From: "Crousto" <crousto AT infonie DOT be>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Design of Ultima 7 and 6
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 22:07:57 +0100
Organization: Ye 'Ol Disorganized NNTPCache groupie
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Beholder1 a écrit dans le message
<19990324000722 DOT 11664 DOT 00000693 AT ng30 DOT aol DOT com>...
>I was wondering, does anybody want to discuss the design aspects of ultima
6 or
>7 with me? I really liked both those games but I can't play them due to
bugs
>and a really fast comp.

Have you tried MoSlo?

>I want to write an rpg that has inventory and world
>interaction similar to ultima 7,

Hey, just like me! ;)

>but I'm not sure about a few things. For
>example, how were NPC's handled in u7? I was thinking they used sprite
>structures that looked something like this :
>
>//pseudo code right ahead!
>typedef struct SPRITE {
> x and y location
> current image, obivously from an array of frames
> operation                        //this is like, is the guy sleeping,
eating
>at the inn, etc

This should be more complex, because every NPC have a different 'schedule'
for his day. I think there was an array of 'jobs' like this : job start
time, job stop time, where job is done, and what is this job (eating,
sleeping, cooking,...). And what must be done if the NPC is killed or
attacked?... For example, if the player kill an inn-keeper, all the town
should starve!

> background image

what are you meaning by this one?

> height
> width
> hit points
> max hitpoints
> magic points
> max magic points
> strength
> dexterity etc...

And all the dialog's text stuff...

>The one thing that really got to me was, how inventory was handled, did
they
>use pointers?

I think so, because there isn't a max amount of objects in the inventary. I
think an 'inventary slot' was a struct with the object_id and his
'container'.

>And what about monsters, most of the same stuff would apply
>except for inventory. Any info or ideas is greatly appreciated.

I think the inventory system should be the same that the npc's one. The
great difference is that monsters doesn't speak, so they don't need dialog
texts.

Crousto
crousto AT infonie DOT be

"Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous?"
-Hobbes