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"Free State" game would simulate 2050 New Hampshire

Started by Dave Ridley, July 30, 2012, 07:38 AM NHFT

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Dave Ridley

I'm completely pumped about this flyable sketch....    or is there a better word for it? either way you're already just a few steps away from having what's probably the only game of its kind.  Errol do you mind if I publicize it on my channel and you too?   Let me know what URL you would like me to mention when I mention you.

Errol

Sure

My URL is www.errolpelchat.com

I'm still adding some featurs to the sketch. I will let you know when it gets uploaded.

Would you like it so that the drones can collide and obliterate each other? Friendly fire? Should the drones take damage, or just die when shot.

Dave Ridley

No friendly fire; doesn't work well in 2d games; there's just not enough space.   Definitely dont want collisions between  friendlies either so I guess we should not have any collisions.  The outline

http://nhunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=24297.msg344291#msg344291

gives a sense of how I think "getting hit" should probably work so just probably just refer to that for a direction. 

Alex Libman

#63
This is awesome!  [FB]

Video games are a great way to explain economic systems and social ideas without putting people to sleep.

Dave Ridley

thanks alex! It may be a while before the game is complex enough to feature a political philosophy but i think it will be fun and unique from the moment it reaches prototype status.  Look forward to battle with you :) 

Errol

Update:

The sketch has evolved a bit.

http://www.errolpelchat.com/DroneGame/drone4.html

The drones have a slower top speed and only move half as fast backwards.

Divided drones into two teams (Red Versus Blue).

Still no shooting yet.

The AI so far is just the nonhuman player drones (bots) behaving randomly.

Controls are the same.

In the above example, the blue drone is the human player.

Dave Ridley

Totally awesome progress.   if you were to just have these a.i. shoot randomly and allow humans to shoot out the side and join either team we'd have a fun game right there.  I noticed that sometimes the controls seem to freeze when i hit buttons that are not yet active.  i guess i am pretending like the t and y key are firing keys.   i dont mind that since i recognize it would affect both teams.  but it could suppress player turnout and thus revenue.

just narrated a video about this and did some screen caps.  your website has its own poor man's jingle now : )

Dave Ridley

Does anyone have any suggestion regarding how chat or some sort of communication between players should be made available between now and whenever we integrate it into the game?  For the moment i guess a degree of communication between players could happen on this thread. 

Errol

The difficulty with the controls should be easy enough to solve. It is just a consequence of the how it captures the key events. On the to do list.

Candidate to do list:
1. Make controls more robust.
2. Shooting capability
3. Drones explode after 10 hits.
4. Score keeping.
5. Report when a team wins.
6. Add introductory screen/login/options menu.
7. Add multi-player functionality.
8. Improve AI.
9. Add Chat.
10. Improve graphics.
11. Add sound.
12. Add full screen capability.

Have I forgotten anything?

The improved graphics and sound don't have to wait for me to get around to it. If someone else wants to take on one or both of these tasks that could be helpful.

Dave Ridley

my narration for the vid is already like 12 minutes long but I should probably put in there the fact that you're requesting help on these.  I would agree that all your priorities listed are probably the best top priorities unless I'm missing something. At this point i'd say the lowest of the priorities you listed would be sound and graphics. 

Oh also , if losing a drone must mean having it explode that's acceptable, but ideally:  if we can set it up to be more like "deactivating" that would be better.  A nice kids game I tried once ... featured this less violent type of victory.   We could imagine or eventually state that the bolts it fires are EMP bursts or something else non lethal.   There could be real world political implications to our vision of the "free state" being a violent shootout to the same extent most games are.

Errol

Update:

http://www.errolpelchat.com/DroneGame/drone4.html



I've got 1,2 and 4 on the list.
This time you have bot teammates. Each is a team of 25.
The scoring system just counts hits at this point.
The player drone is light blue, and team mates are dark blue.
Enemy drones are red.

How would the deactivating work? Would a deactivated drone just stop and remain on the field till the end of the game, or would it reactivate at some point (a sort of player re-spawn)? Not blowing up the drones actually gives me a few ideas about being able to capture them and adding them to your team (something to think about later perhaps).

Errol

Forgot to mention that the spacebar is for shooting.

Dave Ridley

#72
Fun already!   I've already developed a flying maneuver lol....   In honor of myself i'll call it the Dada Dance.  I circle a static target (in this case a tree) and fly at just the right speed to do a tight circle around it and unleash constant fire on the branches heh heh.

  Hmmm...what if a deactivated drone becomes a sort of invulnerable but harmless eject pod or a walking dude who has to hoof it back to the nearest friendly base or friendly drone?  when he docks with it he gets his drone back and maybe spawns at the nearest friendly base or something.   I've seen this hoofing-it-home approach in other games; and I like the way it keeps a player in the game after dying but makes them ineffective for a bit.  It also adds importance to base location and provides weak combat players something to do... picking up friendlies.   Probably the average period where a player should find themselves on the ground hoofing it home... should be about a minute.  Any better ideas along these lines?

At this point I think the top forward speed is too hi, probably should be cut in half.  Also can we make the blue shots blue and the red shots red?




Dave Ridley

Also if we're going to cut the current top forward speed in half we should probably cut the current top backward speed in half.
we will run into players who don't like the slo craft speed but we'll be able to address that with premium items like boosters or light craft someday.

Dave Ridley

This post is to be edited later and serve as the "timeless" post because it is contantly updated with the latest versions of the game, news summary, etc.