View Full Version : 24: War Machine
Fengol
10-12-2009, 08:33 AM
I'm hoping I'm not setting myself too ambitious task but with nearly 2 months to develop and having an existing networking framework (thank you devLAN) to build on I should be ok if I iterate features.
War Machine is top down shooter with: TF2 style characters, base & unit building and pikman/overlord control of units so you have a dota/sacrifice game.
It MUST be multiplayer teams because I reckon that's where the fun will be in sharing responsibility for base building and attacking. I also want to use the networking framework to build an AI.
Rather than resource gathering, players acquire resource through renown like Dawn of War. This means there'll be Capture Points to take over and defend which is starting to give the game it's goal.
Previous Versions
Kill People! Edition
Build Something! Edition
Sole Survivor! Edition
Downloads
WarMachine08.rar (http://mailowl.co.za/Downloads/WarMachine08.rar) Victory! Edition
Instructions
W,A,S,D to move
Left-mouseclick to fire
Screenshot
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q312/Fengol/screenshot07.png
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q312/Fengol/screenshot08.png
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q312/Fengol/screenshot03.png
Changelog
* Health, dying, respawning
* Minor UI clean up
* Base building
* Health bars display for team mates
* Health bars display for team buildings
* Status update for kills and buildings destroyed
* Medic Bay healing
* Barricades
* Added Single Player
* Added Level 01 - Tutorial
* Story and Instruction dialogue
* Storyboard framework
* Control Point capture
* Update Level 01 to include Control Point capture tutorial
* Turrets
* Multiplayer victory conditions
* Building menus for Recruit Barracks
* Objectives and Control Points
ToDo
* Particle Manager
* Ammo depot
* Player items
* Squad Management
* Clean up menus
* Multiplayer co-op
BlackShipsFillt
10-12-2009, 08:58 AM
Is it going to have Soldat elements? (You mentioned it would be a top-down shooter) or is it based off Diablo style gameplay (like DOTA)?
Networking! Awesome (and I thought I was being ambitious)... Can't wait to play it
OOO Yea! That sounds awesome, can't wait to see how this pans out! /subscribe
Fengol
11-12-2009, 01:18 PM
Woohoo! Got the networking framework up and running with players able to join, walk around and quit. Gonna spend the weekend adding health, shooting and spawning and I'll post the first version on Monday!
AndrewJ
11-12-2009, 03:08 PM
Oi! Who said that you could dev it this quickly? :-)
Fengol
14-12-2009, 11:05 AM
First post updated with download and screenshot :)
Bonezmann
14-12-2009, 09:30 PM
The link isn't working, it redirects me to your blog...
Fengol
14-12-2009, 09:59 PM
sorry about that (case sensitivity); link fixed :D
Fengol
17-12-2009, 08:07 AM
I personally dislike it when people post screenshots of their "awesome game" without a link to download, but I was beavering away yesterday to get some RTS building implemented and I need a few more hours to get the building placement finished. Then I'll post an update I promise but I feel so proud of myself I wanted to upload a new screenshot which you can see on the first post.
Fengol
20-12-2009, 07:11 PM
Ok, the Kill People! edition is now available for download (See first post). There's the Red and Blue team and I try to keep them even when people join (although even as I say this I don't count people who are dead). When you die you have a 20 second respawn time.
At moment there's no health regen, this is where the RTS/building will come in and you can erect a medic tent.
At this stage it might be too early to be asking for input, but it's always welcome. It's been suggested I setup an Hamachi (https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/) VPN which I'll investigate.
Fengol
21-12-2009, 10:34 PM
Ok, so there's a pre-alpha of the Build Something! edition available on the first post. Pre-alpha means stuff is broken (like Medic Bays don't heal and the particle system is stuffed).
However, I wanted to share it with you cause YOU CAN BUILD! and I'm excited about implementing particle effects. In all honesty I'll probably remove them for now (hating myself all the way) so I can focus on gameplay and not graphics.
Input, especially for more than 2 player teams, is appreciated!
Nandrew
21-12-2009, 11:37 PM
I'll download now and see if I can root out any co-testers.
Fengol
22-12-2009, 08:59 PM
OK, Medic Bay and Barricades working. I wonder if this is project is worthwhile though considering the lack of response. Maybe I should just do a single player version or does this idea suck?
Nandrew
23-12-2009, 12:38 AM
Single player is waaaay easier to playtest.
Fengol
23-12-2009, 07:51 AM
Ok, I've added a single player component. If I don't get feedback now I don't know what to do. In the first mission all you have to do is kill the single creep at south-east of the map. I plan to build a couple of levels introducing the elements of the game. Multiplayer, of course, still works and has the full game functionality from the start.
Nandrew
23-12-2009, 02:52 PM
I'm getting an error when starting a multiplayer game, using default settings:
------------------
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object BuildList:
Error in code at line 55:
if (item3 != "none")
at position 6: Unknown variable item3
------------------
As it stands, I only have that and the single-player stage to work with (which isn't showing off the core build mechanics at all). You need to please stop panicking about the lack of feedback and expand on what a single player can do. I've yet to see this community intentionally ignore a game and your own anxiety is going to cripple this project for you.
Maybe I'm guilty of sitting back and giving it the old "well, somebody else will be in a position to test this" treatment, but right now my options are either organising a 4+ player LAN to test each of the 6-odd game builds as they come out (not something that I can JUST DO -- haven't been lanning much in general, actually), or run four different instances of GM on my own computer, completely murdering my paltry processor/memory in a test situation which probably won't yield any useful feedback for you.
I'll try to help you where I can, Fengol, but sometimes I just can't do anything. It has nothing to do with hating you or your game, but organising this stuff and getting a bunch of people who don't even have an interest in game dev to sit down and try this with me is really, really freaking difficult. My own brother still hasn't been convinced to bother with OOTEZ yet (it's a shame, he's missing out) -- how am I supposed to guarantee that I'll get him to lug his computer over and try a WIP from someone he doesn't even know?
I didn't play Gazza's original Overseer Assault during its development, I've only managed to play Ultimate Quest at rAge and D's place (although I'll probably look at becoming a CC member now that I have an HDD-equipped bawks) and there's some games on this forum that I've literally been unable to play at all because my computer simply isn't up to scratch. And if it's not on a computer, it's me sitting with a stupid non-compatible phone while dislekcia's Colgate thread is up and begging for playtesters.
I'm quite sure that every other community member here suffers from a combination of similar problems from time to time, and it's exasperating when people think that we "just don't care" about their games because we can't offer them anything meaningful.
The way I see it, you have two options:
(1) continue working on a multiplayer game, accept that feedback is going to be much thinner from us during development and just get on with it
(2) switch to single player, and I'll offer more frequent feedback if that's what you're looking for
I can understand lack of self-confidence from a newbie (and it's a trait that hopefully gets removed as soon as possible). But this angst is very ill-fitting for someone of your position.
Fengol
23-12-2009, 04:19 PM
Ok, ok! I apologise; maybe I got wrapped up in a little holiday blues and the fact that nearly every waking moment has been spent on this game. Reading my previous posts I was defintely getting a emo there and again, I'm sorry.
dislekcia
24-12-2009, 12:37 AM
You're always going to get very little feedback on a multiplayer game. I only ever really got feedback on Monochrome while it was being developed by setting it up at a LAN so that people could play. I sugget you do the same: Make it easy for other people to play the game, invite them over and see how it turns out.
Lure them with boardgames :)
Fengol
24-12-2009, 11:18 AM
Got tutorial working for Single Player. Still need to add Control Point capture but I think it's coming along nicely
Fengol
01-01-2010, 10:04 PM
Broken my mouse input handler to manage building menus so there's no download yet while I fix previously existing stuff but here's a screenshot with nearly all the buildings you can build
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q312/Fengol/screenshot06.png
Fengol
02-01-2010, 04:47 PM
New download on the first post dubbed Victory! Edition because it includes a proper multiplayer with win conditions (i.e. there's now a point to the game).
The turret is now working, along with Control Points and Objectives (which greatly increase your resource acquisition rate) and a rudimentary barracks (although the basic soldier you create doesn't have collision detection switched on and doesn't shoot anything or obey any orders).
You can also build everything although granted most of the buildings don't do anything.
There's still a lot to do, least of which get some proper levels for SP and MP working. I still have next week off before going back to work so I really have to mission if I want to get this finished in time. I don't want Dislekcia's comments being "over ambitious" in the review.
I think I'm going to have to buy and convert this game to GM8 for it's easier alpha channel management to do the scenery.
Fengol
02-01-2010, 08:02 PM
Just a small update available on the first post, I've moved to GM8 and put in the major scenery for the first MP map which creates bottlenecks and paths for players to take advantage of.
Please check it out!
Nandrew
03-01-2010, 04:05 PM
In SP, after dismissing first dialog box:
___________________________________________
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object reporter:
Error in code at line 55:
res = Manager.redresources;
^
at position 20: Unknown variable redresources
-------
Still, I gave the multiplayer a shot (although it's rather difficult to say much about various competitive aspects until I get access to other players), and it seems to be sizing up for potential fun. There are, however, a few confusing moments in various places: your mouse doesn't always seem to click properly when selecting a building, and it took me a while to figure out how to recruit soldiers (the barracks only offered me a semi-transparent black block and no indication that the soldiers are the same 500 resource cost as the building, which had me perplexed for some time).
Good luck over the next week, sir!
Fengol
03-01-2010, 06:23 PM
Damn it, normally I've very good doing a bug check before a release and you've caught me out twice. I've uploaded a fixed version with an image for recruiting driods from the barracks (along with their cost) and includes the start of level 02 for the SP campaign.
Nandrew
03-01-2010, 07:50 PM
Alright, cool. The SP campaign is still in the tutorial stage, I see (which I'd reckon is a good idea for this sort of game, even if it's multiplayer-based). The instructions are also easy to follow.
My impressions of the overall SP/MP dynamic, however limited my perspective may be:
- this game will be absolutely lovely if you keep it simple. Bear in mind that you may have all of the key elements you need in this version already (healing, turret, troopmaker, weapon/ammo store and simple blockers) -- I see a lot of empty blocks beneath the ones you have filled with the current options, and I wouldn't necessarily suggest filling them with more building types. If you want better troops and upgrades, you could do something even as fantastically simple as putting a "make your units better" button in the barracks and attaching a resource cost to it.
- this is going to sound strange, so hear me out. Stop the single player campaign at level 2 or whatever (however long you need to sufficiently orientate a player), then focus on just building a single scenario where players have all buildings and whatnot unlocked (as if in multiplayer) and providing some AI to throw folks against (it doesn't even have to be a particularly intelligent or complicated AI).
Although a full SP campaign is a nice touch, I requested SP addition because it would personally help me and others test the "feel" of your game and give you feedback earlier in the dev cycle. So if you get that scenario paired with just one or two more tuts (however many you find absolutely necessary), you'll have a really great foundation for people to test on and give you good feedback without the need to get a MP session together.
Fengol
04-01-2010, 05:32 PM
Just found out Jonathan Mak who made Everyday Shooter (http://store.steampowered.com/app/16300/) also made a game called gate 88 (http://www.queasygames.com/gate88/) which is very similar to what I want to do but with a space theme.
Busy checking out his game now
Fengol
13-12-2010, 07:07 AM
Have I by any chance given someone the code for this that they can give it back to me? I seem to have lost it :(
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