Sabre's Blog

[Sabre]

Two forums I post at (SFO and Co-optimus) have started pushing a user blog section, so I'll do it, but you should know that my main blog is here

http://sabrext.livejournal.com/

and will share alot of the same content.

One thing you should also know is if you choose to read this that it will not be the usual "got up and had a piece of toast" style blog. Instead it will mostly be rants, opinions, project updates and stuff I find interesting.

[Sabre]

My rant against people who say horror games are dead is finished. Link and text version below

As a horror games fan Im getting sick of people who don't know any better claiming that horror games are dead. I'm not saying I think of myself as superior and to prove it I'm going to make a fart noise with my hands.

*does just that

The argument goes that horror is dead, and all recent games claiming to be horror are just action games with zombies. I believe this is wrong and to prove it I ask why they do not class them as horror. Often they will throw up an excuse like they don't always limit ammo, or that they don't have a psycological componant.

This is a flawed argument, more specifically the 'No True Scotman' falacy. Many have explained better then me, but the best example involves poridge. Bill says "No Scotmans puts suger in his poridage" But when shown that Nick, a scotsman, puts suger in his poridge. Bill says "ah, bit no TRUE scotmans puts suger in his poridge". The flaw is that there nothing in the definition of Scotmans that says about suger in poridge, rather this is Bills opinion of what Scotmen should be. The same is true about Horror. There is nothing in the definition of horror that mentions supplies or personal psycolagy. Horror is just a theme, and limited weapons and deep meaning stuff is just a means to an end.

However, even if we accept that definition. We find that most 'not really horror' horror games like Dead Space and Bioshock still fit the criteria. For example. They have very limited ammo, puzzle solving and so on, but aren't considered horror just because.

Likewise, most 'real' horror games like Resident Evil, which I remind you invented the term survival horror, don't fit some of these definitions as they have no psycological elements and don't have you play as a vunrable every man.

There is one argument that it is possably true and that is that horror games aren't as scary as they used to be, and I somewhat agree. The reason in my opinion is not that the games aren't as scary today, but rather we, as gamers, are used to them. Plus horror is so subjective it's impossable to tell. For example, I don't find Amnisia or Silent Hill 2 scary despite apparently being 2 of the scariest games ever made. Amnisia annoied me to much and Silent Hill 2 is more confusing and silly then scary to me. On the otherhand, Dead Rising, a game I consider a comedy, gave a kid I know nightmares.

To be fair, horror games are not as popular as they were back in the day, but they are far from dead. Years of advancments have meant they have gone from a niche market to a mainstream audience. Clunky controls have been replaced with confidence boosting duel anolog and what was once fresh and mysterious is now stale and done to death. Had they been released in the PS2 era then the likes of Dead Space and Fear would be considered horror classics.

You can test this yourself. Chances are there are some old PS1 and PS2 era horror games you missed. Maybe an old Silent Hill you never got round playing? Go back and try these and see if they scare you more then todays games.

[fox1235]

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[Sabre]

A post I will be submiting to another forum I post at. Needs some clean up. The theme is "Things that scare me" and I picked-

CCV

Things that scare me

Jump Scares

Jump scares have a reputation as the worst kind of gaming horror. My goal is to defend jump scares and put forward that they are possibly the best form of horror in game form.

The argument goes that jump scares are not scary and are just a sign of lazy design. It is claimed that a fly buzzing past you ear or a roofing tile falling has the same effect as a jump scare, and since the tile can do horror without meaning to, it is therefore crap. Or something like that.

That argument focuses on the payoff, the scare itself, rather then the build up. You can apply that thinking to anything to claim it's crap. Without the “will they or won't they” aspect of a romance film, it's basicly 2 people who kiss and the credits roll. Likewise taking just the explosions of an action film wouldn't be entertaining. The thrill is the sense of “How the hell is going to get out of this one?” Using this same argument you can shoot down all kinds of horror. Psychological issues of a character, without the build up, is basicly a man doing something before saying “That was mentally exhausting and tough to deal with.”

Basicly, as with many things, you can have good jump scares or bad jump scares. A good jump scare builds up the tension to the point that even when you know it's coming, you still leap out of your seat. It's that tension, that fear that you feel knowing that death is going to happen any second now ...no? Definatly NOW! ...oh, I guess not- AAAAAH! By contrast, a bad jump scare is just a guy going “Bleh!” out of cupboard like pretty much 99% of Doom 3. It's startling at times, but you never feel fear unless your life is low, and that's mainly because you forgot to save and don't want to have to replay the last 20 minutes.

Even if we ignore all that and accept jump scares are the lazy way, many 'psychological' horror games use them. Silent Hill, Amnesia, they all try and make you jump out you skin at some point.

For me though there are 2 great things about jumps scares when done right. First and foremost they are a rational fear everybody understands. I have mentioned in the past that Silent Hill 2, outside of the music and a couple of scenes, isn't all that scary because toblerone face and a a man with his hands in his pockets don't scare me, I find them more confusing then creepy. Sometimes is laughable. The second is that they are instant, so going to the toilet or letting the dog out doesn't kill the experience. In most other types of horror game going to the toilet will kill the atmosphere and it can take half an hour to build it back up again. With a jump scare based game, you can turn off the game and come back later without harming the experience.

In summery, jump scares are not as bad as many claim. Jump scares are about building up tension and releasing it when you least expect, even if that is exactly when you expect it. All to often people focus on the payoff and bad scares rather then on the good ones, and the same arguments used to condemn them can also be turned onto all other types of horror and genres. I guess what I'm saying is don't dismiss an entire sub genre because you played a bad one. Give jump scares another go.

I'll leave you with a hilarious video that also shows how jump scares can be scary in the still unbeaten classic, Resident Evil 2.

Bye

[Milkyway64]

You know, that's a really good point. Jump scares can be amazing, it's just people selectively choose the ones that aren't. A good example is how everyone trashes DeadSpace for just being a constant cycle of *crash* BLAAARRGH repeat, but many also praise, for instance, Uboa in Yume Nikki, an obscure RPGmaker...experience. In anycase, at one of the furthest reaches of the game is a house in the middle of a crystaline lake. Going inside reveals a very normal girl's room with wintery atmosphere. If you kill the girl, leave, come back and turn out the lights, she might turn into a monster that SCREAMS at you and causes the environment to go negative and sends you to a bloody hell-scape if it touches you. The thing is, it only works in 1 1/300 or so chance. This makes it so people wanting to see the event to go in and out of the house, turning the light off. The longer it takes, the more on edge you get. "Will it happen now...? Whew... Nope. Now? Nope... Now...? Still nothing. Now- HOLY FUCK!!!"

It certainly is a jump scare, but it's one of the more infamous ones in indie gaming I've seen, and it IS good simply for the uncertainty.

[Guest SCoatiH]

You know, that's a really good point. Jump scares can be amazing, it's just people selectively choose the ones that aren't. A good example is how everyone trashes DeadSpace for just being a constant cycle of *crash* BLAAARRGH repeat, but many also praise, for instance, Uboa in Yume Nikki, an obscure RPGmaker...experience. In anycase, at one of the furthest reaches of the game is a house in the middle of a crystaline lake. Going inside reveals a very normal girl's room with wintery atmosphere. If you kill the girl, leave, come back and turn out the lights, she might turn into a monster that SCREAMS at you and causes the environment to go negative and sends you to a bloody hell-scape if it touches you. The thing is, it only works in 1 1/300 or so chance. This makes it so people wanting to see the event to go in and out of the house, turning the light off. The longer it takes, the more on edge you get. "Will it happen now...? Whew... Nope. Now? Nope... Now...? Still nothing. Now- HOLY FUCK!!!"

It certainly is a jump scare, but it's one of the more infamous ones in indie gaming I've seen, and it IS good simply for the uncertainty.

You do not need to kill the girl. In fact I did it right after I got the bicycle... It did took a good number of go-in-turn-off-if-fail-go-out tries...

[Sabre]

Updated the post with the cleaned up version. Clarified a few points, corrented spelling and explanded the summery slightly. I will upload it to co-optimous and my main blog. Let's see if it get's featured.

[Sabre]

Lost another bit of tooth. Left bottom molar. Small/Moderate peice.

Method of Extraction. Hotdog and Beans Toasty. Again, the 2nd bit of this tooth to be removed by relativly soft food. The first bit of tooth lose on this same bit was caused by a cream slice. Athough it is still below the tooth lost to a corned beef pasty that I still can't work out.

My concern is that it could be like an arch with a section missing, meaning it is likely to go down hill fast. I don't really want to lose my chewing teeth. That said it is now not to different from the one the dentist cocked up way back in my teenage years and that one is still going. It is cool seeing the hollow inside though.

[Sabre]

"The cake is a lie" is a Portal reference.

"Dakka!" is a warhammer 40,000 reference.

"Giant Enemy Crab! Hit it's weak point for massive damage!" is an E3 reference.

I mention this because one thing that has been getting on my nerves alot recently is people doing references and in jokes such as the ones above without any idea where they come from or why.

The most recent one being variants on "Derp" such as "Herpa derp derp!" usually acompanied with a specific 'hillarious' facial expression. Some people say that it's an impression of someone talking crap, but this is wrong. I'm guessing the recent version (with the face) comes from a webcoming like the 'retarded/excited link' image meme. However, the word comes from an episode of south park where an annoiying cook called Mr Derp replaces chef, and does something dumb to entertain the kids followed by the word "Derp!" which, if you haven't guessed, pulls a face similar (at least with the eyes) to the one in the meme. The face lacks the slack jaw or the angle of the meme.

You might think this is a minor thing to get upset over, and it is, but this is more of the straw that broke the camels back. This one is particularly bad as when it used as an insult (and thus out of context) it makes the person bringing it up look dumb but people will side with them. It's hard to explain but think of it as a domino effect of dumb.

Like all memes, chances are it started as a very funny in joke among those in the know and those not in the know picked it up and destroied it.

My goal here is not to be a party pooper and stop people having fun. No, it's the opposate. It's to make you memes and jokes funny by making it so it is not passed along and/or laughed at as a social obligation, but rather passed along and laughed at because you find the joke funny. If you are laughing because it's expected, you are just making the problem worse for yourself and passing that missery on by forcing a joke you don't get onto other people who also likely won't get it.

So, when someone says "Damn. I hate activities." or "Jill Sandwhich" and everyone chuckles, don't join in the crowd. Just say "I don't get it." and fun will be your's. Chances are most of the people who laughed didn't get it either.

[Sabre]

Halloween Is Dead: A Postmortem

Halloween is dead, killed by the import of American culture, Christmas and simple laziness.

When I was a kid I never went trick or treating, and neither did my friends. It could be because a friend at the time had his birthday on Halloween and so we would always do stuff then, but that still doesn't excuse the behaviour of people who are basicly begging. Either you give free sweets to kids every 5 minutes, or you risk getting your windows egged or smashed. What's worse is that this is considered acceptable behaviour. Imagine if a drunken bum asks you for change, despite having plenty, and when you say no he is sick all over you. I think I have the right to be upset. Plus, it's not like they have any other sweet and chocolate based holidays, right? This is not to say I'm some party pooper who is against fun. It's fun seeing these costumes and it's something different for them to do. I'm fine with that. My issue is one of personal conduct and respect. To me, Halloween is about horror themed fun. Having to worry about my property and having to dedicate a large portion of my favourite holiday to handing out free stuff is not what I want to do.

This brings me neatly onto the second point which is doing stuff. As I pointed out I might have been tainted by my experiences with a school friend but even through college Halloween parties and events were common. What's great about Halloween is that it's not an excuse to get drunk like New Years, over expensive gifts like Valentines or a day about forcing family who hate each other spending the day pretending to get along like Christmas. Unfortunatly no one wants to do anything anymore. I'm not just saying big house parties of a dozen or more people. I'm talking about small events or regular stuff that can easily given a light horror theme. The best example of this happened this year.

The quarterly board game event just happened to fall on Halloween. So you would think it would be a simple case of breaking out Arkham Horror (a Cthulhu based board game) Last Night on Earth (Zombie B-movie game) or Fury of Dracula (self explanitory) but instead this quarterly event, that happened to fall on Halloween night, was cancelled so that they could watch football. Something only slightly less common then taking a breath and easily recorded for later. My friends don't have plans, and attempts to set up a small meet up was met with apathy. I can't even spend the night in alone with horror games and films because of the begging vultures mentioned above. Other then the excellent annual video series "Cinemassacre Monster Madness" which is a 31 part series on the history of horror films, there is nothing, not a thing of value. The local cinema is having an all night horror movie marathon, but other then Psycho there is nothing worth seeing.

And then there is the final nail in the coffin, or silver bullet to the head in this case. Christmas. Yes, the holiday I'm not a fan of various reasons (might be worthy of it's own entry closer to it) has decided to consume it. Yes, that's right. There is an episode of "You know what's bullshit" (by James Rolfe, the same guy who does Monster Madness) about this very issue. Christmas starts so early that there is almost as much Christmas stuff about as Halloween stuff. I know Christmas is supposed to be a feel good holiday and the commercialization of it isn't helping matters. I get that. But when you are starting 3 months ahead, that's a quarter of a year early, then you deserve all the scorn you get. Yes, I'm kind of bitter that my favourite holiday is one of the casualties, but the fact is this shouldn't happen. There is no need for a third of the year (the 3 month build up and 1 month afterwards) to be dedicated to 1 day! It stops being special and just becomes daily life at that point.

Halloween was my favourite holiday. It's fun, with a theme that doesn't pop up often, celebrated with costumes and films and games, the kind of stuff I find fun rather then people just getting blind drunk. It also feels different and even kicks in late at night instead of during the day when you are busy, but American culture gave us begging for sweets and vandalism as acceptable consequence for not emptying our pockets to feed the greedy and trying to enjoy the holiday ourselves. Apathy and laziness means that no one is willing make it a night to remember, and what little remains is slowly being eaten by the never ending bloat of Christmas. The last few years have seen it waste away, fun turning to bitterness and the only holiday I care about no one else cares for. Halloween is dead, but I hope it rises from the grave some time soon.

[Xortberg]

Sometimes I wonder why exactly we don't get along better. This was all well written and somewhat witty, and I do agree with you on what's happening, but I don't think it's as big a deal as you're making it out to be. As I said in the other topic, depending on a certain day of the year to do something (horror movie marathon, give gifts to people, etc.) seems to defeat the purpose in my opinion. You're not doing these things because you enjoy them, but rather because societal norms dictate you do them.

Some of the scariest times in my life were far removed from Halloween. I watched Milky play through Amnesia: The Dark Descent before I even remembered Halloween existed this year, and that about made me shit my pants several times.

[Sabre]

I believe you have it backwards. It things I want to do, but it's only socially acceptable on this one day.

For example, on Halloween it is fine for Hitler, Jason and Pyramid Head to walk around scaring kids, use public transport, go to college ect. Any other time of year it at best offends a few people and at worst causes serious trouble.

[Xortberg]

Maybe if you're going for something like that, but even so I doubt you could get in any real trouble for any of it. Maybe the whole 'scaring kids' bit, but meh.

My main point wasn't even for Halloween specifically. Rather, people use any holiday as a sort of a crutch. Since we're so exceptionally generous at Christmas, we can take it as an excuse to be dicks the rest of the year. Holidays in general just always seemed pointless to me, since we shouldn't need special time periods set aside for anything.

[Sabre]

Trouble can be anything from losing a college place to a fist fight in the street. A perfect example of this is an old video meme where a group of chavs attacked some guys dressed as women for a party. The reason it became a meme was because these guys happened to be MMA fighters and proptly (and hillariously) 'knocked them spark out' and similar stories to this are common although it tends to be the costumed guy getting a kicking. I do hear stories of Cosplayers who manage to resist and the chavs dont report it on account of having your arse kicked by Naruto isn't cool. The college thing, people were dressed as killers and gangsters, something that would get you in trouble any other time of year.

Christmas is a one I never got "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men". "Shouldn't that be every day?" "Quiet you!"

But again, I disagree. Let's take talk like a pirate day. It's fun, it's silly, but it's justified. Everybody knows and anybody knows to join in without unfair punishment.

To say it's used as a crutch would only work if you have some sort of belief in Karma. If you are an arse and Christmas didn't exsist, you would still be an arse.

[Sabre]

The Reason Learning is Impossable

Like most people, my dreams were shattered by the cold hammer of reality. Unlike most, I knew I had the ability to do it. When I set out to learn programing for my games I was told that it was "Impossable to learn programing from a book". I said that was bollocks, that the only thing you cant learn from a book is how to read. Over time I came to realise what he meant.

He didn't mean programing was impossable to learn from a book, but rather that it was impossable to learn programming from the books available.

From the best of the best, to the popular crap, from videos, to text, all of it has the exact same problem. Rather then giving you tools and showing you how they work, they give you a prefab Ikea CD rack, have you set it up, and that's it. Nothing is gained aside from a slightly better knowlage of how to assemble an Ikea CD rack.

In the rare cases that they do teach you the tools, they miss out a pretty vital detail. Usually it works like this.

"Ok, pull this level on the flux capasitor. Don't worry how it works yet, we'll get to that later." soon followed by "Now you have a detailed knowlage on the inner workings of a flux capasitor, you can now do X Y and Z" In some cases this is so bad I swore I skipped a page somewhere, but no, this is what they are like.

With the exception of a UDK Kismet video, all the paid video tutorials are just a guy mumbling into a microphone for a few hours, and do the exact same CD rack thing as the books. Trust me when I say not to waste your time on free 'comunity' videos. Some kid rambles into a microphone with licon park and a TV in the background until he says "That's not what I was going for, but whatever bye!" and not even the level of CD rack is gained. There is a 6 hour or so series on programming for UDK, and it is all just copy and paste from various other files and forums. That's like if the instructed for the CD rack just said "Get someone else to do it and take all the credit". It's crazy.

I know I have a programers mindset. I am very logical, and using inputs/outputs I can turn Half Life 2 into Dota, and Unreal Tourniment into resident evil. I know the programers job is to solve problems when they come up, but when it is a none sencical one, such as not being able to pick up items from one camera view but not the other I become powerless to fix it because my knowlage is limited and attempts to gain more are stopped by elitism and incompetence.

Over the years I have had many ideas for a business or orinization. A niche to be exploited or worthy endeavor. From a games archive libery and wiki that doesn't brand everything as theirs, to a shop for gamers and imported media. But one that I would undertake if I could would be a learning company. Not some exclusive but ineffectual school or a half arsed book series, but a real, serious company that cuts all of the crap and gives people the tools to craft their own creations. While it wouldn't have the repeat custom of the books and DVDs or the draw of snob value of a school, it would get by on it's reputation for delivering results. Even if it sank as a business it would at least force those to get their act together.

[Sabre]

I cant work out UDK. It's to much of a pain in the arse. I have decided I am giving up. I guess I'm just not meant to make games. One option remains, but it's one I'm hesitant to go for. Game Maker. Basicly, the 'coding' is similar to UDKs kismet or Half Life 2s Inputs and Outputs. You can also look at the text form of it too. Add to the fact that it was designed as an educational tool so if I am going to get off the bottom rung this is my last option other then RPG maker, and I hate JRPGs.

So why hesitate? Well, simple. There has never been a good game I can think of made with game maker. Technically there is no reason for all the games made with it to be terrible. It is just a 2D game engine after all. (It can do 3D, but it's doom style 3D, and rubbish with it) But that's the thing. If it's easy to use, and there is no technically limitation beyond the 3D being rubbish, and has even been used to make payed iPhone games, and can be coded manually if needed, why has nothing good been made on it? Hell, even the PlayStation 1 dev kit Net Yaroze had a few good games like Psycron and Blitter Boy. Maybe I could be the first, who knows.

The point is I'm pretty much grasping at straws at this point. I know there is something missing, some key peice of info that if I gained would unlock my natural and learned abilities for this stuff. Without it though I'm buggered.

[Milkyway64]

There has never been a good game I can think of made with game maker.

Sabre, my distressed friend. I shall once more propaganda the hell out of this game and shut your worry down in one fell swoop!

http://metroid2remake.blogspot.com/

^being made on Game Maker

As for the actual point, why not just give it a shot? I mean, who cares if Game Maker is the n00b game programmer, it's still respectable as you pointed out and AM2R SHOWS. Just because those other scrublets are making sloppy work all over the place doesn't mean you have to avoid it.

[Sabre]

While I wouldn't call you friend. I have to say when you're right you're right. I didn't know about that being a game maker game. I knew someone remade Doom in Game Maker, but Doom is remake with every engine I think. I also learned Iji, a so called PC classic is game maker. Never heard it mentioned though.

It's not a case "Oh no! I won't program like the unwashed masses!" but rather a case of Poser/Daz/GMod where people never make the leap to the 'real' tools. To put it another way. Babys first toolkit is babys ONLY toolkit. As such said baby never becomes an engineer, rather spends his whole life making stuff out of mechano. Mechano is great, but you can't make a real frarri with it. That sounds really dumb but hopfully you see my point.

Lastly. There is the very real chance I will be a "scrublet" as you put it. Blinded by my own belief that this is the greatest bestest best game ever evar while unknowingly churning out crap.

TL:DR? Game Maker is a stepping stone, but a stepping stone that has a high chance of biting your leg off. I'll try it, see how it is.

[Sabre]

That One Scene and Sex in Games

Some of you already know I don't like Moviebobs Game Overthinker and Extra Credits.

For those who don't know, Extra Credits is a series of rants by a group of college students with nebulous ties to the games industry. (eg. One is a 'graphics designer', but that could be making the game graphics, or designing a letter head) The gist of which is to take games seriously as an artistic medium. They do rants on how games need to be less sexist, how indie games should be funded, free speach in games ect.

Moviebob is an internet film reviewer who became famous (at least with people I know) for this hillarious Transformers 2 review.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/797-Transformers-Revenge

He is also did a series called the Game Over Thinker, which is very similar to Extra Credits with rants where he says we all have to stop being mindless, unthinking halo fans.

Alot of their stuff (imo) is condesending, old news, nieve wishful thinking, hyporcritcal, ignorant of the subject matter, simply wrong or all of the above. A perfect example of this is Moviebobs recent video where he accuses Halo of promoting fascism and racism. Fans of them though hold them up as infalible and do a service to gamers by giving a voice to the more thoughtful gamers.

However, just because I disagree with them 99% of the time does not mean I instantly hate anything they say simply because I'm against them, and this is one thing I want to talk about.

In one of Moviebobs videos he reviews the film Black Swan. If you've not heard of it, think of it as the lesbian version of Brokeback Mountain with a ballet and horror themes. In the review he raises the point that going to see a film for the one super sexy scene is no different then seeing a film for it's twist ending, or a cool fight scene, ect.

This goes neatly with the idea that adult games are the most juvinile, and sex in games is limited to women with big tits and porn.

This got me thinking. What is the differece between playing Bioshock for it's atmosphere, playing Mass Effect for it's story, and playing DoA for the boobs? I have played a bunch of really dumb games recently. Alien Shooter, Aliens Vs Preditor (2010), Frontlines, arguably Halo counts. However, while they are frowned upon by most, I've had much more fun with said games then I ever had with Braid or The Void. Some say games should takle polatics and gay issues more. Why? Blacksite and Iji did polatics and philosphy and came across as really dumb because of it. What's wrong with the Halo/Bioshock method and having that stuff as a part of the narative without beating the player round the head constantly?

As Livejournal user Siege said

"Those games which do tackle politics and social issues without breaking immersion (provided immersion is a goal of the game) do so by not focusing specifically on cramming the content in your face; rather, the content is always there in front of you, and the design of the game has you work your way through it for yourself rather than telling you outright what conclusion it wants. Just like a written story built on obvious moralizing isn't as readable as a story where the decisions and consequences make sense (despite an outcome where the bad guy actually looks like a bad guy by the end of it)."

Given the option between 2 games, one bad but full of gay rights issues, or a good game out nothing in particular, I know which I would have.

[ballisticwaffles]

you seem to have struck a very interesting point. Playing games for the fun rather than for the subtext and physics. A novel idea! sarcasm aside, im glad you reached this conclusion my friend.

[Sabre]

I am begining to suspect my sprite guy has disappeared. I didn't put any faith in him to begin with. He wanted to make sprites for the game. So far not even a rough or grey box. His blog claims he has started work on a comic project with no mention of the game sprites. It's a minor inconvenience. Given that the theme was partially chosen to appeal to him as well as me, I'm wondering if I should change it, and how much. I'm thinking of making the game more 'my style' with the same basic idea.

On a related note, unless tools get signifficantly better in the next 5 years, I doubt I will ever get that horror game of mine made. The artist I'm commissioning do to concept/story art for my current game also does amazing comics. I'm considering getting the major scenes and tone of the game put into comic form. It won't be cheap however.

[Sabre]

I've spent the entire night (I sleep during the day) working on the money system for my game. Took a fair bit of thinking, but fun to do. There is still some refinment I can do with the exact numbers and ratios, but they literally a case or deleting one number and typing the new one in. Only 3 major components left. A timing system for kill combos, multiple weapons and finally a menu for the start of the game and the shop. Once those are done the rest will be all content. Still no word from my graphics guy and the artist I want to commision to draw and detail the main character is almost free.

I have already started to think of story and settings. I haven't got much other than "Lady in search of her missing lover" but that's crap. I'm thinking of asking around for a writer familar with game narritive mechanics. I know one guy who is looking to be a professional author, he will be my first stop. I also need a sound guy. SFO and the school I used to attend and work at has some musical talent I might be able to tap. However sound effects are still a issue. I certainly can't do it. Only one I know is a guy from a mod team back when I was a tester for Firestom Over Kronus. I'll ask him I guess.

[Sabre]

Thinking about weapon arrays. More specifically how to handle special case weaponry. Bullet based weapons are fine, but how abou rockets, electric, ect?

The array is basicly a weapons table with the stats of each weapon (name, ammo, damage, what have you) but I'm torn. Do I have seperate code for each unique weapon type and have an entry in the array that is called? Or do I leave it out and have a switch that detects the special weapon/s and have the special weapon code in the switch? hmm.

I'm also trying decide how best to lay out the array. Do I want the stats first then data as it will be the most used and most often changed, or the data first (data being name, in the player has the weapon or not, that kind of stuff.)

[ThePointingMan]

Make a Weapons class, then make all the derived weapon types, then make a weapons array, the weapons array should be able to contain any of the derivatives of the weapons class. I think anyways... I'm about to be doing something similar, only with an enemy class, have an enemy array of all the enemies on screen.

Here's an example from a book I read a while ago

//DragonLord.cpp

#include <iostream>

#include <ctime>

#include <cstdlib>

#include "Dragon.cpp"

#include "RedDragon.cpp"

#include "BlueDragon.cpp"

#include "BlackDragon.cpp"

using namespace std;

int menuChoice();

int main (void)

{

    srand(time(0));

    Dragon* dragons[3];

    int hp = 15;

    int armour = 2;

    int tempArmour;

    int tempAttack;

    dragons[0] = new RedDragon(rand()%4+1);

    dragons[1] = new BlackDragon(rand()%4+1);

    dragons[2] = new BlueDragon(rand()%4+1);

    Dragon* d = dragons[rand()%3];

   

there is more stuff after that, but it only matters up until that for what you are trying to do I think.

in the include files:

Dragon.cpp contains the Dragon Class

RedDragon.cpp has the Red Dragon class, a derivative of the Dragons class..

Dragon* dragons[3]; creates an array of pointer's of the data type Dragon called dragons

then you fill each slot of the array with the different dragon types.

where it says Dragon* d = dragons[rand()%3]; it's just selecting a random dragon type that you are goin to fight.

I hope that helps with what you're trying to figure out.

Oh and also, what do you mean the best layout, does it matter which goes first?

[Sabre]

I'm using a 2D array. the first number is the weapon itself, the second is the stats.

So to a pistol would be arrWeapon[0, x] with x being whatever stat you are using. So arrWeapon[0, 1] would be used to check if a weapon is owned.

My notes should help explain the issue I'm having.

0 Name - String - ?tbc

1 WeaponOwned - bool

2 Damage

3 Fire Rate

4 Pierceing Factor = ?tbc

5 CurrentAmmo

6 MaxAmmo

7 DefaultMaxAmmo //Max ammo on weapon purcase. Not Needed?

8 Weapon Cost

9 Ammo Cost per Unit

10 Max Ammo Upgrade Cost

11 Max Ammo Upgrade Amount

12 Max Ammo Upgrade Maximum //The point at which no more ammo upgrades can be bought. Some rediculously high number.

13 Vender Rank - 1-10 - //used to determin from what point in the game the weapon will appear in vendor. More powerful weapons = highter rank

14 Detail description - String - ?should I put this in weapon table?

I should point out that ammo upgrade is how much you can carry.

The other problem is for none bullet based weapons. Let's say a heat seeking rocket for example, do I have extra entries on the weapon table that will only be used in 1 weapon such as turning curve, or do I have special firing code in a switch?