Heroscape MMORPG

[happyjosiah]

I have no programing knowledge worth anything (a bit of HTML and a very little bit of VB). But I was thinking how awesome it would be to have an online heroscape game, made by us the fans. It would not have to be anything interactive even. But some kind of browser-based adventuring would be a lot of fun. Take a look at games like Kingdom of Loathing, RuneQuest and Adventure Quest and you basically get the idea. I am not concerned with economy and trading with other players or fancy grpahics. Just something where you can create a character with attack, defense, life, etc and purchase skills for it like double attack, counterstrike, etc. Kill marros and deathreavers and such until at high levels you are fighting Jotun and Charos and such. The points you get from killing them let you improve your attack and defense and buy powers and healing glyphs and stuff. There has been a lot of talk about a heroscape RPG. Couldn't some of this be incorporated into a simple (at least at first) browser game? I could see this in PHP, Flash, or whatever. But I cannot do it. But I think someone here can, and I would be glad to help in whatever way possible.

[Fl0ydski]

HJ,

I like your thinking. There are some good ideas there. And you got me thinking what exactly this type of thing would look like. I was going to mention that I thought Heroscape is rich enough(in terms of story now) that an RPG would be a really, really cool extension of our table top game(but I see you mention that there has already been a lot of talk on that subject-so I'll have to dig through the forums for that).
I am familiar with RuneQuest, but not Kingdom of Loathing or Adventure Quest. And I am also familiar with a few old BBS type on-lines games from the early days of modem gaming. And there are a couple that with a little initiative and late nights at the keyboard could flesh out the basis for an ongoing adventure/level system with random encounters, and maybe even themed quest type objectives... hmmm...

Off to check out some things...

~Floyd

[bluekitsune13]

That would be awesome if it was made right. Otherwise I was thinking of creating a "Choose your own Adventure" game of Heroscape too. You know, where you're presented with choices and whatever you pick effects the story.

[Mythic]

Originally Posted by Fl0ydski

HJ,

I like your thinking. There are some good ideas there. And you got me thinking what exactly this type of thing would look like. I was going to mention that I thought Heroscape is rich enough(in terms of story now) that an RPG would be a really, really cool extension of our table top game(but I see you mention that there has already been a lot of talk on that subject-so I'll have to dig through the forums for that).
~Floyd

I don't know about older threads on this topic, but a fairly recent one is here:
http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ead.php?t=2948


.

[D-Dyzzle]

i use to play runescape. i could see a HS game like it. that would be awsome

[K/H_Addict]

there's a good text-based RPG out there that i used to play. It's called Medieval Battles (www.medievalbattles.com). I think if you could get in touch with the programmer of that game he could give you tips.


If you can find the forums he has for it, his username is Mako. He's probably around 20 or 21 now. I would give you a link to the forums, but i don't know what it is (i know it's changed since i played)

[AgentX-127]

Originally Posted by K/H_Addict

there's a good text-based RPG out there that i used to play. It's called Medieval Battles (www.medievalbattles.co).

Dead Link Alert!
KH/A

[B:T:L Matt]

The drummer of my band is greatly knowledged in programming, hell its his profession. He played Heroscape at my house and is addicted to it. He and Iwant to create a game along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics. It was an RPG that held various characters on screen and battles were done taking turns, and land "type" affected movement and height advantage effect a character's attack and defense. Sound's a lot like Heroscape in a way, huh?

We want to create it so that it can be played story-driven under Jandar's army against Utgar's. Also we'd like to make a mode that was just free play where you could be either general faction. We were thinking heroes and squads would keep their stats and abilities but maybe include items to enhance them like armors, weapons, healing items, special effect items and so forth. In the story mode we want to set it up so that major characters would be bosses throughout the game, like say Taelord, Ne-Gok-Sa and so forth... Also we want to set it up where like in most RPG's, certain answers chosen in conversation with characters would alter whether or not they'd join your side and be draft-able, or against you to which you'd fight them (this is how we'd fit in the neutrals like Ullar, Vydar, and Einar). Or have quests where if you accepted them and fulfilled the quest it would make a neutral faction side more with you, but fail it, they'd side with Utgar.

He has a program to create the game and we've even worked on a few map layouts, but we want to completely flesh out the entire story and its dialogue, before moving on to creating the initial game itself.

[happyjosiah]

There are just so many possible ways it could go it's a very exciting prospect!

[kenjib]

In volunteer programming projects - especially games - the odds of something getting done are inversely proportional to how ambitious the goal is. Open source/fan created games that want to use technology comprable to anything within the last 8+ years pretty much never get anywhere. I would suggest starting small. For example, create a variant of Angband or create a MUD using LPMUD.

If you really want a more modern type of game, again start small but leave room to expand. Set achievable milestones. The first goal would be to create a simple combat engine that let's people start games and fight, for example. With this method, even if you never accomplish what you originally set out to do, at least you have created something that people can enjoy. If you start from the very beginning with the idea that you will have level progression, and different classes, and a big world filled with interesting quests, and etc. etc. all coded from scratch you will probably never even get to the point where anybody can play it at all.

The other problem you will face is that once you start doing this, there is a very large chance that Hasbro will shut you down faster than a ***** house next to a police station. If they do not protect their trademarks they run the risk of losing them.

[B:T:L Matt]

You're right Kenjib, on various points. We know something like this would take years to get off the ground, especially too since our band is our main priority over anything else.

As far as the trademark, trying to accurately design every figure, would be a pain in the a$$, so chances are it would be generically designed characters with the abilities resembling the actual figures.

Again, it's a far dream from getting to complete this, but who knows, maybe Hasbro one day would release something to the extent of a video game.

[happyjosiah]

Agreed, there are good points. Especially about the programming in general. I think this would be something that would be better accomplished piecemeal. First come up with something that can roll dice (matchup calculators can already do this). Then make it so my dice are not changeable, and make me fight random other combinations of attack, defense and life. Etc. etc. The other benefit of doing it this way, is that at every step, you can show people here what you have and take suggestions.
As to the copyright issues, I'm pretty unconcerned. Landscape? Solidscape? Virtualscape? Heroscape Matchup Calculator? Hasbro isn't shutting these things down. Now, if someone tried to SELL them, that might draw some attention. But it doesn not benefit hasbro to shut down fan efforts that don't compete with something they offer. A game like this could only serve to get people MORE excited about heroscape. And let me also say, some of the above programs seem to me to extremely ambitious.