Beleriand

[Nick]

Largely so I can see it all written down in one place, here are my (fairly unorganised) thoughts on the shape that Beleriand is going to take:

• New constructed world, covering First Age Middle Earth from the ocean to the Anduin and beneath.
• Vast rescaling from FA - a region of roughly 600x900 miles will be covered by game grids of 24x24 feet.
• New travelling system (no more Word of Recall) that has to deal with the vast distances involved.
• Some persistence of the world, and some predrawn landmarks.
• More flexible use of the energy/speed/time system - in particular, diagonal movement will take longer than horizontal/vertical.
• A bunch of new terrain types.
• Big nerfs to digging, summoning, teleporting and spellcasting generally.
• Less immediate healing (HP recovery), more importance to curing (of wounds).
• Major region-dependence of monster generation.
• Stat potions replaced by gradual character growth with experience.
• Reduction of elemental damage caps.
• Random dungeons, more 'three-dimensionality'.
• Generalisation of the FA specialty system to a skill system.
• Removal of pointy penalty, glove/armour effects on mana.
• Mana to have a relationship to confusion/stunning like the HP to damage relationship; all classes will have mana.
• Ghosts won't be able to be physically hurt, but will be able to be bound or dispelled.
• Big changes to the fight with Morgoth (I haven't settled on the detail yet).

This is all going to take some time. In particular, I've just spent most of my spare time for the last two weeks on the world maps, which consist of around half a million grids, each representing a square mile.

[Antoine]

Originally Posted by nick

in particular, i've just spent most of my spare time for the last two weeks on the world maps, which consist of around half a million grids, each representing a square mile.

pics or it didn't happen

a.

[LostTemplar]

Vast rescaling from FA - a region of roughly 600x900 miles will be covered by game grids of 24x24 feet.

So you basically reduce an infinite world, to some very large, but fixed map ?

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Antoine

pics or it didn't happen

And I reckon I'm about half done.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by LostTemplar

So you basically reduce an infinite world, to some very large, but fixed map ?

The region edit file has the map, region by region. Then on generation each of these region grids will correspond to a 10x10 square of 22x22 chunks of terrain. By comparison, one regular Angband dungeon level is 9x3 such chunks. Terrain will be generated as needed, so the player is always in a 22x22 chunk, which is surrounded by 8 others. Then some of these (yet to be determined exactly which) will be saved off and kept when the player goes out of range, and some will disappear and be regenerated if necessary.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Nick

And I reckon I'm about half done.

I hope you aren't doing this by typing terrain dots into the file. This is the kind of thing where keeping a PNG file that you modify in a paint program and then convert to text would be ideal -- not least because at the end of it, you have a handy-dandy image of the game world.

[ekolis]

Interesting set of goals there! I'll be looking forward to seeing how things turn out!

By the way, regarding lessening "instant" healing, had you considered healing over time as an alternative? This mechanic is used in Torchlight for the healing potions; a basic healing potion restores 400 HP, but not instantaneously; instead, your HP gradually refills over a few seconds!

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Derakon

I hope you aren't doing this by typing terrain dots into the file.

Well, yes and no. I originally typed it in at a 7x smaller scale; when I decided to change scale, I wrote a script to replace each grid by a 7x7 square of them, and I'm now adding detail.

Not the most efficient way, I know, but I get a certain satisfaction from knowing the whole thing thoroughly from the ground up. It's kind of a Zen thing.

@ekolis: At the moment, I'm thinking in terms of no healing potions, but we'll see

[Mondkalb]

Pure Zen and awesomeness.

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by Nick

• Big nerfs to digging, summoning, teleporting and spellcasting generally.
• Less immediate healing (HP recovery), more importance to curing (of wounds)

I've been wondering lately what effect extending a low device failure to scrolls (to reduce escape reliance) & temporary resistance to potions with use (so you can heal in an emergency but not overly rely on it). would have. I'd rather escapes weakened then have a viable strategy completely removed from the game.