[Mandrake]

Hrm, I plan on having the ocde seperate from the work anyway (so people can dload the examples to use with the book), so having it seperate from the text isn't a problem. WHat I mean was for people to just download and run it on diffrent systems, as well as if I do something stupid warn me of it .....and I mainly need newbies to go through and learn by using the book so I can get some newb's opinions. I also need proof readers....which Bjorn adn some others have offered to do (and I will gracously accept....)

EDIT:

[Barok]

i think that when mandrake sends stuff to be proofread, he should send it in chapters. that way he won't have to wait weeks for the thing to be proofread. if he sended the whole book, then he'd have to wait awhile. as for proofreading, i would do it for mandrake as a friend, not for a free book ;)
_________________
Adosorken: I always liked slutty 10th graders...
Rhiannon: *Slap!*

[Locrian]

I can be one of those newbies. This book is for people with no programming experience right? All I've done in the way of programming were some stupid little things in Pascal (in other words, no programming exp).

And Crono style really isn’t all that different from Mana/Zelda style? I thought it would be... gotta test if character is in monster's line of sight... make monster chase if he is... keep track of character's & monster's positions all the time... seems complicated

[Ninkazu]

I'm pretty sure you'd need some programming experience, because without any it'd be like saying, "Oh, your first time to see a computer, eh? How about we program a professional looking RPG?"

Unless, Mandrake, you're willing to have 5000 pages of blaaaaaaaaaaah.

[lazy_mandrake]

this is mandrake, in case the login bug happens again-

anyway, no you will need basic knowledge of C++, since teaching people how to program+teaching people how to make a video game would make for one huge ass book. Not alot of C++ knowledge will be needed though, as long as you know how to use varaibles, create functions, and use the STL it should be gravy.

Actually- yes the action RPG is a very simple object compared to a non-action one. All you would need to do is make an is_enemy boolean on NPC's, if they are enemy you have two sets of collision surfaces, one which is a vicinity (for line of site), the other is attack radius (for doing dammage to the player). Then all you hvae to do is a normal collision detection you would do in any RPG for intercting with NPC's, except this time instead of talking to them, if the enemy flag is tru it does dammnage (unless the player is attacking then it does dammage to the enemy)

[Barok]

yeah. as i said, i'd stick to proofreading. i have absolutely no experience in c++. i was going to save it for when i was finished with Qbasic.
_________________
Adosorken: I always liked slutty 10th graders...
Rhiannon: *Slap!*

[Mandrake]

ok, so the list of people willing to help are:
Bjørn
Barok
Ninkazu
Locrian
Jihgfed Pumpkinhead




Now, Can you guys either post a reply here or email me at mandrake@indie-rpg.net telling me what you are willing to do? Here is exactly what I'm looking for:

Code editors / testers
People who make sure that everything compiles and works fine. Nothing moves too fast/slow, doesn't break/crash.

Newbies:
Newbies willing to use the book as a guide and willing to give me feedback and ask lots of questions. I need to make sure I don't lose anyone.

Text Editors:
People who make sure my grammer/etc is correct.

EDIT:
hey locrian....if you still want to read the book & learn, here are some good examples to get you up to snuff with basic C++:
http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html

[Barok]

put me down as proofreader. i'm also thinking... nah, i won't. i'm not greedy. i was thinking of learning basic c++, but i'll leave that for people who actually know something about c++.


last word: i'm on grammer and spelling! if you need it (in case you decide to e-mail the chapters to us) here's my address.

marshall_7ca@yahoo.ca
_________________
Adosorken: I always liked slutty 10th graders...
Rhiannon: *Slap!*

[Locrian]

hmm yeah I guess teaching C++ would make the book quite long. I looked through those links on learning C++. I'll give learning it a shot. The first few lessons I browsed through made sense, reminded me of Pascal classes. Just need to learn the new syntax. It would probably be a good idea for me to become at least a little familiar with C++ anyway...

[Ninkazu]

Put me down for coder/tester and proofreader. I won't let you down!

[Mandrake]

heh, if you don't want to Loc that's ok....but yeah C++ isn't all too hard. Esp if you have had Java or Object Pascal/Delphi...and the only articls from that site i post you need to read is up to lesson 14 under the Programming in C++ header

[DrunkenCoder]

is it too late to say Im more than willing to test your code and proofread the book? Im not a native english speaker but I chew C for breakfast and digest C++ for dinner ;)

oh, well, anyways I would be more than happy to help.
_________________
If there's life after death there is no death, if there's no death we never live. | ENTP

[Mandrake]

Update:
Introduction+ basics of getting a compiler/building libs, basics of libs: 90% done.

When this is finished, I'm going to send it to ALL who have offered to help :)

[Jihgfed Pumpkinhead]

     This may be a little premature, then, but as me Mum used to say, better premature than still-born. Well, me Mum never said that; I just came up with it now. But it's pretty clever, no?
     Well, I'd like to know what sort of editing you want? Do you want your prose so correct that all the grammar wienies will have mild orgasms just reading it? Or are you just concerned with comprehensibility?
     Also, are you looking for major structural advice, or just superficial stuff?
     Finally, are you defensive towards criticism? Am I going to have to phrase advice like: "Well, Mandrake, this is very good. Very, very good. But there's one, little-eensy-weensy problem...", or can I be more to the point?

[Guest]