ok. i'm playing it, and...
* it shows a lot of work, talent, and knowledge. kudos to all the participants.
* shows much more promise
* has some neat stuff, most importantly the alchemy and the menu-driven system
and you all are rightly to be praised.
now, for meh... and respectfully and admiringly aware of this most excellent and complicated work in progress...
1. Menus
everything i liked about Darklands was the interaction, events, backgrounding, etc. the menus back in the day were new and exciting, because there was no alternative. in the years gone by, and after playing Darklands again recently and MBS (umm, short for m&b shattenlader) i realize how easily i am over-menued.
i don't get the impression i am in a larger city. dunno why. i just don't. i did a test a while back in a city expansion discussion where in a scene i put in four doors, allowing not entry into a house, but entry into a different part of the town. believe me, that works better these days. with the m&b visit once then jump to menu system, it'd shorten some walking.
although a painstakingly copied the Darkland menuing, it really needs to be condensed in some way, i have no sense of excitement or movement that i get through the common m&b format. playability needs excitement.
2. character creation
much in common with menuing, thank God or Allah or Buddha or whoever it only happens at the beginning of the game. i don't miss the complexity of the original Darklands, and again, having become accostumed to the flexibility of the base m&b system, i'm almost tired out before i get to the tavern at start. add either ctd, lockup, (neither of which i critcisie, as it is v.1), and getting my ass seriously kicked, if and when i restart i find i spend quite a bit of time setting up my character. i would think that simply allowing four choices with a formatted selection of skills/abilities based on profession tied to str, agl, int, chr would be an infinite improvement to getting the palyer into the game. as well as randomising you fellow travellers as opposed to doing the same picking their skills. forces you to work with what you got rather than what you want.
3. maps cool. add some eye-candy though useless roads. add more forest density.
4. you can add a pic to a menu. i've been doing it for my next version of m3. as an example,from module_game_menus.py::
**<snip>**
(
"simple_encounter",0,
"A band of {s1} approaches. You look to your {reg10} troops, and weigh battle against their {reg11}...",
"pic_pirates", [
(str_store_party_name, 1,"$g_encountered_party"), etc etc blah blah blah
**<snip>**
you get a .dds called whatever.dds dumped into module/textures, then add the texture and material to a module brf file that holds textures and materials, then import the flat brf from commonres/pictures, and rename/reskin. yep. it works. takes a little playing for proportion, but it works good. you can tag a pic to a menu - catherdral for church areas, city for city entry, etc; if you want, you can set up a conditional menu selection for each town. eye candy.
per request, here it is:
http://mbx.streetofeyes.com/index.php?topic=166.0and i got the jeansburg-leave town bug. seems to be relate to sister joining after improving her stats. if i leave alone, or don't improve more than twice, it didn't happen.
i would love to pick through your code. cheers. maw
