View Full Version : 48H1: Deus X-COM
Gazza_N
07-01-2011, 08:35 PM
48H1: Deus X-COM.
A terribly-named prototype by Gazza_N that actually has nothing to do with Deus Ex other than being cyberpunk and an excuse for an awful pun.
Wot I wanna do:
This prototype aims to expand the turn-based BattleScape combat mode of X-COM by placing it in a cyberpunk setting. See it as X-Com, but set in the near-to-medium-future with radsauce futuretech and hackers.
By assigning units more specialised equipment and allowing for more varied interaction with enemy aliens and the environment, my hope is to increase the tactical depth of gameplay while remaining true to the core mechanics of the game.
Essential Features:
> Rudimentary equipment screen to customize soldiers. [done]
> Turn-based combat system allowing for multiple actions of different AP cost per turn. AP/TU system will be stripped down - no "this unit has 96.45 TU and will require 45.787 TU to Auto Fire". You'll see, it'll be better. I hope. <_< [done]
> Line-of-sight and Fog of War systems to hide aliens and terrain. [functionally done]
> Context-menu interface, as opposed to the wall o' buttons in the original game. [done]
> Customizable loadout of your units, bestowing different abilities to them in combat. [nowai]
> Some form of AI. [yeaaaah, well. It's there, but it's rudimentary to the extreme]
Wishlist
> Some form of procedural level generation or randomization to make sessions unpredictable.
> Art :P
Stuff:
Admission time: I've played around with some of these ideas before when building my aborted Arion's Rift prototypes (such as the context menus and stripped-down AP system), but given the differences between them and X-COM's mechanics, I'll be rewriting everything from scratch. The ideas won't be new, but the code will be. :P
Screenie! Shield your eyes!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/Gazza_N/screenshot100-1.jpg
Download!
You can download it here for a measly 2 MB or so! (https://sites.google.com/site/gazzagamesrepository/Home/DeusX-COM.zip?attredirects=0&d=1)
FuzzYspo0N
07-01-2011, 09:28 PM
Woo, sounds pretty cool. Im a fan of hackers, cyberpunk and x-com. Its a win-win-win.
I hope you simplify your context menu enough for anyone to pick up and play the game without a 75-page manual explaining the context menu to them ;) Otherwise I like the idea (Im a big fan of customisation, in Warhammer 40k I always just built space marine squads and gave them random other attachments to win the levels).
UntouchableOne
08-01-2011, 04:00 PM
I like :) I enjoy hacking type games although, I think aim for realistic type of challenges. Some previous hacking type games have "load dictionary, brute force attack password, and you're in". Maybe present a nice challenge that relates to hacking/cracking in the real world(although it is not as glamorous as in games and movies :P)
Gazza_N
09-01-2011, 10:27 AM
This thread hasn't seen a lot of input from me, but that's mainly because I've been spamming the Twittertwits with my inane updatery instead. Sorry, followers! <_<
So far I've implemented everything on my "essentials" list other than the equipment screen and squad member stats randomization (very important for XCOM!), which will be coming next. I then have to write some form of Readme, and I'll be pretty much ready to submit. Wheeee!
EDIT: Why no screenies? Because they will melt your eyes and destroy your sanity. I'd like to save that for when you play the game.
Gazza_N
09-01-2011, 01:38 PM
Well, due to personal commitments, I'm out of time for this weekend. You can download the... er... final build from the link in the first post. Bugs and all. I also didn't have time to implement the equipment screen, so loadouts will be randomized, for better or worse.
Finally, behold the play guide! This is included as a .txt in the ZIP, but it should give you a good idea of what to expect.
*********
<<Deus X-COM>>
by Gareth "Gazza_N" Wilcock <-- lolcensorship
>> Wassis?
A horrific prototype created for the Game.Dev 48 hour prototyping competition of January
2011 (find it at www.nag.co.za!). It aims to introduce cyberpunk elements and environmental interaction into the turn-
based tactics of X-COM.
>> HOW TO PLAY:
A step-by-step walkthough of how to do stuff:
> I see a screen with MSpaint dudes and squares on it. What the crap?
You're looking at an overhead view of the battlefield. Those armoured yellow dudes are your
soldiers - you'll be commanding them. Around each soldier is a white circle denoting how far
they can see. Enemy aliens and certain objects will only become visible when within the view
range of your units.
Dark grey tiles are impassable walls. Diagonal stripy tiles are partial cover - projectiles
will pass over them, but you can't move through them. Blue tiles are forcefields. You can
disable them by hacking terminals, discussed later.
You can scroll around the map by moving the mouse cursor to the edges of the screen. Fun!
> What next?
You'll notice that one of your soldiers has a yellow circle behind him. This means that he's
selected. You can select other soldiers in your squad by left clicking on them. You can also
cycle through your units by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.
At the bottom of the screen is your info panel. This displays information about your
currently selected soldier. First is their name, followed by a red bar denoting their
current health. Next is a blue bar. This displays how many Time Units are available to that
soldier. Time Units are spent to perform actions such as moving, hacking, or shooting aliens
in the face. Next are the soldier's attributes - Accuracy determines how likely the selected
soldier is to hit a target (different weapons have different accuracy requirements). Hacking
determines how likely the soldier is to succeed at hacking stuff.
Finally there's the End Turn button. DON'T CLICK THAT YET. We'll get to that later.
> Spiffy. Now how do I *DO STUFF*?
When you move your mouse cursor around, you'll notice a trail of coloured blobs leading from
your selected soldier to the mouse cursor. This shows the path that your soldier will move
if you left click. Note, however, that some blobs are green, and others are red. Moving a
single unit requires 1 TU. The green blobs denote how far along the path your soldier will
move given their available TUs. Left clicking will move the soldier the maximum they can go
along the displayed path. If you want to save TUs, just move the cursor until the path shows
as many blobs as the TUs you want to spend, and left click.
> So that's movement. What else can I do?
If you left click again on your selected soldier, a popup menu will appear. You can use this
menu to make your soldier crouch (which makes them more difficult to hit), or to use a
consumable. In this prototype, consumables are randomized and will consist either of
cloaking modules or stimpacks. Stimpacks will heal your soldier to maximum. Cloaking modules
will make the soldier invisible to enemies until the next turn. Note the TU cost of each
action to their right. You can crouch whenever you like (moving will cancel a crouch,
however), but using a consumable will remove it from your list, so be careful!
To close the menu without performing any actions, just right click anywhere.
> Help! I see aliens! THEY WANT MY BLOOD!
Shooty time! To attack an alien with your selected soldier, left click on the alien. A menu
will pop up listing that soldier's available weapons. Click on the weapon you want, and
another menu will appear displaying the attacks you can perform with the weapon and their TU
cost. Snap shots are generally fast but inaccurate, aimed shots cost more, but are far more
likely to hit. If you don't have enough TUs, the options will be greyed out.
Left click an attack to shoot the alien. You'll see an attack animation, and then you're
free to make your next move.
If you decide you want to change weapons, or choose not to attack at all, just right click
to close the open menus. Seeing a pattern here? :P
> I just uncovered some sort of badly-drawn computer... terminal... thing...
It's a computer terminal, amazingly. If your currently selected soldier has a HackComp
equipped, you can attempt to use it to either access the security camera network to uncover
hidden aliens in certain areas of the map, or to lower forcefield doors. Select a soldier
with a HackComp, then left click on the terminal to bring up your options. Be aware: You
only get one shot per terminal - succeed or fail, attempting a hack will lock that terminal
from use for the rest of the game.
> Okay, none of my soldiers have enough TUs to do anything else. What now?
Now you end your turn. You can do this by clicking the End Turn button at the bottom right
of the screen, or just hitting the Enter key. The aliens will make their moves, and then
it's your turn again.
Rinse and repeat until either all the aliens are dead and you win, or all your dudes die and
you lose. Easy!
> I'm tired of playing. I want out! :<
Press the esc key. After a quick confirmation dialogue, you're home free!
UntouchableOne
09-01-2011, 07:47 PM
Great work. I haven't played that much but I will now and give you some feedback. Seems like these weekend things bring out the best out of us.
WiledBill
09-01-2011, 07:52 PM
Very cool playground you have here. I wonder how a hex grid would work. My fingers itch to try something similar. Well done.
Just forwarding this on, speeder had this crash:
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event
for object Control:
Error in code at line 39:
if(!collision_line(activeUnit.x+16,activeUnit.y+16 ,testtarget.x+16,testtarget.y+16,Wall,false,true)) {
at position 48: Unknown variable x
BlackShipsFillt
10-01-2011, 08:01 AM
Hey well done. I like the theme a lot.
Despite the lack of complex realistic hackery I enjoyed hacking the alien's targeting and making 0's and 1's float over it's head. I was like "Mwuuuah, take that biaatch, NERDS RULE!" and then I shot the alien while it was hacked and it regained it's systems :P
This game is like: "Nerds go to War" or, in a theatrical trailer voice: "In a future where the wars are controlled by machines, whomever controls the machines wins". Take it further.
Also I wanted to hack the computer that is lying around and open a door or call down an airstrike or something.
Gazza_N
10-01-2011, 02:25 PM
Thanks for playing, guys! ^_^
The original idea for this game, although heavily inspired by X-COM, was to have a skyscraper filled with aliens, where you equip your team with different weapons and tools, and progress one randomly-generated floor at a time to discover nastier foes and new weapons. I also wanted the ability to raid alien corpses for stuff that can be researched for new gear (Fengol may recognise some of these ideas from convos we've had :P). Obviously this was a little ambitious for a 48 hour comp, so I pared it down a bit. At least I know that the context-menu system and core mechanics are workable now.
@edg3: Bleh. Buggy AI is buggy. Thanks for letting me know, but if I do continue, I'll be rewriting the AI from scratch. Hell, I'll basically be rewriting the GAME from scratch. :P
@blackships: A hacking minigame of some sort would be far cooler, yes. The current "dice-roll" system feels pretty sparse. Giving a player more options with terminals is also a great idea, especially given their one-shot nature. Hooray for interesting player choices!
BlackShipsFillt
10-01-2011, 02:33 PM
a skyscraper filled with aliens
I just heard: Skyline! (My favourite B movie in ages, it's like an alien invasion movie, except it isn't patriotic)
Fengol
10-01-2011, 03:16 PM
I really like the building idea for the boardgame! It makes the whole research idea a lot more "rough and ready" and makes sense how you slowly adopt it!
Also, got the same crash as stated above. What I did to replicate it was to make an alien shoot its teamie to death :P
Gazza_N
11-01-2011, 03:16 PM
Aaaaah, thanks. That makes a lot more sense. The disastrous rush-job I did of the AI unit selection didn't take into account death of aliens during their turn. List item gets deleted while the list is still being cycled through, with all the misery that implies. Whoops... <_<
herman.tulleken
11-01-2011, 04:27 PM
A nice game... I think after reading some of the comments, my playing was not as full as it should have been, probably because I read the instructions in great haste o_0 [I will play it again tonight to double check]. I enjoyed it overall, just thought that it takes a bit long to kill the damn aliens... they were also a bit static for my taste. One suggestion, if you take it further, is to let the damage be random, rather than a random hit / miss (so you always hit, but depending on the accuracy the damage is higher or lower, randomly altered, you know what I mean :) I recently fell in love with Attack of the Paper Zombies (http://attack-of-the-paper-zombies.en.softonic.com/), your game's spirit (not so much the gameplay) reminded me a lot of it; it's worth checking out if you have not seen it.
Gazza_N
11-01-2011, 07:03 PM
Thanks for your comments! I agree, this game needs more "Hidden Movement" screens. I loved to hate those in X-COM. :P
Of course the aliens are tough! This is X-COM, where aliens mock your puny bullets with their titanium skin! MWAHAHAHAHAHA! In seriousness, point agreed with. Sadly, balance was not something I could prioritize here.
The accuracy calcs are absolutely rudimentary and lame, of course. Randomizing the damage is a great idea, but I think that the accuracy thing helps too (come on - having aliens shoot each other by accident is hilarious when it isn't crashing the game). As with the hacking, I'd need to play around more to find a method of accuracy and damage calculation that at least feels fair (ideally I'd take such things as range into account), or gives the player a greater feeling of control.
Thanks for the link. I'm a-checkin' it out right now! :D
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