Alpha Desolation of the Heron

Simon Gust

Member
Desolation of the Heron is a part time project of mine.
The game name is out of context and more or less just random words put together.
The game is a 2D randomly generated side-scroller adventure game and heavily inspired by Terraria and Minecraft.

As of now, there isn't much of gameplay, just application.

Here is a screenshot.
upload_2018-9-30_16-45-38.png
There is no real story yet, just a concept of progression.
The player sprite isn't even colored and the contrast cohesion is all over the place.

I only sometimes work on this project but I give it my best programming.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
If you need any help with it shoot me a PM, it looks really interesting!
 

YanBG

Member
Looking good! How is the tiled fog of war implemented?

Btw is that your main game, i remember seeing another one?
 

Simon Gust

Member

RujiK

Member
@Simon Gust

I don't know much about shaders, but it looks like your tile rendering shader doesn't actually create a separate lighting layer but draws the tiles themselves with a dark tint. (Unless I'm missing something) Did you have any technical plans on drawing enemies since they won't be affected by the light?

Also thanks for posting the shader code!
 

Simon Gust

Member
@Simon Gust

I don't know much about shaders, but it looks like your tile rendering shader doesn't actually create a separate lighting layer but draws the tiles themselves with a dark tint. (Unless I'm missing something)
That is indeed correct.

The shader gets it's data from 128x128 surfaces that are very colorful to look at.
one for the type of tile
one for the index (framing) of the tile
one for the lighting of the tile

Finally, a singular shader expects these 3 surfaces (and the texture with all the sprites on it) and spits out the result.

@Simon Gust
Did you have any technical plans on drawing enemies since they won't be affected by the light?
For the player and enemies I have planned to just make another shader that again expects the light surface and the object position relative to the surface and apply again. I have not tested this (only with the player because he happened to be always at the center).

That said, there are no enemies in this yet and I am full on world gen right now.
@Simon Gust
Also thanks for posting the shader code!
That is old shader code you should not under any circumstance try to use. It is really inefficient.
 
G

gulden

Guest
Looks neat! Will it be more a crafting survival game or and RPG?
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
Looks like a solid start, survival RPG sounds interesting. Perhaps some sort of craft battle mechanic *Fortnite*ahem
 

Simon Gust

Member
Greetings,
After a long time an update.
I haven't been able to code much, having a job and other hobbies got in the way.
But at least I can think about the development in the free time that I've got.

Before you continue, this is a very technical post! Technicality has been moved to game design post
So here are a few things I've come up with

A Damage vs Defense System

In my system I got not only health but also shield points, which are provided by armor, think of XCOM.
Defense is also provided by armor, but it is commonly paired with a stat distribution theme:
- Turtle armor = high defense, low shield regeneration
- crystal armor = low defense, high shield and regeneration
- When a player is not in combat, shield points regenerate.

The armor vs penetration system:
- a variable called 'armor_efficiency' determines the ratio of the damage absorbed by shield points vs health points
- another variable called 'penetration' is a direct contra to that ratio, shifting it in favor of health damage
- an efficiency of 60% means 60% of the damage reduced by defense is taken as shield damage, and 40% of the damage reduced by armor as health damage
- if the enemy now has a penetration of 15, then this efficiency is brought to 45% shield damage and 55% health damage
- the combined damage is still the same for both, yet high penetration is more dangerous to the player, especially if health does not regenerate

A few sidenotes and rules:
- the 'armor_efficiency' variable is more statically distributed because armor already has 3 variables (defense, shield, regen) where as weapons only have 2 (damage, penetration)
- each armor piece gives 15%, and if a shield item is held, an additional 15% adding up to 60% in total. This number can be increased with things like buffs or certain items
- if 'armor_efficiency' has an effective maximum of 90%, which when exceeded adds those percentages above 90% to defense as a bonus
- if the damage taken goes beyond the shield points, the rest of the non-absorbed damage flows back into health damage


A Durability System

I am going one step further and use these variables in other systems too like durability or skill points.
If I am to implement a durability system I want to make sure players actually use it and be affected by it, not in an annoying way.

Here is what I think can work:
- Each item that is a weapon or type of gear will have a 'max_durability' and a 'cur_durability'
- 'max_durability' by itself can vary depending on the quality and other factors, so a stone sword can have 15 'max_durability' while another stone sword can have 21 'max_durability'
- this way, the player has more things to upgrade on a piece of gear
- everytime a weapon deals damage 'cur_durability' has a chance to be reduced and if it reaches 0, the item breaks

And to add a little skill of knowledge to this:
- items can be repaired, but lose 'max_durability' in the process. Better repair techniques grant fairer percentages of 'max_durability' loss
- using blunt weapons with low penetration on high-armored targets cause more 'cur_durability' loss
- taking damage from high penetration sources cause more 'cur_durability' loss on armors*
- if the skills-system remains implemented, then using a weapon without the skill should cause more 'cur_durability' loss (as well as other stat penalties)

*this might sound counterintuitive, but if it were the other way around, the player would be punished for getting hit by weak enemies

A Skill System

This is more or less a talent tree without talents. Think of your average souls game where you put points into a stat and your health goes up.
Except it's not as direct, you won't see stats like vitality or strength to increase.
You have a skill for every type of weapon, and also for some mana-like abilities:
- [improvised, sword, spear, tool, bow, pistol, rifle, heavy, tech] if I remember correctly
- [telekinesis, empathy...]

Each race starts out with these. Some have more in one area, other more in other areas.
- skills can be leveled by doing them, like leveling 'spear' if you kill a lot of enemies with a spear
- leveling only goes to a certain point, at which just using the weapon won't level up the skill at all
- at that point, the skill can only be increased with items or certain events. The point at which this happens is realtively low

There is also a magic-like system which flows a bit into this
- 4 categories of supernatural abilities (which cost mana to use) can be learned and trained
- every 5 or so points in a category unlocks a magic ability. For example telekines: the ability to control items at a distance
- there are mana-points that need to be used for these abilities

Then another system which affects the crafting and making of items:
- skill points for crafting items, brewing, forging etc.
- no mechanic like failing to craft, that would be just nuissance
- more of a bonus system, or for certain tasks (alchemy, imbuing, enchanting) a skill requirement system
- the higher the skill, the more likely it is to get a good quality of the item

A Quality System

This is pretty much the prefix system like it is in Terraria with a few differences:
- due to the durability system existing, it's not possible to reforge qualities as simple as in Terraria
- each quality has a weight to it, with the 'no quality' being exactly the 50% chance to get
- qualities can affect stats of an item, for example changing durability, damage, penetration or giving the item elemental resistance / attack


And many other systems that remain a secret for now...


I would be grateful for feedback. I will answer questions if they do not spoil anything.
There is no guarantee any of these system won't change in the future.
 
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