Escidaws - CRPG featuring Codepage437 graphics.

Escidaws is a work of art made in the imagination of CRPG adventures.

Pronounced 'Ess (as in the letter S) Ky (as in sky) and DOS'. Announced 11:57pm September 4th, 2020. 'Esc' has to do with the ESC key, 'Daws' is an anagram of WASD. (Though, I plan to use AWEF instead, slide left, walk, run, slide right).

Made in the vein of Sir-Tech's original Wizardry series, Super ZZT, Rogue, Dungeons and Dragons (in general), Castle of The Winds and classical ADOM. Features include, but not limited to are:

 40 Column DOS mode. [40 characters wide by 25 characters height]

Uses 32 of the 256 color palette.

 Code page 437 with minimum custom glyphs.

Coded in Pascal (?).

Each zone or sub-zone board consists of 10x10 sections made of tiles. The party can occupy a tile, or a mob, items, one floor tile or one wall.

Experiment mixing with alchemy and regents in a alchemist shop (quasi sandbox) mode before actually creating potions.

Party has a food/water meter that decreases while underground,

while meter increases when near or in villages.

The meter stagnates when in the wilderness.

Opaque Xepic: Negate Hidden Stealth Mobs.

Breeches rather than pants.

Faction ratings for hostile mobs, improves by defeating an enemy of theirs, and the 2nd faction can also be improved by defeating an enemy of them too. Collimating in defeating a single enemy with no faction thus allowing the party to being at least neutral with most humanoid mobs.

A shop can return missing items (stolen or dropped) that a character has invested enhancements in, such as air element damage or psychic essence in.

Escidaws could also be ported over to the Commodore 128, but may not.

Some experimental graphics were produced with the ASCII Paint program. Like everything I try to keep it in my Mega.NZ Archival folder, the whole directory was uploaded so I can download it to any computer with out the requirement of a password. The GFX are 8x8 pixels instead of the planned 8x14 though.

Listed in order of constructing necessity
(which should be designed (at least partially) before the next)

Story (Premise)

Character Stats (Attributes, Classes)

Map (Town design, shops and terrains)

Items

Xepix (Elemental, Essences)

Mobs

Conditions (Paralytic, Diseased...)

Persona  The culmination of the four aspects of: Characteristics, Statistics, Attributes and Defenses all in one box, which occupies 1/4th of the inventory screen.

Characteristics  Name, Default is Lad## but can be renamed via Monarch. Gender, (Chosen during character creation). Kin (Species) Chosen during character creation. Art (Profession), can be left blank for a time. Alignment (Good, Neutral or Evil), can be left blank for a time. Balance (Order, Natural or Chaos), can be left blank for a time. Alignment and Balance determines which quests will be available to the lad and score to be gained. Good aligned lads completing a Good quest will gain all the score awarded, while evil lads won't gain any score. Good characters will refuse to dig up graves and loot their defeated. Thus good lads will gain more score and evil lads will gain more loot. Neutral lads will gain half of both. Lads of Order and Natural may enter Temples and Castles, whilst Lads of Chaos won't and remain just outside the establishments. (This is all preliminary design and may not be in the final art)

Statistics  Hit Points Stamina Mana Rank(Level) Score (Experience Points)

Attributes  Survival, HP gained for each rank depending on art and amount of negative present HP before dying. Robustion (Technically it's spelt robustness, but robustion sounds more appealing in this one case(and besides, it's one more aspect that's not borrowed from anything else)), Stamina gained for each rank depending on art and amount of negative present Stamina before fainting. (prier to fainting the lad can not take any kind of action) Qi, Mana gained for each rank depending on art. Jagers and Raiders gain no xepix (unless already learned from a prier art), but use mana for certain items that consume the lad's mana. Coordination, success in any attacks and mixing decanters. Mobility, success in any attack bypassing foe's evasion, but mostly attacks in rounds and which lad takes action in combat before fellow lads or foes.

-=Defenses=-  AC (Armor Class) reduces melee and projectile damage done to the lad. Evade\Evasion (Dodge an enemy attack entirely) Deflect (Block landed melee and missile attacks via shield or weapon) Stealth (Prevents lad from being targeted, canceling foe's attack) Anti-Elements (Air, Water, Earth and Fire) Anti-Essences (Psychic, Light and Dark)

Single box (window screen) or four window screen:

Types of screens are FPS, character, possessions

Glossary of Boards -Towns- (any zone with shops) Hamlet - Player may begin here. A few thatched huts. A traveling merchant. Village - Board surrounded with housing as a boarder, therefore the party wont have to go in every building looking for a shop. Castle - 2 levels minimum, any above or below. Below are dungeons. (or another type of town) Temple - Much similar to villages, tea huts rather than pubs. -Undergrounds- Dungeon - Passageway is ground level, all levels underground. These can be under castles Player may begin here with a solo lad if starting a session. Tomb - A floor level and a minimum of 1 undergrounds. These may be under temples. Tunnel - Passageways underground or in mountains. Tower - Always multi-leveled above ground level, has top lair master. -Wilderness- Forest - Trees, bushes. Field - Grass, hills, ponds, groves, farming fields. Cliffs - Impassable world map boarders. Caves - Ground level in mountains, Cliffs. Walls made of rock. Cavern - Single or multi lair ground level in cliffs. Walls made of dirt. (These may be under hamlets and villages)

Board - Extended Details Hamlet - Simple housing with NPCs about 4x4 through 9x9 characters in size. Hamlets have 2 through 9 houses each.  Village - Board surrounded with non-interactive housing, therefore the party won't have to knock on each door trying to figure out which places to explore. Each house is only present for each NPC(s). Nearly all villages have at least one of each of the 9 types of shops, Pubs, item shops, smithy, Inns, Seer(ID Item) Shrines.

Glossary of Shops and Places: 1. Inn - Rectangle, lodging. 2. Item Shop - Two squares slightly overlapping on two corners. Banter and Barter 3. Weapon and Armor Smithy Shop has the shape of an Anvil. 4 Shrine - Four quarter circle shaped walls. Heals, cures, purge skills. 5. Village Sage (ID items) is in a Light House August 11th, 2021. 6. Pub - Half Way Happy 4\23\21. Building shape of a mug with handle. 7. Monarch - The sire of the village. Quest giver. 8. Guild - ,,, 9. Dungeon - A town has it's own underground. Any of the above can have a dungeon once in a while.

Glossary of board features:  River\Bridge  All habitats are near streams, which branch off of rivers.   x Tunnel Runs under mountains mostly, but also grasslands. Wilderness Any zone that's not underground, towns, temples. Ration meter stagnates for the cadre.  Hilled Groves are a hamlet of sorts with grasslands.     Corridor Depicts roads between a rock and a hard place. Barren Lands Acts as a barrier with out the wall in the world map. Nothing can be explored here or past. Any cadre refuses to enter.  Cliffs  Whole 10x10-tile boards that are non-traversable obstacles. Zones can be sandwiched between cliffs. One is called Corpse Canyon. 2021 August 11th.

Sanctuary: A temple that was built but never occupied. A healing shrine.

Sky Roads: The platforms in the background transits into the foreground too quickly. A note for the dungeon crawl view. Also the BGM is Adlib, as will be Escidaws.

https://youtu.be/f7uxZ0QRXd0

Prairies Origin of the Humans. Has sparse trees, mounds but mostly grass.  Forest Origin of the Elves, Elf, Elven.  Mountains  Origin of the Dwarves. Dwarf characters have Dwarven items.  Fog Lands Origin of the Gnomish. These areas encompass shorelines. Gnomes (or Leprechauns) dwell in... Hills, origin of the Hermits. A quant place of quarters borrowed in and under mounds of earth. Underground Origin of the Goblins Swamp Origin of the Troll Canyon Origin of the Ogre. Desolate Outlands Origin of the Orcs. ... Distant Wilderness (or Far Lands) Origin of the Kobold. These regions have most of everything above, mountains, rivers, trees but are far away from all races.

1:3 Minimum, Cadre moves one square, entire screen 4x2.5 boards. 2:3 Medium, Cadre moves 3:3 Tile; An item, a single lad of the cadre or foe occupies a single tile. Attack Xepix are often depicted as taking up 1 tile space. Square; Consists of a 3x3 tile format. A single floor, wall, the cadre of 1 to 4 lads. Squares often have thin walls. May have a mob (an encounter with foes). The minimum amount of space covered in 1 key press is 3 tiles. A Board consists of 10 by 10 squares. Each board has an assortment of walls, items, mobs and is almost always strung together with multiple boards in varying setups. Zone; A zone is defined as the entirety of a place such as a cave, castle or village most with multiple boards. Each zone consists of 1 or more boards but is limited to 100 boards, or 10 boards on each axis. The player may view a zone via [top-down] beholder mode, which is first-person-sight. The cadre may traverse a single zone for each move (one key press = 10 boards) when in barren-lands, roads, woodlands, fields and tunnels that have been explored either by the player or pre-mapped by NPCs. While each zone may be limited to less than a total of 10x10 boards, each zone takes up a width of 10 boards X axis and 10 boards Y axis to give uniform to the world map setup. Nation(World Map View); Defines the whole land of 20x20 states. Each state is 10x10 zones. Each 8x14 pixel character in the nation map defines 1 zone (10 boards or 100 squares). The cadre traverses the nation usually one step at a time, slowly. As every move covers a vast distance, as each 8x14-pixel character defines a single state. The World Map either has terrain or is unexplored. The cadre is forced into explore mode as soon as the player enters the unexplored screen character. The cadre can only move one state at a time in the world map if the screen character has as a terrain a; Road, grasslands, or barren lands. 1 Board = 10 squares, 1 Zone = 100 squares, 1 State = 1000 squares. The cadre is in a room, they move one square at a time over to an alchemy desk. The smallest move they can make, 3 steps. The cadre's at a Inn, which occupies one whole board. The cadre exits the Inn and are in a village, which occupies one zone. The village has about 20 boards, some boards are walkways or shops. The cadre leaves the village and is in explore mode, in which each character represents 1 zone, or 10x10 boards wide. They move one zone and are in a field. The screen maps 40 characters wide and 20 characters tall. The explore mode displays the nation. The cadre enters the field to explore it one square at a time in first-person-view. The screen can display 4 boards wide by 2 boards tall. One of the boards' squares has a passage, which the lads delve into. Underground, the player is returned to FPV and or top-down-view. Examples; The cadre is in a hamlet, which is small enough to occupy one board. None the less the hamlet is the only board in the zone. The cadre leaves the zone and is in state exploration, each move (1 press of the arrow keys) traverses the cadre 1 board Map Legend for State characters;

Grass Fields Most of the out doors and world map contains these.

Barren Lands\Road These can be traveled any way

Forest\Woodlands

Impassible Mountains

Cliffs

Unexplored by player

Unexplored by in-game story

Bldg.

Hamlet or Greater

Castle\Tower

Temple and maybe Tomb

Generic Underground(Dungeon) Mostly underground, can have a lair above ground.

Cave Entry

Cavern Entry

Water

Caravan

Swords are = to all abilities.

Axes lack in number of attacks but have more criticales.

Polearms are two handed but have wider range of damage.
Polearms only ever have one attack, but reaches any foe.

Daggers lack in damage but have more attacks in rounds.

Cudgel lacks in aim but has stun.

Staves lack in everything but can be wielded by all arts.

Klein Bottle: An inter-dimensional decanter that auto-refills.

Blackmail June 1st 2017: A suit of chain mail cursed as to not allow the lad to unwielded until something has been done. Otherwise the lad would lose a level if taken off.

Klepto[mania] Amulet; Possessed neckware takes away one of many attributes until dealt with.

Text Strings:

Combat Text Box, damage to humanoid creatures;

Arm, Leg,

Abs: June 14th 2017

Mace affixed with enhancement
Flammable, cracked (Earth), flaky (Air), soluble. influenceable (Mind)

Enemies

Embodiments (Equivalent, but not limited to the undead)

A creature phased or physical that encompasses emotion. Bereft Reflection; Non-material foe compared with shades, specters and apparitions. Found in barred wildernesses with murky ponds. June 7th 2021. Masquerade, Guise, Facsimile, Silhouette, Unseen Entity Skin Walker; Two meter height humanoid that has been stripped of all bone and organs save for the skin itself preserved by a tanner. They stand Sace (Say-ss); A deceased (and or decomposed) sub-human (Goblin, Orc, Kobold) that has been enveloped by aggressive foliage and hidden in the ground or walls but actively reaches out to the breathing. 2021, November 16th. Stance; An animated suit of decayed plate armor. From the halls of ancient monarchs, these are all that's left from those castles and kings that turned to dust eons ago. These foes hold some energy from the time they inhabited the old lands. Rusted Stance Dented Stance Shattered Stance 2021, November 16th. Crisp Skeleton; An animated humanoid skeleton that is burnt to a crisp, though the flesh has been 'baked on', giving it a deep red appearance. Mid 2010s. Elemental Spector; Phased foes with the power of either Wind, Water or Wilds. Had idea in early 2000's Specimen; A severed but animated arm. Effigy A human scaled rag doll made out of straw, possessed by the disarray and disgust of the townspeople for an individual. Eyes of Despise Sep 5th 2017. The emotional hatred of humanoid creatures encompassed in floating eyes.

.	Rapscallion

Plants:  Kelp Vines Fungus Foe Enlarged Spore Chlorophyll

Golems and Elementals

Molten Golem; Found deep in mountains

Screenshot from March ‎14th, ‎2008. Battles will be similar to above image.

Converse with NPCs while both walk in a loop

Semi Glossary of Symbolism

Desecrated Ruins: An area riddled with embodiments.

.	Shields of any kind are made of one or more often multiple materials, such as iron, lether(Mushroom Hide), wood and more. Bracelet [Iron] Bracer [Lether, Iron] Buckler [Any]

The pestle and mortar is the sign for an alchemist

.	Mud - Found in parts of boards.

Backpack

The shape of the number zero vaguely appears as a pack for the lads' inventory. As an empty back contains no items, the zero is perfect.

Potion ¿ Created and consumed and attacked with.

Sub Types of Poison Condition: Potency, damage to Hp. Duration, amount of rounds before it goes away. Tick, delay between damage (wait rounds). Curve, amount of potency lessened after each round.

Sonar, auto-mapping tool: determines if any solid walls are behind walls.

Bless, allows a cadre's lad to not take more than all HP but 1 point to allow to run away from the battle. Intended for solo-ing.

The glyph for ring items is the Hoop character;

https://youtu.be/TiWxxdGlRkA?t=680

https://youtu.be/s6wzdiNG2aU?t=251

Though, in MegaZeux the degree sign is used to rings.

I plan on using the degree sign colored yellow instead.

Pique = To enhance the skill in a technique.

Day. Age=1000 days. Era=1000 Ages. Eon=1000 Eras.

Attained: To acquire or obtain an item, a task or score.

Adlib audio as its music is a goal. 3D Pit Intro Captured ‎August ‎13th, ‎2009

Descent Level 1 Music

Origins of Ideas

A useless 'Phial' initiated the idea of pre-practicing alchemy in my design

Locks and traps of chests, doors and level hazards have puzzles that are solved with a limited number of moves before the trap triggers or the lock resets.

A passageway can reside without any walls surrounding it. This is as it appears in map mode (each on-screen character is the size of a building).