(wip) Final Quest

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R'zo
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(wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

(edit) This game currently titled LEGEND OF THE LOST CATACOMBS is now Beta testing.
here are the downloads.
.ZIP (contains all formats.)
.d64
.tap
.prg (game)
.prg (guide)

(edit) Some final cover art and sceenshots.
ImageImageImageImage


I have finally worked my latest game that I have been writing up to a playable demo :D

Title: FINAL QUEST: The Legend of Victor
Genre: Turn based RPG
Author: R'zo aka Ryan Liston
Requirements: Vic-20 with 24k expansion (as currently planned. I originally wanted to do fully expanded to take full advantage of UltiMem. With what I currently have written it looks like I can fit the full game in basic. This has become more tempting since not only would more people be able to play it, it would be easier to reformat the code to port over to other CBM systems and I will be able to produce it as a simple stand alone .prg or .tap file for easy setup with online emulation.)

Download Early demo FINAL QUEST DV1.4.PRG

Image
Last edited by R'zo on Thu Jul 06, 2017 11:26 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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R'zo
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

THE STORY

At the dawn of our world when the gods created man the dark lord Sinclair who was god of the underworld stood in fear and disbelief as the council of the gods agreed to create man with intelligence, strength and a sense of and desire for freedom.
"What do we have to fear," argued the council "If we endow mankind with a sense of love and compassion they will have no need or desire to rise against us."
This did not satisfy Sinclair. He forged the Crystal of Spex witch he used to trap the gods and their powers. For ten thousand years he used the crystal and the powers of the gods to rule over man with an iron fist.
Until a small group of men and women united. They climbed to the peak of Mt. Pompous and stole the Spex. They freed the gods who quickly went back to work restoring harmony in the world.
The leader of the group, a man named Victor, knew that the evil Sinclair would come looking for the crystal. So he took it into the lost catacombs where he hoped the Spex would be safe from Sinclair.
He was wrong. The battle between Victor and Sinclar lasted for 3 years and 5 nights. But in the end Victor won and he trapped Sinclair in the crystal. Victor then bound his own soul to the crystal where he holds Sinclair at bay from within the crystal with a powerful spell.

You have been training here with us for over thirty years her at the monastery of the Brothers and Sisters of Spex. You are ready, it is time for you to descend into the Lost Catacombs. The crystal will likely be scattered throughout the catacombs by thieves and grave robbers lost in the darkness. Collect all the shards and summon Victor. He has been holding Sinclair at bay for a thousand years and deserves a rest. You must battle him and take his place as the guardian.
Beware of monsters and traps. Once you enter the Lost catacombs there is no return. If you fail Victor may grow weary. Sinclair could escape and the world will again be plunged into darkness.

Failure or success, this will be your final quest.
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R'zo
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

At current point I have not added in the random enemy battles and most of the Items. Save and load features are not present yet as well as instructions and story have not been added yet.

Spike traps(up arrow), pits (black circles) and wall collisions are now functional.
Use keys to unlock treasure chests(pi symbol) and doors(\).

I will post more later but it is getting late and I am tired.

Good night 8)
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R'zo
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

GAME DESCRIPTION

Objective
Search your way through the dark Lost Catacombs with nothing but the light of a magical candle to light your path. Fight randomly encountered enemies in a turn based battle system. Avoid traps. Collect keys to open treasures and doors to progress to the next level. Collect the 6 shards of the crystal Spex. Summon and defeat the great warrior Victor in order to put him to his rest and take his place as the guardian of Sinclair.

Projected Features
-20+randomly generated dark maze based levels.
-5-10 projected possible enemies that will level up as you move from room to room.
-Unlockable treasure chest.
-Traps-Spikes will do a small amount of life. Pits will be game over. Damage from wall collisions will very depending on
the amount of steps overstepped in the turn.
-3 available weapons and 3 available shields to augment attack and defense values.
-Random enemies encounters will be checked for every step you take in a turn as well as every hour you sleep.
-Load/Save routines that may very depend on what format I decide to finalize the game in.
-Life bonus given if you complete a level in under a certain amount of time.
-Magic bonus if level completed in less than a certain amount of steps.
-Bombs to blow your way through walls that are blocking your path.
-interactive menu system controlled by the number keys in the Vics keyboard.

Symbol key
!-Appears in the character cursor when an enemy is encountered.
(up arrow)-Spike Trap
(black circle)-Pit trap
\-door
(pi)-Treasure Chest
(heart)-Physique (similar to hp)
(diamond)-Spirit (similar to mp)
(Spade)-Strength
(Club)-Chi

Your Physique will figure in with you strength and weapon for attack and the shield for defense. This means that the more physique (hp or lie points) you have the stronger you become. The more hits you take in battle the weaker your attacks and defense will become.

Battle menus will include attack, magic, defend and panic commands. Attack will attack with weapon. Defend will block attack with shield. Magic will have up to 9 available spells to cast. panic will cause you to run between 1 and 3 steps in a random direction possibly running into a wall or trap in order to escape an enemy battle.
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Vic Porter
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by Vic Porter »

I gave this a quick spin. The movement method seems needlessly cumbersome. If the collision damage was not "speed" reliant, I'd suggest hotkeys for moving 1 step to each direction. Perhaps there is some neater solution?
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

Vic Porter wrote:I gave this a quick spin. The movement method seems needlessly cumbersome. If the collision damage was not "speed" reliant, I'd suggest hotkeys for moving 1 step to each direction. Perhaps there is some neater solution?
I have given this a few days thought.
I thought over the possibilities. I wanted to stick to the spirit of the current controls. The current wall collision damage is set at hp=hp-1 for every step left from the step amount you have chosen. In this way the steps you have chosen to take are the steps you intend to take and are set on taking. If you have set your mind to move 7 steps and after taking 4 steps have being brutally interrupted by a wall then you will suffer the force given in return from the wall for you still wanting to go 3 more steps and take hp=hp-3 damage.
In this way will = inertia
So if I am going to have direct movement controls then I am going to have to simulate inertia. I came up with a few ways to do so and the way that seemed the simplest and most effective would be to take advantage of the keyboard buffer.
1. Turn key repeat on.
2. For every so many consecutive steps turn the keyboard buffer up 1.
3. When no key is read under the buffer then the buffer is set back to 1.

I flirted around with this idea for a couple of days. Last night I was test playing the game with the current menu based movement controls. I felt that although they did feel very cumbersome and slow to use at first I was now having an easy time with. The Way the current controls are set up also allow you to easily "stumble" in the wrong direction unintentionally use an item. The dark catacombs can be very disorienting it is easy to make a crucial or even fatal mistake if you are not focused and paying attention to what your doing. If I throw in time bonuses for each room it will be easier to get in a hurry and make a mistake.

My decision for the time being is to stick with the current movement controls. After I have completed the enemy, battle and magic routines I may decide to try out a direct inertia based moment style depending on how I feel the movement effects the feel and greater flow of gameplay as well as what kind of feed back I get from future test versions.

Thank you for the feed back :)
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R'zo
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

Update

I now have title page music.
Items are all now useable.
You can now use bombs to blow up walls
Treasure chest now have random item delivery

I will probably have make next test version up in the next 2 weeks after I have added in some enemy battles.
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by Vic Porter »

Thanks for the lenghty reply.
R'zo wrote:In this way will = inertia
One quick idea: if random monster encounters (if there are any) only happen once per turn (not step), then being cautious is discouraged by less obnoxious ways than pure input tedium.
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

Vic Porter wrote: One quick idea: if random monster encounters (if there are any) only happen once per turn (not step), then being cautious is discouraged by less obnoxious ways than pure input tedium.
Random enemy battles will have a chance once per step.
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by beamrider »

Thanks for this. Not really my cup of tea, but good to see sizeable projects being done for the Vic
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R'zo
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

I changed the movement controls just a hair in an attempt to make them a little less cumbersome. Not a big change but I moved the directional controls to the main menu.
This version also has music on the title screen and start menu.
All "use" items are now fully functional but "sleep" items are still not.
You can now get more from the treasure chests.
Time and step bonuses for completing each level are now in place.
The quit menu now has a y/n select instead of 1/2 to make it harder to accidently quit the game.

download:FINAL QUEST DEMO V.1.5

I am working on enemy battles. They will be in the next update.
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

I found A series of rpgs over in steam titled Final Quest. I haven't had the chance to try any of them out yet. However I do feel the need to change the title of my game to The Legend of Victor: Dark Catacombs.
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

NOW WITH FUNCTIONAL ENEMY BATTLES

This game is in serious need of testing now if I could get any volunteers.

download-The Legend of Victor Demo V1.6

You can in battle...
attack
cast magic
defend
use items
panic (runs from enemy rnd 1-3 spaces in any direction to escape enemy battle.(careful what you run into could be worse than the enemy you face.))

the enemy can
attack
cast magic
defend
heal
escape

Still to come
load/save features
in game story and directions (if enough basic ram left)
Victor and Siclair boss battles.
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by R'zo »

I have finished the first full version of this game and am looking for beta testers if anyone is interested.
DownloadThe Legend of Victor

The game is fully functional. Fight enemies, cast magic, find items, unlock doors, load, save, boss battle, in game instructions and story line.

I would really like feedback on playability, difficulty, controls and menu flow. As well as typos and bugs.

.zip contains .prg, .d64 and .tap formats plus a blank .tap for saving in tape format.

Possible changes and additions
-may move save option from in game menu to the level load to prevent cheating.
-music for game over and victory screens
-Current story is a rough draft and may change
-More in game instructions if the menus are not self explanatory enough. (final version will have a manual with full instructions for gameplay)
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Re: (wip) Final Quest

Post by ral-clan »

Just gave this a very brief spin (the fully playable version).

I think I would really like this if not for a few things that seem very tedious (I simply may not be understanding how they work).

1. movement input method : direction plus steps....okay....a little cumbersome. I understand it's similar to Temple of Apshai so perhaps I can forgive that. But maybe there should be default of 5 steps if one simply hits return and does not enter a number of steps. Also the choice of numbers for movement seems awkward. I remember back in the 80s when games like this used a computer's number pad as a directional compass (i.e. 4 for west, 6 for east, 8 for north, so on...). That actually made a lot of sense. Then when these games got ported to the VIC-20 / C64, they kept the number system for movement, even though Commodore users had to use the top row of the keyboard. Still, it followed a standard (the numbers remained the same from the keypad versions). However, in your game the choice of numbers you've used for movement doesn't even seem to follow this standard. i.e. I believe you have 4 for east, whereas it would seem to make more sense for that number to be west. It would also make the game nice to play in VICE, using a PC keyboard with a number pad. Even reserving a fake directional pad, like I,J,K,M, on the VIC-20s keyboard would be better.

2. The whole narrow line-of-sight thing. Am I missing something, or does the player's character have tunnel vision? Maybe I didn't play it long enough and there is a lamp spell or light spell to acquire which will light up the whole room. I didn't want to play it that long because it was so tedious to move and figure out what the room was like with this very narrow range of vision. The whole game isn't like this, is it? Back in the 1980s, even when games used direction line-of-sight like this, it was about a 45-degree range of vision in the direction the character was looking, rather than a single character line.

The game (from the screen-shots) looks really neat, it's just frustrating for a use to get into because of these things. It would be a pity of a great game went unplayed because of an awkward user interface.
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