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[pspeed]

I need to refactor some networking stuff before I get too much farther into Mythruna.  I'm seeing a lot of network traffic in the new engine that shouldn't be here and some user of my library already reported a related issue a long time ago.

I downloaded some simple RPG tiles from http://kenney.nl/ along with some character sprite tiles.  Threw together a relatively quick little network prototype.

Here is a screen shot of some naked players frolicking about.  Avert your eyes if they are sensitive to such things.



Clearly those people are up to no good, gallivanting naked in a field.

Tonight I will make some simple orcs running around in circles so that I can do some testing without having to have multiple clients logged in.

It would be fun to tease some more out of this game as the tilesets are pretty extensive even if they are a bit low-res.  It would be easy enough to replace them.  I'm just kind of chomping at the bit to get back to Mythruna and get to finally play Fallout 4.


It did make me wonder, though... does anyone know of any 2D tile based games like this where players can construct their own houses, modify the land, etc.?  Because I know how I'd do it...

[Duff_Beer]

I think the original civilization game was 2D. and I am pretty sure that one ancient Egypt city building game was.  And I dunno about command and conquer red alert,
as it has been ages since I played it, but that might have been.

Would be nice to be able to run around naked in mythruna though.

[pspeed]

Those were both strategy games, more  or less and the terrain was fixed.  You could place 'buildings' but you couldn't build them how you wanted.

I was wondering if there is a 2D tile-based RPG where you can build your own stuff, modify the world, etc..

[Rayblon]

Terraria comes to mind, if you'll count that. So does Don't Starve, but that's more of a hybrid(tiled terrain, but entities an such are not tiled).

[pspeed]

Terraria comes to mind, if you'll count that. So does Don't Starve, but that's more of a hybrid(tiled terrain, but entities an such are not tiled).

Terraria is a 2D platformer... not a top-view tile based game.  Though it's why I think the concept has merit.

Don't Starve isn't tile based, really.  I mean, the map is based on really _large_ tiles but the majority of everything else is just an objects placed.  Trees, bushes, etc. can go anywhere.  Even the little bit of building you can do is just placing objects and even then it's very tricky to make walls and stuff... and definitely no roofs, second floors, basements or any of that.  You'd never be able to create a dungeon in Don't Starve.

I have a relatively simple idea for building such a world and I can't decide if I should waste any time on it.  The fact that it's kind of close to Mythruna in world structure, only way simpler, means I could use it to test some things like simpler AI, town generation, whatever... but those are flimsy excuses.

Anyway, I'm neck deep in networking issues anyway so this will simmer.  If someone had piped up "Oh, yeah 'UmptyFrump' is exactly what you describe." then I could easily ignore this temptation.  As it is, coming up with something unique is so difficult that I try to tease things that seem unique out a bit.. at least as documentation.

[pspeed]

I finished a bunch of my network fixes today so as a reward I goofed around a little with my tile idea.

Using the free tileset from kenney.nl (http://kenney.nl/assets/roguelike-rpg-pack) I conceptually mapped them to 3D blocks in a way that I can generate a 2D tile map from a 3D array of cells kind of like what Mythruna uses only way simpler.

Here is what my 1 hour of playing around looks like:


If I get my more Mythruna-related work done early tomorrow, I might play around with fading the near tiles and showing underneath when the player walks behind stuff or whatever.

To give you an idea of what that particular tileset looks like in practice, here are some of the samples it came with:



In my case, I'd want to try seamless transition from indoors to outdoors like Ultima 7 did.

The benefit to this approach is that players could build their own structures.  Also, some dynamic lighting and visibility 'fog of war' would be relatively straightforward.  It's very tempting to take the approach too far and end up with a real 3D scene... which is not really what I'm going for though I still can't put my finger on why.  Maybe it's all of those late nights playing Nethack years ago and thinking it would be cool to dig my own tunnels.

Who knows?  I'm also not sure it's been done before.  Which either means it's relatively unique or just a really dumb idea.

[pspeed]

P.S.: the one benefit of this tileset is that it's free and expansive.

I don't know that I actually like the style, though... and I'd like it better if it was natively 32x32 instead of 16x16.

However, working with someone else's tileset is also a better proof of the approach.

[Duff_Beer]

In unrelated news, be prepared to find that tiny mansion at the bottom in mythruna relatively soon. I've decided that's my next project now that the church, the public bathroom, and the collapsed car tunnel are all more or less done.

[Sean]

In unrelated news, be prepared to find that tiny mansion at the bottom in mythruna relatively soon. I've decided that's my next project now that the church, the public bathroom, and the collapsed car tunnel are all more or less done.

I'll need some coords to that!

[Duff_Beer]

In unrelated news, be prepared to find that tiny mansion at the bottom in mythruna relatively soon. I've decided that's my next project now that the church, the public bathroom, and the collapsed car tunnel are all more or less done.

I'll need some coords to that!

Once I am able to make it, I will post a screenshot with coordinates. Im too lazy to go very far, plus I want to check out this giant statue rayblon is making before I go out too far so it will probably be close to the church island.

[pspeed]

Played a little more with my tile generator today.  (Reminder: I did not create this tileset... it's from here: http://kenney.nl/assets/roguelike-rpg-pack)

...this world was essentially made of 'blocks'... then the engine is smart enough to find the tiles that fit.



The code to map to roof tiles is still a bit odd... but right now I'm building the world database with code any time I want to test something.  I'll need to add some kind of in-game editability before I play with it too much more.

Yesterday I wrote a tool that lets you load tile sets and map them to different edge configurations, etc... that's what drives the tile selection above.  It's kind of an interesting problem that my brain wouldn't let go.  It's similar to what one might use to map fake ambient-occlusion tiles to a 3D block game...

Here are all of the different possible edge configurations:


(Fake AO would need a lot more or to build from sub-quads... but it's essentially the same process and I will note that Minecraft skimps here as some block configurations produce strange AO.)

The editor lets me take a tileset, mark some as belonging to a group, and then I can map a specific tile to one of those edge configurations.



Took me about 8 hours to write that editor, I guess... because my UI-fu is strong.

[Rayblon]

In unrelated news, be prepared to find that tiny mansion at the bottom in mythruna relatively soon. I've decided that's my next project now that the church, the public bathroom, and the collapsed car tunnel are all more or less done.

I'll need some coords to that!

Once I am able to make it, I will post a screenshot with coordinates. Im too lazy to go very far, plus I want to check out this giant statue rayblon is making before I go out too far so it will probably be close to the church island.

Turns out i have alot more time so im still doing some pre building work

[pspeed]

Not that you guys are waiting on the edges of your seats or anything...

But I got my little naked guy finally running around the proper world.



It's the small things.

[Aeferian]

I am glad to hear it!

[pspeed]

When everything is working someday... this is the scene I hope to recreate: (TOTALLY FAKE SCENE MADE IN PHOTOSHOP)




...all networked and ready to go and stuff.  I'm giving it some more of my hours this weekend to see where I stand.  It makes a nice test bed for testing Mythruna stuff but there is plenty of distraction in it, too.