Putting Together a Full Game(3)

Putting Together a Full Game(3)

 

Defining the Characters

Including the player of the game, a total of eight types of characters are in The Tower
(with the game using multiple instances of those types of characters). Table 20.1
defines those eight types of characters. To understand those definitions, use the
following legend:

■ Class. The character’s class.
■ HP. Health points. The maximum number of health points of a character.
■ MP. Mana points. The maximum number of mana points of a character.
■ Exp. The amount of experience gained when a character is killed.
■ Gold: The amount of gold a character is carrying (and drops when killed).
■ Atk. Attack ability.
■ Def. Defense ability.
■ Agl. Agility ability.
■ Res. Magical resistance ability.
■ Mnt. Mental ability.
■ ToH. A character’s to-hit ability.
■ Speed. Speed of movement measured in units per second.
■ Range. Attack range measured in units.
■ Charge. The charge rate of a character. This is in units per second. Once a character’s
charge is at 100, that character can perform an attack or magic spell.
■ Atk%. Percentage of chance that a character will attack a nearby player.
■ Mag%. Percentage of chance that a character will use a spell on a nearby player.
■ Spells. The magic spells a character knows.

As an example for using the character definitions and the legend, take character #3.
Granite (the character’s name) is class 3, has 70 health points, 100 mana points,
200 experience points (given to the player when Granite is killed), no gold, and
the following ability values:

Movement speed: 16 units per second
Attack range: 16 units
Attack: 20
Defense: 15
Agility: 5
Magic resistance: 10
Charge rate: 15 per second
Percentage to attack: 80%
Percentage to use magic: 20%
Knows spells: #4 (Groundball)
Mental: 10
To Hit: 800

To make better sense of the character’s definitions, I suggest loading
up the MCL_Edit project and using it to edit the Game.mcl file . The
only character in the list that you really need to be concerned about
is the game’s player, character #0.

The character statistics listed in Table 20.1 represent the statistics when the game starts.

Whenever the player kills a monster, the player’s experience points rise a bit (based
on the monster’s experience points), and as the player reaches specific levels of
experience points, his statistics increase.

As well as increased statistics, the player might learn a spell, depending on the
experience level gained. The levels of experience points at which those experience
“level-ups” occur are listed here, along with the spell learned:

■ 10 experience points for level 2. The player learns the Fireball spell (spell #0).
■ 30 experience points for level 3. The player learns the Ice spell (spell #1).
■ 80 experience points for level 4. The player learns the Heal Self spell (spell #2).
■ 150 experience points for level 5. The player learns the Teleport spell (spell #3).
■ 350 experience points for level 6. The player learns the Groundball spell
(spell #4).
■ 500 experience points for the level 7 (the final level). No spells learned.

Notice that the last experience level achievable by the player is level 7. At that point,
the player should be powerful enough to take on the Evil Lord at the end of the game.