Hi Ken and all, Well, one way to get interested in text-based RPG games is to try a few out. I'd go to http://www.srith.com and sign up for a free membership. It isn't as good as a full guild membership, but it might give you an idea of the type of gamebook system I'm thinking of.It is fairly sstraight forward all things considered.
As far as remembering hot keys etc don't worry about that. I was thinking of using menus with shortcut keys asigned so that wouldn't be like the kinds of text adventure games you are thinking of were you have to type commands like "north" "south" "east" "west" and all that. Generally, keys like n, s, e, and w will move in those directions. However, as I said I was mainly thinking of some sort of menu system were you simply select the action to do from a list and it does it rather than trying to remember complex commands etc. >From what I'm reading here I think a lot of you don't really understand exactly of what I'm thinking of so let me try and explain the idea more in detail if I can. I think that might answer your questions ahead of time. Essentially, what I'm thinking of is a text-based gamebook adventure system similar to other gamebook style roll playing games where you select a list of predefined characters from a list of super heroes, and then you'll enter the game and select an adventure to play. Like many roll playing games you'll have certain skills you need to train up as you play the game. For example, Batman might start out with unarmed combat, stealth, weaponry since those are the skills he generally uses when battling enemies. As you play you will gather up general experience points which you can allocate to combat, weaponry, and stealth to improve his skills. Superman on the other hand will start out with special powers such as heat vision, freeze breath, and x-ray vision. The higher you train Superman's powers the better his x-ray vision will be or the easier his heat vision will cut through walls etc. If playing Wonder Woman the higher her weaponry skill is the more effective she is at blocking enemy attacks with her magic bracelets. That's pretty much how training skills and powers will work. Obviously, since the roll playing game comes from the standpoint of an untrained hero or heroine the game stories will range from beginner to expert levels of challenge. You won't be able to unlock an adventure involving Dark Seid or Mongul until you have reached a certain skill level or power level to actually fight one of the higher bosses in the game. Instead your first adventures will probably deal with petty criminals like muggers, bank robbers, or basic game bosses like Cat Woman who has no special powers or abilities. So in that way the game play is balanced and you won't accidently be biting off more than you can chew at once. As I've mentioned navigation will be simple. What you'll get is a screen of text followed by a basic menu of options you can take from this location such as enter city hall, visit the museum, visit star labs, rrest, whatever. It won't involve typing in complex commands, using maps, or any of the other things I've seen over the past couple of days. The user interface will hopefully be designed to be simple stupid. Finally, besides what I've mentioned above one of the aims of making this free and open source is so that the project is portible and can be run on various devices such as a Windows PC, Linux PC, Macbook, IPhone, etc. For that reason using a text-based user interface is perfect because it can be compiled on virtually anything and run from almost any device. At the moment I'm considering C or C++ for that very reason. You can use native libraries without having to worry about third-party runtime libraries like Java, .Net, or Python. Any thoughts? Even though many of you aren't programmers you can help in other ways. Even though I might use the source books as a guide I'd rather write my own game adventures. Perhaps some of you who are familiar with the comic books or the Justice League comics like Justice League Unlimited will be able to submit story ideas, add suggestions, or make suggestions for your favorite super hero or villain. For example, right now I've been writing down a list of what I believe to be the most popular DC Comics super heroes. Feel free to add to the list I've compiled below. Super Heroes Aquaman Batman Black Canary Flash Green Lantern Hawkgirl Huntress Martian Man Hunter Supergirl Superman Wonder Woman Zatana Super Villains Ares Cat Woman Cheetah Dark Seid Death Stroke Doomsday Dr. Light Dr. Polaris Gentleman Ghost Giganta Gorilla Grod Killer Crock Killer Frost Lex Luther Mirror Master Mongul Mr. Freeze the Joker This is just a sample of possible heroes and villains I plan to feature in the game. Obviously, there are lots more villains than those listed, and some of the ones listed are just some of the more popular vilains in the DC Universe. Of course, some heroes have been written out of the DC universe or changed since the original source books were published. For instance, Barbra Gordon, once known as Batgirl, was shot in the back by the joker and paralized from the waist down in the final Batgirl comic in the mid 1980's. She was later braught back into the DC Universe as a new character called Orical who is the leader of an all female super hero team called Birds of Pray consisting of Black Canary,Huntress, and Hawkgirl. They are financed by Bruse Wayne AKA Batman. Like Batman they fight Gothom City's leading criminal masterminds such as the Joker, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Two Face, Killer Crock, etc. I thought I'd mention this bit of history just to point out if you haven't been keeping up with the DC Universe world that some characters are not applicable here. Certain characters in the original DC Universe source books were either killed off or have changed since those books were published. In some cases I'm not sure what DC Comics plans to do with the character in question. Mary Marvel, for example, seams to be about to be removed from the DC universe after she was taken over by Dark Seid in Count Down and final Crisis. During the final battle Mary Marvel, who was being controlled by Dark Seid, was having a fight with Supergirl when Black Adam managed to revoke her powers turning her back into Mary Batson. Although, this reversal of her super powers broke Dark Seid's control she told Supergirl she never wanted to become Mary Marvel again. Kind of leading everyone to believe she is leaving the DC universe temperarily or for good. Although, there is nothing saying we can't set the time for the game prior to the Infinite Crisis etc. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
