I just have a few quick questions about coldstone..here goes:

1. Will we be able to create a lot of levels? And by a lot I don't mean 7 or 8 I mean 13 or 20!

2. Does Coldstone have a built in drawing tool type thing?

3. Can a the player take control of more than one character?

4. Can a character "transform" or go to the next level if they receive a special item in the game?

Thanks for your time.

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I recall forgetting everything, shortly after I remembered it all-just before I forgot to forget.

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Originally posted by -tRiP-:
**1) Will we be able to create a lot of levels? And by a lot I don't mean 7 or 8 I mean 13 or 20!
**

Lots of levels would be good... Unless you mean levels like in Super Mario or Ferazel's Wand, I wouldn't want to make that type of game.

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(url="http://"mailto:skyblade500@yahoo.com")mailto:skyblade500@yahoo.com(/url)skyblade500@yahoo.com

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Originally posted by -tRiP-:
**I just have a few quick questions about coldstone..here goes:

1. Will we be able to create a lot of levels? And by a lot I don't mean 7 or 8 I mean 13 or 20!

2. Does Coldstone have a built in drawing tool type thing?

3. Can a the player take control of more than one character?

4. Can a character "transform" or go to the next level if they receive a special item in the game?

Thanks for your time.

**

Answers:

1. Absolutely -- you'll be able to make hundreds of levels if you like.

2. No, Coldstone has drawing-like tools for laying out the map, but not built-in way for creating the actual graphics. You're much better off using a dedicated tool anyway, or using some of the massive art library we'll ship with the game.

3. I believe so, yes. Correct me if I'm wrong, Dee.

4. Yep, you can gain levels by many methods.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/(/url)

I realize that my above post is kinda vague. Let me re-phrase that:

Would it be possible to make a game in the style of EVO? i.e. You go to what town (spaceport) you want to, and go on whatever quests (accept whatever missions) you want to? Or would the game have to be like Ferazel's Wand, you play a level, beat it, and move on to the next level?

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Bart Simpson Blackboard Quote of the Day: "I will not mock Mrs. Dumbface."

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Originally posted by skyblade:
**I realize that my above post is kinda vague. Let me re-phrase that:

Would it be possible to make a game in the style of EVO? i.e. You go to what town (spaceport) you want to, and go on whatever quests (accept whatever missions) you want to? Or would the game have to be like Ferazel's Wand, you play a level, beat it, and move on to the next level?

**

Think "Cythera" "Realmz" "Exile", etc.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/(/url)

What about Experience Levels? What'll be the max? Level 20? 50? 99? 255?

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Originally posted by skyblade:
**I realize that my above post is kinda vague. Let me re-phrase that:

Would it be possible to make a game in the style of EVO? i.e. You go to what town (spaceport) you want to, and go on whatever quests (accept whatever missions) you want to? Or would the game have to be like Ferazel's Wand, you play a level, beat it, and move on to the next level?

**

As far as I know, which goes along with what Andrew just posted, ColdStone is tile based. This means you can move one space to the left, one space up... etc. So, you can't make any free-flying go-in-every-pixle style game like EVO. When you make a map, you draw in squares, and your guy walks from one square to the next in the game.

Of course, they might have realized how stupid this can be, because it totally limits what you can do, but don't count on it. The tile system would be a huge chunk of code to change.

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I am the Walrus, Goo Goo G' joob

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Originally posted by Chaos:
**What about Experience Levels? What'll be the max? Level 20? 50? 99? 255?

**

Most likely they will have as much limit as you want them too. If yo choose to have a Realmz type start, where you choose a level, I expect it wouldn't be too hard to make extra levels. Considering, that to the player, levels are very important. To a programmer, levels are simply figures which change figures of the charactor which change their stats to change the way they are. Although that sounds complex, levels should be pretty simple to do, and you will probably get to do loads. However, I could be wrong.
~Gav

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What's Bob Marley's favirout doughnut? --Jammin'
What does Bob Marley say when you eat a doughnut? --I hope ya like jammin' too
Sigh. Why do crap jokes exist?

As andrew said, look at other RPG's as guidance for this program. Think of Realmz when you think of charactors. You can put up to six in a group in which the player controlls. You can also have less in a group (makes it harder). You can make the game harder to suit the need of the higher level men you have. You can start your men at a certain level which will give him some better stats for his type or race. Think of all that. I don't understand what you mean byt levels. Do you mean steps up and down levels or do you mean stages like in a video game?

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How strange... To have gone so far and to want so little.
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Ugh, I can't stand tile based. The reason I stopped playing Realmz and Cythera right away was that the graphics were so bad and the tile system sucked. Please don't do this to Coldstone Dee!!

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I swear your honour! He was like that when I found him
Alex Hawkins**********

DarkBlade, that post reeks of ignorance. While I agree that Exile and Cytheria's graphics leave much to be desired, that has to do with the art, not the tile engine itself. Tile-based graphics can be beautiful. Have you ever played Diablo 1 or 2? That uses a tile based engine. So does Baldurs Gate, and most rpgs ever made. In short, the quality of the graphics depend entirely on the graphical talents and resources of those creating them. It would be entirely possible with Coldstone to make graphics of the same quality as Diablo or BG.

Sorry to dissapoint Ben but the Infinity Engine (the one developed for Baldur's Gate, and used in all the subsequent games) isn't tiled-based. Every screen was made individually (~10,000 in Baldur's Gate).

This being said, I have nothing against Tile-engines. And I must be the only person on earth who enjoyed Cythera. I mean really, it wasn't that bad. If you want bad go pick up Saga Frontier 1 or Evolution (apologies to those misguided souls who enjoyed those two 'games' )

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------ Les -------
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Originally posted by ben1cohen:
So does Baldurs Gate, and most rpgs ever made. In short, the quality of the graphics depend entirely on the graphical talents and resources of those creating them. It would be entirely possible with Coldstone to make graphics of the same quality as Diablo or BG.

I fully agree. I would like to make something clear about the "tile based" nature of Coldstone (and other games like Diablo): it doesn't mean that the graphics used will need to be 32x32 icons put in a grid (like Reamlz). It only means that the player will move in this grid. Coldstone support multiple layers rendering which means that you can add whatever you want over the background (the "grid") even a 1000x1000 rendered picture for the whole level like in Baldur's Gate if you want (you may need to allocate more memory to your game but that is possible).

By the way, it is also possible to create traditional tile-based maps like in Realmz with Coldstone, just don't use the layers and animation features :).

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Dee Brown
Coldstone Game Engine developer
Beenox inc. - (url="http://"http://www.beenox.com")www.beenox.com(/url)

(This message has been edited by Dee (edited 11-02-2000).)

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Originally posted by Dee:
**I fully agree. I would like to make something clear about the "tile based" nature of Coldstone (and other games like Diablo): it doesn't mean that the graphics used will need to be 32x32 icons put in a grid (like Reamlz). It only means that the player will move in this grid. Coldstone support multiple layers rendering which means that you can add whatever you want over the background (the "grid") even a 1000x1000 rendered picture for the whole level like in Baldur's Gate if you want (you may need to allocate more memory to your game but that is possible).

By the way, it is also possible to create traditional tile-based maps like in Realmz with Coldstone, just don't use the layers and animation features :).
**

Wait a minute, does that mean that the characters move directly on the grid (ala Exile or Realmz) or does that mean that the characters move arbitrarily on the grid? (ala Baldur's Gate or Diablo)

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"Question boldly even the very existance of a God, for if there is one he must surely apreciate the homage of Reason rather than a blindfolded fear." -Thomas Jefferson

Will this sport character animations? I didn't see anything about animations? I'm assuming a yes, and even triggered animations all kinds of goodies...