ISOMETRIC HQ

[el_flesh]

Been playing it a bit lately - since I haven't been playing HQ since the summer with my regular crew.
Gaming is dying down with us, dammit. Things change.

Well, I have been enjoying it. But you know, I'm really quite surprised that there are NO internet HQ games for a group as current and knowledgeable with all things HQ as this one is!

We gotta get some games going. And not only play by post. I suggest that there be a browser version of HQ that we can use (instead of Vassal, but along the same lines). Something useable in here that we can play HQ on where the rooms are revealed step by step by the GM.

Any ideas? I want to be playing by the end of next week.

[Big Bene]

I could do this with java script. It would be a major project, of course.

[el_flesh]

Is there an easy way to do it in terms of having pre-determined "cutouts" for every room, fig and furniture representation - maybe lifted from Vassal or some other prog for example? Or do we just use Vassal and post screenshots to show the action?

[Patroclus]

@el_flesh, games needs many hours of work to get finished. It is not extremely hard to make one with 2D graphics but still needs a lot of work. I could help if someone wants to make it, but you should know that it is not a project for one or two programmers, except if we are talking for a full time job…

@Bene, this could be done with flash or silverlight (I prefer silverlight) because el_flesh talks for a web based application... But if you want help I could give some either way.

[Patroclus]

in my opinion, the best thing for the graphics is to take photos with a camera, and make images. And make gifs with a basic animation (like the breathing of street fighter for example). You know… small cuts and pastes that makes the image to look like breathing and moving.

But even if we are ok with the graphics of heroscribe and we don’t need more graphics. This does not mean that the program is easy. The program will be the same with graphics or not.

I’ve imagine two ways of playing. At start, load a map from heroscribe with all the information of where everything is. The first way is 4 heroes available in the game and all the people as spectators, the first who presses the “interrupt” button he takes the miniature and play. The second does the same, etc, etc. The second way is every person has its own hero, enters the dungeon from the stairs and plays his hero when comes his turn (but the game will be very easy if they are more than 4 heroes). About the GM, he can be online and roleplay or can be offline and plays the AI.

So, if you ask me how many people are needed to make this project. I will tell you one for the graphics, one for the interface, one for the database design (also, we will need a server opened 24h per day), and one for the AI who needs help for the programming.

If we have these guys, and everyone does his part, this program will be possible.

[el_flesh]

No no server - play by post is what I'm getting at!

I was thinking there would be a resource somewhere for the map and placement of figs etc

Then again maybe it would be alot simpler to simply take a pic of the board and update the game pic by pic...

[Patroclus]

So, this is possible with two ways. The first is the most simple:

Roll the dices from inside the forum and give the direction N(north) E(east) E(east)etc. And the GM will update an image in the first post using the imageshack, and an application like heroscribe or vassal or by taking photos as I did.

The second is a lot easier to play…

Have a flash application that can show the positions of the items (heroes etc), can add more items (furniture and monsters for the GM), and move the characters by drag and drop leaving a line behind to show the steps, and maybe can keep the rolls of the dices. This is not so difficult than making a program with AI, walls and interface for keeping the inventory items, spells, etc. It is simple enough and possible, the bad is that the programmer still needs a server to put the text with the positions of all the items. This can be done with a simple text file (like the xml of heroscribe), but the program needs to know the place (the internet address) to upload and read this file. It can’t be done with google docs because for some reason throws an error when you are trying to login from more than one location out of the google environment (maybe they don’t want to use their docs for reasons like this one)

ps:There is also a trick to bypass the issue with the server. We could do a free email account to send and read emails (with the necessary text). But I am not sure if a flash (or silverlight) can raise a socket to send and read emails.

[Big Bene]

@Patroclus: Javascript is web-based. It's the official standard web programming language of the w3 consortium and it's part of HTML. It works on every browser newer than Nescape Navigator 2, no plug-in needed.

For the grapics, I thought of using a scan of the gameboard, cut out some of the floor tiles / squares, scale and tilt them isometrically

like this: or this:

and make the script put the rooms together from those.

The heros, monsters and furniture could be photos from the figures or some more realistic renderings (even animated).