Hmm. Good point Puggsoy. We could make it with TONS of levels (ie. up to 1,000) but each level is pretty easy to get, and each level unlocks a new weapon, new armour, new places to explore, or something else. That way, it would be easy to level up to the level you can unlock that sword you just NEED to get to fight that one monster. Then again, I don't work on a advertising team, and don't know how to hypnotize people XD

Sweet! Did you take into account everything David Rosen talked about in his latest blog post? http://blog.wolfire.com/2012/05/Game-File-Systems-File-Paths

Oh, and if you're writing values directly, you have to take endianness of the system into account also if you're planning on having portable savegames. Fun times.

I also agree with having items you need for specific levels rather than levelgrinding. One thing I would want to know when I get an item would be what I can do with it, so making the use of items obvious (though not telling the user directly!) so the players know where to go next would be great. I don't personally like wandering around aimlessly lost across the entire game looking for where to go next when in reality it's close to where I just was. I think having a gazillion levels that you can enter at any time would only be a great way to confuse players, whereas some way of limiting certain areas would be a good idea, so players have an intuitive sense of where they can and can't go at any point in time.

It's really easy at the start but gets harder later on.

I think that would work.

No, but seriously, you're right about a lot of things. Take Maplestory for example. Even though it's an MMO, leveling is really tedious and takes a long time to do. It's the reason most people quit playing.

But my formula makes leveling much, much easier for the player. It's not hard to level at all, it just takes a bit more time each level. We might increase the exp dropped by enemies, so it'd then be even easier, considering, of course, that you would have to have a balance of increasing HP and attack damage so the enemies don't rip your head off.

Also, things I LOVE in games with leveling systems, and a lot of others like too.
Skill Stats. That way, you get skill points you can apply to unlock new abilities, increase your health, and etc. Thats the only reason I kept playing Maplestory until I got to level 30, where it gets really boring, because I was like "I just need to max out that one skill and be able to kill that next monster"
If we could somehow implement that into the game, then it would help

Skills are definitely to be implemented. We might have skill classes, like Maplestory does, which keeps a set of skills specific to that one class.

Of course, we should allow the player to change their class whenever, retaining stats/abilities, like in DQ9. It allows you to move up much faster and get more power fairly easily.

---

Alright, I uploaded the newest build. The link is in my signature, like always.

The "Settings" button on the menu will open the XML document through which the engine determines screen resolution, fullscreen capabilities, BPP, etc. (more options will be added later)

When inside a playable map, you will see player data on the title bar of the window (will be changed). You can increase your current EXP count by pressing the number keys. When the EXP goes over the required amount, your level will move up, and the values will update.

I've added saving/loading functions. When the program starts, it loads save data located in "sav.xml" (root directory). Save your player data (in the future there will be a lot more values in this file) by pressing 'F10'. (This will only work when you're in developer mode; press 'F2' to toggle developer mode; a bug, due to carelessness)

Of course, there's a lot more to be done. Fullscreen-scaling, for instance. I think maps should center themselves when the window resolution is larger than the map size.

Physics are my absolute top priority as of now. I will try my best to complete a visual representation and release it later this week. A lot of the core stuff is already there, but there's nothing visually represented.

Productivity! I like it

Ok for now, but in the future, you'll probably want to think about:

You can use a library like ttvfs or PhysicsFS to get these locations easily, with a bunch of other added benefits as well (Reading directly from .zip files and such).

Of course, this is probably fine for now, but something to keep in mind for later.

EDIT: After testing, seems to be pretty awesome. I like it. I think you've got a fairly well-balanced EXP formula. Kudos there. Good luck with physics.

Of course. The current location isn't going to be the final location. In fact, I'm only keeping it there for easy access. And thanks!

i hate it when you get all these boring weapons and they say, "to get cooler things joust level up!" and after about level 20 it gets so tedious, fighting the same enemies over and over again, and after two weeks i finaly level up!
my reward: health goes up two.

that is why i prefer fast leveling up, with cool stuff.

oh, and 700th post.

But also a double-post! *Deletes just so he can have 700th post slot, while laughing maniacally*

Kidding, of course. I definitely agree that there should be minimal, if any, grinding in games. I hate RPG's where you have to wander around aimlessly, fighting enemies, just so you can level up to... uh... kill more monsters. Takes all the fun out of it. Fast leveling is one way to combat this, but tight controls, remarkably different areas, and new weapons/gameplay-that-changes-along-the-way are also needed to hold interest.

I'm staying quiet until 1000.

Yeah, the way I made it is so leveling isn't hard at all. Of course, that means the rewards should be lower, so maybe:

For every level you advance, you receive: 1 skill point, increased HP (based on a formula)

You can have skills, perhaps, which you can raise to become powerful moves with skill points. So a skill point can buy you the next tier side-slashing capabilities. Or something.

Yeah. Like, say if you become some sort of a alchemist, you can decrease the amount of time it takes to brew, but you can also increase other basic skills, like basic fighting, because you can't fight with only potions

Aww, but I wanted to be able to clobber enemy bosses over the head with my healing potions, using them as a hand weapon...

I personally will always go for increasing base attack/defense when playing a game. I don't particularly like choices when levelling, since I'm afraid of making bad decisions. What if I really need two more archery skill points in the next area? etc.

I do like how Chrono Trigger handles it; you receive skill points, more HP, more MP, more Evade, etc each time you level automatically. Definitely makes it a lot more streamlined. And you get new skills and such every 5 levels or so to boot (Actually, they use Tech Points separately from Experience Points, but the idea is similar), and the new skills are awesome, useful attacks most of the time rather than "oh, yay, here's another attack you'll never use". Or, like Cave Story, you get the Bubbler right before entering the Sand Zone, which is a fantastic weapon to use against the boss in that area.

Also, what Red and thenoobtester just said ^^

I destroyed all of the three bosses in the Sand Zone with the Fireball.

http://dragonquest.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_classes_in_Dragon_Quest_IX
These classes (or vocations) weren't bad choices. At least the initial six. At any point in the story (after visiting a special area) you were allowed to switch your class. Any skill-related buffs or abilities you learned would stay with you regardless of vocation. Say, for instance, you were a Mage, and leveling up gave you passive skills which improve your max MP by a bit. Then, if you switched to another class for the first time, something like Warrior, which has low MP, you would have abnormally high MP for a warrior, since you were a Mage first.

I also like how they did their leveling. Each level you would get base stats growing, and you would never have to worry about choosing the wrong skill. Each skill was helpful, and it didn't matter too much which one you brought up.

Of course, in our game, since it's realtime, it can't work quite the same way. Say, for instance, there's a bow skill you would need to break a rope near the top of a level, so that a rock would fall and give you footing to climb.

A couple of workarounds:
a) Don't have areas which are only reachable by a certain skill
b) Have special areas you would need certain skills to get to, but make sure they're bonus areas only. (e.g. not required to advance in the story)
c) Have special areas you would need certain skills to get to, and make it so that most skill types have the same powers near the end. (e.g. bow has a level 50 skill to destroy rocks, and hammer has a level 25 skill to destroy rocks)

Yeah. So like, you need a certain level Bow, or sword to get to the next area, but it isn't like, you have to grind for hours to get it. There are a few other concepts I would like in the game though.
1. The ability to make custom levels. Whether it is an extra add-on in some DLC, custom levels are always awesome.
2. The game isn't made in levels (I know, the pot calling the kettle black, I guess). I want it to be free-roamish, but, if there is a "custom level" thing, then it would add a small area that is basically classified as a level, but inbeetween level and area. Like, it goes Area, then whatever the flip that is, then level. I hope you understand XD
3. Customizable characters. Like, allowing you to change players face, clothes they start with, etc. What I don't want to be changed is the body size. (2 body sizes, one for girls, one for guys.) That way, we could quickly whip up over 80 different sprites with different clothes and animations in a day.

I think that any body size/type is fine. As long as we keep "areas" of pixels reserved for clothing, it'll look absolutely fine.

I like to call them "maps" simply because they are. They tell the game where to draw everything. By the end, the size of maps should be quite extensive. I don't want to have map transitions every couple of seconds. A whole town should be one map, or maybe two.

I don't know. This is all based on speculation anyway.

Yeah. We still have to get physics done though *coughcough*

Please don't.

I will allow myself one. (because I can )

That is ridiculously off-topic. Try not to post pictures where they don't belong. (I get that it's a reaction image, but you're not reacting to anything.)

Back on topic, Red, do you think that we should have a map in-game, sort of like, Pokemon, where you can see the areas, but more like a real map, or should we not.

A map should definitely be there. I'll get started on some pseudo code.

Can I make the map of the world along with the story? Just a general one for now, outlining most areas and towns and stuff. It's just that it'll make it much easier for me to develop a story.

Yeah. We should get started on the map, and get started on possibly making a tutorial level for newcomers to the game. Thats another thing, should we have a tutorial, or just pop-ups like "Press Space to attack" and "Use WASD to move" when they get into their first fight.

Well, I've got a general idea for an little mission that the player does at the start, which will be kind of like a tutorial. Most of the skills used in the game will be introduced, but how that'll be done (i.e. how the controls will be shown) is up to Red, I think. Probably depends what's easiest for him.

That reminds me. We should figure out how we're going to have NPCs talk to you. Should it be scrolling text at the bottom? (http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ehow/images/a04/g9/70/make-rpg-websit...) Or maybe just a little bubble above its head? (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ORZe5fhUpE/TfUAn6V6l9I/AAAAAAAAAJw/5K-ObONVQX...)

I like the bubble over the head. Just seems more... natural.

The bubble over the head does seem more natural, and it seems to be the cool new thing to do (almost no old games have it). It would also make it easier to see who's talking, instead of having to read the name.

The only thing is, if we do that, how will we display dialogue choices for the player to make?

Well, once the NPC is done speaking, then the bubble could turn into the choices, or the bubble could appear over their head. I like the second one better.