On the JADE video

[Dougy]

Some more, there is a 5 .jpg per post limit and there's also a size limit, hence the limitation on the size of the first one of these screenshots. Hopefully this helps those readers with less bandwidth.

[Nezur]

I wonder if it's necessary to have everyone moving constantly in the city. Perhaps only the people within the line-of-sight of the PC should need to move. It appears quite slow on the video so this way might possibly speed up gameplay. But, this may all be later issues.

The video was recorded at only 10 FPS. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there were loading pauses especially at this stage of development.

[Dougy]

Looking at the video, it appears as if it takes a full second or two for each character movement. You're right, it is an early stage, but it'll probably need looking into before a release.

[BowenTheKotoc]

Hey Dougy, thanks for the screen shots. Some of that stuff went by so quickly in the video that I didn't see any detail. I really like that it shows which attribute each skill is tied to, that's awesome. Makes it a bit more D&D-like.

[Epythic]

Very silly and pointless thing I think. Even the Slashdot system is awful in my eyes. Still, I gave you a point just for the hell of it :P

Slashdot's system has its flaws (for example that slashdotters are predictable - mention the word "karma" and you wont get modded down), but I like the idea of it.

Thanks for the point, gave one back ... which demonstrates another flaw: users starting to give karma because they got karma.

Just wanted to point that out. Back to topic.

Some screenshots from the video:

Yay. What do I hate about JADE ?

The message boxes, the windows, the changing window titles.

Why is it not like it was in ADOM, everything in one window? This kills immersion.

[Laukku]

Something I noticed long ago, but forgot to ask... In the video, there are some plus & minus things next to the main attributes in the status bar. What do those mean? Are they some kind of debugging stuff?

[Grey]

They're called "AtBo" and "Total". From observation it seems the first is an bonus you get to each increase depending on the relevant attribute. When you choose an increase in something with a +0 Attribute Bonus you get an increase of +1 (shown in the Total column on selection - Total meaning the total increase you've just applied it seems). If your attribute bonus is +3 then you'll actually get an increase of +4 (seen in the selection of Athletics and Swimming). However it seems that multiple selections of the same skill only result in +1 after the first increase (and so we see Dodge, with a +1 AtBo, go from 0 to 2 to 3). I don't know what the numbers in brackets in the Total column mean exactly - often they match the AtBo column, but sometimes they don't.

[Laukku]

They're called "AtBo" and "Total". From observation it seems the first is an bonus you get to each increase depending on the relevant attribute. When you choose an increase in something with a +0 Attribute Bonus you get an increase of +1 (shown in the Total column on selection - Total meaning the total increase you've just applied it seems). If your attribute bonus is +3 then you'll actually get an increase of +4 (seen in the selection of Athletics and Swimming). However it seems that multiple selections of the same skill only result in +1 after the first increase (and so we see Dodge, with a +1 AtBo, go from 0 to 2 to 3). I don't know what the numbers in brackets in the Total column mean exactly - often they match the AtBo column, but sometimes they don't.

Eh? It looks like I have been misunderstood...

You seem to be talking about the skill selection screen. I was talking about the status bar (reread my post), that one that is at the bottom in ADOM:

Gaff

Hill Dwarf
Fighter 1

Xp: 63

St: 17 / +3
Le:  9 / -1
Wi:  9 / -1
Dx: 13 / +1
To: 17 / +3
Ch: 11
Ap: 11
Ma: 11
Pe: 13 / +1

DV: 15
PV: 6
MR: 0

HP: 32 / 39
PP:  0 /  0

Sp: 101
Mv: 82

Wt: 665s

[Grey]

Heh, sorry, completely misread. Those are current stat modifiers, like on the @ screen in ADOM. You can see when he puts on rag at 8:41 that his Ch and Ap are modified. Although... the screen shows -1, -2 when it should be -2, -4. Odd...

[Elone]

I will explain this. D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) system is a basis for many other systems, in the same way that Tolkien's mythology is a basis for every fantasy medieval world. In D&D, a stat of 10 was about average, and you would indeed be exceptional if you could get any of your stats over 20. Anyway.

Let's take Str as our observed stat.
[Str 10 / +0]
Str is average and gains no bonuses. Same is when Str is 11. But once your Str becomes 12, you gain an additional Str point to reward you for being above average.
[Str 12 / +1], which literally means that you have 13 Str.
Notice the stats with 17? And that they have bonus of 3? The real Strength will be 20. I will write the basic list here.

[Stat 07 / -2]
[Stat 08 / -1]
[Stat 09 / -1]
[Stat 10 / +0]
[Stat 11 / +0]
[Stat 12 / +1]
[Stat 13 / +1]
[Stat 14 / +2]
[Stat 15 / +2]
[Stat 16 / +3]
[Stat 17 / +3]
[Stat 18 / +4]
[Stat 19 / +4]
[Stat 20 / +5]

And yes, that means that a character with base stat of 20 will have a real stat of 25. The actual base stat is still used for requirements to wear armour, cast spells, or learn new skills, and other character-bound issues. The bonus though, is applied to combat, disarming draps, smithing, and other actionlike moments. From looking at this table, it's obvious that Creator adopted the well-known D&D stat system.

While still on the topic of D&D, I can say that their armour system SUCKED like a vacuum. Their armours had AC (Armour Class) which was same as our DV, and armour was not used for damage reduction at all. Stronger armours like Fullplate have more AC. It lead to the situation where it's easier to dodge an attack in an overly heavy iron armour (probably as heavy as the character wearing it, or more), than if you were wearing, say, a chainmail. No, in ADOM, platemails reduce your DV; but they do have a high PV, which is as it should be - easier to hit but harder to damage.

DV/PV system is the best system I saw anywhere. Creator added magic resistance too, which is okay because it's still only 3 defensive stats, which is not overwhelming.