Probably you already took a look on torchlight but nevertheless here are two gameplay vids: http://www.pcgames.de/aid,698252/Torchlight-So-spielt-sich-der-ueberraschend-gute-Diablo-Klon-Videos-und-Bilder/PC/Video/

The AI seems really simple to me but well working.
I like the clear style they developed without using any shaders^^
The vids gave me some motivation to continue working on my prototype too but I have to learn history for tomorrow...evil school-always interferes with my education

Yes exactly, while stylistically this is not my target, its certainly close to the style of game play I am aiming for. Hopefully with a more cinematic angle and fight systems that are not just based in massive particle effects, although I certainly want to include these in the right places

I really like the scale in the second video, I am keen to include much larger enemies including alien vehicles and other big boss types of enemies. Injecting the Sci-Fi angle into this classic genre.

Thanks for the video links

Do you also plan to generate the levels using randomly placed level-chunks?

That is a really good question, I've been doing some considerable testing and experimenting with pipelines for building the game world.

One variation that I have already explored is to make the game world up from same sized sections, maybe 32m cubed parts that would allow relativly high definition visually as textures would be less tiled and highly unique; of course lots of nice scope for shaders such as normal mapping and other such trickery.

Most importantly, and this really supports the meta game model we're planning for, most important of all is that this would allow dynamic 'dungeon' creation.

Using studio Max as our tool base it is relativly easy to establish a template that all of these parts are modeled from and with some cunning script work parts can then be identified and themed allowing some very nice generated maps and even very dynamic scenarios.

I think that the tiled dungeon approach has a lot of potential but subsequently it also means that there are a lot more polygons in the view and performance is a little harder to manage...

I am also looking at ways to use this system in a more organic way, allowing nice environments, alien planets and so on, to be populated with the core game area in parts... some raised sci-fi gangways where the game takes place while the environment around is less 'underground'

I will drop some of these elements into the game world in the next video, so hopefully more discussion about this can be made..

This afternoon however I really want to get the core Ai awareness system working better. I've got a couple of new states to get finished:

New Video: Here

In this video you should see the state behaviour changing as the npc's awareness of the player increases.

Note: I used to be able to embed a youtube video directly here, but the [youtube] tag doesn't seem to work, any tips?

Looks nice, now make it check if nearby enemies = aware of threat, my state = their state

Really good for a beginning; i like that a lot already !
The characters even simple looks polished, good effects.

Dungeon tiles :
- allow with your own editor to incredibly quickly draw levels
- Easy to build AI on tiles properties and path serach

To optimise frame rate :
- Top view camera showing only some tiles
- Make bigger tiles
- make a system not allowing rotation camera (lot more power
needed) : titan Quest like


Another approach: Terrain with objects on top like :
Cliffs, water, buildings , trees, grass
Advantages:
- Fast
- Multitexturing
- Easy to create with Tools
Disadvantages :
- AI Path search more complicated, you will need waypoints

What counts will be the interface, animation and graphics
Be inspired :
3D tiles games

Have you decided about RPG elements , power tree Diablo style ?
or more open system ?

You got a challenger for the little and very cool game Fate 2 !
Keep it up !

Thanks, a good idea, I should implement a grouping variable, as well as the team variable.


Thanks

This route ticks nearly all of the boxes but leaves a few holes that I am not keen on. Mainly dungeon style building like this often results in very familiar archietecture and for me somewhat makes all RPG's like this somewhat generic.

While this is far less labour intensive and could even generate new maps on the fly, I think the reward does not outway the cost of less generic maps.

It's still far too early for me to call yet, this is again why I am so focused on the core gameplay.


After watching the 'Torchlight' video reference I have to say this fits my thinking for this title more than Fate 2 does. I really like the way that 'Torchlight' has a more freeform, organic feel, which makes the more traditional block approach less possible...

As you point out this also means that path finding will need to be more node based, but I am not completely against this although it would be great to have a quicker dynamic solution...

..between the devil and the deep blue sea!


While I am confident of my own art and design skills and think I will be able to design and build a good interface, I will certainly be doing a art-style guide later in the project and most likely will outsource this work.

You are not wrong though, while the Sci-Fi angle is a good approach the game still needs to stand out amoungst the crowd of RPG Action Adventure Diabloe clones, so I expect this to take up a lot of time.

That said, I have not even given this title a name yet, as I don't want to fall into any of the usual pitfalls, branching off to develop elements that are not really core game play.


I have some strong ideas about the tech tree and way in which power ups are going to exist, as the alien species have telepathic powers I can create some nice cross-over between teran and alien technology.

Using Alien Tablets and Artifacts, players will be able to suplement their powers, add new abilities and so on.

I have catered for 3 major known skills with upgrade levels and a system that should encourage players to mix and match these skill types to get powerful combinations: Thief, Assasin, Speed, Strength and other such 'Master Upgrades'.

With the class system implemented already and also XP points, levels and so on, I would like to see players gaining new skills over time and becoming better capable of doing damage...

In the new video the telepath class is more intelligent which helps him spot the player faster than the combat agents but are not so tough in combat...

A very simple and early example, but it's coming

Thanks for the support Ratchet.

I've taken some time to create a basic template in max for the grid method which I think covers the core parts.

I need to create a set of smaller corridor and arch way parts now, trying to find good reference for how to cover all the bases. Very much the traditional Isometric approach to level creation in many ways...

EDIT:
I've laid out what I think are the core parts needed for a dynamic dungeon would be, based around each tile being 32m square with a height of 12m.



By my count that is 24 individual parts, which isn't too bad. I know that you could actually rotate some parts instead of duplicating them, but I think that would be cutting of my nose to spite my face...

Anyway, so presuming this system works, and that we would create a theme system that allows sets of these parts to be made and used dependant on the environment and so on...

with variations on each part, potentially 2-3 variations per part, per theme, and I think that is being a little conservative, it still means that every map would require approx 100 parts, give or take 10%...

So the system would need to allow for this theme, also allow for individual parts to have variants, whilst also making sure that the map is correct...

I will spend some time UVmapping each of these simple shapes and get them into the engine, it seems like its worth a little more investment of time.

Please let me know if you have comments or suggestions, I am sure some of you have already spent considerable time working out this one

TIA

EDIT2: Just spotted I forgot doorways! duh! that adds another 4 components...

EDIT3: Well this was a little unexpected! Once I had worked out the number of door variations in an end part, I've already now added a further 24 parts.



I also know that I will also need to think about creating a doorway in both the corridor parts and the large room parts...

So the list of parts continues to grow, still I think I have nearly got all the parts.... I think

With doorways, any chance you can count a wall as a sub-part, so you have 24 master parts, with an occasional wall replaced with a doorway-wall as required?

That way you could have secret doors, changing maps etc, where you are only changing sub-parts, not the whole square.

thinking about it, this may not help, as a wall could be full edge, or have one corner adjoining, or two corners adjoining, and where corners adjoin other walls, you would need a different edge to the wall. - so that makes 3 wall sub-parts, and 3 door-wall subparts. I guess you'd then use those 6 definitions on top of ground sub-parts, within your 47 total parts. (24 + 24 {-1 with no walls} )

I like the start of your project, keep up the great work!

Don
have a great day