SMAC Roguelike

[Green1]

So I take it will will go the way of ADOM where the overland will be set but everything else random?

[cryopyre]

So I take it will will go the way of ADOM where the overland will be set but everything else random?

Hopefully.

This is a further off goal. My primary goal right now is to get the core game working, and that will involve constructing some environments by hand to play around in first.

I hope to release a playable version within a few weeks, but as for random world generation using map data? This will be significantly more difficult.

[Kilkakon]

I'm an epic spriter, having done a ton of things, although you do ask for a lot of tiles and sprites. Still, some stuff should be sourcable from SMAX's terrain.pcx, and mind worms are already taken care of, hehe.

[Buster's Uncle]

Kil, if you wanted to volunteer, I wouldn't mind...

[Green1]

Well, everything set like ADOM would be okay.Not like you are trying to do Dwarf Fortress... god...that..learning curve. But.. random world...

Don't listen to bitter vets that say a rouguelike must only be ascii... every one wants a graphical one. You have been to Temple of the Rogulike, no?

[cryopyre]

I'm an epic spriter, having done a ton of things, although you do ask for a lot of tiles and sprites. Still, some stuff should be sourcable from SMAX's terrain.pcx, and mind worms are already taken care of, hehe.

Well I was thinking of other tiles I'll probably start using immediately. If you could make two or three fungus floor tiles and two or three fungus "wall" tiles (just raised impassable organic looking barriers with a higher brightness so they stand out from the floor)  that would help a lot too, as I was thinking fungal vortices and monoliths will probably be the first truly dungeonlike and roguelike things I implement.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm embarrassed I made such an overestimation of my available time - I've been on for almost 10 hours, and I still haven't gotten to the posting science articles part of my morning routine.  I haven't haven't forgotten you and the sprites, but never take my estimates of how quickly I can get to something too serously unless it's a really small job...  Sorry.

[cryopyre]

I'm embarrassed I made such an overestimation of my available time - I've been on for almost 10 hours, and I still haven't gotten to the posting science articles part of my morning routine.  I haven't haven't forgotten you and the sprites, but never take my estimates of how quickly I can get to something too serously unless it's a really small job...  Sorry.

Really, don't worry about it. I'm programming a lot and I'm still not in need of the sprites. Also, I'm just glad to have some community help! Hopefully as the program becomes more fleshed out more people can work at once, but as it is I want to get a foundation started so as to have something to work with.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, I think what you're doing is important, and I want to encourage it...

[cryopyre]

Oh yeah, this does remind me!

Since at first I'm going to randomly generate monolith/temple/landing-pod "dungeons" what do you think the internals should look like for those?

And besides that, what monsters do you think should be inside them?

Mindworms and rogue splinter-factions both seem like obvious canonical choices, but I want to know what other ideas you guys may have for "dungeon" inhabitants that would fit the SMAC setting.

[Buster's Uncle]

Also spore launchers and fungal towers.  I could dig up some Firaxis concept art for more native life, if you like.

[cryopyre]

Sorry for this delay, I've actually been programming, so I guess I have a good excuse 

Well, I think what you're doing is important, and I want to encourage it...

Thanks, I'm glad you said that. To be honest, I'm surprised I haven't seen more tribute games programmed, but I'm a lover of SMAC, and this has been a great project to refine my Python skills (they are not great, I learned them with Civ IV, and this is why even minor things are taking me a while, but I'm getting faster). Anyways, by the end of the weekend I hope to have character generation down with saving and loading, and I'll post screenshots. (The basic functions are down, as are the xml documents, but I need to integrate it with a GUI, which is a bigger project than I anticipated).

Also spore launchers and fungal towers.  I could dig up some Firaxis concept art for more native life, if you like.

I think I remember parsing through those when trying to make a SMAC GURPS campaign (but all my friends like D20 hack n slash so that fell through). Honestly, there seems to be plenty of room to work with making our own flora and fauna. I'll take suggestions for made up monsters so long as they feel setting appropriate and the community here agrees.

Of course, the finished project should allow a lot of modding. When I get to "dungeoneering" (hopefully next week) I'll upload some XML formats for weapons and monsters.

[Pickly]

Some made up enemy ideas  (Likely most of these wouldn't be used, but hopefully provide some inspiration)

1. Fungal Auroch:  This large creature feeds on small outgrowths and parasites commonly found on the xenofungus, more often in wetter areas.  Appears to have a symbiotic or commensal relationship with the fungus.  Highly insensitive to psionics.  Like cows or bulls on earth, is very large and territorial, also has resistant skin that appears to be a partial defense against mind world.

2.  Leviathan fly:  The slightly denser air in Chiron appears to allow larger animals to stay in the air, including this creature.  From a distance, this creature looks like a large dragonfly, and often travels in small groups of 5-6.  Has been seen preying on locusts of Chiron numerous times, at other times preys on smaller round creatures as some Earth birds do.  Hunts using a combination of strength, numbing poison, and distracting, high pitched sounds.  Though almost never (I don't mean this in any ominous way, am assuming that based on the size of this creature's prey, it would have no reason to attack humans most of the time.) attacks people unprovoked, the bugs can be a nuisance when stumbled upon, and their numbing poison and distracting hunting sounds has lead to people getting lost, or suffering other injuries.

3.  Artifact Drone:  A few alien artifacts have been shown to be remnants of weapons, or other potentially dangerous equipment.  While most artifacts do not activate, or can be shut off easily, occasionally some piece of equipment is found that salvagers or researchers cannot control or shut down.   Drones come in all shapes, sizes, and power levels, and range from harmless to powerful weapons platforms.  Salvagers are advised to be extremely careful when such equipment is found, although as with all artifacts, the technology to be discovered is highly valuable.

4.  Landlurk:  This snake like creature resembles its namesake, the sealurk, in appearence, but has a very different lifestyle.  This is a burrowing snake or worm like creature, but larger and capable of digging through much tougher materials.  Scientists took some time to determine if the two lurks were related, but genetic research has shown that the differences are coincidental.  Landlurks appear to be largely uncontrolled by the fungal system, instead, they are separate creatures that have joined a symbiotic relationship with fungus creatures, feeding on fungal grazers and predators, while being provided with symbiotic organisms by the fungal material that give the landlurks psionic attacks.

Landlurks are probably one of the most dangerous animals to humans, apart from the fungal defenses themselves.  They attack both psionically and with venom, are large and strong (similar to pythons or anacondas from Earth.), and hide in most types of soil to ambush prey.  Fortunately, they are incapable of handling most solid rock, and mostly inhabit fungal areas.

5.  Feral Canapsid:  (This creature's description only makes sense if this game takes place some time after colonization, when genetic technology and settlement have advanced a lot.)  These creatures are a genetic combination of guard dogs, terriers, and various centauri creatures.  As with most dogs, different versions fill a variety of roles, generally outdoors roles where material from centauri adaptations was most useful.  Like most types of dogs, some Canapsids have escaped, or been lost, into the wild, where they form packs of wild creatures that interact with the surrounding ecosystems.  The most dangerous of these dogs were used as guard dogs, and these have been bred to be aggressive, thick skinned, strong, and somewhat psionically powerful.  These dogs are capable of handling a wide variety of centauri predators, mind worms, and other dangerous animals on their own, and should be approached with caution.

[Buster's Uncle]

This is all stuff from the Firaxis site, as you can find at the top of the page under OfficialAC.  Let's see if I can find where I saved them...

[Buster's Uncle]

That seems to be the lot.