Early Alpha of The Plunge....

[SpaceBoy2000]

Well, okay. I said I was going to do it, and here it is. It's currently really...well, bad. Single player only - haven't gotten into making it networked yet. Here are the things that ARE implemented:
- Three different Lyns for you to choose from
- A good deal of blade arts and their animations (although you only see a few of them)
- Three different fields for you to plunge on
- Damage calculations
- Sounds and music

Things that aren't done:
- Injuries system
- Finishing the rest of the blade arts
- Linked Attacks
- Bitmapped fonts to display damage
- Networking it (duh)

I know there's quite a bit of bugs, and the animations are somewhat...off. Oh, and did I mention how freaking bad the animation is? Well, take a look yourself and judge it. You do need the Java Runtime Enviroment installed, at least JRE 1.4.2. There is a problem with the newest version of Java - sound effects won't play. Trying to find the problem and solution right now...well, after I finish writing my exams.

Anyways, here it is. Run the file "test.bat". The readme was there mostly to satisfy my comps teacher, which I handed this in as my summative. I would appreciate if people can identify any bugs in the game...

http://ca.geocities.com/theplunge@roger ... Plunge.zip

EDIT: My bad - stupid host

EDIT 2: Okay, it should work now >_<

EDIT 3: Apparently, you have to copy and paste it to the URL bar in order to get it to work...

EDIT 4: Bah, okay going off to find a new host that has some decent bandwidth...

[Aegis]

Interesting...

I really don't like the plunge that much, but a way MMORPG sounds like an awesome idea, and this is a first step, which will make people think about it more if nothing else. However, I was thinking that the coding should be done in a good coding language, not java. Interpreted programming languages are a bad idea in quite a few ways, not the least of which is slowness (limitations are a biggy too). I was hoping for something good like visual basic or C++. Still though, something programmed is something programmed, and i congradulate you on this thing.

...Someone - mabye me, mabye not - should really start a The Way Online thread

[EmperorJeramyu]

...Someone - mabye me, mabye not - should really start a The Way Online thread

There's been at least one. I think it's fairly well established that such a project is of a scale that no one will ever (sucessfully) attempt.

[SpaceBoy2000]

Eh, I'll be probably learning C++ in the summer on my spare time. Interpreted languages ARE horrible. There is a reason why the animation is not smooth at all.

As for The Way online....No. Just no. The Plunge online is fine, as there will be a time when it will be done and wrapped. But the amount of continuous work needed to maintain and add new content to a MMORPG is absurd. Especially since we don't have a large team of programmers to do it.

[Kyle]

I'll try it soon.

An MMORPG of The Way could work if you don't add in animation (which is fine by me). I've actually been playing around with it (also in Java) and I do have it networked, but it's just not that easy (and I have graduated from college doing Computer Science). I'm not gonna give up though. It will probably turn out to be something like Funeral Quest, if you know it. If you don't, visit RTSoft.

By the way, not animated doesn't mean not graphical

[SpaceBoy2000]

I think the most difficult part is not the networking itself, but to squeeze enough performance out of it so that the game is actually playable in real time. Because the Plunge is turn-based, it doesn't matter too much how long it take for one player to transmit all his information. However, in an MMORPG, I think it would be quite difficult to have the game run fast enough to be playable over a network. In Java anyways. Having it networked in a turn-based game isn't too hard, but in an MMORPG, well, we better be using a non-interpreted language. Or rather, one that's not interpreted on the fly.

[Telephalsion]

mmorpg? arent we aiming high... o-rpg at most

[Shindy]

MMORPG?! no way! thats like a... a... super colossal of work.
Plunge online is a good idea though... it'll add alot of fun and popularity to The Way.

[Burning_Flame]

it would take a team of mmorpg programes at least a year so 1 person it would be pointless by the time it would come out

[SpaceBoy2000]

Also, keep in mind that anything like an MMORPG or even an Online RPG would have to probably be done after The Way is finished, mainly because we don't know how the plot will end up, and the fact that Lun has asked that all such projects be overseen by him after The Way's done. Therefore, we probably have a few years to hammer out a decent engine and all. Of course, my skills are no where near that, so I'll leave that up to someone else whose better at programming than me.

[Burning_Flame]

True True but to make the Way online it would'nt follow the plot.....maybe the maps but not the plot and it would still take so long that it would not be worth it

[ReaperGal]

A Way MMORPG would be immensely cool, but you would need a professional programming and creative team. It would be cool if it was set just before the events in the story, so you could visit Estrana, things like that. But as just about everyone else has said, it wouldn't be possible as an independent effort.

[Aegis]

mmorpg? arent we aiming high... o-rpg at most

Aren't we aming a little low? I mean, interest in the way by the rest of the gaming community would be great, but I was thinking of something actually fun. (I hate the plunge... Damn luck-based crap!) Also, you could misunderstand me. The MMORPGs of today are filled will super-flashy 3d graphics, armies of animators to create all of the animations, and updates every week. I was thinking more along the lines of.. Well, hard to explain, but I'll try my best. Take the way as you have it now, add in tons of maps, quests, monsters, items (in this case notch items), set it up for networkabillity and chat rooms and multiple players at once, add in a few minor systems and tweaks, and viola! The Way Online, no bells-and-whistles super prorgamming or mega-flashy 3D graphics required, it would be completely 2D (except for the occasional Lun hightmap render). It wouldn't have to be done by one person - heck, im sure a lot of people on this site have some dev knowlegle! Program it in C++ and it will run just as fast as you need it to on a good server.

...

And now, what seems like to me the biggest barrier... How to get a hold of a good server and pay for it's bandwitdth? This could be a show-stopper, unfortunately. Since servers are incredibly expensive, as well as bandwith, it would be far to expensive to own our own. However, it seems possible that these things are up for rent. Check out http://www.hypernia.net , it looks like that could be what it is, but I'm not sure. The only other big showstopper i could see is if the way does indeed keep "growing" (for lack of a better word), it would be very hard to keep up with the content.

- And yeah, we would have to wait for the final game to come out first -

...Meh, did I really have a point in saying this, then? ...I guess the point is that we have the manpower\brainpower to make it but not the moneypower... So what was the point, anyway? It's still nearly impossible. So why make a massvely long post about it? Believe me, im as clueless as you are. Am I rambling? It looks like I'm rambling. Why on earth would I keep this post going? Its going on and on, like that theory of how The Wa...

[SpaceBoy2000]

Keep in mind that we probably would have to write a new engine in order to do the basic movements, actions and event system from the ground up. Well, I'm pretty sure SOMEBODY around here probably has one lying around that we can hack to pieces and recode...but I do have to get off my ass and learn C++ soon and quickly. Java is becoming too painful to use...though then again, I'm not looking forward to pointers. It would help my memory management problem I'm having with Java - it literally drinks system resources. And there's way too many bugs in it, especially in things like playing sounds.

Oh well, I'm debating whether to finish The Plunge in Java, or learn C++ and then redo it. Got another week to decide though...

[Kyle]

Making an MMORPG isn't that hard until you actually use animations and want other people to see you run around. That's when you'll need C++, that's when you'll need to have extremely well written networking code to keep everything synchronized and I'm 100% not even a team of intermediate programmers could pull that off. You need to look at it in a more realistic way. What is it that you want exactly? Speaking for myself, this is what I want:

- Area maps: I don't need to be able to walk around from one point of interest to another as long as there are points of interest where I can do something. So, having pretty area mpas with clickable regions on it would be just as good for me. If I want to run and jump around I'll just start up World of Warcraft.

- Plunge battles: I need to be able challenge people to a duel and I want to compete in tournaments and be ranked globally. I want to play versus the CPU as well to "level up" or to try new combat strategies. I do prefer to have my plunge battles at least semi animated, but because it's turn based this shouldn't be a big issue.

- Chat areas: Of course it's an MMORPG for a reason. Multiple people are playing it simultaneously with you (although you can't visually see them) and I want to have some way of communicating with them, either in a global chat channel or in designated areas only, with the people in that particular area.

- TRAVEL: The Way is all about wandering. There needs to be a lot of content, but there's no problem with having a limit in this content. Just call it the rolling mists and move them up a bit when you have new content Of course, we can't actually be sure this will work because the nature of The Way is still obscured to us.

I guess you can't really call it an MMORPG if it's crafted like this, but it comes close enough for me to spend a lot of time with it. Also, this seems much more realistic and doesn't rely as much on a thousand dollar server. Networking code can be kept simple and synchronization is almost not an issue. This could also be written in Java, barring any unforseen bugs.

Spaceboy, I'd continue your project in Java for now. If you have to get around the many hurdles of writing the same thing you've written before in a language you've barely come in contact with you might end up giving up on the project entirely. Writing network code in C++ is a BITCH, trust me on that. (Then again, the graphical part is easier...)

One last thing, about Lun overseeing it all. If I were to pursue this I wouldn't want it any other way than for Lun to have a (big) say in it. It's his property anyway and I would never ever abuse that. In fact, I'd want him to write a story for the game that people can go through during their online travels. For example, coming to that particular area triggers a story sequence (again, just sprites talking to each other, using portraits and pretty backdrops).

So, having said all that I also want to congratulate Spaceboy for what he's already achieved. That looks pretty damn good (although I haven't been able to run it due to Java version issues but I've looked through all the code and can imagine how it plays and what it looks like). Maybe that code can be adapted in a networked version and we'll have our animation

Oh and Aegis, if your post was long, what's mine?