Labyrinth Lord the computer game

[kipper]

Looking good!

Each character has 8 inventory slots for his gear. As little as 3 may be being used, e.g. armour, shield, weapon, giving room for miscallaenous items like gems, jewelry, torches, etc, though it could fill up quickly when you start adding bows and quivers of arrows. Currently no encumberance is calculated for items held, the only restriction are the 8 slots. With 6 characters in the party this gives 48 slots for equipment in total.

My first thought is that 8 slots per character is low. "Pool of Radiance" has 16 I think, and "Wizardry 6" has 24 (although it is different in that you need many separate pieces of armour, and many quest items which cannot be dropped). I guess that 8 was what it is in "The Bards Tale" though. I assume you be able to pool items (such as torches, arrows, gems), but not larger items like swords? This will severely limit the strategy of collecting enemies' items to sell back in town... intentionally ? Anyway, I'm sure play testing will determine if 8 is too low, or just perfect .

[kingius]

Yep 8 slots are what the Bards Tale used so I have used this as a guide. It's possible that I might extend it to ten if it was too low. I also thought that it was a good compromise between not utilising encumberance rules (which Pool of Radiance does and brings in a completely different problem*) and being able to carry too much gear. With the Bards Tale, more slots were used on armour because it counted gloves/gauntlets and helmets as well, so your party tends to be wearing those all the time, leaving fewer slots for other items. I think that those slots will be recovered on the front row in the Labyrinth Lord computer game and lost on the back and middle rows, which will be using ranged weapons or reach weapons, but then again on those rows there'll probably not be a straight up melee weapon being held because they are too far back. So as you say we'll see how it all works out.

*The problem the encumberance rules bring in as not being able to move around for carrying so much treasure. At least in Pool of Radiance, I was literally throwing money away so my party members could move around in combat.

[kingius]

Here are the highlights of the latest build...

* Spells: Cure light wounds, Light, Shield, Purify food and drink, Read Magic, Sleep, Detect Magic
* Monster saving throws are now in the engine.
* Blindness as a time limited status effect (-4 to hit) is now in the engine, it iscaused by the Light spell when cast at an enemy. Blinded enemies are described as such in battle.
* Wizards now get six first level spells to choose from and not merely 4 as before; the light and detect magic spells are no longer the sole province of clerics.
* The Inventory 'Look at' option completed. This allows the player to examine items and discover their characteristics and which classes are barred from using the item (if any are).
* Resting in the dungeon will cause spare rations to go mouldy. The cure for this is the purify food and drink spell, which retores the rations back to an edible state.
* The two existing shops (the marketplace in Dragonia village and the smith in Dragonia castle) have been refactored into a generic shop method which improves the code a bit.
* Dragonia Tower is now in the game and provides a magical scroll and item shop. The intention is to have it provide identification services as well.
* Magic scrolls are now in the engine. At this moment only the magic missile scroll has been implemented. However, the engine understands that scrolls are one use items and can trigger the correct spell.
* Read magic may be cast upon magic scrolls to learn new spells. Any and all scrolls held by the caster are checked. Any scrolls with spells that the character currently knows are not lost.
* Magical items are now found unidentified. Detect magic will reveal any items in the caster's inventory that are magical but their true effects will not be known until the item is either used or taken to Dragonia Tower for identification.

[kipper]

* Resting in the dungeon will cause spare rations to go mouldy. The cure for this is the purify food and drink spell, which retores the rations back to an edible state.

Although I can see this as realistic, and a good use for the Purify spell, this type of micromanagement isn't my particular cup-o-tea... but it's your game .

[kingius]

The dungeon is out to get you. It attacks your food (when you rest), your minds (via twisting mazes) and your bodies (via its denizens). It seeks to destroy your party with every door you should have left closed. It's a den of evil - a pandoras box - where only the strong can survive for very long and only fools venture into its depths. Your weapons against it are iron, arcane spells and boons granted by the gods that watch over you. The only truly safe place to rest is back in town, where civilization is protected by the King's men.

[kingius]

Highlights from the latest build...



*Giant killer bees with their lethal save or die poison.
*New random name generator implemented with class (and therefore) race specific names, which leads to names like 'Copperhammer' the Dwarf or 'Steelheart' the Fighter.
*Character generation now split into two steps - rolling stats and choosing class. Previously it was all done in one step with class being determined randomly.
*Surprise checks and surprise rounds are now in the engine for wandering monsters. Wandering monsters may be fled from. Currently placed encounters cannot be.
*The dungeon now properly shapes the formation of the enemy. If you are in a 10' wide corridor then the enemy is split into groups of 2. If there is space for them then the group size can be increased to 3 or 4 while in a dungeon. This means that while there may be 12 kobolds only a few of them at a time can hit your front ranks at once. Of course, in the wilderness, there is space for the enemy to hit your front rank melee fighters all at once.
*The enemy formations now emphasise the importance of ranged attacks to pick off the back ranks before they become the front ranks. The enemy is not smart enough to 'refill' ranks that have been thinned down so this helps keep your melee fighters safe by reducing the enemies they must face at once.
*Character generation now lets players know when the intelligence of a character is so low that they are illterate. This currently has no effect on the game itself but is there for flavour.

[kipper]

*The dungeon now properly shapes the formation of the enemy. If you are in a 10' wide corridor then the enemy is split into groups of 2. If there is space for them then the group size can be increased to 3 or 4 while in a dungeon. This means that while there may be 12 kobolds only a few of them at a time can hit your front ranks at once. Of course, in the wilderness, there is space for the enemy to hit your front rank melee fighters all at once.

Nice! Overall, I like the amount of detail you are putting into this.

[Koren n'Rhys]

+1 to that! This project is starting to really come together. It looks great and if you continue to model the rules this accurately, it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun to play. Can't wait for you to open the beta! I can't recall - will this be a downloadable, stand-alone game, or a browser-based thing? When will I be able to play on my Android tablet?

[kingius]

It's a downloadable game that will run full screen on both Windows and Linux. I'll keep the forum informed about the progress, which is all good. The next update will be a graphical one, stay tuned...

[kipper]

Sucks to be me ! (I only have a Mac... but I have hopes of running the game with WINE, although I've never used it before).