ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

First off, Id just like to start by saying i just recently discovered this and i think it is one of the neatest things I have stumbled upon in a long time. donation coming soon.

Anyway, the way i stumbled across this is i recently started piecing together my own copy of a board game called War Hammer Quest. For those not familiar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Quest

The game is no longer in production and costs around $500.00 if you're lucky enough to find one.
I then got the idea in my head that it would be a fun project to try and turn that game into a computer game.
Perhaps not EXACTLY like it so i don't step on copyright infringements and naming it different, but something a lot like it.

Anyway, this little engine here looks, to me any way, like it might just fit the bill. I am going to have to dig more in depth into the engine and coding. Basically, Warhammer Quest is a dungeon romp. But the tiles to the the dungeon are laid out at random with a "Objective Room" being the goal. You never know where this objective room will be because, like I said, the dungeon is random. Chosen by rolling dice, drawing cards, and laying out the results with dungeon tiles on a table. It is an incredibly fun game.

Was hoping someone else here had played it. I would LOVE to create something along the lines of that.

Can't say that I've played warhammer, but it sounds like a speedy version of D&D...with cards. In any case, it is definitely possible to have a module do this, it would help if you knew the lua programming language.

Lua is easy enough to pick up. I used to play the original Warhammer board game, so it'd be cool to see a module made around this.

Alrighty then. i need to know if this is even doable in the engine before I get started and how relatively hard it would be if it is.

What i want is for the dungeon to be generated by "set" pieces. All rooms would be 4x4 tiles (for instance). There would be a T-junction corridor piece, an "L" shape corridor piece, A straight corridor, And a straight corridor with stairs down. There is also a set piece called an "Objective Room". This is always the room that holds the objective to the dungeon. It is also always the same size. All these set pieces have specific dimensions. The dungeon always starts with a room with a door or passage to the east.

The way the game works Ideally is the Starting room is placed with the player in it. Once the player goes out the passage way east, the game does a random "roll" to determine what is placed next from the set pieces mentioned above. Monsters are also rolled for and are not spawned until the player enters the new area and they are spawned next to the player. Actually, more things could happen than just monsters (like treasure or traps being spawned) but i am keeping it simple in the explanation. i figure if i can do the monsters this way, then I can do the other things. The same goes for every other set piece. When the player leaves it, a new piece is rolled for and placed. And yes, it would be possible for the player to go straight from the starting room and into the objective room but unlikely based on the table that would be created for the game to pick from.

Anyways, if I can't get this bit... then i need to figure out something else.

I saw that the game had pre-defined areas called "vaults". I thought this might be something along that line but an entire dungeon would be made up of these predefined areas chained together randomly and branching out from the starting chamber.

Elvisman2001 wrote:I saw that the game had pre-defined areas called "vaults". I thought this might be something along that line but an entire dungeon would be made up of these predefined areas chained together randomly and branching out from the starting chamber.

I think that's actually how the game functions, if you pay attention to the more dungeon-y areas like Kor'Pul, Rhaloren Camp, Dreadfell, etc.; you will spot the same room designs over and over again (i don't mean vaults but yes they are predefined and randomized too to a certain extent).

As for your other questions, I'm lazy and don't know any lua nor how this game utilizes lua so I couldn't tell you lol.

Just a thought - do the areas need to be generated every time the player uses a door? It'll be harder to program that way, and for the player, the only visible difference would be the tremendous lag experienced when opening a door.

Elvis, this sounds a bit like the "Tileset" map generator, but really in the end you should do your own since this will allow you to make exactly waht you need.
Do come on #tome on irc.rizon.net to talk in realtime if needed:)

Looks like someone else KINDA had the same idea I have for a game . . .

http://www.cardhunter.com/game-info/