Re: (TFT) defending and request

[Lloyd Weber <laweber3@yahoo.com>]

Hi Richard, your suggestions are well considered and useful. You obviously did spend some time on your previous attempts! I think you are absolutely correct in the difficulties of making a realy Melee/Wizard game. That is why I am starting with basic Melee, and then expanding it from there. If a basic Melee game can be created then I'm not sure whether the next step would be to add Wizard, or advanced Melee - I have a feeling I'll go for basic Wizard as the next step (far away as that may be) since it is so much fun to do arena combat with wizards. My goal is to stick strictly to the rules of the game, perhaps adding optional extensions at a later date.

Definetely both the user interface and some of the detailed calculations, such as line of sight, etc, are some of the hard parts. Also, networking/multiplayer issues, as well as the possibility of making an AI to play against the computer.

As I said, my initial attempt is to get the basic Melee game working. If multi-hex creatures turn out to be difficult then they won't be in the first cut. Heck, I'm just glad to be able to draw the Melee map with hexes and megahexes at this point!

I didn't do the board perfectly, but what I have doesn't look too bad. The hints you gave are very useful and I may get back to them later. I can draw the map, and also I have a dialog for creating characters, which then appear on the map. You can select them and once they are selected, a left-click rotates them left and a right-click rotates them right. You can move them as well, but so far there are no limitations on movement, turns, actions, etc. I am currently working on actions.

I'm enclosing a screen shot of the board and some figures - hopefully I can compress it down to a reasonable size - ok the jpg file was smaller than the gif, so hopefully you can view this...

Lloyd

lifeisfun@aol.com wrote: I think that if you are intending to make a turn based game that simulates playing Melee online, then that's a fine idea.  But, if you try to use the Melee system to make a game that behaves in any other way, the game would likely be a failure.  
 
I've tried to make one of these games myself, but I gave up long ago.  The player interface was the easiest part.  The challenges to the interface were:
 
1. Whose turn is it? Notify all whose turn it is.
2. Managing Location and facing of the characters:
     a. Who can see who? Available targets.
     b. Roll to miss determinations.  Is someone in my way?
     c. Multi-Hex Character Placement and facing.
     d. Dx Adjustments according to:
           i. distance
           ii. side/rear hex
           iii. environmental adjustments (loose ground, etc)
3. Managing Magic effects:
     a. traps and bombs
     b. walls, fire, darkness, etc. 
4. Movement:
     a. Inhibiting movement due to engagement or occupied hex
     b. Effects or save rolls if character passes though hex
     c. Counting the moves, limiting the move
     d. Change of face as character moves
     e. Actions contained in a move (ie pick up something while moving by, I did not solve this)
     f. Movement penalties
5. Actions (I quit at this point)
 
All in all, it's a huge undertaking.  I can pass along a tidbit of knowlege that my friend Juan and I came up with that will likely help you greatly in making the hexes and determining much of the above mathematically.
 
The tip is to start with the hex paper.  And to draw it, use the SIN, COS, TAN trig functions along with the inverse functions to do the following:
 
1.  Using 6O degrees in your function and a standard distance between the centers of the hexes, draw a grid of center dots.  
2.  Then, draw the circles around these dots expanding the radius until three circles intersect at many points across the map.  
3.  Now, think of the circles as containing 12 30/60/90 degree right triangles.  Imagine bisecting each hex side and making the base of two identical triangles with the height of 1/2 a side and a hypotenuse of the radius of the circle.  
4.  From here, you must now think of a hex as occupying the space contained within the formulas of the 12 right triangles.  Color the points within the formula's range, and choose a darker color for any points within the formula set of two or more center dots as a black line.  And voila, hexes.  
5.  After this, all of the other rules above are determined mathematically using the centers and their 12 triangle area to check points on a line (is someone in the way of a shot); or by using angles and extending the radius of the circle for facing (who can they hit); etc.
 
I hope you get farther than I did.  After making a map, I looked at the complexity of trying to do the thousands of possible actions and began to cry.  
 
Good Fortune,
Richard
 
-----Original Message-----
From: laweber3@yahoo.com
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: (TFT) defending and request


Hey Steve (and gang), I am also working on a computer version of Melee/Wizard. 
I'm planning on starting with the basic Melee rules, then adding Wizard and then 
hopefully the advanced rules - I want to keep it simple to start out.

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