TGB Genre Packs, RPG Starter Kit

#1 Surprised no one responded to you Smally - I think a basic RPG kit would be fantastic to see. I keep seeing questions on these forums in regards to RPG-like functions people want to accomplish in their game endeavors. I myself would love to have an RPG starter package guide me towards the light :)

#2 I would love to see this! More specifically, a turnbased or tactical RPGs

#3 Yeah I was really surprised myself. I did a lot of work towards our rpg in t2d, then shifted gears completely. Didn't want to see any of the work go to waste. Let's go at it like this then. Put in your two cents here on what you think the most important aspect of this kit would be, for you, or your situation.

I honestly believe it's the variability in skills and level systems and if you use one, or decide to go a different way, etc. Though I've already taken care of that little issue in the current rev.

#4 oh thats an easy one! Making a unique battle system. To me if the battle system sucks, the game is next to useless. The same thing goes with levels and skills.

Personally I'm tired of levels. You could make it where the skill, stat, whatever, goes up depending on how you fight and the difficulty of the enemy. A good example would be the saga series by square-enix.

#5 I know some of these are "out there" but I'm pretty lost in creating useful scripts in Torque from scratch - I am an artist 1st and programmer a distant 100th. If the below were laid out in relatively easy-to-edit "modules" or what have you, it would be manna from heaven for a programming illiterate like me. Numbered in order from most important to least (for me):

1) Combat System (Turn-Based) - I have yet to see any Torque tutorial put out anything remotely useful in this regard.
2) Character Progression - XP growth, Character Leveling, Skill Points distribution upon leveling, etc...
3) Game Save State (Save/Load) - A must! Nothing in the Torque docs that I have seen really help beginners out with this.
4) Inventory Management - Part of any RPG fun is addressing your character's/party's armor and weapons/spells (if applicable) situation.
5) Quest Management - No use playing an RPG if you cannot forward the storyline.
6) Dialogue System - No use playing an RPG if your story is not interactive.
7) Store Management - For when purchasing items/weapons in-game; I suppose this is rather complex in that it would be dealing with an in-world economy.
8) World Map Travel - I picture the old hits like Jagged Alliance 2, Wasteland, Dragon Warrior and Fallout 1 and 2 - traveling across the world map in real-time until you reach a town or enter combat. Part of the fun was the discovery of it all.
9) Character Creation System - Part of the RPG fun, making your character truly yours.
10) Party Management - For when dealing with other characters that have joined your quest; the combat system would/could also include their involvement.

If these sort of editable modules were lumped together into some sort of Torque "RPG starter kit", I am sure I would not be the only one willing to pay for it : ) TGB needs more helpful stuff - Torque 3D seems to get all the love on these boards.

#6 It's not that it's hard, it's that there is a lot of changes to the kit when you do different battle systems, different leveling and skills systems, different display systems.. Look at an action rpg vs one like final fantasy.. It's completely different. Ok cool. The in world economy only exists if you need it to or want it too. Most RPGs including new ones that aren't multiplayer (12+ players) don't put too much into the economy of the game. If it's not multiplayer, then there almost isn't really a need for a complex economy. So that can simplify it. And torque doesn't document a game state load system, I imagine, because every game made can be and most likely is vastly different. I will try to include this as much as possible and give points to how to edit the game state system to make it your own.

@John, our rpg isn't level based. It's point based w/ skills that can be upped by use and by points. When the player has them.

@CommandDork, you say art eh? Have any samples? Interested in joinin a group? We are currently looking for an artist. *wink, wink nudge, nudge*

#7 @Smally...

Understood for the world economy - I was thinking of a single-player endeavor, nothing complex like multiplayer. For some reason, when I think classic RPG, I think of Wasteland - probably because it was the first RPG I played that did not have dragons or spells in it :)

My primary focus in the Game Art program was interface design. I did some texture work but never really "mastered" it though I do remember loving to work on terrain-related stuff in MAX - making terrain textures and height maps and the like. For the last six years or so, I have been doing a lot of 2D digital stuff - mostly military-related profile work (guns, planes, tanks and warships), both as a hobby and for work. Have not done much in MAX over that span though - Photoshop being my mastered primary with my trusty Wacom tablet :)

My personal portfolio is at www.RunawayStudios.com

If you like what you see and I could be of service, let me know. Maybe something will work out.

I do want to note that I have experience in code - mostly ActionScript and ASP with some JS - so I am not entirely clueless is such environments, just need some primers to get really going. The TorqueScript system just needs time with me - like a year that I dont have :)

#8 Well those sir look great. Most of the kit thus far is being pieced back together into the final modular fashion I want to keep it in. This way it's easy to plugin the modules that relate to the system your building and not worry about the rest, if you don't need them. I will keep this thread updated on progress. I am working on this and two other pieces for torque here in the middle of restructuring the co right now, so it's taking a bit of time off of my hands. The torquescript isn't really hard. Though it's slightly different but if you've worked with js, it should be easy enough to pickup. I'll go through the modules probably in a blog, when this is in a beta state and add more description to it.

#9 Thanks! I suppose I should have gone with this link instead though, shows more of the skill set. I was using it for when applying for UI jobs...

http://www.runawaystudios.com/showcase/index.asp

But I really look forward to your work - sounds like you guys already have a solid foundation in place with the starter kit.

#10 Any news on this?

An RPG kit would be most welcome.

#11 I second that! More kits the better!

#12 Thirded... just started re-using Torque2D..

#13 something with NPC support and quest support would be grand. Adding a leveling system would make it perfect! Also it would be great if you made it modulated so it would be easier to add characters. Oh and a melee system so the players don't have to use distance weapons for every attack. If you had that I would buy it as soon as you made it available to buy!

Always~
Vickie ;)

#14 hello, this chat log looks a little dated, but i thought i would ask anyways... i am looking to create an RPG in the fashion of Final Fantasy, and i am currently looking at different game engines. does torque 2d/3d have the inner workings to be able to do this kind of game? some of the things i was wondering if someone might have a tutorial or place i can get some direction with this would be great.

1) is there a a form of character database that can be used for maintaining info on the characters?

2) graphical toolset for creating world levels, menues, sprites ect..

3) ability to play video files for story lines...

4) the ability to export to steam / linux

it would be nice to be able to have a game engine which is open-source and doesn't require lots of dependencies in linux (dependency hell)

thanks

#15 Look in the resource section for stuff like that.

Torque 2D is open source. The dependencies are already baked in. Just look at the code for each module used.

You're going to have to port the engine to work in Linux - and be prepared to pick a flavor or support at least the big 3....