Hehe I can assure you there allready is lots of code. BUT I made a reusable webservice to create collection of squads and units. I allready have this working on an interface for another game that is in development.
Together with the lua code I made a month or so ago. I can design json to send from the webserver to the lua. However I haven't tested yet if I can do the http calls in the lua. That one is still open ended.
Now I'm focussing on creating a swing collection builder, that will use my webservice. This collection builder will be one of the cornerstones of the game since it will be part of the lobbyclient I have in mind to launch games. However I have so many ideas swirling in my mind right now that I need to asses I actually have the time to develop it all. I have 3 weeks of vacation in december so I will be able to do the bulk of the work in that period.
In all hounesty after my last endavour I have the feeling the LUA stuff will be the most easy part of the entire process. In layers of difficulty, most difficult to least
- lobbyclient
- bot/server autohost to host the games and award players (going to base myself on ZK)
- Create ChiliUI
- draw units (first gonna steal the TA units again , then draw my own though)
- animate units
- create the gametype
I'll write up a pdf this weekend where I explain in detail WITH screenshots of mockup screens what I'm hoping to design :), Just for you picasso :)
New game idea, but is it possible ?
Moderator: Moderators
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
I think it would be good to know what is the goal of your project?
Just to have fun making things or learn something? If yes then stop reading here and good luck
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But usually the goal of any game-related things is that eventually you want people to play and use it.
For example your last game was an interessting techdemo of chiliUI but not really something anybody would want to play.
You wrote you want not only to make this webservice but also the units/game. The game alone might some months if you want anything that not only works but is also fun to play.
So there is already many games being developed, why not use one of those? Then you could concentrate on the webservice part.
One thing from planetwars: It only really worked when all players were seriously playing it. Once interesst dwindles there was only some remaining players messing around or taking over stuff of players who had long stopped caring. So without a decent, stable playerbase it does not work.
More offtopic:
This planetwars/webgame thing might sound great but I never felt this is the thing that spring was missing.
On the other hand some hosts/games can not upload replays to interweb, which is very sad:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 60#p544576
It also involves "web stuff" so maybe of interesst.
Or a bot to automatically run tourneys would be nice, too.
Such things would imo bring much more use...
Just to have fun making things or learn something? If yes then stop reading here and good luck
---
But usually the goal of any game-related things is that eventually you want people to play and use it.
For example your last game was an interessting techdemo of chiliUI but not really something anybody would want to play.
You wrote you want not only to make this webservice but also the units/game. The game alone might some months if you want anything that not only works but is also fun to play.
So there is already many games being developed, why not use one of those? Then you could concentrate on the webservice part.
One thing from planetwars: It only really worked when all players were seriously playing it. Once interesst dwindles there was only some remaining players messing around or taking over stuff of players who had long stopped caring. So without a decent, stable playerbase it does not work.
More offtopic:
This planetwars/webgame thing might sound great but I never felt this is the thing that spring was missing.
On the other hand some hosts/games can not upload replays to interweb, which is very sad:
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 60#p544576
It also involves "web stuff" so maybe of interesst.
Or a bot to automatically run tourneys would be nice, too.
Such things would imo bring much more use...
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
Well for sure the joy of creating something and learning new stuff is ALWAYS an attraction to me.
Now on why I want to create this specific game. A lot has to do with the game End Of Nations currently in development. I'm an alpha tester there and I can say the game isn't doing well ... EoN first promised to be a spiritual successor to the shattered galaxy game. A game quite a lot of RTS people are aking to have back again. Now since EoN failed , I might as well try a go at it myself, even if it's just for kicks and stuff.
The basic concept isn't to hard. You got a hex map, 3 factions , fighting for territory in several maps that have a point domination system. You also have squads with units (that are upgradable), that you deploy as in a warhammer table top game.
Now I would never be able to design my own engine, I just have to admit that I do not have any of the math skills needed to make any 3D engine , especially since I suck at rotation matrices I will never understand that part of math. But the Spring engine delivers me all I need to create most of the basic pieces shattered galaxy had.
I'll elaborate after I wrote the pdf this weekend but lets recap.
- I need a hex map to launch games : java swing coded lobby client
- I need a way to collect, organize and create squads with units : java swing coded lobby client
- I need a way to create said units : wings3D + lua
- I need a referree to host games and handle rewards : springie bot
- I need a gameengine to play matches in with above set pieces : SpringRTS
I think I have all the pieces to create the game. What I might have lacking is time. But maybe , just maybe if I can make a decent enough Prove of concept. Those old shattered galaxy players that are crying on the eon alpha forums they want SG2, can get on board with creating units and creating balance between them, that I can just focus on the Java stuff and the Lua stuff (I'm a pure sanc programmer anyhow) Maybe I can get something done ...
Now on why I want to create this specific game. A lot has to do with the game End Of Nations currently in development. I'm an alpha tester there and I can say the game isn't doing well ... EoN first promised to be a spiritual successor to the shattered galaxy game. A game quite a lot of RTS people are aking to have back again. Now since EoN failed , I might as well try a go at it myself, even if it's just for kicks and stuff.
The basic concept isn't to hard. You got a hex map, 3 factions , fighting for territory in several maps that have a point domination system. You also have squads with units (that are upgradable), that you deploy as in a warhammer table top game.
Now I would never be able to design my own engine, I just have to admit that I do not have any of the math skills needed to make any 3D engine , especially since I suck at rotation matrices I will never understand that part of math. But the Spring engine delivers me all I need to create most of the basic pieces shattered galaxy had.
I'll elaborate after I wrote the pdf this weekend but lets recap.
- I need a hex map to launch games : java swing coded lobby client
- I need a way to collect, organize and create squads with units : java swing coded lobby client
- I need a way to create said units : wings3D + lua
- I need a referree to host games and handle rewards : springie bot
- I need a gameengine to play matches in with above set pieces : SpringRTS
I think I have all the pieces to create the game. What I might have lacking is time. But maybe , just maybe if I can make a decent enough Prove of concept. Those old shattered galaxy players that are crying on the eon alpha forums they want SG2, can get on board with creating units and creating balance between them, that I can just focus on the Java stuff and the Lua stuff (I'm a pure sanc programmer anyhow) Maybe I can get something done ...
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
As promised my first version of what I'm trying to achieve.
While making this I also programmed a fully interactive Swing component with a hex map. That was the most fun part of the weekend :D
http://users.telenet.be/sunspot/0010020 ... 202013.pdf
So what do you guys think ... is this achievable in a relative decent amount of a timeframe ?
While making this I also programmed a fully interactive Swing component with a hex map. That was the most fun part of the weekend :D
http://users.telenet.be/sunspot/0010020 ... 202013.pdf
So what do you guys think ... is this achievable in a relative decent amount of a timeframe ?
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
It is hard to balance.
If all the good units are available from the beginning why get boosters?
Conversely
If all the good units are in boosters the struggle to biild.up the points can be frustrating.
If all the good units are available from the beginning why get boosters?
Conversely
If all the good units are in boosters the struggle to biild.up the points can be frustrating.
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
I agree on the balancing ofcourse, now all the good units wouldn't be available from the beginning though. You would have to at least collect 5 of them to level them up.smoth wrote:It is hard to balance.
If all the good units are available from the beginning why get boosters?
Conversely
If all the good units are in boosters the struggle to biild.up the points can be frustrating.
for example:
5 bots of mark I will convert to one bot of mark II
5 bots of mark II will convert to one bot of mark III
The boosters should give some incentive to play lots of matches so you can collect more units, participating in the metagame will increase wealth gain to get boosters quicker. It's more of a hidden way to encourage participation in the metagame.
Now I'm counting on the collecting fever people have, like with magic or pokemon, or whatever collecting game, to keep people interested. Then again this is just an experiment it might fail misserably and I would have waisted a year of my life working on it :)
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CarRepairer
- Cursed Zero-K Developer
- Posts: 3359
- Joined: 07 Nov 2007, 21:48
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
Sounds to me like you could get a boost to your research by simply joining the server and observing ZK battles and players. Players earn XP for battles played, more if they win. When they level up they go on their profile page on zero-k.info and customize their commander by purchasing modules, as well as super units to build. The pokemon collector is alive and well here, all you need to do is take a look.
Re: New game idea, but is it possible ?
Thanks car it's on my todo list for next weekend, for now I'm creating the register account and login mechanics of my swing lobby client from whom you saw the screenshots in my pdf. I'm using Spring security with basic HTTP authentication so I need to think about how to keep the data on client side secure. Probably going to bcrypt a login token or something.CarRepairer wrote:Sounds to me like you could get a boost to your research by simply joining the server and observing ZK battles and players. Players earn XP for battles played, more if they win. When they level up they go on their profile page on zero-k.info and customize their commander by purchasing modules, as well as super units to build. The pokemon collector is alive and well here, all you need to do is take a look.
Next up will be the creation of squads with the swing interface. I allready have the server side of that setup. I must admit I'm having a bit of trouble setting up a roadmap on what feature I need to develop first. So for now I'm going for the easiest stuff to at least have a few deliverables pro sprint.
Now it's also great zero-k has most of the functionalities I need, and I can certainly use it as reference material. However it will be hard to just take it over one by one, I would have to learn that entire code base, and that doesn't happen in one day :)