Game - Engines of War

[SeanHeron]

Edit: Progress update further below.
Showoff pic:

Original post:
Since I've been mentioning it here and there, I thought I may as well announce it:
Me and bobthedinosaur are putting together a game that is similiar in general terms to DotA (Defense of the Ancients) - itself a "mod" for Warcraft 3.
The big difference is that we will have massive "Engines of War" stomping around and shooting each other in the near(ish) future , rather than the whole thing being in a fantasy setting :D. Well, and the obvious fact that it'll be on the Spring Engine!

For those not acquainted with DotA (and I'll admit I was a reluctant player at first, but would miss it now):
The game revolves around each player controlling one super-unit, which gradually improves over the duration of the game (and respawns on destruction).
Play is in two teams, each of 5 players (will probably be less for Engines), and the goal is to destroy the enemy teams base. To do this, a number of towers, "barracks" inside the base, and finally the main building, need to be destroyed.
Aiding and opposing the players are waves of constantly spawning AI-controlled units, that stream towards the enemy base along a number of "lines", ie attack routes (three in DotA). They'll fight and destoy each other continuosly, even with no player involvement.

Most important in achieving victory though, is to best the enemy teams Super-units: Destroying them sets them back, and is a boost to your own Upgrades and equipment. Defeat can come from gradual growth of the gap of the improvements between the teams, until one is overwhelmed. Or, in more balanced games, due to the increased strength of the Super-units later in the game, a poorly executed team battle or two can give the other team the chance to finish of the base more or less undefended (respawn times increase later into the game).

For model pics look at Bobs recent WIP, or go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/enginesofwar/ (where a somewhat more detailed description of the game can be found under files, as well).

Finally, if your interested in the Unit-upgrade/level-up side of things: http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=21542

There'll be more when there's more to show.

[Neddie]

I can make you a subforum if you wish.

[BrainDamage]

kernel panic has a dota mode, you might want to check what you can rip out from it

[prankster]

http://sourceforge.net/project/screensh ... sid=120043


The models look very impressively. Thumb up!

I like the "Game menu on startup". Good thing :D

[Saktoth]

Hows Libre going, abandoned?

I thought the post was going to be about this game. Its very good, great concept.

Anyway, given that each unit is going to be a 'unique' hero, id suggest borrowing from other mods if you can. Bob has already asked me about spherebot and id by happy to lend that. If you're happy about having your bots vary widely in design (A good idea, for differntiation, the way DoTA does) then there are dozens of models you could use, perhaps even some tanks and gunships.

What licence are you planning on making the game under? Closed, open source, permissive? If you do get that levelling up thing working in any way (esp. if its along multiple distinct paths) that might finally be useful for the commander upgrades we've always wanted, if nothing else.
Strike that, i read in another thread it will be GPL/CC-SA.

[SeanHeron]

Bit late here, so answers tomorrow - thanks for the comments though!

Edit:
Thanks for the offer Neddie! I might take you up on that - but not while the game is still vaporware .

BD - I know and Zwzsg has already been a great help to me. I've not gotten round to delving into the KP code yet, but plan to do so asap (I'm working on level-up at the moment, which I don't remember Heroes of Mainframe having).

Thanks for the encouragement prankster - kudos for the Models go to Bob though :).

Sak, yeah, Libre fell asleep quite some time ago. I still have the notion it's hibernation rather than death though, so if this goes well and gets running, I might look back into that (more ambitious in my opinion) project.
On licences - that's not as clear as you've stated yet - but my preference would be for a free/open source licence.

[SeanHeron]

There's more to show -
Artwork: If you've not seen them yet, you can browse by WIP to check out some of the models Bobs put together (they're well worth a look!). There's so many, we're not going to settle for DotA's "same old boring creeps" all game long, but have increasingly tougher (and cooler ) tiers!

On the Code side, the basics are laid out now - spawning the various waves of "pawns", and with selectable upgrades for the Engines (well - just for one at the moment actually). Should be two by the end of tomorrow.

There's loads more to see on our SVN. And the game is now in a semi playable state - me and Bob have agreed to have our first trial multiplayer game tomorrow :D! I reckon we'll probably have a barebones version together soon after that.

Not least - thanks to various people for the encouragement and offers to help in one way or another so far! You're certainly a driver for me to go on.

And for the lazy people - some pics (from WIP):

.
More at Sourceforge, and ingame shots coming soon.

[Neddie]

Would you like a title, then? I haven't the time to get to your map message yet, but I will.

[KDR_11k]

They look kinda messy, unless that's on purpose (camo) you should make sure to add some visible low frequency detail (e.g. differently colored areas and if it's just minor variation).

[SeanHeron]

KDR - I realise your critisism is both constuctive and well meant - however this is not a "work in progress" thread. More of a "this is done so far" one . Please comment on the models there, if you want. The above shown models are staying as they are - unless/until you or someone else makes new skins. (And yes, future models are likely to look similiar).

What is welcome in this thread are comments on gameplay - but that is obviously still lacking so far - or the general concept. And appreciation of what's been done and further offers for help of course .

@Neddie - um title - I'll go with whatever comes with the Sub-forum :). Otherwise let me check back with Bob first. Thanks for the info regarding map - and no hurry!

[imbaczek]

re progressing creeps: be careful that they don't progress as quickly as heroes. creeps going from quite dangerous to mostly irrelevant is a rather big part of balancing the game.

[bobthedinosaur]

creeps going from quite dangerous to mostly irrelevant is a rather big part of balancing the game.

please explain more.

They look kinda messy, unless that's on purpose (camo) you should make sure to add some visible low frequency detail (e.g. differently colored areas and if it's just minor variation).

which ones? some units do have a camo pattern but it it very weak, and i might touch them up. dont know about giving the mechas camo colors, they traditionally seem to be brightly team colored.

[imbaczek]

creeps going from quite dangerous to mostly irrelevant is a rather big part of balancing the game.

please explain more.

at the beginning everybody splits up because creeps with towers provide enough cover against attacks, and everybody is focused on leveling. starting from the midgame, creeps' power is small relatively to heroes', so players aren't that afraid of them and are willing to pursue into enemy territory. IOW creeps work as a pacemaker and if they'd become more powerful, the game would slow down - you don't want that. OTOH more powerful creeps as a reward for destroying towers makes the slippery slope a bit too steep.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

could make more powerful creep waves purcahseable upgrades from the hq- then youd have another layer of depth/player decision

[bobthedinosaur]

currently there is a problem with turrets starting at low level and the waves of pawn (turrets generally meet middle of the map. slowly pushing toward one side or the other. the turrets need kills to level up and dont see any action until mid game, where by then the pawns are at a much higher level than the turrets. the players could split up at first but mainly it seems like we just focus on killing pawns and other player for xp, but once some of the larger pawns maybe a Juggernaut (special pawn) head out it should take team work on the players to slow them down and stop them.

i guess the main problem is the ai just goes in direct waves and there is no way for them to take multiple angles of attack, so it just turns into a centralized battlefield that pushes back and forth.

so i am up for some ideas.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

do you not have three paths as per DOTA?

[bobthedinosaur]

there is no current map. some are being made. but on the maps ive played this seems to be a problem. maybe it there was a way to encourage the ai to take different routes it could help?

[KaiserJ]

so how big are those robots? human sized? larger?

[smoth]

>:| no ingame shots yet

[bobthedinosaur]

http://www.moddb.com/games/engines-of-war