Printer's Devil on 21/7/2013 at 17:51
Good stuff, sort of a modern remake of Interplay's Battle Chess for the PC. Plus, I love it when the Dark Engine gets stretched into new shapes.
It's got the bones for a conversion into Archon as well.
Tannar on 21/7/2013 at 18:56
Nickie's the smiley queen!
I remember both Battle Chess and Archon well. I played them for years. I like this better.
Pheonix on 21/7/2013 at 19:32
Quote Posted by Tannar
Nickie's the smiley queen!
I remember both Battle Chess and Archon well. I played them for years. I like this better.
It would have been interesting if more Battle Chess elements had been included, as in actual battles and not just one piece pounding another. But I can see how that could have easily been a scripting nightmare. It's great as it is :)
nickie on 21/7/2013 at 19:49
Quote Posted by Tannar
Nickie's the smiley queen!
You insulting me again? I'll have to try and find another 'slap you' one. :D
Edit. I would say you're the birthday card queen but it might be misinterpreted!
kdau on 22/7/2013 at 18:54
Quote Posted by Pheonix
It would have been interesting if more Battle Chess elements had been included, as in actual battles and not just one piece pounding another. But I can see how that could have easily been a scripting nightmare. It's great as it is :)
Ah, but scripting nightmares are my idea of fun evenings. :sly: I've looked into two battle options for version 2: automatic and first-person. Automatic is easy enough overall: just enable hostility on both AIs and check who lived. (Two ranged attackers can easily kill each other, but if we're off the standard rules already, why not?) It just turns out that one-on-one AI battles are a bit bland in the Dark Engine, and usually deterministic when the AIs are mismatched. The best AI-on-AI battles we've seen, from Life of the Party's archers on through sundry FMs, tend to be team-on-team.
The first-person option would be more exciting, but I haven't found a way of doing it that doesn't have a steep learning curve. On every attempted capture by either side (and with little notice for the opponent's attempts), the player has to switch from "strategy" to "action" mindset. But they also have to adapt to a new player character and skills. At best, those are sword-only or broadhead-only; at worst, you have to quickly learn how to fight with burrick belches or treebeast arms. (Beyond the scripting, preparing player-ready versions of all the AI classes' voices, weapons, etc. would be quite labor-intensive.)
All that said, I do now have a reasonable mockup of a burrick player character. I'll probably build a small FM out of that eventually. (Perhaps set in '70s New York? :laff:)
Pheonix on 22/7/2013 at 19:06
If you set them to just fight each other, and wanted to keep classic chess rules, could you just set the piece that is supposed to win to excessive defense or hit points so that it cannot lose? Just a thought.
Mischievous Taffer on 3/3/2014 at 12:30
unbelievable. thank you very much - since i play chess and thief alot. thats a awesome creation here.
PotatoGuy on 25/10/2014 at 09:13
I finally tried this out, and it's great. I love all the little details you put in the mission, the surroundings, and how the AI have their 'battle cries'. Great way to play chess!
