Messages

61

Editor Discussion / Re: Open ended possibility?

« on: May 22, 2014, 08:51:33 AM »

You could try out the survival level if you wanted something like that.  I'm pretty sure that it would be very possible to set up monster which become increasingly stronger as time goes on and the player play more.  If you felt compelled to you could even make an "overworld" of sorts which links together all of the dungeons.

You'd have to define a bit more specifically exactly what you wanted in order to know if its possible or not or how to do it. 

Whats possible is to set global flags in order to keep track of the current difficulty, and then change these based on how far the player has come or how often the particular dungeon has been beaten.

62

Editor Discussion / Re: Composite Skills

« on: May 20, 2014, 02:22:47 AM »

What are the valid pieces of syntax for "conditional" abilities?  I mean "hp lt 0.5" seems fairly obvious but what else can you test against?  Could there be like "atackspeed gt 2" or whatnot?

63

Resources / Re: New Area - Turak's Censor (Looking for advice)

« on: May 12, 2014, 06:44:39 AM »

I'll check it out, just joined their forum actually looking for advice on art. 

Actually I had taken a break from drawing walls and stuff to get better at doing some new actors for the area as well.



I'm looking forward to doing some of the level design but I'd gotten caught up in learning how to draw.  It looks like you guys took the level design up a notch as well in the new campaign levels.

Edit: Just looked at the picture you linked, I already have that one on my hard drive.  Occasionally I open it up in my graphics editor and stare at it, trying to absorb its power and fathom how it was made....

64

Custom Maps / Re: [Campaign] - Ravenwatch - Act 1 TRAILER RELEASED (5/01/2014)

« on: May 06, 2014, 03:43:31 AM »

I'd be willing to try my hand at putting together a dungeon or two if you still need people.

65

Resources / Re: New Area - Turak's Censor (Looking for advice)

« on: May 05, 2014, 11:24:43 PM »

The Ravenwatch trailer looks really cool, keep spreading that thing around.  I know I've shown it to some friends as an example of what to do.

The theme I'm going for should be reminiscent of a temple.  The color was based on some pictures of types of sandstone, but I scaled it down a bit since the original looked a bit too pink.

http://cdn.zmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/limestone-wave.jpg
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/011/cache/sandstone-swirls_1180_990x742.jpg

The waterfall is animated, but needs some more work.  I'm also going to make flowing channels so the waterfall can turn into a maze of rivers.

Edit: Heres the prototype animated version.



The main push as far as story/gameplay is to send the heroes into the Temple of Turak, a place of power which wizards constructed in order to harness the magic of Turak.  Unfortunately the main antagonist (the titular Archnecromantrix) has also figured out how to harness this power so the heroes must destroy the Temple and free Turak in order to chip away at her power.

Most of the challenge is going to be big setpiece rooms, very open but cut off by a maze of flowing waterfalls which need to be deactivated in order to progress further.  The theme will also need a lot of ancient-looking stuff to reinforce the look like some ancient creature was bound under this building.

Random Gameplay Ideas
-Some doodads will have "help text" which is scripted to pop up when players are nearby, just to throw in little tidbits of backstory as they progress.
-The main type of enemy will all have the summon ability (but only a single use, or cooldown set to an arbitrarily large number), which they can use to summon in 3 of the tier below them.  Slowly ramp up the tension until players dread finding a whole room's worth of encounter inside a single foe.
-Going to let the theif unlock an ability called "Steal" or somesuch, which will let them take certain doodads and turn them into money.  Script-wise it will just work the same was as destructible walls with the "on hit" kind of behavior, but instead of opening passages it will just produce gold.  Essentially letting them "steal art from off the walls"  Just another way to hide secrets and force people to constantly keep an eye out for all the deco-doodads I took forevor to draw.

66

Resources / New Area - Turak's Censor (Looking for advice)

« on: May 05, 2014, 07:13:25 AM »

Started actual work on the first segment of my dungeon as a way to practice pixel art.  While I have plenty of fun gameplay and level design ideas I want to try I was looking for any advice people had on asset creation.  Partially inspired by theme_g I have just a few walls so far.  Anyone around here good at art with a few tips? Any tutorials?

67

Custom Maps / Re: [Campaign] - Ravenwatch - Act 1 TRAILER RELEASED (5/01/2014)

« on: May 02, 2014, 06:34:24 PM »

...

Spawning animations are a bit tricker - in the .xml you can have a sprite bank and name it something (I name mine "Summon") <sprite name="summon"> and in the editor you can use the PlayEffect and select the monster.xml:summon as the effect you want to play. To get it on the reaper and spider boss it is a scripted event so I can really customize it how I want - but to do it for the skeletons and the spiders I made a prefab so that I don't have to script every little mob. The prefab lets me script it just once and then place it however many times I want

---

So you actually have a spritebank in the monster's actor xml?  Is the prefab just a circle area or somesuch that triggers when the players get close?

68

Custom Maps / Re: [Campaign] - Ravenwatch - Act 1 TRAILER RELEASED (5/01/2014)

« on: May 02, 2014, 05:13:45 AM »

Very exciting.

How did you do the music?  Just looking for tips on art/music (anything really).

Also curious how you implemented the spawning animations (skeletons rising from ground or spider dropping from ceiling).

I especially like the stairs, adding in the cliffs and elevation to the level really breaks things up and adds some more dimension and texture to the level design.

69

Editor Discussion / Re: Composite Skills

« on: May 01, 2014, 09:46:45 AM »

Should also add in Whirlwind, like from the skeleton miniboss.

Code: [Select]

<dictionary>
<string name="type">whirlwind</string>
<string name="anim-set">attack</string>
<int name="cooldown">5500</int>
<float name="range">4</float>

<int name="duration">2500</int>
<string name="chnl-anim">whirlwind</string>
<int name="dmg">10</int>
<float name="dist">1.25</float>
</dictionary>

How does the ranged movement type work?  whenever I just put in <string name="type">ranged</string> the game crashes.

70

Resources / Re: Actor - Bloodlust Tower

« on: April 29, 2014, 02:28:31 PM »

Good ideas, going to implement that as well.

71

Editor Discussion / Re: Composite Skills

« on: April 29, 2014, 12:04:48 PM »

The tracking tower looks very cool.  And thanks for the feedback.

Yep, figured it out.

72

Resources / Actor - Bloodlust Tower

« on: April 29, 2014, 11:58:52 AM »

My first foray into spriting, the Bloodlust Tower.  Make encounters more exciting by throwing in some easy to recognize buffs for players to  hack down, a tower which applies the damage/movement bloodlust buff in an area.  Has animation, glow effect, and a death animation.  Let me know if you have any resources or tips on how to get better at this whole art thing.  Inspired partly by Ravenwatch's cool torches.




Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/94arj8tg54ra8e8/Bloodlust_Tower.zip

73

Editor Discussion / Re: Composite Skills

« on: April 28, 2014, 06:16:59 PM »

Just got back into Hammerwatch editor, very cool!

I decided to try remixing ranger by making his bomb spawn an enemy which applies a speed/damage debuff to all other enemies using this.  Just trying to see how far the classes can be stretched.

Edit: Also, what is the syntax for the composite explode skill?  Any other skills to know about?  And what is the full list of movement types?

Final query: is launching seeker projectiles and healing something the composite type can do, or is that restricted to casters?

As for explosions I found the answer mere moments after asking - adding it here in case anyone else is curious.

Code: [Select]

<array name="skills">
<dictionary>
<string name="type">explode</string>
<string name="anim-set">attack</string>
<int name="cooldown">0</int>
<float name="range">2</float>

<string name="sound">sound/monsters.xml:lich_summon</string>
<string name="effect">effects/particles.xml:flash</string>

<string name="particle">effects/particles.xml:ice-particle</string>
<dictionary name="light">
<float name="add-range">8</float>
<string name="add-color1">10 100 150</string>
<string name="add-color2">0 50 100</string>
<string name="add-color3">0 50 75</string>
</dictionary>

<float name="splash">5</float>
<int name="dmg">25</int>
<string name="buff">buffs/frost.xml</string>
<bool name="suicide">true</bool>
</dictionary>
</array>

74

Custom Maps / [Campaign] [WIP] Lair of the Archnecromantrix

« on: September 30, 2013, 01:54:45 AM »

Just started work on a campaign, I've only gotten as far as the first area, I'm hoping for much more to come.  I remade the classic maze with hidden walls, and put some details into the entrance of Act 2.  Act 1 will involve actually reaching the Lair itself.

I'm hoping to give each level a bit of a theme, and add in some custom enemies as well.  Sprite animation is hard, but I'm hoping to make some stuff.  Next goal will be to add an enemy which looks just like a coin, until you get within hopping range.  Mimics and trapped treasure are classic, I was surprised to find they hadn't happened yet.

I'll still need to do some work on balancing and details, I'm really looking forward to channeling some inner Gary Gygax.  I'm also considering doing a bit of class re-balancing, and making full use of the ability to add upgrades/change around shops, maybe have some upgrades with additional drawbacks for their cost.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/4cpnwmu1v9580pl/Halls_of_the_Archnecromantrix.hwm

75

Editor Discussion / Re: CUSTOM PUZZLE TIME!

« on: September 28, 2013, 04:51:27 PM »

Thats cool.