Developing cRPGs w/ 3.5 OGL

by **wynams** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:44 pm

BlueSalamander (and others),

First of all, I am eagerly awaiting your game. I have extracted many small details from watching the preview video and I love your implementation. I am a long time C++ developer toying with the idea of a D20 system game and I had some questions for you.

1) Did you hire a lawyer to help you decipher WOTC's license to avoid future troubles?
2) You implement some things that the 3.5 ruleset poster child game (TOEE) did not even attempt such as bull rush ... can you reflect upon the most difficult thing Knights of the Chalice tackled?
3) Did you ever toy with the idea of hexagonal tiles? If so what ended up being the decisive factor in ruling them out? I realize straight surfaces present a challenge, but calculating radii, etc. such benefits seem to far outweigh the cons.
4) Any plans to make any subset of your work open source?
5) Do you make use of XML? I would think for things such as exporting your characters to "show off" your party on your forums would be not difficult to add? Also if combat could be exported via XML it would have probably helped via debugging.
6) Is there an option to use the point-buy system for ability scores? If not, why (seems trivial to implement)?
7) What is your biggest regret now that the game is almost done?

by **BlueSalamander** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:49 pm

Hello Wynams, thanks for your post,

wynams wrote:1) Did you hire a lawyer to help you decipher WOTC's license to avoid future troubles?

No. I'm convinced I won't have any trouble since I'm following the rules to the letter. Also I think Wizards of the Coast are people that can be talked to, as far as I know they haven't sued anyone for using their open content.

wynams wrote:can you reflect upon the most difficult thing Knights of the Chalice tackled?

I think the most difficult thing wasn't so much the application of the rules but rather the sheer amount of work that is needed when making a cRPG, any cRPG. Inventory screens, items, dialogue scripts, lots of maps, creating encounters is a lot of work, as well as typing the engine of course, since a computer doesn't know anything and needs to be told everything and every detail. Even now I have a lot to do just to correct the problems that were detected in playtest.

wynams wrote:3) Did you ever toy with the idea of hexagonal tiles? If so what ended up being the decisive factor in ruling them out? I realize straight surfaces present a challenge, but calculating radii, etc. such benefits seem to far outweigh the cons.

Yes, I sometimes dream about making a game like Civilization with hex tiles, but that would be pointless as there already are very good games like that out there. However there are two considerations that for Knights of the Chalice make straight squares superior:
- the OGL rules use squares when talking about area-of-effect spells
- square grids can easily be represented using arrays in C++, unlike hexagonal tiles.

wynams wrote:4) Any plans to make any subset of your work open source?

Not really. Much later, there could be a module editor like in Neverwinter, depending on success.

wynams wrote:5) Do you make use of XML? I would think for things such as exporting your characters to "show off" your party on your forums would be not difficult to add? Also if combat could be exported via XML it would have probably helped via debugging.

No, I'm not familiar with XML.

wynams wrote:6) Is there an option to use the point-buy system for ability scores? If not, why (seems trivial to implement)?

Not at the moment. Point-buy removes all randomness and thus has a tendency to produce standardised characters, as if coming out of a factory. For example you will want your fighter to have heroic strength and minimal wisdom. With the current system you can still have the heroic strength but the rest will be random, wisdom (and thus willpower saving throws) can be high or low regardless of strength.

7) What is your biggest regret now that the game is almost done?

Not to have gone for a higher resolution, but then again that would bring its own problems.

by **wynams** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:21 am

Thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions!

Like I mentioned, I look forward to playing your game for two reasons:
1) I love a good cRPG with true turn-based content
2) I am toying with writing my own 3.5 Open Content project

I am a C++ developer, and similar to you the idea of graphics scares me. So I am planning on teaching myself Flash and writing the game in either Flex, Actionscript 3 or using FlashCS4. So far, Actionscript has been the easiest to pick up since it is pretty close in format to Java.

I am blogging about my design process at:

http://d20.theunionofconcernedgamers.com/

If anyone cares to comment.

As I have to learn Flash to write a game in it, I have absolutely no idea when it will be done. Also please go easy on critiquing my Flash ... it is the first one I have made. I will try to sprinkle my updates with Flash samples to convey thoughts, demo aspects of the game, etc.

Cheers,

by **getter77** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:35 pm

Bookmarked and looking forward to it all hopefully coming together. I'd likely want to help out in what ways I can, few as they are currently but more over time, as I also learn various things. Best of luck in the meantime!

by **BlueSalamander** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:42 pm

Good luck wynams. Your first Flash character sheet looks good. Strength makes sense for the intimidate skill - a half-orc barbarian would intimidate just by grunting. Maybe it should be the highest value of strength or charisma since even someone with average strength could make effective threats.

On the issue of the application of D20 rules online, you may also be interested in this website: http://www.fantasygrounds.com/.