Reign and Collapse -Planetary Conquest/Fleet Command WIP

[Frostbrandt]

Hello developers and gamers alike. I'm here to introduce a game concept that me and my team would like to get set up over here on Spring.

Reign and Collapse is being designed as a large scale planetary control strategy game set in various solar systems. Players are intended to take control of four unique factions as they battle for control of individual planets as they struggle to expand their influence.

http://code.google.com/p/reign-and-collapse/wiki/Home

I'm aware that there are space themed RTS being developed for Spring already, but the difference here is that RaC is being designed entirely as a Fleet Command and Conquest game. Planet interactions, resource trade routes and the like are all listed within our design documents as feature's we'd like to implement.

We are all very dedicated workers, the unfortunate part is that our small team consists entirely of college artists. We've got concept artists, riggers, animators and modelers capable of UVing and using ZBrush normal maps.

We are in need of a interested programmer/scripter who is familiar with the Spring engine and interface, trust me, if we can get the groundwork laid out the artwork and assets will continue to be produced until the project is complete. This was designed as an extracurricular project for our Digital arts college, and since it's inception design has gone into full swing. The wiki is rough and slack on data, but within the following week our cleaned up artwork and concepts will be available via that link.

I apologize if the project seems half baked at the moment, we're more interested in making sure our goals are obtainable before we begin loading hours of extra work into a project that we cannot possibly program for ourselves, but hours of combined planning and thought have already gone into our game design. If anyone is interested in contacting me about the project, or is interested in seeing current artwork or discussing possible features or limitations I am available here on the forums or @ c.williamsj6@gmail.com

[Wombat]

sounds very familiar to THIS (yes its the name of it) game made by KDR, so i suggest u take a look at it first.

side note - im pretty sure zbrush is totally useless as a tool for creating normal maps for spaceships and stuff like that. regular gimp plug-ins/whatever u use is much faster and easier.

content plz !

good luck

[MidKnight]

sounds very familiar to THIS (yes its the name of it) game made by KDR, so i suggest u take a look at it first.

Agreed!

side note - im pretty sure zbrush is totally useless as a tool for creating normal maps for spaceships and stuff like that. regular gimp plug-ins/whatever u use is much faster and easier.

Nope! If you know how to use zBrush, you can get some amazing things out of it!

content plz !

Content is good! Post WIP screenshots and code, and people will be more willing to contribute!

good luck

Heartily agreed! I look forward to seeing this project succeed!

Periods? What are those?

[Frostbrandt]

Thank you for the feedback, I understand various similarities to other projects on Spring but I assure you our goals are still different!

EDIT: I'm now beginning to upload concept artwork to the Wikia, for those who were requesting content!

[SeanHeron]

I think what the reference to "THIS" was meant to state, was that it might be worthwhile for you guys to have a look into that game - since it has some nifty stuff, and it's all free to use ! I'm thinking more on the code-side here, since that's where you've stated your weakness is. (no need to use all of it, and of course it can be changed and adapted where required or wanted).

[SinbadEV]

I'm not offering to help but... First off I love to see projects that START with people who have talents instead of ideas... so kudos... also your game sounds fun so YAY!

WARNING!!! UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOLLOWS!!!

First, play some games... ensure you try THIS, GundamRTS, ZeroK and Kernel Panic especially because they show how you can "break the TA mold" so to speak.

Spring currently uses a very "programmery" format for pretty much everything... model animation and interface design included... so your going to need someone with a "programmery" brain before you even can do something as simple as replacing the models in an existing game with the models you'll be developing in order to test them... the "riggers and animators" you mentioned may have the right kind of brain though, so you may be okay.

Once you get your "programmery brained person" you should probably get set up with some kind of "collaboration" system... my personal advice, if your project is going to be open source, would be SourceForge.net because with little effort you can set yourself up a website, wiki (with fewer ads then your current one), a source control system, a forum, a bug tracker... all for free... but that's just my opinion.

Finally, there are quite of few very helpful people who can walk you through the tricky parts and sometimes will become so frustrated with your floundering that they will actually just ask you to send them your files so they can fix them... but they will only help you if you manage to garner their respect... if you act like a whiney noob, you will be treated as such... also, there are some "individuals" in the community whose "sense of humour" may look more like "personal attacks" and "abuse"... first, ignore them, second report them to the moderation team so we can take appropriate action if necessary.

[Frostbrandt]

Yeah, I get what you mean about checking out those games for reference and code - I was on about 35 or so hours without sleep working on homework and cleaning up some concept art so I was a bit antsy, my bad!

As for the community it's totally understandable, there are hundreds of people who think making a game would be great but don't have anything to offer other than ideas. Thankfully I feel my group can produce lots of interesting designs provided that we get stuff working on the technical end.

We're really looking foward to trying to push the illusion of scope with our game. Units modelled to a smaller scale representing starship, carriers, and the like. I think that's the main difference is that we want to take the scope that Spring already offers in big TA based games and push it to get a unique experience. We're all huge Sci-Fi buffs and writing and designing ships and weapons is just a thrill.

Thanks for your interest , glad to see people think the idea is good. We're still cranking out cleaned up-ish artwork, but I'm dead tired for this week so I'm waiting on the other dudes.

Keep in touch!

[oksnoop2]

*looks at wikia page*

"wauaugh riddled with WoW ads"

maybe try something like this if you don't care about your license.

http://code.google.com/p/conflictterra/wiki/Home

[luckywaldo7]

Your project sounds really cool. And it looks like its off to a great start so far.

Unfortunately, you probably won't find somebody familiar with spring who can make a serious commitment to your group. Pretty much everyone has one or multiple projects they are committed to already. And even if someone does join, if they disappear later it won't do you guys much good either.

So I would really recommend one or more of your team starts to learn about spring. Take it slow, go baby steps, start with just getting one unit ingame or something.

This is a good page to get started: http://springrts.com/wiki/Game_and_Unit ... evelopment

Here you can get the bare minimum content for a game (just a framework to get you started really): http://springfiles.com/spring/games/empty-mod

and this one with a tank example: http://springfiles.com/spring/games/empty-mod-plus-tank

I would also recommend checking out that page oksnoop linked to. If you guys set up a public svn like on google code it will be easier for some of the experience game devs around here to help you. Although you might not get anyone to commit to you, the people around here are are really helpful and are usually willing fix you up if you have a specific problem.

[Forboding Angel]

It's worth noting that he has spoken at length to me in the lobby, and what they want to do is similar to a DOW2 style hold and control game. It's pretty well thought out and most of the lua related stuff they need is already written. At any rate, be nice, he's a really cool guy and doesn't seem like someone who will just disappear without a trace.

[Frostbrandt]

*looks at wikia page*

"wauaugh riddled with WoW ads"

maybe try something like this if you don't care about your license.

http://code.google.com/p/conflictterra/wiki/Home

I've begun making a Google Code project, not sure exactly what I'm going to put on it at the moment. Is any of the game concept information from our wikia recommended on the SVN

http://code.google.com/p/reign-and-collapse/wiki/Home

I'll get this stuff set up sometime today, thanks for the tips and positive feedback, we're definitely intent on finishing this project in one form or another. Speaking of 'License' I'm going to have to research a bit more into open source to see what I can and can't keep under IP.

[Forboding Angel]

No files in the selected directory. Select a subdirectory, if one exists, or another directory from the tree on the left.

Needs sum files foo!

[smoth]

Not sure if you are the guy who I was helping in #sy but I am never in moddev so if you need me to help you, you will not find me in moddev.

[Forboding Angel]

Yes I'm pretty sure it was smoth. His name on the lobby is like ckiaa or some crap.

[Frostbrandt]

Yes I'm pretty sure it was smoth. His name on the lobby is like ckiaa or some crap.

Yeah that was me. I really appreciate the information you guys gave and It's helping us in the design process!

[Wombat]

there was some other game related to this one i think. i dont remember name, maybe someone else will tell ya.

dude came online after long time and updated his game about spaceship. ofc nobody play it so i dunno how much u can get from it.

[knorke]

Good to see some new project that actually has a plan and
Organisation. Your design document should be more detailed though:
Starts to make decisions of further technology advancement before the combat escalates.
Phases like these are in every RTS game. ie in both Starcraft and TA you see players
Expanding and making armies until they attack each other. From your text its not
Exactly clear how the game should play, its more a general
Description how most RTS matches usually progress. Give More details.

As for the animations, Spring supports no "rigging" all the animations are scripted.
Now that is not that hard to do for basic stuff like tanks but for organic units like that
Demon ship thing on your page it is not so suitable.

Heavy use of scripting might or might not be required depending on what you ie
Actually mean by "capturing planets?" Just building something there?
Very much has already been scripted by other people. Sadly not
Every script comes with instructions on how to adapt it.

For start I'd suggest to follow this tutorial, then when the first unit is ingame
Upcoming problems can then be solved in detail by all the
Nice people on this forum.

[Wombat]

http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 96&start=0

EDIT - @ this organic ship, better tell ur boi to learn normal maps ;P (is this picture in art section model or concept? )

[Echo419]

What sorta unit choices will it have?

Will there be planets that require terraform before being colonization?

[KDR_11k]

Spring's gadget system makes mod code more modular than normal so it can be possible to take features from other mods, drop them into yours and just have them work. That's why it's useful to look around for features you'd like in other mods.

Rigging and animating doesn't really exist for Spring yet AFAIK, you only get the option to script piece rotations but with a space mod that should be less problematic than e.g. with something involving people running around. It's designed for mechanical animations.

The flagship idea worries me insofar as an expensive construction that's hard to replace is also hard to afford in first place, a player going for one would have to seriously throttle regular unit production and would be vulnerable to regular attacks. Teching to flagships likely won't be a regular occurrence during regular matches.