SMAC Roguelike

[cryopyre]

So, I originally posted this at the Civ Fanatics forum but found this through Buster's Uncle's link. I thought some of you might be interested in helping:

Hello fellow SMAC fans! I'm currently working on developing a SMAC roguelike/rpg. Inspired by DF/SMAC/GURPS/DnD and other systems, I'm trying to build a fun RPG which will take place on the world of Chiron!

I'm coming to you for help, though. I have a map of planet, but it is barren. Are there any canonical maps which you can provide? Ones which are late-game/threshold-of-transcendence and yet have every faction thriving to some extent. Creating a map on my own wouldn't be too difficult, yet having one to work off of would save me a lot of time. I want a nice balanced map so that a player can choose any faction they please.

Further requirements:

Gaians have taken Sparta Command
Spartans own a coastal base
University has conquered some of Gaia's bases
Gaians own some of monsoon jungle
Sparta has lost Assassin's Redoubt to planet-life
Hive population at least *looks* like they have Ascetic Virtues
Spartan population at least *looks* like they have The Clone Vats
Gaian terraforming at least *looks* like they have The Weather Paradigm
Miriam, while still present, has obviously been under constant enemy incursions (I imagine this won't be hard . Also, preferably they'd share a hostile border with The University, although this is not canonical.)
A decent amount of seabases.

Also, if possible:
The Hive has many bases (I plan to cut his territory and denote some of it to the Free Drones)
Zakharov has a moderate amount of bases, possibly including a few on a peninsula (I plan on turning a peninsula into a Cybernetic Consciousness enclave)
Spartans have a knot of sea bases (the coastal bases for Maritime Control Center not included, this knot is, you guesses it, for the Pirates)
An island with Morganites (Data Angel enclave)
No bases around the ruins and fungus still prolific there, I'll probably manually place the cult in that area.

I'm not including the Progenitors out of a personal dislike of the inclusion of the aliens. But the game relies heavily on XML and they should be easy to slap in if you feel like it.

I can do this myself, but it would help me save some time.

If anyone wants in, let me know. I also could use help in getting sprites for tiling (if you've ever played DF I plan on using a tileset in a similar fashion). Any other programmers are welcome to help, this is my first big programming project and I'm only in the initial stages of development. I'll share my work any time you'd like. I'm programming in Python with extensive us of ElementTree and Pygame.

I make no promises but I'm committed.

Thanks for any help!

Also, a tileset would not be amiss. I am not an artist, just a programmer.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well I am an artist, and I'm at your disposal.  Small assignments will tend to get turned around quickly, big ones not so much - my build queue is a mile long already.

Tell me more about what a tileset would entail...

[cryopyre]

Well I am an artist, and I'm at your disposal.  Small assignments will tend to get turned around quickly, big ones not so much - my build queue is a mile long already.

Tell me more about what a tileset would entail...

A set of 16 pixel by 16 pixel sprites to represent characters, objects, NPCs, and constructions in the game laid out on a grid with a magenta background (saved as a png). For example I need tiles representing the walls and corners between two, three, and four, walls. I need a tile representing a mindworm boil. I need a tile representing passable and impassable fungus (basically floors and walls, but they'd look more organic). A tile representing humans. A tile representing different objects you could pick up (at least one gun sprite, hammer sprite, sprite for armor/clothing, sprite for handheld electronic devices, and a simple sprite for planetpearls).

It's a big task, probably the largest next to programming which is why I hesitantly ask for help since I know a tileset would require a lot of commitment.

If you feel like tackling priorities: I just need a generic 16 * 16 wall, corner between 2, 3 and 4 walls, and a corresponding floor. A generic human tile too.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, that sounds doable, actually.  It would save time if you were to point me at an example of the sort of thing you're looking for in the sort of game you propose to make - then a few words about how what you want ought to differ.  16x is tough to do and have it look like anything, but it can be done.

I can knock out one or two at a time according to what priorities you set, and post, and we'll keep going until you say we're done.  Not a big deal unless we're talking hundreds of tiles, but still doable even then.

[cryopyre]

Okay, that sounds doable, actually.  It would save time if you were to point me at an example of the sort of thing you're looking for in the sort of game you propose to make - then a few words about how what you want ought to differ.  16x is tough to do and have it look like anything, but it can be done.

I can knock out one or two at a time according to what priorities you set, and post, and we'll keep going until you say we're done.  Not a big deal unless we're talking hundreds of tiles, but still doable even then.

Here (http://imgur.com/ercn0,WrkXX,Ftpin) is an album with three images of tilesets. The first is of dwarves. The second is objects like walls and beds, the third is an example of them being implemented in the actual game. This is for a game which takes place in a fantasy world, and they are actually meant to supplement ASCII graphics. I'm hoping to circumvent using ASCII for the sake of making the game easier for people to play.

I really appreciate your willingness to help out, and feel free to take your time, I'm still working on the underpinnings of the game but I'm asking for a tileset early so that when it gets to the point of testing I can start with graphics almost immediately.

As a further specification when making objects that would be placed on top of stuff (like a gun or a character walking on the ground) having a magenta background so I can layer it on top of a solid tile like a floor. A numbered cartesian grid would also be nice, so that adding new tiles and assigning it to game objects will be an easy matter of programming and make the game very easily moddable.

To anyone else who wants to help, if you're familiar with XML hit me up. I have simple projects like making an XML library for books which are not program heavy but would add a lot of flavor to the game.

Edit: There will hopefully be hundreds of tiles, but I only need 5 or 6 to start out with, and like I said, take your time. It's just a fun tribute project for a game I love.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, I'm having a look now.

I'm sure what you want should be no problem.  Would the attached satisfy the cartesian coordinates thing?  Or more set them up in more of a marked grid w/boxes?

[cryopyre]

Absolutely! The cartesian coordinates are so that I can make a simple function to pull any tile based off of a coordinate tuple instead of worrying about counting pixels each time. I'm making it this way so that after I'm done others can modify and refine the finished project as much as they like.

[Buster's Uncle]

Just the numbering, then?  And definitely leave room for more, right?

[cryopyre]

Just the numbering, then?  And definitely leave room for more, right?

Yeah, just numbering. It's so an xml file for objects can have a tag like:

<Icon>(1,1)</Icon>

And the program will just grab the data automatically.

Much obliged, and take as much time as you want. No hurry at all.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeah; my to-do list is seriously long.  Running a forum takes an awful lot of work that doesn't show, to the point that I simply don't work on my own projects at all.

I guess to get me started, tell me what tiles you'd like to see first - a set of worms or what?  How many?  Doing what?  Whatever you want in a limited subject of, say, 12 or less and I'll see how fast I can work up a line of tiles.

[cryopyre]

Yeah; my to-do list is seriously long.  Running a forum takes an awful lot of work that doesn't show, to the point that I simply don't work on my own projects at all.

I guess to get me started, tell me what tiles you'd like to see first - a set of worms or what?  How many?  Doing what?  Whatever you want in a limited subject of, say, 12 or less and I'll see how fast I can work up a line of tiles.

A generic cement floor tile, cement wall tile, cement wall tile corner, cement wall tile junction with 3 walls, cement wall tile junction with 4 walls, generic human character sprite, generic tile filled with a swarm of mindworms, a rifle sprite. That should do it for now.

I feel you about the forums, I used to run some myself back when forums were much more popular.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, we're getting to what's normally the slow part of the evening on the boards - I'll study the third set you linked and see what I can get done in the next few hours.  Probably going to go make supper soon, but that should only keep me AFK for about a half hour.

[Buster's Uncle]

Ugh.  I spoke too soon - forgot that supper's been giving me the itis lately.  I'm always just a little bit too sleepy in the evenings to concentrate enough to do anything painstaking.  It's been disrupting getting another project wrapped for over a week now, and always too many Europeans on in my morning.  Also, it's the beginning of the month, and we just got a Game of the Month out, which always eats a lot of time.  Sorry.

I'll try to get to this mid-afternoon tomorrow.  Morning if it's slow enough.

[Green1]

There was a GURPS AC campaign setting years back. It was under an older version of GURPS back when they had a four stat point-buy system.

Instead of die hard situations like the scenarios you describe, why not make the political environment totally random? Randomess is the selling point of any good rougelike.

[cryopyre]

There was a GURPS AC campaign setting years back. It was under an older version of GURPS back when they had a four stat point-buy system.

Instead of die hard situations like the scenarios you describe, why not make the political environment totally random? Randomess is the selling point of any good rougelike.

An eventual goal, but not a starting priority, plus I want a standard canonical world for people to play in.

A lot of it will still be randomized, but the map will be used to pull data from.

Also, it's difficult.