Albion

Showcase
#21

Hi Matt,
This looks really good and plays well. It loaded quickly and without incident. The animations work well and the colors are bright and cheerful. On my crappy machine the FPS was only 14-18 but it felt like it was running smoothly. The gradients are nice and the blacking out of the undiscovered terrain works well.

But the combat was a little confusing- i couldn’t get any characters besides ‘Imoen’ to attack. I think that may have been because I had party mode selected but when I tried to deselect it nothing changed.

I think to make it simpler you should always have party mode enabled by default, but then as soon as a critter is found, disable party mode automatically, and let the chartacter control the players.

Also, it was confusing to try and figure out whose turn it was - the current character being controlled should have a big green circle around it or blink or something. And character selection would be more intuitive if you could click the character buttons at the top to change the selection. Also clicking on a character should select him. A few times I tried to do that and another character walked over to where i clicked instead of changing the selection.

Looks very nice so far, great work 8)
Keith

#22

After no-one seemed to ‘get’ the (what I thought was pretty simple) play mechanic I stopped work on this. But after a couple of months off I’ve decided to pick it up again. Next on my todo list is items and lewt collection.

I have no idea who this ‘Matt’ person is. ??? But thanks for the feedback anyway.

I just recently squished an obscure bug which would cause that, so hopefully you won’t see that any more.

[quote]I think to make it simpler you should always have party mode enabled by default, but then as soon as a critter is found, disable party mode automatically, and let the chartacter control the players.
[/quote]
I’m not so sure this would be a good idea, because sometimes you want to remain in party mode to close the distance between you and an enemy. I may add an option for this at a later point though.

[quote]Also, it was confusing to try and figure out whose turn it was - the current character being controlled should have a big green circle around it or blink or something.
[/quote]
The current character already has a cursor around their feet, and their character panel at the top changes to a highlighted state. Did you miss both of these cues? I’m not sure I could make it more obvious without being obnoxiously annoying.

[quote]And character selection would be more intuitive if you could click the character buttons at the top to change the selection. Also clicking on a character should select him. A few times I tried to do that and another character walked over to where i clicked instead of changing the selection.
[/quote]
See previous replies - basically, it doesn’t work like that. This is a roguelike game, not an rts.

Thanks for the comments.

#23

This isn’t quite ready for actual use yet, but Albion now has a working inventory (albeit a crude one):

http://www.triangularpixels.com/Albion/Images/06%20Working%20Inventory.png

I’ve been spending a whole heap of time on the core GUI system, but it’s still very early days for the actual UI. I’m hoping to get away from it for a bit and add some more actual gameplay around the new functionality, probably in the form of new items and monsters.

#24

So… what am I doing? Okay, there’s three guys with cursors under them & I guess I’m the orange one. All those white squares must be where I can go & I can look outside that - NP. I move to the door. I can open the door. I do it. The camera changes to one of my other guys??? Erk! Why was that? What should I be doing now? I click a bit to get back to door guy & I see a gargoyle - I go for it, the camera clunks back to other guy…

This is how game players think - well, this one anyway! hic You need to take a big step back and think: ‘how does a casual player see this?’
I really like the style of this, it’s an applet, it loads smoothly, looks gorgeous, responds well to input… It’s all there, so why did I stop playing?
You’ve done all the hard work, start in party mode, put in a bit of tutorial stuff then - get creative! Fill it up with plots and side-plots and weird things to find and do! Draw me in!

#25

My apologies! I know someone with your same last name but whose first name is Matt… I should just call you OrangyTang.

I tried the game again but the inventory was blank so I suppose you haven’t uploaded the new one yet.

From the screenshot the UI looks fantastic, nice use of gradients and borders. How are you doing it, did you make it yourself? I’ve seen only one non-swing java2D UI library which was in pulpcore (I assume you’re using java2D from the console output).

#26

The game looks gorgeous but it’s still missing something

What is the point of the looking feature that you can do at the end of moving a character? All I want to do is move as fast as I can but instead I have to either defend or look somewhere to end the turn.

I just don’t understand what the strategy could be in battle. All the character seems to take the same amount of damage so why do we have a ‘‘tank’’?

I never play roguelike game but from what I read these game are about exploration and strategy in combat right? So, you might want to make movement as easy as possible (can I remove the looking feature?). Party mode help a lot already, but maybe when you are in it you could just click where you want to go and it get you there (removing the white square limite) I don’t know if it would mess up with the turn base idea because of the monster but something that make movement more continuous would help a lot.

#27

Yeah, all good points. It’ll definitely need a proper tutorial, but that’s a while off - I’m focusing on the items and combat at the moment, I don’t want to have to write the tutorial, then end up having to rewrite it when all the game rules and so on change.

#28

It’s still a bit unstable. Hopefully in the next few days when I get some of the more crash-y bugs ironed out.

[quote]From the screenshot the UI looks fantastic, nice use of gradients and borders. How are you doing it, did you make it yourself? I’ve seen only one non-swing java2D UI library which was in pulpcore (I assume you’re using java2D from the console output).
[/quote]
Thanks, it’s all straight j2d with a custom UI layer. There does seem to be a lack of Swing replacements, which is odd since there’s a whole bunch for LWJGL, and I really didn’t want to go with a custom themed Swing as that always feels clunky as a user.

#29

Basically each turn a character gets 3 ‘move’ points and 1 ‘action’ point, and your turn is over when you’ve spent your action point, which usually means attacking, defending or looking (which basically becomes ‘end turn’). I’ll admit this isn’t very obvious right now. :slight_smile: I’m considering letting you spend your action point as an additional move point (a ‘run’ action) but that might make movement more confusing.

[quote]I just don’t understand what the strategy could be in battle. All the character seems to take the same amount of damage so why do we have a ‘‘tank’’?

I never play roguelike game but from what I read these game are about exploration and strategy in combat right? So, you might want to make movement as easy as possible (can I remove the looking feature?). Party mode help a lot already, but maybe when you are in it you could just click where you want to go and it get you there (removing the white square limite) I don’t know if it would mess up with the turn base idea because of the monster but something that make movement more continuous would help a lot.
[/quote]
Yeah, the characters aren’t very different right now - there’s no character classes (which is why everyone has the same skills, hits the same and takes the same damage), and there’s no equipment, so you can’t give them different weapons and armour. More variety in items (spell wands, healing potions, etc.) will eventually add to the strategy as well.

#30

There’s a new version of Albion up now, and it’s got a new url as well.

The main changes are a working inventory and a few items to pick up and use, including health and mana vials to keep your characters going longer. There’s also three different enemies with different stats and behaviours - Imps are weak and skittish, Werewolves like to lurk in the shadows, and sedentary Ogres who pack quite a punch.

Comments and feedback welcome, as always.

#31

I have played it a while and it’s well polished and fun. I like the genre so it’s easy for me to like it .

Anyway, I have some complains . Some of them the same as what people told before :
It feels too slow to end a character’s turn . Why not just auto-defending after the moves are over ? What is the purpose of “look” anyway ?
I couldn’t click party mode, so it felt terribly slow to advance the whole party when there was no enemy in sight.
It kind of sucks not having the damage displayed where you’re looking . It bugs me to have to switch my eye between the attacked character and the text box to see the damage . Come on, it’s really easy to implement some jumping numbers on the head of the characters .
The enemies sometimes “hide” behind the text box and I can’t use ranged attacks on them. Is there a way to hide the text box or scroll the screen so I can see the enemy and attack it ?
The range of the attacks is not clear to me . Maybe a range grid ?

#32

Great. :slight_smile:

[quote]It feels too slow to end a character’s turn . Why not just auto-defending after the moves are over ? What is the purpose of “look” anyway ?
[/quote]
I can’t have it auto-defend at the end of a move since you’ve still to spend your ‘action’, which could be something like drinking a potion or similar, so it can’t happen automatically. I think you’re right that it still feels a little too slow though.

[quote]I couldn’t click party mode, so it felt terribly slow to advance the whole party when there was no enemy in sight.
[/quote]
Your party needs to be quite close to enter group mode (otherwise you could cheat and constantly group and ungroup to move quicker) but I think it’s perhaps too restrictive at the moment.

[quote]It kind of sucks not having the damage displayed where you’re looking . It bugs me to have to switch my eye between the attacked character and the text box to see the damage . Come on, it’s really easy to implement some jumping numbers on the head of the characters .
[/quote]
You’re right, and it’s on my todo list, it’s just that my todo list is rather long at the moment. :wink:

[quote]The enemies sometimes “hide” behind the text box and I can’t use ranged attacks on them. Is there a way to hide the text box or scroll the screen so I can see the enemy and attack it ?
[/quote]
Not at the moment, I’m afraid. It’s also on the todo list.

[quote]The range of the attacks is not clear to me . Maybe a range grid ?
[/quote]
Ranged attacks only need line-of-sight (infinite range), but that’ll change when I’ve fixed the above problem. Also on the todo list. :slight_smile:

Thanks for playing.

#33

I’ve got a new version up, with added feedback-driven shenanigans. :slight_smile:

http://www.triangularpixels.com/Albion/Images/07%20Run%20and%20mini%20map.png

The biggest change is that I’ve added a ‘run’ to the movement, where you spend your end-of-turn action to move further than you would normally be able. This should remove the need to pointlessly defend or look to end your turn as well. I hope it addresses the problems people had with movement.

I’ve also added a draggable mini-map so you can look around, and floating text over characters heads to show how much damage they’ve taken.

I’ve also ditched the status bar and replaced it with tooltips. This is nice because 1. I get back valuable real estate, and 2. tooltips can also appear on buttons so you can find out what they do when the icons aren’t immediately obvious.

#34

It’s a nice engine, it’s easy to grasp and it looks good, but… :slight_smile:
I think you don’t do enough to drag me (the player) into the game. Its my three guys, some sparse enemies, then what? Where does it end? What should I aim for? (these are not questions, it is what I think when playing the game).

I want to know what to expect. Is this game going to be over in 20 minutes, 20 hours or 20 days? Make one level, but make it hard. Give some hints about this. Make it short but challenging.

I played another roguelike found here, one I like very much. You start in the town and you can browse the shop. You see how much gold you have and you see the overall prices. Instantly you can see how much gold you need to buy the best weapon in the shop, so you know what to expect in terms of game length. Also, it makes you eager to go out and kill things so you can come back and shop.

Show something nice, that you can’t get, yet. How about a locked door and a prize behind it. Go find the key. Or a room opposite some impassable terrain, with some guy you need to rescue. You have to find a way around.

The combat in your came doesn’t strike me as very tactical.
Some suggestions:

  • Lots of weak enemies that gather around you fast and try to separate your party. You have to kill them faster than they come in then find a good spot. It you let each of your party members be crowded, you are wiped out. This also calls for a more interesting map.

  • Few very strong but stupid enemies. If you meet them head to head, you will die. You have to select a good spot to face them. Someplace where the terrain works in your favour. Lure them to walk over lava or into holes.

  • Make it harded to use the ranged attacks. The wizard could be more frail, have shorter range, and do more damage. You have to get in close, be protected by the meat shield and then unleas your blast. The ranger should do more damage, but after an attack he will stand still and reload the next turn.

  • Play the game, with some more interesting enemies, try to find an optimal strategy. Invent an enemy that counters that strategy.

In my own roguelike I had the following more advanced enemies:

  • Shooter. It looked onto your current position and started to count down. After a certain amount of time it blasted that tile to oblivion. Kind of like a timed grenade. It made you want to move, fast! And moving wasn’t always practical, you had to choose.
  • Engineer. This unit carried a sentrygun. Once it saw you, it took a turn setting up the sentrygun. The sentrygun started firing while the engineer retreated to it’s hiding place for another sentrygun. You hade to choose whether to blast the sentrygun or chase the engineer before he came back with the next sentrygun.
  • Ninja. Invisible and with very high movement until it attacked. There is no place to hide and rest. The ninja will catch up and finish you off.
  • General. A unit that only tried to get away. If it did get away, it disapeared. If you managed to stop him you got a big reward.
    etc…

Just some ideas…

#35

markus: All good points, thank! I’ll write up a proper response when I’ve a bit more time, but I’ve plans to address pretty much all of those issues, it just depends on how long it takes me. :slight_smile:

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on character creation:

http://www.triangularpixels.com/Albion/Images/08%20Character%20Create%20Menu.png

Not in the uploaded game yet, but soon…

#36

Progress continues, and as always it’s never quite at a point where I feel that I could put up another version - there’s always one more little feature or addition to do first. :persecutioncomplex:

http://www.triangularpixels.com/Albion/Images/09%20Party%20Create%20Menu.png

Character creation has gone through several iterations and now feels pretty good. Equipable weapons and the related stats, damage and ui implications are up next.

#37

And there’s a new version of Albion up! With lots of changes this time:

  • Added party and character creation - choose names, classes, appearence and stats and take them in game
  • Multiple room types with different graphics
  • Weapons can now be equipped, and better weapons found in the dungeon
  • New monsters - green imp and dark werewolf.
  • Rebalanced stats
  • Added combat and door sounds
  • Added proper loading and main menu screens

And the new character creation screen:

http://www.triangularpixels.com/Albion/Images/11%20Refined%20Character%20Create.png

As usual feedback and comments greatly appreciated. Thanks.

#38

Ps: The framerate is capped at 60fps, if you’re getting much below this then you can try this Albion game url which tries to use the j2d OpenGL backend.

It’s too unstable on windows machines for me to enable it for everyone, but if you’re on linux it seems to be pretty robust and quite a bit faster.

#39

It’s starting to look very good. The animation of the character is smooth and the character creation works really well and is easy to understand. I’m not sure if this is only a test level, but I would like to see much more enemies, and less walking (or faster walking). Hope to see an update soon!

#40

Thanks. :slight_smile:

The levels are procedurally generated, so they’re different each time. However the actual generator is still quite crude so it’s possible you just got a bad level. :-X Certainly the room size is a bit placeholder at the moment as I try and figure out the scale of the whole world.