Tele-Arena Darkness

[daniel_spain]

so this project has changed names internally about six times and is now "Tele-Arena Darkness" which goes more in line with the game's atmosphere...
it is a combination of elements included in games such as mutants, ando ther more modern graphical mmos out there.
in this game you have 4 available characters the Dwarven Barbarian, Elven Magus, Gnomish Priest, and Halfling Thief.
each one has its own unique skill that can aid the other but you may only play one at a time forcing you to feed off of each other.

the Barbarian class uses no magic and deals with all things with his strength and Braun. he can wield an axe in each hand and wear heavy rigid
metallic armor and his special unique skill is the ability to collect metal resources and forge weapons and all crafted weapons can have gems
slotted into them giving them specialty traits and abilities.

the Magus is physically the weakest class and can wear only cloth armor and wield a dagger but they more than make up for it with their deadly
arsenal of combat spells which can hit groups of foes or single targets and they have an array of utility spells such as invisibility, stat boosting,
and even summoning powerful creatures. their unique skill is their ability to imbue combat spells into gems which when slotted into crafted
weapons give it enhanced abilities and traits such as slowing enemies, ignoring their armor, dealing bonus damage, or even killing their target
in a single blow. and their most precious skill is the ability to identify magical items as any magical item that is found in the world must be
identified before it can be used making them exceptionally useful.

the Priest can wield maces and wear flexible metal armor and also have an arsenal of curative and healing magics at their disposal and can also
cast combat spells but only at single targets and their specialty traits are the ability to collect plants and brew special potions and they can
bless curative and healing spells into gems which when slotted into weapons gives them magical properties such as healing on hit, and
devouring ones soul which can prevent death.

the Thief is a sneaky and deceptive class that can wear only leather armor and wield swords, but they have the unique skill that allows them to
collect gem chips and when they have enough, they may craft gemstones which can be slotted into weapons on their own for physical traits or
even be imbued by a magus or blessed by a priest for more added effects, also they may steal rare gems from special enemies which have
enhanced abilities and are the only ones that can unlock strongboxes which if you are lucky enough to find one of these it will always contain
special items like enchanted armors, or magical items with more than one effect.

the rune system has been modified as well, each zone holds 1 dungeon containing a rune and 1 shrine containing a corrupted guardian, both must be
bested to move to the next zone.

and remember ion energy from mutants? this has made its way into this game in the form of corruption. every 60 seconds you are outside of a town you
gain a specific amount of corruption, if it exceeds your maximum allowable you die and must wait until tomorrow to play again, to combat this you just
have to kill monsters. the more killing blows you get the more your corruption goes down and cleansing corrupted shrines will always increase your max
corruption capacity and reduce the amount you take per minute which makes even remotely surviving the next zone doable. the resist is a multiplier
so going too many zones over without besting any shrines will almost be instant death.

death is differently too, when you die you lose specific things based on your resurrection tier item held in your possession and always have to wait until
tomorrow to play again or you can use the menu option R to resurrect early for a 50% experience cost... so play safe!

stores... remember stores from mutants? they sort of made their way here, you cna always have a single store to sell items you acquire, and ANYTHING can be sold.
rare gemstones you stole from an ancient red wizard? or maybe just an abundant supply of metal you farmed up, you can sell it in any store which you can establish in
any non-town room.

guilds... upon promoting for the first time you can form a guild and purchase a guild house. your guild house is a 10-room complex which you can edit and customize
yourself... the map layout, the description of each room, and even specialty addons like arenas, vaults, and such. you can even customize your guilds ranks and where
you want the entrance to your guild house to be... a really fun additive to the game.

magical items... races were removed in lieu of each character being a static race so the magical item system would be way more fun to do. as there are hundreds of magical
items you can find that give you enhanced abilities, modified stats, bonus damages, or even new skills altogether, and there is always 1 special class item to be found in each
zone and about 10-15 others any class can use.

endgame... games tend to get boring and repetitive unless you have something to keep them going so like swords of chaos, there is always an event running including horde
mode invasions, raid bosses that must be defeated quickly, rush and collect all the components to make a special elixir to save a poisoned dignitary, tons of events to always
add some randomness to the game and once you are at max level there is a gauntlet you can tackle that gets harder the deeper you go and the rewards are based on the
challenge.

this game is 3 years in development and special test versions launch all the time to test certain features and as usual feel free to use my idea exchange thread on the game's
forums to give your own input.

[Gangrif]

Hey, ive seen you do cool stuff over the years with TA. Its my understanding that you've somehow rewritten, or modified the core engine.

Is it possible for other TA enthusiasts to get ahold of your engine, and editor, so we can also build cool stuff on our favorite game? Ive had ideas cooking in my head for years and never had the control over the engine to make it really happen.

Thanks!, and nice work.

[daniel_spain]

Gangrif wrote:
> Hey, ive seen you do cool stuff over the years with TA. Its my
> understanding that you've somehow rewritten, or modified the core engine.
>
> Is it possible for other TA enthusiasts to get ahold of your engine, and
> editor, so we can also build cool stuff on our favorite game? Ive had
> ideas cooking in my head for years and never had the control over the
> engine to make it really happen.
>
> Thanks!, and nice work.

im working on one... all my flavors have names like Classic, Platinum, Darkness, Warfare, etc... but this other project i been tinkering with is just named Tele-Arena and has the core game engine, a built in game editor, a walk-and-edit map editor, ability to define new character descriptors, and can even edit the races and classes with the ability to add 2 new to each. no definite timeline on release because im always adjusting something here and there to give the sysop total control over their game.

[Gangrif]

daniel_spain wrote:
> Gangrif wrote:
> > Hey, ive seen you do cool stuff over the years with TA. Its my
> > understanding that you've somehow rewritten, or modified the core engine.
> >
> > Is it possible for other TA enthusiasts to get ahold of your engine, and
> > editor, so we can also build cool stuff on our favorite game? Ive had
> > ideas cooking in my head for years and never had the control over the
> > engine to make it really happen.
> >
> > Thanks!, and nice work.
>
> im working on one... all my flavors have names like Classic, Platinum, Darkness,
> Warfare, etc... but this other project i been tinkering with is just named Tele-Arena
> and has the core game engine, a built in game editor, a walk-and-edit map editor,
> ability to define new character descriptors, and can even edit the races and classes
> with the ability to add 2 new to each. no definite timeline on release because im
> always adjusting something here and there to give the sysop total control over their
> game.

Thats cool, but thats been in the works for a very long time if its the same one you talked about years ago. Is there any chance of a beta release for folks that are tech savvy enough to maybe help find issues?

[Duckula]

Maybe it would be worth drawing a line the sand and putting out a working version that others can help give feedback on. Otherwise you might end up tinkering forever only for nobody to be able to use it.

[daniel_spain]

Gangrif wrote:
> daniel_spain wrote:
> > Gangrif wrote:
> > > Hey, ive seen you do cool stuff over the years with TA. Its my
> > > understanding that you've somehow rewritten, or modified the core engine.
> > >
> > > Is it possible for other TA enthusiasts to get ahold of your engine, and
> > > editor, so we can also build cool stuff on our favorite game? Ive had
> > > ideas cooking in my head for years and never had the control over the
> > > engine to make it really happen.
> > >
> > > Thanks!, and nice work.
> >
> > im working on one... all my flavors have names like Classic, Platinum, Darkness,
> > Warfare, etc... but this other project i been tinkering with is just named
> Tele-Arena
> > and has the core game engine, a built in game editor, a walk-and-edit map
> editor,
> > ability to define new character descriptors, and can even edit the races and
> classes
> > with the ability to add 2 new to each. no definite timeline on release because
> im
> > always adjusting something here and there to give the sysop total control over
> their
> > game.
>
> Thats cool, but thats been in the works for a very long time if its the same one you
> talked about years ago. Is there any chance of a beta release for folks that are
> tech savvy enough to maybe help find issues?

thats been done i have done maybe like 3-4 revisions where i add some cool new features.
i rewrote the core of the game in 2013 only reason i do revisions is because when i fork out a new
iteration i always find something lingering deep down, for instance i just noticed monsters wont chase
you into a teleporter.

the online editors are just so time consuming i work on them when i got time.

[daniel_spain]

Duckula wrote:
> Maybe it would be worth drawing a line the sand and putting out a working
> version that others can help give feedback on. Otherwise you might end up
> tinkering forever only for nobody to be able to use it.

well i have an active community of testers on my bbs and they post via
my forums. Classic has been done for years, Platinum is the one i keep
having adhd moments and redoing something. having a newborn slowed me
down some then transferring to the it install department from the residential fulfilment
install department pushed me from 38 - 52 hours a week so that slowed me down a bit too
but even now i am probably 2 weeks from a completed platinum. so i can focus primarily on
darkness which is already paper designed to completion and coded about half way until an
alpha test can be done.

for me its mental thing, i cant hold my focus on a single project it drives me nuts, while working on
one my brain will design an entirely new game and i find myself working on that. i have been able to
manage it better now so i actually complete them now... by mid-summer i will probably have all 3 done
and will be working on the pvpve implementation called Tele-Arena Warfare.

[Gangrif]

daniel_spain wrote:
> Gangrif wrote:
> > daniel_spain wrote:
> > > Gangrif wrote:
> > > > Hey, ive seen you do cool stuff over the years with TA. Its my
> > > > understanding that you've somehow rewritten, or modified the core
> engine.
> > > >
> > > > Is it possible for other TA enthusiasts to get ahold of your engine,
> and
> > > > editor, so we can also build cool stuff on our favorite game? Ive had
> > > > ideas cooking in my head for years and never had the control over the
> > > > engine to make it really happen.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks!, and nice work.
> > >
> > > im working on one... all my flavors have names like Classic, Platinum,
> Darkness,
> > > Warfare, etc... but this other project i been tinkering with is just named
> > Tele-Arena
> > > and has the core game engine, a built in game editor, a walk-and-edit map
> > editor,
> > > ability to define new character descriptors, and can even edit the races
> and
> > classes
> > > with the ability to add 2 new to each. no definite timeline on release
> because
> > im
> > > always adjusting something here and there to give the sysop total control
> over
> > their
> > > game.
> >
> > Thats cool, but thats been in the works for a very long time if its the same one
> you
> > talked about years ago. Is there any chance of a beta release for folks that
> are
> > tech savvy enough to maybe help find issues?
>
> thats been done i have done maybe like 3-4 revisions where i add some cool new
> features.
> i rewrote the core of the game in 2013 only reason i do revisions is because when i
> fork out a new
> iteration i always find something lingering deep down, for instance i just noticed
> monsters wont chase
> you into a teleporter.
>
> the online editors are just so time consuming i work on them when i got time.

Personally, all I'm looking for is an engine, even an empty world or a TA Gold-like world with an engine and an editor, that I can start building with.

[Duckula]

Dan,

I say this without ever seeing the code but..

Has any thought been given to having a single engine with each "version" being an expansion?

It seems to me like there are so many versions that an approach like this might make more sense if achievable.