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	2/12/2003
	Contributed by:Ben I have re-initiated work on TORPG. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because I just got into college and I don't have anything better to do for the second half of my Senior year. Or maybe it's because I'm no longer taking a class in Java and I want to keep my skills up. So I'll continue working on TORPG. First I need to fix it up to make it web-compliant (It was written on an older version of CodeWarrior that let a lot of security violations go un-noticed). Also, its resolution of 1000x800 is a bit awkward, so I'll need to improve display on smaller screens somehow. And then, I'll finally add the RPG elements: NPC's to talk to, quests, plot, and even currency and item shops. And the monster AI could stand to be improved by a lot. Heck, I could even add in the original Tern Overgul Java game as a minigame (it's a third-person 2D overhead shooter). So far I've put up a compiled version of TORPG that I think should run, at least on some web browsers. Check it out if you're interested. That is all for now, expect more news in the future though.

	8/1/2002
	Contributed by:Ben TORPG is officially finished. The source, as it is, is for the most part finalized. It's not a very good game; we didn't accomplish some of our goals; but I'm sick and tired of it and will not go back to work on it further. Perhaps I might spend some future effort getting it to be runnable from your internet browser, but that's iffy. In the meantime I'll be writing some other fun Java applet games, like the ones discussed in the previous entry. A word to my fellow programmers: Stephen, Greg, and Vincent, it was a lot of fun programming this game with you, and I hope you enjoy your first year of whatever college you're going to! Good luck! I, on the other hand, am still stuck at Blair for another year. sigh

	6/18/2002
	Contributed by:Ben Whew! TORPG is (finally) finished, as per school standards! I will be uploading the source soon to the usual directory. I may or may not get back to it - I'm kind of getting bored of it. Although it is a stand-alone RPG already, with a full complement of monsters, items, and all that good EXP and gaining levels stuff. I've tried to get it to work on the web, but I'm having muchos problems with that. A simple game called Hover that I just programmed in the last two days on this Linux computer works on the web. Why? It was built ground-up to work with Sun's latest javac, so it will work online. TORPG, however, all 4,000 lines of it, was written on CodeWarrior PPC computers at school, so it was built from the ground-up to run on Apple Applet Runner, NOT web browsers. This explains the extreme difficulty I'm having in trying to port it. The error messages aren't useful and it seems to be guess and check right now - darned security errors! I may just give up, this might not be worth the effort. It's not a web-optimized game anyway, with over a megabyte of pictures and data to download ... Hover, on the other hand, is a single .class file! Large difference, you see. Other Miscellaneous Programming News: I figure that since TORPG is mostly finished, I might as well report on some of my other programming activities in here. I'm working on two things right now. One is a Perl script that translates the Al Bhed language (from Final Fantasy X) into English, and vice-versa. Various translators are already "out there", so getting the correct letter-to-letter will be easy. But what I'm unsatisfied with is the way these translators work: they mostly come as a compiled Visual Basic executable! Argh! Which does no good, of course, if you're on a Linux computer and just want to access it on a webpage :-) That's why my version is going to be compatible with any system that has a web browser, Mozilla, Opera, Galleon, and Lynx included. Also, I've been thinking of writing another Triple Triad like game (of Final Fantasy VIII and IX fame). I previously wrote it in C++ using the CMUgraphics package. This was before I knew Java well. I have the source somewhere on this webpage; just search for "TTriad" on the main index or something. Anyway, it was a good n-player game, but I just don't feel like putting in the effort to convert it to Java. That's why I want to do a new version that's much more intricate, and sort of simulates actual battlefield warfare. You could say I'm a sucker for minigames: Blitzball, Triple Triad, fishing in Breath of Fire, etc., hehe. The game I'm thinking about will have a battlefield composed of either squares with diagonals (eight squares contiguous to every square) or hexagons (six hexagons contiguous to every hexagon). The number of cells on the battlefield would be in the order of 25 to 49: i.e. 5x5 through 7x7. Maybe these dimensions would be selectable. The hexagons look more appealing, since I've seen them used in a lot of real warfare simulator stuff, but they seem a lot harder to do in Java. Maybe I'll just go with square cells. Each player commands a number of troops that they deploy onto the battlefield. Players alternate turns, and in each turn the player can either: play another troop, move a current troop, or taking an action with a current troop (such as attacking). Assuming square cells, troops will have 8 positions accessible to them all around the cell that they're in. They'll need a different attack/defense rating for each of the primary directions and each of the diagonals. Heck, maybe the option to rotate a troop to defend better should be an option. There will most likely be a rock-paper-scissors type combat, not unlike the human-dolls-ghosts scheme from Kartia (for PlayStation). But, to be more futuristic, I'll be using laser, plasma, and projectile: plasma beats laser, laser beats projectile, and projectile beats plasma (so sue me if it doesn't make much sense). For simplicity, each troop is a single type, rather than each of their eight faces possibly being different. So far I have established: a character has a single "type" that may be more or less effective against certain enemy types, as well as eight different statistics to use in interacting with all eight cells surrounding them. These statistics will most likely include attack, defense, and perhaps some other stuff. There will be some randomness, of course, just so that an 8 strength won't always beat a "measly" 7 defense. To fit in all of these stats for each troop, which there might be up to 49 of on the screen at once, I'm going to need to triage. Most likely there won't be unit pictures (not like I could draw them anyway), and attack/defense values may be shown visually as shades of color along the edges they interact with. So, these are the basics. Also, the defense value functions as hitpoints. A measly attack of 2 versus a defense of 9 most likely will only do 1-3 damage, with leaves the defending unit still alive with almost no scratches. Hey, I think I'll implement a Magic: The Gathering type system: for each of its eight faces, the troop will have attack/defense values. If a 4/1 attacks a 3/1, most likely they'll both ie. If a 1/3 attacks a 1/5, most likely they'll both survive. Get it? Not to mention some of the other stuff. Long range attacks? I might want to add that in. Special abilities? Certainly! For example, "Leadership": all troops deployed on cells adjacent to this character get +1/+1. Or "Defense": any character adjacent to this troop that gets attacked gains +0/+1. The possibilites for specials are endless. I can think of at least 20 good abilities, but I'm not going to write them all down yet, certainly not until I have this more carefully developed. And of course troops are going to have to have experience: as they get into more fights and survive, they become stronger. Also, remember that since each troop has 8 separate attack/defense values, some may be weak and some may be strong. A good attacker must manuever around to attack the chinks in the battle-worn soldier. And troops can have deployment costs, with army cost not to exceed 100 or whatever. Thus, people can build armies of lots of little guys, or a few bigs guys. Each unit is custom made, and I guess in the end, who wins comes down to who builds more efficient troops and uses them better. Does this sound like the deployment/unit cost concept from such 3D miniature games as Mage Knight and Warhammer? You bet it does, and there's a reason; this is a good system for balancing gameplay! I have time for one last musing before this entry is over. Instead of a cell-based game, how about a free, un-constrained game, such as the aforementioned Mage Knight or Warhammer. The terrain can be generated randomly, and distances are measured between units in determining ranges and such. Of course, there's room here for a boatload of special abilities. It may just come down to me making a simplified version of Mage Knight in Java, to be played online. Now that would be cool!

	6/11/2002
	Contributed by:Ben I've been working on the project a lot recently, and many many changes have been made. First of all, I've added in a new "Rage" feature, like EXP in that it rises with killing enemies, but it is more randomized and adds some special features. When the Rage meter is full, it will start blinking with yellow circles. This is a secret, so maybe I'm spoiling it by putting it on the main page, but if you click on one of these circles, you go into a RAGE! which means you get awesome stat upgrades for a period of time. As your Rage level grows, your Rage powers become more powerful, but bewarned: the more powerful your Rage level, the harder it is to fill the gauge, and triggering, or even failing to trigger a RAGE!, will empty out the gauge! I've also added other improvements, like more fixes to the mouse interface (the keyboard is totally unnecessary at this point, but playing with it makes it go by quicker). Also, there's a new level tileset for some added variety! The only real thing left to implement is the "score" feature: this will excuse the total lack of any way to win the game by turning it into a competition for the highest score, until if gets too difficult and you just can't win it anymore (Not unlike very early arcade games, such as Frogger or Galaga). I've also added more screenshots to the Graphics section. Enjoy!

	6/5/2002
	Contributed by:Ben I got a lot of work done today. First of all, I was noticing that the keyboard interface was a little bit less than friendly, so I added a mouse-only system that involves all of the basic actions you can perform in the game. This entailed a lot of changes! The other changes were minor, and included such stuff as miscellaneous bug fixes. It's official, the seniors graduated on 6/3/2002 , last Monday, so the project is all left to me now. Next I need to add bits and ASMs into the game, but there's no guarantee I'll have it done by due date.

See all archived entries here.

Fyre's Domain 2002