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Work in Progress / Scavenger - Space Battle/RPG

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baxslash
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 16:36 Edited at: 22nd Oct 2010 00:10


This game is only just started but I love these kind of games (ever since Elite!) so here's the basic plot for this one:

"Scavenger" is a salvage ship which roams around looking for wrecked ships/mineable asteroids and various other possible missions as part of the 'Story' mode which (like elite) will pop-up every now and then.

You can control the main ship (Scavenger) or one of the ships in the hangar (shuttle/scout/fighter/mining vessel etc) or even just one of the mounted turret-style guns on the main ship.

I have the main AI for friendly/enemy ship combat working and a demo to try out the fighters:
DEMO!! updated 14th October 2010!

All media are placeholders and there are no effects or scenery yet just some basic test stuff but feel free to try and anyone who wants to help or point me in the direction of some good (free) ship models please let me know! Oh, and you can't die in the demo...



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Neco
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 17:15
It seems you are able to "lose" the explosions from your ships if you bank hard enough.. maybe speeding up the animation so it is quicker, or taking a look at how its following the ship?

Or maybe my eyes are bugging out.

Looks great tho Definitely beyond my skill

baxslash
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 17:47 Edited at: 22nd Oct 2010 00:09
Quote: "It seems you are able to "lose" the explosions from your ships if you bank hard enough.. maybe speeding up the animation so it is quicker, or taking a look at how its following the ship?"

Not sure what you mean? The explosions stay where they are created...

Quote: "Looks great tho Definitely beyond my skill"

Thanks! Long way to go with this one though.

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Neco
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 17:57
To me, it seemed like if you were hit on a wing for instance, you might get an explosion there.. but if you started going into hard banks, etc.. the position of the explosion would slightly change?


I'll have to try it again later and see if I can recreate and get more detail about what I mean.

baxslash
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 18:03
Maybe it would help if I post some keys:
+/- ->Speed up/down
WASD ->turn/pitch
QE ->roll
return ->fire

I'm thinking maybe your ship isn't moving while you are being hit?

I put in some code to slow you to a stop if you don't hold +/- but I need to take that out (and put a HUD in of course!), sorry for the confusion!

Indicium
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 23:00
WOW! Amazing Ai! I think the FPS must be messed up somehow though... It reports between 2000-4000 on my laptop .

baxslash
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 23:39 Edited at: 13th Oct 2010 23:45
Quote: "WOW! Amazing Ai!"

Thanks, it's surprisingly simple though!

Quote: "I think the FPS must be messed up somehow though... It reports between 2000-4000 on my laptop ."

Well, I de-coupled the display loop ala KISTech's recent post and I'm counting the loops it does per second using IanM's 'ticker' commands so I'm about 99.99% sure it's accurate. I just double checked my results by un-coupling the display loop and I got a very similar result from my own counter to the "screen fps()" native DBP command so I guess you have a pretty nice laptop!!

EDIT: Re-coupled I'm getting well over 1000 loops per second most of the time... lovely!! Haven't even fully optimised it yet!!!

Indicium
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 23:48
oh! I do that with my games too I wasn't aware you were counting the game loops, i thought it was the result of screen fps() lol.

My laptop is very low end Which is why it was suprising.

Quote: "Thanks, it's surprisingly simple though!"

How did you achieve it then? xD

baxslash
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Posted: 13th Oct 2010 23:57
As a gesture of gratitude to the general community I want to share my AI code for the attack system

It's far from finished but I figure maybe it'll make sense to someone and help another project. It's purely a battle system and I am using a virtually exact version for 'friends' as the 'enemies'... anyway, here it is:


Currently everything is in collision group 2 for simplicity and I have a few arrays set up like this:


I'm updating bullets using this code:


Now there are all kinds of variables not explained and I'm using a float variable called "TM" for timer based movement so if anyone wants to use this code and needs help then let me know!

Indicium
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 00:49
Thanks alot man! It uses EZrotate, which I don't have unfortunately, but I could still learn from that bullet tracking code

Nice code, I hope one day I have something I can share with you.

baxslash
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 13:33 Edited at: 14th Oct 2010 13:44
Quote: "Thanks alot man! It uses EZrotate, which I don't have unfortunately, but I could still learn from that bullet tracking code"

I'm sure there are ways of writing your own "turn towards" code, I'd be surprised if it's not been done already! Search bar maybe?

Anyway I've been wrangling with the controls for flight/battle and wound up with something like the controls for "Freelancer"... I guess I just loved the controls on that game too much!! I got to a point where I was happy then I thought "Hey! this is familiar!"

Demo of new controls attached!
Mouse controls cursor position and firing (left click). Scroll wheel can control speed (or use +/-). You still use WASD/arrowkeys to move but I'll be playing with the keyboard controls so that they still work in a logical fashion without a mouse as an optional control method.

EDIT: Next I'm working on more AI scenarios such as patrols/escort missions/scouting missions etc but I think I may need to add my main ship "The Scavenger" so I can manage these AIs so I guess it's time to pick a ship model and start working out landing patterns etc! Phew, have I bitten off more than I can chew? Maybe but it's fun!!

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bergice
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 15:25
That was really freaking epic, but one suggestion, make the rotation follow the mouse instead.

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baxslash
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 15:30 Edited at: 14th Oct 2010 16:37
Quote: "That was really freaking epic, but one suggestion, make the rotation follow the mouse instead."

Thanks

I like the idea of having the movement follow the mouse as it would also clarify the different movement options. That way if someone started using the keys for movement the crosshairs could be guided by that instead... mmm...

TY for taking a look

EDIT: Just changed the movement as suggested and it's really great! Much more intuitive!! I'll update soon...

Neco
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 19:18
If you are mimicing the control scheme for Freelancer then you are well on the right track.

I was hardcore joystick before I played Freelancer, and a few other games that came much later (Space Force: Rogue Universe, and Dark Star One)

Freelancer in particular was a boon to mouse control for space combat. I don't think there had been anything like it at that point in time.

Quel
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 22:23
I was the only one at the end to stay alive, and there still were at least 10 enemies which i was lucky to finish off totally on my own... i was sad there was no congratulations text or at least 'something'... but otherwise it is really fun. You fill this up with some awesome models and a little more advanced effects, and there is an awesome full game.
baxslash
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Posted: 14th Oct 2010 22:27
Quote: "I was the only one at the end to stay alive, and there still were at least 10 enemies which i was lucky to finish off totally on my own... i was sad there was no congratulations text or at least 'something'... but otherwise it is really fun."

Ummm... well done?

Quote: "Oh, and you can't die in the demo..."


Quote: "You fill this up with some awesome models and a little more advanced effects, and there is an awesome full game."

Don't worry, I will!

Thanks for trying it!

bergice
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Posted: 15th Oct 2010 03:18
Quote: "Quote: "I was the only one at the end to stay alive, and there still were at least 10 enemies which i was lucky to finish off totally on my own... i was sad there was no congratulations text or at least 'something'... but otherwise it is really fun."
Ummm... well done?

Quote: "Oh, and you can't die in the demo..."
"


Epic


You should get some shooting sounds and looping spacecraft engine sounds, it will add so much to the game.

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baxslash
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Posted: 15th Oct 2010 10:37
Quote: "You should get some shooting sounds and looping spacecraft engine sounds, it will add so much to the game."

I will for sure, if only to improve the demo but there's so much to do... I'll find/make some cool sounds for the fighters soon. I'm adding in the Scavenger at the moment as well as the targeting system to lock onto targets (for missiles!)

Quel
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Posted: 15th Oct 2010 12:42
Would have been so epic if i haven't just dropped in to download and a say a few words.

Anyways, good to know you can't die, since the very first run of the demo for me was like this: an enemy flew towards me, shoots, explosions glued to me, everything other than my ship disappears.

Well, then i've mistaken this for dying... Was it some serious bug then.
baxslash
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Posted: 15th Oct 2010 12:49
Quote: "Anyways, good to know you can't die, since the very first run of the demo for me was like this: an enemy flew towards me, shoots, explosions glued to me, everything other than my ship disappears.

Well, then i've mistaken this for dying... Was it some serious bug then."

The explosions 'glued to you' were probably due to the fact your ship wasn't moving yet, if you had been moving the explosions would have been left behind. You have to use +/- or the mouse scroll button to move. Maybe I should start the demo with the ship moving...

Not a bug so much as an un-finished game. WIP stands for "Work In Progress"

Anyway, just finishing the targeting system off so I'll upload that once it's done and you can all see the model I've chosen for "The Scavenger"...

Quel
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Posted: 15th Oct 2010 20:20
How does being WIP exclude it from having bugs? It is WIP so i suspect by now you believe that it does at least something. And if even this something somehow malfunctions, that's a bug...

In my case after a second of seeing the far away battle, and not touching anything, everything goes dark, with explosions all over my ship. So you say this is how it was intended to be? It shouldn't, since for the second run, it was actually a playable game. So ergo the first time there was a bug you may go after, or else some time it will make funny things unexpectedly.

...but that's it for me being a guy who wanna help with observations if i only get mindless crap from all directions.
baxslash
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Posted: 15th Oct 2010 21:57
If by "Mindless crap" you mean a "possible explanation"... maybe you need to look at what's been said again and check whether or not you are being a little over-sensetive?

Quote: "How does being WIP exclude it from having bugs?"

It doesn't, and that was actually my point...

I do appreciate you trying the game and pointing bugs out and said as much!

Please don't bother posting if you are going to be upset by the jovial (if a little spikey) attitude on these forums, there's really no malice intended in any of the posts above as far as I can tell!

baxslash
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Posted: 21st Oct 2010 19:09 Edited at: 22nd Oct 2010 14:00
Here's a very early look at the 'on-foot' part of the game:

On-Foot DEMO! Updated 22nd October 2010!

EDIT: Keys are WASD move,Left/Right/mouse turn,1-4 change weapon, q no weapon,c crouch, shift walk...

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bergice
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Posted: 21st Oct 2010 23:01
Nice, but the camera control feels weird.

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baxslash
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Posted: 21st Oct 2010 23:57
Quote: "Nice, but the camera control feels weird."

In what way?

bergice
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2010 00:00
Flickery and hard to rotate.

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baxslash
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2010 00:05 Edited at: 22nd Oct 2010 00:05
Aah, using mouse? I've just tried it and yes. Mostly I've been using left/right keys for turning...

Just added a bot that follows you around lighting the dark corners



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bergice
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2010 00:52
Sweet, from now on i will be keeping my eye on this project.

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baxslash
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2010 14:01
Just updated the 'on-foot' demo link:
On-Foot DEMO!

Now includes the 'bot' mentioned above. Press 'F' to turn lights on and off.

bergice
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2010 14:20
Nice, how are you projecting the lights?

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baxslash
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Posted: 22nd Oct 2010 14:22
It's Evolved's flashlight shader. You can get it here: EVOLVED!

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