Tower Defense thread.

GravitySpec · Post by **GravitySpec** » 14 Aug 2007, 00:01

klapmongool wrote:(first post on this forum)

Welcome to the forum!

klapmongool wrote:Looks great already, and that after such little time!

I figure it's a testament to the power of the Spring engine...

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 00:04

I am not releasing anything until it is done tim, that is just how I am.

As far as our process some of you would be amazed how casual we are, we don't need any suggestions as we are working just fine.

Post by **Tim Blokdijk** » 14 Aug 2007, 00:27

I'm not asking so I can give suggestions on how to improve the process.

I like to learn how to develop something together in a casual way. As I'm all busy with processes that allow teamwork even when people don't like to work together. Anyway I'm derailing the topic, I think that processes will get a dedicated topic again in some time then we can discuss casual development.

GravitySpec · Post by **GravitySpec** » 14 Aug 2007, 00:27

Sounded more like an inquiry as to how the process works, as this rate of development would present a nice opportunity to learn some nice tips as far as managing a small team for the project.

BTW, I just pulled Spring engine source down from SVN

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 01:31

Well that is all kinda a derail.

Basically, 3 of us got together said "lets do it and got started"

we went over the ideas in the thread and got a move on. Maelstrom started modifying tinnut's code, I started modeling and gnome did the same. As we have gone along it has very much been a partnership where we discuss ideas and see what we can do to help the other. Above all the most important part is that we are keeping each other in check, not getting too far ahead of ourselves and keeping and eye on the final goal.

extremely casual, most of the people in #taourdfinz can tell you that.

Zpock · Post by **Zpock** » 14 Aug 2007, 01:49

It's great to have something like this to look at to get started with taking advantage of LUA. I have really no clue what files I put where, what LUA can or can't do, the I presume bazillion ways it has tentacles all over spring... scripts, game mechanics, ui... all different etc. Figuring all this out is hard stuff and having some examples to look at and modify bit by bit is a great way to go. So smoth is doing heroic work here, breaking new grounds...

I have 2 questions:

1. Is a long awaited custom economy being implemented, if ever so simple? Did you get units to award money when they die or will you take the reclaim tower route? Replace metal altogether and have a gold counter with ui?

2. Did you/is it possible to alter units stats directly? Such as make the units get higher and higher hp according to level progress, number of players and/or difficulty setting? I'd hate to resort to having to have a 100d different FBI:s or some such crap to do this.

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 02:00

Zpock wrote: So smoth is doing heroic work here, breaking new grounds...

The project isn't just me, so far:
Maelstrom is busting it on the lua side of things.
gnome has done several models and still helps
tinnut gave us a base
satirik did our new icons
and our lightening effect is from CA(thanks quant!)

Zpock wrote: 1. Is a long awaited custom economy being implemented, if ever so simple? Did you get units to award money when they die or will you take the reclaim tower route? Replace metal altogether and have a gold counter with ui?

we have that already

Zpock wrote:2. Did you/is it possible to alter units stats directly? Such as make the units get higher and higher hp according to level progress, number of players and/or difficulty setting? I'd hate to resort to having to have a 100d different FBI:s or some such crap to do this.

we are doing different models for each creep so it stays interesting. I can talk to mael about a difficult level but at the moment we are focused on the basics.
here is a level 2 creep:

Zpock · Post by **Zpock** » 14 Aug 2007, 02:33

Ah well my hidden agenda / reason for asking about that is that I thought some about the possibility of custom player designed units. Like putting different weapons, shield generators, armor, engines, weird modules driven by LUA mechanics... etc. I have no idea but would think that changing basically the stuff in the FBI using LUA from within the game could be either possible, or not. Does each individual unit have its own set of these attributes, or do they just look in a template...

So I figure for a tower defense mod it would be very handy to be able to do this on a simple level wich would be a great start to work from for the above, just changeing the hp and maybe speed on a unit. I'd imagine you would want to complement different creep graphics, and attributes/style, with simple multipliers so it can go on for like 100s of levels. So I'm just wondering if you guys looked into this I'm very curious what can be done, and of course there's a lot of possible hackarounds, like changing the speed and good old blocking of weapons in the units script. Maybe if you can't change the supposed maximum hp of a unit, you can simply set the current hp instead, possibly above the intended maximum...

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 02:46

modeling turrets, will respond just busy.

Aun · Post by **Aun** » 14 Aug 2007, 02:47

Epic wiiiin!

Zpock · Post by **Zpock** » 14 Aug 2007, 02:50

smoth wrote:

(chain) exploding creep?? cool.

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 03:12

Zpock wrote:Ah well my hidden agenda / reason for asking about that is that I thought some about the possibility of custom player designed units. Like putting different weapons, shield generators, armor, engines, weird modules driven by LUA mechanics... etc. I have no idea but would think that changing basically the stuff in the FBI using LUA from within the game could be either possible, or not. Does each individual unit have its own set of these attributes, or do they just look in a template...

right now it is fbi file, like I said I can ask mael about the idea later but right now he is looking at setting up the creeps and the waypoints as part of a map file. adding new turrets is already doable as are creeps but we have it as FBI files. Adding something like that would take a lot of time I suspect. It is ahead of what we want to do but not impossible.

Zpock wrote:So I figure for a tower defense mod it would be very handy to be able to do this on a simple level wich would be a great start to work from for the above, just changeing the hp and maybe speed on a unit. I'd imagine you would want to complement different creep graphics, and attributes/style, with simple multipliers so it can go on for like 100s of levels.

well, we only have 3 levels of towers right now. I guess after I do these current towers I should tack on two more levels. that way you guys will have the base for a higher game.

Zpock wrote:So I'm just wondering if you guys looked into this I'm very curious what can be done, and of course there's a lot of possible hackarounds, like changing the speed and good old blocking of weapons in the units script. Maybe if you can't change the supposed maximum hp of a unit, you can simply set the current hp instead, possibly above the intended maximum...

well, also I am still doing basic creeps. We have only 6 ground creeps and 2 air creeps. I hope that we can get more done soon and I have some plans for creeps that do "special things" like there is one who has a script where he will randomly boost for a while, making him unpredictable

.

aaaaaaaaaand cannon turrets.

No it doesn't chain explode, there is a reason but no it doesn't. The thing doesn't even have it's explosion

Zpock · Post by **Zpock** » 14 Aug 2007, 06:41

I don't want to stray OT, but it occurred to me that it should be possible to make a basic RPG thingie using this stuff. Instead of creeps trying to run past towers, their just spread out on a huge map and you have some kind of unit and run around killing them to get money. Then you upgrade your guy and kill more stuff etc.

Then of course figuring out how to make the typical shops and quests to take it to a bit higher level would take a lot of more tricks.

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 10:58

TEASE TEASE!

espylaub · Post by **espylaub** » 14 Aug 2007, 12:12

Wow, this is all rather impressive! The Missile towers seem useless though, the travel time of the missiles is so long that they never hit anything. They only make sense if they lead their targets or if there are paralyser towers to complement them.

Sorry if this has already been dealt with somewhere in the thread.

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 12:18

they do ample against groups.

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 14 Aug 2007, 12:48

lasers are done, now to the cannons.

Pxtl · Post by **Pxtl** » 14 Aug 2007, 13:01

Oooh, sexy cartoon-outlined models! Purdy.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:14

Looks more like a photoshop layer effect than an actual inverted shell.

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 14 Aug 2007, 15:16

KDR_11k wrote:Looks more like a photoshop layer effect than an actual inverted shell.

It is, they dont look like that in game. They look sweet as though, even the WIP version in game now is sweet!

Spring RTS Engine

Tower Defense thread.