The Island Project

[youngneil1]

Done . The weathers themselves are super easy, the weather editor is a bit more complicated (see above). I have not tried how well changing the .png for weather (see above) works. You can not change how the effects move, but it should have significant impact on how they look (obviously). Please note that the weathers bring sounds with them (so volume up ). They have quite some finetuning like blending out and in and into each other, remembering weather outside while staying indoors, etc.

[Pongo]

That's brilliant, thank you - I'll work my way through them and add some pixel graphics and play around with it a bit. One way or another, fog, rain and lightning have to happen!

[Pongo]

I've completed five maps for the module, which all include wandering monsters and the related encounters: the Lost Cove, Haven, the Temple of Kotor, the Last Watchtower, Dead Wood. The maps are all interconnected and feel really "alive" with the wandering monsters. I've also added the static encounters and convos to the Lost Cove and Haven, but the other three maps need work. I don't know how many maps there will be ultimately, but when I sketched the island out it had 24 so there is still some way to go. It's a start though!

[youngneil1]

Awesome, that reads really inspiring big time ! 24 maps, heavily interconnected, living creatures - I will be digging this .

[slowdive]

Great progress made it sounds like. Looking forward to seeing the living island.

[Pongo]

With the first five maps up and working as a "playground" area, I've recently been putting more effort into introducing and testing the key game mechanics like classes and traits.

There will be at least five playable races: humans, elves, dwarves, half-orcs and dark elves, each with different class restrictions and bonuses. Each race has at least one class that is only available to that race (eg, only humans can be Knights).

There will be at least nine classes: Fighter, Rogue, Knight, Necromancer, Savage, and Cleric are definites, but I'm still working on the others (they are likely to be along the lines of Arcane Archer, Elementalist, and Dwarven Defender).

When levelling up, stats like BAB and health etc only have slow, minimal increases (they still rise faster for a fighter than for a necromancer, but much slower than D&D - a fighter routinely increases BAB only once every three levels, for example). In order to bump these stats quickly the PC needs to select the relevant trait at level up. For example, there is a trait that gives +1 BAB, another that grants 10 health, one that grants additional Spell Points, etc. This means that the player has to make difficult decisions about where to focus their skills every time a character levels up.

Each class also has a "class trait" like "Fighter Skills I", which provides specific stat boosts relevant to that class (damage and BAB in that case). When the character has three levels in their class trait, they can then choose a "prestige class" trait which opens up options for more advanced and powerful traits. There are also traits related to finding secrets, languages, traps, and conversation skills etc, so it might not be wise to focus on just combat skills!

So, for example, a Knight can choose traits related to non-combat and combat skills. If the Knight focuses on the "Knight Skills" trait (increasing BAB), then at level 4 (with Knight Skills III under his belt) he can choose the path of developing into a Paladin or a Blackguard. If he chooses the Paladin path, then he opens up opportunities to access Cleric spells and certain specific Paladin skills.

Or, a fighter with Fighter Skills III can choose at Level 4 to become a Warrior or an Archer. The Warrior path will specialise in melee combat and open up options for cleave, multiple melee attacks per round etc; the Archer path provides for Point Blank Shot and multiple missile attacks per round etc. Their general BAB increase will mean they can still switch between melee and ranged in both cases, but an Archer will be specifically deadly at long range.

The Prestige classes will be:
Fighter: Archer, Warrior
Knight: Paladin, Blackguard
Rogue: Assassin, Bard
Necromancer: Re-Animator, Lich
Savage: Beserker, Shaman
Cleric: War Priest, Dark Zealot

I'm still working on it, but the Fighter and Cleric are up and running and working pretty nicely. I'm moving onto the Rogue and Knight next.

[Dorateen]

Very cool, Pongo. I like the idea of branching paths for classes. One of the things I have enjoyed about Iceblink is exploring new mechanics. Looks like you have put a lot of thought into this aspect. It will be fun to play around with these new combinations.

[youngneil1]

Awesome ideas for setting up the classes, Phil. It is very deep and I really like having to make difficult choices while leveling up. Also, the bare existence of all the trait options, subclasses, races and main classes is food for the imagination big time. This feeling of exploring a tiny fraction of an immense system is what draws me in not only in games, but also when reading books or watching tv series/movies.

[Pongo]

I had a bit of a break due to inspiration collapse, but I'm now back with a fresh pair of eyes and feeling motivated again!

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of weeks working through the existing sections of the module and tightening it up. For example, I'd included lots of concepts that I'd left unfinished to "sort out later", like lockpicking and finding secret doors etc - these skills are now operational and connect properly to the sections of the map where they should work. There's something to be said for a more methodological approach, its quite nice actually feeling like some of the areas are actually getting finished! I also added in the intro, swapped out some of the art, and balanced the encounters properly for the opening two areas.

I've revised the overall scope of the module. On reflection, there were too many planned areas that wouldn't have existed for the right reasons. Some of the existing maps were already feeling a bit too empty. I've been very harsh at cutting back filler content, so the total number of planned areas has dropped from 24 to 12.

Currently there are five areas up and running in the module, of which two are completed/fully playable (including local quests, encounters, convos, secrets etc); three need quite a bit of work (they were kind of finished last year, but I've now broken them with all the recent changes); and seven exist only on paper.

The classes and character building are staying more or less the same, although
- I'm now thinking of a lower level cap so I might revise how branching paths for classes works (I'm keen to keep this feature in though);
- Now Lockpick etc are up and running I've had to rebalance some of the starting skills so that certain characters don't feel auxillary to the action. This will no doubt be a work in progress throughout development!
- If anything I might add in more classes and races - its great fun rolling new party members, the flexibility of the Iceblink engine really shines here! Eg, I've been considering adding "assassin" as a stand alone class rather than as a rogue specialisation. So many choices.

I'll try to make this a monthly update (and not drop off the radar for another year!)

[youngneil1]

Awesome news there !

Inspiration comes and goes, like ebb and flood, same for me here. I think it's vital from time to time, to just give it a break and draw fresh wind from new sources (games, books, movies, real life even ). For example, I secretly played a lot of SkyrimVR lately (Psssst.... ) and, wow, that is really a ride. When afterwards I still feel the urge to return to IB, I think this really shows we are on to something here. Not neccessarily the best game, engine or toolset ever, but for me the freedom to tell a tale (and build a world and a set of game mechanics, all of it, no less) with the means I love so much, in a game that is. And it's all so much more glorious in the company of the fine IB crew we have assembled here in the forum.

I am very much looking forward how to see how you realized lock picking and finding secret doors. More gameplay systems for such skills (and generally more interaction with the gameworld) are a motive that has been driving me a lot lately. Same goes for how you realize the branching classes (and spell access).

12 areas sounds alot already (granted, depending on the size and especially the content density). I hope the ongoing beta updates have not caused too much chaos to what you build already. Keep me in the loop about any bugs introduced by the beta process and I will see to keep compatibilty as high as possible.

Yes, please, to further updates - keep the good stuff coming .