Final Fantasy III battle game help

[Az]

I am working.. or atleast starting to work on a game that i would hope turns out something like the battle's in the game "Final Fantasy III" made by Square-Enix. I have to pick a game to make for my comp sci class and I chose to do something like that.

Anyway, the point of all this is that I need help, I'm basically new to Turing besides the class i have been taking since the beginning of school this september. I would like to know if anyone could give tips on like which parts of the game should be in arrays or record file stuff.

--- here is the jist of the game
1) have a start menu with login / password type thing
2) begin battle, have basic background and just some GUI stuff like that
3) when battle starts, player 1 (you) has a "battle menu" with choices such as Attack, Items, Magic etc.
4) monster (CPU) cannot go when it is player 1's turn and vice-versa
5) player 1 and monster with have Health points (HP) and Magic points (MP)
6) when it is monsters turn, it will randomly generate a number which will represent which choice it makes from it's menu
7) damage done by attacks will be random numbers between a certain range
8)if player 1 loses all HP (counter reaches 0 or something) then some sort of You lose screen will come up and restart the program
9) if player 1 wins, well... player 1 wins and game ends

and i think that would be about it... any help would really be nice.
thanks

Martin says:I changed the title. Please don't make 'I need help topics'

[Cervantes]

Knowing about classes would help you a lot here. Check the Turing Walkthrough for a link to the tutorial on this topic.

This sounds pretty complex. Be sure to work everything out on paper before you begin coding.

[MysticVegeta]

Az wrote:

6) when it is monsters turn, it will randomly generate a number which will represent which choice it makes from it's menu

Hmm I would suggest you make that a Little AI because it would be foolish for the CPU to cast a magic when player 1 has just 1 hp left and some other things could be done too to increase the interactivity and this could be done using simple if structures, no algorithms required

[Az]

any tips on making an AI... the whole random number thing was my first thought on it... I really have no idea how AI works, if anyone could explain it to me that would help alot with the monster. thanks

[chrispminis]

You could use if statements such as, if other char just charged up, then defend or something. I dunno the context of the game. You don't have to use anything complicated, just think logically. How could the AI counter you. But don't make it impossible. ex. if AI follows the other example it renders charging up obselete.

[Martin]

For AI in something like that, you want it to be somewhat random (so the player doesn't figure it out) and you want it to be intelligent.

For the most basic, let's say the monster has two abilities - attack and heal.

What you'd do is generate a probability table of its action for certain cases.

In the above, let's say we have three cases

1. Monster health full:
Attack:100%
Heal:0%

2. Monster health not full but greater than 40%
Attack: 75%
Heal: 25%

3. Monster health less than or equal to 40%
Attack: 25%
Heal:75%

And so on. You could divide this as much as you want.

[MysticVegeta]

And for example: organizing attacks...
If CPU has 60 MP

Magic uses : 50
Small Attack : 10
Large Attack : 30

So the best possible you know is Magic + Small attack because if you use Large attack you would have to choose Small attack later and be left with 20 MP to do just 2 more small attacks causing minimal damage...

[Az]

ok well now that I know that I will need that kinda stuff. I'm still not the greatest so hopefully someone could guide me through it step by step

first off. I'm guess I will need to write the program for the login screen.
I am not 100% sure how I would display something like that, Draw.Window or something like that? I remember my teacher saying something about how I would get the basic window up but I forgot what the code is . anyway If anyone could help me with the code for making a basic login screen, that would be great... just a window with something like...
___________________________________________
|_________FF Battle_________________________x|
| |
| Account Name: (account name entered here) |
| |
| Password: (password entered here) |
|__________________________________________|

just something that would end up like that.. lol sorry about the bad .. drawing? but it gets to the point.. it doesnt have to be anything special,
I am in a beginners class anyway. so basically I just need to know the code for how to get a window up like that and have the account name stored in an array for the next time they log on they can just select their account name from a list or something.

any help would be great! thanks

[MysticVegeta]

Hmm, if you need yours to look like professional, how about making the graphic using photoshop/illlustrator or paint even... followed by a simple if structure for the login.

Also, to open it up in a new window, you need to check

Window.Open (parameters) commands in Turing manual, (F10)

There are lots of Window."x" commands where x could be Set, SetActive, GetActive, lots of commands. You will find the complete explanation in the Turing manual though.

[Albrecd]

To open another window:

code:

var winID : int winID := Window.Open ("position:top;center,graphics:200;200")

You can change the position and characteristics. Almost any characteristic that can be used in a normal window can be used in the new window. Ex: offscreenonly, nobuttonbar, nocursor, etc.

[do_pete]

You may also want to use Turing's GUI or you could make your own

[Az]

how does the GUI work? my class has gone over it just once, and not for long. so it wasnt very helpful. the teacher didnt really do a whole lesson on it, just a quick peek. so im just wondering which GUI does what and how any of them may help or if i should just make my own

[Az]

to start off...

code:

%delcare account name array var arrAcntName : array 1 .. 20 of int %initialize array var i : int const LB : lower (arrAcntName) const UB : upper (arrAcntName) for i     i := LB..UB arrAcntName (i) end for

trying to declare the account name array, but i keep forgetting how to do the const and declaring the counter for search of the array later on (i was taught to use a for loop and set the int as something but hell i cant remember


and then...


i get the window open and i have the account name and password put and get statements... first of all, how do i get the account name that is entered, to become part of my account name array (so that later on the user can choose their acount from a list)


and 2nd. it is obvious that a password is private most games or programs use the "*" or something like that to be displayed when the user types in their password so that its a secret
if that was a pretty bad attempt at explaining of the password entering program. i'm pretty sure most people will understand what i am talking about . just wondering how you can do that with turing. i have no idea what the code would be. help me please

[do_pete]

You have to use ":=" instead of ":". for loops work like this:

code:

for i : lowerNumber .. higherNumber

[Cervantes]

Az wrote:

i get the window open and i have the account name and password put and get statements... first of all, how do i get the account name that is entered, to become part of my account name array (so that later on the user can choose their acount from a list)


and 2nd. it is obvious that a password is private most games or programs use the "*" or something like that to be displayed when the user types in their password so that its a secret
if that was a pretty bad attempt at explaining of the password entering program. i'm pretty sure most people will understand what i am talking about . just wondering how you can do that with turing. i have no idea what the code would be. help me please

1. You'll need to use a Flexible Array.
2. You'll need to use getch. Inside a loop, you getch each character, add it to your growing string, and draw another "*". Exit the loop if the enter key is pressed (if you getched chr (10) or something like that.)