Hi rick!

[beowuuf]

It's nice to have someone so enthused with new ideas suddenly spring out of nowhere...we need more people like you (or at least more speaking up...George, do you happen to know how many people have downloaded RTC now?)

Eh, that was all really...hello

[Rick]

Thanks! Well, i'm a big fan of dungeon crawling games. My first game of this type was EOB2 (then i played EOB1) but i got carried off and went to paper&pencil rpg's. one thing in favor of pen&pencil: You can't cheat, you usually spend months even years to achieve "master fighter" or similar level, and there's always fun. Anyway I have to say that this costed me lots of money i could have spent somewhere else ?) It's pretty addictive so i quit RPG's in general.

Searching for something to spend my free time in, i bumped on this place, and gave it a try. I also dloaded dmjava and the original dm (ver 3.4). Unfortunately i don't think i'll like the game for a long time, what makes a games most interesting is its history. A villain, new friends and foes, etc. etc. After a while of dungeon crawling, this gets kinda boring for me... This is why i would like so much the cut-scenes. Imagine your little tiny whimp character going from dungeon to dungeon, acquiring more experience, rescuing damsels in distress while the grand "chief" enemy tries to destroy him at all costs. Gets you immersed in the game's world. It's not the same that "alright, how i plan to win the dungeon this time?"

I'm your "typical demanding user" that is a perfectionist. I did programming for a while so i know more or less how to implement certain thing.

My #1 value for a game is speed (i have a P166, which should be more than enough for a DOS game), then memory and HD usage.

[cowsmanaut]

well, I just gotta jump in here.

This game has a story to it. You don't have the books so you are missing out on some of it. However through the game there is scrolls and wall writings that lead you to think that chaos is watching your every step and laughing at you all the way.

This is the first game of this genre EOB is copy of the style. I can see how EOB can be more apealing to some since it had more colours and a few little bit's of story. However to me that didn't justify adding the stupidity of the AD&D rules. The whole I can use a sword I'm a preist crud just bugs me. I dunno, it was an ssi game so I understand them using them..

The other thing DM has is the need to learn spells actually learn them.. not oh gee I reached level two.. that means I automatically get one more magic missile use per day.. yaaaaay! (BLARG!!) It treats magic as something more believeable. you learn the runes and find the spells, practice them, and so on..

Anyway, that's my rant.. more or less I could go on but there would be little point..

the other thing to mention is that DM is very fast the orriginal anyway. Georges is for windows only so it may be a little slower on you comp.

[Rick]

Well i liked the magic system it seemed pretty realistic - IF magic existed in this world -

Speaking about runes, how about a "magic manual" which told you to invent your own spells (and i mean the user, not the designer), like a subzero "iceball" - for the first 10 (or 30?) tries of the spell you design, you get damage (because it's new). Anyway i mean the system of using runes of different kinds and the magic mana so you can use it however you want is good.

I don't like many AD&D rules alright, but that's part of the D&D series of books. Still, the design of the dungeons was awesome.

I don't think the slowness of windows can be a good excuse or reason for the lack of fast response of the game. That George is too busy with other things _IS_ a good reason (but we can help him can't we guys?). Maybe we can use this board to contribute to the game and not only by saying some bright ideas or beta-testing.

Like how about a chalkboard of "architecture" (or maybe a webpage apart linked from here) where George publishes the flow-diagram of his program. Like this is the mapping module, the key, the graphic module, the monster-display routine etc.

Maybe he could publish the source code under the GNU license (after all, RTC is free!), or JUST for us users of this board so we can improve it and everything, help debugging, etc.

Designing a whole new program is by no means a task of one man. I tried and it doesn't work. The bugs become monsters and entrap you into the maze. Doing this as a teamwork is much better.

How about this?

George - archmaster designer, 30,000 XP.
Drake - adept betatester, 8000 XP
Rick - craftsman hacker/debugger, 3500 XP
Your name goes here - ?
Your name goes here - ?
Your name goes here - ?

I'm sure there are programmers out there with some free time that can optimize some routines.

There are many windows games that flow (like Another World aka Out of This Word, winlemmings... the task can be done, the how and how-much-time depends on us.

[cowsmanaut]

ZYX and BeoWuuf are expert beta testers. ZYX can destroy your wonderfull game in a matter of seconds and tell you exactly how he did it.. Beowuuf can do this too but he seems to like to enjoy it a bit first..

[beowuuf]

Just toying with my prey : )

You've missed the link further down to drake's own DM pages...setting him up as a master of all things graphical

gambit shares this passion too between web designing, so there you go - already a fairly sturdy party

What is happening with the DM Clone project anyway? Has that still got a place in anyone's hearts?

[Gambit37]

And just to add to that... I haven't entirely forgotten a re-design of the graphics for RTC... however, this will be my next project after I have completed my Dungeon Master website, which should be on-line by the end of the year.

In the mean time, take a quick peek here for a sample... in no way finished, in fact barely started (so don't go slagging it off!)... but should give you an idea of things to come...

<a href="http://website.lineone.net/~matthill/rt ... sample/</a>

[cowsmanaut]

I noted the wornings about shading and such.. I imagine for people like me who have all sorts of suggestions..

I will say though they look pretty good for a start. Different than I expected.

(oh and Beowuuf.. I'm no master. If I were I'd be getting paid more than 8 bucks an image and probably in a fulltime position<I get about 10 images to draw per month that's $80/mo not spectacular> but thanks for the kind words none the less...)

[beowuuf]

set looks interesting so far..likethe real look walls of the second down...

(to drake..ugh to the pay - this the reason for the csb intro showing off to company?)

[Zyx]

yeah, it looks different nut nonetheless very intersting.
BTW, am I so destructive with games? Sorry, George!
Maybe I forgot to say I appreciate and enjoy a lot RTC.

[cowsmanaut]

ZYX, its a good thing you can do that.

I was impressed with your ability as a beta tester from the DM clone project. Breaking the games is a good thing in this case.

Beowuuf, yes that's why. I need a job that's gonna pay me what I'm worth so I can tell this other guy to find annother flunky. I was working for the paper doing images and got 25-100 bucks an image depending on size 25 for small ones 50 for editorials and 100 for the cover. However that job dissapeared to an intern they could pay 1/4 of the pay too and get away with calling it teaching.. (sigh)

ok on a more positive note.. 3 cheers for RTC

HIP! HIP!

[Gambit37]

Hooray!!!

HIP HIP...

[beowuuf]

Hooray!!!


It was peer pressure, all the cool kids were doing it...

HIP HIP...

[Zyx]

Hooray!!!

[Gambit37]

Well, I'm glad we all got that out of our system!