Closed ektemple closed 11 years ago
This would be absolutely awesome.
(We need to ensure that the original remember / trophies commands are kept for players using screen readers, by the way. Kerkerkruip seems to be a minor hit among blind players, judging from the number of mentions we have on audiogames,net.)
I think it might be best to offer two versions for download: graphics and no graphics. (I am trying to implement things so that commenting out a single line in the story file would allow compilation of the latter.) This is because the graphical main menu won't be accessible to screen readers.
No need for multiple releases, I'm sure we can make it all work in the one file.
I have ideas for changing how the dungeon is generated. The size of the dungeon might increase considerably. But don't let this stop you, I think this map idea is great, and my idea might suck!
Don't forget that some rooms are off the grid too.
I'm not sure that increasing the size of the dungeon is a good idea. It doesn't need more rooms, and it certainly doesn't need more tunnels... It will be interesting to hear what you're planning.
When you say that there are rooms that are off the grid, do you mean that they have no coordinates, or that they are not connected to the main room/tunnel network?
I think both the labyrinth and the plane of smoke have no coordinates.
If you have the ability to sense things, perhaps hidden rooms could be shown in the map too?
Some rooms are indeed off the grid in the sense of having no coordinates -- the maze, the elemental plane of smoke -- but they shouldn't be mapped anyway. So this is not a particular problem.
I'm also curious about your idea, Dannii; like Erik, I'm sceptical about the idea of having a larger dungeon, but I'd love to hear what you're thinking of.
No feedback needed, just posting a design document for the map:
1 2 3 4 5 1 · · % · · # = Tiles that are part of room block 2 · · # · · % = Tiles that are part of room "buffers" 3 · · # # % 4 . . . . . 5 . . . . .
Symbols for monsters on map The original mockup of the map (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/947038/Kerkerkruip%20Art/Map_Mockup.png) included a numbered list of enemies that the player had encountered or killed. This would be really fussy to implement. It would be simpler to tie each enemy to a specific symbol. Given Kerkerkruip's roguelike roots, it would be natural for these symbols to be letters. So here's a first pass at symbolism:
s swarm of daggers
b blood ape; could show as B when he's large (just kidding, B is for Bodmall)
m Miranda
a armadillo
w wisps of pain
g chain golem
o jumping bomb
r reaper
d demon of rage
h hound
S mindslug
L giant tentacle
T minotaur
H Healer of Aite
D Defender of Aite
R Tormentor of Aite
B Bodmall
M Malygris
Note that only enemies with a soul (i.e. a level) are planned for inclusion on the map. Level 1 & 2 enemies get lowercase, levels 3 to 5 get capitals.
Any comments, ideas, bones to pick?
Why "o" instead of "j" for the jumping bomb?
Since the Reaper is capitalised in the game (right?) it might make more sense if he were "R", though I can also see the logic of having capitals denote more powerful monsters. I don't really have an opinion either way.
If soulless monsters are not mentioned, that means that the map doesn't cover all information of the "remember" command. I'm not sure whether that is a good idea.
Why "o" instead of "j" for the jumping bomb?
Because o is round like a ball of flesh! Similar considerations led to the tentacle as L and the minotaur as T.
If soulless monsters are not mentioned, that means that the map doesn't cover all information of the "remember" command. I'm not sure whether that is a good idea.
Yeah, I've been wrestling with this one, and you're right. I'm just worried about running out of space on a room tile for all the letters, and I'm also worried about all the letters to choose from. It also muddies up the lowercase-uppercase scheme a bit, but maybe that's no biggie.
By the way, I am still planning a legend as in the original--no one will have to memorize these letters.
Another idea might be to create small icons for each monster, e.g. maximum 8x8 pixels in size. A surprising amount can be done with just 8x8 pixels (see below; note that I'm not thinking of monster tiles like these, more like iconic stand-ins, e.g. a scythe for the reaper). But that would be a lot more work, and possibly pull us too far from the aesthetic of the intro and main menu.
OK, new plan. Capitalization will not follow a strict level-based scheme, instead level will be more of a rough guideline. The numerical level will be shown next to the monster's name in the legend, so absolutely no information will be lost in doing this.
The levelless enemies will be shown in a different color from the soul-granting enemies, so we can reuse some letters if need be. There may also be some thematic groupings among the levelless that could be distinguished by color, including undead, humans, demons, and cosmic beasts. If I can find five colors, that is!
[level 1]
m Miranda
s swarm of daggers
a ravenous armadillo
w wisps of pain
A blood ape
[level 2]
g chain golem
R reaper
j jumping bomb
h hound
d demon of rage
[level 3]
S mindslug
t minotaur
L giant tentacle
[level 4]
B Bodmall
O overmind
H healer of Aite
T tormentor of Aite
D defender of Aite
[level 5]
M Malygris
[levelless humans]
f Fafhrd
r Mouser
[Cosmic beasts]
N Nameless Horror
[undead]
c rotting corpse
n aswang
p mummified priest
Y abyss of the soul
[demons]
o demonic assassin
k smoke demon
i imp
s demonic mistress
Looks good! Let me notice that the abyss of the soul is an undead creature.
Ah, with a name like Abyss of the Soul I just naturally assumed it had to be a Lovecraftian monster... Fixed above.
The output of the REMEMBER and TROPHIES commands could be entirely encapsulated in a visual map, e.g.:
This tells us where we've been, which exits we have and haven't explored, who we've seen and where we've seen them, and who we've killed--all at a glance. (Note that the map also shows a player-carved tunnel connecting the Entrance Hall to the auto-generated tunnel that connects the Library with Phantasmagoria.)
This would be relatively easy to implement. The map itself is simple, since Kerkerkruip already generates rooms with XYZ coordinates. The hardest things will be:
...and neither of these are very hard, just a bit fussy.