Do you have copious amounts of free time? I'm sure you do - who doesn't? Here's the deal. I don't actually like any other forums because I find that I make an account, make 1-2 posts, follow it until I have my answer, and then forget about it entirely. This forum is literally always open on my right monitor... Oh, and the little fact that you guys are actually helpful instead of the whole 'did you search Google?' crap.
I don't know how many of you are programers, and of those who are, which languages you use. Fortunately, I'm not actually positive what I need (and neither are any of the people on other forums).
So, here's some backstory. If you don't want to read it, I suggest skipping to the red text.
For the last four years I've been dedicated to producing a crazy-sick-nasty-awesome RPG. For those of you wondering, here's my official statement on it:
My company (Arcturus Gaming) has, in the last year, actually begun development on 8 other games (most of which are clones) that we will be producing prior to producing Elition. Elition is my dream game, and I want it to be the best that we can make it. Of those 8 games, we will attempt to sell 3 of them. The others will be free access, kind of just to show people how we started, and some other ideas that we had.
As I mentioned in the official statement, I'm super proud of our combat system. I spent tons of time working that out to make it balance in theory. But now I need to test it, see if it balances in practice (Of the 9 games we have planned for the upcoming several years, 3 of them will be using this combat system, if slightly altered). So I decided to make a calculator that I could plug in the (seemingly excessive number of) variables into, and watch a simulation.
I've loved every minute of development for these games, but I'm actually really terrible at programming. All of it. I know the very basics of HTML, but many people don't even consider that a language. When I watch C#, C++, Javascript, Java, PHP, etc. tutorials, I understand why things are working the way they do - but I can't make them happen on my own.
So here's what I've done, and what I need:
I ultimately decided to make my calculator in HTML, as it's what I know the most of. I've created a form in which I can enter every variable that I need. Here's my biggest hiccup: One of these variables is attack speed. This game is real-time, and nearly every weapon has a different attack speed (nearly all in multiples of .4 seconds). I want this calculator to simulate combat between the two characters that I enter for 10 seconds. I want a description of every event that happens, and when it happens (in game, not when it's calculated) to appear on the web-page. Finally, every time damage is dealt, the values that I plugged into the form will need to be changed - some of them change when you take damage, and I want this to simulate that.
Every forum that I've visited asking for help or advice they basically just say 'Don't do that' or 'Have someone else do it for you'. The most helpful advice I've received is 'That would probably take some knowledge of server-side coding'. Man, I don't even know what that is. So if I were to hand over my form so far, is there anybody that would at least be willing to work with me through this?
Thanks a ton guys.
Need help with a coding Project
- BasiliskWrangler
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Re: Need help with a coding Project
Have you considered using a spreadsheet like LibreOffice Calc or Excel? I did all of Eschalon's alpha work in a spreadsheet - you can easily build formulas and test out variables, even do rudimentary combat turns with scrips. You can literally turn it into a game if you are cleaver enough (I once played a spot-on version of Pac-Man done completely in Excel scripts. It was incredible.)
Re: Need help with a coding Project
I had considered it, but ultimately ruled it out because I did not know the extend of its abilities. Thanks for the advice though, it sounds like this option is much more viable than I thought. I will certainly try that out.
Re: Need help with a coding Project
Game Maker for HTML5 sounds ideal for what you need. You could head over to gmc.yoyogames.com and ask somebody (there is even a "Job offers" section) to cook something up for you. The end product will be an HTML5 page where combat can be simulated. Hell, you will be able to change every parameter on the fly.
Game maker rooms work with "speed", so you can have the simulation real time or have it happen 100 times faster just by changing the room speed in real-time.
The problem is, as you might ot might not suspect, finding someone who will do this for you for free. It's not that it's complicated, but it sounds time-consuming. So consider offering some small payment for an incentive.
I apologize in advance if I didn't actually help.
Game maker rooms work with "speed", so you can have the simulation real time or have it happen 100 times faster just by changing the room speed in real-time.
The problem is, as you might ot might not suspect, finding someone who will do this for you for free. It's not that it's complicated, but it sounds time-consuming. So consider offering some small payment for an incentive.
I apologize in advance if I didn't actually help.
Re: Need help with a coding Project
Thanks for that advice a lot actually! I'll check that out for sure!