Time to Break Out
the Editing Hatchet
I've been mulling this over for a while now. I've been trying to avoid it, since it means work, and we all know work is bad for you. There are some changes which need to be done to DeadCold. Yes, I think it's time for me to begin the Second Draft.
When I started DeadCold all I knew was that I wanted to create some kind of scifi roguelike. Since that time my concept for the game has been refined and has grown tremendously, but much of the programming for the game has been left unchanged. Now is the time to slash deep into the belly of my creation and cast out all that is incongruous, like Alan Ginsberg with an IDE... Basically, it's time to do some editing.
The problems that I see with the current version of DeadCold are as follows:
- There's no real sense of direction, nor of accomplishment. This
leads to the levels themselves becoming monotonous. The fact that the
levels are also really freaking huge doesn't help matters much. This
cuts down on replayability for the simple reason that it makes every
place in the game feel like pretty much every other place in the game,
and the player has nothing much to do other than aimlessly wander.
- Character advancement is dull.
Spellcasters get to choose from a list
of spells, though I don't think they have to make any real hard
decisions. Non-spellcasters don't get to make any decisions at all.
Any Zeomancer will be pretty much the same as any other Zeomancer,
while any Marine will be almost exactly the same as any other Marine.
This cuts down on replayability by negating the role of character
development/shaping.
- Not enough non-combat activities for the player.
If you have anything to add to the above list, please drop me a line. If you feel that any of the points listed above aren't actually bad things, drop me a line about that as well. I'd like to hear from as many gamers and fellow programmers as possible while I'm in this early planning stage.
These are the changes that I plan on making to DeadCold. Again, I'd like to get some feedback about these ideas before I start working on them.
- Start the game with at least two good clues for what the player
should be doing. Say, as soon as the player arrives, have the intercom
announce that all personnel should evacuate via the escape pods in
(some location). Have a message on the computer terminal from a bunch
of surviving crew members trapped (somewhere else). This may help give
a sense of purpose, goals that must be met, and the option to do
things differently the second time.
- Smaller, more strongly themed levels. Each level should be smaller
(80 x 25 or 120 x 50, maybe) and dedicated to a single purpose. There will be more levels than currently exist, arranged as a toroidal web rather than as a ring. Side note: GearHead is currently in need of a better random map generator. It will probably get some spinoff technology from the DeadCold improvements.
- Completely redo the character system. The old one was just the
character system taken from the original version of GearHead with a
class/level bit crudely welded on top. I'm thinking of replacing it
with something similar to the way level advancement works in DnD 3rd
or the computer game Arcanum. Every time your character goes up a
level, you get a number of points which may be spent on physical
skills (which might grant special powers, possibly like Necromunda),
psychic disciplines (each level giving a new spell to use), or maybe
other things (convert points directly into stats/hp/mp? buy feats?).
Combine this with a weapon marks system (those seem to be very popular
these days) and character advancement should be much more interesting.
Note: I think completely redoing the character system will be much easier than it sounds. Really! Level advancement + some data types will need to be changed, but the underlying framework can be left as-is.
Please let me know what you think about these ideas. Feedback from players has been very helpful in the development of DeadCold so far, and I'd like for all those people who have an interest in this game to have a say in its future.
The Game
The station is vast and apparently deserted, its mechanical defenses slowly falling apart. You arrived here not knowing the cause or the extent of the troubles facing DeadCold. Now, trapped in this decaying metal world, those troubles are your own.
An executable version of the game is avaliable for Dos/Windows. It needs 8Mb of memory, and runs a little slow on anything less than a 150MHz processor. If you have trouble running this program, please send me an email and let me know what kind of system you're using.
The source code for the game is also avaliable. You can do a compile for whatever OS you happen to be running, or you can use my code to help create your own roguelike game. Please let me know if you try either of these things.
I wrote this program using Free Pascal, though I strongly suspect it will compile with few problems in other varieties of the language.
Click on the expendable crew member to return to my home page, or go to programming.
