StendhalDesign

This small doc tries to create an agreement on what stendhal is about and what it needs to include. It considers the existing [Roadmap] and tries to give a coherent vision of what we are trying to create.

Please use the Discussion tab (found in the menu at the top of the page) to query about things or make suggestions.

Plot

Stendhal's plot is to grow Sheep by taking them with you to the plains or forest to graze.
The task is not as simple as it may sound though, as you will have to protect them from hungry wolves! Use your skill, strength and wit to destroy the attackers.

Lambs must first be bought at a Farm and later sold at the Village when they are plump enough. For each Sheep you sell, when fully grown, you will get extra income.

You will need to spend your money on new weapons, armor and healing potions.

As you can see Stendhal is a minigame that will try to push and thus test everything related to a fully blown RPG:

• task
• actions
• areas

If Arianne is a successful platform to get Stendhal working, the only issue is scaling up the result. :)

Design

Idea

The whole game area will look like:

http://arianne.sourceforge.net/wiki_images/Stendhal_Map.jpg

It is split in to 4 different areas to test the multizones feature of Arianne.
Players need to change zone in order to accomplish their task.

Use cases description

We need to use several use cases to describe our game.

Player's user case

Player is an entity that play the game, it can move, chat, attack, heal.

  Player enter village in entry point
  Player moves to Farm zone

  Player talks with Sheep seller
    Player: Hi
    Seller: Greetings! How may I help you?
    Player: buy Sheep
    Seller: Do you want to buy a Sheep for 50 coins?
    Player: yes
    Seller: Thank you! Bye

  Player moves. Sheep follows Player.
  Player moves to plains
  Player moves around looking for food
  Player protect Sheep of wolves attacks

  When Sheep is big enough Player moves to Village
  Player talks with Sheep buyer
    Player: Hi
    Buyer: Greetings! How may I help you?
    Player: sell Sheep
    Buyer: Do you want to sell this Sheep for 73 coins?
    Player: yes
    Buyer: Thank you! Bye

  Player spend money in new Sheep and equipment
  * Armor
  * Weapon
  * Healing potions

Sheep seller's user case

This seller is a NPC entity that will sell us a sheep to grow it up and make money.

FOREVER do:
  Listen to Player

  If listen "Hi":
    Seller says "Greetings <Player>!"

  If listen "Buy Sheep" from Player:
    Seller says "Do you want to buy a Sheep for 50 coins?"

  If listen "yes" from Player:
    If Player money - 50 > 0:
      set Player money=Player money - 50
      Duplicate Sheep
      Make Sheep follows Player
  Say bye to Player
DONE

Sheep buyer's user case

This buyer is a NPC entity that will buy us our sheep.

FOREVER do:
  Listen to Player

  If listen "Hi":
    Seller says "Greetings <Player>!"

  If listen "Sell Sheep" from Player:
    Estimate Sheep value related to Sheep weight
    Seller says "Do you want to sell buy a Sheep for <estimated price> coins?"
  
  If listen "yes" from Player:
    set Player money=Player money + <estimated price>
    Destroy Sheep
  
  Say bye to Player
DONE

Sheep's user case

Sheep is our key game concept. Sheeps must be grow up to earn money and buy stuff.

  Sheep is in Farm
  Player buys Sheep
  Sheep seller duplicates Sheep
  Sheep follows Player

  If Sheep finds food:
    Sheep moves to food
    Sheep eats food
    Sheep gains weight

  Player sells Sheep
  Sheep dissappear

Wolf's user case

Wolf is the compitive entity on Stendhal. They join to attack sheeps and often also players. They can kill a sheep in not a long time.

  Wolf moves
  If Wolf sees Sheep:
    Wolf attacks Sheep
  
  If Wolf is attacked:
    Wolf attacks Attacker

Entities

The above user cases describe the need for the following entities in our system:

• Sheep
• Sheep seller
• Sheep buyer
• Wolf
• Player
• Food
• Armor
• Weapon
• Healing potion

Let's describe each entity and its attributes and actions.

Sheep

A sheep has the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the sheep
• y is the y-position of the sheep
• dx is the x-speed of the sheep
• dy is the y-speed of the sheep
• hp is the life indicator of the sheep, when it reach 0 the sheep dies.
• weight is the weight indicator of the sheep, the more weight, the more expensive it is.

Sheep tasks should be:

• follow
• eat

The sheeps behaviour is mainly to follow its owner and look for food.
If the Sheep finds food, it will eat.
Sheep will runaway if attacked by wolves.

Wolf

Wolves have the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the wolf
• y is the y-position of the wolf
• dx is the x-speed of the wolf
• dy is the y-speed of the wolf
• hp is the life indicator of the wolf, when it reach 0 the wolf dies.
• atk is the RP attack value. See RP rules

Wolf tasks should be:

• follow means that wolf follows an object using the shortest way to reach it.
• attack means that wolf will try to damage the attacked object until its hp reach 0
  Another action will cancel attack task.
• patrol means that wolf will move around a specified path.
• chat means that wolf will start to shout 'auuuuuuu!'. Wolves will often understand this as a call.

Wolf behaviour consists of patrolling some assigned areas.
If the Wolf finds a Sheep, it will attack Sheep.
If the Wolf is attacked, the Wolf returns the attacks.
If the Wolf is injured, the Wolf will runaway.

Sheep seller and Sheep buyer

The buyer and seller have the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the NPC
• y is the y-position of the NPC
• dx is the x-speed of the NPC
• dy is the y-speed of the NPC
• attending is the object_id of the player that is actually attending.

seller and buyer tasks would be:

• patrol means that NPC will move around a specified path.

NPC behaviour consists of listening to people near them.
If person says "Hi", NPC faces person and generates conversation.

Player

The player has the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the player
• y is the y-position of the player
• dx is the x-speed of the player
• dy is the y-speed of the player
• hp is the life indicator of the player, when it reach 0 the sheep dies.
• atk is the RP attack value. See RP rules
• exp is the experience of the player.
• money is the quantity of money the player has.

It has three slots:

• armor
• left hand
• right hand
• backpack
• flock

Player tasks should be:

• move means that player will change its dx, dy params to move.
• attack means that player will try to damage the attacked object until its hp reach 0.
  Another action will cancel attack task.
• chat means that player writes text to other players or NPCs

Food

Food has the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the player
• y is the y-position of the player
• quantity is the amount of food available

Food will be regenerated every X units of time.

Armor

Armor is an item that player can wear:

• x is the x-position of the armor when player doesn't wear it.
• y is the y-position of the armor when player doesn't wear it.
• def is the RP defense value. See RP rules
• weight is the weight of the armor.

Shield

Shield is an item that player can wear:

• x is the x-position of the shield when player doesn't wear it.
• y is the y-position of the shield when player doesn't wear it.
• def is the RP defense value. See RP rules
• weight is the weight of the shield.

Weapon

Weapon is an item that player can wear:

• x is the x-position of the weapon when player doesn't wear it.
• y is the y-position of the weapon when player doesn't wear it.
• atk is the RP attack value. See RP rules
• weight is the weight of the weapon.

Healing potion

Healing potion is an item that player can wear inside the backpack:

• x is the x-position of the potion when player doesn't wear it.
• y is the y-position of the potion when player doesn't wear it.
• heal is the amount of HP the potion will heal.

RP

Role playing games are based in a set of rules. There are many set of rules: AD&D, GURPS, Warhammer,...
Stendhal defines a new typical set of rules, that has in common simplicity and ease of computing.

The system is based around 3 ideas:

• Randomness using 1D6
• Risk evaluation
• Creativity

Risk evaluation gives the DM the power to weight up an action that a player wishes to perform against things like how experienced the player is in that type of action and the situation the player is in.

DM stands for Dungeon Master. In Stendhal our task is to design the DM, as it rules the game.

Attributes

Each player has a set of attributes that are:

• attack - this value is used to resolve attack situations.
• defense - this value is used to resolve situations where the player is attacked.
• hp - this value stored the live points available.

• level - this starts off as zero when the character is created and will increase related to experience
• experience - this is the amount of experience gained at the current level

Experience and levels

All of the attributes can be increased during the game through gaining experience and levels. Experience is awarded by DM for several reasons:

• good roleplaying
• use of skills
• combats

Experience can't be gained by training.

When you gain a level you can increase one of the attributes. To reach a level you need to reach the next experience points:

Level	Experience needed
1	10
2	20
3	40
4	80
5	160
6	320
7	previous*2

Combat

Combat is a fight between two or more players.

The combat is round based. Each round takes 10 turns.

To determine whose player start first choose the player who has the biggest value of:

  Player.Level + 1D6

The risk to strike a player can be written as:

  Attacker.attack + 1D6 VS Defender.defense + Defender.shield.rating + 1D6

If player is hit we need to compute the wound that has been done:

  result = Attacker.weapon.rating - Defender.armor.rating + 1D6 each 6 Attacker.level
  if result > 0:
    Defender.hp = Defender.hp - result
  end if

Death happens when hp reachs 0.

hp points are recovered at a natural rate of 1 HP point each 1000 turns.

Shields

The shield rating adds to your defense skill:

Shield	Rating
Buckler shield	+1
Small shield	+2
Medium shield	+3
Tower shield	+5

Armour

Armour helps you absorb damage.

Armour	Rating
Leather armour	+1
Studded leather armour	+2
Scale mail armour	+3
Chain mail armour	+4
Plate mail armour	+5
Field plate armour	+6
Full plate armour	+7

Weapon

Weapon helps you to kill :)

Weapon	Rating
Knife	+2
Club	+3
Spear	+4
Axe	+5
Long sword	+6
Two hand sword	+7