GvB

[Rick]

Hey YouGroove. Thanks for the ideas. Just want to be clear that this isn't anything like chess. I know the board really throws that off though.

 

I'm torn on if I should add trees and such because it might be looked at then as a poor RTS of sorts which I don't want it to be looked that way. I really want it to play like a board game where you imagine yourself behind the board giving orders to your live units.

 

Some of this loosely revolves around my time in World of Warcraft. One lesson I learned from playing that game in PvP is that obstacles suck. In that game a person can run around a pillar to stale a match. I wasn't a fan of that at all and so adding things like rocks and trees could start to go down the path of that sort of tactic which I don't want.

 

I want a (pardon my language) "balls out" attack/counter attack style of gameplay.

 

 

Given that, the singleplayer options seem limiting. Most likely just 1 on 1 matches vs the computer. The multiplayer setting is where I think this game excels. I'm picturing a never ending official ladder tournament. Also letting people make their own tournaments but giving in-game support for brackets and such.

 

I want games to be pretty fast pace and intense. I want the player to be tired (mentally and physically) after playing a 3-5 min match because of all the thinking and moving they had to do. The most enjoyment I get out of games is when I have those short bursts of intense gameplay.

[YouGroove]

So it won't be turn based ?

Strange , cau perhaps the players able to give the more clicks and orders, the more faster could win due to be lot more fast than the other ?

Another way could be a limited time to choose a move and action like some seconds !

Be sure to put real strategy on it, like some units really string in fornt of others , like scissor/paper/rock system ?

 

For the poor RTS part, be rassured, they are some great very cheap but really addictive games with their own ideas.

If made well, that sort of tactic /RPG chessboard it can be agreat success on Apple Store.

I didn't thaught of RTS , but lot more in tersm of turn based with time limit , and tactucs like in "Final Fantasy tactics" or Xcom old game or any other style.

 

would you have some tips on Lua to select a unit and make it move to a squarre by mouse ?

[Rick]

Nope, it's not turned based. Every action you can do has a cooldown to it though. The cooldown is in seconds and you can't use that action until the cooldown is up. You can move as far as you want but the cooldown for movement is 1 second per tile you move so even if you move all the way to the other side of the board on the first move you do you'll be sitting there for some time getting a beating most likely for a good 8 some seconds before you can move around again.

 

The strategy is very much moving around and doing the right abilities at the right time to avoid being stuck with a cooldown on an action.

 

Tips for what you are asking would be:

 

1) Get pathfinding working in Lua. I'm using http://luastar.codeplex.com/

[YouGroove]

Thanks,

Is the bug you mentionned on LuaStar fixed ?

In fact i wanted to talk the unit selection and grid selection in 3D by mouse , have you one squarre model for each squarre of the board and collision detection by mouse ?

I think it's general 3D routine we can found on the Web

[Rick]

He did fix the bugs so that was nice.

 

The board is 1 solid geometry. I applied the square texture to it and created it in 3D World Studio. Then in code I logically split it out into a grid. I made it easier by placing the top left corner of the board at 0,0,0. Then each square is about 1x1 units so I broke it out that way. Then when you click the board I get the x, y, z but ignore the y value. At this point the x, z is just like a 2D game with a grid. Given the x,z mouse click you can divide each by the tile_width (1 in my case) and just take the integer value of that division to get the row, col of what square was clicked.

[YouGroove]

Thanks,

I think it will be the way if i would plan some 3D Tile based game( dungeon or other style).

In fact you choose a squarre for choosing a character or do you use mouse picking on the character model ?

[Rick]

I use mouse picking on the character. I then take the characters x & z location to determine what tile it's on like the way I described above. Then you select the move ability, then you select a tile to move to. I then get that tile row/col the same way. Once I have the starting row/col and destination row/col I do the pathfinding between them which gives me a list of row/col to move to get to the destination. I then take the center points of each square in my path list and I interpolate about 20 points between square to square, then I do PositionEntity() to each point at a given interval to move.

 

I was using MoveEntity to move from point to point and EntityDistance to see if I was close to a center point in which I'd have to see if I have to point to a new tile but it was giving me issues with missing the EntityDistance check and just kept going in the same direction. Mostly this would happen the fps dropped a little while it was doing it's check. I just didn't ever want that possibility to happen so I stuck with PositionEntity and making filling in my own points between squares.

[VicToMeyeZR]

Great work Rick.. I am excited to see people in this community getting things done.

[Rick]

Thanks VicToMeyeZR. August was really busy so wasn't able to work on this that much, but things are slowing down now and so I'm able to dedicate a decent amount of time on this again. I'm happy that after a couple weeks I can actually get back into the code and follow it again and still feel excited about the game. Normally after not looking at the code for some time I would lose motivation but this game seems to have broken that trend so I'm pumped about that

[AnniXa]

Wow Rick. That's really cool. And you have a really nice "video-voice" to

 

yes, the voice is sexy.

 

 

reminds me of Battle Chess... with a few missing pieces...

 

looking good so far...

 

if this is in lua this may be exactly what Josh is looking for...

 

--Mike

 

was "battle chess" this old dos game with animated figures? that was so cool!

 

 

Nope, it's not turned based. Every action you can do has a cooldown to it though. The cooldown is in seconds and you can't use that action until the cooldown is up. You can move as far as you want but the cooldown for movement is 1 second per tile you move so even if you move all the way to the other side of the board on the first move you do you'll be sitting there for some time getting a beating most likely for a good 8 some seconds before you can move around again.

 

The strategy is very much moving around and doing the right abilities at the right time to avoid being stuck with a cooldown on an action.

 

Tips for what you are asking would be:

 

1) Get pathfinding working in Lua. I'm using http://luastar.codeplex.com/

 

This sounds really like a nice "micro managment" battle game to me, since i love Micro managment battles i think i will like this game alot when its done.

 

 

a Question, since this is whole written in lua, will players be able to "script" it own abilitys or creatures or something this far?

[Rick]

a Question, since this is whole written in lua, will players be able to "script" it own abilitys or creatures or something this far?

 

Interesting idea, I haven't thought about that. The fact that it's Lua wouldn't have much to do with that though really because if I did implement something like that I would just make an in-game interface for it. There are only so many stats to modify right now, but it could be a cool idea to let players make their own moves, buffs/debuffs. I'll investigate this idea once I get the core gameplay done.

 

Thanks for the interest in the game!

[Rick]

I've starting shifting a little into promoter now. Trying to get the word out about my game. I've started a blog and post to a couple various game sites. I've also requested a project at kickstarter.com to see if I can generate any money to help fund the game development. I've been purchasing art assets and it's starting to add up and kickstarter.com looked to be a perfect way to get some interested parties to help out if they wanted to.

 

Added the following blog to my signature http://good-vs-bad.blogspot.com/

 

I feel like the game is coming along nicely and so I wanted to get a little more serious about it. Stepping outside the LE developer community and into the players world to see what they think. Scary B)

 

I have 2 models being created for me which are visual aids for 2 abilities. Should get them by mid week and hoping to get them in the game by early next week. I'll make another video then.

[YouGroove]

Really good.

For the chess board , black and white is borring , and your game is not chessBoard rules or its is finally ?

Caus if it isn't Chess rules, you could change the colors and hwy not use some slight alpha texture like bu reg grass, and some lighter grass, or dirty ground for other squarres ?

 

Keep up the good work B)

[Rick]

Another update of GvB. Switched from real-time to turn based with a twist. Check out the LE video section link below!

 

 

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/videos/_/leadwerks-engine/gvb-4-r110

[YouGroove]

I give you some inspiration to make the chessborad a little more attractive

 

 

 

 

Perhaps you have already seen these videos and been inspired for your game already ?

 

 

In fact that's just detailled materials for the chessboard texture that makes it great and detailled.

Will you put some 3D Background or skybox , or another color than black ? Perhaps a more top down can make us look less at the black color ?

[Eagle]

That is Awesome Rick! You are so far ahead of me with this engine (I'm so Jealous!)

 

Always~

[Jason W]

Very nice!

 

Your icons look familiar

 

I look forward to more updates.

 

Jason

[YouGroove]

I just seen your Blog Rick, it has a beautifull banner

 

The turn based choice is a great one, and there is a huge amount of people even today taht likes a lot turn based games where you can

make your choice without instead of full pace action, some people finded some game like "Last Odissey" some of real Next Gen RPG ;

i'm not far from the end and i can say, it is arel strategic turn based RPG, where good choices is vital to survive .

 

Finally you'll keep simple White and Black chess ? no fantasy on it ? caus your game deals with some fantasy characters in some sort !

 

Keept it up !

[Rick]

Thanks YouGroove. I've been heavy at work on the networking side which on the client side involves login screen & lobby. I'd say I'm probably 75% complete with that.

 

I'm still torn on the board. The chess board image keeps things simple and clean which I like, but I realize it's not much to look at. The game isn't about the scenery at all so not sure if I want to do much with that to distract the player. I'll have to see what people say when I open it up for testing.

[YouGroove]

Another option , is that you could put some discrete things on the board , like some subtule green grass , for example :

White blocks : bright grass

Dark blocks : dark grass

Another level you could have : Bright and dark subtle or not very pronounced rock texture, you can test it easily visually , it's just a texture change.

I can give you some from CGTextures if you want to test ?

And perhaps you could put a video or picture and aks in the forum what people prefer.

 

But even like that it looks great and i like the units

 

Will it have a campaign mode or it is too mcuh time and work to make it ?

[Rick]

If you are willing to put together some textures you think would look good I'll change it up and post pictures online of them to see what people think.

 

Will it have a campaign mode or it is too mcuh time and work to make it ?

 

I'm not sure how I would make a campaign mode for this since it's just battles. Do Chess games have campaign mode? I'm open to ideas but I can't think of how I would do it.

[YouGroove]

Some little example :

 

These games are like yours : combat tactical based !

 

What they have for campaign, is some map for some, where you choose where you want to, or next battle , they have also shops to buy better weapons !

And simple 2D Dialogs for the story that is just a story to bring hours and hours of combat

 

But itmeans, lot lot more work indeed, perhaps if your game would encounter big success and people woud ask for Single player campaign , like Might and Magic series also , and if you were motivated to make that campaign indeed ?

 

For textures, try these i put in this post ! (and give us some screenshot ) !