Age of Darkness is a long standing RPG game I made ages and ages ago, first as a menu based game (It has unresolved issues) and then as a game that mirrored a Final Fantasy assembly game I played.

Menu based:
https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/307/30790.html
Slightly graphics based:
https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/230/23047.html

When the CSE/CE editions popped up, I changed the game slightly to utilize the homescreen, but have a similar design element to the game.
https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/461/46112.html

This Evo version will also utilize the homescreen, as it is a decent sized area to use as a map. I'll be using the RPG Starter Kit model, along with the level editor to more quickly generate the 66 map segments this game will need.

As of this post, I've generated 3 of the 6 maps I plan to get going before I start tackling the game engine that displays the map, let's you visit between the map segments. I think that'll be a good first step of the project arc before we go adding in anything else.

Using the editor has brought up some issues that didn't crop up under initial testing, which I'll address in that appropriate topic.

If you'd like to see the current map segments, you can see them here:
https://x.com/tifreak8x/status/2074671136416096675

Alright, Map editor has been updated with some QoL aspects that make things a little nicer, and removed a little bug that existed.

I am back to AoD, map now displays properly, I made a change to the RPGSK engine that I should have done before that allows characters you walk over to reappear as you go passed them. I think my next step to this project is to work on more of the maps, perhaps at least cover the first area and dungeon.

I'm currently debating if I want to make the villages have their own maps so can go into individual buildings or not.

Edit

https://x.com/tifreak8x/status/2076127930778882325 <- 4 new map segments created, I've completed the remaining overworld map segments for the first section, and the first room for the tower/dungeon. Going to try to finish building the dungeon maps, then I need set up tile action activators so you can move step on tiles and start getting useful things going.

https://x.com/tifreak8x/status/2076639175214874842

Sharing the differences between old Age of Darkness vs the Evo's version on how you interact with the town. All 3 towns the game has will probably just use this map (there's only so much you can really do in the confined space). The inverted = characters are your exits to leave the town.

Would appreciate any thoughts on the looks of the new village area 🙂

https://x.com/tifreak8x/status/2077121236195332233

So I've shared a video over on my twitter, showing off the beginnings of my event handling when you step on a tile to take you to different places or to check status of chests and such.

The transfer of screens is quite smooth and fast, and is helping me laydown the ground works for the rest of the game.

I've been looking at this thread for a little while, and I'm impressed! I am usually a bit skeptical of ASCII-based graphics in TI-Basic games, but this one is definitely among the best uses of it I've seen. I played your CE version a while back and enjoyed it, so I'm excited to see how the Evo version turns out! Will it keep the same storyline as the older versions, or something new? I don't own an Evo yet myself, but I'll definitely play this if I get one when this comes out!

The intention is to keep the general story of the game intact, but giving the overall game a graphical upgrade. Partially because it's overdue, partially because I built fancy tools for others to use, so what better way to showcase that tool kit? 🙂

I greatly appreciate the kind words! I know BASIC isn't high up on a lot of people's list of games to get at, I'm hoping to be able to push that prejudice aside 🙂

Tonight I got the tavern working, as it was just you talking with the towns folk to learn what you are to do. Sometimes 😉 I need to plan out the shop, Inn, and Armorer before implementing.

I'm also thinking about looking for some basic sprites, 16x16 possibly, and reviving yet another project from older calcs, Hex2Sprite. It's on the to do list anyways, and would be a good way to showcase battles a little fancier. Maybe. We'll see 🙂 Right now, I just want to have a good looking, fun rpg for the Evo, that's the ultimate goal.

Was able to get a little programming time in and got the Inn working. Inn, shop, and Armorer are just going to be text menus, custom built of course. I should be able to get the other 2 village items completed in relatively short time before we move on to some other aspects of the game.

Ultimate goal is to get this project done before the end of July. We'll see how feasible that ultimately ends up being.

Edit: Was able to use the Inn as a template to generate the code for the shop. Will probably do the same for the Armorer, so it shouldn't take terribly long to knock out. Making some of the village folk a bit rude if you don't have the money to buy things is fun 😁

Edit 2: Completed all aspects of the village except for the return lines of the second and third villages. Those can't be added in until I get the maps generated for those areas.

I think my next step will be to work on the status menu and inventory.

Little status update, I've been working on the in-game menu to check your status, use items and magic, etc.

https://x.com/tifreak8x/status/2078218106506272901

As it stands, Items, Status, Exit, Save, and Quit all function, only thing needing to be programmed in is the Magic sub-menu.

The overall project sits at less than 17k at present, according to SourceCoder.

So I completed the in-game menu, in terms of functionality. I've thought about making it look prettier, but that's not a primary goal at this time.

As of now, things that need to be completed:
*The start/title screen
*Approximately 60 more map segments need created
*Enemy data set up
*Battle system created
*Remaining events involving chests and such being added

Completed:
*Base walking engine finished
*Event handling decided upon and functional
*Village with functional Inn, Shop, Armorer, and Tavern
*In-game menu with functional item usage, status display, magic usage, saving, exiting menu, and quitting

Ran a test last night for the insertion of characters into the map on the fly when it comes to things like chests and bosses, worked flawlessly the first time, so that's fun 🙂 Current objective for AoD is to get the last 4 map segments completed for the first dungeon, then I need to work on revamping enemies a bit and start in on the battle system.

Added in the remaining maps for the first dungeon and fixed alignment issues with walls I failed to notice before.
Added in code to talk to the King and Wizard NPCs
Verified you can walk through all map segments and return

Next on the agenda is revamping enemies per area, and starting the battle system. I'm still debating if I want to use some kind of sprites for the enemies, and perhaps a generic 16x16 sprite for the player for battles only? If I go that route, I'll have to quickly see about making Sprite2Hex working, which honestly should be easy, and then come up with the graphics.

https://x.com/tifreak8x/status/2081511908415266944

It takes around 5 seconds to display the sprite for the enemy.

How do we feel about something like this? Is 5 seconds too long for a player to wait for an image to pop up? I'm not really sure there's a faster way to do this in Basic, the code is a very simple loop.

This is really cool! I like that it's fast enough to draw nice sprites in BASIC. I'm sure there may be some optimisations further into the calcs lifecycle but for me I think it's ok.

I think mostly because you're a more mature programmer than you were 12 years ago, and not too much because of any particular features of the Evo, but I'm quite impressed at the graphics compared to your TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition versions. The modern iteration reminds me of some golden-age-of-calculators RPGs, including some ASM and hybrid BASIC games, which is intended as a compliment. 🙂

Yeah, that feels a little too slow to me. What does the code look like? Perhaps it can be optimized?

Is the sprite displayer currently.

The list elements:
1) Width of sprite
2) row display start
3) column display start
4) was for different sizes of sprites, if you wanted single pixel sizes or 4x pixels, not used currently.

No huge optimizations jump out to me. A few notes:

• It doesn't look like you ever increment U.
  
• You could save a small amount of per-iteration time by storing the length of Str9 to a variable, and then comparing D to that in the While condition.
  
• Similarly minor, it would be slightly faster to store |LSPR(3 to a lettered variable before the While loop, then use that to reset C when you reach the end of a row.

U was part of the old version of hex2sprite, I don't remember specifically what, but this program was gutted and changed around a bit lol Might make that the Length( value.

I'll see about making the slight alterations/suggestions and see what happens 🙂 Thanks!

With Sprite2Hex working and sprites more easily generated and optimized, I need to figure out how I want to call upon the sprite data and have the health/str/def/etc data pulled separately because I will probably be sharing some enemies between areas, but they will of course be of different status. Once I decide the structure of that, I'll begin working on our battle system. 🙂

Sorry for the radio silence, last week was a bit rough.

Currently going through the original code to figure out all the elements of the enemy lists. I think I've figured out all but 2, think I was saving them for temp variables and ended up not using them.

I've managed to get several enemy sprites worked up for the first area, so that will give me something to work with for the start of a battle system.

I am trying to figure out a good way to use a multiplier system for enemies based on the area you are finding yourself in. I can have the sprite data and name data stored easily enough, and if I can just figure out a fair multiplier curve for stats, I'll be golden. I think that'll be far easier said than done.. Might be easiest to just give enemies set specs per area and go from there.. I don't know, I'll share once I have that fully figured out. It's not like we don't have some pretty good amounts of ROM space to use 🙂

Hello! I promise I've been working on AoD as I can and have time (having time as an adult is a lie). I've somewhat decided on sorting enemy data around and how that will all be called upon. Right now, working on setting up the battle screen in a way that looks good. I'll admit I'm going a little old school with some Final Fantasy I looks, and I'm liking it so far.



I need to move the player name/stats box up a few pixels and smoosh that in a little tighter. I've decided names will be restricted to 8 characters when generating, all uppercase. HP and MP will max out at 4 digits. I'm not sure attack animations are feasible in BASIC, might be if the Evo was as fast as the online version.

Just wanted to show off what I'm working with. There are currently 7 enemies for the first segment of the world coded in. The list of enemies are being completely revamped from the original game I made in 1998, so you can expect to see some different things as you play.

Going to try to finish fleshing out this battle screen in the next few days, as I need to add in player actions to the screen, give it a box, and make sure the dialogue box has enough room to display all the text I want it to.