Episodic content?

Suggestions for new features for inclusion in RTC. Note that all the suggestions that have already been implemented have been moved to the RTC Archive forum.

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Gambit37
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Episodic content?

Post by Gambit37 »

Is there any way that RTC could be modified to handle episodic content?

By this I mean a series of separately released RTC files that follow on from each other and ONLY work with each other.

I've been playing around with ideas for a large campaign for some time and it's clear that it would simply be way too big to be easily handled by RTC. Just a few ideas with new graphics and some background sounds has already resulted in a 30MB file. In addition, a complex project takes much, much longer to build and being able to release it in smaller chunks would both help keep designer motivation up and give players something new on a regular basis, rather than having to wait years (!) for one very big adventure.

What I'd like to see is something a bit like the import feature with some tweaks:

1) Each episode can only import data from the previous dungeon -- using somekind of identifier that is set in the previous dungeon (obviously, dungeon 1 wouldn't need this).
2) All characters and their items are carried across. It would be nice if the tracking stats (monsters kills, distance walked, etc) could also be copied, though I guess this would be tricky to manage if the same monsters aren't used in each level.
3) A new 'Start' button that can be put on the title screen that takes you straight to the (revised) 'Import' feature, rather than having to go through the scroll options.

Is this remotely do-able?
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ian_scho
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Post by ian_scho »

I've been thinking along the same lines - 7 chapters in my case, yet I was going to do it over various engines :lol:

Gambit's point is important, about creating byte sized dungeons for both the player and the dungeoneer. I never finished that DMJava dungeon I worked on, overwhelming me.

I'm not disagreeing with you on point 1 here, but if someone is going to import an über character into an easy chaptered dungeon then they're fooling themselves.

The basic DM -> CSB conversion is there, as you mentioned in point 2, but how important is it to people about their monster killing stats? I suppose you could set up some kind of 'competition'... Pity you couldn't import a 'room' and it's contents as well. You'd get even more continuity then, venturing out of your town or village each chapter.

Finally, isnt FoD pretty huge, yet the game engine doesn't degrade in any way does it? It takes longer to compile though, I suppose.
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Gambit37
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Post by Gambit37 »

Regarding point 1: that's crucial for me because the campaign is heavily story led and has a lot of character interaction. Importing characters other than those that were available at the start would completely screw that up.

Stats aren't so important, I just thought it would be nice to add things up to a 'grand total' that's all.

I think Linflas said FoD was up to about 50Mb already. With what I have in mind, one file for my adventure would probably be around 200-300MB!
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Post by linflas »

i've been thinking about that already (not all the ideas) but it seems that my suggestion disappeared in RTC archive :(
http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=24704

actually, i always thought that FoD data could be used as a base dungeon for many episodes in Allansia.
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Post by Gambit37 »

Oh, I'd forgotten about that discussion, thanks for reminding me.

However, I'm not bothered by being able to import stuff across multiple custom dungeons from different authors -- that indeed would be very difficult to manage. But if you're the creator af a sequence of linked dungeons, and you know exactly what's going in each one, it's probably do-able -- you just need to make sure that all items and graphics that might be carried over are defined in each dungeon.

Still, when things get moved to the archive with no response, that's usually not a good sign.

;-)
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Post by linflas »

yes, i think the shared dungeon idea must be forgotten but i'm still hopeful for [Include] and [Import] sections in RTC.
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Post by beowuuf »

A coded word perhaps to verify the saved game is valid to be imported into a new dungeon.

The RTC engine perhaps needs to not care about designer errors - just take every item type and port it across. It is up to the designer to ensure that all old defined items remain in the new dungeons in the same positions before new types are defined. IF

I recall correctly, there is no such thing as sword_cloned_bibble to RTC, the compiler simply goes 'item type 1455' and carries on. As long as designers don't drop items unless there is no possibility of , and create blank clones in that position to ensure that the numbering stays the same on comilation of the new dungeon, this should not be an issue I would assume. This would also allow designers to get rid of items later - convert all old sword to rusty swords so when the new dungeon starts, al lthe swords are broken, keys useless, or whatever else needs expunged.

And agreed, I think the cross-designer dungeons, while they would have been fun, present too many logicstical nightmares for designers and GG alike!
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Post by Gambit37 »

Good to see you're around again GG, I was getting worried about you!

Wondering if you have any thoughts on this idea?
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Post by Gambit37 »

I wonder if something like this could be implemented?:

When RTC searches for save games on a click of 'Resume', it could also check save games for the current RTC file against save games for a specially identified PREVIOUSLY COMPLETED game.

So perhaps we could have a setting for our second episode where we give the name of the previous episodes RTC file that can be used to start the new one.

RTC then looks for save games that match the name AND have been completed (that data is stored in the SAVs I believe). If it finds any, it allows you to start the new game with the character data from the save file and ignores all other game data -- placing you at the start tile as usual.

Obviously, the dungeon designer needs to ensure that all the items available to the player in episode #1 are also available in episode #2, but we can assume this is a given (after all, for episodic content, you're more likely as a designer to use your #1 TXT file as a base for your #2 textfile).

Would this be doable?
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