Introduction

[Xlithan]

Introduction

Long ago, the City of Vallecia was bustling with life. Traders would come from far lands to grasp the riches that the City offered. The people of Vallecia were very religious, as it had been for many many years, until folk left the City to travel far lands to discover new things, and bring back stories and samples of their findings. These people would come back to the City not only with samples and simple stories, but they had claimed to have discovered new ways of life. The Church was outraged by these stories, and accused the travellers of herecy. They were sentanced to death, tortured and burnt alive. This day was known as "The Silent Night", and since then travellers have kept their stories to themselves.
I have often been curious about the stories, so I planned to set out in search of truth.

This is where my journey starts, and this is where the Heretic Chronicles begins...

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Welcome

Welcome all to The Heretic Chronicles. We (Yes, we) are extremelly proud to give you all the very first text-based MUD adventure game built with Mirage Source.

The Heretic Chronicles is about an individual (You) who becomes a heretic from a religious city, in search of new ways of life, and as a player you can choose your own paths, and choose your own beliefs which is what being a heretic is all about.
The game is set in medieval times, and unlike most games which claim to do so, The Heretic Chronicles uses some real facts about the lifestyles in the medieval era. Of course, it wouldn't be much fun if everything was based on fact, so we threw in some elements you'll usually find in AD&D, TSR etc. including AD&D stats, stat rolling, the obvious classes and races (Correct, I said races!), and a truck load of spells to test out on all of your friends.

The great thing about the game is there are no game graphics (There will be a fully graphical interface before the game is released), everything you see is printed out in text, and thus you have to read everything to know what's going on. This allows you to use your own imagination to build the world in your mind, it's up to you what the world we have created looks like visually, and of course, the more you play, the more you get used to moving around.

The game contains everything you're average Mirage game would include. Shops, spells, items, monsters, inventory, maps (Which are known as rooms in this game), leveling up, adding stats etc. etc.

The game no longer makes use of the account system, and instead you log in on single characters, which you may only use 1 at a time per computer on your network.

Changes from the Mirage Engine

Multiple things have been changed in the engine to suit the style of the game, and to be compatible with the text-based system.

Note: These are only a list of current changes, there are still many more upgrades to take place before our system is ready.

• Colour coded text. Adding certain text codes into messages will change the font colour/style (As seen in screenshots).
  
• Players, monsters, and items are added to seperate list boxes so you can see the contents of each room.
  
• Players now use 6 individual characters statistics which are used in formulas to calculate certain attributes of the character.
  
• Experience formula changed, and experience given changed to per hit, rather than per kill.
  
• Max HP/MP/SP is calculated using a new formula, which makes use of Race statistics and Class bonuses, as well as the new character statistics.
  
• All weapons have a base damage value, which is added to the overall damage value.

These are only a few of the updates. As you will see from the screenshots below, much has been done to make this game work using Mirage Source Engine.

Screenshots

The game has gone through a few stages to get where it is now. It may look simple but I assure you, behind the scenes the code has become more and more complex to be able to become compatible with the text-based system.

1. Very initial stages. No networking. This was the software in which the map system was only present and some very basic attacking code. This mapping system was later applied to the Mirage Source Engine.


2. Very early stages of the text-based system applied to Mirage Source Engine. Only moving and displaying players in the room content were fully working. Everything else is mocked to show would it would look like. The text colouring was very poorly coded and later removed. The image of the castle was a room image. Depending on your location the image would change to give you a visual aid of your surrounding area.


3. The same as stage 2, but displays characters entering and exiting the room.


4. This screenshots shows a newly updated interface layout, very much like the current one with little changes. As you can see, the text format was changed to 1 colour per line, made smaller and the textbox made bigger so you can see more text on-screen. The room image was removed, and a functional grid style mini-map was added. The room content was seperated into 3 sections for better organisation, which makes it easier for the player to find what they are looking for rather than listing everything in the same box. Descriptions were updated, and status bars were made functional.


5. This screenshot demonstrates the first addition of a graphical user-interface. This was the original name of the game until it was brought to my attention of a name conflict with another Mirage Source game. This issue was resolved almost instantly, and thus we have The Heretic Chronicles.


6. This screenshot doesn't have any additions viewable on the UI, but if you look at the text you will notice a battle taking place between 2 players. The battle system then was using the original Mirage Source attacking system, but obviously with a few changed to make it compatible with the text-based system.


7. This screenshot shows numerous amounts of updates. The first thing you may notice is that experience is gainable, and shown accurately on the UI. In the Character Statistics section you will notice the full range of statistics available to a character, and you will also notice the Race addition. In the text you will notice somebody shouting at the bottom. Shouting allows you to send messages to each room in every direction by 1 room. You will also notice other boxes are blank. Mock-ups of data were removed as functional systems were being added at this stage.


8. The latest login interface, currently still the only part of the game with a graphical interface at this stage.


9. The almost up-to-date version of the game. Most recent updates are either back-end coding or basic stuff which isn't of great importance to show in a screenshot. From top to bottom: All players in the same room as you are listed in the Players section of the Room Content frame. Gold display is functional and exact to the amount in your inventory. Clicking on a Player or Mob and clicking the Look button will display a players appearence including weapons and armor, and display the appearence description of a mob. Clicking on either Player or Mob, and clicking attack will engage the attack routine and perform the obvious actions. Pickup is used to get items from the ground (in the Items list box), and drop is to drop them from your inventory. Experience is reset each level, and is fully functional. All NPCs and Items are displayed in the list boxes, and can be interacted with. As said before, items can be collected from the ground and placed into the inventory, and dropped. Each list box will update when you change rooms to display the correct content of that room.
The HP/MP/SP bars are fully functional and use the new formulas to calculate the max values. SP is used for Stamina Points, and prevents you from attacking or moving when it is at 0. Clicking Main or Inv buttons switches between inventory and statistics display.
Skills/Spells are fully functional, and can be used on other players in the appropriate rooms.

So lets take a look at the text-box now. Colour coding has been added to make it look pretty. This is handled client side after text has been sent from the server. It reads "tags", and formats the text accordingly. The exit description has been updated to be more descriptive, to give you an idea of what's in the available directions. Game Wardens (Staff, sysops, admins, GMs, whatever you wish to call them) may have their own colour so they stand out amongst normal players. The /WHO text output was updated to display the amount of players online, and then the list of players online. As you can see, Game Wardens stand out because of their unique colour (Look at Xlithan). Normal say messages have 2 tone colours, red and white (Unless a Game Warden, in which case the colour of the name is dependant on the Warden), and also makes use of bold styling. Available directions (East, North etc.) appear in green, with the rest of the description in yellow. Emote messages appear in orange, and shout messages stand out using their unique colours. You can see spell casting in the text, and who cast what on who.


Commands

Changes:

Broadcast: From ' to /b
Private/Whisper: From ! to /w
Emote: From - to /me

Additions:

/who shows certain profile details on a character.
/showstats shows your character statistics to specified player (As seen in screenshot above).
/shout sends a message to your current room, and each of the available rooms next to it.


MORE UPDATES SOON!

[Xlithan]

Character Creation

The character creation sequence is set up as a step-by-step wizard style routine. Below are some screenshots to show each step of the creation routine.

Here you can choose the name of your character. The Generate button will generate a name for you, depending on the style of name you choose from the drop-down menu.


Selecting a race will effect your choice of available classes, max statistic values and race bonuses which are used for HP, MP and SP.


This stage allows you to select one of the available classes, and roll your base statistics. Rolling base statistics is important, rolling good ones allows you a better start in the game as stats effect your characters attributes.


Choosing a gender makes little difference in the game, besides certain armor being made specifically for females.


The final confirmation stage, showing you the details you have entered so you can go back and change any details if necessary.



Room Editing Software

This software allows developers to edit and create rooms offline. It's very simple to use and makes developing rooms faster.