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Posted

The Spiderweb games seem like they are perfectly suited to be a grid based tactics rpgs in every way, except for the lack of a grid. I can't even count the multitude of times my character moved one inch to far and the lost ap needed to attack, or is one inch out of range to attack, or needs to be one inch further to see around that corner or theres a tiny gap that someone ran through or a gap thats just too small to squeeze through.

 

All of that is easily fixable with a grid. A grid would tell you at a glance what your characters can and can't do. Don't get me wrong, I've become an expert at gauging distance and range in these games, and I rarely make a mistake like those listed above unless theres a misclick involved somehow. But I remember how much it irritated me in the past when half my force would die because one guy was blocking the path by pixels. Although I suppose these are less of a problem outside of playing a shaper in Geneforge since you have less characters to control or if you use a mix of melee and ranged creations. Not like that will stop me from doing so for RP reasons though.

 

So could someone explain to me why a grid isn't used, and how the games benefit from a lack of a grid? If this has been discussed before I apologize, but I did search around in advance.

Posted

They actually all use grids, though it isn't always obvious. The size of the grid varies, as does whether pieces can only be placed in squares or also on intersections. The newer games actually have a setting that lets you display the grid, so it seems that Spiderweb is on board with your way of thinking.

Posted

They actually all use grids, though it isn't always obvious. The size of the grid varies, as does whether pieces can only be placed in squares or also on intersections. The newer games actually have a setting that lets you display the grid, so it seems that Spiderweb is on board with your way of thinking.

That is very interesting and not something I would have expected at all. Is there any way to force the older games to display the grid, or just add some lines to help gauge distance? I heard that the Geneforge series in particular is hard to mod so I'm not sure how practical it is to add another layer of lines on the floor.

Posted

It's probably not practical. Modding (for Geneforge, A4-6, and the newer series) is pretty easy for some things (most text; many numerical values related to items, abilities, and characters), and doable for some things (graphics replacements), but just about everything else is hardcoded.

 

The grid does line up (I think) with terrain squares, so you could probably edit all the terrain graphics to manually add gridlines. But that would give you a grid in walkabout, too, which would be pretty ugly.

 

I don't remember at what point the "display grid" option came into being. It was probably Avadon but it might have been a bit earlier, like G5. The other, very long-term, option would be to wait for the Geneforge series to be remade, which will probably happen someday, though it may be a few years yet.

Posted

I am currently playing A4, and the tiles are fairly obvious. My occasional losses of APs are more due to the movement system picking a different route than I would have. If I was using keyboard for movement instead of point and click I would never loose an AP.

Posted

Geneforge really gets difficult because one square of movement costs less than 1 AP and it's really not obvious how far you can move.

 

—Alorael, who would just like a little number by the cursor saying how much moving somewhere will cost, taking into account planned route as well. That would solve all the little irritations.

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