theWulfen 2 – Blog

March 1, 2009 on 6:10 pm | In Game Environment | No Comments

Having thought about it overnight I think that a Zelda-esq map system is going to be the best direction to take.  Programatically its far more logical as it can use a regular co-ordinate system rather than an ‘offset’ system.  Even though I have coded isometric configurations before but it seems unecessarily complicated.  The key element is to ensure that the graphics don’t look cartoon like, else the game is going to end up as ‘yet another indie game’ or a Zelda clone, which would cheapen the whole game entirely.   Currently I’m thinking of (ultimatly) having 3 different map types.

Travel Map: each small square represents roughly 20ft by 20ft.  Character will be represented by a generic blob (initially) and travel from square to square.  A person walks at an average of 5ft per second, thus on flat ground would cover one tile in 4 seconds.  This is quite a long time, so creatures should be able to cross the same distance in 3 seconds intially, difficult terrain will take a bit longer to traverse.  When a creature fully enters a tile then it can do the necessary ‘what can I see’ checks etc.

Village Map: would be displayed when a creature enters some kind of village or area where they can select buildings to visit.  Should be of a larger scale than the travel map.  This scale map would also be the scale that I’d use for dungeons when they eventually get added.

Location Map: largest scale there is and used to shown things like the inside of buildings where you can interact with things.

I’m still unsure on how to create the chuffing travel map though   It’s a difficult one to be honest.  Creating a proper admin tool would mean that it keeps the control of the map within the game, however it would require a significant amount of development that in all honesty wouldn’t be used anywhere else.  This would mean the map would either need to be created by hand or using a separate tool of some kind, neither of which is that desirable.