Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Zonk]

NEW IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS:

VERY IMPORTANT:Please DON'T COMMERCALIZE the game!I saw some VERY GOOD games i liked
to play become "commercial",so i could not play them(im not "poor"or "greedy"...im just
VERY YOUNG..to be honest,im 13...im born the 8/8/1988...the Eight Day of August
in the 1988...)
Toadyone...With your programming and drawing skills,you could create some simulation
program for the army(or for the medicine...i don't like war in real life..this is
why i want Armok to be finished...to kill creatures without really damaging someone).

Rember...WE(well..at least me)TRUST YOU!

Here are the ideas:

(This is a part of evolution)You could choose to start in the first time of the
universe,and see creatures like dinosaurs,in the middle of the universe or near
the end of the world...

If there will be to much commands,other than keys for more than one related command
(like a key that allows you to choose between different programs)we could have
a way to "input"commands..like you could press F4 and then you should write
the command you want to do(including the name of the target?you could write "talk"and
then choose to talk to an orc or write "talk to orc"?).This would work well for commands
wich are not mega-important...or for commands witch depends on the "rating"options
(like if we will have things like "going to the bath"...optional of course).
If someone typed the verb and the rating option did not allow it,he would get
a message like "You said you don't want these things"

In the new demo,it would be fun to have a sentient creature to talk and interact...
or kill...

If when you are blind,you see all black...it would be nice if would see BLOOD
dripping on your eyes...

A new idea for "stats"...make every stat "relative"...like you could have,in the
following order...

Lacking
Disastrous
Terrible
Very Bad
Bad,Poor
Fair
Normal
Above-Average
Good
Great
Very Great
Leggendary
Heroic

strenght/agility,ecc.ec...Like "Heroic Strenght"...The stats would be "relative"because
they don't really appear as number..so a giant with a "Normal"Strenght would have the
normal strenght of a Giant..while an Human with "Great"strenght will be very strong for
humans..but he could be like be weaker(or just AS STRONG)as the giant with
normal(but giant!)strenght!

Also,we could also add sub-stats:

Body Sub-Stats:

Upper Body Strenght,Lower Body Strenght,Costitution,Health(Resistence to DISEASES
and the like...is "connected"to Costitution)Speed,Precision,Reflexes,

PLUS varius senses(note:Sixth sense is a MENTAL Sub-stat)

Mental Stats:

Curiosity,Willpower,Sixth Sense,Instinct

I altready talked about it...but i have another idea idea for the things that could
be "unliked"by some people...

   We could add a sort of "violence/realistic""rating"option,ranging from
   -100 to 100.
   0 would mean a "normal"game,like in real life.100 would be a game for
   "kids"and -100 a very cruel world(i know it's hard to immagine a world
   more ugly than this..but it is possible).

   The "realism"things that should be modified by these options are:
   
   Reproduction/Relations/Love/Cruelty/Feelings
   Violence
   Language(-100 means ALL people,probably including the player,insult each other)
   
      
   NOTE:Im suggesting these not for me,but to allow some people to play the game
        and don't get this game "censured"by some USA guy...Personally
        im VERY OPEN MINDED,and i think a game with profane words,a lot of blood
        and,let's call it "realistic riprodution"is not very different from the
        real world...
        Some of us want a game that is somewhat different from their cruel life...
        We could satisfy them...
        I also think im not evil if i want a violent game because playing
        violent (video)games could REDUCE the violence in real life..some times
        in my life i feel i want to kill someone and/or bite/eat his arm...if i
        could do it in a videogame..i could feel MUCH BETTER!
        (Just for you to know...when i fell i want to kill someone and eat
         his arm,i usualy just bite MY arm because i don't want to harm
         a person..an innocent person...well..im mad i know)

Also,if we add human and animal reproduction,we have to add pregnancy and hereditary
things...hereditary is also a useful for curses(like your sons will be demons or
"Your first son will kill you")and radiatons/hereditary diseases...

If you put an highcensure on violence,vomit should not appear..and with censure on
riproduction,people could be born in "fairy way"(like being brough to their
parents by a bird of wich i don't remember the name,or being found under
a plant)

You shouldn't know other people name(and other people know your name)unless you told
them/they told you or they read/saw your picture with your name and recognized you...

And you should not be able to recognize some materials(in real life,i know the difference
between boots made between leather and brain,but i don't know the difference between
HUMAN BRAIN and HORSE BRAIN...except a full horse brain is smaller)

Options for verbosity in combat?Like verbosity level of 1,2,3 or 4.

   An example on how i would like the combat screen text:

   Verbosity Level:   Text when attacking,for example,an "human"

   1         You attack the human.He parries/is hit/avoids the blow.
   2         You attack the human with your sword.He parries/is hit
            in the head/
            avoid the blow.
   3         You attack the human with your long sword.He parries
            with his sword/is hit in the head/avoids the blow
   4         You attack the human with your iron long sword.
            He parries it with his steel sword/is hit in the head/
            avoids the blow.
   
       
     
   Also,the name of the last enemy you attacked who is still in your attack
   range should be always in sight...   

Note:You probably noticed it..i look more mad..it's because the school has
    began another time...

[Alanor]

I must say....

Thank you for your ideas and suggestions Zonk...

They are especially appreciated..
Many of the things you have suggested are in the works now..

You have lots of good ideas!

Keep them coming!

hope school is going well...

and P.S. the bird is a Stork :-)

[Toady One]

Don't worry about Armok going commercial.  By now, people have a reasonable expectation that Armok will be freely available, and it really pisses me off when companies aren't straight-forward about their intentions.  I have no idea what our plans will be regarding any other future projects, and I won't make any promises about them, but Armok will always be free.

Drawing skills?  He he.  Well, we'll see about that.

Now that my exams are over with, I can turn to my sheet of things left to do until I can put the test program out.  There are 14 things on it now.  If I show some restraint, that number will only go down, and I can get this thing out very soon (not that you can even wear clothes yet).

Playing at Different Evolutionary Stages:  The natural creatures currently have evolutionary trees, so it's feasible -- however, it might conflict with the creation myth of the particular universe to go back too far.  Certainly if you play in Earth-like mundane mode, then those creatures could be constructed from the evolutionary trees and you could run around with them.

Typing in Commands:  Like the old King's Quests!  As long as people didn't get penalized for spelling, and you didn't have to guess what words to type (one of the Space Quests really annoyed me when I was a little kid -- it took a while to think to type "insert disk into slot" for some reason).  You could have some kind of hybrid interface, where you start typing a word, and the game matches it to possible commands.

Creatures in the New Demo:  You can't talk to them, since I don't want to add anything strictly unneccesary before I put the demo out, but you can kill things.  And there are plenty of creatures.  You just have to travel to a town, and there will be a few hundred.  And there are, I don't know, a thousand or so towns on the map now to run around in.

Bleeding Eyes and Blindness:  Uck.  He he.  All superfluous special effects are secondary to the actual game content, but certainly blindness has to be handled somehow.

Stats:  Stats are already relative.  A "strength 100" titan is much stronger than a "strength 150" human -- there are size bonuses and other racial bonuses that are added on top of the stat number.  I imagine there are people who prefer to have numeric stats, and those that prefer verbal stats, so I currently have both.

There are sub-stats right now, and they are broken up into physical and mental stats (mental stats are those that move if your soul possesses a different body).

I guess we'll be able to discuss what stats to have when the demo's out

Realism Ratings:  So if you have a hyper-realistic universe everyone insults each other and cruelty is everywhere?  He he.  That sounds more like an atmosphere setting.  The realism ratings probably shouldn't be numeric -- if somebody doesn't want to see people doing...  various things, then they'd want to be able to turn those things off specifically, rather than setting the dial to "80" and hoping that they don't show up.  If there is a dial, it would need to display below it Exactly what is being turned off -- you can't leave this kind of thing to chance, or some people might get unwelcome shocks.  Then I'd need to buy gamer-heart-attack insurance to cover myself from liability claims.

Of course, if the baby is under a plant, the mother would need to find it -- then people who set the game to Kid mode would end up having starved babies hidden in all of the bushes.  It's not like censorship doesn't backfire often enough already

Name recognition:  I definitely agree with this -- as long as they only think about your name it should be fine.  If everybody is wondering about everybody else's identity, you computer's memory would soon feel their pain.

Item Recognition:  That is very true as well.  Those flags are easy to add on items.  Much like ID in a rogue-like...

Combat Verbosity:  The amount of text displayed now during combat can get pretty overwhelming (one of the downsides of a no-HP system).  A verbosity meter is definitely in order, as well as some kind of system to view combats between other creatures without seeing the text if you don't want to.  Their little 3D models will now be seen to be hitting each other, but you might not see the details on the screen even if your character is aware them.  I was thinking of making flashing icons above creatures that you could press to see a read out of what happened during the last turn (not sure how to square that with real time mode), but we'll see how that fits in with the interface,etc. later.

[Zonk]

NEW IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS:

   

A simple idea:since there will be many commands,allow some key(F5,F6,F7,F8,F9,F11,F12)
to be used as a macro for a command.

Also allow an USE command,that,when used on a item,allow you to select
the activities that are normally associtaed with the item(even if YOU CAN
do these activities without that item,like digging)

Also...it would be good to have a Slaves of Armok MiRC Channel(i can't seem
to find people in the java chat)It could be #slavesofarmok
Since i would also like to make other italians know of this game,i altready
have the #slavesofarmok channel on AZZURANET(an italian server)but there
is almost always nobody on it...

What about allowing some default "scenarios/games" with "subgames"?

Like:
   
   Medieval Times
      -Oriental
      -Europe
      -America(as an Indian/Inca/Maia ecc.ecc..)

   The World Wars

   One-Man(or Woman)Game:
      You start as the only man/or woman of the worlds...
      You should try a way to create other humans using
      some magic(or science if in a post-nuclera world)

   Starting as a Deity(probably minor..but you could also start as a
            more powerful god..but your score will be lower)

Of course,for,example the fact that you select the "Oriental"sub-game
means you begin IN ORIENT but the other contries exist

The player might just observe the game or even try to change the world
(like stopping the nazist/changing the crusades)

Also..Toadyone said "reincarnation"would be hard to code because the number of souls "don't
add up"...i think he means that,for example,if in a certain year we have 5 bilions of
living creatures in the world,and after 100 years we have 10 bilions of living creatures,
he doesn't know were the new 5 bilions(if all living creatures have souls)souls come
from...
I think that the new souls are "created"...

A idea..i know this is a rather stupid and not-very-important thing...but i was
thinking...the title of the game could be changed..i mean "Slaves of Armok:God of Blood"
is a good title IF THERE IS ARMOK...i mean..the game is becoming the
greatest simulation/roguelike/adventure/rpg game that i ever seen
(well..it will be the best when it will be almost finished:-)
so,for example,it would be not necessary to have Armok as the great God..
In fact,i think most of the games i will play will be without Armok(if
there will be an option to play without armok,like i hope)
Also,this title would make some people think this is one of the classical
"classic bloody rpg"(nothing could be more wrong!)
A different title would in attract more people,i think..
In fact,when i watched links from the(now dead)ROGUELIKE NEWS PAGE i usually decided
to visit only the homepages of games with a "interesting"title...i visited the "Slaves
of Armok"page because i read about it in the NEWS page...

I think a similar but more "rappresentative" title could be "Gods of Chaos"or
"Gods of Blood"

Here are some other ideas for the title:
   Chaos(or Khaos)
   Universal Roguelike/Rpg
   "The Game"
   A Different World
   Random(or Simulated) Universes
   The RaNdOmNeSs of Existence
   Chaos and Order:Good and Evil

Also,another things...If Armok is THE UNIVERSAL GOD why he is the good of
blood/war?I know he created the world because he likes violence...but why he
is here?I mean...there was no world,and Armok created one?Was he
created by some other being?Or maybe...Armok doesn't exist in reality he
is a powerful(POWERFUL not ALL-POWERFUL)entity who is in reality created
by the thinking of all people who believe in him?He is in reality
the projection of the "evil side"of the brains of the people?

I think it would be good to allow to have a different "UNIVERSAL GOD"
for different games...like you could have a universal god of peace
(but it would be tough to justify why this god allows war)
or an universal god of "nothing"who created the world and watches
it run...

Small Ideas:

   Allow projectile to by-pass multiple creatures or remain stuck in
   some parts of the creature(also..if you pull out ta arrow,the bleeding
   gets worse!)
   Add a disarm comand(and skill?)probably in the combat interface
   Add Music(depending on mood/scenario)and Sounds.   
   Also,add the possibility to play musical instruments,producing TRUE SOUNDS
   (if the player can hear sounds)..I mean TRUE SOUNDS in the fact that they
   are heard by the PERSON IN FRONT OF THE MONITOR...
   Allow stealing from shops..
   (This is obvious)Associate varius body parts to varius actions:
   like if your toungue gets cutted,you can't speak,if your ears are cut,
   you cannot ear,ecc.ec...

[Demon]

I think an addition that I dont think you mentioned would be "real" NPCs.  By that I mean NPCs that the game actually plays instead of randomly generatiing.  They could be the arch rivals of the player, gaining power as the player does.  They could also be striving for god-hood and could present a major problem for the player.  Their presence and number at any given time would definately have to be optional for speed reasons, but if you could write a good enough AI (or just fudge it a little!    :p ) they would add infinite depth to the world(s).  You think this is feasible in the future?

Also, will there be any way to heal in this demo?  I hope you throw something cheesy in if there isnt, cause its hard to exterminate a whole race (Mwhahah!) without being able to recover at all.

Blood for Armok!

[Toady One]

Zonk -------

The macros in rogue-like games are very useful, and as the number of commands increasings they'll probably become Alarmingly convenient.

Use Command:  That's pretty much what the current (or soon to be current) "Manipulate" screen does -- you select an item, and the game gives you a list of things you can do/with to it.  You can select tool(s) to use on the item (such as a knife to skin a carcass).  I think there might be a distinction between Use and Manipulate, so I'll probably need a Use option as well (manipulations are restricted to the object itself).

There usually won't be anybody in the Java room because
a) I often can't get in due to my connection
b) We don't have very many regular visitors.
I don't know very much about setting up channels, etc., but if somebody tells me how and there's sufficient interest I can do that (assuming it doesn't take time/money).  After I put a demo out, I could arrange a time to be in the Java chat, although there are quite a few time zones to cover.

Scenarios:  I (or my brother) was going to create an Earth scenario at some point (which would either consist of a number of snapshots in time or an amalgam of the more interesting times and places from an FRPG point of view).  The "subgames" idea brings up a more general point, which is character starting location in any universe.  A player should be able to start wherever they want -- restrictions would be pointless, unless the player doesn't want to be able to start in places they haven't discovered yet, in which case those starting locations would be blocked.

I don't remember what I said about reincarnation, but I don't think it would be hard to code -- it would just depend on the universe metaphysics.  Where the souls come from has to be explained in some way, that's all.  Creation from nothing is fine, as are soulless beings (leading to a "higher" "souled" class of creature).  Along with soul creation could come the notion of the age of a soul (in terms of the number of reincarnations or simply the number of years in existence) which could have a number of game effects.

Armok will not appear in many game universes, and many game universes will have ultimate gods that are not Armok either at the heads of pantheons or by themselves.  That is certain.  The game concept is not goint to be limited by adherence to the title.  The title and the fact that Armok is the God of Blood rather than something else is just a joke about pointlessly violent computer games and their players more than anything.  I'm not really interested in attracting an audience, although I don't mind.  If I changed the title now, I'd want to change it every few months or so, which would be annoying for everybody (including myself).  Although I'll think about it some more.

I probably wrote some old nonsense in that manual, but I don't have an established metaphysical system describing Armok.  I doubt there will be one.  I guess Armok has partially become more of a "stock" item, like an "orc" or "elf" -- simply an inter-game constant for the player to have if they so choose.  Armok is also a mechanism for resetting the game world and creating characters, since there is an interface the player goes through prior to play that cannot be random (without massive confusion).

Body parts are already associate to actions.  That is coded.  Hmmm, how much is hearing affected if you lose your ear?  Most of the actually auditory equipment is within the head, although the ear might serve some purpose.  I think it's important for thermal control in many animals.  Does a human ear help with hearing at all?

As soon as there are shops, there will be stealing, since the items in the shop will be sitting there to be taken (shops won't just be menus that spontaneously create items, although such an interface might come in handy to facilitate easy buying).

Player Playing Music: Do you mean pressing keys to play notes (while the key is pressed it plays a certain tone)?  There would be a number of complications as far as getting the right sound at the right pitch out of an instrument, since I don't have a detailed knowledge of that kind of programming, and it would probably be extreme overkill.  Then again, I'll look into when I get there.  If it isn't hard, I'd do it, since I personally like playing music and could find some uses for it with the game (as long as it didn't require the player to have any talent).

There will be music and sound at some point, although it might be frightening.

Demon -----------

Once an important creature or entity is created, I was pretty much planning to have the computer play it in some way.  Although after a point that gets taxing for the computer and some fudging has to be done -- but I see what you mean.  Some could be fudged less than others  They would all have to be fudged a bit -- because the maps are created from random number seeds and not constantly in memory, writing something like an Angband borg that plays a different character turn by turn in another part of the universe while you play would be extremely slow, even for just one other creature.  I don't think that level of AI would ever work, and it would actually make them more challenging not to worry about their every move.  I think the AI might work best if it were made distance dependent (it keeps track of an NPC opponent much more closely if they are in a nearby village, etc.).

Since regular healing will take some time to program, I suppose I could write up a little five-minute cheat command that wipes your wounds off.  Since it will automatically regrow your severed limbs, we'll get a preview of regeneration abuse this way, and you'll be able to strike people with your old severed arms.

It won't matter that much though -- when you get bitten on the head by a dragon, the game isn't really all that merciful.

---------

I have 7 things left on my list.  Mostly interface and a few bug fixes...

[Demon]

The human ear does help with hearing, but obviously wouldnt deafen you if lost.  It is used to catch and direct sounds into the real hearing organs.  Its like those old-school hearing aids (the big cones that ppl would hold to their ears).  I think that loosing your ear would take away maybe 20% of your hearing (for a human).

I personally love the name!  I tell ppl about it at school and they always get freaked out and think I'm into some cult until i explain it.     :roll:

Keep coding!!  Must have Armok!!

[Toady One]

Hey, I'm working!  Down to 4 things on the list...  just interface menus now, and one bug that causes the creatures in cities to disappear after a number of loads.  Nothing too nasty...  well, menus are tedious.

You explain it?  Don't you want to enhance your fear factor?  Come on.

[Demon]

Normally I'd revel in their fear.  Armok is beyond my personal enjoyment!  I only explain to who I think is cool, the others who I would just leave in the dark dont deserve to play the best game ever.  The people I do share it with should worship your great vision like I do though, so I explain.

Progress!!  The thing that keeps me going lately is knowing how sweet this is gonna be....  thats pretty disturbing...