GSC-2011 entry: For reals this time

ID:113178
 
May 12 2011, 11:19 am (Edited on May 12 2011, 11:38 am)
Keywords: gsdc2010, gsdc2011
Well, slap my cheeks and call it the plot: turns out I didn't back up the folder that I was making that lovely sprawling universe game in, and lost my fancy-schmancy code related to squad-based combat in the process.

Therefore, I'm going to change my GSDC'2011 project into what it should have been in the first place. I'm going to complete my GSDC'2010 project. I even have some footage of that project:



If you want to play with it, it's right here. It's not yet a complete game, and that's what the GSDC-2011 will be about.

Basically, it's a digging game with a similar focus as Lode Wars: get minerals, bring it back to your base. But it's also a mecha vehicular combat game.

Goals are this:
  1. Round-based game that generates a random map with minerals and starting positions for each player "team."
  2. Players accrue credits from participation that enable full customization of their digging units. This will be saved to the host.
  3. There will be some NPC opposition to keep things interesting when there's no players around to play with. (This is something I felt Leftrey's original masterpiece Lode Wars could have used.)
  4. Fully enabled sound and help system.
Anticipated challenges:
  • Re familiarizing myself with BYOND.
  • My experience with GSDC'10 revealed that the mecha customization was a MASSIVE thing to bite off and chew, mostly in the GUI department. With any luck, I'll be able to preserve my earlier GUI work, but I may just decide to burn it down and do something simplified.
  • I actually have to finalize a fully playable game, which is something I've never been able to bring myself to do before. Hey, this is what Get Something Done is all about.
I spent a lot of my teen years playing Battletech MUX, and I'd like to try to capture some of that feeling. We'll see how that works out.
May 12 2011, 1:38 pm
When I first heard about your project, I thought it would be pretty interesting to play...

But the thought of having to explore and mine and perform all of these other actions at a pacing that may as well be turn based is kind of a turn off.
May 12 2011, 2:18 pm
The pacing can definately be tweaked.

Currently, I've got a mechanism in place where the mecha has a central energy pool it uses all its devices off of, and the drill rapidly saps that energy pool and leaves the mecha waiting there for it to recharge. That's a real drag on the action, I'm thinking of ditching the idea of a central energy pool entirely.

On top of that, this mecha you see in the example above is on wheels. Wheels are slow on rough. So that's why you see it takes so long for it to go from square to square. It also takes longer to travel diagonally than straight. I like that mechanic, but it should certainly be tweaked so as to not be boring. Really, the wheels are extremely fast on flat surfaces, so the pacing is probably fine there already, you just need to avoid taking wheels into rough.