Something that you need to focus on when you are doing these is the concept of having the legs of the character being a separate sprite from the upper body and arms. The way the code works now where the character is to be drawn is decided and then his legs, in whatever state of walking/standing they are currenly in, are drawn. Then his upper body is drawn in whatever frame of an animation it is currently in, so stuff from that part of the sprite can over lap the legs and feet sprite.
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Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: CondottiereWars.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4b635db2
Fault Module Name: KERNEL32.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18215
Fault Module Timestamp: 4995344f
Exception Code: e0434f4d
Exception Offset: 0002f328
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
AppName: condottierewars.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.0 AppStamp:4b635db2
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Now featuring PANTS
(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4614/cyclonestompler2big.gif)
(http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3922/cyclonestompler2hueg.gif)
Alright, I'm gonna take a cyclonestab at slashed doublet
Now featuring PANTSI'm confused why some pixels are larger than others.
(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4614/cyclonestompler2big.gif)
(http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3922/cyclonestompler2hueg.gif)
Alright, I'm gonna take a cyclonestab at slashed doublet
Does the mustard color look off? I'm thinking of making it brighter, more of a yellow, but I dunno.
(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/550/beardpike2.gif):luv:
(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/550/beardpike2.gif)
Is that possible? Each character having three separate elements - one for their feet, one for their arms/weapons, and one for their torso/head?
Anything is POSSIBLE.
I was really getting a kick today about the idea of Pike & Shot having a sort of SMB3/Mario World style map. The map would not have fixed paths, you would just walk around it freely like in zelda or Mount & Blade (Heh, it just occured to me that my title is sort of like Mount & Blade, almost similar setting though the eras are off and the actual game play is about as similar as asteroids to donkey kong, but whatever).
There would be keys that you find in levels that you can use to open big gates on the map screen but there are more gates than there are keys, so you have to choose. Behind one of the gates might be a port city with a little sailing ship that you can jump in like the canoe in SMB3 and sail around with to find levels on other continents, stuff like that.
I wanna come up with more ideas for it though, make it really varied but gamplayless other than just the aspect of exploration, the levels are the real gameplay of the game, this is just a cute extra.
Exploration would be cool, yeah. We'd have to figure out how combat would play into the overworld screen though. Would we just enter a level and start in formation? Or would we have a hero character as Our Guy, who at the press of a button would switch from being able to take on single guys with his sword to calling up the formation for bigger battles.
I dunno, I'll have it in the back of my head for a while. It's a good thought, I'm just trying to think of how we'd get in and out of formation battle, and if we would think about how redundant zooming in and out of certain screens might get. It could be worth our while to have everything take place on the same plane, and just have our troops capable of appearing when called when there's a lot of enemies.
One thing I'd love to do is undirected exploration of some kind. When I'd play games like Master of Magic or Heroes of Might and Magic 2, among the best parts are finding little caves or abandoned ruins or out-of-the-way locations and finding goodies inside after a fight.
We could do something like Chrono Trigger's overworld in appearance, with our guy moving around in whatever direction until he hit an enterable location. It would then bring up the recon report and you'd get your mans in order before deciding whether or not to enter the fray. Any area you conquered could become a rest and recruiting stop, with troops unique to that area available for purchase. So if you beat a bandit camp in the woods, you'd get mercs to choose from. Beat a volcano and you get some skeleton summoners or lava dudes. A port gets you pirates and sailors, as well as certain travel routes you can take on the sea.
Sometimes there's a seedy guy at the newly conquered port bar, going on about an alternative route through the MERMAID INFESTED SHALLOWS.
My original idea is in its simplest form is just to have it work just like mario 3 where there is a map screen where you just have your hero character or a scout or something and there are stages that you can enter with that guy which brings your army over and then you enter the level with a simple screen transition as whatever your formation is after the last level ended and you made your upgrades and sackings. It would be more free roaming like Chrono Trigger's world map though and stages would be stuff like enemy armies, towns under attack with visible fires and fight clouds, little enemy forts with their troops clearly visible inside the ramparts, a great seabeast's head in the water, stuff like that. All levels will have suitable cleared state look too, the fires are out and the attackers gone, stuff like that.
We could have mobile stages too like in Star Fox 2 or UN Squadron where there are mobile enemy forces or supply trains, bandits, that sort of thing that you can attack for extra cash or in the case of enemy armies, to prevent them from endangering a stage you cleared by contesting it again.
I do like the idea of cleared stages offering mercs of their "type" though. It reminds me of a reall old idea I had for a strat RPG where you went around ficitional Asia recruiting forces that had different types like sumo guys, Indian warriors, Samurais, Japanese feudal police guys, etc and the game would be designed that certain guys worked well with eachother and strengthened their effectiveness through synergy.
But yeah, just keep in mind that the mantra for this game is elaborateness of features and possibilities AS LONG AS it never leads to complication of the player's interaction with the game. All the player has to do is click his pike button, or click his shot button and then he can wander around a map and select stages
upgrading your squad, I would like to happen as automatically as possible with the decisions being almost not there or handled as a result of who you recruit in battle
if you want a lava guy, route one in a level and then make sure he doesn't get killed.
Eventually he will be a cool high level fire guy.
But really, I want almost any formation to work, so long as you keep enough pikes and enough shot to fit your play style.
They one thing I may allow is the ability to swap pikes for shots, or vice versa so you don't end up with a lop sided formation and no quick way to fix it for yourself if that's what you want to do.
Geo please edit your post above the one above this post right here with Ziiro's real name, as using internet handles on an internet messageboard is making me uncomfortable.
Looks like the doppelsoldiers might have limited range compared to the pikemen though.
bunch of other good comments etc
I have piked
and
I have shot.
If you have a large enough group, it's possible to advance in spite of yourself by using SHOT over and over again.
Alright folks
B E H O L D
(http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/43/bigredready.gif)
I'm thinking we could make a sweet KERRK, WHUNK sound when everyone in the row connects their hand to the pike, then a WHOOPHMPH when they bring the weapon to bare.
Geo T. Hermal I am very disappointed in you; you had promised that your next Pike & Shot post would be about its glamorous new change to incorporate the only two mechanics in gaming: Pie & Shot.
So no dinosaurs.
We're looking at various kingdoms of humanoids with a similar level of technology at this point?
Yeah, I found that thread a while ago, but I don't think I linked you to it.
I don't like how there's a lot of pictures in it that are too modern. Like I don't want to see flintlocks and tricorner hats, you know?
Pike & Shot is really about the EARLY modern era, the Great Italian Wars basically. Crossbows and bows are still around, firearms are barely out of the hand cannon stage, and armoured cavalry and heavy infantry are still major battlefield entities.
I think that specific period really has it in it to look TOTALLY BADASS, but I feel like it's rarely explored and the very few times it has been attempted by artists or what have you, it hasn't been done very well...
Although Condottiere's new card art is pretty cool.
I like stuff like these:
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/8161/lafronde.jpg (http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/8161/lafronde.jpg)
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6800/ivry.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6800/ivry.jpg)
and I totally want to rip this off for a dramatic and macabre in game event.
(http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ATHEISM/hangtree.jpg)
I think that specific period really has it in it to look TOTALLY BADASS, but I feel like it's rarely explored and the very few times it has been attempted by artists or what have you, it hasn't been done very well...
Possibly useful? (http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=19889.0)That is really dang impressive.