So I Drank an extra large coffee for breakfast and had a really good nights sleep last night and it's sunday so I have a lot of spare time at work and I was poking around with Wings 3D last night so my brain is kinda buzzing right now.
Basically I have a crazy idea for a from scratch mod/game/TC, whatever you want to call making up a whole new RTS using this great engine SY came up with.
First, I'll tell you what I can do. I'm not very experienced with computer graphics or programming, but I'm full of ideas and like to come up with video games and develop the ideas. I have a bunch of programming friends that I keep trying to help me make video games but we are all REALLY LAZY... so nothing ever gets done... I do have prgramming experience, C++ courses, data structures, Qbasic and Visual Basic games... that kind of junk.
Basically what I've come up with was an idea I had a while ago and never had an RTS engine worth putting effort into like this one.
Basic Concept is that a space ship is sent out from earth to terraform a planet and by the time they get there they are so far out that the ship crashes, all of the terraformers (like comanders, brains in big metal bodies) are scattered and many of them have re-awakend their orriginal conciouseness and arn't following the "program" and the ones who are following it arn't doing much good because the majority of them were detroyed in the crash. Different "Commanders" are characters and gain levels and can be upgraded and you can add more to your team as you encounter other good ones.
Anyways, their would be 4 teams, the Free-Willed Terrabots with cobbled together and stolen tech from all the other teams, The Overmind controlled Terrabots who would be basically just terraforming but would defend their efforts, the human colonists coming to live at the planet that was supposed to have been terraformed by this, and then there would be some rebels that had stowed away in the terraformers ships and had enhanced local life forms, giants plants that shoot and stuff, their buildings would be built underground and spring to the surface...
On the Terraformers teams construction veicles would be very limmited, they would only make weapon installations and resource collectors, no factory type buildings, but they could help build the stuff the commanders set up to be built, also the commander and many contruction units, and maybe even a special building would have very small flying bots that would swarm around and aid in construction, resource collection and repair, each contruction veicle etc would have a limmited number of these things associated with them and be able to produce them, in some cases they would act as "seeds" for creating a new advanced unit or building, and they would have the ability, if researched to turn into other units or installments on their own. Also, the commander would start out smaller and be able to eventually build upgrades for itself... it would always be the primary contructor, but you could get more of them with different powers, but never build a new comander... their might even be really special buildings that only work when the commander is wearing them like an upgrade.
an Idea I had for a mod...
Moderator: Moderators
I can see myself using the Z axis to exploit the full 3D engine, and being told to flatten my maps and flatten ym untis to fit in with OTA. You people have no depth and fi you do you're told to make it shallower, thus destroying many chances for new strategy and gameplay.
I have been toying with the though of something like towers buildign eachvoer and being the onyl thgins that can build sorta like a moon commander thing but they can build aircraft and nifty thigns.
I have been toying with the though of something like towers buildign eachvoer and being the onyl thgins that can build sorta like a moon commander thing but they can build aircraft and nifty thigns.
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TotalAnnihilator
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TotalAnnihilator
- Posts: 15
- Joined: 27 Apr 2005, 21:16
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TotalAnnihilator
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Wee! high poly drone!http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/drone.3do
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Sean Mirrsen
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- Joined: 19 Aug 2004, 17:38
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TotalAnnihilator
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- Joined: 27 Apr 2005, 21:16
developing the stuff
Benjie's Crazy Mod Idea/Whole new game:
Resources:
Energy is fine, though I like the energy web someone mentioned so we can use that. The different teams will do it different though.
Instead of metal there should be 3 kinds of raw materials, and plants that use energy and one type of resource to produce another type of resource.
Additionally, their should be a "stock" system, for example you need to collect brains to power command class units, and these brains will gain experience and can be moved to better units etc. In multi-player you would have a brain factory that would build up a stock of them. You also might (in the case of a centralized power system) need bateries or microfusion reactors to power certain units when they are not withing range.
Free-Willed Terrabots:
Base Units:
Terracom: Commander style unit, has the "restore land" and when he build a building it is better able to morph landscape (like normal units can morf 10 feet difference flat and the Terracoms can do it for 20 height difference), and can also build special building platforms on inhospitable terrain. They will have 6 slots for buzzbots and be able to load them like a transport, but they will be released and help building/repairing anything within a certain "transmitter" range automatically if needed. He will have a base weapon of the dgun to clear terrain. but no other defensive capabilities.
I'm figureing it should look like a core level 1 kbot, except much bigger and with the whole "rotating in the middle" thing the commander does and fins that act as buzzbot storage, and actual arms... a bit like the mechs in mech-warrior probably.
Buzzbots:
Small little spiky bots that can only repair and help build, iniciating no contruction themselves. 6 of them can be built within the commander and "Command Pialons" can be built to build and control more of them, they can only work with in the transmitter range of the Unit that controls them.
Contruction-ish Style Units:
Auxillary Resourcer: Can collect resource bearing landscape (trees, rocks, wreckage) and can be parked on/near any other type of resource to collect that type of resource at a relatively slow rate.
Level One Plotter: Can define basic buildings to be contructed, flatten terrain for said buildings, and monitor a one building to prevent it from degrading.
Level Two Plotter: Can define standard buildings... same as level 1
Level Three Plotter: Can define advanced buildings... same as level 1-2
Terraplotter: can define all the buildings the others can, but has 4 of it's own buzz bots. Will require a brain. has a small transmission radius.
Buildings:
Command Pilon: Can build and control 20 buzzbots, requires a brain, has a larger transmitter radius and can define the contruction of certain deffensive installations within a limmited range.
MORE TO COME.
Resources:
Energy is fine, though I like the energy web someone mentioned so we can use that. The different teams will do it different though.
Instead of metal there should be 3 kinds of raw materials, and plants that use energy and one type of resource to produce another type of resource.
Additionally, their should be a "stock" system, for example you need to collect brains to power command class units, and these brains will gain experience and can be moved to better units etc. In multi-player you would have a brain factory that would build up a stock of them. You also might (in the case of a centralized power system) need bateries or microfusion reactors to power certain units when they are not withing range.
Free-Willed Terrabots:
Base Units:
Terracom: Commander style unit, has the "restore land" and when he build a building it is better able to morph landscape (like normal units can morf 10 feet difference flat and the Terracoms can do it for 20 height difference), and can also build special building platforms on inhospitable terrain. They will have 6 slots for buzzbots and be able to load them like a transport, but they will be released and help building/repairing anything within a certain "transmitter" range automatically if needed. He will have a base weapon of the dgun to clear terrain. but no other defensive capabilities.
I'm figureing it should look like a core level 1 kbot, except much bigger and with the whole "rotating in the middle" thing the commander does and fins that act as buzzbot storage, and actual arms... a bit like the mechs in mech-warrior probably.
Buzzbots:
Small little spiky bots that can only repair and help build, iniciating no contruction themselves. 6 of them can be built within the commander and "Command Pialons" can be built to build and control more of them, they can only work with in the transmitter range of the Unit that controls them.
Contruction-ish Style Units:
Auxillary Resourcer: Can collect resource bearing landscape (trees, rocks, wreckage) and can be parked on/near any other type of resource to collect that type of resource at a relatively slow rate.
Level One Plotter: Can define basic buildings to be contructed, flatten terrain for said buildings, and monitor a one building to prevent it from degrading.
Level Two Plotter: Can define standard buildings... same as level 1
Level Three Plotter: Can define advanced buildings... same as level 1-2
Terraplotter: can define all the buildings the others can, but has 4 of it's own buzz bots. Will require a brain. has a small transmission radius.
Buildings:
Command Pilon: Can build and control 20 buzzbots, requires a brain, has a larger transmitter radius and can define the contruction of certain deffensive installations within a limmited range.
MORE TO COME.
MORE STUFF:
Resources For Free-Willed Terrabots:
Energy: Gained by collecting trees and plant life, etc, or from different installations, including ones built on thermal vents or equivalent terrain features, tidal generators, wind generators, all that kind of stuff.
Metal: Collected from ore bearing terrain features (rocks), or from bear metal patches on sureface, or with really good collection buildings right out of the ground.
Biomass: Collected from trees and plant-life if collected by a different type of unit. Produces in buildings with water sources, (on water, touching water, on springs).
Microfusion Plants: Produced At High Cost at a specific facillity. Used to permanently power certain high cost units. Units with microfision plants will not require energy to move, attack, repair, etc.
Brains: not sure exactly how this will work, brains gain experience so you can destroy one unit using a brain and that brain will be returned to the stock. Depending on the scenario, brains can be found by recovering derelict units, or ground in a cloning facility. In a campaign or single player mission brains could not be cloned and would have to be found or recovered from derelict unit, would keep experience between levels, and remember all the units it has ever been able to define for construction. They would basically be the characters of the game.
Associated Buildings, and probably "tech tree" level.
Just a note, while some this particular team will work like TA style build order (what factories and construction bots you build will determine what you can build), some other teams may follow a classis RTS tech tree where you build one factory, and then buy upgrades, or build other buildings in order to unlock the ability to produce them in the primary contruction facility.
Built BY Terracoms:
basic solar collectors(built anywhere on land, produces energy),basic floating biomaker (built on water, produces biomass),basic Ore Refinery (built on metal patches, produces metal), Advance Deployment Facility (builds level one plotters, auxilary resourcers, other basic maintenance bots, some basic peewee style units)
Built by Level 1 Plotters:
Basic Solar Collectors, Basic Spring-fed Biomaker, Basic Ore Refinery, Level One Deployment Factory (builds level two plotters, anti-air bots, longer range peewee style units), Low Level Deffensive Installations (probably shoot brawler style bullets and rotate fast), defensive walls (dragon teeth style)
Built by Level 2 Plotters:
Geo-vent mounted Energy Plant (more energy), Basic Spring-fed Biomaker, Basic Ore Refinery, Level Two Deployment Factory (builds level three plotters, real offensinve robots), Lazer and Missile Turrents (I think one that does both lazers and missiles would look nifty), defensive fortification (the kind that can stop bullets).
Built by Level 3 Plotters:
Fusion Reactor (lot's of energy), Advanced Spring and Floating Biomakers, Advanced Ore Refinery, Expansion Factory (Terraplotter (everything all the other plotters can build, plus cloning facilities and control pilons), All the heavy hitters, tanks etc., and an Expansion Plotter (builds selective resourse collectors and deffensive installations, has 1 of it's own buzzbots, high armor and whatever shields are available, big enough to protect it while it builds slowly), And a mobile Deployment Factory(same as the orriginal Advance Deployment Factory except it can walk and can also plot the construction of air-craft, hovercraft, etc...)
STILL NOT DONE
Resources For Free-Willed Terrabots:
Energy: Gained by collecting trees and plant life, etc, or from different installations, including ones built on thermal vents or equivalent terrain features, tidal generators, wind generators, all that kind of stuff.
Metal: Collected from ore bearing terrain features (rocks), or from bear metal patches on sureface, or with really good collection buildings right out of the ground.
Biomass: Collected from trees and plant-life if collected by a different type of unit. Produces in buildings with water sources, (on water, touching water, on springs).
Microfusion Plants: Produced At High Cost at a specific facillity. Used to permanently power certain high cost units. Units with microfision plants will not require energy to move, attack, repair, etc.
Brains: not sure exactly how this will work, brains gain experience so you can destroy one unit using a brain and that brain will be returned to the stock. Depending on the scenario, brains can be found by recovering derelict units, or ground in a cloning facility. In a campaign or single player mission brains could not be cloned and would have to be found or recovered from derelict unit, would keep experience between levels, and remember all the units it has ever been able to define for construction. They would basically be the characters of the game.
Associated Buildings, and probably "tech tree" level.
Just a note, while some this particular team will work like TA style build order (what factories and construction bots you build will determine what you can build), some other teams may follow a classis RTS tech tree where you build one factory, and then buy upgrades, or build other buildings in order to unlock the ability to produce them in the primary contruction facility.
Built BY Terracoms:
basic solar collectors(built anywhere on land, produces energy),basic floating biomaker (built on water, produces biomass),basic Ore Refinery (built on metal patches, produces metal), Advance Deployment Facility (builds level one plotters, auxilary resourcers, other basic maintenance bots, some basic peewee style units)
Built by Level 1 Plotters:
Basic Solar Collectors, Basic Spring-fed Biomaker, Basic Ore Refinery, Level One Deployment Factory (builds level two plotters, anti-air bots, longer range peewee style units), Low Level Deffensive Installations (probably shoot brawler style bullets and rotate fast), defensive walls (dragon teeth style)
Built by Level 2 Plotters:
Geo-vent mounted Energy Plant (more energy), Basic Spring-fed Biomaker, Basic Ore Refinery, Level Two Deployment Factory (builds level three plotters, real offensinve robots), Lazer and Missile Turrents (I think one that does both lazers and missiles would look nifty), defensive fortification (the kind that can stop bullets).
Built by Level 3 Plotters:
Fusion Reactor (lot's of energy), Advanced Spring and Floating Biomakers, Advanced Ore Refinery, Expansion Factory (Terraplotter (everything all the other plotters can build, plus cloning facilities and control pilons), All the heavy hitters, tanks etc., and an Expansion Plotter (builds selective resourse collectors and deffensive installations, has 1 of it's own buzzbots, high armor and whatever shields are available, big enough to protect it while it builds slowly), And a mobile Deployment Factory(same as the orriginal Advance Deployment Factory except it can walk and can also plot the construction of air-craft, hovercraft, etc...)
STILL NOT DONE
hmmm not sure about arms...how will it nanolathe? or is it only the buzz bots which nanolathe the comm just starts??? the rest of it sounds pretty cool. i suggest a BFME style where u make brains 4 units but can revive high XP brains at some facility for a small cost, so ur army can get better and better! however i do not think spring will support the 'transferring' of brains from 1 unit to another ingame....ask the SY's??? 
still very cool idea u get the thumbs up from me *thumbs up*
still very cool idea u get the thumbs up from me *thumbs up*Hey just a question, what do you think is the poly limit of the current engine of what we could support with say 100-150 units on screen. I always found the TA units to be abit on the blocky side I like to make more sleak sexy looking models.
Some suggestions,
Outposts, Lazer Walls, Fortification, Artilery that works, efficent bombers, emplacement setups.
I will write up some more stuff soon explaining it. I would also like to see upgrades to units.
If your going to start a team and do it properly heres what kind of people your going to need.
Consept Artists
Level Desingers
Modelers
Texture Artists
Coders
And an over all feel of how you want the game to function and new features you would want to have. I will do some work in Maya tomorrow I have to go hunt for a job today unfortunitly my family is getting on my case about it. If you want to have a discussion with me about an gameplay and features you can PM me your MSN/Email/AIM/or what ever means of communication you use. I am willing to help but I am not really with the whole *brains* idea could it be that they are just *AI* being givin orders from who-ever there creater's are on there homeworld. It could be that there homeplanets resources are almost exasted and there are two factions fighting over the claim of this new found planet to settle on and they want a monopoly on the whole thing leaving the others to rot on the homeworld.
Peace
Kozuka
Some suggestions,
Outposts, Lazer Walls, Fortification, Artilery that works, efficent bombers, emplacement setups.
I will write up some more stuff soon explaining it. I would also like to see upgrades to units.
If your going to start a team and do it properly heres what kind of people your going to need.
Consept Artists
Level Desingers
Modelers
Texture Artists
Coders
And an over all feel of how you want the game to function and new features you would want to have. I will do some work in Maya tomorrow I have to go hunt for a job today unfortunitly my family is getting on my case about it. If you want to have a discussion with me about an gameplay and features you can PM me your MSN/Email/AIM/or what ever means of communication you use. I am willing to help but I am not really with the whole *brains* idea could it be that they are just *AI* being givin orders from who-ever there creater's are on there homeworld. It could be that there homeplanets resources are almost exasted and there are two factions fighting over the claim of this new found planet to settle on and they want a monopoly on the whole thing leaving the others to rot on the homeworld.
Peace
Kozuka
Actually I had a back story worked out already... My plan at this point would be to leave the brains out of the design until we have models and maps and sounds and such.
The world is rediculously over-populated, and terraforming technology has progressed faster then intergalactic travel, so even marginally habitable planets like mars and pluto and the moons of the gas giants are over-populated too. As a long term solution, teams of scouting/terraforming ships are sent out to travel to the nearest likely stars to find and make habitable planets, with the assumption that by the time they are habitable interstellar travel will have developed to the point where people can be shipped out to the new planets without haveing to resort to years of chryo-sleep.
Terraforming Fleets are controlled by a hive or collective mind, that follows it's orriginal orders to find a suitable planet and terraform it. Upon discovering the planet that the game takes place in, A mostly barren planet with surface water, it signals home and gets down to the job of making it hospitable to human life.
A group of rebels from earth, hating what the earth government had made of their home planet, had stowed away in one of the Terraships and crash land it to the ground. The rebels removed as much equipment and tore off in stolen veicles to start a base of operations, they hope to establish themselves militarily and use this planet as a staging ground for a counter attack on earth. They make extensive use of biotechnology and cloning/gene splicing, as well as cybernetics.
After the rebels have left the crashed Terraship, the overmind establishes that it is of little to no use... most of it's terracoms are irreperably damaged and much of it's more valuable equipment has been striped... so it is separated from the collective and left for later recovery. A few terracoms, being released from the collective, break through their programing and assert the personalities and drives of their original human minds. These free-willed terracoms begin repairing and recovering technology from the damaged ship, while also reviving the minds of other human minds to conciouseness. They begin searching for "survivors" who had been thrown from the wreakage to repair and bring into the fold.
Meanwhile, the 3 remaining terrabots land and begin the task of terraforming the planet.
By the time colonists from earth arrive much of the planet has been made hospitable (though much less then should have been due to the loss of so many resources right off the bat and the dischord caused by the rebel army).
The Overmind refuses to let the colonists land because it's work is not complete, but the colonists land anyways. The Overmind, used to fighting rebels and renegade Terrabots just treats these new colonists as further threat to it's work.
The world is rediculously over-populated, and terraforming technology has progressed faster then intergalactic travel, so even marginally habitable planets like mars and pluto and the moons of the gas giants are over-populated too. As a long term solution, teams of scouting/terraforming ships are sent out to travel to the nearest likely stars to find and make habitable planets, with the assumption that by the time they are habitable interstellar travel will have developed to the point where people can be shipped out to the new planets without haveing to resort to years of chryo-sleep.
Terraforming Fleets are controlled by a hive or collective mind, that follows it's orriginal orders to find a suitable planet and terraform it. Upon discovering the planet that the game takes place in, A mostly barren planet with surface water, it signals home and gets down to the job of making it hospitable to human life.
A group of rebels from earth, hating what the earth government had made of their home planet, had stowed away in one of the Terraships and crash land it to the ground. The rebels removed as much equipment and tore off in stolen veicles to start a base of operations, they hope to establish themselves militarily and use this planet as a staging ground for a counter attack on earth. They make extensive use of biotechnology and cloning/gene splicing, as well as cybernetics.
After the rebels have left the crashed Terraship, the overmind establishes that it is of little to no use... most of it's terracoms are irreperably damaged and much of it's more valuable equipment has been striped... so it is separated from the collective and left for later recovery. A few terracoms, being released from the collective, break through their programing and assert the personalities and drives of their original human minds. These free-willed terracoms begin repairing and recovering technology from the damaged ship, while also reviving the minds of other human minds to conciouseness. They begin searching for "survivors" who had been thrown from the wreakage to repair and bring into the fold.
Meanwhile, the 3 remaining terrabots land and begin the task of terraforming the planet.
By the time colonists from earth arrive much of the planet has been made hospitable (though much less then should have been due to the loss of so many resources right off the bat and the dischord caused by the rebel army).
The Overmind refuses to let the colonists land because it's work is not complete, but the colonists land anyways. The Overmind, used to fighting rebels and renegade Terrabots just treats these new colonists as further threat to it's work.
