my games and implement the former.

Ghislain wrote:The first one (title screen) is 22*25, but the second one is 23*26 -- which is the one we're really concerned about. It looks a little bit cut off in the upper right corner there, but it looks like it's still useable. The NTSC screen size has less room to play with than PAL.

Not much else we can do about this. If I decrement the horizontal positioning register by one (including the then necessary changes to the raster routine) the entire view would shift four pixels to the left, and then it would crop the corners on the left-hand side.

As long as no-one complains over an entire missing row or column (but with enough leeway to the other side) I suppose we can leave it at that.