Travelling long distances in DM style games

Discuss your creative projects: game development, writing, film making or any thing else, fantasy related or otherwise! Talk about art you like, display your own artwork or stories, or offer help and insight.
Forum rules
Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
User avatar
Gambit37
Should eat more pies
Posts: 13717
Joined: Wed May 31, 2000 1:57 pm
Location: Location, Location
Contact:

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by Gambit37 »

Ah, you're missing my point. To build dungeons in DSB requires coding (ie, typing!), rather than pointing and clicking on little icons. That's not my skillset and I don't exactly want to have someone else build my dungeon for me; that rather defeats the point of building my own custom adventure ;) I already talked to Sophia about maybe using DSB and while I can see that it's more powerful than RTC in lots of respects, it just doesn't suit me as a platform for game creation.
User avatar
Sophia
Concise and Honest
Posts: 4240
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:50 pm
Location: Nowhere in particular
Contact:

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by Sophia »

The "problem" (I put it in quotes because it's not a problem for me, but I can see how it would be for someone less keen on coding than me) is that even if there existed a rather fully-featured graphical editor for designing the layout of one's DSB dungeon, the actual mechanics would still have to be coded. That's just how it is-- there are no action wallitems, relays, and the like. That stuff is all intended to be done with a few short lines of Lua code, but it's still code. It's much more along the lines of CSBwin and its DSAs, I guess, than anything like RTC's complex "Apple and Teleporter" style mechanics .
User avatar
beowuuf
Archmastiff
Posts: 20687
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 2:00 pm
Location: Basingstoke, UK

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by beowuuf »

How far did Joramund's RTC -> DSB cnverter get?
Was unable to (permenantly) kill off ian_scho (Haynuus), Ameena, oh_brother (Westian), money (Falkor), raixel (Petal) and Lord_Bones (Aurek) in the DM D&D game Time's Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME WHAT IT WAS - GREAT!
User avatar
Sophia
Concise and Honest
Posts: 4240
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 9:50 pm
Location: Nowhere in particular
Contact:

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by Sophia »

beowuuf wrote:How far did Joramund's RTC -> DSB cnverter get?
It's functional, though it won't convert action wallitems.

It produced a playable DM and CSB, though CSB especially required some touching up because RTC and DSB do things like alcoves and door buttons somewhat differently.
User avatar
beowuuf
Archmastiff
Posts: 20687
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 2:00 pm
Location: Basingstoke, UK

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by beowuuf »

Ah, that's a shame, I'm guessing all the complex cool stuff Gambit would want to show off would action wallitems
Was unable to (permenantly) kill off ian_scho (Haynuus), Ameena, oh_brother (Westian), money (Falkor), raixel (Petal) and Lord_Bones (Aurek) in the DM D&D game Time's Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME WHAT IT WAS - GREAT!
User avatar
zoom
Grand Master
Posts: 1819
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 1:27 am
Location: far away but close enough

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by zoom »

Gambit37 wrote:Ah, you're missing my point. To build dungeons in DSB requires coding (ie, typing!), rather than pointing and clicking on little icons. That's not my skillset and I don't exactly want to have someone else build my dungeon for me; that rather defeats the point of building my own custom adventure ;) I already talked to Sophia about maybe using DSB and while I can see that it's more powerful than RTC in lots of respects, it just doesn't suit me as a platform for game creation.
well gambit, you build websites!
After all some coding´s going on there ,no? Why the aversion ;)

But I do get your point.(last sentence of yours)
Furthermore it is the breaking of habits from icon clicking to typing that is a clear obstacle-I presume.
Learning something new and kicking the stuff you got used to for so long into the trashbin-what switching would induce-is not a pleasant thought.
Maybe I cannot really comment because I don´t know how the editor of RTC and DSB really work. Still I wanted to say this.
User avatar
beowuuf
Archmastiff
Posts: 20687
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 2:00 pm
Location: Basingstoke, UK

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by beowuuf »

Probably more the time at the computer/in general. Learning a new language and porting removes time from actually getting anything done. It's feature creep that might stop anything being released!
Was unable to (permenantly) kill off ian_scho (Haynuus), Ameena, oh_brother (Westian), money (Falkor), raixel (Petal) and Lord_Bones (Aurek) in the DM D&D game Time's Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME WHAT IT WAS - GREAT!
User avatar
cowsmanaut
Moo Master
Posts: 4378
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2000 12:53 am
Location: canada

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by cowsmanaut »

well, I can see how this seems all a bit "catch 22". The coder doesn't want to implement what won't be used and the designer doesn't want to put the effort into what doesn't do what he needs. You need to get a 3rd party in to negotiate via code or action. (action being someone to use what is there and working with her to get those items written, which would happen if someone was to certainly use them... or by code by someone improving on the converter, or writing an editor)
User avatar
ian_scho
High Lord
Posts: 2806
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Zaragoza, Spain

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by ian_scho »

DSB, in my opinion, is the best engine to implement "Travelling long distances in DM style games".
But at the end of the day however, I'm sure almost any engine could somehow implement the above - but with some artistic licence and user imagination.
User avatar
Jan
Mighty Pirate
Posts: 2760
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:55 pm
Location: Scumm Bar, Czech Republic

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by Jan »

zoom wrote: well gambit, you build websites!
After all some coding´s going on there ,no? Why the aversion ;)
Maybe Gambit doesn't want to use coding in dungeon creation JUST because he spends all his days and work time by coding!
(like my father, who also doesn't go to gyms and places likes this because he works all the day manually at a farm)
Finally playing and immensely enjoying the awesome Thimbleweed Park-a-reno!
User avatar
Gambit37
Should eat more pies
Posts: 13717
Joined: Wed May 31, 2000 1:57 pm
Location: Location, Location
Contact:

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by Gambit37 »

It's really very simple: I don't have the time or inclination to push myself into doing something that I'm not especially keen on, not very good at, and that I don't enjoy. Frankly, who does? If you can convince me that you know what I will enjoy, better than I know myself, feel free to try. :-)

Generally speaking, people are either creative visually or logically. I'm mainly the former. Coders (and by extension, successful DSB dungeon builders) are mainly the latter. It's the whole left brain/right brain thing. Of course, there's crossover and I obviously have a partly 'coder head' or I wouldn't be able to build dungeons at all (or build websites).

It's nothing to do with 'catch 22' situations or anything else, I simply don't want to use DSB because it doesn't suit my mindset. Sorry! So I'll find ways around the problem using RTC. No one should take that as some kind of slight against DSB. At the end of the day it's just a tool and different tools suit different people, RTC happens to suit me better that's all.
User avatar
ian_scho
High Lord
Posts: 2806
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Zaragoza, Spain

Re: Travelling long distances in DM style games

Post by ian_scho »

I agree with Gambit. And I've built my world on the other side of the brain's hemisphere!
Post Reply