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English RPG Mod: Skills and classes

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Poll Poll

Should weapons appear onscreen when equipped?

Only registered users are allowed to vote
Yes, at the cost of performance
71.43% (10)
No, we need those fps
28.57% (4)
14 votes cast

old Poll RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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Hello guys and gals!

I've been away from these forums for a long time, for lots of different reasons. After going to college to study computer science because of this very game, I can't help but to feel the need of finishing one of the greatest mod ideas that never got released: a RPG based mod!
Such creation is no simple task, though. That's why I'm asking your help to do it.

What do I want from you?
Ideas, suggestions, opinions.
People who can model and people willing to do simple map editing (no need to know any scripting) are also very appreciated. Those last two should pm me if interested.

At first, I'll release a poll every week. Each poll will help me build the core of the mod, the very foundation on which the mod will be build upon.
edited 7×, last 16.05.15 01:44:21 am

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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Sorry for the long text, scroll down to the bottom for details about the poll.

Just to clarify: This is an ideas thread. I'm doing polls because there are basics of the mod (theme, basic gameplay, etc.) which are pretty much a yes or no, things I'm limited in what I can do or things I don't want to stray too far from.

I'm a few hours late on the update, sorry for that. 4 people are willing to help, I believe this is a good start as I expect people to gather around as they start seeing this is going somewhere. I know how skeptical this community is when it comes to mods (and they have reason to be).

I've decided to use Titanium as my source code, mainly because it runs a lot better on my computer than the original one does (I'm on Windows 8.1).
So far I've only worked in one basic script that will randomize the amount of damage dealt by the player, varying by -20 to +20% along with a 10% chance of dealing a critical +50% damage. These values will be tweaked later as I implement the skills system and start to balance the difficulty. Code in spoiler bellow:
Spoiler >

My main purpose with this script was more about getting familiar with Stranded's language than anything else.

Another script I'm working on is a script that allows the player to draw and sheathe weapons, as well as seeing the weapon when it's drawn. Drawing and sheathing is something very easy to do, making a weapon appear "in hands", though...
I cannot simply use the weapon item, I have to load its model through an object to prevent flickering. Also, since there's no way to attach an object/item to a unit (as far as I know) I have to constantly create and free objects, which is pretty demanding (about 3fps loss on my machine). One way to fix it would be using Stranded 2.5 source, as it allows to attach objects to the camera, but then I'd lose all the AI benefits of Titanium as well as its stamina system, not to mention that Stranded 2.5 files are nowhere to be found.
I'm considering on dropping this idea entirely as Titanium is already considerably heavy for some machines. 3fps may not sound like much but in an in-game situation it's a lot, specially for a single function. That is a matter for another poll, though.

New poll:
So, what should be the main theme of the mod? Most people forget that RPGs are about role-playing and not about medieval-like fantasy stuff. This means that a RPG can be about everything as long as it allows players to have a say on how they want to play it.
This led me to think about three basic ideas for the theme, which are easy to implement:
• Basic stranded theme: Keep stranded's theme and turn it into a RPG, where you as a man lost in a god-forsaken island have to fight for your life, but this time, with classes, more in-depth NPC interactions, and more tactical RPG-esque gameplay.
• Pirate oriented theme: Be a pirate. Pillage, treasure hunt, claim lands for your own, fight or join pirate clans, etc.
• Classical medieval theme: The classic, over-used medieval theme we all know and love. Mages, warriors, castles, kings, you already know it all.

Nothing keeps us from mixing two or more of these themes, I could add pirate clans in stranded or medieval theme, for example, but I can't keep focus on 2 themes and bring both to their full potential.
All themes have a magical and non-magical variant. This basically tells if the mod should have magic elements on it or if it should stay a bit more realistic.

Please, vote.
See you next week!
edited 1×, last 03.05.15 01:41:37 am

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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Looks like we've got ourselves a tie. I don't believe we'll receive any more votes, but I'll give this one a few more days (until next wednesday). It's likely to remain like that, though, so I'll end up choosing which one will be the theme.
In the mean time why don't you give me your opinions about the problem of the weapons showing up on screen I commented earlier?

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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The pirate theme won.

I'll be writing some of the ideas I have for classes and skills down to see what are your opinions. In the mean time, vote for the new poll and share your ideas on classes and skills with me.

As I explained before, it's possible to have weapons appear on-screen when equipped, but the way to do it is considerably demanding (around 3 fps loss on my machine). So should I make weapons appear on screen or should I let go of this idea? Remember that I'm already using Titanium as my source code which is already more demanding than the original source code.

EDITED:
I've written down my ideas on skills, classes and weapon types:

Skills:
Spoiler >


Classes:
Spoiler >


Weapon Types:
Spoiler >


All of this is far from final, I'm always taking suggestions and might remove some of these as necessary.
edited 1×, last 15.05.15 02:34:52 am

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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@user Captione: As for now I'm on my own. I'm looking for a hand, though, so that I may focus more on the scripting.

It seems that your choice is already clear. I worked some more on the script that'll make weapons appear on screen and it's about 30% done. As you can see on the following screenshot, I already have the script to make weapons show up and follow the camera around:


The hard part begins now as I'll try to animate the weapon during attacks.
edited 1×, last 17.05.15 02:40:23 am

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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@user GamerNewb:
I'd love to, but the time it'd take to get it in a working state is just not worth it when Stranded III is looming in the horizon.

@user pupp3tStudios:
I ran a few save/load tests and it seems to be working just fine. Any specific problem I should be looking at?

UPDATE:
I sat down for a while and managed to get a pretty simple sword animation to work. It's still around 50% done but the other 50% is much more animating and a lot less scripting, which means it'll be done soon.

Just to make it clear: All these scripts are being written in a way that they'll be easily editable. As long as you know what x, y, z, pitch, yaw and roll mean you can easily add new weapons and edit their animations.
If you want to add a new weapon, for example, all you need to do is create a weapon with an id bigger than 1000 and an object with the same id and model. You then set a bunch of variables in an on:inhand event in the weapon's script and adjust these variables to make the animations and position of weapon work correctly.

I have a little concern about weapon flickering on slower machines, though. I'm not sure it'll happen and it's theoretically easy to fix, but this is something we'll have to be aware once the mod is released.
edited 1×, last 18.05.15 06:14:26 am

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Captione
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I suggest slightly low-poly to diversify the models to lower-higher spec machines. Maybe low-poly will be good on the appearance of the mod, SII is pretty much limited anyway, but with the use of scripts, "limited" will become an understatement.

old Re: RPG Mod: Skills and classes

Stranded_Guy2910
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Sorry for the lack of updates, college is is keeping me very busy, but don't worry, it's just for a few weeks.

Just wanted to let you guys know that the implementation of the script for the weapons was a complete success and that I'm already adding new weapons to the game. As soon as I implement all weapons I may release an extremely early pre-alpha version so that you may test it to make sure everything is working fine.

UPDATED:
Sorry again. I just want to let you know that I'm still working on the mod. I'm very bad at modeling so it'll take quite some time for me to model the weapons. If you know about mods which have nice weapon models I can use, I'd be very grateful.
At first I'll try to get one of each weapon type, so that I may start working on the classes. A picture of a dagger/sword model I've been working on:

I'm planning on making texture variants for the models so that we may have weapons made of different materials (I'd love suggestions on exotic materials).
edited 1×, last 06.06.15 07:04:17 pm
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