Epoch - PBBRPG in Development

[FiziKx]

Death from old age will definitely be a concern, and if you play for many years then you may need to just move on to a new character. Regarding technological ages--yes, absolutely. You could easily spawn one character in a stone age society and another in a medieval society.

As for the magic... I haven't really decided anything about that yet. If you'd like to offer suggestions, though, I'd love to hear them throughout the development process! I'll keep you in mind regarding testing--just remind me on my forum, if you could!

[Vega]

Sounds pretty cool, actually...

[FiziKx]

There are some screenshots of the bare bones that I have created so far in the first post in this thread:

http://epochgame.freeforums.net/thread/2/description-game-development-plan-etc

Keep in mind that I am not an artist, so things are not as beautiful as they will eventually be (hopefully!). Keep in mind, also, that this is still just the skeleton of the game--there is so much more to be added, but here is where it stands as of right now.

[Chemosh]

I just hate things that are 100% hereditary where you can't learn something because you weren't born with it so it is something I check on even if it is unlikely to come up. I'm unsure how I feel about old age, though that I can deal with a lot better than something that is hereditary that can't be learned.

A possible suggestion, if you do want magic to be the stuff of legends you could tie the most impressive magic to locations that are specifically very hard to find or survive in. Like on the top of an extremely high mountain, some random place in the ocean (If sea travel becomes a thing for all I know it is an oceanless land) or in a jungle surrounded by larger and more aggressive things (If you ever add npc attacks) and make it so the person has to stay with in a certain range for a certain amount of time doing or not doing certain actions tied to the location. If you want to be really brutal you could make it so they have to return every so often and repeat those actions if they want to keep the power.

The result should be impressive magic abilities that people may very rarely see. Only certain people brave enough to risk death, smart enough to figure out what is wanted and prepared enough to survive can get the magic with out other players doing something about it (This may result in a monastery or something similar popping up on the location if it is survivable and the magic is good enough but if it is difficult enough to get to a city shouldn't appear.). They would be tied to certain locations so it would be unlikely for everyone to see it unless magic users travel a lot (and if you force them to return to the location every so often to recharge they won't most of the time).

Of course someone will probably think of an even better suggestion than this.

[rd1988]

Gradients are ugly, please drop them

Interface aside, how performant is your technology? Generally speaking, visual languages aren't extensible and generates slow code... Bubble has many, limitations so it's not really suitable for this kind of project... unless your game is going to be very basic and you don't care about scalability. You may not notice it for now, but one day you will regret it. Python and ASP.NET are the way to go.

Learning python is not that difficult, in fact, python is one of the easiest languages to pick up, with a plethora of content available to start.
Best of luck!

[FiziKx]

Thanks for the ideas, and I believe you that there may be unforeseen downsides, but I'm gonna stick with what I'm doing (except for regarding the gradients ), as I'm in pretty deep already and have found Bubble to be a lot of fun to work with. I considered the downsides before, but I decided to give it a try anyway as a pet project. Since then, I have been pleasantly surprised with what I've been able to accomplish with it. I've had to be super creative sometimes, but there hasn't been anything yet that I couldn't get working.

Regarding the performance itself, it hasn't been troublesome for me at all yet, but I haven't really done any stress testing. I do not really expect that my game will ever be so popular that it will crumble under its own weight, but if it does ever get to that point... well, I have confidence that Bubble will be improved enough by then to not make it a problem (especially if I end up getting one of the best plans, which I would under those circumstances). However, after a little more development, I am going to be opening the game up to a number of people to see if there are any nagging issues. If that brings a great number of problems, then I might change course. I know the challenge that lies ahead, so just wish me luck

Also, thanks for the suggestions, Chemosh! You definitely have some interesting thoughts there that I'll keep in mind!

[Marian]

Thanks for the invite FiziKx, 'twas fun.

I swore off this style of RP, but just in that half hour of clicking around it seems I'm going to get addicted and never accomplish a thing ever again, doesn't it?

Anyway, I am VERY impressed at how much you've gotten done in just a couple of months. I'm poking at the spreadsheet for the stone age thingies now.

[SekoETC]

I would like to beta test this.

[Rebma]

I would like to beta test this.

Right?

[SekoETC]

Not that I'm going to steal ideas for my own game, but it would be nice to see what works and what doesn't.

[Marian]

I've had a lot going on IRL and haven't really been able to keep up with this. FiziKx, are you still on hiatus?

And is there some reason someone went into my account and removed the Epoch link from my sig? :/ I'm on a new computer and had to dig this thread up to find it again.

[Alladinsane]

Cantr staff does support this game and any other platform that brings choices to the players.

It was never said that we do not support it, please confirm or retract.

Best of luck with this project Fiz, the thread stays right here.

[Kyriel]

Sigh. Please, both of you. This thread is about Epoch: http://epochgame.freeforums.net/ Not your bickering.

[FiziKx]

Hi all. Just been busy with school and stuff, is all. This is an ongoing project that I will work on as time permits throughout the year. Still looking for volunteers to help out behind the scenes, by the way.

[Alladinsane]

You're right Kyriel.

I split the ooc part but left your voice of reason here.
There are a few other issues, but they will be given a few days.