quote:Original post by dwarfsoft
I wonder if you speak of the Vision Mosaic that was discussed in the doc. This was a rant on zooming out (in top-down view) and how much detail you would be able to make out of the countryside by turning the vision into a mosaic to stop the player from cheating

Heya Dwarf,

No, that was more about view range, or what part of the "screen" is visible to the player. We discussed that in details, hmm... let me search a bit... aha! Here:

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=48281

It describes the system I intend to use in my rpg project. I''ve had some ideas since then, refining this and that, so check the post and if interested, I could repost an abstract from it to the FoRPGs forum, ok?

Ketchaval, I worked on that as a part of exploration/survival game, which did not even got close to begining , but now I''m refining the system and will use in a rpg.

There are more factors that i''m thinking of, which will modify that system. Like bandits in a forest. That''ll raise the chance of enemy encounters (CEE) for certain region (say, a circle w/ radius 1 mile). Or a big storm, which will lower the travel speed.

And what Dwarf proposed "By spending more time in a place you get more familiar with the terrain...". Yes, but the time needed will be much and depending on your mapmaking/cartography/orientation/whatever skill. Imagine you just pass through a valley, riding a horse. So if you don''t swith your "Map making mode" ON, you gonna get very few details on the map, when later that night, when you camp, you set "Create map" option besides "Sleep, hunt, eat...". Of course, if you travel by foot, you will get more details, but it''s gonna take more time to cross the valley.

Also, as I think of it now... Combined with the view range thingy, you can get pretty interesting stuff. Like several travel modes more:
1. Fast - travel as fast as possible, miss important landmarks, maybe even CEE or CFE.
2. Normal - travel normal speed. Default way of transportation.
3. Slow - travel slower that normal. Increased chance of CEE and CFE, also more details on the map later.

This is different from the "Map making mode"! In that mode, you travel really slow, slower that 3). You get every possible detail on your map in certain radius. Details and radius depent on the skill.
If not in that mode, you could choose what speed to travel with, so you get more detailed map when you have time to make it. This is like if you travelled slow, you had more time to memorise more landmarks, etc.

I think it''s time to post an example gameplay experience, the way I see it... Well, maybe tomorrow, see ya guys!

Boby Dimitrov
boby@shararagames.com
Sharara Games Team