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RPG Mod.

Started by clapter, July 16, 2009, 10:39:02 PM

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clapter

We are planning on developing the RPG Mod that everyone so dearly wanted. It would be paid, but we *may* release a free version, if enough people would want to donate I guess.


AS of now it would include a Custom Shop Mod, a Portal system specifically designed for RPG's and a special member group system that would have sub-member groups etc.

If everyone would please mention what they would want in this, that would be grateful. Please know I am not promising anything, but this is EXTREMELY likely this is going to happen, for real this time.

Thanks. I will also update this topic with the status, and what will be included in it if we decide to develop this. And this wuld be out in the next 6-9 months if this is going to happen. It will be for 2.x


Also. Please say if you are interested and how much you would be willing to pay for this mod, or donate towards it.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

JeremyB.

Don't have any suggestions but good luck. :)
"The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little."

clapter

Haha. This was a mod that was in great demand, but eventually became vaporware.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

JeremyB.

Oh, well I would never really have a need for this mod but good luck with it, I'l be sure to check it out once it's finished.
"The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little."

clapter

Some people might. it was started in 2004 and people gave up on it in 2007 really.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

JeremyB.

Yes, I know some might want it I didn't say they didn't I only said I didn't. ;)
"The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up, there's no law against whacking them around a little."

clapter

Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

clapter

Any comments on what you would like in this mod would be appreciated
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

clapter

Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

die4me

#9
First of all most people who use smf don't wanna pay for stuff or they would be using vb lol
Second you might find donations for it but it better be a really good mod.
third while a lot of good coders here at smf i don't think most of them have any idea how to make a rpg mod or it would've been made years ago.
If you make it free and ask other people to make addons for it then it can become quite a good mod i believe but since no one has made a rpg mod i hope you can be the first or i'll just have to beat you to it in a year or so lol

Arantor

Quote from: die4me on July 17, 2009, 04:11:06 AMFirst of all most people who use smf don't wanna pay for stuff or they would be using vb lol

Not true, there are plenty of paid mods that are used every day.

Quote from: die4me on July 17, 2009, 04:11:06 AMSecond you might find donations for it but it better be a really good mod.

Definitely needs to be good for lots of donations, unless you make it paid-for.

Quote from: die4me on July 17, 2009, 04:11:06 AMthird while a lot of good coders here at smf i don't think most of them have any idea how to make a rpg mod or it would've been made years ago.

That's because every RPG mod is going to be different, it's not something you can easily make a one-size fits all for. I'm writing an RPG mod for SMF however there is no way on Earth I'm distributing it because it's unique to my RPG.

Quote from: die4me on July 17, 2009, 04:11:06 AMIf you make it free and ask other people to make addons for it then it can become quite a good mod i believe but since no one has made a rpg mod i hope you can be the first or i'll just have to beat you to it in a year or so lol

I suspect the reason is the above, not that there isn't the skill, but for the most part you'll make it custom for your site and not distribute.

clapter

Quote from: die4me on July 17, 2009, 04:11:06 AM
First of all most people who use smf don't wanna pay for stuff or they would be using vb lol

If its not worth it to you to buy it, then dont, but this statement holds no truth whatsoever.

QuoteSecond you might find donations for it but it better be a really good mod.
Well, obviously, I kinda figured that much.....

Quotethird while a lot of good coders here at smf i don't think most of them have any idea how to make a rpg mod
Just because a mod isnt made, doesnt mean people dont have the skill, or the ability, its just time and motivation.

QuoteIf you make it free and ask other people to make addonsfor it then it can become quite a good mod
Like pretty much every mod on the mod site, Its all open source, but yes, I do see your point here, and thanks for the suggestion

Quotei believe but since no one has made a rpg mod i hope you can be the first or i'll just have to beat you to it in a year or so lol

Beat me to it, I dont care, im still going to make it for my own site I'm developing :P


Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

Eliana Tamerin

I suggest, instead of coding your own portal, that you make your mod compatible with one of the existing portals around. If you're going for SMF 1.1.x, then TinyPortal, SimplePortal or EZPortal would be good. And for SMF 2.x, SimplePortal, EZPortal or PortaMX are the portals there.

That would probably make it quite a bit easier on you, rather than building yourselves a portal from the ground up. Those take quite a bit of time to perfect, and some RPG sites area already using these existing portals.

You might also consider making it compatible with existing shops as well. This might not fit in with your feature set as well (as shops can be more specialized than portals, really), but it could do more to alleviate your coding requirements.

Anyway, whatever you decide, good luck. If you do stick to paid, be ready to do some fierce marketing, as most SMF users I've seen would prefer to find their mods on the SMF Official Mod site, not after transferring their live savings out of paypal. ;)
Do NOT PM me for support.

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clapter

Well, the thing is, the portal would have to be extremely modified, so in reality, creating our own portal would be better in the long run.  AS with the shop, we looked into that, but we just werent satisfied enough with the existing mods, and once again, the features we would have to add would be immense. but thanks for your input!
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

Eliana Tamerin

And what features do you intend to put in your portal? Just curious to see how modified these would be.
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clapter

This is still in development but so far.


Homepage that would have your RPG description etc
A list of the top players (most land etc)
Another list of top players (most points etc)
It would have the news for that day, the weather etc
an ajax battle log, which would update as new battles happen etc
plus everything the other portals have,
And another (large) thing we are planning, will elaborate on later ;)
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

Eliana Tamerin

Yeah, to me it sounds very much like you'd probably benefit more by simply adding those blocks to an existing portal software. Because, let's face it, the portal mods are specialized, portal is what they do best. You might have quite a few blocks to add, but you would not have to code the other blocks, such as shoutboxes, recent posts/topics, staff blocks, top poster blocks, etc.

But that's my opinion. It's up to you.
Do NOT PM me for support.

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die4me

QuoteIf its not worth it to you to buy it, then dont, but this statement holds no truth whatsoever.
Actually it is smf is the best free forum script out there i think and it being free is what lures in lots of people and i never said all just most.

QuoteJust because a mod isnt made, doesnt mean people dont have the skill, or the ability, its just time and motivation.
Well you may be right there some have the skill i just mean they have no idea how to go about making one. Smf just doesn't lure in people who are good with making games.

QuoteThat's because every RPG mod is going to be different, it's not something you can easily make a one-size fits all for..
IF you make the rpg customizable it can be used by lots of different people.
QuoteI'm writing an RPG mod for SMF however there is no way on Earth I'm distributing it because it's unique to my RPG
Sad to hear that if more people were like that there hardly be anything for smf.
You can make a mod and have it for your site only then change it up and release it.

Now for suggestions i think you should have both pvp and pvm.
Also you should have armor that lessens damage and not just increase evasion.
An ingame chat would be nice.
Customizable equipment
Skills like hunting mining fishing etc.
Jobs too.

Lastly i hope you consider going free even if you don't get donations cause it would be nice to see smf with a rpg mod like the other forum scripts.

TheDisturbedOne

You probably have this down already, but have HP and stuff in the postbit.

clapter

QuoteI'm writing an RPG mod for SMF however there is no way on Earth I'm distributing it because it's unique to my RPG
Quote
Sad to hear that if more people were like that there hardly be anything for smf.
You can make a mod and have it for your site only then change it up and release it.
you would understand that statement more of you knew the background.

AND
I will really consider a free version.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

Arantor

Quote from: die4me on July 17, 2009, 02:17:38 PM
QuoteI'm writing an RPG mod for SMF however there is no way on Earth I'm distributing it because it's unique to my RPG
Sad to hear that if more people were like that there hardly be anything for smf.
You can make a mod and have it for your site only then change it up and release it.

Aside from the fact that I have already released mods (including one that was actually written for the game) and provide support (so I'm giving back to SMF as it is; I guess I forgot to add a link to my mods in my sig?), let me qualify that statement.

The mod is so extensive to SMF that the mod will be *bigger* than SMF when it's complete. It's a complete game integrated into SMF, and it's closer to a bridge/integration than a mod, hooking via the integration hooks and SSI. It's not just some mod I can tweak and customise. If you're wondering what that might look like, go see NEaB and all its spinoffs that are cookie-cutter clones. No thanks.

The basic PvP module alone that we have already encompasses 9 DB tables, and thousands of lines of PHP and Javascript. And that's without having implemented any of the more fundamental things like inventory, trading, economy, travel, not to mention the storylines and quests, and indeed items you can use in combat, custom firing items, weapons that fire with area of effect... I could package up a ton of it as a mod but apart from giving away everything that would be unique about my game, it'd also be completely irrelevant to most people because it's all engineered for this one game, right from the 'practically live' combat which can have 8 players in a combat at once that we have so far (and works, it's awesome having multiplayer combat like that)

If I give that away, I give away everything I've spent the last two months doing and believe me it's a unique experience. Instead I use that experience I've gained to help people and provide support as and where I can. So indirectly everyone benefits, not just the folk who want a cookie-cutter RPG mod.

For comparsion: SMF 2.0 base install is about 7MB of files. Just combat alone takes up almost 1MB - with empty DB tables. And that's been estimated at conservatively 5% of the game...

clapter

Neab. I like that name.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

TheDisturbedOne

I agree with Anantor. An RPG mod will be much larger than SMF, and would use. Lot more resources than SMF. A free option would be nice, but I really think for all that effort there should be money involved. Heck if I worked two months on something that large, I would want something in return.

clapter

Disturbed, what he is talking about would be vastly different than this RPG mod. Ask Arantor for details, im not sure if he wants me to tell you guys anything or not. But also, I am planning something fancy for this mod, just wait and see ;P
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

die4me

Unless you over code everything like microsoft a rpg is relatively small in size(images take up most room). Like i said you don't have to release the one you have just make it smaller an simpler. And one things are facts that smf has no rpg for it not one that someone has released paid or free. But truth to be told it is easier to make a rpg without smf then with smf. I really don't see a free one coming out any time soon. I do know how time consuming making mods are and i wish i had more time to make mods i never have time to do any here plus smf has a good mod collection beside not having a rpg mod. I can integrate an existing rpg script into smf probably within a month or so. But i think the mod with the name smf rpg mod should be made for smf and free.

Arantor

#25
Is an RPG small in size? I look at the thousands of lines of code I already have and realise that it's not going to be small in size, but of course, I program like Microsoft, and am obviously generally incapable of writing efficient code, and I'm also obviously going to spend months (current estimate from beginning: 1 year) writing this RPG so I can strip it down and give it away to everyone for free, so they can add it to their forums to make money off it.

Thanks for setting me straight. There goes my business plan, and the incentive to actually write a very unique RPG, because nothing I know of in the web-based world is like this. Might as well cancel it now if I'm expected to give it away because if I gave any part of it away it would weaken its uniqueness.


As I've said, I don't want cookie-cutter clones of things. Make it unique, make it special - that's what we're trying to do. And believe me, that means writing from scratch, not taking some mod and just tweaking it.

That's why I mentioned NEaB - I've seen the exact same thing happen there. Not to mention Lord of the Green Dragon and the multitude of servers running its clones. And as such I'm not going to release any of the core of my work with SMF, though I would note I have already released one mod I wrote for the game, and donated another, though small, part of the source in another thread. But obviously I should give it all away for free and find a job instead of making an awesome game.

(Actually, no, that's not what I'm going to do. Since I'm already selfish by not giving away all my source code, I might as well finish the job and stop contributing to SMF.)

Eliana Tamerin

Alright, calm down please, both of you. People have the right to not release their mods, free or not. You can suggest what you want, but you cannot force someone to release their mod.

And we need to be respectful here. If you need to argue, take it to pm. Everyones opinions are valid and we need to respect that, and also respect that this is claptor's topic about his RPG mod.
Do NOT PM me for support.

SimplePortal 2.3.6 is OUT!
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SimplePortal: Power of Simplicity!

Arantor

clapter is brave for writing this, and it has a lot of potential. Good luck with it. If there's anything I can help with, clapter, you know where to reach me.

die4me

I respect that you released mods for smf for free. I never said you wrote like microsoft and i meant compared to most scripts a rpg mod is small. The truth is if you make a rpg mod for your site unless it is a private site it will be copied.  OK let say you write this mod and it is really great but something happens to you and your mod and any trace of it is gone. Then it is like you never made it.
What made you make mods for free and released them in the first place? Didn't feel good to see people using your mod and liking it? As a mod writer it feels good to see people using my mods for there sites.
One last thing i seen people take the same script and mods and make some really different sites from it.

Eliana Tamerin

die4me, please take any further comments on the subject to PM as I requested. Let's get back on topic here.
Do NOT PM me for support.

SimplePortal 2.3.6 is OUT!
SimplePortal Project Manager
Download | Docs
SimplePortal: Power of Simplicity!

clapter

Quote from: die4me on July 18, 2009, 02:56:30 AM
Unless you over code everything like microsoft a rpg is relatively small in size(images take up most room).
Lies  ;D.

Look at the size of Simple Portal, TP etc
Then look at the size of any of the Shop Mods.
Then you must add battling etc so thats quite a bit right there.
Plus my own little suprise ;)
Plus More, as this is just off the top of my head.

Im just saying you shoul do you research before you make a comment.


Is this as big a script as say, SMF? no, of course not, but it will be large.
Is this going to be one of the largest SMF Mods? definitely.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

clapter

Quote from: clapter on July 19, 2009, 01:27:03 PM
Quote from: die4me on July 18, 2009, 02:56:30 AM
Unless you over code everything like microsoft a rpg is relatively small in size(images take up most room).
Lies  ;D.

Look at the size of Simple Portal, TP etc
Then look at the size of any of the Shop Mods.
Then you must add battling etc so thats quite a bit right there.
Plus my own little suprise ;)
Plus More, as this is just off the top of my head.

Im just saying you shoul do you research before you make a comment.


Is this as big a script as say, SMF? no, of course not, but it will be large.
Is this going to be one of the largest SMF Mods? definitely.


Also, Im requesting that this topic be locked to avoid any further, trouble.

Also, die4me, I hope you realize what you have accomplished.
Working on a Play-by-Post RPG

H

Locked per op request
-H
Former Support Team Lead
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