FEATURES THAT HAVE ALREADY MADE IT INTO UR

  • GRAPHIC ENGINE. The game's graphic engine is powered by TCODlib, written and developed by J. C. Wilk, a true colour console simulator with astonishing possibilities (thanks, Jice!).
  • Derived from that, some nice visual effects have already made it into the game. Screen fading, smoke running through the main menu's background image, etc. More is planned as well.
  • SAVING/LOADING GAMES. A unique saving slot (which means only one game can be stored at any given time). The savegame is stored in multiple files, one for the information about the PC and one per generated map (not necessarily visited, since some maps are generated at the game's start in order to reduce the possibilities of farming them for some yet-to-implement features).
  • RANDOM MAP GENERATOR. Map types generated at the moment are: cavern (using cellullar automata rules), labyrinth and perfect labyrinth (an algorithm described by Jamis Buck), forest and town.
  • OVERWORLD. A preprogrammed 200x200 (scrollable) wilderness map with around 50 different settlements, differing in size and inhabiting race (in the future, this is supposed to influence the settlements' architecture and layout). I might be eager to add a second wilderness map of the underworld in the dark elves' realm, but that's something to think about in the more distant future).
  • MAP VIEW. An unscrollable 112x90 map view.
  • PC GENERATION. While generating the PC, the player will have nearly unlimited possibilities. I'll describe them shortly:
    • STAR SIGN and ASCENDANT will be chosen randomly and will influence the PC's skills and stats.
    • RACE is determined by choosing both parents' races. Some, of course, will be unavailable due to genetic and social reasons (no dwarf-elf crossbreeds). This will influence heavily on the further options (many will become unavailable to certain races). There are 17 possible combinations.
    • ALIGNMENT, based on the Cabalistic Tree of Life and Dante's Wheel, will further influence the PC generation possibilities (and, hopefully, the game itself, although that remains to be seen). There are 9 possible combinations.
    • PROFESSION comes next and only some options will be available at this point (e.g. only open-minded characters will be able to become alchemists, it will be impossible to create a fiendish thief, etc.). However, dual classing is possible (as long as the PC's age permits that, since every profession has an apprenticeship period). There are 31 professions.
    • SCHOOLS OF MAGICK will need to be chosen as well should the player decide to create a mage PC, schools of magick (each additional one requiring an extended apprenticeship period). Some are mutually exclusive (Life/Death, Order/Chaos). The mage's profession name will change according to the schools chosen. There are 18 different names.

FEATURES PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE

  • MONSTERS. At the moment, there is only one monster wandering around the map. No interaction with it is possible. This should change in the following weeks.
  • DUNGEON GENERATOR. I messed around with one implementation of dungeon generation, but there were far too many corridors generated. They were too twisted and too long as well. I'll try to write a new algorithm as soon as I gather the will do to it.
  • ITEMS & INVENTORY. There are none at present, but there's too much to do and I think it'll need to wait a little longer.