so with me having a bipolar web host moment, i wanted to have a place to print my summaries of one of my 3-year projects about to be completed.
the Tele-Arena Game Engine.
now most people know i have had my own engine since sub-2003 when i hit some complications editing the dos-based code that was hindered by a LIB file
so i wrote my own... fast forward, that single engine has put out several years of my own custom flavors "on-the-fly" and it was about 3 years ago that while
working on another project in the unity game engine that i thought why not create my own turnkey tele-arena solution and this is where this project comes into
play...
Tele-Arena Game Engine
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an out-of-the-box fully playable, fully customizable game engine for any sysop of any technical background to use to create their own game.
now we're not talking about some custom hack of the original game, we are talking about a blank canvas that starts with 1 room, 1 weapon,
and 1 armor and allows you to enter the game and from there create your own vision using the editors built into the game.
with the editors you can edit each of the SQLite database tables using either a Gui editor or the command line interface.
with the Gui you see what you're doing, can go forward/backwards, modify the data and in some case even disable it, and with
the command line interface it is more about doing some quick changes, such as modifying a weapons damage, or increasing a
potion's price like so... "!update taeitm 61 mineff 4" this will update item# 61 to have a mineff value of 4.
and this can be done with every single database table even some ones i added that were not part of the original game's data set
and were added to make customizing that much more fun such as runes, terrains, regions, complete with its own damage modifiers
if necessary, and even some hidden modifications for sysops that want to go that much higher in customization and change some
internal behaviors like how often monsters attack, the logical formulas like how often spells become roundly, and so much more.
To preserve the game as it is, in a whole, internal modifications are reserved for specific builds because in the end i still want it to be
Tele-Arena, i want it to look, and act like the original game, just give the sysop a modern engine with easier customization and controls.
with that said it comes out the box with the core races/classes but to allow the sysop to touch this up a bit i did give the ability to edit
those races/classes and change names and stat values and even left an option for up to 2 additional races and classes to be created.
i added a new Paladin class on the test bbs which uses rogue weapons and casts acolyte spells and did all of this with no code support
just using the editors. i really feel this can be the full solution to having your very own created mud on your bbs that will exist long
after i am gone. hell, look at major bbs... years after Stryker left us people still love using this product. this is how i envision this game,
1990 Sean created it and in 2025 people still play it, all i did was make it modern, more customizable, and able to work on the newer
platforms... with that said and we all know this stuff does have a business side, we wish it didn't but it does. i fully stand with duckula
on there is no reason to release source codes, to me there are two sides... one it can saturate the market, and yes there is side two
where collaborators can make it even better. but im not at that point to turn over something i have passionately worked on since
easily 2001 when the idea i could rewrite this game without that LIB started, ended in 2003 with a fully playable game, in 2010 someone
gave me the full version 5.0 source (the pre necrolyte one) and the logic i had replaced from the lib file was so close to the original i didn't
even change it, and now fast forward to now where it's an install out the box solution for any sysop... and for those that do not want to
start empty, i have templates available too, template 1 is the classic town 1/arena and template 2 is the classic town1/dungeon/town 2
so, anyone can start with that foundation and build from there...
now comes distribution, there is no agreement in place, i am sure it's as easy as 1,2,3 but i havent had time to even think about it.
i am going to be looking for a beta site where the game will be active with multiple players because the more data i receive on
this the better it will become.
major bbs 10.... with the addition of this product there are reports of some addons not working well, i am actively working on a
v10 flavor of this on my own... most problems i fix cause another on the original so i will be working two versions... one
for "legacy WorldGroup" which falls in the 3.xx/4.xx/5.xx versions and of course v10. this product does not work with anything
pre 3.20 due to Api calls that differed from 3.12/3.20 and causes some issues in the memory management category.
this game also includes my previously standalone release of MAPMAKER which allowed you to run it in the directory with the game's
database and it allowed you to walk-and-link maps which allowed creating worlds in a fraction of the time it used to take.
that program was released to aid in editing Tele-Arena Classic maps and is now included in the baseline of the engine
and invoked by typing !mapedit, and instead of getting a gui-based editor it puts you in an instanced version of the
map and allows you to walk around and if an exit does not exist you are prompted to link to an existing room or to
create a new room and link to that...
Tele-Arena Game Engine expected Summer/2025
Tele-Arena Game Engine Summary
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daniel_spain
- Posts: 443
- Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2020 2:39 am
Re: Tele-Arena Game Engine Summary
ok so with the engine completed i wanted to recreate the original game using only the tools i had provided within the engine and also wanted to create a secondary
game where i went a different route but again only used the tools i had in the engine. in doing so i made the following changes to the engine to simplify some things
and make some other things much easier and they are as follows...
1. i completely redid the gui editor, simplified the menu driven options and the editor now reads/writes directly from the database so it will not affect other users that nay be playing the game. once you are done you can invoke the !REINIT command or wait until cleanup for all your changes to take effect.
2. when wanting to make small changes, rather than go through the Gui editor to do something as simple as changing a shop price or increasing an item damage, i added a command-line editor that allows you to make a small change directly to the database, and again nothing will go to the live game until your next cleanup or you invoke the !REINIT command. to use the editor, you simply type "!cmdedit <table> <record> <field> <value>" so if you have a battle axe as item # 33 and want to change the maximum damage of the weapon to 50 you simply type "!cmdedit <ARNITM> <33> <ITMMAX> <50>"
3. i want the game engine to remain true to the roots of the original so out of the box it comes with the core 8 classes and 6 races but also left the ability to add 2 more of each.
while you can only use what tool kits the current classes have at their disposal, one with the right creative imagination could always create some interesting combinations.
i created a Paladin and a Thief-Magus using these tools.
4. alot of the former data that was hard-coded is now in its own database table such as regions, runes, docks, etc... i did this so a sysop could have full control over their game.
while a dock seems a bit like a cookie-cut system, again you can word it so it looks like a troll bridge, or some other way to purchase passage to another room, also with runes
you not only have the power to change/add the color names but also the message that is displayed when you acquire it.
5. the !MAPEDIT walk-and-edit map editor is a new way to create large maps in a jiffy. you invoke the command and are in a simulated game world where you walk around and if an exit does not exist you are given the option to either create a new room and link it, link to an existing room, or to do nothing. also while walking around this simulated game world there are no monsters, traps, or special elements, and you get a few other commands such as setting a room desc# and teleporting quickly to other rooms.
6. originally i intended for this engine to be a blank canvas for sysops wanting to create their own game but have since recreated the original 5.6c world so sysops can modify the existing, but also still added the ability for a sysop to launch a blank database, the system will create the 3 required records for operation (1 town room, 1 default weapon, 1 default armor) and from there you can create your own vision.
right now there is no public release, i will have a beta on my secondary bbs soon, and when i am satisfied with the final product i will work on those arrangements.
game where i went a different route but again only used the tools i had in the engine. in doing so i made the following changes to the engine to simplify some things
and make some other things much easier and they are as follows...
1. i completely redid the gui editor, simplified the menu driven options and the editor now reads/writes directly from the database so it will not affect other users that nay be playing the game. once you are done you can invoke the !REINIT command or wait until cleanup for all your changes to take effect.
2. when wanting to make small changes, rather than go through the Gui editor to do something as simple as changing a shop price or increasing an item damage, i added a command-line editor that allows you to make a small change directly to the database, and again nothing will go to the live game until your next cleanup or you invoke the !REINIT command. to use the editor, you simply type "!cmdedit <table> <record> <field> <value>" so if you have a battle axe as item # 33 and want to change the maximum damage of the weapon to 50 you simply type "!cmdedit <ARNITM> <33> <ITMMAX> <50>"
3. i want the game engine to remain true to the roots of the original so out of the box it comes with the core 8 classes and 6 races but also left the ability to add 2 more of each.
while you can only use what tool kits the current classes have at their disposal, one with the right creative imagination could always create some interesting combinations.
i created a Paladin and a Thief-Magus using these tools.
4. alot of the former data that was hard-coded is now in its own database table such as regions, runes, docks, etc... i did this so a sysop could have full control over their game.
while a dock seems a bit like a cookie-cut system, again you can word it so it looks like a troll bridge, or some other way to purchase passage to another room, also with runes
you not only have the power to change/add the color names but also the message that is displayed when you acquire it.
5. the !MAPEDIT walk-and-edit map editor is a new way to create large maps in a jiffy. you invoke the command and are in a simulated game world where you walk around and if an exit does not exist you are given the option to either create a new room and link it, link to an existing room, or to do nothing. also while walking around this simulated game world there are no monsters, traps, or special elements, and you get a few other commands such as setting a room desc# and teleporting quickly to other rooms.
6. originally i intended for this engine to be a blank canvas for sysops wanting to create their own game but have since recreated the original 5.6c world so sysops can modify the existing, but also still added the ability for a sysop to launch a blank database, the system will create the 3 required records for operation (1 town room, 1 default weapon, 1 default armor) and from there you can create your own vision.
right now there is no public release, i will have a beta on my secondary bbs soon, and when i am satisfied with the final product i will work on those arrangements.