Droids and Desert Planets

After a long coding effort refactoring the camera and inventory systems I'm finally ready to work on the first demo. The backdrop for the demo will be a simple desert planet with several obstacles. The party will be pre-made and the game play will be infinite warfare, in which random encounters are spawned in waves. The hex grid, story, 4x features, and all that good stuff will not be part of the demo.

As for what I've completed thus far.

First, I realized that the 3D nature of the game will require a very unique camera design. At this point, I've settled on a hybrid rts/orbit camera. With this camera system the player can rotate around the current character (like WoW) and break off into an RTS camera at any time. It smoothly translates between camera modes and maintains the players desired camera angle. While in RTS mode, the player can hit the space bar to translate back to the orbit camera. The camera system is complete now, except for a strange bug with the the zoom feature while in orbit mode. In addition, the camera will automatically fade objects in and out that are in-front of the camera and the focus point.

Second, I rewrote the entire inventory / item system. The inventory system is designed with multiple layers. There is a data layer, logic layer, model layer, and UI layer. This means that the source of truth for what items are equipped is completely data driven. This design makes updating the Paper Doll on the character sheet and the figure easy.

(this is what happens when you refactor too much code at once. That little robot is exploiting!)

For the love of inventory, I looked at several RPG games (old and new) and I really don't know how I want to approach character inventory. On one hand, I really want to create something innovative with a serious nod to realism, but on the other hand, I really can't see how the player can manage a large amount of items without icons. One idea, is to allow the player to attach the actual 3d objects directly on the character. For example, a sword could be placed on the back, the belt, or in the right hand, and the paper doll model would automatically spin around to the correct location. A backpack / container would work the same way, but it could be opened to reveal its contents. Of course, containers within containers is actually something my inventory system supports, but I'm not exactly sure how to create an UI system that supports it without using icons, or a tree view. Until I figure this out, or scale back my inventory system ambitions, I've decided to stick with the icon system for the demo.