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Darklands: Tales from Transylvania- First Demo out now!

Started by nitrogenfingers, 05 May 2012 - 08:29 AM
nitrogenfingers #1
Posted 05 May 2012 - 10:29 AM
Darklands: Tales from Transylvania


Features:

- An overworld, dungeons and towns to explore
- An awesome world set in 1430's Transylvania, filled with monsterous denizens and insane characters to kill and talk to respectively
- Inventory screen- check your equipment and swap out for better loot
- Varied weapon varieties- from rotten wooden staves, to sharp iron daggers, weapons with dynamic attributes and enchantments
- Interactive NPC's- enter one-word phrases like "work", "name" or "job" to idly gossip with NPC's, ask for employment or buy and sell equipment from merchants and smiths
- A dynamic quest system, ranging from interacting with NPC's, exploring the darkest recesses of dungeons, killing a particularly bothersome monster, and much more
- A great demo, with 5 quests, 3 dungeons (each with their own secrets) and an interesting dialogue to go with it
- Over 3500 lines and 180kb of lovingly hand-crafted adventure!

Planned:
- Implementation of D&D 4.0 like ruleset, inspired by Neverwinter Nights and other D&D conversions, to make better use of die rolls in NPC interactions, combat encounters and abilities
- A much vaster, in-depth world to explore with a dark story of magic, evil and deception behind it
- More weapons, baddies, towns and locations
- More interactions- pickpocket NPC's as well as chat with them, and use special abilities in towns as well as in the caves
- More interesting dungeons- levers, trapdoors, portals, monster spawners, and whatever other crazy things I can think up!
- Colour- as requested, this will somehow make an appearance. I expect it will still mostly be monochrome, however.
- Lunamagus and Solumagus, magic take from the sun and the moon to project awesome powers to make you more powerful

The latest demo, and a video of an earlier version of the game being played:
Directly from mediafire: http://www.mediafire...vkoea1298t7tpvk
GravityScore's nifty installer (requires HTTP): http://pastebin.com/F3AifzEu

[media]http://youtu.be/HiGMDdyDDm0[/media]

A few hints in case you're stuck with the demo:
Spoiler- The class you choose doesn't have a big effect on your character, just on your starting equipment. I usually find the Journeyman to be the easiest character to start as.
- When talking to villagers, ask them short questions, like "name", "job", "quest" etc. If an NPC drops a word that seems important in conversation (like "darkness", or "report", two you SHOULD be using) then try asking them those words, or even other NPC's. Some quests will require you to ask around.
- You heal whenever you return to town- if a dungeon is too hard, get out of there and high-tail it back to town to heal.
- You can find a dungeon map and a compass to help you navigate in some dungeons, and in other dungeons quest providers will give them to you.
- Watch your compass- X's that appear on it indicate an enemy in that direction
- You can sell equipment to merchants, and buy from smiths. In Nebun, that's Matheus and Fane. Remember to upgrade your equipment when you're ready
- Some gear is higher quality than other gear- a flanged iron mace will be slightly better than just a normal iron mace. These objects are priced accordingly as well- don't sniff at a rotten quarterstaff, it might be a bit weaker but it's a lot cheaper!

Controls: Arrows for movement, turning and attacking (in the direction you point)
Page Up/Down for climbing ladders
I to access your inventory
J to read your journal and any quests you have
Space for most actions- opening chests, talking to NPC's or skipping a turn
Enter will quit the game

Note: The demo is quite difficult (I've only finished it the once). It may seem like a point where the game has come to an end but there's one last little secret to find before it's truly over.

I hope you enjoy it
Zalerinian #2
Posted 05 May 2012 - 01:52 PM
Well that looks very amazing. good job, and keep up the nice work. I'd be interested in getting this, if you're going to release it :)/>/>
Zalerinian #3
Posted 05 May 2012 - 01:54 PM
So i look at the post, see some nice things and get interested, then i see your name :)/>/>. You've made some really nice scripts. Going to try to use them on a server later :)/>/>
nitrogenfingers #4
Posted 12 May 2012 - 03:57 AM
I've added a code download and display for the overworld- towns are next, then we tie the whole thing together (somehow) and start thinking about combat and inventory.
nitrogenfingers #5
Posted 01 July 2012 - 05:57 PM
It's been 2 months… how time flies. A free weekend saw me pick this up again and get quite a bit done on it- in fact it's pretty close to Alpha now, which I'm happy with.

Much larger scale than I had expected such a simple game to be, but there's much more beneath the hood than I initially planned, predicable in hindsight. In any event, though buggy, I've successfully patched together overworlds, towns and dungeons into one cohesive game, included dialogue, quest assignment and completion, combat and leveling. It's all still extremely rudimentary and rather dull right now but it's making strides.

I've planned a few things for the next update, though I can't say when that'll be:


- Inventory
- Store interface for "merchant", "smith" and "wizard"
- Skill sheet
- Speed in combat and delays on enemy movement
- Greater control over random generation of enemies (type, level etc)
- Variable tracking in quests

Once that's all done, I'll start on this:


- Magic
- Quick-equip interface
- Weapon abilities
- Dynamic dungeons- levers, secret doors and more
- More graphical elements in dungeons
- Serialization of some sort
- Music

I'm still having trouble with the artwork- my rather unimpressive wraith as the final boss at the bottom of the Mausoleum should testify to that, so if you're hoping to help, please PM!
tommyroyall #6
Posted 01 July 2012 - 09:15 PM
Hey, I would love to assist you in the art aspect of this project, and also code if you require help :P/>/>.
nitrogenfingers #7
Posted 18 July 2012 - 01:41 PM
I hate to bump this topic, but I'm hoping casual readers will be able to give me a hand. In addition to artists (which I'm still looking for), I'm now hoping to talk to someone with a bit of experience playing pen-and-paper RPG's. D&D and Shadowrun players I'm hoping you can help me!

With combat working it's now time to think about how level increments are going to affect that, and how weapons stats and abilities come into it. Totally ignoring magic for the moment, I'm looking at the following stats:

Strength- affects weapon damage- this will be I think a minor multiplier
Endurance- a dampener on all damage taken- this feels more like a constant with a multiplier that is removed from damage taken
Agility- Compared with enemy's agility to determine chance to dodge (affects AC I expect) as well as absolute chance to cause criticals
Speed- As combat is turn based this is compared with your foes and the higher score has the chance to "skip" their opponents turn.

All skills have a base of 10 and a max of… oh I don't know, 30. On top of this:

Base Damage- Found in all physical weapons, this value varies by 0.4 * (strength / 10), or 1.0 * (strength / 10) or something similar
AC- Found on most armour, this increases the chance to dodge. At present I have no idea how the maths behind this works.

In fact I have no idea how a lot of the math works, or how to make it fun- as though the player's choices are actually making some sort of a difference to their play style. I'm really hoping a few people from the community with a bit more experience with RPG's, especially pen and paper ones or rather more eclectic ones with different means of combat could pitch in and offer some suggestions.

So yeah… help!
6evergreen #8
Posted 09 September 2012 - 12:30 PM
i wannna help but i need a downloud
masaki84 #9
Posted 17 September 2012 - 03:50 AM
You sir are awesome. and I'm sitting here looking at my screen pointing saying "Wow, thats amazing" cant really get over that fact, inspiring me to get off my butt and learn to code again. I've a small backround in java and c++. but I have let my skills rust :)/>/>
mrSLIMEguy #10
Posted 27 October 2012 - 06:16 AM
how do you make the dialogs?
bacause displayconfirmmessage says it returns nil
nitrogenfingers #11
Posted 27 October 2012 - 05:14 PM
Lets see… I don't remember that far back (dialogue has changed RADICALLY since that version) but from my recollection you pass through a message to confirm dialogue, which then handles drawing the dialogue on the screen, and the user just types a key to continue. So if there's a point where you want a message to be displayed, you just call the method and it should display the dialogue.

I think in that version conversations are just displaying confirm dialogues, so you can't interact with NPC's (they just talk to you), so in the instance you want them to say more than one thing you just call it more than once.

I think. It's been awhile :D/>/> Later versions implement conversational dialogue- you can ask a range of topics to which NPC's can provided responses, this includes asking for quests etc, and those methods return the player's or NPC's answer.
Zanamas #12
Posted 08 November 2012 - 09:37 PM
the thing is when i type my name, it says "attempt to index ? (a nil value)" any help?
britefire #13
Posted 11 November 2012 - 07:49 PM
While I doubt you still need any help with the stats/combat, I have some experience with D&D 3.5e combat and could help if you still needed it.
nitrogenfingers #14
Posted 13 November 2012 - 06:59 PM
While I doubt you still need any help with the stats/combat, I have some experience with D&D 3.5e combat and could help if you still needed it.
That'd be great- send me an email sometimes and we'll see what we can figure out.
rhyleymaster #15
Posted 13 November 2012 - 07:11 PM
My god. I just had a nerdgasm. YOU ARE AMAZING!
iamsparta1234 #16
Posted 19 November 2012 - 06:22 AM
How do you install this? (Sorry, i'm new to ComputerCraft :)/>/>)

How do you install this? (Sorry, i'm new to ComputerCraft :D/>/>)
I forgot to mention, i use a mac.
Mr_0DD #17
Posted 30 December 2012 - 07:29 AM
i Know this might be a bit crazy but what if you could connect multiple computers via modems and have do a multiplayer…just a suggestion
Left4Cake #18
Posted 30 December 2012 - 10:50 AM
i Know this might be a bit crazy but what if you could connect multiple computers via modems and have do a multiplayer…just a suggestion

In concept that would be nice, but they may require a new engine.
nitrogenfingers #19
Posted 30 December 2012 - 07:29 PM
I have been working on this recently, retooling the quest system and combat. New demo soon.
This will never be multiplayer. Its based on a turn based engine not a real time one and the experience I'm trying to create is squarely aimed at a single player. Perhaps later efforts will incorporate other players but I don't find it likely.
Left4Cake #20
Posted 31 December 2012 - 04:18 PM
In my mind what would be better then just taking on multiplayer into the main game would be to make may be 1 dungeon that acts as a 2-player co-op or pvp dungeon. Not saying it should have multiplayer at all, but if it did that what would work in my mind.
nitrogenfingers #21
Posted 22 January 2013 - 02:59 AM
It's been some time since I looked at this but I'm still excited by the idea, so I've yet to give up hope and today posted a new version of the demo! After quest 1 I've not really finished the script so you'll likely run into trouble in the dungeons but a few cool new features have been added:
- NPC's are now more than just waking signposts- you can engage in conversation with them! It's pretty limited, you may ask them particular keywords like "name", "job" etc. and they'll respond with relevant information (if they have any). NPC's can now buy and sell equipment through trade, and you can ask them for work directly
- Oh, and speaking of, equipment! A small set of base items, like cloaks, sandals, daggers etc, and a huge range of enchantments, like "rust" for iron weapons, "flanging" for maces, "sturdiness" for wooden items and so on. All are dynamically assigned values based on their enchantments, which influences how much they cost, how much they sell for and (eventually) how often they will appear!
- Inventory screen! Equip and learn about your awesome new equipment here, by hitting the I key

Lots of new stuff planned, not least of which a much better demo! The next versions will also have:
- Fancier dungeons, with traps and levers and hidden passageways and other cool, dungeon-esque things
- Magic! A few ideas on how this'll work but I'll keep it hush-hush for now
- A combat system a little closer to the standard D&D 3.5 or 4.0 ruleset. In fact a lot of things will borrow from this ruleset, including incrementors and d20 dice rolls (a short stint as dungeon master has given me many ideas on how to make this game more fun!)
- Music! This'll need a note-block system, so any composers out there, contact me!
- More art! I'm always looking for a good artist. If you're there and can commit to a big project, contact me!

The story is also written- it will be a historic fantasy set in medieval Romania, and the prequel to a novel I wrote for a contest last year.

Watch this page for more info!
Cranium #22
Posted 22 January 2013 - 05:52 AM
Watch this page for more info!
Will do!
Skullblade #23
Posted 22 January 2013 - 06:00 AM
can you fix the mediafire link? I cant connect to it…
or maybe a pastebin for us lazy soals?
nitrogenfingers #24
Posted 22 January 2013 - 12:30 PM
can you fix the mediafire link? I cant connect to it…
or maybe a pastebin for us lazy soals?
I'm always having trouble with mediafire links on these forums, I think it's the forums themselves. If you copy the link and paste it into your browser it should work fine.
I can't pastebin right now, as it's quite a few files (5 or 6) and needs to be submitted as a zip.
Skullblade #25
Posted 22 January 2013 - 12:46 PM
ok thanks, will try out when im on my computer next:D
KeeganDeathman #26
Posted 22 January 2013 - 03:57 PM
HOW DO YOU INSTALL?

EDIT: Nevermind figured it out. heres how.

go .miecraft/saves/(world name)/computer/(computer id) extractt the .zip

then go to your computer, type cd rpg

then type rpg

follow onscreen
nitrogenfingers #27
Posted 22 January 2013 - 04:34 PM
I've taken down the download link to iron out a few problems, but it'll be up soon, hopefully with a new over-world, new towns and a new plot (farewell, Sacalin!)
NonStopGamer #28
Posted 05 February 2013 - 12:37 PM
Man that is amazing, maybe a colour version for advanced computers? ( after your done this one of course)
nitrogenfingers #29
Posted 05 February 2013 - 12:50 PM
Colour is quite literally what I'm working on at the moment (hence the big delay and the takedown). You'll notice text support in NPP and an update to GameUtils is on the way.
TheOddByte #30
Posted 06 February 2013 - 11:39 AM
I love this game since it's really good, I'll be glad if you release a Colour version.
martin509 #31
Posted 18 February 2013 - 02:44 PM
Still, keep a black-and-white version for us Tekkit players, please!
Also, off-topic: How about adding an API for submitting highscores over rednet? That would be awesome!
ssandiss #32
Posted 10 March 2013 - 12:51 AM
Download link please? :)/>
TheOddByte #33
Posted 10 March 2013 - 12:25 PM
Download link please? :)/>
There was one but I think he removed it..
I was lucky too download it when there was one :D/>

@nitrogenfingers
Will you be releasing a new download link soon since I think I accidently deleted the game and
would like to play it again.. :rolleyes:/>
nitrogenfingers #34
Posted 10 March 2013 - 04:07 PM
Tell you what I'm going to spend today finishing up my demo. Here's what to expect-
- Colour support. I really can't promise this, this time but I'll give it my level headed best effort.
- The stuff I've already done- better NPC conversations, more dynamic quest, cool equipment, trading, dungeons maps and compasses being made available zelda-style through chests
- A much larger world this time. Just the one town but about 6 dungeons and a lot more NPC's. Nebun will be divided into two areas.

And for later versions:
- Expanding on this word- I have a total of 5 towns planned and over 30 dungeons
- Magic- I've got the system sorted out, there'll be a day night cycle and two 'schools' of magic, Solumagus and Lunamagus, the former being powered by the sun and being spells like fireballs, healing and other one-off spells, while the latter is powered by the moon and is for more constant effect spells like protective shielding, necromancy (thread revival!) and weavesight.

I've also written up an accompanying novella to release when the game is done, to give a bit of background into the history.
LuaEclipser #35
Posted 11 March 2013 - 01:10 PM
link is broken :P/> i saw that video when it first came out, and really wanted it :P/>
nitrogenfingers #36
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:05 AM
Two days it took. Two days of blood and effort, and the game is still short of expectations.

To have this thing finished is going to take weeks of solid work.

Anyway, new demo is out now! It's about 3 times bigger than the old demo, with better dialogue, more secrets, and more dungeons to explore. You have to use your wits a bit better. But as far along as it has come (and really, it's leagues away from the original), there's still so much left to do…

I'm afraid it's still not in colour. That was just too much of a job for this time.

You can get it here: http://www.mediafire...vkoea1298t7tpvk
Yes it's a mediafire link, and yes a proper installer will be coming soon.

Please play, bugtest and give me your feedback. Let me know how you like it!

NF
GravityScore #37
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:20 AM
Holy crap nitro……. This is absolutely incredibly crazily epic… You've put so much effort into it. Its incredible…

One suggestion, when starting the game, and you press any key to start, the pressed key shows up in the dialogue where you type your new name. To prevent that, after you detect the key has been pressed to start the game, before you start typing your new name, add:

os.queueEvent("derp")
os.pullEvent()

It should prevent the key from showing up.

Once again…. Absolutely amazing……….
theoriginalbit #38
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:35 AM
One suggestion, when starting the game, and you press any key to start, the pressed key shows up in the dialogue where you type your new name. To prevent that, after you detect the key has been pressed to start the game, before you start typing your new name, add:

os.queueEvent("derp")
os.pullEvent()
It should prevent the key from showing up.
Or just do

sleep(0)
thats the way I had to stop my guis from having the char event go back to the shell

EDIT: Even just os.pullEvent would help as it removes char event
nitrogenfingers #39
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:39 AM
Holy crap nitro……. This is absolutely incredibly crazily epic… You've put so much effort into it. Its incredible…

One suggestion, when starting the game, and you press any key to start, the pressed key shows up in the dialogue where you type your new name. To prevent that, after you detect the key has been pressed to start the game, before you start typing your new name, add:

os.queueEvent("derp")
os.pullEvent()

It should prevent the key from showing up.

Once again…. Absolutely amazing……….

Thank you- I never noticed because I always type "enter" when that bit pops up. I've since made the change, and I appreciate noticing the effort that went into this- it was a solid 2 days work. But I think it's approaching being more than just a CC distraction, and an actual, real game, and I guess these sorts of things weren't easy to program back in the day.
GravityScore #40
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:43 AM
I made an installer for you :P/>

http://pastebin.com/kKnQpAQZ
nitrogenfingers #41
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:53 AM
I made an installer for you :P/>

http://pastebin.com/kKnQpAQZ

Thanks man! I have that listed on the main page. Why does that archive format look familiar? :P/>

And there's the official count, 5400 lines. Jeez. What a weekend.
GravityScore #42
Posted 12 March 2013 - 03:56 AM
I have that listed on the main page. Why does that archive format look familiar? :P/>/>

Your compressor was the first decent thing that came up when I searched "compressor" :P/>
nitrogenfingers #43
Posted 12 March 2013 - 04:13 AM
A quick second playthrough and I've already come over a dozen little errors, multiple quest acceptances, typographical errors, semantic errors (Fells cave is WEST no east).

If you are playing and come across any of these, please let me know, so I can make the necessary changes.
TheOddByte #44
Posted 12 March 2013 - 07:24 AM
So damn awesome but I've tried the installer and get the error io:57 something..
bjornir90 #45
Posted 12 March 2013 - 08:50 AM
Looks cool, I hope that one day I will have your skill.
nitrogenfingers #46
Posted 12 March 2013 - 10:41 AM
So damn awesome but I've tried the installer and get the error io:57 something..

Any issues you might be having with the installer can be solved by
- having it in the root directory
- making sure there's no other directory called rpg
- adding a sleep(0) between line 57 and line 58
TheOddByte #47
Posted 12 March 2013 - 12:03 PM
So damn awesome but I've tried the installer and get the error io:57 something..

Any issues you might be having with the installer can be solved by
- having it in the root directory
- making sure there's no other directory called rpg
- adding a sleep(0) between line 57 and line 58
Yeah but isn't that something you should have tested before you've posted it..?
nitrogenfingers #48
Posted 12 March 2013 - 12:24 PM
I didn't post it. Nevertheless, I've updated the pastebin link with the fix.
LuaEclipser #49
Posted 13 March 2013 - 09:18 AM
nitro i have a great idea that you could implement;

buttons!

i know that means upgrading the program to support the advanced computer, but it will be worth it

maybe like a button for the chat to NPS
darkroom #50
Posted 13 March 2013 - 10:32 AM
So I don't have page up down I am on a mac you should have some game options so you can edit your controls
Cranium #51
Posted 13 March 2013 - 10:37 AM
And for those using NEI page up/down gets eaten by the mod, and will not pass to CC.
nitrogenfingers #52
Posted 13 March 2013 - 05:32 PM
nitro i have a great idea that you could implement;

buttons!

i know that means upgrading the program to support the advanced computer, but it will be worth it

Regarding upgrading to advanced computers, support is on the way, but I don't want to make them 'advanced exclusive'- I want this to work on both platforms, as I feel that mouse and colour is useful but not integral. So keyboard checklists will probably remain the order of the day, I'm afraid.


maybe like a button for the chat to NPS

I was actually hoping to have a bit of discussion or even debate about how I've handled conversations in this game- right now the implementation isn't perfect but even if I got it going really well it remains tricky. I intend on staying with the open-discussion format, and playing through the quests and how conversations with NPC's influence them may help to explain why I've made this rather strange choice. Did anyone forget to give Jocelyn the tonic? Indeed, was anyone unable to find Jocelyn? In modern RPG's it's so easy to just click "Good option", and skip over the dialogue- this approach forces the player to pay closer attention, and engage with the story.

That said there's a lot that can be done to improve the method. A lot of colour games using a similar input style (check out Cythera as an example, a Ultima clone I took a lot of inspiration from) would colour important words differently, and when clicked on it would pass that through as though you'd asked that question. Most also kept a list next to the dialogue window of all topics of conversation with that NPC, or topics you're aware of, which can also be clicked. I expect both features to appear in later versions.


So I don't have page up down I am on a mac you should have some game options so you can edit your controls

I wanted to make a snide comment about supporting macintosh, but then I think I'm one of very few PC users who still uses those six function keys these days. I need to figure out serialization for saving and loading, so that'll probably all be included in an options menu (along with the ability to modify key bindings). Not a hard job, and it would be a much better way of letting users know what interactions are actually available than just having to guess.
darkroom #53
Posted 14 March 2013 - 10:31 AM
I wanted to make a snide comment about supporting macintosh, but then I think I'm one of very few PC users who still uses those six function keys these days. I need to figure out serialization for saving and loading, so that'll probably all be included in an options menu (along with the ability to modify key bindings). Not a hard job, and it would be a much better way of letting users know what interactions are actually available than just having to guess.

On a side note I hate my mac but this is for another day… Ok so I just finished the ruler quest and I loved it. Some things for improvement dungeon fighting could have some sword swinging or staff-magic stuff. The combat is very…. easy and is solely based on level. So every time i start the game i just go kill some rats and level to. Also torches in the dungeons? Also if you could like I could write some quests for you.
nitrogenfingers #54
Posted 14 March 2013 - 01:49 PM
Ah good, glad to hear that. The tech behind those conversational quests is very refined, and I liked how the quest sort of branched off, from one problem to three that had to be solved to complete it. Regarding combat, as you say it's not very nuanced, still using the very basic strike to hit/miss approach you might find in an ARPG like Diablo. Combat at present is based very much on the original Ultima (in fact a lot of this game is), which was just click to kill. To make it more interesting I'm planning on adding AC to players and enemies, thus introducing a chance to miss, critical attacks to make combat a bit more fluid, and magic- both combative magic like barriers, force fields and stuns (sun magic) and explorative magic like teleportation, weave sight for seeing through walls and instantly locating chests and stuff like that. Hopefully that combines to add a bit more interest to how dungeons play out.
darkroom #55
Posted 14 March 2013 - 02:27 PM
Reading your code I appreciate the easy function names and variable names. I am pretty sure I understand what to do to make my own quest thing is I need more room to add my own town :P/>
Edit: Could I possible get a beta version with the real map if you have made it?
nitrogenfingers #56
Posted 14 March 2013 - 03:20 PM
Thanks for that, it'd save me some trouble. I have a map of southeastern Transylvania on my whiteboard and will attempt to transcribe it to you- best if you PM me your ideas so I can figure out how to incorporate them, or you can just make an RPG of your own if you prefer- the system is designed to be in such a way that is sort of possible. Let me know either way and I'll provide you with what help I can.
Northfleet #57
Posted 02 April 2013 - 01:52 AM
How do you stop talking to a npc?
darkroom #58
Posted 02 April 2013 - 02:38 AM
Leave or farewell :)/>
eurosat7 #59
Posted 05 October 2014 - 10:33 AM
Hi nitrogenfingers - are you still on this topic? I have some thoughts/questions/tipps for you if you are interested. pm me.
Lyqyd #60
Posted 05 October 2014 - 07:53 PM
He won't be able to PM you since you're in the New Members group (until you have three approved posts, anyway), so you may want to edit your post to include the thoughts/questions/tips you mention.