Good stuff in here.
We should start putting this kind of thing on the blog as well.
Answered, in order:
Building settlements is a sweet idea, and will add to the "sandbox"
feel of the game.
We should probably develop that last, though- I think there's already
enough complexity to sell this beast as a budget title.
Maybe it could just be a very simple system, along the lines of "bring
this number of settlers, this amount of money, and this amount of raw
materials to this landmark, and you can start a settlement here. Then
bring this new amount of stuff to the settlement, and you can improve
it to level 2." Level 1 would let you buy basic supplies and weapons,
Level 2 would give you a second tier and unlock a Pub (save point),
and so on.
In fact, if we just make it very simple like that, we could even fit
it into the current theoretical "questing" system. An NPC encounter
would tell you that [given landmark] would make a good spot for a new
town; then you go collect materials, etc.
The permanent stuff-loss is something I've considered a bit. I think
having some sort of penalty for doing poorly is a good idea (otherwise
the zombies cease to be scary), but I also like the aforementioned
idea of having a Very Sturdy Carriage.
The game is more about figuring out how to transport your fragile
settlers and cargo than it is surviving yourself. It still has the
"risky" feel when you exit a town for the wilds and won't have a save
point for a while, but without actual perma-death (which I don't
really like).
The ability to develop new settlements in some way would offset the
danger somewhat.
NEW IDEA: Let's add "warehouses" to the towns. They would work as
stash boxes for extra gear. This way if you wanted to experiment with
a new carriage build or go do something you knew was especially
dangerous, you could stash your most important artifacts and things
there first.
Good compromise?
Cows and Dogs should definitely be able to be attacked by zombies. And
yes, they should also definitely have a chance to become infected.
Infected meat makes for an interesting risk/reward choice for the
player- do they keep the meat and risk infection, or do they ditch it
and risk starvation/desertion?
I also really like the idea of using Dogs as sentries, and the fact
that they will run from zombies, while Cows will not. I wanted to give
Dogs a second use to balance their less-meat-producing status, but
didn't want to turn them into attackers. This is a good third option.
I feel like zombies would not necessarily bother distinguishing
between humans and animals, thus the "go toward nearest food source"
logic. Also makes for simpler logic programming (don't have to add
another logical branch concerning what type of character is closest to
the zombie).
Building limited weapon slots into the carriage is an interesting
idea... Would the weapons still be placed as blocks in the
Inventory/Rearrange screen, or would they be slots on the actual core
of the carriage? I can foresee line of sight problems if we do the
latter.
I'm assuming what you mean here is we just limit the number of weapons
the player can attach to their carriage, which is fine. Just have a
little indicator of "available heavy weapons/current heavy weapons,"
"available medium weapons/current medium weapons," et cetera, on the
inventory/rearrange screen.
Extra weapons past the limits will have to be disconnected from the
carriage in order to exit the inventory screen (an alert box will be
displayed telling you what's wrong).
And yes, I dig the idea of having the heavy weapons be manually-operated only.
Adding weight as an important variable is awesome. I don't really want
to have to worry about "weight limits" imposed upon the carriage (part
of the fun is the freedom to, say, build a really tall tower atop your
carriage and see how it handles), but having to think about how your
carriage moves about when you load it up with a zillion blocks is
interesting and awesome.
As far as game states go, are you suggesting that the player never go
out onto the Travel/World Maps? Just have a straight sidescroller,
with different areas to travel to laid out in a line?
I think it'd be much easier to develop levels if we didn't have
constraints like "the level must start on the left and end on the
right." I think a non-linear layout to the map would also help us
develop a bit of content at a time- we can design a modular level, and
then place it wherever we like on the overland map, and then later
decide to change its placement (or even remove it altogether, or add
to it) without having to consider the connection to other areas.
A non-linear maplike world layout will also allow the player to
backtrack to a specific town or puzzle at any time, without having to
go back through every subsequent level (which is terrible).
Plus it gives it a more Oregon Trail feel. Which is good.
Basically, by Encounter I mean "switch to sidescrolling mode." And
there will be a sidescrolling level, and then it'll be done and you
can go back to traveling uneventfully on the map for a while.
Also, this way we can handle smaller, less interesting events (Timmy
got sick) in text boxes without having to represent them graphically.
I really, really don't want minigames :P
I just generally dislike minigames- unless done really well, in very
specific circumstances, they are jarring and annoying to the player.
I think we've already got enough different activities (fighting
zombies, hunting, questing, trading, puzzles, dungeons, rearranging
the carriage, plotting courses) without having to resort to squeezing
in unnatural extra ones.
I want zombies to fall apart, too.
I am not, however, sure how we should make this happen.
The problem is how to animate the zombies once limbs are lost. The
previous solution I've used is to animate each part of the zombie
separately, making separate sprite sheets for each, and then stacking
them.
Unfortunately, I have no idea if this actually worked, as I never got
to see the finished product (as I can't preview multiple animations
stacked atop one another, I was kind of creating them blindly).
So right now, I know I've sent you these zombie animations. (Check
attachments on previous emails- the huge sprite dump I sent a while
back.) The bonus to them is that they came with all kinds of different
head types- I made a bunch of head tops and jaws, and they were all
compatible with each other, so even though you only had two types of
zombie bodies (two different colorations of the same basic form), you
could have upwards of 40 unique zombies. And we could indeed make
these into ragdolls, too.
The downside to them is that they are old and I would like to make all
new art for Trail of Dead. Buuuuut I really, really so do not want to
go through animating each arm, head, jaw, body, and leg separately
again.
So I guess you should try putting them together and layering them, and
see how they look, and we'll go from there.
I love crafting, but again, I think we have enough here. Too many
different gameplay types in the same game is death. So I vote No on
crafting stuff. At least until we have core gameplay in the bag and
decide we have tons of extra time.
I have also been considering Ammunition. I was thinking of including
them in the design doc as a second type of Supplies (besides Food). I
decided against it in the name of Fun over Realism, but I'm not
entirely set against it.
I just don't want the player to suddenly run out of ammo and be
completely screwed. I suppose there is always the Gauntlet as a
defensive tool...
Perhaps if it is simplified enough, it will be fun.
I'm thinking another basic supply block type (a crate labeled "Ammo")
that you have to store atop your carriage like everything else. All
weapons run on the same generic ammo type, but perhaps some weapons
use it up more quickly (a mounted machine gun will go through it like
popcorn, and a big cannon will use a chunk at a time). And then we
have, say, 1000 count of ammo per box.
So it's POSSIBLE to run out of ammo, and you still have to worry about
storage, but it's not so annoying that it becomes a major concern for
the player.
The catapult idea (it can launch any sort of object, and does damage
according to weight) is super cool.
The dungeon ideas are great. Definite win.
Oh, and we definitely need multi-level parallax scrolling. :D
IT IS MY FAVORITE!
Okay, more later. And both this and your reply to the design doc
should go on Frosty Rig.
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