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Author Topic: Alanor's Arena  (Read 7339 times)

Alanor

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Alanor's Arena
« on: April 22, 2002, 07:47:00 pm »

So... basicaly Demon has been yelling at me to get to work and produce something...

I figured that I would put something over here as a preliminary to actually making my own forum.. and web page... cuz all of that is a big pain.. and I only get to work on things rarely anyways.. dont want anyone to get bored...

I have started to get back into working on stuff, You guys saw a quick screen shot of my little space game as it sits...

Basicaly you can fly around and shoot at things..

There are those two other ships to shoot at.. but they dont do anything yet (like fight back!!!)

Right now i have been working on a few little things to move it toward game-hood..
1) Radar screen
( the radar screen will help you track enemy ships that are not on-screen.. it is also a prelude to enemy AI.. because enemy ships should only see whats on thier radar too!)

2) Sound system...
( I am using OpenAL, however there are some minor issues that i have to work out, for instance the 3D sound attenuates too fast (it gets quiet really fast as you move away from sound source))

3) Graphics system
( There are some things that I want to implement from the old SPACE JUNK game that we worked on back in highschool...  one of the biggest is chunks of ships blowing off..
I havent figured it out yet.. But when i figure more of the graphics stuff out.. I am sure tarn will help me with the actual break-chunk algorithm)

4) AI
( I have already started to do some modifications so that the enemys can actualy move their ships when they want to... they just dont have any wants yet!!)  When Radar is done The will be able to make decisions about who go after and when to shoot...


Thats about it...
Feel free to add any comments and I will try to respond in kind...
If things really get going at any rate.. then I will actually start my own Projects forum... and maybe even put up a web page..

Here is where it becomes up to you! :-)

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Alanor
Blood Priest of Armok

Toady One

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2002, 11:38:00 pm »

He he he.  There is nothing like burning chunks.  That was in the last incarnation of the game (the old ones are all pretty much unsalvageable as running programs)...  the names have gone something like:

Inertia -> Space Junk -> Space Reich 3000

What are you going to call the game?  I can't stress how important a good name is, especially considering the names of the predecessors :)

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Demon

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2002, 04:16:00 am »

You dont need to worry about that extreme sound cutoff...  Theres (almost?) nothing to vbrate and thus produce sound in space.  The beam weapons might make matter resonate and hace the same sort of effect...  But the near sound fading isnt a problem (I think).

Can you land on whatever (planets, space statons, huge ships?) and buy stuff?  Are there enormous captal ships with mutiple turrets on them?

What kind of variables are used for ships right now?

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spelguru

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2002, 06:15:00 am »

And here comes spelguru to corrupt yet another thread. MHUAHAHA!!!   :D  I would love a spacegame but shouldnīt you at least throw out some new versions of Armok first?
Because between a rpg and a spaceshooter i would prefer rpg. But, itīs just my opinion.
And my friends... and their friends... and their friends and etc.
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Alanor

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2002, 06:58:00 am »

well first...
Tarn is working on Armok... and its SOOOOO complicated.. I really cant do much to help him with that (not to mension he is like 3000 miles away!!! (me in New Hampshire... he is in California!! about as far as you can get away hehe)

In any case... Tarn is working hard on Armok.. and I am going to be working on this space game for a while.

To Demon:

Wow... you know... pretty much all those ideas that you mensioned.. were PLANNED for the origional games (that Tarn mensioned)

(also note.. that those games were made back in our highschool days hehe :-) and Tarn was around here... we lived like 15 minutes apart
and worked on stuff like every weekend... though Tarn did all the coding for those too.. hehe)


Currently there are very few things developed
in terms of the complex stuff you mensioned.. but we can always hope down the road.  I certainly hope to have big ships and all sorts of fun stuff for battle :-)

in terms of sound.. I know that in space sound doesnt carry much
BUT
sound adds an awesome effect to the game...
before i got sound working i was getting really bored with it (i made a little asteroids game first) and without sound.. it was just silly..
now I have sound 55% working..
I have put it on the back burner right now.. while i work on radar and such...
but it will ahve to be fixed before i make a release i think..

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Alanor
Blood Priest of Armok

Toady One

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2002, 07:16:00 am »

SR3000 actually had the big ships with turrets -- but that's 1/2 of why it got scuttled in the end...  we had a giant ship editor that was just way too complicated for the project (you actually did all of the placing of various tubes -- and little people were going to walk around on the ship as combat raged on -- the only thing they Actually did was sit on the ship and wait for holes to get punched in the outer hull, so that they could be sucked outside and see if they decompress before they get shot or run over).

The main reason it got scuttled was because of some bizarre Direct X/Windows problem that I couldn't figure out back in high school, because I hated Windows too much to think about it :)

In any case, Alanor is doing space stuff now, and I'm working on Armok -- this doesn't represent any kind of change for those that are worried about the focus of Bay 12.  It simply means that we have more than one computer now, and I'm not monopolizing it :)

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Alanor

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2002, 07:20:00 am »

See what i mean?

I put some info up.. and people really arnt interested!!!

well.. maybe if i had a demo up....


I got some basic functions like..
basic radar up and running,
I also started into enemy AI a bit..
They can usually kill you if you dont move..
hehe
if you move.. all bets are off..
It will take some time working on AI to improve things

First I need to define things for the AI like:

my current vector (speed and direction)
target current vector (speed and direction)
and
then i can start to write some algorithms based on intercepting the enemy path and such
factors like
maximum acceleration, thrust..
mass of ship, turning speed
should all be taken into account..
but all of this is VERY hard to tackle


I just got a system working in which it is possible to alter the pictures of the ships real time.. this means that we might be able to have BURNING CHUNKS back!!

its very satisfying to blast an enemy ship and see thier wing fly off
hehe
but thats all down the road a bit
hehe

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Alanor
Blood Priest of Armok

ThreeToe

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2002, 02:58:00 pm »

I think the hardest design problem to solve with Space Junk type games is that when you get going really fast you can't see the other ships until they are right ontop of you.  Even the radar doesnt help because who wants to stare at a bunch of red dots instead of actual ships?  I say ether make everybody really slow or put that "Enemy View" window so you can see the bad guy youre locked onto.
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Alanor

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2002, 11:34:00 am »

That certainly sounds resonable 3T,
I dont know how to adjust things so that it works better, I also remeber having the same problem back with space Junk/ SR3000...

I DO have zooming in this version.. so its a bit better.. you can zoom way out and see a bit larger area of the battle field...
That does help some...

I will also put in an enemy view.. That sounds like a good idea to me.. I will make it a part of the radar HUD...
I dont knwo if i will do it YET.. but it will definetly go on the list of things to do.

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Alanor
Blood Priest of Armok

Alanor

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2002, 12:33:00 am »

Hey Everyone...

Here is a little picture of the game in works..
I have done a lot of work on it in the past week.. though by no means is it ready for anything...

I have a picture showing the midst of a 100 ship battle..
100 ships is really too many.. it makes things really slow.. but I may be able to optimize that as time goes on..
Its not the grahics in this case.. its the actual calculations and comparing everything
100 ships x 5 bullets = 500bullets x100 ships comparasons.. = 50000 comparasons/tick
ouch!!
(and thats only in 1 axis!)

in any case This will improve as I put some speed enhancemetns in for such calculations..

here is the screen shot: http://www.bay12games.com/alan/spacetest.jpg

take a look

I implemented the radar viewer that 3Toe asked for.. and you can also see that the view is zoomed way out to see more of the action in this case...

any comments/questions/thoughs drop me a note!

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Alanor
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ThreeToe

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2002, 01:35:00 pm »

You also need a missle view that follows a missle in a close up view until it hits it's target- then the view stays on that spot as you watch the chunks fly away.
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Alanor

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2002, 05:24:00 pm »

hehe
when we have missiles...
that will definetly be a possibility...
part of that would be setting up "game modes"
like.. for the opening screen,
for ship-selection...
play (or missile view!)
end game
high score list...

those are some examples of the game modes that i will probibly have as things move along..
i will need to put in most of those before i even get to release stage..
so when missiles come about...
missile view should be relatively easy

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Alanor
Blood Priest of Armok

spelguru

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2002, 11:02:00 am »

Is there a place where u can download this yet???
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ThreeToe

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2002, 01:33:00 pm »

Unlike Toady1,
Alanor is too professional to release an unfinished version.
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DirtyLimey

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Re: Alanor's Arena
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2002, 11:24:00 pm »

As an advocate for the potato people, I think this wonderful example of random violence should include more potato people. Or is it that you're just afraid of the potato people living under your bed? Do you have something against the potato people that you REFUSE to include them in your game? If this is true, as many of my people fear, then I will be forced to visit you on my flying carpet for a chat with you and Mr. Flibble.
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irty Limey
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