I actually just started tracing (thanks David Young for the nomenclature correction) a couple of new web-based games for Facebook a few weeks ago and I have just been inundated with mental blocks and time sucks from re-coding. I am working on something similar to the turn based (Vampire Wars) style RPG. I have the skills to code a game but I am slogging through trying to get the design patterns right and make the product match what I see in my mind's eye.
Normally when building a website I like to 'think in code' and I find it faster for me to just change the code/HTML to tweak it in. This is probably because I am VERY comfortable in what I do and I know what to expect as I've done it over and over again. At this point with game development I find myself starting on paper again (like I used to with websites) and I wonder if this is just my lack of focus and intuition with game logic or if this is an appropriate way to roll my thoughts out in advance of coding.
I would appreciate some advice on how to correctly attack this problem and keep myself on-task. I am quickly learning how much differently a game engine is from a standard business website! Every time I do get something in place it just feels mooshy and incomplete and it's becoming darned frustrating.
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As an example, the battle engine that has been giving me so much issue recently takes a simple attack skill and then makes a random roll between -50% and +50% and then multiplies the original attack skill against that percent. The same thing is done with defense and then I mesh those to determine if any damage is done against the enemy health. I guess I should realize I am in over my head when I started asking myself if that is even the right way to do it, or if there even IS a 'right' way. One major fault I found with this is two characters around the same level can have several 'rolls' where the attack is -50% and the defense is +50% so I end up with some EXTREMELY long battle sequences where nobody does anything. FAIL
Maybe my post should have been asking for suggested links describing simple game logic.
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Thank you all in advance!