spell-testing for VG prototyping

[DracoDominus]

Hi all y'all C++'ers. I'm going to come right out and say that I don't know much of anything about programming. I'm a student of Video-Game Production, working outside of class-work to develop my first big project, and I need to ask for some assistance.

To be clear, this isn't really a job offer. I can't pay anyone, and it's really only a one-time thing, unless someone is feeling very charitable, but I'm in desperate need of a piece of programming. I can't move forward without it.

Clarifications out of the way, here's what's going on. I'm in the process of building character classes and assigning skills to them. As a long-time gamer, I understand that a major problem in this is properly balancing so that no one build is more or less powerful overall than any other. In order to do this, I need to be able to visualize the affects that a given ability is going to have, based on stats from both character and target. This can go from simple one-shot damage calculation, all the way to affecting the active decisions (movement, attacking, etc.) of the target itself.

The idea is simple: A grid-based (preferably hex) simulator with a 'hero' that will be casting a range of spells and abilities, a 'creature' that will be the target of these abilities, a grid-map to show the positions of both, and a read-out to tell me how the numbers turn up.

The idea is simple, but the programming is probably severely more complex. The hero and creature both need to take into account a range of statistics determining their health, damage potential, damage resistance, initiative (who moves first) and move speed (grid-squares/turn). There needs to be an option for multiple creatures on the board so that things like Area of Effect can be calculated. I need to be able to change the stats of the hero and creatures, and determine the creatures' aggression levels (Do they act aggressively when the hero is present, act aggressively only when attacked, flee when attacked, or flee when the hero is present).

The spells and abilities, of course, are the brunt of the issue. For the sake of simplifying things, rather than programming out every single possible ability I would need an interface for putting together the spell itself; Determining base damage (no negatives if you can manage), period of time over which the damage is dealt (same deal with the negatives), additional effects (push-back, drain health, AoE, and others) and Range (# of grid-units in which it can be cast). An ability to save created spells is also a major help.

I think that about covers things. I don't honestly expect anybody to jump on the project, but if anyone is looking for a practical project to build up some experience, and a bit of portfolio filler, I'd appreciate the assistance majorly. Heck, if you stay in contact and the game project takes off, I'll even throw some rewards in. That's a big if, of course, but if someone can help me like this, I'm more than happy to do what I can for them.

Thanks in advance for any time you might waste reading and/or working on this :/

[Zephilinox]

something like that would take either a high level graphics API and a week, or something a lower and a month, and that's a time frame for someone who has used those libs before and is pretty damn good at C++

basically, not going to happen, sorry, use some pen and paper and cardboard with hex grid felt tip drawings with some army men, should work fine.