Dungeon master space !

[Dadoomars]

Dungeon master space ! était dans les cartons de ftl, mais ne fut jamais réalisé. Il y a longtemps que je voulais remédier à cet état de fait, mais la création des graphismes était un problème. Grace à l'avènement des outils IA, je pense pouvoir dépasser ce blocage et proposer bientôt un aventure spatiale en ligne jouable dans votre navigateur. Je posterai ici l'avancement du projet et un jour l'appel à béta testeurs. Merci !

[Ameena]

Um...parle vous Anglais?

[Dadoomars]

Yes ! A bit like every french student after 7 years learning English

[Ameena]

Cool, so erm, what did you say in that first post?

[Dadoomars]

Ho, I was saying that i remembrer FTL had in mind to do a space dungeon master, but they never did. I think there is a place for a modern dungeon master, space edition in 2023. Thanks to IA, i can do graphics quicker and have some "space holder" sprite in the game while I develop it.

I'm writing the engine, with case moving like the original but with gorgeous graphics. The engine will offer to interact on several layers of graphic with objects. An object could interact with another object, a sprite, a wall, an elevator, transforming them and playing the logical sound. The adventure could start in a big starship has an uncorpsed spririt player, unable to open any door, unless he found a corpse in hyper sleep. Anything could then be modeled : ship, hyperspace, planets, encounters, automation. A lot of work to do. And wait, everything playable on browser !

I could post some graphics but it is not working, may be a link ?

http://aquarom.free.fr/demo001.jpg

[Dadoomars]

Sorry can't do better than a link from previous message.

[Dadoomars]

The project is getting well. I do not want to create a team of characters. This would be too old fashioned these days. Instead, I plan to gave the IA of the ship the ability to incarnate and use the compétences of one character at a time ! The gameplay can be very enjoyable this way.

[Dadoomars]

Implementing stuff.
But being an online game there are things i had to control : emptying the cache at game start from the game : OK.
Caching images before they are used in a predictive way : OK.
Preload hero animations :OK.

[Dadoomars]

Implementing stuff :
- places to release an avatar to use another one,
- functional spaceship to trip in space.
- adding some stuff to the story, all most 4 intricated quests.
- create a page for demo and beta testers (may take a week or 2 for validation).

- need some help to catalog all dungeon master sentences on the wall like"take inside take a ride " or "two faces but no tails". I plan to reuse some of them. May be you can submit some back to me. THX.

[ChristopheF]

All DM wall inscriptions are listed on the maps pages: http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=taxonomy/term/17%2C42

[Dadoomars]

Merci Christophe !

[Dadoomars]

A new character, "Boson", cyborg.
https://i.postimg.cc/BbdptqF1/ca56fff34 ... cfbe7b.jpg

[Dadoomars]

Good news, a lifetime website has been given by free where to host the game in the future. For now you can only see a "placeholder" teaser at :

http://dungeonmasterspace.free.fr/

Renegade is the name of my label, inspired by The Bitmap Brothers.

[Dadoomars]

Time to define some limits to implement the next functions :
- playable characters : 10 for now, may be not enough for large story ?
- special skins : 20+
- map size : 1000X1000...
- basic map cartography (ugly at this stage but functional).

[Dadoomars]

In the original dungeon master, there is a master object the firestaff to "rule them all" in the space version I just can't do a special blaster to captivate the attention of the player, too common. What about a special wristband to teleport where ever ?

[Prince of Elves]

Depending on how big your dungeon/ship will be and how many backtracking is involved, that might be a good idea anyway, as most modern players expect a feature like that. Personally I'd rather go for something like "teleport to certain stations" that have to be found and activated before you can port back there, but again that depends on the specifics of your game and its layout.

[Dadoomars]

Thanks for your advices, I mean there will be teleporters to certain stations, of course, but only one at the end of the game, as some great reward to teleport anywhere in the game by pointing on the map.

I plan to make different special objects, not only key and codes but also multi-keys locks, a map object ti display simple map, a bag to carry all the objects, a teleporter wristband to visit every hidden part at the end of the game...

The dungeon will be 100X100 in dev conditions, then adjusting a simple value 1000X1000. So I could realise the game part by part for players.

A sample map aspect -mostly ugly for now !

[Dadoomars]

The game saving process.
======================

Before using more time in programming the game content, I have to find a way to save a game file and load it using the local file system of the computer. Without a proper way to do so, I"m loosing my time !

Saving...
There is a simple way to save the game, creating a download "blob" object that will be saved to your download computer default folder without security restrictions. This file can have arbitrary names, it will contain the map and the objects of the player pockets. So i do not use server side scripts or cookies.

Loading...
The download of a previous saved game is another thing to do. Javascript (the game chosen coding system) is very restrictive when accessing local file. Some say "you can't". But we all know websites that allows users to select files and even drag and drop them. These websites often use server side code. I can't do that. Fortunately, I was able to find and adapt a snippet code that (in this stage of dev) allows me to choose a file and load its content as text : cool !

Now that this part is working, the whole project becomes possible !

[Cycl0ne]

why not use fileReader?
<HTML>
<input type="file" id="fileInput">

<CODE>
document.getElementById('fileInput')!.addEventListener('change', (event) => {
const file = (event.target as HTMLInputElement).files![0];
const reader = new FileReader();

reader.onload = (e) => {
const text = e.target!.result;
console.log('File content:', text);
};

reader.onerror = (e) => {
console.error('Error reading the file:', e);
};

reader.readAsText(file);
});

[Dadoomars]

Thank your for the code sample. This is a different way i will try and keep the speedier reading. I'll keep you informed here

[Dadoomars]

Very good news for the project on this Christmas eve, the game saving/loading system is working well, allowing players to save the current state of the game and resume it later.

Coding is somehow boring if there is no direct application of the code working. So I need some better graphics to replace the "placeholders" I made previously. Fortunately my skills with AI generators are improving from my last attempts.

Seeing that the project get some interest is a really motivations. Thx.

[Dadoomars]

I may attempt to reuse some old characters in a modern shape. These are some work rushes...

[Dadoomars]

Any dungeon master clone has to have a good torch animation. I searched the web but I had to make mine (please don't share)

[Gambit37]

I may attempt to reuse some old characters in a modern shape. These are some work rushes...

There's a lot of very strange stuff going on there... Are these generated by AI?

[Dadoomars]

Yes, I am a coder, but I have no talent as a graphist. To program you need "placeholders". AI graphics are a good solution, they have some error, you have to correct by hand. Usually the hands are false, sometimes the arms, but this is improving fast. I'm working with "mage" AI coders to have my own model that should correct "strange stuff". The dungeons will be also generated by AI.

[Dadoomars]

5 months of development !!! What is new ?

While I develop DMS, I had to find a way to edit the dungeon and the interactions.

First I did with notebook, that was useful to find what may go wrong and impact the game. But editing with notepad is boring and slow.

I embedded a click and play editor in DMS to choose files, attribute them different roles, then past the bloc in place in the dungeon.

So I develop the code and the concept game in the same time, my purpose is to provide a cool way for modeling the most possible complex interactions :
- ways,
- obstacles,
- doors,
- keys,
- riddle locked doors,
- teleporters,
- enigmas,
- switches that are modifying the maze at certain places ; opening doors or landing objects far away from the switch place itself,
- methods to change player skin and even lock places if the player is not wearing the adequate skin.
- very special objects : luggage, map, teleport map, pass through...
- a special object for the people who will solve the game allowing them to explore everything everywhere in an instant

At this point I have to start implementing interactions, only obstacles/open ways are ok because there are at the base of the code. I already did the editor model window and the placeholders options are functional.

I am not sure of the point of implementing life points and consequences of loosing them. I always found it too violent in originale DM. I keep this for later times.

Also the game is case by case, the sense of 3d is not very strong, so I may add some zoom effects on object and last layer to simulate 3d better.

I am thinking of several ways to do all of it.

Then it will be time to a beta

Thanx for reading.

[Dadoomars]

Now this not the fun part of it,but I am writing the interactions player vs dungeon.

I original DM doors are open or closed with buttons and stay open with gems or keys.
My version has to do a lot of automatic behaviors because I don't want to program every interactions in detail so I have to define some rules :
- doors, monsters and various obstacles will show a lock icon that will turn to unlock icon if the right interaction is done,with specific sound. Then the player can pass or not.
- the door stays open until the player exits the room then autoclose with a nice locking sound

Advantages :
- player keeps the keys and can use it again on purpose on several same doors, he can never be blocked by accident or coding bugs : if he enters a room one time, he can always exit and enter again. This will allow saved games to be reverse played if something is left unvisited.
- player will understand that something is running undercover of walls and buttons that is watching him.

Disadvantages :
- Some DM player will found this rules strange, so there is a tuto on start of the game, but very short one.

As little gift, a, AI improved version of the big guy !

[Dadoomars]

One of the first original things in DM was the obligation to play an entity until the player recorporate with a framed hero. I plan tu use this state more often : ghosts cannot carry or move objects, bur they can go into flames... In some areas the player should go as a ghost, I do have to program an other king of altair: flesh to bones. For exemple by praying on a death angel tomb

[Dadoomars]

In original Dm, monsters have a few frames, only necessary stuff. I like this idea. I wish I could do something modern but in the direction of Dm animation. So; few frames but with morphing between them. I'm exploring some paths. The result is new but have inherited appearance.

[Dadoomars]

It's in the title