3D Characters?

 As I'm building in Unity, there's no reason I have to stick to the flat game pieces we all know and love.  I could (for example) swap the character chits out for 3D painted models.  Here's an experiment with a very poorly painted (hurried really) Dwarf model:

That could be cool.  Thinking their base might have the symbol on it still and would turn green when they were hidden.  Of course, now I need to find representative models for ALL the base 16 characters. That's not going to happen anytime soon, as I really want the game "working" before I add these kinds of touch ups.  Hmm, could model the tiles too, make mountains raised, and caves indented...  So much to do.

RealmSpeak 3D

 I hinted in my last post that I was working on a version of RealmSpeak on the Unity platform.  While it's still a long ways off, I actually have a number of things working:

• Multiplayer hosting

• Board Building and Rendering over the network (including multiple boards)

• Setup for:
• Sound/Warning/TreasureLocations
• Treasures
• Spells

Now you are probably wondering, why don't I just build this in TableTop Simulator? I mean, that platform has a lot of capability and scripting to make it work. My primary issue is that I want a much more interactive experience, and higher control over the pieces on the board. Even some of the best scripted games on TTS just fall short of the experience I want to have with RealmSpeak.

In any case, I'm doing it in Unity. If this ever gets to a point where it is playable, I'll probably build this on multiple platforms (Windows and MacOS at the least). 

Brand New Web Page

With the addition of my new project Sertz - the BoardGame Insert design tool for Windows, I discovered that my RealmSpeak web page wasn't working properly anymore.  In particular, none of the download links were working!

After going into the web page editor tool (provided by my ISP), I then discovered that the tool no longer worked anymore either. Apparently it had been deprecated long ago, and I'm only just now noticing it because I rarely edit these pages anymore.

Fortunately, I was able to capture all of the content in the RealmSpeak page, and fire up a new tool to make the slick new page that is there now.

Of course, while the webpage is new, the content really isn't. Really no changes to the application since 2012, largely because it was feature complete, and few enough bugs that it is quite playable, even today.

I keep toying with the idea of creating a RealmSpeak 2 someday, using more modern technologies, and multiplayer from the ground up. I may still do that, and if something DOES happen, you'll probably hear about it here first.

Online Game Day 9

Is it already day 9?  Boy how time flies...  ;-)

You can check out the current map here:

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day9/index.html

On to Day 6

Day 5 has come to an end, and day 6 awaits!

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day6/index.html

Online Game Day 5 Begins

Sorry - fallen way behind in the updates.  Day 3 and 4 have completed, and Day 5 begins.  Here's the latest:

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day5/index.html

Online Game - Day 3

The previous evening ended mostly quietly:

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day3/index.html

The Witch-King and Swordsman conspired to kill off the remaining Rogues at the Inn, and the Pilgrim spent time at the Chapel wishing for HEALTH and STRENGTH.  The remaining characters ended combat.

On to day 3!

Online Game - Evening 2

Another day has come and gone in the realm:

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day2e/index.html

The Swordsman continues to skulk around the Inn, looking for lost items carelessly left by past adventurers.  What's that glint in the corner...  a sword!  A smile spreads across his face as he absently plays with his well-waxed mustache.

The Berserker quickly and silently moves out of the Inn, an action not overlooked by the nimble archer who quickly follows his new employer.

The Sorceror haggles for a bit with the Rogues for a Horse that caught his eye earlier, but a sale was not forthcoming.  The Company tries to sway the Sorceror into looking at their acquired treasures, but after a quick glance, the Sorceror mumbles something, and storms out of the Inn.

The Witch continues to be drawn towards the Evil Valley, for a purpose only she comprehends.  Her eyes glass over as she communicates with her feline counterpart many tiles away.

The White Knight makes peace with all that is good, and moves into the Deep Woods.  A broken branch along the trail reveals a hidden path, and he thanks the good Lord for his luck.  Howls in the woods remind him to stay alert, for evil is near.

The unlikely trio of Magician, Woods Girl, and Dwarf venture into the mountains in the hopes of great riches, but find only bones.  The Woods Girl notes discarded scales, and warns of snakes... or worse.

The Amazon makes quick work of the tragedy at the Far Inn, rounding up a couple of horses, and some armor.  The Company looks on in disgust, and contemplates her strength against their own.

The Witch-King, returning from his short visit to the Cliff, moves as a ghost into the Inn, and begins to haunt the occupants while searching for treasure.

The Druid continues to move slowly and carefully into the Cliff region, having heard about the presence of not one, but TWO treasure laden pools!

The Captain rounds up his soldiers, and moves in a stealth pattern into the nearby Ruins.

The Pilgrim remains at the Chapel for another day, resting, and discussing religion with the Order.  He attempts to strike a bargain with the leader, but ends the evening with no sale.

The Wizard carefully moves into the Ruins, and wonders a bit why the local wildlife is so quiet.

Finally, the Black Knight leaves the Inn, and wanders from the Realm, never to be seen again.

------

If you are a player, it is time to move through your combats.  As the last evening of combats took a little over 2 weeks, I'm hoping we can make this move a little smoother.  It helps that a lot of players are on their own at this point.  If anyone is by themselves, and knows they will not be doing any activities in the evening, let me know, and I'll take care of it for you as soon as you come up, so you don't have to worry about it.  If you are in a clearing with another player, please contact those people now, and make a plan for when your turn comes up.  If you can't reach another player, let me know, and I'll try to organize it.

Ok, that should do it!  I believe Sorceror is first up!  :-)

Online Game - Day 2

At LONG last, day 1 has come to a close, and the dawn of a new day has begun.

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day2/index.html

For the most part, the evening ended quietly.  The Witch-King and Druid collaborated to guarantee safe exit from the Flying Dragons that surprised them in the Cliff.  At the Inn, there was some stirring and a fiery blast lighting up some tables, but in the end, only a newly hired Rogue bit the dust.

------------

As this was a VERY long first day, I'm going to establish some rules.  I believe BIRDSONG worked out just fine with people logging in, but I would ask that everyone uncheck their "Daily Combat" option if they aren't planning on casting spells or trading during the evening.  Likewise, "Daily Trades" should be off unless you have plans to trade.  That should at least eliminate the waiting for easily ended combats!

For the larger combats involving 2 or more characters, I'm going to institute a 2-day rule where each involved player must give me details for their behavior during combat, so that I can run it quickly, and get to the resolution quicker.  We can do a round at a time, or you can provide an action tree of how you want to proceed based on what occurs.  If everyone in combat agrees to be online at the same time, that's different, but you'll have to let me know that you are doing that.

Anyway, if you haven't all lost interest by now, on to day 2!!  Everyone is up for recording.

Online Game - Evening 1

Started a 16-character online game of RealmSpeak several weeks ago.  I was going to post updates via e-mail, but it makes more sense to post them here, on the blog.  That will enable me to post more frequently, without harassing everyone's e-mail accounts!  Here is the first real update I did via e-mail:

----------------------------


The first evening of the game is apon us:

http://realmspeak.dewkid.com/games/Online2016/Day1e/index.html

The tension at the Bad Valley Inn (Otis' fine establishment of mead and meat) has eased somewhat, but clearly something is going down soon.  The Sorceror stands in a darkened corner with purple magic tickling his fingers watching as the fighters (Swordsman, Berserker, Black Knight) haggle with mercenaries.  The Company has arrived, oblivious to the activity in the Inn, and are discussing amongst themselves the strange noises being heard around he nearby Cliffs, and the appearance of the Witch-King and Druid headed in that direction.  The Witch (with the Dwarf in tow) head out in a different direction, with both the Magician and Woods Girl sneaking along behind.Across the Realm, the White Knight and Pilgrim spend the day at the Chapel praying and preparing.  An Amazon ventures into the Deep Woods, on rumors of an evil Shrine.  One Wizard uses his guiles to convince a mercenary to quest with him, while another wanders from the Guard towards the as yet unexplored ruins.  Finally, the Captain musters the soldiers, as only he can do.
----
(Hope I got everyone, and I apologize:  my story telling skills are a bit rusty!)

At this point, there are a number of "combats".  If you are in a clearing with other characters, when the battle comes to your turn, try to coordinate a time that you can all log in (if possible), to make the battle wrap up quickly.  If this isn't possible, and you need my assistance, just let me know.  With reasonable instructions, I should be able to push a combat through to completion.  Also, remember that there is a checkbox on your character sheet to disable daily combat, in case you don't need to see the combat sheet every evening.  This is especially true with non-magic users.  Turning this off may help the evening progress quickly.

Interesting game so far - looking forward to see what happens!  :-)

RealmSpeak Source Code is on GitHub

I've copied all the RealmSpeak source code to GitHub.  The link you need is here:

https://github.com/dewkid/RealmSpeak

Let me know if you have trouble seeing this link, or getting stuff to download from there.

Look in the Documents subfolder for instructions I wrote years ago about getting it all to build through "ant".  Once you have ant and a java JDK installed, it's a simple two commands to get the RealmSpeakFull.jar.  Then you just click run.bat, and you are off and running.  Not a good way to modify RealmSpeak, but a great way to get the final product when you are done debugging.

I use Eclipse IDE to do all my editing/debugging/compiling, but feel free to use whatever Java IDE you prefer.

To understand all the dependencies, take a look at the project-list.xml:

https://github.com/dewkid/RealmSpeak/blob/master/build/project-list.xml

Scroll to the very bottom, and note the project "RealmSpeakFull".  This is RealmSpeak in all it's glory!  You should be able to work backward from that to figure out how to setup projects in your favorite IDE.

Last note:  keep in mind that this was my first major project in Java.  Some parts of the code are "newbie programmer", and other parts are more sophisticated.  I hope that you understand that before you start cursing my name.  :-)

Feel free to ask me questions as they come up, or if you get totally stuck.  I might be able to save you a couple hours of frustration.  If you are interested in doing real work on RealmSpeak, let me know by either sending me a new build of the application with your changes, or a description of what you want to work on, and I'll add you as a collaborator. 

I've never done an open source project before, so if you see anything that would help make this more accessible, or anything obvious dumb about how I put it on GitHub, please let me know!

Hmm, anything else.....  I guess that's good for now.  If you want to advertise the source code, feel free.

Thanks everyone for years of support!  I'm interested to see where this goes...  Realm on!  :-)

Robin

Version 1.1.2.0 Released

Yet another quick release to repair some bugs and add support for CTRL-click behavior (for those mac users with single-button mice).  Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• [1769] - Added support for CTRL-Click anywhere there is a right-click (for Mac-users with single button mice)

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [1817] - Fixed a bug related to using Absorb Essence from an Enchanted Artifact
• [1816] - Changed the pieces of the Sword of Legend (expansion) to have Medium weight to match the assembled version.
• [1767] - Fixed a bug that could leave a save game unusable if adding an Elf character, and clicking cancel on Light/Great Elf option.
• [1753] - Fixed a bug that was allowing non-moving prowling monsters to block characters.
• [1761] - Fixed an error in code that may have been causing some networking issues.
• [1752] - Imp/Demon spell attacks will properly prolong combat now (even if they do no harm)

Version 1.1.1.0 Released

Just a quick update to fix a few things from the last release, and to pick off a couple of issues on the bug tracker.  I also included the latest quests, so if you haven't been updating them from the website, you can get updated anyway.

Here's what's new:

QUEST UPDATE:

• New Color Magic requirement added
• Quest deck is now "shuffled" three times before drawing cards

NEW FEATURES:

• Enabled multi-board for expansion. NOT THOROUGHLY TESTED!!!
• [1720] - Can edit fame/not/gold in the GM tool now

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [1804] - Fixed a bug with the RelationshipChange reward in the quest builder.
• [1749] - Roll of 4 on Toadstool Circle will correctly allow enchanting clearings in other tiles.
• [1403] - Toadstool Circle Extra Phase is working again.
• [1768] - Fixed an issue with Exorcise that was failing to target curses when no Imp/Demon was in the clearing.
• [1813] - Fixed an issue with the Ghosts that was causing them to remain dead indefinitely (since last release)
• [1719] - Character kill scoring is sorted in order so that characters killing characters that killed things get credit for notoriety and gold earned that round.
• [1801] - Fixed target spelling on Broomstick and Guide Spider or Octopus spell cards.
• [1807] - Removed misleading information on Read Runes button that suggested sites (Statue, Altar, Shrine) could have awakened spells on them (they cannot).
• [1808] - Fixed the behavior of conditional fame with the guild items (like Pirate's Map)
• [1755] - Followers can energize permanent spells by playing a color chit.
• [1802] - Fixed an issue with conditional fame when playing with multiple boards.
• [1747] - Fixed problem trying to trade with Warlock when you can't learn the spells.
• [1803] - Fixed a bug that crashed combat when the Lich is killed with Magic (like Fiery Blast)

Version 1.1.0.0 Released

At long last, an update to the core RealmSpeak game is here.  As I've been promising for the last year, and really in the last several months, a version of RealmSpeak with Steve Schacher's "Questing the Realm" variant implemented.  Questing the Realm is itself a variant of the original Book of Quests published by Jay Richardson et. al.

What is Questing the Realm?  Let me quote from the Users Guide:

Elements of the Book of Quests have been isolated into a set of Quest Cards that can be played during a game of Magic Realm to dynamically generate goals for players in a way that replaces the standard victory conditions.

Quest Cards depict daily life, travels, dealing with natives, fighting monsters, completing missions, and earning fame and fortune. Quest cards will combine to allow the player to tell a unique story for each play of Magic Realm.

Essentially, you play the game not with a single quest, but smaller quest pieces (though some can be quite complex) that earn victory points.  Rather than scoring by collecting GTs, Gold, Notoriety, etc, you score by completing quests.  As it turns out, this is really quite a fun twist to the base game.

With this update, you'll get 100 quest types in a deck of over 300 cards to draw from.  Each player get's a number of cards equal to their level plus one (so a typical non-development character gets 5), and uses these to guide them through the realm, and earn points.  The users guide contains information about how this variant is setup, and played in RealmSpeak, so I suggest you read that first.  For your first game, I suggest choosing the Questing the Realm variant on the options page, along with Sudden Death set to 15 VPs.

Of course, this version of RealmSpeak also supports the Book of Quests variant.  There are two BoQ quests provided that will let you try that variant, if you like.  If you want more quests, you may want to invest some time looking at the new quest builder.  You were introduced to this new tool in version 1.0.24.0, but it's undergone a lot of changes.  Lots of bugs were fixed, lots of features were added, and most importantly, all the requirements and rewards are working.  Oh, and there's a full featured quest tester in there too.

Before you dive into making any quests, I recommend first playing the game.  Then when you have become familiar with a few of the quests, open them up in the quest builder, and see how they were implemented.  I'm going to avoid going into a lengthy discussion on the tool itself, until I know people are interested.  If there is enough feedback, I may even put together some (gasp) documentation for it.

One more thing - this release would NOT have been possible if it weren't for all the hard work Steve Schacher put into developing, testing, and chasing bugs for me.  He put up with all kinds of random issues along the way, and helped me get the code into shape for this release.  Of course, there's the 100 quests he designed, which I can tell you was no easy feat.  Thanks Steve!!!!

Ok, that's a lot to digest.  Here's what's new:

QUEST UPDATE:

• Preempt quest step works
• New quest step logic to allow ANY required step as opposed to EVERY required step
• Adjustments to quest view to make it fit the screen better
• "Questing the Realm" (Quest Cards) logic is implemented
  • A deck of quest cards is shuffled at the start of the game
  • Each character draws a number of cards equal to their starting level plus one
  • Quests must be activated
  • ALL PLAY Quest cards allow the first player to achieve the requirements to earn VPs.
  • Discard and redraw unstarted quests at any dwelling or Lost City/Castle chit
• Changed the in-game quest panel to be a bit easier to look at (no more quest diagram - that will only be for the editor)
• Finished SearchResult requirement
• Finished MissionCampaign requirement for testing when a mission/campaign is picked up, abandoned, or dropped off
• Added quest debugging option
• Lots of new rewards and requirements

NEW FEATURES:

• "Show Card" button on character frame shows the whole spy window now
• Full Featured "Quest Tester" so you can try out your quests without having to play the game.
• New "OnFail" quest step behavior, so you can implement actions when requirements are NOT met.
• Better Quest Deck viewer
• Fixed a problem with companion editor in character builder

BUGS/ISSUES:

• Fixed a bug that was causing the generated map to be the same every time when quests were active
• Fixed the behavior of quest points
• Fixed a bug that wasn't removing the effect of a mission/campaign when the chit was abandoned.
• Fixed many issues around how Minor Characters worked
• [1793] - Endless Option should be endless now.
• [1781] - Fixed some issues with sound errors.

74 Quests and Counting

Just a note to let you know that we have something like 74 mini-quests working within RealmSpeak.  These are all quests that Steve (primary quest developer) assembled for me last year, but it's taken me this long to get through them all, and make sure they are working.  I'll be throwing them back over the fence to him shortly, so he can make sure I didn't undo anything important, and then a release will be forthcoming.

Quest Tester

Wow, it's been a long time - more than a year since my last post!  I've been fairly busy the last year, working to develop a couple of Android apps (Grocery Ninja and Motherhood the Game).  Of course, that took a lot of time (a lot more than I would have guessed), and pulled me away from developing RealmSpeak.

Ok, so some random anonymous poster asked recently if I was still updating RealmSpeak.  The truth is, I was really thinking about being "done" with RealmSpeak forever.  However, there is a bunch of really cool questing stuff that I've been developing with Steve S, that would just be a shame to never release!

I decided that at the very least, I would get that code wrapped up and released in the very near future.  One of the newest features is the creation of a tool that will allow you to easily test your quests outside of RealmSpeak.  The main reason I'm writing the "Quest Tester", is because with all the quests Steve S has written, its gotten a bit hard to make sure they are all working!  The new tool will make our lives a bit easier, and should streamline the quest debugging I still need to do.

Timeframe?  I'm thinking that you'll see a new release by the end of June, assuming nothing major pulls me away from my weekend coding!

Hope you are enjoying a good Memorial Day weekend!

Quest Work Continues...

Just a note to let you know that work continues on the quest code for RealmSpeak. I've been working fairly closely with another Magic Realm gamer (Steve S) to iron out a lot of the details, and for testing the application. Once we feel this is ready for prime time, I'll make the new version available, along with a bunch of quests.

Also, as a reminder: if you are designing quests in the builder, keep in mind that there may be drastic changes in the next release that will render your quests nonfunctional. Once I have a stable release, I'll let you know.

Quest Reward Groups

I've gotten some questions about the "Reward Group" concept in the quest builder. Let me explain that a bit.

When a character completes the requirements of a particular step in the quest, there's always a chance for the quest designer to supply "rewards". In many cases, the rewards are clear cut, but suppose you want to give the player a choice of rewards?

There are 26 rewards groups (A through Z). If you specify more than one of these reward groups, RealmSpeak will provide the player with a choice of options. If you play the DragonSlayer quest, you see this right at the beginning, when the player gets to choose starting equipment.

There's also another reward group marked only with a dash "---". This reward group is ALWAYS given, regardless of the player choice. Say for example you wanted the player to have a choice between a horse, weapon, or 10 gold, but you want the "Old Man" to join as a Minor Character regardless. You would make the "Old Man" reward as a dash "---", the horse as "A", the weapon as "B", and the gold as "C".

Of course, you can have more than one reward land in each group. If you want the player to have the choice between a Warhorse or a weapon plus 10 gold, you would set it like this:

--- Old Man
A Warhorse
B Weapon
B 10 Gold

Version 1.0.24.0 Released

Here's a new release (finally) with a few minor changes, and one big change. The big change, you may have guessed, is that this is the first to support any form of "questing", an idea I originally heard about from Jay Richardson's "Book of Quests" (find information about that here).

Now before anyone get's too excited, keep in mind this is more of a quest-beta than the final product. In other words, there's still a long ways to go. That said, there is actually ONE quest in this release based on the Book of Quests: Dragon Slayer.

When you start a new game of RealmSpeak, you'll notice a new "Victory Conditions" section:

To try out the quests, you'll want to select "Sudden Death", and "Book of Quests" like I did above. The other two questing options do NOTHING, so no need to even select them. Choose a character like normal, and then you'll see new gold button on your character pane:

Click that button, and you should get a quest chooser popping up, with the lone quest "Dragon Slayer" as your only option. Notice that you can click on the little shields to see how the quest all fits together. Click OK, and the game is on!

Notice now that there is a new quest tab:

This is where you'll periodically want to check back to see what it is you need to do. The gold shield with a Green check mark, is the setup step, and you've already done that. The two gold shields without a green check mark indicate the next possible steps in the quest. The gray shields are not achievable until you've completed those. Click on the shield, and there is a description about what that quest step requires. Once you have completed the requirement, the shield will automatically get a check mark, and gray shields will turn gold. Complete that last shield on the right, and you win the game. (I'll be honest, this is a bitchin' hard quest to complete)

Now if you've played the Book of Quests before, you'll immediately notice some shortcomings. Remember, this is supposed to be a beta!! I'll get to that stuff eventually, but this is what I have now. Also, there is only the ONE quest...

If you look in the download, you'll see a new batch file called "launchQuestBuilder.bat". This will actually launch the beta version of the Quest Builder for you to play with. WARNING: I will likely be changing things about the builder, and any quests you may assemble now will likely be broken later. Please don't put a lot of work into any quests with this tool! Once it is a bit more solid, I'll lock it down, and you can design to your hearts content!!

Ok, my wife is bugging me to wrap this up so we can go grab a bite to eat (is it really 8pm already?) Here's what's new:

NEW FEATURES:

• Quests
  
  • Completely revamped the victory options in the setup dialog:
    
  • Choose between Endless, Timed, and Sudden Death games
    
  • Optionally select one of the questing choices: Book of Quests, Questing the Realm, or Guild Quests (only Book of Quests works right now)
    
  • Currently only "Dragon Slayer" from Book of Quests is provided. Many more to come, as well as a tool to make your own!!
    
    • The quest itself, should work. From rescue, to looting, to slaying the dragon, to returning the girl home to her family.
      
    • Some aspects of the quest not yet implemented (for example, you still earn fame/notoriety even though the quest states that you do not)
  • New Quest tab added to character window for following quest results
• [1744] - New house rules to make character development easier
  
  • No VP Ramp: 1 VP per chit regardless of level
    
  • No VP Restriction: VPs count towards level regardless of initial allotment

BUGS/ISSUES:

• [1748] - Fixed a bug that caused the SEARCH function to crash when the character is located in a clearing that doesn't lead anywhere.

Quest Actions

Just for fun, thought I'd list some of the actions that can be applied for a given quest step, once the requirements have been met:

Information	Displays a dialog with information in it. This is a good way to inform the player what is happening.
Item	Add an item to the character inventory, or take one away. Allows for choosing items from a group.
Attribute	Modify Fame, Notoriety, or Gold. Can either add or subtract points/gold.
Hireling	Add or remove a hireling.
Companion	Add or remove a monster ally.
MinorCharacter	Add or remove a Minor Character. Must create Minor Characters BEFORE creating this reward.
Teleport	Teleport the character to a new location. Must create a QuestLocation BEFORE creating this reward.
RelationshipSet	Set the relationship of the character with a particular native group, or all natives in the clearing.
RelationshipChange	Modify the relationship of the character with a particular native group, or all natives in the clearing.
QuestComplete	Tells RealmSpeak that the character has completed this quest.
QuestFailed	Tells RealmSpeak that the character has failed this quest.
SummonGuardian	For a specific quest location, summon the treasure site guardian (if any)
ScareMonsters	Randomly move all monsters in current clearing to other clearings either in the same tile or other tiles, as defined.
AlterHide	Change questing character's hide status (from hidden to unhidden, or the other way around).
MarkDenizen	Mark a particular denizen for later reference. This is useful if you want to make sure a character kills (for example) a particular monster.
StripInventory	Removes ALL inventory and (optionally) gold from the character.
LostInventoryToLocation	All future lost inventory from this quest will go to a specified location.
LostInventoryToDefault	All future lost inventory from this quest will go to wherever they started the game, including treasures. This is default setting.

I should mention that there are actually more actions planned, than those listed above, but these are the ones I have going so far.  This list also covers everything I need to complete the Dragon Slayer quest.