What will it be, a 2d art based game? If so, I would like to participate in spriting. ;)Same here, I need practice.
This should be a key principle in all game design, I believe as a gamer, and it should be present in this game in some way, shape or form
snip
Will the infection have a backstory? Is it a virus or something occult?
How about making the game randomize it whether the zombification is biological or occult. Then there could be some skills - like science and occult/sorcery - that are helpful with the right scenario and useless with the wrong one... and you can't know which one the game is about till after you've played a while. These skills could mainly be used for small bonus stuff, like, I don't know - developing immunisation to the infection with scientific skills or building anti-zombie amulets with occultism that grant defense bonus vs zeds in combat.
How bout... a choose your own zombie game?
Rate it with difficulty level... :P Add more abilities/perks to zombies, increase difficulty! Fun for the nub and veteran alike?!
Sounds exciting! I'm eager to see what you come up with, and maybe participate (though my flash-fu is my weakest fu).
What will it be, a 2d art based game? If so, I would like to participate in spriting. ;)
Same here, I need practice.
Piloting as a skill, you say?
One of the problems LCS has, I believe, is the lack of having a goal. There is the mammoth task of making America liberal of course, but it needs to be broken up into smaller tasks to make it easier for someone to get into.
For example, in this game, you maybe had to bomb a graveyard in the island or something via a sequence like the one in LCS. Do not take this idea to heart because it is clearly not thought out, but it's very important to think about this as a game developer in general.
The reason achievements and stuff have become so prevalent in modern video games is because they make the player feel like they must complete something. A fully open world would be terrible for this reason, and this is one of Dwarf Fortress's greatest downfalls in my opinion, to cite an example. I am able to understand it, but I just stop playing because I feel like I'm not really working towards something. This should be a key principle in all game design, I believe as a gamer, and it should be present in this game in some way, shape or form.
I think that, looking at the win conditions Jonathan has planned, that may not be a problem. A few of them are amenable to being solved piecemeal, especially founding a permanent settlement. Even flying to Madagascar and curing the zombie virus could work nicely like that; for the plane ending, clear out an airport, get a plane, repair it (assuming it is damaged, which, for the sake of the narrative, I think it should be), get enough fuel for a long flight, enough food and equipment to let you kick off life in Madagascar and getting a pilot or teaching someone.
As for curing the zombie virus, it could also be broken up into stages with some creativity. Maybe you need to capture zombies and experiment on them, get equipment from labs (possibly find the research from ground zero if it's a "science gone awry" start scenario), devote time to the research and contact immune survivors to get anecdotal evidence (or experiment on them for the "saved the world but at what cost" trope).
What type of gameplay will it have, by the way? I assume a top-down perspective, but will it be LCS-style turn-based, tactical turn-based (e.g. Fallout Tactics, Ogre Tactics, etc.), or real-time shooter?
Whouhou ! that's a lot of things ! But the beauty with work on a spreadsheet is that it is 10 times quicker to test something than when creating a video game.
Maybe some ideas coming for you Jonathan ! (Even if you don't look at the initial time, at least having an idea how things might have happened ...)
I like these ideas. Sometimes you need a witch or a priest... sometimes you need a scientist. What other kinds of zombie origin stories exist?
This is the #1 biggest design challenge I'm facing.
What other kinds of zombie origin stories exist?
QuoteThis is the #1 biggest design challenge I'm facing.
Personally, the "select your inputs and shake the box" abstraction of tactical gameplay only really stays fun for me if:
-There are updwards of 30 or 40 inputs to experiment with.
-There is a window of time where you can do something while the sim is running.
You could do a two-tiered development style, where in you focus on the strategic portion, get the abstraction working....and in stage two, you make the automated tactical portion optional, or allow the player to take control....and design the tactical module from that point on.
This approach would be more along the lines of your lead designer writing the GDD in Game Dev Story than the fully-featured eye candy of Gratuitous Space Battles. Fights would be short and the details left to the imagination so that I don't have to art up the building interiors or simulate spacial combat.
I like these ideas. Sometimes you need a witch or a priest... sometimes you need a scientist. What other kinds of zombie origin stories exist?All the resource you will ever need about zombies (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ZombieApocalypse)
I appreciate the desire to help, but since this is necessarily a for-profit game (I'm seeking sponsorship money and advertising revenue; I have no intention of charging for the game), I'm hesitant to outsource any art or other tasks. I need to make money so that I can pay rent and continue to be an independent game developer after this game is complete.Isn't there some way to "donate" graphics or something? So you could use them as your own?
I like these ideas. Sometimes you need a witch or a priest... sometimes you need a scientist. What other kinds of zombie origin stories exist?
I like these ideas. Sometimes you need a witch or a priest... sometimes you need a scientist. What other kinds of zombie origin stories exist?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28novel%29
Some kind of technological gizmo that makes people crazy, like the transmission in the Signal.Wow, I just googled it, and it looks like the theme is close to the Cell. Awesome! Thanks for telling me, I am SO gonna watch it :D.
- If they are magical/ highly mutated ones or infected by very special things, then the amount of destruction could be very different (each body part has its own life, then you have burn/dissolve everything ; or need to remove heart, severe head,...)Tactical dismemberment (c)? :D
Necromorph Zombie Outbreak?Quote- If they are magical/ highly mutated ones or infected by very special things, then the amount of destruction could be very different (each body part has its own life, then you have burn/dissolve everything ; or need to remove heart, severe head,...)Tactical dismemberment (c)? :D
Aww, Majestic took the types I wanted to say :POh god Stroggs...
Alien - Think Chryssalids! Or the spider-zombies from the book Breeding Ground. No saving these guys though...
Cyborg Zombies - Like the cybermen! Well, probably more just enough cybernetic bits to control them... but with wounded zombies being dragged back to the factory to be repaired and come back at you again. Obviously no infection mechanic here, other than corpses getting taken and converted.
Anyways, I'm sure no matter what you decide on it will be really cool, but I've always been a fan of having an element of "discovery" where it's "what will work THIS time!?" (see: Strange Adventures in Infinite Space)
If you do go with things like random zombie source/random skills important and stuff, there's a lot of enjoyable potential there.
If you do go with things like random zombie source/random skills important and stuff, there's a lot of enjoyable potential there.Genius, build your own zombies and random zombies option.
I am not interested in this game sorry.
I am not interested in this game sorry.
Guys, don't sweat it. My response is "I hope I can change your mind eventually." Regardless of the specifics who posted that, I'm sure there are a few very real people who have the same opinion. After all, I can easily see someone who is a fan of LCS, and has no interest in a Zombie game. They would prefer the same effort go into improving or remaking LCS, and they just don't want to be rude. That's okay. If you're in that boat, I hope I can change your mind eventually.
I am not interested in this game sorry.Wow. That's one intelligent spambot.
Guys, don't sweat it. My response is "I hope I can change your mind eventually." Regardless of the specifics who posted that, I'm sure there are a few very real people who have the same opinion. After all, I can easily see someone who is a fan of LCS, and has no interest in a Zombie game. They would prefer the same effort go into improving or remaking LCS, and they just don't want to be rude. That's okay. If you're in that boat, I hope I can change your mind eventually.
Really?
Look at his sig. Now look as his posts.
So, understand where your pos tthere went wrong? Good.
Guys, don't sweat it. My response is "I hope I can change your mind eventually." Regardless of the specifics who posted that, I'm sure there are a few very real people who have the same opinion. After all, I can easily see someone who is a fan of LCS, and has no interest in a Zombie game. They would prefer the same effort go into improving or remaking LCS, and they just don't want to be rude. That's okay. If you're in that boat, I hope I can change your mind eventually.
Really?
Look at his sig. Now look as his posts.
So, understand where your pos tthere went wrong? Good.
This seems like a rather rude way of phrasing your point,
Guys, don't sweat it. My response is "I hope I can change your mind eventually." Regardless of the specifics who posted that, I'm sure there are a few very real people who have the same opinion. After all, I can easily see someone who is a fan of LCS, and has no interest in a Zombie game. They would prefer the same effort go into improving or remaking LCS, and they just don't want to be rude. That's okay. If you're in that boat, I hope I can change your mind eventually.
Really?
Look at his sig. Now look as his posts.
So, understand where your pos tthere went wrong? Good.
This seems like a rather rude way of phrasing your point,
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude ^.^
Madagascar will NEVER be infected, Fniff. The moment a man in Brazil coughs, everything will be shut down.
I don't disagree with anything! I see this as bringing the LCS vibe to more mainstream games, which is a good thing in any case! 8)Originally, I was planning the second game mode to be used only to clear buildings, just as in LCS. However, my prototype supports a 1000x1000 map large enough to encompass the entire city, with truly insane numbers of zombies on the map at once, without taking an inordinate amount of memory.Have you added a graphical interface to it yet? If you haven't, you might be very disappointed at the game's performance afterwards.
If the game doesn't simulate other survivors, I can make it a continuous open world game, and have the strategic view interfaced through a cell phone or laptop. This strategic layer would require power to access (at least to charge the batteries), so you'd have value in setting up a safehouse with a generator. An open world game should also have the ability to jump around the map; this fast travel could come through use of cars. Car usage would depend on fuel. On the other hand, if I do want to do a lot of active humans in the city, this could slow down the game significantly for the type of large map needed to make it an open world game. It may be possible to abstract this convincingly in the background as you move around the city, but there are no guarantees.While I feel this has become a staple of game design that tried to incorporate too much--simply dividing the world into sections would be a much easier solutions. Yeah, walking from one open area to the same open area is unrealistic but it's acceptable. Changing the design of the map or whatever you are calling the world would be too much of a stretch and would ruin the openness I believe.
Oh, and do avoid dungeons! The last thing I want to see in an open world game is dungeons in which treasure shows up out of nowhere and the character is somehow destined to enter these seemingly worthless places.
My main concern with the game is its length. If you're going to do a flash game, I can imagine it ending up on Newgrounds and such websites where many people don't have huge attention spans. I used to play large-scale RPGs and similar games on NG a lot a while ago but I got fed up by the updates to Flash and what-not that deleted my savegames. So you shouldn't be aiming for something too similar to LCS in scope, but something that can be finished or played to an extent that satisfied the player in 2 hours TOPS. Things move fast on Newgrounds and you get the big hits of users when the game is first released and when it gets featured on the front page, which I trust it will! ;D
Many game divide the map up among areas based upon theme. For example, your average Zombie-Infested City would probably have a Downtown area, a University area, an Industrial area, and an Outskirts area.
As long as each area is decent, so as the player can avoid having to change areas every five seconds, it'll be fine.
Glad to hear you've got a prototype working! Let us know when you got something to test!
That said, also ask if a closed beta is possible. Your LCS regulars can recieve and review the game via email, and perhaps even hype the game a bit prior to release. Just make sure nobody runs off and uploads it on you (AKA, keep it to whom you can trust).
BTW, I don't think Sonny 2 was much of a zombie game since Sonny wasn't much of a zombie. What was the second most popular zombie flash game in your research?
As an instant reaction to finding this post, I'd second the mention of Rebuild as a good source of inspiration - for a light-weight game, I thought the system worked well, especially in the sense of actually feeling a sense of community in your reclaimed town. I just thought it lacked a bit of depth and life, which I found much more in LCS and am just finding in DF, which I've only just discovered - the combination of both would be awesome. The ideas of loose goals to frame open ended play is also a good one.
As for gameplay mechanics, have you ever played Gangsters and/or Gangsters II? Ultimately flawed to the point of teethgrinding, however I thought the strategic (turn-based) planning had lots of potential
Oh, and if there are vehicles to be had - please include the obligatory barricading-yourself-into-a-shopping-mall-with-trucks functionality. Ta.
I'm not sure if I'll support manually managing barricades at all. It's not that it's unfun to construct barricades -- I personally like strategy defense games, and enjoy pushing wrecked cars to block a store entrance in Rogue Survivor -- but it might be out of the game's scope, with barricades managed through the equivalent of the [A]ctivation screen in LCS. To be determined, though.
Dont bother with gangsters 2. There is no weekly orders screen and it was dumbed down to the point where it was nothing like the original, basically just an rts.It was dumbed down yes... but if it had a custom/random map mode, I'd have played it so much more...
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At the moment, I'm leaning toward doing world design similar to what you describe in your second post -- have an abstracted large city with hotspots you can send squads to, and make it possible for your squads to get intercepted and fight/flee on more generic maps as well. My understanding is that Fort Zombie does something similar, but I haven't played it. I'll check it out for sure. (I think I have played the other game you were talking about; it sounds like the Flash game Rebuild, which came out shortly before I started this project.)
Other than Zombies factions would be nice too
QuoteOther than Zombies factions would be nice too
I'd like to see rival Zombie factions, each Zombie faction aiming to destroy other Zombies rather than the Humans. Would be pretty interesting.
QuoteOther than Zombies factions would be nice too
I'd like to see rival Zombie factions, each Zombie faction aiming to destroy other Zombies rather than the Humans. Would be pretty interesting.
.... what?
Was this a joke? :D
Is that first page on the site country specific? Because I totally thought that it was actually blocked by the UAE, which there's a fair chance my internets go through right now.
Edit: Yeah, the site is awfully leany, I have to say. Especially, especially, especially the wikileaks page.
Jonathan, please check the video's comments. I based my comment on the Burgess model and most major British cities (not so much terraced housing in America I take it). I forgot to mention the irregular road patterns in my comment by the way.
One Safehouse
1. The primary purpose of having multiple safehouses in LCS is to shake the police off your trail and mitigate risk to low-heat Liberals. There may be Zombie attacks, but the heat mechanic won't work in such a way that the same safehouse management tactics would help anyway.
2. Having one safehouse will simplify the interface, especially personnel and inventory tracking, and it will focus your safehouse investments on depth (lots of improvements/upgrades in one place) rather than breadth (get the same few improvements/upgrades in lots of places).
3. Attacks on your safehouse will be much easier to balance if all your eggs are in one basket, instead of having arbitrarily strong/weak safehouses scattered about.
E.g.(click to show/hide)Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I don't see much point in an even larger character sheet. The only thing to display is one weapon, five attributes, skills, experience, and injuries. I have everything but the weapon displaying here and I still have massive white space. Worst case, I can just add another 50-100 pixels onto the bottom of it.
That's that one game where you have to run for Senator by killing the current Senator, and you get campaign donations based on what you do within the game...right?
(http://www.jonathansfox.com/zombies.png)
or gassing up a plane and flying to Madagascar.(http://www.jonathansfox.com/humans.png)
I wonder why all the fuss about Madagascar... I mean, Madagascar was infected in ALL my Pandemic 2 games... New Zealand was a bitch though.
thats why you go with something likle coughing or sneezing no one shuts down a nation for the cold or a bad cough
Soooo, progress?
A game needs an endgoal, but that endgoal require some objectives for you to find. Someone mentioned the Madagascar endgame, where you try to escape, but why are you looting random buildings (other than to survive)?
Yeah, just be able to see one or two tiles behind you.
It would be logical to be able to hear if something is right behind you, and it would help some with game balance.Yeah, just be able to see one or two tiles behind you.
Actually, in all the games I've seen, you can't see any tiles behind you. No early warning, just dying.
As a side note, because I'm planning to have mouse interaction with the HUD, and the mouse can easily leave the window and lose input in Flash, I don't want to tie facing to your mouse position. If you can't click "inventory" without your character looking at the south wall and getting helplessly chopped up by the zombies coming from the north, the game has a serious problem.
In UnReal World, for example, I can be standing next to my campfire, but need to actively think about how to move my character in order to step away from it and build something while still keeping the campfire in my field of view. It's very awkward and really doesn't serve a purpose most of the time. I actually think URW would be a better game without facing -- it would lose a fancy feature, but that fancy feature is rarely adding to the fun and constantly in the way.
All this mention of squads is surprising, although I'll admit I zoned out and didn't read the full thread. This doesn't mean we don't have the -option- to play as a single character right? I mean some of us are so socially incompetent that we like to imagine the lone-wolf situation.
That reply made me brimm up with nostalgia! My favourite game of all time (if you excuse the bugs and insane difficulty due to the unpredictability of the AI), Hidden & Dangerous 2, called these modes exactly the same!All this mention of squads is surprising, although I'll admit I zoned out and didn't read the full thread. This doesn't mean we don't have the -option- to play as a single character right? I mean some of us are so socially incompetent that we like to imagine the lone-wolf situation.
At first "lone wolf" is going to be the only way you're allowed to play -- I want to add support for gathering more people and acting in squads at some point in the future though.
I have an idea; along with the standard campaign mode (that's what it was called in that game), in H&D2 fashion, you should have a "lone wolf" mode in which perhaps you have to fight other survivors in boss-like battles and live on your own like some crazy bastard. Obviously, the difficulty would be higher but because you're just one poor sod among myriads of zombies and a few well-armed irritable survivors--their strength should be toneddowna bit as well sonotto make the gameimpossible.
Mind you, H&D2 was a tactical shooter in which you infiltrate enemy camps and stuff to steal plans (and kill numerous Nazis and Italians along the way) so don't take any inspiration from that, it's just an idea!
Completely unrelated, I'd recommend the book "The Road" for some inspiration as far the environment and stuff goes. It's post-apocalyptic, not zombie, but still very powerful and it's an easy read with rather simplistic language. Glad I picked it up. The focus is always on the environment--you don't even learn the protagonists' names! That's why I thinkit would be brilliant for you to check out, I'm sure others can vouch for me ifyou remain unconvinced. :)
Well, if you put out the call to Deon or other forum members for some simple bit art, I'm sure they'll oblige. If that doesn't intrude on your total ownership of the content.Sup!
I'm also not a fan of two-fisted shooting, at all, just throwing out options.
Hey Jonathon, I thought I'd just mention there's a typo in your Hawking quote, unless you're trying to be clever. :P
text like "Fists" and the numbers in the boxes should not be selectable (I think you convert them to symbols? Haven't used Flash in a while but I used to be decent with it).
The FPS is surprisingly low and I wouldn't expect the game to be doing many computations or anything! Even when moving, the game runs at a constant 8/9 FPS. I found this quite odd. With the flashlight on, it drops by 1 FPS. When switching tabs (Firefox), down to 4 or 5. Though it is almost always at 8 FPS.
I wonder, will the character sprite change depending on what you are holding? He seems to be holding a shotgun or rifle and a pistol if I'm not mistaken, but I had just my fists "equipped". His shirt is a bit small as well! Or he's just really fat and it doesn't cover his enormous belly though that doesn't seem to be the case. :P I hope you'll be able to play as a female character too.
As for the map generation, it needs a little bit of work. It seems that almost every building is a commieblock, really large and with a wide courtyard but billions of windows. Will you be able to go up and down the floors as well? Going down the road on the far left of the map makes all buildings seem enormous though, and with few places to turn.
By the way, could you program the arrow keys for movement as well? I'm not left-handed but it would be nice, I'm just naturally drawn to those keys I guess!
I wasn't originally planning to do this, but after playing a bit of DCSS, I may eventually want to make the character's appearance and equipment visibly change. We'll see!
First off: graphics are quite decent though the flashlight effect could be a bit sexier.
QuoteI wasn't originally planning to do this, but after playing a bit of DCSS, I may eventually want to make the character's appearance and equipment visibly change. We'll see!
Beg, borrow or steal what you can from DCSS. I think for 2D Roguelikes, it's a title that really has its shit together, by virtue of having moved on to all the sundry details that really fill out the game. The customizable and gear-reflecting paper dolls are just one of several things that its maturity as a game has allowed. Then again, it's also a coordinated group effort.
I was thinking maybe a circular effect with a better fade towards the edges. In other words, the fading effect should not align to the tiles but be sort of independent. It's only a minor thing but the flashlight does seem to make thing really "blocky" right now and I know we're used to ugly interfaces (CLI) but for a mainstream audience it is better to polish out these things. But don't focus on it unless you feel like procrastinating. :PFirst off: graphics are quite decent though the flashlight effect could be a bit sexier.Do you have any ideas of what would make the flashlight sexier?
So what about the other stuff I mentioned, like sleeping? As for houses, maybe they can have certain random attributes... like being full of corpses (is this possible in a zombie universe?) or full up with food in some basement. Or an underground shed in the garden, as if they knew what was going to happen (but didn't live to see their plans through!). How about that?
But what about the roller skates man? Will there be roller skates?
So, I guess this is critism, but dunno how excited I am about another game about zombies. I think if there is going to be a sort of successor to LCS I'd like to see it as a insurgency type game. The LCS model seems suited for a strategic game where the player controls a small force resisting against a much greater force. I think there is more gameplay and strategic possibility in a game that pits a player against something like an alien invasion or occupying Army or government, rather then just zombies. You'd have more types of enemies and more things to interact with and things to do in a terrorist cell/ war-type setting. With a zombie game, you just have zombies, which I'm not sure offers too much variety to keep it interesting in comparison to what you can present in a different setting.
I think the zombie genre has been done to death and I think it limits freedom of play a LCS-style strategy or simulation type game is capable of. I think the game in development now could be reworked as a sort of urban guerrila warfare game, with base and personnel management elements, equipment and things to be developed and a wide scope of goals and gameplay styles. I don't know how well these would work in a game about zombie survival. I's keep what has been worked on already as a "zombie apopcalypse mode" game option, or a result of player actions in the game (terrorists using a biological weapon) or something to that effect. A zombie strategy game alone, seems a little limited and boring to me.
The basic idea of an LCS successor is awesome, but why zombies?
I don't blame you for being unenthusiastic about zombies. There have been so many games and movies on the subject in the last five to ten years, we're in a kind of "zombie golden age" -- or a zombie ghetto if you're not so hot on the subject. There's still appetite for them though, even if it's not universal. You're right, the engine could be turned around to fit any number of themes, and I'm not planning to throw all the work I did on this game out once I've made a zombie game with it. Maybe another game that uses a similar engine would be appropriate. I certainly think a more direct LCS clone with a fancy interface and shiny graphics would be cool! That said, I'm pretty set on this theme for the game I'm making now.
I remember there used to be a game on BYOND where you were a drug dealer, interacted with the other gangs, bought and sold weapons/drugs/etc, and could even recruit random people into your gang. I'd like to see this system used to make a game like that in the future. Anyone remember what game that was?
Grammar nazi? I was not crossing things out for Grammar, I was crossing things out forToning down other survivors just because someone wants to play hermit seems like a buzz kill.Alright them Mr Grammar Nazi crossing eveything out, I got a bit confused with my use of language in my ecstasy of joy at hearing "lone wolf"! I was basically saying this: a mode in which you cannot have other survivors with you. But that would take a substantial chunk out of the game, not to mention it would make it devilishly difficult!
Kinda like finding out the dwarf mode gives you easier enemies if you happen to kill every one but one guy and try to maintain a fort that way.
Hence, the strength of the baddies would be toned down a tiny bit and all the survivors that previously existed in the world are now your enemies!
You are not a hermit, you're a paranoid maniac who shoots anyone who comes by their way!
Talking of dark road, a cool graphic element could be a broken street light that keeps buzzing on and off. That would be sort of creepy, brilliant for atmosphere. You should look at this (http://armorgames.com/play/12009/the-last-stand-union-city) game for a bit of atmosphere. Con Artist always pulled off the zombie atmosphere really well in his Flash games.
I don't really understand the technical details of how trace fire works in the way you explained them but I would recommend that the trace is created after you step on a tile should you be moving. If it's created when you are halfway between two tiles, it seems like you're moving faster than the speed of light.
The AI has a bit of a problem with this. I got stuck here for instance because I ran out of ammunition:Spoiler: "image" (click to show/hide)
Obviously, I'd have my fists or a knife (+1 if you include a katana, or even better, a chainsaw) to back me up in situations like this but the way they all gang up on you feels a little unfair.
Finally, a radical recommendation: please make weapons work with clips rather than reloading from the number of bullets you have. It feels unrealistic otherwise. No, you don't need to implement a way to prepare clips by filling all the ones you have with bullets. No need for realism on this scale, but I believe having clips rather than reloading bullets directly (in just one second?!) would be a lot better and make the game that much harder. But not too much. It would make you consider your limited resources, though.
Nevertheless, this was a great release that definitely reaffirmed my faith in your skills, when is the release date? :)
Very interesting so far.
But I'd really appreciate an ability to, y'know, choose which Zed I'm shooting at.
Now Curses gets to be an even slower forum!
I'll have to think about that. I'm planning to have interchangeable weapons using common ammo, so you can use any pistol ammunition in any pistol. It's not super realistic, but that abstraction streamlines things. The problem that poses is that if I store ammo as a number of clips, the same amount of ammo magically turns into more or less bullets depending on the capacity of the gun you're using.
Is it supposed to be that you can melee with space or bumping?
Given the chaotic nature of the movement it's difficult to melee by bumping.
Cataclysm is far from complete and new features are being added all the time, but I don't feel too threatened by it. Instead, I see its popularity, and some of its features, as an inspiration. I'm interested in other ideas people have about things one should be able to do in a post-apocalyptic survival game. What would you miss if I overlooked it? What would make a survival game feel awesome?
This has probably been answered before but I've forgotten by now. Will this game have LCS style management between raids?
I think the once-a-day raids should be in. With zombie games it's very important to have a sense of climax and downtime. That would work very well if every raid is it's own unique entity. You move into the zombie infested area and things are low key at much, the zombies are thinly spread and not very alert. But as you move towards your objective more zombies arrive and they become more aggressive. You get/do what you came for and then it's time to escape as the hordes arrive and overwhelm the location. Once your escape is complete you return to your hideout to lick your wounds and decide where to go next.
And now I'm wondering why I just came upon this. Awesome work, as always, Fox!
How is this going right now? Might be a bit early, but patience... smaytience?
How is this going right now? Might be a bit early, but patience... smaytience?
I think it's coming along well, but the later stages involve a lot of polishing and revising, so it's hard to say what the timeline will look like. I'll post when we have some stuff we're ready to show off. :)
How is this going right now? Might be a bit early, but patience... smaytience?
I think it's coming along well, but the later stages involve a lot of polishing and revising, so it's hard to say what the timeline will look like. I'll post when we have some stuff we're ready to show off. :)
What do you think of my idea for stealthing around the undead?
Did I miss something some pages back, or did you pick up some helpers to get you through your Zombie Coding Apocalypse?
Well that's cool. There've been various "absorb enemy shots" implementations before, so how exactly do your mechanics work? Are you invulnerable while charging, then vulnerable when you fire back?
Can you get conflicting charges of different weapons?
Can you "overcharge"?
You are always vulnerable, even when absorbing enemy shots. You extend a field around your ship to capture enemy attacks, but the individual bullets aren't absorbed when they enter the field -- they're absorbed when they leave it. Shots that enter the field and hit you will kill you. The field doesn't protect you at all, it rewards you for playing dangerously. And we keep the penalty for dying pretty light.
Some weapons are compatible with one another, others aren't. It depends on the type of bullet they use. Two guns that act different but both shoot spinning purple footballs are compatible, while a giant laser cannon and a rocket launcher are not.
So let me see if I have this. Say you're in the third screen shot, slurping up one side of the cyan double helix. However much you get, even if it's just "one helix," can then be launched straight back as a double helix. Yes? So the player might hang out to the side of the attack pattern for, say, three boss attacks, then smash the boss with more gunpower than the boss has in the first place.
In other words, how long until us gamers can do that?