Dragon-Warrior.com - News: July 2000

News: July 2000

7.31.2000

Dragon Warrior Online
This is the Dragon Warrior PC I've been helping make programmed by Daniel Joey Steffey. It's not officially called Dragon Warrior Online, but the name describes the game and will probably get someone's attention.

The programmer plans on letting you talk to other players when playing the game; most likely though the talk command to the character in front of you. There should also be a fight command to allow you to attack other people, but Joey will restrict the level of character you can attack. He doesn't want "a level 25 character to fight a level 2 character."

As far as dying in the game is concerned you will be revived and still get to keep everything, except for you will probably loose half your gold and 1 or 2 maximum hit points.

I was notified of a new element in Dragon Warrior Online by Joey: "Another thing I am going to implement is a battle arena. I will let people "sign up" either through a web server on my site or in game somehow. And maybe once a day or maybe once a week, players will battle each other in the arena and I will give a prize to the winner. This is something that I think will drive people to keep playing and gain levels so they will have a powerful character to play in the arena."

Dragon Warrior Online still "needs music and sounds (such as battle music) and all the sound effects. like spell casting, swinging sword making a hit." If you can help with this please email Joey at djsteffe@unity.ncsu.edu

I believe I have contacted someone else helping make Dragon Warrior online with the nickname Saro. He is a member of the Dragon Warrior Newsletter and has provided Joey with a finished tileset of the over world (mostly from Dragon Warrior Adventure), and now he's starting to make maps. His email is Necrosaro@aol.com

7.27.2000

Dragon Warrior Online
This is an update on the Dragon Warrior game I mentioned in my last newsletter based on Dragon Warrior 1. The programmer of this particular Dragon Warrior Game, Daniel Joey Steffey, is making great progress at creating this game. So far he has finished the following:

the battle engine
walking around all the maps
most of the commands (like search, use item, use spell and such)
just about everything I can code without jumping into multiplayer aspects so now I will start on that.

He is "currently learning direct play so he can begin coding multiplayer" Just today he said "I have found something that will speed up my abillity to program multiplayer so I am now programming the server. Then I will add the multiplayer into the client applications. Then I will add in quests."

As far as help he told me recently, "Someone with good winsock knowledge is what I need right now. I am trying to teach myself Winsock right now and the going is real slow. If someone know Winsock fairly well and wants to write me a simple wrapper class, that is what I need right now. I havent even thought about how I am going to implement quests yet, much less what they will be. I am thinking something like if you have x and y in your inventory and go talk to person q or go to area q on the map then the quest is complete. I am thinking something like that but I am not sure yet."

He's letting me create the monster graphics, and battle backgrounds. So far I created 3 battle backgrounds, all but 4 of the Dragon Warrior 1 monsters (not including repeats with other colors), and some classic monsters from other Dragon Warrior games such as the healer. I also sent him a story with the lists of quests for the game that he might use.

Here are some details he told me about the game:

I am not going to implement multiple characters yet. Believe it or not but that takes a TREMENDOUS amount of extra programming and I don't have time to spend on that. Programming multiplayer is going to be hard enough. I might save that for part 2 or an upgrade/patch later on.
I am going to reserve the right to be king. If someone wants to fight me for the throne then go right ahead.......but I promise you that you will loose. Not because I am a much smarter player then you, but because I will make the king nearly invincible. But I might consider a mayor or something like that. I have been discussing with another guy about the ability to purchase in game structures. Like allow the character to purchase a home, where he/she can regenerate/rest and such. However, this would be very very very very expensive because I don't just want anyone to be building junk everywhere. And it doesn't stop at houses. It is only limited by their imagination and my say so. All they would have to do is draw out what they want on my map editor. come to the king (me) with ALOT of gold and a good reason. Then I will consider it and if I see it fit then I will place it in the game which isn't too awful hard to do. This goes for stuff like boats and such as well.
I will provide a wide range of character sprites to choose from. People choosing to look like townsfolk would be nice as everyone wouldn't look like a fighter, wizard, thief or whatever. Makes it more diversified.
I was thinking of making it where you must purchase any spells you would like to use. From a merchant or whatever. And the powerful spells wont be cheap. And you will need some minimum spell ability to use them.
An editor is beyond what I am trying to accomplish. And besides there are several "RPG makers" out there that use this technology
The thing is, there really aren't going to be any classes (I don't think). I might throw them in there but not sure yet. This is how it works....at level ups you have 3 points to distribute among your abilities (might be more or less until I can find a balance). So if you want to be a wizard then you need to pour those points into magic ability or whatever. For fighter pour them into strength and endurance. For thief put them into agility and stealth. For merchant I don't know yet. Or you can take middle of the road and distribute them evenly. At the beginning you might be weaker then other "specialized" characters, but in the long run you will be one of the most powerful.
There wont be a cap on levels. But it gets increasingly difficult to go up another level the higher you go.

I know many things will be inconsistant with the other Dragon Warrior games but I think he's making the right decisions. As far as not having a character class system, I feel that having control over my own character's stats sounds like a lot of fun.

Dragon Quest 7 Wav sample
Go to http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Animation/DRAGONQUEST/disclist.html to download the sample. There are 5 Dragon Quest 7 wavs. To save right click the wave button and choose save link as. I recommend to save the waves, since both mp3s I downloaded were corrupted :P

7.23.2000

Dragon Quest Anime Fansub
Some people decided to make subs for the Dragon Warrior anime. Go HERE for the details

Dragon Warrior Online
A new Dragon Warrior game is being programmed based on Dragon Warrior 1. It will have all new graphics, monsters, and quests. It might be set up online to play online with other players. If you can contribute to making the game (with graphics or ideas) email Joey at djsteffe@unity.ncsu.edu To view the message he left at Zenithia go to http://members.boardhost.com/zenithia/msg/300.html. I'm planning on doing some of the graphics and possibly help with some quest ideas for the game but I'm not sure if he needs new graphics yet.

Dragoon X Omega
A Dragon Warrior 1 patch was finished called Dragoon X Omega: The graphics are all changed, the storyline is totally new, new monsters, towns, dungeons, music, etc. It can be downloaded at http://www.zophar.net/trans/hacks.html

Dragon Warrior for the TI-89
Someone is making Dragon Warrior for the TI-89. Go to the DQDWNN for the details.