nippe

Hi again, I'm back after sort of a hiatus. It's always nice to see progress with the engine and I'm still confident in developing a game with the Intersect Engine. I'm having a lot of fun working with it. I have been in love with this way of making games since the Mirage days! Currently I have sort of recreated my old Playerworlds-world. But let's face it. The Intersect Engine is a lot better than the Playerworlds engine was back in 2000's, so I'm going to hold it to a higher standard. In a previous post I suggested a way to improve requirements for items and spells. I'm glad my feedback was heard. Dynamic Requirements is a great feature that should have been in from the beginning. With that said. We're still lacking easily implemented, basic condition checking (This also applies to the Conditional Branch in Events) such as: Get Player HP/MP (Shouldn't be much different than comparing player stats/level) Is Item Equipped and/or Is Item Slot used ("Has Item" is already implemented, but checking wheter an item is equipped could also be useful) Player has Buff (Check whether the player is under the effect of a certain condition or not) Adding these three condition checks would allow spells to be balanced around having specific items equipped (e.g. Shield Bash), situational use (Last Stand) or during a transformation. These things are basically mandatory for RPGs/MOBAs to have these days, as it just makes each spell more unique and interesting. Which in turn leads to a more interesting combat system. Examples: Shield Bash being a spell available only to players who choose a more defensive playstyle, wearing a shield instead of a two hander. It allows for more options and choices for the player rather than just picking what item has the highest damage output. Last Stand, only useable while HP is low, would be a reactive way for players to survive a little bit longer. It could give them time to turn the battle in their favour. While I'm under the effects of my Werewolf Transformation, I could use my Bite and Claw spells. Something that wouldn't make sense for me to be able to use in my human form. The above mentioned condition checks should be easy to implement. BUT... Combat in Intersect (using spells) could still be a lot more fun. Why are we limited to running condition checks on the Caster of the spell? Wouldn't it also be fun to run conditional checks on the Target? If it was possible to check the target's HP, we could have Execution spells. Spells that only affect heavily wounded targets, meant to instantly finish them off with big damage. Is the target under the effect of my Poison DOT? Then I could use my follow-up Explunge spell. This would allow a more reactive playstyle with combos and counterplay. I feel like these features are necessary for a fun combat environment in both PVE and PVP. It could be done with the source, I know. But why wouldn't features that every other ORPG on the market have, not be available in Intersect from the get go? On another note, why are spells limited to having one effect? I think the spell editor should be more like the Event editor rather than the Item editor. I want my spell to run an Event AND deal damage. Simple stuff like a life-stealing ability isn't even possible at the moment. (Deals damage to target while also healing the caster) Advanced usage could be conditional checking (Is the target Burning? Then deal additional damage. If not, then apply Burn etc.)

Item requirements In the engine's current state, items aren't very flexible. Say I have multiple classes whom I want to be able to wield swords but a couple of others who shouldn't be. Currently I have two options: 1. Either I duplicate the item for each class and change the class requirement. (Not acceptable). 2. Or I could set a stat requirement that only certain classes can achieve. (Not desireable and not truly restricting). Resource progression What if I don't want the cheapest pickaxe to be able to mine the best resource in game? Currently there is no way of preventing this. Or if I want my resource nodes to require "Mining skill". Fully using events instead of resources is a workaround, but what's the purpose of resources then? Spell requirements Spells could be greatly enhanced too. What if I want a "Shield Bash" spell to only be useable while a shield is equipped? Or a "Last Stand" spell while the caster's HP is low. Possible solution Running events could easily solve all of the issues above. Condition branch checking like the event system offers would definitely give more depth to items and spells. Items could check for multiple classes, player flags (CanWearSword=true) or even skill requirements using player variables (MiningSkill=10). Spell casts would work the same way (If Shield is equipped) or (If HP < 50%) etc. I know that all of this can be added through coding once the source is released. But it feels like a useful feature, not just for me, but for every developer using the Intersect engine. Is this something that is planned/considered? Or will every developer have to make their own system once the source is released?

The tree is a Grapple Stone and the trench is Blocked. And here's the projectile settings:

I seem to have issues making Grapple pull the player over Blocked attribute. How is it supposed to function? Perhaps I envision the mechanics wrong? Ideally it would work the way it does in LTTP.