Text-Based RPG

Fellow Blitzers,

I've been having fun playing a Web-Based RPG made with Flash called AdventureQuest. The graphics are simple and so are the rules.

I really enjoy this game. The leveling up, increasing stats, buying and finding new weapons, taking on new monsters, magic, venturing on a quest all has a real appeal to me.

Once again, I feel a tangent brewing within. I'm considering writing a Text-Based RPG with a very detailed stat system and using static images for visuals. The web-based games seem very popular.

Has anyone else considered or attempted to write one?

Here's a list of some really good text-based MUDs:
telnet://aardmud.org:4000
telnet://achaea.com:23

T E X T  B A S E D
####   ####   ### 
#   #  #   # #   #
#   #  #   # #
####   ####  #  ## 
#  #   #     #   #
#   #  #     #   #
#    # #      ### 










































































;//// PROFILES /////////////////////////////////////////////////
;class profile > character
Type race
Field name$
Field history$
;general phsyical characteristics
Field skin%
Field realm%
Field eye%
Field limbs%
Field tail%
Field wing%
End Type

;skill profile => perkquirk
Type skill 
Field ID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field image%
Field antiskillID%
;character attribute modifiers
;magic modifiers
;weapon modifiers
;modifiers
End Type

;class profile > character
Type class
Field ID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field skill.skill[32]
End Type

;energy profile => magic 
Type energy
Field ID%
Field name$ ;heat,electrical,sonic,matter,light,cosmic
Field description$
Field image%
Field antienergyID%
Field point%
End Type

Type armorsuit ;absorbs, converts, reflects magic energy
Field ID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field image%
;magic modifiers
Field magic.magic
End Type

Type shielding
Field ID%
Field typeID% ;handheld, helmet
Field name%
;magic modifiers
Field magic.magic[32]
End Type

;weapon profile => melee, gun, cast 
Type weapon
Field ID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field image%
Field sense.sense
Field area%
Field maxtargets%
Field offense.damageeffect[32]
Field defense.damageeffect[32]
End Type

;projectile profile => ammo, spark, spell
Type projectile
Field weaponID%
Field range%
Field area%
;inbattle stats
End Type

;reactor profile => particle

;damageeffect => damage
Type damageeffect
Field ID%
Field typeID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field duration%
Field magic.magic[32];modifiers
End Type 

;structure => building
Type structure 
Field ID%
Field realmID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field image%
;magic modifiers
Field magic.magic
End Type

;item => treasure, weapon, potion
Type item
Field ID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field sense.sense
Field description$
;+|- modifiers
;general modifiers
;skill modifiers
;weapon modifiers
End Type


;dialog: bdt question -> answer
;checkpoint --> quest
;battle --> atb 
;evolution - skill, weapon, magic, stats, beast
;dierolls -standard, guess (intuition), riddle, keys

;//// ENTITIES /////////////////////////////////////////////////
Type character
Field ID%
Field name$
Field biography$
Field image%
;race attributes
Field race%
Field gender%
;class attributes
Field classID%
Field classlevel%
;phyisical attributes
Field strength% ;modifier for melee attacks
Field dexterity% ;modifier for evade, block, and defense attacks (breaks and counters)
Field intellect% ;modifier for casting success
Field endurance% ;modifier for battle decay
Field charisma% ;modifier modifier for emotions dependent on alignment
Field intuition% ;modifiers effects dexterity, intellect, dierolls
;sensory modifiers
Field sight%
Field hear%
Field touch%
Field smell%
Field taste%
;emotion attributes
Field mood% ;modifier dependent on happy,courage,concern
Field concern%
Field happy% ; modifier for influence +|-
Field courage%; modifier for risk factor in accepting combat, quest
;perkquirks inventory
Field perkquirks%
Field perkquirk.perkquirk[32] 
;meleeguncast inventory
Field meleeguncast 
Field meleeguncast.meleeguncast[32]
;armor inventory
Field armors%
Field armor.amor
;shield modifiers
;battle stats
Field health%
Field levelup%
Field money%
Field mana%
;inbattle stats
Field fatigue% ;modifier based on endurance
Field state% 
End Type

Type magic
Field energyID%
Field value%
End Type

Type ammosparkspell
Field projectileID%
Field range%
Field area%
Field preptimeCTR%
;inbattle stats
;damage modifiers
Field damage.damage[32]
Field value%
End Type

;damage effect => 
Type damage
Field damageeffectID%
Field image%
Field durationCTR%
Field magic.magic[32];modifiers
End Type

Type particle
End Type

Type meleeguncast 
Field weaponID%
Field typeID%
Field battles%
Field experience%;more weapon used
End Type

Type building
Field structureID%
Field name$
Field description$
Field image%
End Type

;chat
;dialog
;question
;multiple choice answer
;chat bot
;multiplayer
;gamemaster

I did, way back on the amiga - whilst doing text adventures on the Spectrum, I realised with the additional memory and power of the Amiga I could do a lot more - so I started adding in RPG touches.

I've said to other Blitzers that you can really go to town with this - modern 3D RPG's are restricted by their graphics - with a text version you can go to town with special effects and AI systems.

A modern 3D RPG can struggle with AI - some AI in modern games is done purely with facial expressions (HL2)- with text you can tell someone exactly how someone else feels - as far as AI programming goes this is a roller coaster ride of Large.

This type of game will really let you work with character AI and character feelings that is not so easy to pull off in 3D.

EDIT: especially, when you take into account that modern games require speech - with a text-based game, you are laughing.

puki,

I agree 200%. I see so much potential here. I have ideas for AI, Dialog, Battle System, and Quest System. What I'm pondering is sorta of a Web based Chat Client built around a Blitz RPG "Engine".

Players will be able to submit images,sounds, and stats for characters, monsters, plants, buildings, weapons and spells, vehicles. Essentially creating and endless compendulum of game objects for the RPG world.

Heck, I dont know all the details at the moment, but its really fun thinking about the possibilities!

I really like the idea. I think RPGs fit very well into the
text-based format. Despite all of this modern 3d imagery,
the average gamer might still know how to use his
imagination! Maybe!

<shaking head>
{gleam of hope}
Anyone do a language parser in Blitz? That would be the first hurdle.

I have! I also have a fair understanding of Hash Tables too:)

RPG's are freakin huge on the internet. Instructions and rules provide a full and completed design document. Check this one out!. This is one of thousands. This is like a whole new world to me!

The Return of Text-Based RPGs.

IMHO, most RPG/RTS developers won't consider producing a Text-Based RPG Game because it wont make cash without the graphics.

However, I find detailed text descriptions to be very powerful in influencing what the player imagines what can includ all 5 senses of sight, smell, sound, touch, taste.

I'm going for 'Text-Driven' design with still illustrations to assist visual descriptions and music/soundfx influence mood.

Although i dont have solid the design, the concept on the drawingboard is based on a chat client with a special input and output features.

The Adventure requires a Game Master who directs the story. The 'GameMaster' has access to special editing tools and chat commands issued to the player clients to display images, play sounds, and collect input.

The GM can create quest that include treasures to find, monsters to fight, and npcs to get info and goods from. Using chat bot technologies NPC can carry on simple conversions that evolve topics of interest.

The Battle system will be of typical die roll sort. However, since typing is factor in the experience. I'm also considering making the battle system responsive to typing speed and accuracy.

Frank:

Expanding on the idea of typing speed and accuracy, this would lend itself very well to magic use.

Imagine the strength of a spell being proportional to the speed and accuracy of its 'casting' by the user typing it in.

my thoughts exactly.

I've been thinking about forums, blogs, and chat. These forms of communications are very immersive and have no fancy graphics. But, whats really interesting is how people take on a cyber personalities and egos. In other words they are role playing.

I see it all the time in web communities like yahoo 360. If you look around the Blitz forums, you will see it here to. So what I intend to do, is utilize these immersive forms of communication with additional game play elements.

Hmmm, a forum/blog/chat in which you are scored for flames, jokes, reponses, etc by your peers... Add a battle system and what you do have?

A breeding ground for flood-bots?

Just kidding ;)

flood-bots?

Please explain.

You never been in IRC when all of a sudden 4 or more different random-looking usernames keep joining and leaving the channel, perhaps stopping long enough to say "We 0wnz this channel ,l4m3rz!" ?

I'm new to this type of gaming. I have never seen this. How can it be prevented? I just found info on the internet about Forum Based and Chat-Based RPGs.

...and there concludes my knowledge on such matters ;)

I used to be big into IRC when I had my Amiga and was part of the scene. Then I got a PC.

I've been on IRC since but there's all sorts of newfangled things there.

thanx

http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~mactavis/games/mmo-timeline/MMOG.swf

Online text-based RPG are taken very serious. Research has led me to MUDs.

Checkout http://www.mudconnect.com

I'm currently playing with Achea

As far as language parsing you could find an original copy of the wumpus code out there... that is the root of many of the text based games... I think the ZORK code is out there as well... or the ELIZA code which was a recursive hasher (wasn't it?) that recognized input...

I also recall a book called Programming AI in BASIC from the mid to late 1980's. Had a great demo of a language parser.

Unless this is some sort of elaborate chat room you are picturing to play D&D... in which case look at the MUD ideas...

I'm getting more and more interested in this... I used to play a game in HS on telnet with a friend of mine that was like this. But I think the addition of some graphics where graphics make sense, as in, pictures of where you are, animated or static, is great.

I think, if you would like to have a class/spell/skill creation system it can't be too robust, but one thing you have the freedom of, is the lack of graphics... So while the only thing that makes that water spell different from that fire spell is the name and elemental attachment, it still feels like a totally different spell...

EDIT:: Also, it would be wise to alter the casting time, cost, and all that based on the spell... so the creator doesn't make an uber spell that takes no time to cast and costs 1 MP but deals 10,000 damage to all of 100 possible targets, inflicting every status ailment in the game... That spell should cost a ridiculous amount of MP to cast and take 15 minutes to cast... ::/Edit

If you would like, I would love to help you out with this. Free. uncredited... I want to see these games come back...

Just give me a shout Frank, or an e-mail, I'll gladly help you out with figger'n out some of this stuff.

I also like the accuracy/speed counting to the effect of the spells... but perhaps it would be better for that to only sort of effect the spells...

I have a pretty good idea about it... The battles can be seemless with the exploration and also real time... even with the AI.

Just type what you want to do and it does it... the faster you type the faster you move... So people who are slower can pick classes that don't need to rely on speed... and the enemies will 'join the room' when you enter the cave (or that cave section) and some might be NPCs, some might be baddies.. and say.. that frogman attacks you, or talks to you and challenges you, you can attack him by typing in his name Froggy... but maybe there is a hermit in the corner... type in Jimmy's name and he might talk to you ... real quests and all that and no entity will be different than the players... you might have a chat window that reads like this...


(froggy and jimmy are already in the cave)

Hero1 enters cave
Hero2 enters cave
-=You enter a cave with ... description... and yadda yadda=-
Jimmy: Help! I'm being attacked by a frogman!
Froggy: Croke!
Froggy kicks at Hero1 - deals 5 damage lowering his HP to 94
Hero1: Oh snap!
Hero2 begins to cast Fixors [custom spell]
Jimmy takes a defencive pose
Hero1 attacks froggy with his sword of ultimate evil [custom weapon] - deals 25 damage lowering it's HP to 45
Hero2 finishes casting Fixors on Froggy - deals 50 damage and kills Froggy
Jimmy: Thank you so much!
Hero1: Jimmy, Are you ok?
Jimmy: I am now.
Hero2: Is there anything else we can do for you, Jimmy. [has to say jimmy's name for jimmy to respond to him as well]
Jimmy: My brother, Joe left me his ring when he died. I lost it somewhere in this cave. Can you help me find it?
Hero1: Sure can! [now that jimmy is paying attention he will respond till you talk to anouther NPC or say goodbye, or get lost! or whatever...]
Hero2: Bye Jimmy, Lets get going Hero1.
Jimmy: Thank you, Good bye.
Hero1 exits cave to the deeper passage
Hero2 exits cave to the deeper passage


Of course, color coding would be needed to keep things easy to read... 1 color for text, another for actions, another for spells and so on... and you have to type : before something to talk....

What the heroes were typing might have looked like

Cast Fixor on Froggy

or

Attack Froggy with Sword of ultimate evil

EDIT2:: It could be cool to limit the custom weapon creation through name length.... an uber sword might need a name that is AT LEAST so many letters long... could be more... but must be at least that many... so.. a true super powered sword might have the name. "A truely long name for a sword that deals a butt load of damage and needed a really long name due to that butt load of damage and is somehow requireing a longer name than even this holy crap why does it need to be this long of a name" sword.... meaning.. you'd have to type that all out in order to use it... thus limiting the player.... but there are ways around this.... such as copy and paste... but maybe you can disable pasting into the text window... ::/EDIT2

Something like this.... while really complicated.. might not be so hard to do... and pretty easy to add content to... it is as simple as adding a new place with a new graphic, linking it to other locations, and populating it with enemy types you already have with skills and spells and stats that you already have... and the hardest part is the NPCs... but they don't have to be on every location... Jimmy might be the only one... and Jimmy will remain till someone kills him.. then he will be replaced by the next 'name in line' but be otherwise the same.

Just designing his conversation will be hard... to keep him rich... but all you have to do is setup a list of keyphrases that get him to talk... and all the standard ones should be prehab and only require you to alter the text... such as... a greeting.. you have good and bad greetings.. so you just go down a list of the standard responses and change the text for them.... then add some special ones... like.. one for if they mention Joe... :Oh, I miss my brother Joe, he was very fond of that -Silver Ring-.... now they know it is silver... and maybe for the ring... :His ring was given to him by his wife, it was a wedding ring. But unlike a typical one, this one has a ruby set inside of it.

There won't need to be a lot of custom texts... and most of the things most NPCs will say will be the standard things... Attack talks, hellos, good byes, basic chat, asking about their history, asking about their class, asking them about their items and initiating trades.... All of which have a standardised set that the designer only has to change the text for.... so they don't have to link on thousands of ways to say hello... it was all done the first time the template NPC was created...

I really really like this Idea and would love to be a part of it...

DampeS8N I sent an email

I always wanted to see the map as well... thats why I was so enamoured of Diablo and its predecessor (the open source thing I can't remember the name of!)

hmm.. I didn't get any e-mail from you Frank... If you could send it again that would be great... um... my AIM is dampe1983

I'll try sending you an e-mail... If It bounces... I'll go get a hotmail one... or activate that Gmail one or some @#!*...

DampeS8N,

We could discuss the project here. We might attract others who are interested the project as well.

For starters I'm proficient in Blitz3D and PHP Programming. I can do a lil 2D and 3D Art. These are the skills I bring to the table.

I assume you liked my mock chat session.. I'm good with that kind of game based interface design. I'm ok with 2d art and pixel art... but 3d is beyond my skill sets.

I really accel at the visionary, lead designer, director positions... but in this case it is your idea... shareing that would be optimal... But I'm a fine world builder... and a freeform RPG is ALL about world building and local color.

I'm a good writer...

But I assume you already knew I had something to contribute.. hahaha..

If you liked all of the ideas I set forth.. I can write up a beginging design document showing the methods of how I got to it... wasn't just pulled out of my ass.. I know it is all possible and how to accomplish them logicly if not in code.

So.. in overview..

Writing
2d art
Worldbuilding
Level designing
Vision
Music in Midi format - composition
and RPG statistics / battle engine design

are the skills I bring to the table

also.... a side note...

Don't get caught up in the AI buzzword fest... done well.. this game will have the most simple of AI... because you don't need the computer to think... just look like it is thinking... something as simple as

wait for (range #-#)
make move (attack, spell, whatever in a randomised list)
repeat


with 2 end caps that beging and end the battle...

Getting it to understand conversation is the hard part... but worst case... you have to select from a list ala Biohazard games. (Jade empire, B's gate)

DampeS8N,

I dont have any particular theme in mind, but, I'm more familiar with the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Theme than any others.

I reckon the first order of business is to define the theme and rules of the game.

Player-Driven Content?

Ahhhhrrrrgggghhh .... my sister's been playing that game forever! Actually, she stopped but that game's old as dirt and it's been something I've kinda chased after for a while myself. Well, just the idea of making a game with a fan base like that and a certain degree of player creativity.

Totally.

We could do sci-fantasy... but lately I'm much more partial to fantasy... fantasy enviroments are also easier to describe, since they can be dynamicly different... while most sci-fi locations are pretty bleak full of sameness...

I think.. as our first game we should keep the story and world pretty standard and with wide appeal.

So straight up fantasy should be the way to go I think.

I've been thinking about whats been said... and something like... a top pane showing what the location you are at looks like, a map that shows where you are and areas to move too, clickable so you don't have to type out too many menial things... But also a blind map... one you build as you move around... And then the chat window in the middle and a character list next to that...

so...
______________
|........graphics.....|
|^^^^^^^^^^.|
|_____________|
|char|chat...|map|
|___|_____|____|

something like that. And a menu at the top or bottm that lets you do things... perhaps equip armor, maybe spellcraft and blacksmith if you have those skills. And pick level up skills and stats and basic menu stuff.


So only the game itself is text based.. all the other things take benofit of all the advances since... no need to not use what is a better method... it is the fact that type based gameplay is what we are after.... the fun part, without the tedious part.... tedium is never fun...

So we can streamline the tedious things to do in text... like equiping.. and creating spells... And leave the chat window as much like a chat window as possible...

SO you never really notice the difference when you are fighting a human or a monster... other than tactical things...

Player V Player is going to be SOOOOO sweet...

I'm thinking that players should have a few classes to pick from, and the option to make their own class... their own class will come with a few of the skills or proficiencies... blacksmithing, fletching or whatever that they pick... and will then let you make a couple custom skills... simple ones... like one that might inflict a status ailment... and one that might heal or deal dmg... and then they can have a choice between a spell or another skill... or something...

Then they can distribute points like most RPGs... and all that... and picking one of the non-custom classes means bonus starting things...

Oh christ... yeah... the biggest flaw in furcadia I found was that the RPG elements were honor based... this game should be firstly... text.. and secondly actually keep track of your stuff and not require judgement... so.. if the game sees you block a kick by taking a defencive stance behind your shield there won't be a huge hissy fit over it....

The best part about a text game with user created content is that you only need the game to make more content for the game.... and I think there should be no user created areas... just user created personal content and user created items.. (that can be traded around and such)

I think... from a payment POV... here is how it should go... these games need a fanbase.
So lets have a free version and pay version. The free one will have ads and limit you from say... creating your own spells and classes and such... so you can still play the game, buy great stuff, take part in the quests, shat with other users... all that great stuff... but you have to see ads every so often and you can't make weapons items or classes.... but you can trade to get custom stuff...

and then the price to get the full version should be pretty small so people will be inclined to upgrade

DampeS8N,

I love the ideas and we are on the same page. We can do fantasy. I definately want to keep the game all text with the remedial task either automated or gui based. All objects will have detailed descriptions for sight, sound, feel, taste, and smell.

I'm currently on the drawingboard mapping out the basics for game play from a programming perspective. The starter code will based on a chat program I'll most likely harvest from the code archives.

I need to get an idea on the game rules to start building the engine around thm. Lets discuss them.

The description of all areas will list all obvious areas of interest, but along with blacksmithing and such, the full range of DnD style skills should be present.... Looking, Searching for traps, making traps, night vision for some races to see into corners...

There can be so many races... I'm not sure custom races will be a good idea... at least not to start... races have such specific things to them...


Stats

our name - typical RPG names - effect

Player can see

Health - HP - duh
Vigor - MP - for casting spells or useing skills
Speed - evasion - how often attacks at player miss
Muscle - Str - how much physical DMG player can do
Mind - int or wisdom - how much magic DMG player can do
Knowledge - EXP - the expirence for the game, you spend it to learn things or upgrade, no actual level ups.

Player Can't see

Armor
Resistances to the elements
resistances to status effects
Elemental proerties of the player itself
Magic Defence



a note about status effects... The plater's name should change color to denote them... and while some status effects wear off, others dont and need to be healed.

Status effects I've thought of (good and bad)

Poison
Regen
(statistic down) or up
Blink (like blind)
Blind (but doesn't wear off)
Ring (like deafen)
Deafen (doesnt' wear off)
Death (kills the player)
Slow Death (kills the player after he slowly falls apart, gets blinded at 1/3 deafened at 2/3 and dies at the end)
Paralize
Stone (like paralize)
Confuse (turns your movements into the AI)
Crazed (like berserk, raises physical attack but you can't use Magic)
Wither (like Crazed for magic, no physical attacks)

A note about death... When you die you have a choice... to lose gold, knowledge, or an Item. And you start back at your home town.

Battles for the AI are a balance of waiting to simulate typing and reading, and attacks like humans...

the syntax for actions of any kind is:

(action) (Spell or skill) (target) (item)

Attack Giant Ant with short sword.
Cast Fire on Giant Ant with staff of fire.
Cast Fire on Giant Ant. (uses your own knowledge)
Look with Magic Eyes at crumbled wall.
Prod crumbled wall with staff of fire.
Use Flying Kick on Giant Ant.


Level ups...


When you pick, or create, your class and pick a race. You are selecting focus'

Weapon types, short sword, long sword, axe... each type has it's own skills, that by selecting when you make your character you can learn. They cost Knowledge to learn, and you can Unlearn them (but only in a town) You can also pay at towns to install new weapon types, schools of magic and what not to your list... payment is part gold, and part knowledge...

You can also create your own skills, and spells.. but not your own class of weapon of school of magic...

I'll add more later...

Ok... now that I am back home...

So... lets say you pick the Elven race, and the Ranger class...

Elves might get a bonus to ranged attacks and as might a ranger. The ranger would have a dagger and bow weapon types... and might have Green magic... like woods and healing and stuff.

SO... you would have dagger skills and bow skills... such as Being able to fire off a more accurate shot, or a head shot that might inflict instant death to a target and what not.

Lets say that the skills for bow are in a list that you can expend Knowledge on to learn new skills and you can pick and chose your skills

Bow

skill 1 ---- 1000 K
skill 2 ---- 2000 K
skill 3 ---- 2000 K
skill 4 ---- 4000 K
skill 5 ---- 4000 K
skill 6 ---- 8000 K
skill 7 ---- 16000 K
skill 8 ---- 32000 K

And you gain more K or Knowledge from stronger enemies and all that jazz..

But you could save up for that really expensive skill, or just learn a weaker one

And then you also expend Knowledge to learn other types of skills... Such as Looking (searching for secrets in a room) and the higher the Look skill, the higher level secret places you can find.

And there should be many other basic skills like Look

And you can also learn physical attacks.. on the same line as Look.... Kick, Punch, Slap, and Push.... Push can be used on pushable things.. to open a passage you found but can't get to... Kick can kick in locked doors.. Punch and slap along with kick and push can be used like martial arts... upgrading them a lot can mean more DMG than with weapons... Climb, Jump, and so on.

You can also create skills for your Bow... through a creation system that has checks and balances... So you can add Attack strength, blocking power, status effects, elements and all that to the skills you create and that makes them cost more to cast and take longer to cast or use.

your stats can be upped by expending Knowledge too.. and for each new stat upper the knowledge cost goes up some...

In the 2nd post in this thread, I posted some Type Definitions I'm working on for characters, skills, magic, etc. The profiles and the character will be stored in a databaase.

I've harvest some network code from the archives to start buiding Game Server and Client. I've also extracted some previous Command String Parser and Hashtable code.

I'm thinking real hard about making the Blitz Server a http server. So the game can be displayed in a web browser.

We need a Cool Name for the game too.

Just remember... We don't need any stats that govern a character's speed or whatever... since those are simulated through the type based system.... Lets say dexterity is simulated by how much detail you put into the syntax

Attack Ghost Sword
Attack the Ghost with my Sword

The second will be more dexterous... because it is.. litterally, more fine tuned and fluid

After careful consideration, I'm not sure if this will make the game experience fun.

Isn't the whole point of a text based RPG to have a text based entree system?

If we want to have a realtime world for the players to interact in, how will we have turn based battles?



But we could switch gears and make it a graphics-less game...


So you have the chat window break in half and the top still gives all the text, and the bottom has a gui with a type field line

__________
|..................|
|_________|
[_________]
[_________]

and you will have buttons to click for battle actions that will insert the full text into the text field then all you need to is press enter (or the finish action button) to send the info.

SO you will have buttons for battle situations and buttons for regular situations... they switch when a battle is detected.

Battle

Attack, Skill, Spell, Defend, Item


Non-Battle


Look, Touch, Taste, Smell, Listen, Skill, Spell




Each button opens a little pull down menu with all the skills or actions under that heading.

Look-> search, nightvision, whatever

Touch-> Push, Punch, Kick, ....

Attack-> lists all the weapons the player has, all martial arts too


you get the picture..


So the player can chose to not type, but to just rove a list for their action, then click the name of the person to use the action on in the Character list for the chat window, then just hit the send button.

Or the player can type it all, which could be faster for some people.

What do you think of this idea? or do you want to switch over to a traditional RPG with no graphics?

The other way to do it, like I said, is to ditch the text based aspect all together... and just have an RPG with no graphics... where the chat and the battle text go to that same chat window and there is a battle box that appears somewhere to fight in...

Or we could use very weak graphics... and ignore the chat box idea entirely... just have it say things elsewhere.. and let the player look around the area out of battle with commands....

I'm going to start coding the chat engine tonight. I will most like get a better picture what direction to go in when I can get basic chat working.

sounds fare.... when you get something that can be run, compile it and upload a link... That way I can check it out.. (i'd compile it if I had the right ver of blitz to compile it)

Text games rock, we have been working on one for some time along with a text game creator. It started out in B+, but was moved to PB due to size issues and less system requirements. We are keeping to the spirit of traditional text games, but implementing a hybrid GUI interface which shows maps, inventory items, stats, etc.

What is great is nowadays, you can create huge text games. I am about 50% finished with another text adventure game that just uses console mode (with a few tweaks).

Hopefully console mode will still work on Vista :c/

To me, text games are still the best!!!

Brice,

I'm interested in your game. Is there more information available for it?

Frank: I grabbed your email from your profile. I will drop you an email within the next few days ;c) I am happy to discuss text gaming as much as you want via email ;c)

Brice,

We correspond better via frankie_taylor@...

gotcha, Frank. Gimme a couple of days to get caught up on some of my webmastering duties, I will will email ya ;c)

After lots of consideration, I've decided to develop a web-based text RPG. The kicker is, I'm developing the battle engine server with Blitz and will use a modified version of Blitz Syntax for Server-Side scripting.

I'm currently building the Database for RPG Classes, Characters, Skills, Magic, Items, Weapons, etc. They're generic but should be detailed enough for easy expansion.

I'm shooting for a Fantasy-Based RPG as DampeS8N suggested with a very 'simple-on-the-surface' ruleset. I want players to be able to create everthing. Thats right. Off the bat, players can create new Classes, Characters, Skills, Magic, Items, Weapons for the game within the ruleset and approval processes.

By default the game will have RTS elements as players can role play as a Deity, Merchaunt, BeastMaster, and Actour. The RTS Elements will allow to grow and expand beyond one area.

As a Deity you have the ability to create/destroy lands and cities, create/destroy beasts. As a Merchaunt you can create/destroy shops, create and destroy items. As a BeastMaster you can possess/control/morph into any Beast. As a Actour you can go from Waiter in a Tavern, to King of a land.

I'm still working out details as I design and develop the game.

Looking for a Title. Current title of the Fantasy RPG is "The Role Player".

Sounds really cool to me :c)

Text Input Roleplay - Networked Adaptive Narrative - Online Game

Tir-Nan-Og (The Land of the Young from Celtic Mythology)

The Role Player is perhaps too generic...

CLAY

works for me. Clay, to show how the entire game is molded by the players and how the players can alter the liquid state of the game like one alters clay.


You know I was kidding about the whole no-credit thing.. haha.. But I don't need money... I would like my name on this somewhere as it seems a lot of my ideas are getting worked into it ;)

anyway.

There needs to be a balance, There has to be limited slots for Gods and such.... and if you aren't active for 2 weeks as a God you lose it, maybe a month as the Merch,...

lets say 10-50 slots for Gods... 100-500 slots for merch. and as it goes down to basic character it becomes unlimited... also... you should have to be a paid player to get one of these slots... to be a GOD....

that could also be the limiting factor... just make people charge to become one of these... there won't be many gods if it costs 50-100$ to be one...

(in the event that you make lots and lots of money... a cash gift would be nice... something small... like 10 million dollars.. hahahahaha.. no.. I'm not above accepting thankyou money)

Text based RPGs! Whoo!


Write it in BMax, and compile it on Linux for me. Pweeease... ;)

Guys, I ran into a strange bug with Blitz Networking. When a remote client attempts to request a page from my Blitz HTTP Server, the entire PC locks up. I can request Pages via localhost with no problem.

You can help me test this by clicking on the following link:
http://roleplayer.servegame.com/index.html

You can also check to see if the server is up with GNet.

Please post wether or not you recieve the page title "The Role Player". It will be easy for me tell if someone attempts to request and it fails because my entire pc will be locked up. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

i get the text The Role Player just fine

DampseS8N

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, multiple attempts to reach the server remotely continues to result in lockup. I suspect this could be an issue with using Port 80. I'm going to try a different port this afternoon. I would like to continue testing at that time.

We'll get it working, don't fret.

Once we know it CAN be done with these methods, it might be a good idea to jump back and design the game on paper first. Something this complex needs to be well planed... I see what you are going for, and I can start doodle'n some ways to handle the visual side of the game, the technical side is FAR beyond my capacity...

I am thinking that the menu will be class sensitive. There should also be a limited number of characters that any one player can have. Perhaps 5 or 6. And only 1 example of the higher classes... so you can have your god, your merch, but not a team of 6 gods.

I'm also trying to think up a stable system for both shop creation, and more importantly any easy yet stable way for people to create maps... for sure, you will only be able to delete your own areas. And I haven't decided on wether you will need to submit your own "hub town" to us for placement on the big map, or if you will need to befriend and be 'linked too' by another god or us... So you don't get people doing crazy things.... In order to open a path from one of your maps, to another persons map, you have to get their permission... So you can't make a shortcut from the main town all the way to the bottom of the largest hardest dungeon in the game where gold litters the floor...

Perhaps you will only be able to connect to your own 'dugeons' but outside areas can be interconnected via logic.... or perhaps the entire game will take place on an invisible grid that only the gods can see... just a conceptual grid to keep people from making immpossible areas... Each room or area sits on top of one of the grid squares so you can't link the snowy north to the main town on the equator.

The god function alone is going to need gobs of attention to make it powerful, logical, and yet still fun to do for all those GMs out there.

Shops will be a whole lot more simple... gods, (or at least us) will define store fronts, buildings you enter and can rent to sell your items.. (renting might not mean payment at all) if there is a grided map, they will be accessed along a road in a city, a whole series of shops can be linked to the one square on the map, as a mall off sorts...

Creating custom classes will likely be a mess to design as well... I've not put much thought into it myself yet.

With your permission, I'm going to write all this down in a more ordered mannor and detail everything. That is if you like my ideas.

I've narrowed it down to my server code. Just need someone to coordinate some testing.

DampeS8N we definately think out the game once I get this bug solved.

Frank, can I suggest you try out http://ironrealms.com/ as I think it might be a bit what you're talking about. 4 free text games, but online... with maps etc.. very cool

SSS,

I actually have a character in Achaea and is a very immersive game. My goal is to use the Web Browser as the MUD Client. The game will be compilation of HTML, PHP, MYSQL, and Blitz.

I just located this awesome resource today: BlitzSQL! I don't know why this isnt in the ToolBox (perhaps I overlooked it) but, I know it sure needs to be in there.

Thanks-A-Mil Gnius!