21.05.2008, 15:54, written by Mario Donick
The Future of LambdaRogue
Since yesterday's release of version 0.3.0.2 of LambdaRogue, the game itself could be considered as nearly finished. All necessary quests are implemented, all textual content (except one textfile) is written and the game is winnable (technical and balancing-wise). So besides optimizing the existing content, fixing possible bugs and delivering the missing textfile, I could stop the whole thing and call it 1.0.Of course, I won't. Instead it is my goal to make the still rather simple gameplay (which consists mainly of solving simple quests while trying to survive the monsters) more interesting. And this is what has to be done for the next major update, version 0.3.1 of LambdaRogue.
Better TownThe town in the first level has to be optimized. At the moment, townsize differs from small to large, and especially in large towns are many empty, meaningless buildings. In some of the buildings are traders to find, in some others are NPCs who give quests to the player, but most of town interaction requires opening and looking into empty houses in order to find these guys.To change this, I will rewrite town generation. Instead of placing random puzzle tiles with buildings and placing traders and NPCs afterwards randomly, I will create special puzzle tiles which belong to a trader or NPC. That means, there will be a puzzle tile »Temple of Ahna« which is always recognizable as temple of Ahna and where the player will always find the NPC Ahna (the 1). The same for the other NPCs. Traders will be positioned in buildings that will be recognizable as weapon shop, restaurant etc. Signs next to the house will give additional hints. There will be only 2 or 3 houses which are empty.
Less Boring WildernessAlthough the wilderness around the town has been called beautiful or well done by players of LambdaRogue, it is rather meaningless at the moment. The player is forced to find the town and to find the entrance to the dungeon. If the player wishes, he/she can find some items, fight against some weaker enemies or do the »hunt 8 pikes« quest. Besides these activities, nothing more is to do, and the wilderness has no meaning for the main quest of the game offered by Ahna: To find the Book of Stars in the dungeon.Clearly this has also to be optimized. So the wilderness has to get a meaning in the course of the game. I already have some ideas and will write on them in this blog when the time has come
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More Possibilities for Interaction with the DungeonThe last releases of LambdaRogue already enhanced possibilities of dungeon interaction. It is now possible to drink from wells, to examine crypts, to offer items at altars or dip items into the well. Especially the last two things work mainly as item exchange: dip or offer one item, get back another. I want to extend this concept, I want to implement other reactions besides item exchange. Especially the role of altars and the religion of the character has to be more important.Besides enhancing the existing possibilities, there should be more possibilities. One idea I have is described below (under »Role of Religion « ).
Better Monster BehaviorMonsters should be able to use potions and items as well as the player. There once was a LambdaRogue version where they could, but this had been buggy and did not work as expected. However, I want it to return to the game.I also want a better general behavior. For example, if the player is destroying a monster's hive, they should react accordingly (and the hive itself should be equipped with some kind of defense system).
The Role of Religion and ProfessionThe religion and the profession the player chooses at the beginning of the game has to be more relevant for the game. At the moment, it mostly influences the initial status values and effects that may occur after praying. Aphrodite characters get some more experience points for solving quests, but less for fighting, and Ares characters don't get Exp for killing cave worms.One way is to create more profession-specific quests. Another idea is to implement a special dungeon level for each religion, with special background story, special properties and difficulties which can only be solved with the proper profession or religion.
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