Equipment deterioration system
The King is Coming by Newsboys
Hi all. Have a nice Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty much the usual big family get-together at my parents' place. My youngest niece is now toddling around quite competently and even makes the occasional word-like sound. My eldest niece, as she gleefully pointed out, now comes up to about two-thirds of my own height. Think it may almost be time to get her that beginner's programming course. ;)
I didn't make as much progress in Forgotten Gates this month as usual. A large part of the reason for this is that I spent most of my free time for the first week playing Team Fortress 2 during their annual Halloween event. They have a mission system that rewards players for accomplishing tasks (mainly getting kills and other little objectives on the various special-event maps) with cosmetics and other items. But that's getting a little off-topic, the point is just that I had something of an excuse for being lazy and took it. X)
What I did manage to accomplish this month was to start up a system for having equipment deteriorate and break as it's used. I mentioned I was thinking of doing this in a design blog post quite a while ago, including a comment afterward that described a new idea I had about how to implement it. The basic concept was that I would have multiple items in the database as redundant versions of the same type of equipment, and track how much durability each one has left via variables. Well, when I went to actually do this, I realized that the maximum 5000 items would be eaten up pretty quickly if all of the equipment items had even a fairly small number of redundant versions, like 10. e.ea A lot of the equipment items I had planned were just blank slots for now just in case I decided to add in new stuff, but still, it was cramped.
So I came up with a small variation on that idea: I set aside 100 item slots as breakable equipment of any type, and I wrote a system in my DynRPG plugin to transform those into different items as needed. That way, the player essentially has a sub-inventory of 100 equipment items separate from stuff like potions and common items. The equipment items have their name updated every time their durability changes to show to the player how many uses they have left -- for example, 'Short sword (17)'.
I said earlier I started up this system because there are still some supporting subsystems I have to implement. The basic idea already works: equipment items lose durability at relevant events (when a weapon is used to attack or provide a boost to a spell, when the actor takes a physical hit while holding a shield, etc.), and when they reach 0 durability, they 'break' and are removed. In order for that to be a fair mechanic, though, I need to let the player equip new weapons mid-battle. My plan is to have a skill subset called Equip with skills mirroring the equipment inventory, so that when an Equip skill is used the related item is switched into the actor's active equipment (could get a little tricky for dual-weapon actors, but I'm confident I can work it out). Shemri's Throw ability will work similarly when I get around to reimplementing her. Buying equipment from shops will also require some wrangling on my part to make sure the player can't buy more than their sub-inventory can hold (although I expect they won't often have enough cash on hand to make that a problem). Finally, I'm going to have to create a special version of my DynWardrobe plugin (or more accurately, absorb it into my special Forgotten Gates plugin) to display the correct shield when a shield-using actor defends, since the item database number no longer directly indicates what kind of shield it actually is.
I was the one to run a Ninja Burger session this month, for the second time in a row. We went back in time to the first Thanksgiving to prevent Pirate's Pizza from altering the traditional turkey dinner to their own questionably-hygienic pizza. We were assisted in finding the pirates by Squanty, a native creature who looked and acted remarkably like Ricky. After we trounced the pirates, it was revealed that their own time travel was made possible by the Turkinator, a robot assassin whose mission was to prevent turkeys from being slaughtered every year so that eventually a turkey master race could arise and take over. Since the Pirate's Pizza takeover fell through, his next plan was to just wipe out Plymouth Colony, and of course we couldn't have that. Finally, there was some brief difficulty in getting back to our own time, since we'd come back using Einstein's chronosphere but neglected to arrange a return plan. c.c But since Heiress Von Heirington is a robot and thus ageless, she was able to take the long route of waiting in sleep mode until she caught up with the 'present' we came from and asking Einstein to zap the rest of us back. Mission accomplished!
On Zelda RPG, Elder Sayah asked Scruvo if he'd spotted any caves around (she's looking for a great fairy fountain remember), and Scruvo, eager for something to distract the group from the possibility of fighting the silver lynel, reported that there was indeed one a little ways down the mountain from the lynel's plateau. Unfortunately this only resulted in the plan being to split the party between the main fighters (Shura, Lude, and John) attacking the lynel and keeping it busy while the rest explored the cave. John went up to the plateau first and proceeded to attempt climbing further up to the next outcropping, so that he could make good use of his bow while the others fought more directly. I threw in some rolls for my ASCRS system to guide how that turned out, and not surprisingly since the lynel is a high-tier miniboss and John is only decent at stealth, things went the lynel's way -- although it was remarkably close, so I rewarded myself by having the lynel only alerted to the fact that something is going on in his domain by a rock being dislodged by John's climb, instead of having it immediately shoot at John while he's helpless. >.>;
Baba Is You:
I got this one from a Humble Bundle, and it was the main reason I decided to get said bundle. Baba Is You is a clever indie puzzler based on grammar. Not natural language grammar, but grammar in the sense that computer scientists use it -- symbols arranged in a system of relation to convey meaning. By rearranging the symbols, you can change the rules of the game world.
For example, the titular expression "BABA IS YOU", formed from pushable blocks of text "BABA", "IS", and "YOU", creates the rule that you as the player are in direct control of the sheep-like avatar that appears in most stages. Disrupt this expression by pushing the text blocks out of alignment, and you will no longer be able to move Baba. There are other text blocks forming other rules in each stage, such as "ROCK IS PUSH" allowing you to push rocks around, "WALL IS STOP" making walls impassible and immovable obstacles, and critically, "FLAG IS WIN", meaning you win the stage when your avatar overlaps the flag. But of course, you can rearrange these elements to change the rules. If you can set up the text blocks to say "WALL IS PUSH", then pieces of wall can be pushed around as easily as rocks, allowing you to get at places that seemed inaccessible. Even weirder, you could replace BABA with WALL to form "WALL IS YOU", and all of the wall pieces in the stage will move to your bidding together. C.C
As you progress through the game, it will introduce new words to allow ever more complex puzzles. AND shows up to allow you to apply multiple objects or properties in a single expression, like "ROCK AND TREE IS PUSH" or "BABA IS YOU AND FLOAT". NOT restricts other possible rules from being declared like "ROCK IS NOT FLAG" preventing you from turning all the rocks in the stage into flags even if you can spell out "ROCK IS FLAG". On the other hand, "NOT ROCK IS PUSH" will actually create a rule that ALL objects aside from rocks can be pushed. PULL is a variation on PUSH which causes objects to follow when other objects move away from them. ON creates a condition that the rule only applies when two types of object occupy the same space, like "ROCK ON GRASS IS LAVA" causing a rock to turn into lava if it touches grass. Each 'subworld' of the game tends to focus on a few new words, teaching the player their potential uses and stretching their mind to the nuances of the game's system.
As is often the case with puzzlers, this game is not for the easily frustrated. Even though the early puzzles in a given subworld will often set up situations where the player can hardly help but discover the new rules afforded by the expanded grammar, figuring out how to apply those rules often requires a good bit of lateral thinking, especially in the optional extra stages. Occasionally, particularly toward the end of the game, there's also an element of the classic Sokoban-style movement predicaments, requiring you to make use of limited space in pushing things around and plan ahead to avoid trapping yourself. For the most part, though, the grammar and how to manipulate it is the primary challenge. I'm proud to say that I managed to figure out all of the game's regular puzzles on my own, though I was stuck for quite a while on some of them. @.@ And once I thought I had finished, I noticed there were still some hidden achievements I hadn't earned...so I did a little Internet research and learned there was a well-hidden secret world. 8O I still haven't completed that, but I did get to the basic end and I don't have any other games to review this month, so...here you go.
Bottom line? A very clever and unique puzzle game, but with limited appeal for those not hungry for brain-teasers. Get it if you're willing to spend hours wracking your brain for that unseen twist of the game's mechanics.
Click to viewHi all. Have a nice Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty much the usual big family get-together at my parents' place. My youngest niece is now toddling around quite competently and even makes the occasional word-like sound. My eldest niece, as she gleefully pointed out, now comes up to about two-thirds of my own height. Think it may almost be time to get her that beginner's programming course. ;)
I didn't make as much progress in Forgotten Gates this month as usual. A large part of the reason for this is that I spent most of my free time for the first week playing Team Fortress 2 during their annual Halloween event. They have a mission system that rewards players for accomplishing tasks (mainly getting kills and other little objectives on the various special-event maps) with cosmetics and other items. But that's getting a little off-topic, the point is just that I had something of an excuse for being lazy and took it. X)
What I did manage to accomplish this month was to start up a system for having equipment deteriorate and break as it's used. I mentioned I was thinking of doing this in a design blog post quite a while ago, including a comment afterward that described a new idea I had about how to implement it. The basic concept was that I would have multiple items in the database as redundant versions of the same type of equipment, and track how much durability each one has left via variables. Well, when I went to actually do this, I realized that the maximum 5000 items would be eaten up pretty quickly if all of the equipment items had even a fairly small number of redundant versions, like 10. e.ea A lot of the equipment items I had planned were just blank slots for now just in case I decided to add in new stuff, but still, it was cramped.
So I came up with a small variation on that idea: I set aside 100 item slots as breakable equipment of any type, and I wrote a system in my DynRPG plugin to transform those into different items as needed. That way, the player essentially has a sub-inventory of 100 equipment items separate from stuff like potions and common items. The equipment items have their name updated every time their durability changes to show to the player how many uses they have left -- for example, 'Short sword (17)'.
I said earlier I started up this system because there are still some supporting subsystems I have to implement. The basic idea already works: equipment items lose durability at relevant events (when a weapon is used to attack or provide a boost to a spell, when the actor takes a physical hit while holding a shield, etc.), and when they reach 0 durability, they 'break' and are removed. In order for that to be a fair mechanic, though, I need to let the player equip new weapons mid-battle. My plan is to have a skill subset called Equip with skills mirroring the equipment inventory, so that when an Equip skill is used the related item is switched into the actor's active equipment (could get a little tricky for dual-weapon actors, but I'm confident I can work it out). Shemri's Throw ability will work similarly when I get around to reimplementing her. Buying equipment from shops will also require some wrangling on my part to make sure the player can't buy more than their sub-inventory can hold (although I expect they won't often have enough cash on hand to make that a problem). Finally, I'm going to have to create a special version of my DynWardrobe plugin (or more accurately, absorb it into my special Forgotten Gates plugin) to display the correct shield when a shield-using actor defends, since the item database number no longer directly indicates what kind of shield it actually is.
I was the one to run a Ninja Burger session this month, for the second time in a row. We went back in time to the first Thanksgiving to prevent Pirate's Pizza from altering the traditional turkey dinner to their own questionably-hygienic pizza. We were assisted in finding the pirates by Squanty, a native creature who looked and acted remarkably like Ricky. After we trounced the pirates, it was revealed that their own time travel was made possible by the Turkinator, a robot assassin whose mission was to prevent turkeys from being slaughtered every year so that eventually a turkey master race could arise and take over. Since the Pirate's Pizza takeover fell through, his next plan was to just wipe out Plymouth Colony, and of course we couldn't have that. Finally, there was some brief difficulty in getting back to our own time, since we'd come back using Einstein's chronosphere but neglected to arrange a return plan. c.c But since Heiress Von Heirington is a robot and thus ageless, she was able to take the long route of waiting in sleep mode until she caught up with the 'present' we came from and asking Einstein to zap the rest of us back. Mission accomplished!
On Zelda RPG, Elder Sayah asked Scruvo if he'd spotted any caves around (she's looking for a great fairy fountain remember), and Scruvo, eager for something to distract the group from the possibility of fighting the silver lynel, reported that there was indeed one a little ways down the mountain from the lynel's plateau. Unfortunately this only resulted in the plan being to split the party between the main fighters (Shura, Lude, and John) attacking the lynel and keeping it busy while the rest explored the cave. John went up to the plateau first and proceeded to attempt climbing further up to the next outcropping, so that he could make good use of his bow while the others fought more directly. I threw in some rolls for my ASCRS system to guide how that turned out, and not surprisingly since the lynel is a high-tier miniboss and John is only decent at stealth, things went the lynel's way -- although it was remarkably close, so I rewarded myself by having the lynel only alerted to the fact that something is going on in his domain by a rock being dislodged by John's climb, instead of having it immediately shoot at John while he's helpless. >.>;
Baba Is You:
I got this one from a Humble Bundle, and it was the main reason I decided to get said bundle. Baba Is You is a clever indie puzzler based on grammar. Not natural language grammar, but grammar in the sense that computer scientists use it -- symbols arranged in a system of relation to convey meaning. By rearranging the symbols, you can change the rules of the game world.
For example, the titular expression "BABA IS YOU", formed from pushable blocks of text "BABA", "IS", and "YOU", creates the rule that you as the player are in direct control of the sheep-like avatar that appears in most stages. Disrupt this expression by pushing the text blocks out of alignment, and you will no longer be able to move Baba. There are other text blocks forming other rules in each stage, such as "ROCK IS PUSH" allowing you to push rocks around, "WALL IS STOP" making walls impassible and immovable obstacles, and critically, "FLAG IS WIN", meaning you win the stage when your avatar overlaps the flag. But of course, you can rearrange these elements to change the rules. If you can set up the text blocks to say "WALL IS PUSH", then pieces of wall can be pushed around as easily as rocks, allowing you to get at places that seemed inaccessible. Even weirder, you could replace BABA with WALL to form "WALL IS YOU", and all of the wall pieces in the stage will move to your bidding together. C.C
As you progress through the game, it will introduce new words to allow ever more complex puzzles. AND shows up to allow you to apply multiple objects or properties in a single expression, like "ROCK AND TREE IS PUSH" or "BABA IS YOU AND FLOAT". NOT restricts other possible rules from being declared like "ROCK IS NOT FLAG" preventing you from turning all the rocks in the stage into flags even if you can spell out "ROCK IS FLAG". On the other hand, "NOT ROCK IS PUSH" will actually create a rule that ALL objects aside from rocks can be pushed. PULL is a variation on PUSH which causes objects to follow when other objects move away from them. ON creates a condition that the rule only applies when two types of object occupy the same space, like "ROCK ON GRASS IS LAVA" causing a rock to turn into lava if it touches grass. Each 'subworld' of the game tends to focus on a few new words, teaching the player their potential uses and stretching their mind to the nuances of the game's system.
As is often the case with puzzlers, this game is not for the easily frustrated. Even though the early puzzles in a given subworld will often set up situations where the player can hardly help but discover the new rules afforded by the expanded grammar, figuring out how to apply those rules often requires a good bit of lateral thinking, especially in the optional extra stages. Occasionally, particularly toward the end of the game, there's also an element of the classic Sokoban-style movement predicaments, requiring you to make use of limited space in pushing things around and plan ahead to avoid trapping yourself. For the most part, though, the grammar and how to manipulate it is the primary challenge. I'm proud to say that I managed to figure out all of the game's regular puzzles on my own, though I was stuck for quite a while on some of them. @.@ And once I thought I had finished, I noticed there were still some hidden achievements I hadn't earned...so I did a little Internet research and learned there was a well-hidden secret world. 8O I still haven't completed that, but I did get to the basic end and I don't have any other games to review this month, so...here you go.
Bottom line? A very clever and unique puzzle game, but with limited appeal for those not hungry for brain-teasers. Get it if you're willing to spend hours wracking your brain for that unseen twist of the game's mechanics.