Dungeondweller Development Diary Archive

March 13

I playtested the game for a longer period of time today and I found that some effects weren't removed when the effect's duration had passed. This proved to be a simple bug to fix and the fix will be included in the next version. A grammatic error has been fixed in the eat command too. Other than that I've been working on the sensory events for most of the time. The system works and visual and audible events are noticed correctly. The direction of audible events is also reported ("You hear movement to the north" and so on).

March 6

Ooops! A months abscence is not good... I have some lame excuses like moving, changing ISP (broadband at last!) and lots of work. I haven't had much time to work on Dungeondweller, but I have begun work on sensory events and started thinking of how to generate the gameworld.

February 10

I decided to take Dungeondweller to version 0.6 today. The effect system need minor trimming but it works as intended. The new version includes the new attributenetwork that replaces the traditional stats and skills. I've also linked each attack and defence to an attribute now in the .txt files (previously they were all based on weaponskill). Some changes to the keymap has been made too (see readme.txt in the .zip files). I have planned to include a customizable keymap for version 0.7.

February 9

Due to the recent discussions on skilltrees and stats at r.g.r.d I decided to move forward with the new skillsystem earlier than previously planned. I have decided to use an attribute network to represent skills and stats. Some attributes will be assigned values at birth (strength, agility, intelligence etc) and others has to be taught or practiced (blades, lockpick, magic etc). Each attribute can be based on one or more attributes that in turn can be based on yet other attributes, thus creating a network or web of interconnected attributes (though som may not be conncted to other at all). When experience is gained some of it is passed on to connected attributes that in turn pass an even smaller amount to it's connections. The network resembles the standrad skilltree in many ways but it isn't limited by the tree structure an the constraint of only having one parent (though the web could be built as a tree).

February 5

I just realized that I haven't documented another change since the last version. From 0.5.4 natural attacks like punch and kick will be defined in bodyparts.txt and not in monsters.txt. This way natural attacks can be disabled if the appropriate bodypart is crippled or destroyed. I've decided to upload a new version to include all the latest improvements. I'm still not satisfied with the effect system so I wont take Dungeondweller to version 0.6 yet...

February 4

The displayed text when inflicting (or receiving) damage didn't show all the various damagelevels. This error boiled down to a simple typecast error and was fixed real easy. A forgotten check while generating the map made it possible to create non passable terrain on cells with an entity. This resulted in trapped creatures and objects, but was easily fixed.

February 1

The [E]at command was for some strange reason disabled, but that is fixed now. I've added some healing roots just to test the effectsystem. I have also changed so that blood won't be added to blocking cells since it is shown on the opposite side of the blocking cell too. The messagearea is increased to five lines, but I have made the surface transparent so the size of the gamearea isn't reduced. I have also changed so that weapons of fire emits light within a small radius. The AI for the equip command has become a bit smarter too. Previously the loop that tried to find suitable equipment stopped if a needed piece of equipment wasn't equiped and wasn't present in the inventory either. Now, the loop continues to search for useful equipment which makes equipment utilization higher. The AI for the pick up command has also been somewhat improved; damaged or destroyed objects are less likely to be picked up. And last but not least the AI for the drop command; the item with the highest weight/value ratio is now chosen instead of the first item in the inventory.

January 28

The effectsystem will be ready soon. I just need to add a few more effects and effectareas before it is considered finished. I've also made some cleanups in the code, removed some compiler warnings, changed the screenlayout to show more of the game area, begun translation of my swedish comments to english and stuff like that. I have also made the physical speed of a creature less dependant on it's physical condition. This way wounded creatures (and the player) have a higher chance of fleeing.

January 19

The field of view code is finally changed to use octants instead of quadrants, thus removing the problem with a slightly asymmetric field of view. I've also written a new article on recursive shadowcasting and uploaded a simple implementation of the algorithm.

January 15

I made some changes to my version increment plan in order to have something a bit more fun to code than the effectsystem :) I decided to begin with my plans for map templates a few days ago. The idea behind map templates is to allow for an easy, but yet powerful way, of creating maps with different looks. The templates (found in maps.txt) determine what kind of structures (rooms, corridors, caves etc) that should be generated and how probable it is for a certain feature to become generated. Each structure can also be configured to contain different kinds of objects and monsters, thus allowing to create special rooms like a treasury, armoury or living quarters. The system is almost ready, and all I have to do now is to code the different structures. I have all of the basic structures ready (room, corridor, cave and lake) but I plan to include many, many more as time goes by. I have also moved the doors from objects.txt to a new file called features.txt. This new file is intended for all mapfeatures, such as doors, stairs, altars, traps etc, but right now all it includes are the doors.

I have also added a simple [M]inimap that shows the explored parts of the dungeon. This is just a quick hack to help me with my work on the map templates, but it will do for now.

Thanks to Ralph Moeritz I found a bug in the [A]imed attack command. It was evidently so that the command didn't take any time to execute, resulting in a rather big advantage in combat :-) Thanks to Ralph noticing this bug I also found another bug of the same kind. This time it was the take off equipment command [b] that didn't take any time to execute either...

I have decided to upload a new version that will fix these bugs and include the features mentioned above.

January 10

I have differentiated the AI a bit. The tendency to flee, scavenge, attack and group can now be controlled in the monsters.txt through the <FEAR> <HATE> <GREED> and <GROUP> tags. This reminds me that I have to document the .txt files to make modifications easier for other people. I have also added an [u]pdate command that refreshes the screen. This is a temporary solution to the refresh bug. I have decided to upload a new version that included the changes.

January 9

The new effectsystem was more difficult to create than I had anticipated, but I think I have found a nice way to implement it now. The system is not ready yet, but I hope to finish it within a week or two... I have made changes in the way the .txt files are parsed which resulted in easier, but slower parsing. The new parser has allowed me to put some work into the object and monster templates. The templates control starting inventory, stats and other things. Templates will allow for more variation in objects and monsters without that much work. It is quite simple to create variants of 'basic' objects and monsters. Besides the new parser I have fixed a bug in the loot command that didn't allow looting of inventory. The quit command didn't work either, but it is fixed now thanks to David Mauser. Thanks David!