Sorry your browser is not supported!

So, I've been doing some thinking about what I plan to buy once I scrape together the cash, and since that should be soon, I thought I should ask some of the very respectable individuals here at the forums for some customer testimonials and some advice on what they'd do.

What I am using currently for my projects:

TGC:
Dark Basic Professional. That's it

Third Party:
MatrixUtils (of course)
MakeHuman (Not quite using it yet, working on implementing it once I have some other stuff together)
Wings 3d (Modeller/model converter, made use of it for some of my tests, just conversion so far)
Art Of Illusion (3d Modeller/Pretty textures )
FxGen (TGA Texture Generation. Pretty solid)
Audacity (Sound Ed)
Irfanview (Graphics Ed/Near-Universal conversions )

What I'm thinking about doing with it:

I'm looking to make a full-fledged RPG with old-fashioned looking mechanics: a roguelike dungeon explorer (grid-based), a modified battle system that's mostly similar to early Final Fantasy turn-based combat, and somewhat intense player/item customization systems (including player appearance)

What I'm thinking about getting:


Dark Games Studio Bonanza Pack, which contains:
-----DarkBASIC Professional
-----Dark Lights
-----Dark AI
-----Dark Physics
-----DarkBASIC Electronic
-----Dark Shader
-----eXtends
-----Treemagik G3
-----Plant Life
-----DarkMATTER 1
-----DarkVOICES
-----DarkGAME Studio
-----FPS Creator FREE

Considerations/Reasoning:

I'm still kinda new. How good is DarkSOURCE?

I have next to no modelling skills and I want to create a variety of monsters. For this reason, I've considered also getting ahold of some of the modelling software they offer. Any recommendations?

Since I want this to be pretty strong on the graphics end, I'm also considering Enhanced Animations and MAYBE Character Shop.

Since I want to have player and item customizations, I've determined that Texture Max is a must.

How much would you guys recommend DarkDATA for RPG applications? I was thinking this is a definite consideration but I'm not sure.

Sorry unable to reply to everything above but Yes get the bonanza deal and Dark Source I have found to be priceless! some of the code in there is eye watering haha

Dark Data is great, but if you have STYX, which I also recommend strongly you can use XML and INI files!

XML files will be highly portable whereas [Although I have DarkData] Dark Data files are hot very portable... say you wanted to move the users inventory over to a web server for interaction in future etc...

Immediately I can see other users saying WOAH! Slow Down There! an RPG etc etc etc...

I will reduce my message to simply, create smaller sections of the RPG, ie... battle system, environment management and character controller, ... physics system, inventory system... etc and then when you have done them all individually, you are ready to piece them together into an RPG

I have been using DBP since 2010 December time and can say I am just about ready to begin on such a task, but it all comes down to your experiences in programming I guess

Good Luck!

I have many of the paid plugins, so ask away!

Absolutely <3 Wings3D. I suggest you review the following;

Indigo - DBPro IDE
Advanced2D - DBPro DLL - Awesome 2D commands, dots, lines etc
D3DFunc - DBPro DLL - Awesome 3D commands, dots lines etc
XB360cl_DBPro - DBPro Dll - Xbox 360 controller
Aseprite - 2D Sprite creator/editor

@MrValentine: That's exactly where I am, building piece by piece. I have a battle camera, a map screen/map system, a roguelike dungeon (WIP), my meters system you've seen. I don't even know how/if I plan to put them together, but yeah.

@BFM: Thanks man. You a modeler?

Yah, I'm kinda the Jack of all trades. Just wish I could focus more on my coding to get something playable out. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Yeah. It helps to have a good team, though. I've considered getting a little something together but I'm unsure of what I want to do at the moment. You up to anything in particular?

My suite looks something like this:

Dark Game Studio Bonanza
MapScape - I actually prefer it to Cartography Shop (free)
Dark GDK.NET
Dark Data - useful for setting up databases in DBP. With DGDK.NET I use XML instead. Only thing with Dark Data is that without a proper explanation/examples, it can get confusing.
MatrixUtils Free
Cloggy's D3D DLL Free
Sparky's Collision 2.0 Free
EVOLVED's Shaders. Free

Hexagon 3D 2.5 - 3D Modelling/UV Mapping (which is now free)
Milkshape 3D - Animation/Exporting ready for game. Looks unimpressive, but it's actually a highly useful tool, especially as it handles a huge number of file formats.
Paint.NET/GIMP - 2D/Texturing (Free)
Incomputech - Music Resource (Free)
CG Textures - texture resource (Free)
Carrara 5 Pro - Renders, I am looking to upgrade to 8. I would recommend Blender or TrueSpace 7 as free alternatives. If you can get your head around Blender, it'll be a useful free alternative to Milkshape too.

Hope this helps. I am a cheapskate, so hopefully it won't be too costly for you.