Gauging interest in a Dominions Roguelike...

[Ed Kolis]

Wow, I got a Dominions developer to comment - and start a "Great Waiting"!

Hmm, I'm kinda in a dilemma here now... I'd like to move forward with this, and there are quite a few things I could implement now (dungeon/terrain generation, ability to move character about, inventory, etc.) but I got started on creating an XML database of all the spells in Dominions and geez, there are HUNDREDS of them! How the heck am I going to enter all those in?!? I have a schema pretty much set up (all that's left is a list of ritual spell effects - by effects I mean generic stuff like "do damage" and "heal stuff" without specifying exactly how much or where - and maybe some effects are missing from the combat spell effect list, IIRC)... but anyone want to help with data entry? Not the most rewarding task but it might help me get over this block I've stumbled across... I could move on to something else but I know I'll have to get back to the spell list sometime anyway, so it seems kind of futile to even do anything else...

Another thing that distracted me, too, is that entering in all these spells would create an ideal spell reference, but I'd have to modify them a bit to fit a roguelike, so I was thinking maybe I should try to make my own spell reference first without modifying them - but that would take just as long! So I'm looking right now at other fun pointless things to do with XML and game data files (such as maybe an SE4 ship design analyzer which tells you all kinds of stats like "total hitpoints" and "damage inflicted per turn" about your designs before you actually build them - the designs would be stored as XML data, if you were wondering where that would fit in), just because XML seems fun to work with BUT - that would distract me from the roguelike even more than I already am, and I know you all want me to move forward with that...