Project Aon : Grey Star (multiplatform app WIP)

[marksmith]

Edit: Changed the thread title to reflect the fact that I've settled on Grey Star as the project of choice, and plan to release for Android, flash, html5 and windows initially.

Hi everyone,

As a game developer with quite a bit of experience at making cross-platform apps using Haxe, I've been considering making a contribution of some sort, something which can be exported as android, html5, flash and native windows/ mac to cover all platforms.

I have played through all the books available through Lone Wolf Saga (1-14) and consider it to be an excellent app, works extremely well and has the mobile app side of things, so with that in mind I feel like the main lone wolf series is very well covered and that my efforts would be best directed at content that hasn't had mobile publishing made available for it yet.

Just wondering where to direct my efforts at this point, and what demand/ need there is to be met?

Some possible candidates:

- The new order books 21-28 - Not sure if I'd be treading on the toes of Lone Wolf Saga with this, since the developer will get around to doing them at some point. Depends on time scales as well, with the new books coming out people will be wanting to play through 21-28 again very soon.
- Grey Star. This could work well. 4 books keeps the scope of the project manageable. I don't see any .xml files for the books on the site though which could be an issue?
- Freeway Warrior. Not something I've read or considered, but perhaps possible later down the line.

I'm finishing up freelance work over the next month, but can see myself having plenty of time to make something after that.

[outspaced]

I'll leave it to those more conversant with such things than me to discuss this, but the xml files for the books can be found here. Grey Star are obviously 01gstw, 02tfc, 03btng, 04wotw; Freeway Warrior are 01hh, 02smr, 03toz, 04cc. Hope it helps!

[Nym90]

My personal vote would be for New Order for the reasons you stated, followed by Grey Star.

I know Seventh Sense's developers have stated in the past that they do not plan to do the New Order series so that would be another reason to favor it, whereas they have stated a possible intention to eventually do the Grey Star series.

[marksmith]

outspaced - Thanks for pointing those out, and thanks to everyone who made them, makes the task of creating software much easier, lots of potential for having the core of the app write itself if I can parse the xml properly, and from there it's mostly a matter of a combat and inventory system and blocking off or allowing certain paths based on combat victory, choice of disciplines and items.

Nym90 - I'm still mulling it over myself. Leaning towards Grey Star at this point, since it's a shorter project more likely to see completion. It would be great to be able to use it as a means of promoting the Grey Star Kickstarter later this year.

[Nym90]

Apr 30, 2016 2:48:41 GMT marksmith said:

outspaced - Thanks for pointing those out, and thanks to everyone who made them, makes the task of creating software much easier, lots of potential for having the core of the app write itself if I can parse the xml properly, and from there it's mostly a matter of a combat and inventory system and blocking off or allowing certain paths based on combat victory, choice of disciplines and items.

Nym90 - I'm still mulling it over myself. Leaning towards Grey Star at this point, since it's a shorter project more likely to see completion. It would be great to be able to use it as a means of promoting the Grey Star Kickstarter later this year.

Sounds good. My personal favorite is the Grey Star series. Hoping he makes a return in the final New Order books to tie all of the series together.

[marksmith]

Okay, I've settled on Grey Star as my project of choice, will play through the books again this month to get some ideas for how to best present it.

Working title will be "Project Aon: Grey Star", planned release platforms will be Android, flash and html5.

In terms of presentation, I think a Shianti scroll with runes around the border and a glowing moonstone in the top left to tap to display extra UI elements could work well (similar to the lone wolf app). Will try to make some really visually impressive transitions, such as scrolls unfurling for popup screens etc.

I also want to make sure it's as accessible as possible for people who are unfamiliar with Lone Wolf, so there will probably be quite a bit of hand-holding at the start to take people through the process of character generation.

I should be able to work on this full time in June, so this project should see short bursts of very rapid development.

[marksmith]

Quick question: Is the American edition of Book 3 (Beyond the Nightmare Gate) abridged or not?

Just realized that it is missing from my collection and the pricing on the UK editions is very high.

I did buy an American edition to fill another gap in my collection (LW 15), having a sixth of the book missing isn't so great!

[Wise Eagle]

May 18, 2016 14:49:41 GMT marksmith said:

Quick question: Is the American edition of Book 3 (Beyond the Nightmare Gate) abridged or not?

Just realized that it is missing from my collection and the pricing on the UK editions is very high.

I did buy an American edition to fill another gap in my collection (LW 15), having a sixth of the book missing isn't so great!

As far as I know the only things that are horribly abridged are the american Lone Wolf Grand Master series.

So Grey Star should be OK. It will at least be far closer to the original than american book 15.

[Nym90]

The Grey Star series was not abridged in the US.

[marksmith]

Thanks, ordered myself a reading copy, really looking forward to getting started with this.

[Nym90]

Yeah it's a good book, although it's perhaps the easiest of all the entire Lone Wolf series of books. Also don't expect the Daziarn to be much like it was portrayed in Prisoners of Time (though this book came first). The discrepancy can be explained by the fact that the Daziarn is quite vast and ever changing.

[marksmith]

Slowly working away on this, here's a preview, going for very minimal UI on the reading screen, tapping the gem brings up action chart, bookmarks and other options:




There are a few things I'm wondering how to implement:

- Jewelled Dagger - Dual wield with Wizard's Staff or not? I'm leaning towards allowing it, because there are some very brutal high CS fights in the book, and choosing the dagger could really help mitigate a low CS roll for the player. The project Aon version leaves this open to how the player wants to play it but for an app I need to make a hard ruling one way or the other. I'm not sure if applying the mongoose lone wolf ruling of one weapon at a time is the best fit here.

- Book 2, Section 1 - Should Grey Star fully recover his EP at this point, after book 1? There is a note about recovering willpower (I'll be using the suggestion to reset it to original roll + 10), but nothing about EP, although the book goes to great length to show that Grey Star is 100% magically healed of all his injuries, including the massive acid damage to his leg from the cave mantiz. It's very difficult to get through book 2 without a full heal since book 1 is brutal on EP reduction, and book 2 has a point halfway through where you need to have 12+ EP or instadeath.

- Karmo Potion - The doubling of EP and WP for a single fight is fine, just wondering how to reset it afterwards. Considering having Willpower reset to pre-fight willpower (unless it ends up lower during the fight, in which case no change), and the same for EP.

[Rusty Radiator]

Dual weild or the Dagger is pretty useless, full heal because the text supports it and half the EP and WP after the fight, rounding up.

[ARK]

Your mock up looks great.

The Jeweled Dagger is a weapon like Special Item just like the Sommerswerd. So it shouldn't follow the same rules as a regular Weapon and its bonus should apply when ever you have it.

I think the problem with the book 1 equipment list is the Potion of Healing. The other two special Item choices provide permanent bonuses but the potion is a one time use Item. It would have been nice to have a small bonus to Endurance as one of the options.

Good luck with your app.