Quick sundry updates.

[joshksingh]

Kingdom of Loathing notes. I ascended from the hardcore Pastamancer run a few days ago and moved on to my hardcore Disco Bandit run. I need more money to donate to Jick and the gang. This run won't take 58 days and 8274 turns, I would hope, since I don't have to spend so much time on trophy requisites. Then I'll be back to normal runs.

Project X.

Comments

[joshksingh]

I'll probably be using Java. There are arguments for and against Java, but as this is really the only programming ambition I have remaining at this point in my life, I think it's my best choice. I've at least had some training in it, and I have some Java resources to reference when I need to.

Then again, I don't know if any of that means anything to you. But you did ask.

On the assumption that you don't know, I'll try to elaborate. Java is a language in which you can program elements in as objects, which are analogous to real-world objects. These objects have attributes and certain ways of interacting with other objects. So, the game world, Oggamund, constitutes an object. The City of Koirola constitutes an object that interacts with Oggamund in being located at a certain place (technically an (x,y) location). Koirola possesses certain attributes; for example, it's built on hilly terrain (specifically the hilly terrain called Koiri Heights), it's a very large settlement (that is, it's designated a City), and it's in the "Province" of Koirola Network. The PC is another object, maybe somewhere in the city amongst countless others in constant interaction. It might be a level 1 female minotaur prostitute with 20 Strength, 15 Agility and 8 Discipline, among other attributes. Her inventory (another object, in this case a set containing other objects) might contain [+0, +0] clothes, a (+0, +1) knife, and 250 rupees. Her skill set is another object, containing all her skills (which are each - you guessed it! - objects) at whatever skill levels (the attribute in this case). She might leave the city and encounter a hostile band of orcs in the hills. Each of these orcs is an object, and they each have their own attributes as well as their own inventories. Some might even know a few clerical magic spells. The spells themselves, as well as any physical manifestations that occur when they're cast, are objects.

There's a lot more to say, I'm sure. In any case, this is why there hasn't been any recent action in the actual coding of the game. Four years ago I got started but that was way too early in the process. Programming with an object-oriented language like this makes the whole thing easier to work with and maintain than writing with an old-fashioned line-by-line procedural language, but a project this complex requires insane planning nonetheless. I've known that all along but I guess at first I just got overeager, and that killed my steam for a few years. But I never stopped thinking about Soulthieves, So I pour all this effort into these myriad resources just to try to impose some coherence and order on my ideas. I'm not even as far as the pseudocoding stage, which is the stage where I start writing things out in a manner more like a computer program, possibly with flow charts and such to work out the actual interactional mechanics. That is to say, right now I'm working more on the content, and later I'll start working more on the structure.

So this is why I'll want to publish the Soulthieves Labyrinth Engine as a simpler roguelike in its own right. It wouldn't be anywhere near as content-heavy as Soulthieves in the Shadows would be, and it's at least a shorter-term goal that can be more readily attained.

Short answer to your question: Java.