Quest for Duodecum Files

Quest for  Duodecum
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A small roleplaying game by Mark Tuson.

This software is licensed under the GNU GPL.


Story:-
	Magic has been stolen from the Twelve Isles by the demon Maleo, who has
hidden away in his lair on the smallest and most distant of them, the island
Duodecum. You, Hero, have journeyed hard through the other eleven islands, and
have just climbed ashore on Duodecum... to find it's almost completely empty,
because I haven't finished writing the game yet.


Quick Guide:-
	* Navigate with the arrow keys.
	* Open the menu with <SPACE>, leave with <ESC>.
	* Press letters as directed in-game.

	The distribution is now three self-contained .zip files - one for DOS,
one for Win32, and just the source and maps. Just download, extract, and go.
	The engine is in its infancy, and much of the content is currently just
placeholder content, for the most part. You can walk around and explore, save and
load games, but bear in mind that the save format is going to change as I add
more to the game.
	The map editor is currently Windows-only and lacking in features. I will
probably improve it as I need; I only did it because I didn't want to spend a
month typing numbers into Notepad. It is Windows-only because it relies on
features (namely colour text in VGA mode), which won't compile on Microsoft
BASIC 7.1. I am distributing it (separately to the game) but don't expect it to
make any sense at all. RTFS if you want to try and use it.


Current version improvements:-
	(Current version: 20c)
20a:
  - Primitive sound.
  - Code those tiles into the game, along with their appearence.
20b:
  - Wrote a map editor.
  - Created a full set of maps.
  - (Almost) finalized tile IDs
20c:
  - Made multi-floor buildings work.



Changelog:-


I don't know there the changelogs for versions 1 to 16 have gone...

17a:
  - Tidied the code so it no longer looks like a crime scene.
  - Added external maps. Need to work on variable size maps now.
  - Removed the huge ugly equip menu item in favour of equipping weapons (and
     armour in future) directly from the main prompt.
17b:
  - Changed save format to reflect changes in code structure.
  - Fixed up some fuxed-up code in the battle routines.
17c:
  - Made level-up code repetitive (to allow multiple level-ups following
     battles that give a lot of experience) and tweaked the algorithm slightly
     to make it more even.
  - Rewritten the shop to make it a simple command-driven thing, rather than
     the ugly PoS it was before.
18a:
  - Made interface visual instead of text-only.
  - Made maps swappable.
  - Added Final Fantasy -style battle interface.
18b:
  - Tested map screen menus, looked too plain.
18c:
  - Changed Final Fantasy -style interfaces for one of my own design.
  - Made saving nicer.
  - Completed menus in battle.
  - Added menus for the map screen.
18d:
  - Tidied.
  - Added file error handling for save files. Will do this for map files too
     at some point.
19a:
  - Moved foe initialization into a single routine.
  - Removed hardcoded map filenames. It should be possible to have as many maps
     as I want now.
  - Added a bunch of enemies and made it easier to initialize new battle areas.
19b:
  - Made enemy attacks a little more random and made it more likely that they
     will attack first in a battle.
  - Introduced towns into the code and written a single demo town.



Future plans:
  21: improve/add weapons and magic.
  22: improve/add items and status effects.
  23: add some enemy AI.
  24: actually integrate the story.