Can anyone help me in this department. I've tried pulling apart some of the code from Shining Aid, but there's too many classes and I can't seem to pinpoint them. I'll keep looking, but if anyone could help me figure out how to implement the range tiles, that would be awesome.

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EDIT: Nevermind, I'm an idiot. I figured it out. lol

lol I'm not even going to say that I'm back, because as we all know, that could be a horrible lie.

What I will say, is I did not back up any of my files for ANC, ultimately leading to the destruction of the project. I have been working on a new project and it's coming along fairly well.

I had a question though. Like my last project, it was more of a lounge with the ability to connect with another player and battle them SF style. My question is, if I added a second part, an "off line" world which the player could follow a story, collect rare items, ect and bring them into the online battles, would this be a good or bad idea? Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the reply,

That gave me an idea. What do you think of this?

-Entering dungeons that have to do with the storyline would be obligatory battles. (No way to avoid them)
-Outside of dungeons, monsters roam the maps. Players can choose to avoid these monsters or attack them, entering battle mode.
-Some maps would have aggressive monsters. Players would be warned before entering aggressive areas. Aggressive monsters, once they have spotted a character will chase them, trying to get them into battle.

I think this is the overall best approach, but if someone disagrees, I would love to hear about it.

P.S. Beside monsters battles, players are able to battle each other on whichever map they choose. All full maps are battle compatible.

Ok, so as "The New Coven" is being developed, I've come across a 'problem'. I've decided to include one huge main island called "ShiningRock". Players can accept quests, battle friends, recruit members, ect.

There are two main aspects to the game:

-PVP: Players can find a map they would like to battle on and... battle.

-PVE: Players follow a large storyline when they feel like it. This opens up new areas to explore and aids the character with additional items, spells, ect.

My problem is, since the online battle is turnbased, I'm probably not going to be able to have random battles every couple steps. It could take years for a person to get from town to town/dungeon. So how do I correct this. A battle every 5 or 6 maps?

Basicly, players need to be able to level up when they want but not get frustrated with 10 minute battles every few steps they take. Any ideas? Sorry if this isn't as clear as I tried to make it, I'm at work and trying to deal with 10 different things.

Thanks,

It's nice to be back. I've been looking around the forums but I can't tell which projects are still progressing. I hoped that by the time I got back I would be able to test someones game.

Guess not *boo hoooo*

Chris

Holy cow!

I can't believe it's been almost a year. Insane I say, INSANE! Things have been hectic since I moved back home from Banff... and now I've moved again as well as working two jobs just to get by. I almost forgot how much I like developing. I hope everyone is doing well and I'm starting work on the project again.

Ciao for now,
Chris

Hey guys,

Like I said, super busy packing and getting ready to go but I took some time tonight to do some more work. I don't have any screenshots but I redid a lot of code to tighten it up. The client and server exchange information wonderfully now so you can check out other players members online. My next step is to make characters more dynamic by adding items and equipment. After that is complete I will be starting on the super duper cool create and join options! And after that the battles!!! Whooo hoo, I'm excited.

The only problem right now is that everyone gets the same characters with the same names and the same stats... so battles won't be all that different, I hope you can forgive me for that. But once I quit being lazy and install access I will design the database and get some customization in there so you can recruit, name and develop your own members for battles.

I've been wondering if I should allow members to have personalities... make them say things sometimes, give commentary in battle and the like. Depending on how you work with them is how they communicate with you. Do you like the idea?

Thanks again for the encouragement. The project hasn't stopped, but I'm in the middle of a move from Banff back to my hometown.

I'll keep you guys updated.

Hey,

Recoding won't be much of an issue, as witty and clever as I am, I coded it in a way that I can basicly just build onto the engine and add a world, quests, ect.

I'm at work again, I'll catch up with you guys later.

Ciao,
Chris

Yes, this is going to be one of those projects that I update VERY often. You will see almost all the steps and features being added to the game. Here is a small update. I'm working on it as much as I possibly can between work and life.



Basicly the plan is for now to get a workable demo out as soon as possible. You are given 5 characters, 1 is flying. The earliest stage I play on testing is once the basic battle system is in with attacking. If all goes as planned I should have something playable within a week to a week and a half.

Oh, also, for ease I wrote the game in VB. Like I said before, if the game is successful enough to put some REAL effort in it, I may re-write it in C.

The reason the basic version will have 5 pregenerated characters is I don't have access installed making it very hard to build and implement a database at this time. I really can't be arsed to install it right now. lol

Ciao shining fans!
Chris

Hey thanks for the positive comment.

The storyline won't be implemented unless I change the game from just a battle system to an online rpg. But it's always good to have it prepared in case that happens. Add me to msn if you have it, chrisposkus@hotmail.com

Worked on the lounge today. This is where you can check out other members, recruit, chat and shop. It's imcomplete and the GUI is pretty nasty, but I never claimed to be an artist. Enjoy.

I'm also going to add a list of features that I plan to implement. This is kind of my record instead of doing it on paper or a text document. If you guys have any other ideas, please, feel free to tell me.

Basic Version (Just Battle):
- Chat lounge that allows players to:
1) Chat with other players
2) Recruit team members (NPC's)
3) Shop for weapons, armor and items
4) Check out your own members stats and other players as well
5) Join or create battles:
 i) Choose the map
 ii) Number of members each player can use (up to 10 I think)
 iii) Choose whether there is a set start point or whether players can set their members randomly.
 iv) All sorts of restrictions (eg. Spells, Races, ect)
 v) Choose whether battle ends when team leader is deafeated.
6) Observe another 2 players battles
7) Possibility of TEAM battles, 1 vs 2, 2 vs 2, 1 vs 3, ect.

- Battle
1) Screen moves with battle
2) Hold down a key to have full control of screen movement
3) Terrain attributes (I will need help with this as I don't know how SF uses terrain.)
4) Mouse over member gives stats.
5) Full keyboard control (keeping the oldschool feel, mouse over is the only mouse usage)
6) Day and Night for extra effect (possibly?)
7) Turn based (Obviously)
Chat system

I'm not sure how that battles sequences are going to work just yet, so some thoughts on that would be great.

- Other
 1) Your leader is multiclassible with over 15 branchable classes so far.
 2) Members level up and are stored on the server for safe keeping.
 3) Unique armor and weapons for each class.
 4) Tons of spells for magic users
 5) Classic flying AND swimming enemies.

Full Version (If battle version takes off):
 - Full world to explore and meet NPCs that will join you.
 - Quests with an oldschool feel, none of this collect 1000 rattails crap.
 - Gain spells and skill through quests that not everyone can have.
 - Use any map outside of buildings as a battle map with another player.

Hope you guys like some of the features, most of them are fairly common place, but I plan on using some unique elements as well.

Ciao!

Ok so Chris got really drunk the last few days and found it very hard to write code when he was seeing triple. I'm doing quite a bit today but I thought I would just update that the client now loads and moves around on maps. May not be a big step, but a step none-the-less.

I'll slowly post screenshots so you can see the progress.

Tateru?

Anyways, I'm at work right now, rather bored, tired, annoyed... lol you know how it works. Needed a break so I jumped on the computer. I will hopefully have those screenies sometime tonight so you can post some news.

The next few days are going to be the big ones. I've developed so many different engines, it's usualy a breeze to get something workable out within a week and the features are what will take longer. Eventually I'm wondering if someone can act as a host for the server.

Anyways, I really do hope you can rebuild the community. The original SF and SF2 were classics that need to be revived and I look forward to designing something worthwhile that will hopefully appeal to all SF fans.

P.S. Any ideas for a name? lol

I was thinking "A New Coven: Guardiana"

Check it out.
http://www.freewebs.com/anewcoven/

Chris