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[The Voice of Funkelwerk]

 The Voice of Funkelwerk » Projects » Iso-Angband
 New plans - Codename "Symbol"

[Hajo]

I think I'll have another try at Iso-Angband.

For me the "symbol+color" combination of the display was always very intriguing. Just that the use of ASCII characters as symbols felt a bit unsatisfying to me.

The argument that shiny graphics distract from the game rather than to support it - I can understand it to a good extend. Thus in this new try, I want to put more emphasis on the "symbol" aspect again, also keep the "color" idea.

The graphics are supposed to be very abstract. They will be symbolic to the best effort of mine - outlined shapes of different colors. So, a dragon will have a dragon outline, and the shape will be colored in the color that Angband defines for this sort of dragon.

click for full size view

In the example above, there is a giant yellow centipede shown to illustrate the idea. It's a centipede shape, colored in yellow. Erm ... yes indeed 

For things that do not have symbolic images yet, colored pseudo ASCII characters will be used as replacements. The outline images should be easy enough though, to allow quick progress in painting.

Edit:

A new test: Player wielding a torch which sheds yellow'ish light. Also a wall with some treasure hidden (the orange block).

click for full size view

So far there are centipedes, snakes, rat and mice symbols existing. Working on more ...

[Hajo]

Progress:

- Changed stairs images to fit the floor tiles.
- Changed shop entrances to fir the floor tiles.
- Added gem image.
- Updated copper, silver etc. coin and gem treasures.
- Added small and big canine images.
- Updated some canines.
- Added armor images.
- Added books.
- Updated torch image.
- Changed rodent image.
- Updated some rodents.
- Updated mold image.
- Checked mold and mushroom patch config.

The town looks very boring, still:

click for full size view

I don't quite know how to change that.

At least everything seems to work so far, but I remember a few old bug reports for 0.2.4. So far I've not done any coding, just added images and updated configuration files.

Edit: Another example of the "colored symbol" idea - a group of jackals. They use the "small canine" image, with brown color.

click for full size view

Also good to know that I got the image numbers and attributes right for the canines. Hounds are still pending for update, and maybe more canines that I didn't see in the config file.

[Hajo]

Progress:

- Added some weapon images.
- Updated weapon config.
- Added shovel and pickaxe images.
- Updated digger config.
- Updated potion image.

click for full size view

Need to check about rings and amulets ... but those should be easy to add if the are still missing.

Overall this version seems quite usable, at least on the early levels. Quite a lot of monster and equipment images are still to do, but it also works with the replacement images.

[Hajo]

I've decided to publish a development snapshot of Iso-Angband. It's basically just a copy of my workspace. The executable, sources and images are included, and you can run the game by double-clicking the supplied "start.bat" batch file. (Only windows executable for the time being, since I cannot compile other versions currently).

http://www.funkelwerk.de/site/misc/iso-angband/iso-angband-0_2_5.zip

I know there are a lot of graphics missing. And I remember some quirks, e.g. when in the underlying Angband engine there are panel changes, the run command will stop, and a few more.

Movement keys are rotated by 45° - so "left" will move towards the upper-left window corner, "right" will move to the lower-right window corner. Actually, not the keys are rotated, but the view is. It takes a while, but one can get used to the system.

[Hajo]

Some progress:

- Added mace image
- Updated mace config
- Added bow image
- Update bow/longbow config
- Added arrow image
- Added chain mail image
- Updated armor config
- Added war hammer image
- Updated hammer config
- Added Lance/pike image
- Updated polearm config
- Added quartz vein wall type

A preview of the new quarts vein wall type. Maybe it's not really quartz (I'm not that good with rock types), but at least it looks interesting. The orange wall block contains some sort of treasure.

click for full size view

Please report bugs that you find in the bug report thread:
http://www.funkelwerk.de/forum/index.php?topic=197.0

[Hajo]

A little progress again:

- Floating eye image added.
- Floating eye config updated.
- Icky thing image added.
- Icky thing config updated.
- Spider image added.
- Spider config updated.

Worm masses seem to be complex to picture, but at least I have a rough idea how such may look like.

More clueless I am about oozes, jellies and flesh mounds. What could be distinctive attributes of the latter three, that can be depicted?

[Hajo]

The biggest step this time was to change the code to display a single-tile wall around the Angband town. I did this on the display level, since I don't want to alter the Angband code. So it's a bit of a hacky solution, which makes use of the fact that Angband town always has the same placement and size. But for the moment it does the job, and it should be easy enough to adapt later, when incorporating a newer Angband version, or some Angband variant.

And, again a little progress on images and config settings:

- Humanoid warrior image.
- Updated some worrior config entries.
- Humanoid mage image.
- Updated some mage config entries.
- Empty bottle, flask of oil config update.
- Updated scroll and potion images.
- Updated wall images.
- Added town outside ground image.
- Updated shop entrance images.

A preview of the new floating eye and copper graphics - these are a bit older already, but I didn't find sokem  to show. I didn't go nearer, since those floating eyes can be dangerous for low level characters:

click for full size view

And finall, the new town wall and outside town graphics, also the new shop entrance tiles:

click for full size view

Almost forgot to mention, I had been experimenting a bit with outlined characters, and used the player @ sign for testing. The first screenshot features a black outline, the second a dark gray one. I think the dark gray one blends in better and will use that until better ideas come up.

Edit: Another update, a piece of dungeon with the new, carved walls. Those should allow to see a bit more of the tile floor around the center, where items will be placed. That might be important in narrow passages. Maybe I must carve them even more ...

Also, they look more interesting this way I think, and give pillar rooms a better look

click for full size view

[Hajo]

I've uploaded a new development snapshot, Iso-Angband 0.2.6:

http://www.funkelwerk.de/site/misc/iso-angband/releases/iso-angband-0_2_6.zip

This includes all changes listed in the previous messages.

There is a Windows executable included, so if you use Windows, you can try it right out of the box. Sources and images are included as well. I think it should compile for Linux, too, but I had no chance to test that yet.

I've changed quite a lot of the graphics configuration, and I haven't seen all changed objects and monsters in the game yet. So if you find mismatching images or run into something strange please let me know.

There is a bug report thread: http://www.funkelwerk.de/forum/index.php?topic=197.0
I'll try to collect all known problems there.


Edit: small update on the question oozes vs. jellies

Oozes will become flat, almost pool like shapes, while jellies are more upright, little hills. The Quylthulg species of monster is yet to be researched.

[Hajo]

No new screenshots this time, but some progress on images and config files:

- Ooze image and config.
- Jelly image and config.
- Priest image and config.
- Singing drunk image adapted.
- Village idiot image adapted.
- Mercenary image adapted.
- Merchant image adapted.
- Fixed a small mistake in bat image (gray bar to the right).
- Fixed config for white mouse, white rat and gray rat.
- Updated config entries for singing drunk, aimless merchant and mean mercenary.

Nothing major, mostly finetuning. The problem with the misconfigured rodent images itches me a bit, but I want to collect more changes before publishing a new release.

[Hajo]

Some more progress:

- Fix: Centipede had light gray line about 20 pixels above.
- Added broken bone image.
- Updated dungeon background tile to a dark brown color.
- Updated pebbles/iron shots image.
- Added bolts image.
- Added ring and amulet images, updated config.

A screenshot with the new broken bone, amulet and ring images. Hail the debug commands for ease of item creation Finally I figured how to use those and now can more easily test my images and configuration.

click for full size view

I'm not quite pleased with the appearance of rings and amulets, but I guess in this size and style there isn't much to do. The sparks are already a break of the visual style, but rings and amulets are pretty special in roguelikes and I thought, they deserve a special touch. Most important is that the player can recognize the images easily, and such small things like rings are pretty hard to see, the sparks definitely help there.

I wonder if all magic items (rods, wands, staves) should have sparks? Potions and scrolls I like without the sparks, so I'll keep those as they are now.

[Hajo]

I was working some more on the magic items:

- Wand/rod/staff images.
- Wand/rod/staff configuration.
- Modified floor tile to show a bit less regular grid.
- Modified the granite wall tile to blend better with the magma and quartz vein tiles. Needs more work, maybe.

I'm still a bit undecided about the sparks for magic items. So far only rings and amulets have gotten sparks.

A view of the dungeon with the new walls.

click for full size view

And a view of the town at night, with the new walls, new floor grid, and new background tiles.

click for full size view

I like the view of the town at night.

[Hajo]

I've uploaded a new development snapshot, Iso-Angband 0.2.7:

http://www.funkelwerk.de/site/misc/iso-angband/releases/iso-angband-0_2_7.zip

There is a Windows executable included, so if you use Windows, you can try it right out of the box. Sources and images are included as well, and I think it should compile for Linux, too, but I had no chance to test that yet.

Change log:

- Ooze image and config.
- Jelly image and config.
- Priest image and config.
- Singing drunk image adapted.
- Village idiot image adapted.
- Mercenary image adapted.
- Merchant image adapted.
- Fixed a small mistake in bat image (gray bar to the right).
- Fixed config for white mouse, white rat and gray rat.
- Updated config entries for singing drunk, aimless merchant and mean mercenary.
- Fix: Centipede had light gray line about 20 pixels above.
- Added broken bone image.
- Updated dungeon background tile to a dark brown color.
- Updated pebbles/iron shots image.
- Added bolts image.
- Added ring and amulet images, updated config.
- Wand/rod/staff images.
- Wand/rod/staff configuration.
- Modified floor tile to show a bit less regular grid.
- Modified the granite wall tile to blend better with the magma and quartz vein tiles.

If you find mismatching images or run into something strange please let me know.

Bug report thread: http://www.funkelwerk.de/forum/index.php?topic=197.0

[Hajo]

A little bit of progress:

- Sling image and config.
- Crossbow image and config.
- Shield image and config.
- Updated several weapon images.
- Added bent sword image.
- Added two handed sword image.
- Updated blade weapon config.

[Hajo]

Mini progress report:

- Traps image and configuration
- Naga image and configuration
- Human-size skeleton image. Updates to some skeleton monster entries.

[Hajo]

Mini progress report:

- Frog image and configuration
- Yeek image and configuration
- Kobold image and configuration
- Salamander image and configuration.