Polishing

Jun 25, 2019

Things still happening. A lot of polishing of locations, dialogue and code.

Things are moving along. I’ve been doing a lot of dull, tidying up. It needs to be done, but it is not so exciting. Locations, dialogues and code have all received a little love.

Locations needed it the most. They were still using mostly old sprites. Windows etc. were not using the new, fancy Ultima V style. Had to do a pass through every town, village, castle and hamlet to make sure the windows, braziers, fireplaces etc. were being utilized.

While doing this there were a few final dialogues that needed fixing. Fixed those. Still haven’t moved onto the final ‘quest’ pass for all dialogues. That will need some paper work to make it all connect correctly. Probably the most important part, but not looking forward to it really.

Fixed up some code too. Like Peer. It wasn’t displaying the new tiles the way I liked, so I customized it to look goooood. Now it does. Like this:

Hmmm..let’s see…what else…well, I added a couple of ‘huts’, taking advantage of the new hut graphic I made when removing the Oracles. Also contemplating adding a ‘mine’ to utilize the ‘mine’ sprite which was also added when removing the oracles. It seemed a pity not to use them. However, I am stuck on developing a new style for the mine. It should be distinct from the crypts and dungeons, I should hope. Both in presentation, and layout. However, actually developing that is not the easiest.

I also thought to make the ‘mine’ the entrance to an underground ‘orc’ or ‘troll’ city. Leaning away from this, but it could be neat.

Here are some shots of the three styles ‘in progress’

Dungeon Town is like a monster version of Buccaneer’s Den. Fully of baddies. Possibility of getting attacked. Danger lurking behind each door. A somewhat ‘ruined’ style.

Style 1 for the ‘Mine’ is full of support columns, ruined, but organized. It had a layout at one point, but now it is falling into decay, leaking and dripping water everywhere.

Style 2 is very simple, basically just ‘cave’ rooms. A primitive cave/mine that is now the dwelling place of various monsters.

If I can’t hammer out or become satisfied with a style soon, I will scrap the ‘mine’ plan, and just replace it with a simple hut and an interesting unique, quest linked occupant.

Edit

Here is a third style, something between the other two. Narrow corridors, supported by decaying timber beams and posts. Narrow passages make it suitable to small, low level parties.