Middlecrest

Middlecrest
Alpha Project
Developer	Sean Brown
Theme	Medieval Fantasy, Gothic Punk
Influences	The Elder Scrolls, Dungeons and Dragons, Poison Elves
Released	October 2010 (Alpha, v0.0.71)
Updated	Nov 11, 2011 (v0.2.23)
Licensing	Shareware, Open Source
P. Language	C, C++, Lua
Platforms	Windows
Interface	ASCII
Game Length	Unlimited
Official site of Middlecrest

Middlecrest is a roguelike inspired by Daggerfall, although the game is not strictly limited to the mechanics of the roguelike genre. The goal of the project is to implement many of the same ideas seen in the earlier games of the Elder Scrolls franchise but to also include Daggerfall features that never saw the light of day (shelved due to time constraints and/or complexity), particularly ones investigated at the Daggerfall Museum.

Middlecrest also features a minor gothic punk theme. Examples of the aesthetic are the comic book Poison Elves and the Neo-Romantic punkish world envisioned in Adam and the Ants' video "Stand and Deliver".

Feel free to download and test the latest version!

Middlecrest is in a major re-write phase.

Technologies

Middlecrest makes use of SQLite, C++ Boost, and Audiere libraries.

Much of the game data is stored in SQLite and flat files. The game "logic" of Middlecrest will be supplied by native C++ code and some Lua scripts.

Status and Road Map

Presently, the project is in a very early stage of development. Only basic functionality is implemented for a few features. Executables are released for testing and bug reporting.

Due to the current re-write, only world and dungeon generation (featuring only one theme) will be featured in the next release.

• Dungeon generation (cave theme)
• World generation <--- current development

The next release will be version 0.2.23b. It will be a stripped down version of 0.2.23, using an almost entirely new codebase.

Features

Here is a description of features that Middlecrest will eventually contain:

• Procedural Quest Generation -- Freeform and procedural quest generator (including quests that aren't the traditional hack-n-slash style roguelike quests). Quests take into account characters that have met you at various times and may influence or impact a quest in unexpected ways.
• Makers -- Item, spell, potion, and class makers
• Themes -- Themed dungeon generators (examples: caves, dungeons, fortifications, ruins, etc.)
• Magic System -- School based magic system.
• Weather system -- Clothes will actually be an important aspect of the game to keep you warm, dry, etc.
• Durability -- Items can break, excluding a few things, like rings, etc.
• Emergent game world -- Events are emergent from the game and based on your actions and the actions of the NPC's. The game world changes accordingly.
• Advanced AI -- Characters and monsters will behave based on their needs (remember the Sims?) for more realistic interaction and behavior.
• Graded Difficulty -- Roguelike games often have a very steep difficulty curve. It usually takes a few characters to get the feel of the game and a lucky generations of the RNG to get your character rolling. Various leveled lists based on player level and other algorithms will be used to create a difficulty curve that adjusts to your character (easier at the beginning, more difficult as your character becomes more skilled, experienced, stronger, etc.). Some areas, such as random areas outside of quests, will have a high difficulty level but they will still be adjusted for the character somewhat.
• Softer Permadeath -- Don't worry! Permadeath is still there, looming, and ever-present. It's just that there are ways (although uncommon and very difficult) to get around death.
• Roleplaying -- The player is rewarded through a Daggerfall-like role-playing system, expressed through character class, rather than through a generalized experience point system or Skyrim-like perks system. Play is generally free-form and does not restrict character development. The system simply rewards players for role-playing.
• Persistent World -- World stays the same between each death. You can go back and recover loot from a previous character. You can also meet living characters in game and resurrect killed characters to restore old games.

Numbering Scheme

Project version numbers are split into x.y.z.b format.

x.y corresponds to different major versions. Different versions are substantially distinct as they typically include feature updates and re-factored or overhauled code.

z corresponds to minor version number, and denotes how far along the road map the major version is. Think of it as a percentage. v0.1.87 indicates, for example, version 0.1 is 87% complete.

b is an optional number, which corresponds directly to bug fixes. There is no difference, for example, between v0.1.87 and v0.1.87.1 other than v0.1.87.1 is less buggy. Likewise, v0.1.87.2 would be less buggy than v0.1.87.1.

Version Log

• Pre v0.2.23b -- Removed, since the current codebase has little relation to the previous versions and many of the features have been stripped out (to be added later) for v0.2.23b
• v0.2.23b -- Planned for release: dungeon generation, world generation

External Links

Middlecrest development blog

Latest code release for Middlecrest