Tag: arx

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.64 Now Available

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Release 0.64 of Alternate Reality X is now available from the download pages over at:

www.crpgdev.com.

I’ve added the final City establishment – the City Healers – to the game, City style potions, poison, diseases and a number of bug fixes. All 44 types of potion can be found in the game but several of them will need some work in the next release to be a 100% completed. Treasure Finding is working though and directly influences the probability of finding treasure after an encounter – something which people had mentioned in the last release. Potions are easier to find in this version than they will be in the final version to give players the chance to try them out.

The full list of changes include:

  • Added City Healers – Includes heal wounds, cure disease, remove alcohol and remove delusions
  • Added City style potions as treasure – Examine, Sip, Taste and Quaff
  • Added Treasure Finding stat
  • Added diseases and poisons and their effects
  • Updated the wandering healer for the above
  • Updated main menu with new image / layout
  • Updated “Active Magic” and “Known Diseases” displays
  • Added compass images from Jason and added background for use with large 3D window
  • Added new guard / warrior encounter image from Ted
  • Reduced encounter frequency
  • Fixed Bug #027: Game hangs on second play through when creating character
  • Fixed Bug #028: Compass images hard to see in full screen mode and needed position adjusting
  • Fixed Bug #029: Crash when pressing ESC from Use object menu
  • Fixed Bug #030: Shop stock items not saved as part of save game 
  • Fixed Bug #031: Tavern and shop stock items not refreshed each day
  • Fixed Bug #032: Guild lyrics display too quickly
  • Fixed Bug #033: Death lyrics display too quickly

If you would like to support the continued development of Alternate Reality X then please consider making a donation towards my time and web site costs via the PayPal link on the blog, ARX Facebook page or website.

Alternate Reality X – Release Roadmap – May 2013

Acrin1 1 Comment
Updated: 22nd May
2013
 
At the time of writing release 0.63 of Alternate Reality X is now available. Ths list below includes unimplemented and new features. Release 1.0 will include all the content and features of the original City and Dungeon scenarios. It will be fully playable with all the quests completed plus a few more extras which will be unique to ARX. I have not included dates at this point and intend to keep implementation flexible but have grouped features in the major release sections where I think it’s most likely they will be added to ARX. I would typically expect around 2-3 releases per group. New art, sound and music assets will be added to the game across multiple releases.
I’ll update this as I expand it and probably put it into a tabular format so I can tick off each item as work on it is completed. The list is likely to get longer initially as I add more items and expand some of the individual items into smaller pieces of work.
 
Comments as always welcomed.
—
Release 0 .6x
  • Major changes to the object and inventory system for dynamic object creation such as clothing and custom weapons
  • Further work on City Shops
  • Add City Healers
  • Add experience modifiers following successful encounter 
  • Display clean ups across resolutions and different display options
  • Add check for successful retreat from encounters
  • Adjust encounter frequency as currently seem too frequent in City
  • Potions – City Style – sip, taste, quaff etc
  • Merchant – trade for timepieces or compass (via menu)
  • Use crystal to charge guild ring
  • Thieves stealing items
  • Devourer “devouring” items
  • Add encounter treasure item – eyes
  • Add some of the remaining combat features (surprise, waylay, flee, summon spell cast, block, disarm etc)
 
Release 0.7x
  • Add duration based spells – Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Fireblade
  • Add combat spells – Cold Blast
  • Spells (nearly all)
  • Add additional encounter tables for the Dungeon
  • Add Rathskeller Bar & Grille
  • Add all encounter weapons
  • Add encounter treasure items – scrolls, eyes, wands, horns, cards etc
  • Add Dungeon Level 4
  • Add effects of hunger, thirst and alcohol
  • Add “Examine Items or Spells” option – Low priority
  • Add Dungeon level 1 and 2 special locations and quests
Release 0.8x
  • Add Dungeon Smithy
  • Add Bank Vaults
  • Add Weapon Enchantress
  • Add Dungeon Chapel
  • Add Smithy animation
  • Add Dungeon level 3 and 4 special locations and quests
  • Add remaining unique treasure items
  • Weapon durability, breaks and repairs
  • Darkness – light spell, torch light, helm of light
Release 0.9x
  • Add Encounter animation scheme
  • Add City Rain and Storm effects
  • Add any remaining Dungeon quests & locations
  • Add Dungeon ending sequence
  • Add curses, diseases and poison
  • Turn point + sub square movement (possibly)
  • Delete saved game
  • More info on saved game – time and date, char level, location etc
Release 1.0
  • Add the AR introduction sequence
  • Produce the ARX manual and supporting documents
  • Add an ARX icon
  • Everything else I’ve forgotten!

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.63 Now Available

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Release 0.63 is now available for download from the downloads page at www.crpgdev.com. It includes the much requested City shops. I’ve started work on the City Healers but there is a bit more to do and there is still some furtehr work to do on the Shops to make them similar to the original City.  This release contains:

  • Added City shops – core functionality including randomised stock, viewing, buying and wearing
  • Trying to close program now brings up options screen for save & quit
  • Adjusted gate counter speed to make it closer to the original games
  • Code to adjust lyric speed against different processors by Scott
  • Improved timings for lyric files for City Smithy (both original and new music versions)
  • Fixed Tavern opening and closing times

If you like what I’m doing and wish to support the project’s future development please consider making a small donation from the blog, webpages or ARX facebook page link.

More updates coming soon!

Thanks,
Acrin1

Alternate Reality X – City Shops

Acrin1 2 Comments
I think I’m going to need more money!

I’ve been very busy working on various tweaks over the last few days for the next release of Alternate Reality X which is now coming up to 0.63. I hope to have this out today or tomorrow. Possibly the most visible change in 0.63 will be the addition of City Shops. This is the one feature that people repeatedly seem to ask about so I thought I would try and add it to this next release. I now have it working fairly well and just need to set up the code to vary the clothing stock at the 15 different shops in the City.

Exploring with my new outfit

 

I’ve still a few more details to add such as adjusting the clothing costs for each of the shops but hopefully you should be able to finally buy some clothing your City character after years of wandering!

Alternate Reality X – Release 0 .63 and Spreading the word

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Making the artwork and display more consistent for release 0.63

I’ve started work on release 0.63 and will be aiming to finish off any pieces of gameplay that are only partially completed (like the D & P Provisions in 0.62 for example) as well as adding some brand new parts to the game that people have been asking for. I’m also working on tidying up some of the display settings and making the old and new media and display more consistent.

If you get the chance please spread the word about Alternate Reality X through any forums or websites you use where you think there might be an interest in this type of project. Or alternatively drop me a note of any webpages or forums where you think I should post updates.

If you like the work I’ve done on Alternate Reality X so far then you might consider making a small donation from the blog page, via the webpages at www.crpgdev.com or using the link on the ARX facebook page.

Best wishes,
Acrin1

Thoughts about Alternate Reality X

Acrin1 8 Comments
Alternate Reality Online
 

I recently started reading through the old Alternate Reality Mailing List archives at: http://www.alternaterealityarchive.com/ and it made me think carefully about my own attempts to recreate / port the Alternate Reality series of games to more modern platforms. If you’re interested in Alternate Reality I’d recommend you take some time to read through the archives (starting with the oldest entries).

Back in the early days of the mailing list it was not uncommon to have the creator of Alternate Reality, Philip Price post on the mailing list. Dan Pinal and Ken Jordan who designed and programmed Alternate Reality: The Dungeon also posted regularly. Whilst browsing through the posts I came across posts relating to the new AR Online which Philip was set to create working with Monolith and later his plans for a version of AR which he was going to create in his spare time. Sadly neither ARO or the later version progressed beyond the early stages.



There was lots of enthusiasm from fans (including myself) who wanted to try and recreate their own version of AR. Some generated a lot of excitement, others had brief tech demos but that was as far as they went. My first effort was made using Mike Roberts excellent TADS3 Interactive Fiction system (see http://www.tads.org/index.htm ). It allowed you to move around an overhead map of the Dungeon and City (using the original data) but  you could visit Dungeon establishments, buy and sell items and join guilds. It wasn’t possible to create a real 3D view with TADS3 so I moved onto SDL, then using OpenGL and then SFML. I’ve become a parent again, changed jobs twice and moved house during the time I’ve worked on my Alternate Reality. I first started working on my TADS3 AR remake in 2004. Obviously development has not been constant since then but even so that’s quite some time on my part!

One of the things I came across was a roadmap from Philip Price for his remake in his spare time which interested me after my own attempts to produce a roadmap for this project. It was high level but what struck me was that his new Alternate Reality was always going to be very different to the original game, even back in 1997.

Alternate Reality Online – Creating your character

I’m now at something of a crossroads regarding my own efforts to port or recreate Alternate Reality. I still haven’t completed the basic port of the City and the Dungeon let alone start work on the new scenarios other than outlining the content on paper.

Philip was understandable tight lipped about his ideas for the new AR back in 1997 – 2000 and I can understand why. For whatever reason he hasn’t been able to or has decided not to revive AR but he may still create a new AR game. There could be a Philip Price AR kickstarter just around the corner for all I know and that would leave my efforts where? My investment in creating new scenarios would be very significant and would really be almost 100% my own ideas so why would I tie myself to copyrighted material that I can’t control. Alternatively Philip could contact me at any point and ask me to cancel the project because there was something he wasn’t happy with. If that happened I would respect and adhere to his wishes.The unknowns and the copyright issue concern me a lot these days with so much significant work still to do.

I’ve been asked to put together only very small expansions for the Arena, Palace and Wilderness but that’s never appealed to me for this project and I don’t think would be respectful to Philip’s original game. Sure I could slap a couple of quick maps together and a handful of new encounter types and some basic quests but that wouldn’t be the AR most of us were hoping for.

Many of you have suggested a kickstarter for ARX or alternatives. I would love to do a CRPG kickstarter and whilst I might not get a single backer at least I would be failing or suceeding on my own merits and need have no concerns about copyright issues or that I’m on dubious legal ground. I can’t do that for an AR related or copyrighted AR type project. If I do a kickstarter it would be for a game of my own which did not contain any copyrighted material or names. And yes I would like to make some money for my work when we’re talking about a significant investment of my time.

I have lots of ideas for new gameplay which I haven’t really seen elsewhere and don’t really want to tie my own original ideas to someone else’s copyrighted work. I realise some of you will be disappointed with my comments or planned approach here but I’ve given it a lot of thought. I didn’t have the skills or tools back when I started my AR remake to have the opportunity to create the game I wanted but I now feel that is possible. My investment in time for development projects needs to be considered against my family, work and financial commitments.

Alternate Reality Online – New tavern interface

I sometimes feel I’ve made a rod for my own back by sticking too closely to the original games, trying to emulate the originals AND provide a more up to date alternative. What I do want to do is create a CRPG which is as enjoyable as AR and learns from its innovation but I no longer feel I can afford to be tied to its legacy or its original look. It has been a bit of surprise for me how even minor interface or content changes from the original have upset people. However on the other side many people feel my AR if far too close to the original and limited by the content or technology style of the original series. The feedback I have is that many people don’t want a carbon copy. I don’t feel I can continue to attempt to serve everyone’s needs within this one project. I’m not talking about creating a bland AR rip off with all the names removed but one which players of AR (and other classic games) would enjoy which is providing a gameplay experience and level of detail which the popular RPGs today don’t necessarily meet.

Let me know what you think whether via the blog, forums or by email to acrin1 @ googlemail.com

Nothing is set in stone of course and anything could happen in the next few months or year but this is the general direction I’m intending to take with my development project for the time bring.Thanks for all your support and encouragement they have been greatly appreciated and I hope you’ll continue to keep an eye on developments here.

Future CRPG Developments

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Thanks to those of you who were kind enough to send me documents, resources and even your own 3D models for Unity 3D. I’ve not had the chance to go through everything yet but they look really useful and have given me a real flavour of the possibilities of development in Unity. I’ve decided that I will be moving my development projects over to Unity 3D from now on; the benefits far outweigh the negatives in my opinion.

I believe I must have spent hundreds of hours working on my Alternate Reality port development and if I’m honest it’s not as complete as I expected it to be. If I’d known when I first started looking into it and poking around with the maps that I’d still be working on it in 2013 I think I would have run a mile! It’s become very hard work at times as the project has reached a significant size. I’ve learnt a lot from working on the project and I’m still learning all the time as well as improving my skills but a lot of my time has been spent “recreating the wheel”. At this point with some significant code changes needed in ARX to properly handle objects I don’t feel it would make sense for me to continue using my current home brew system.



Trying out a free model in a Unity scene

Unity 3D has the advantage that it’s an all in one development system so I can do a search on creating a mini map, an inventory system or rain effects for example and I will get dozens of links and videos suggesting how to produce the effects or functionality I’m looking for. It’s all provided in one, nice integrated package. You only need to do a quick search on YouTube to see there are hundreds of tutorials and examples of Unity and how to use it. Compare that to my current development where I need to read up on issues relating to C++, OpenGL (for 3D), SFML for my media library and Visual Studio or Code Blocks for my development environment. That’s a long list! SFMLs use of OpenGL has also nagged me a bit as many Windows players don’t have the correct OpenGL drivers installed. I’ll be doing some tests on older kit with Unity to see how well it runs.

Once you have a working Unity game you can publish it to Mac, Linux, Web and mobile platforms relatively easily (ok I’ll need to buy into optional upgrades of Unity for Apple IOS and Android versions but it’s there ready to tap into when the time is right).



Web Player, PC or Mac?

Now I’m not naive enough to believe that Unity is going to write my game for me but I do think it is likely to make me more productive and so far I’m having fun using it which is why I started doing this in the first place. I’ll still have to write lots of code (in javascipt, C# or Boo) but there are thousands of examples online and it all appears to be well documented and a lot of the core game functionality can be handled through game objects or properties. So far it’s been a pleasant environment to work in. So far I’ve had an on screen graphical inventory up, a menu system and and my own mountains and wilderness to explore created in very little time. I think once I’ve got a better grip on the basics I believe I’ll be able to make much more rapid progress.

When it comes to creating additional scenarios or environments the other problem we’re already running into is limited art assets. Unity has an extensive asset store with a mixture of free and payable assets, many of a high quality. It also supports a variety of 3D model types. It took me minutes to find and download some reasonable free models and import them into my Unity scene.

From the messages I’ve received most people seem to think that Unity is a good move forward. I think it will provide some security for the project as Unity seems to have a large community and in the event that I stopped working on it, others would be able to pick it up and continue work. A more polished engine and game are likely to get more players interested in the game who will in turn improve the chances of the complete series being developed.

Hopefully you’ll agree that this is the right way forward and still feel supportive towards the project. One chapter may be coming to a close but I think an exciting one is about to begin.