Creating a tactical RPG with TE4: where to start?
Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:20 am
First things first, hello, I'm new to these boards and I really appreciate all the work that's been put into ToME and TE4. I'm not new to programming, and I know a practical amount of Lua. With that out of the way, I'm having problems getting started with an unorthodox module. My goal is to create a short tactical RPG in the style of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (FFTA) with TE4. I'm not going to bother with traditional RPG time-sinks like a long, scripted campaign filled with countless unrelated fights, and I am intentionally making a "small" game. When I say FFTA-style, I am specifically referring to the initiative order and scale of combats -- maps are much smaller than ToME maps, there are no invisible areas on the map (perfect visibility), there are probably 10 enemies at most in a fight at any given time, and you control up to 6 playable characters, issuing direct commands for every PC. Unlike normal roguelike actions, a character's turn can consist of movement (more than 1 square) combined with an action like an attack, which then ends your turn. All of the PCs have their actions selected directly by the player, so when it is their turn, control switches to that PC. Each character acts at a slightly different rate, and the earliest character to act will act the most frequently over a long fight.
My problem is that I have no idea where to go from the example module. I am paralyzed by the amount of code in TE4 and ToME, it seems... But I need to get something done. I have customized the example module a bit to load a static map and fill it with gold piles that the player can wander through a maze and pick up. From here, it seems like the next step is to create the core parts of the game, like the turn order and multiple-section commands. I suspect I will be cannibalizing some of the ToME code for party and faction handling, but I really don't know what all the component parts do (and how much I would need to copy...), and I am having a hard time getting off the ground. My current question is,
What is a good way of switching control between multiple playable characters when their turns come around?
Later I will have to resolve how to allow the player to create 6 very simple characters and assign them to one party, but first things first...
My problem is that I have no idea where to go from the example module. I am paralyzed by the amount of code in TE4 and ToME, it seems... But I need to get something done. I have customized the example module a bit to load a static map and fill it with gold piles that the player can wander through a maze and pick up. From here, it seems like the next step is to create the core parts of the game, like the turn order and multiple-section commands. I suspect I will be cannibalizing some of the ToME code for party and faction handling, but I really don't know what all the component parts do (and how much I would need to copy...), and I am having a hard time getting off the ground. My current question is,
What is a good way of switching control between multiple playable characters when their turns come around?
Later I will have to resolve how to allow the player to create 6 very simple characters and assign them to one party, but first things first...