Mod Interest Check - BrikWars: Spring

[Sheekel]

are for loops possible in cob? what is their syntax?

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) ???

[rattle]

Almost

Code: Select all

var i;

for (i = 0; i < 9000; ++i) {
	...
}

However, there are a number of issues with for loops, the constant multiplicators can't be used in the statement... probably scriptor issue, so "i <= <45> " becomes "i <= 8192".

You can use while loops too of course.

Code: Select all

var i; i = 9000;

while (i) {
	...
	--i;
}

or

Code: Select all

var i; i = 0;

while (i <= 9000) {
	...
	++i;
}

etc.

[SinbadEV]

ooooh! had an ideas...

Okay, so you mentions resources being Bricks and Minifigs (somewhere... either here or in the old thread)

I would recommend calling them "Figs" and "Studs"

a "Fig" is just the head of a minifig...

The Factions described could be summarized (in my mind) as "Humans" vs "Robots" (PKV and "Space Stuff")...

The Humans can farm figs, fig farms will produce fig heads like tiberium in a radius around them and will need to be collected and returned to a main base or something... advanced tech or alternate game modes would allow them to be built outright.

Each Human Unit would require at least 1 fig to function... when a unit dies it's fig is dropped nearby as a separate corpse so necro-type units will need figs in stock to res corpses.

Robots can't produce figs but if they gain a fig somehow they can use it to "overdrive" their units (a morph command or just a special attack), they would have special units geared towards capturing figs... stealth units to move in and rob a fig farm, or units who steal figs from units instead of just killing them, or by collecting them from a battlefield.

edit: perhaps trees could be harvested as figs so that the Robots do have a minor independent source of figs to start with.

[Sheekel]

nvm, figured it out.


if i apply a move or spin command to a unit piece, does that same movement get applied to all the pieces under it in the hierarchy?

also, is there a way to disable all unit actions in the script? For example, a metal extractor has a unfolding animation, i do not want it to start extracting metal until this is finished.

sorry got one more, whats the difference between call-script and start-script?

[Peet]

Yes, that is the definition of Forward Kinematics, which is what Spring uses.

[rattle]

Call-script runs another function and halts the function it was called from until that function finished, then continues execution.
Start-script runs a function in it's own thread.

For example, if you seperate an animation script in it's own function you would probably like to use call-script due to wait-on-xxx statements.
However a simple timeout script which resets all your pieces should run simultaneously, thus you use start-script. Endless loops should be run with start-script in general.

[Sheekel]

So any ideas on how i can disable the player from interacting with the unit (sending commands, attacking, recieving metal/energy, etc) during the script?

From what ive seen once the Create() function is call that the unit is going to do what it normally should and I havent found a way to stop that yet, sleep commands perhaps?

I really dont know anything about cob scripts.

[smoth]

sheekel, yes, you can force a unit to sleep while it goes through some fake construction anims..

see movie:
http://cs.selu.edu/~ssmith/FORUM/downlo ... hp?id=1698

[Sheekel]

sheekel, yes, you can force a unit to sleep while it goes through some fake construction anims..

Awesome, how do i do this?

while (TRUE)
{
if(isAnimating==True)
{
//sleep the unit
//animate;
}
if(isAnimating==False)
{
//stop sleeping
}
}


sorry bout all the questions i dont know much scripting

[smoth]

well, if it is a building that does any sort of function like building or metal maker you can lock it's on/off status and for con buildings they can be lock in their nano script with a flag var. Mines and power plants, you would want to use lua to paralize them so they cannot do anything while building.

[Sheekel]

well i gave up on scripts and CEGs for now, ive done exactly as described in the wiki and it doesnt work, cant see the effects ingame for some reason

anyway, scaled standard brickset and minifigs:



Im looking at melee units now, im pretty sure KDR made them work okay a while back, not sure tho

[Sheekel]

As references to BrikWars can be found here:

http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2001/2001-brikwars.pdf

Okay I've done a decent amount of work in designing and building multiple structures and units for the 1st of two races. the player can build only one unit type at level zero, the Minifig, no vehicles are allowed until Minifigs are infantry units are one of muiltiple uses and can be summoned relatively quickly.

Oops yeah summoning I also think it would be sweet if the player "summoned" units (like the protoss in starcraft) and had to wait out their build time but could go about queuing up a series commands and starting their construction. Of course,the player could only do this if the player had enough resources. the player would be given ample resources to start and expand reasonably well if smart queues are chosen. Therefor person could not queue up scouts or moho, fusion, and advanced refinery and go tech 3 in 4 minutes.

After the minifigs, the units can upgrade their commander which subsiquently upgrades their buildteir, radar level, level of los, and tech level for all structures and units, including weapons and defenses. There will be a total of 7 tech levels spanning the different ages of technology (see descriptions at link above, though they have changed slightly, see below):

0 StoneAge
1 ToolAge
2 MetalAge
3 RennaisanceAge
4 ModernAge
5 FutureAge (Combat suits, rocketlaunchers, getpacks, diskguns, machineguns, sniperrifles, c4, suicide bombers)
6 SpaceAge
7 StarAge

Of course, units will be able to build and use vehicles, aircraft, maybe boats if I i get around to it, probably not hovercraft for a long time. but yeah, its a lot. dont expect to play it next week or even next month

In terms of damage, I think we should use the ideas used in the original BrikWars, quoted here:

"Any equipment item or weapon can be broken if it
receives enough damage, or if it is used in a Close
Combat attack and does more damage than its own
ArmorValue. This can often happen if a
superpowerful minifig swings a weapon designed for
lesser mortals, or if one minifig smacks another with
an object that was not designed to be used as a
weapon, such as a porcelain vase.
In general, the durability of an equi ment item
depends on what it is made out of."

this is just a long winded way of saying that different weapons do different levels of damage.

thats about it i think, ive got a sweet stacking effect done for the bricks they sped up really fast, like they all just fall in place a moment after each other.

I'm going to ask about using those great cover designs from the BrikWars manual because i think they're pretty great

I have completed the models and correct proportions for all the pieces shown here http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu4mfv

I've done a bit of work trying to get melee working and although they can attack most units and structures their movement is broken, the units waste time trying to run in at their opponents at strange angles, I dont know if maybe someone scripted a dodge in but its very difficult to be effective with the attacks in numbers. also, the effect looks terrible, i think it would be possible to add a similar "blur" effect to weapon movement as used in airplane propellers and with some decent scripting would make them look pretty good if I can get the movement problems figured out.

then theres the units, they will all be 3do unless someone else wants to take the time to convert all my units to proper s3o and prove it looks better and worth the time. i'm only using simple colors to manufacture texture the bricks and since the animation style im using requires block-per-piece hierarchy structure:

http://isodomos.com/Color-Tree/Lego-Colors.html

i think this simplistic approach to textures, which as shown here can look perfectly acceptable:




one big question is that of the lego dots, or studs, and whether they should be modeled or textured. in the current version they've been textured though it may not be necessarily too big a performance hit on todays computers (1gb ram, c2d, somewhat recent nvidia or ati graphics)


the player extracts metal from the ground in its raw form and converts it to briks using energy. the player must have both resources plus some sort of smelting structure to obtain them in order to build. smelting structures will be weak (a fire, someone takes it out and you're screwed) and need to be closely guarded

trees will be worth a lot of energy and make them very worthwhile to capture early on for fires.

[edit] fixed, did it wrong

[smoth]

textured.

[SinbadEV]

textured.

Especially if you are going 3DO... you would probably need to go S3O to manage to get modeled pips looking good...

It's nice to see some progress... Is Steppo helping out at all? did he manage to get them to host the project at Bluehell?

[Sheekel]

Taken from the old thread:

"It'd be nice if there were more gameplay differences than ordianry mods
one nice thing would be slow moving turrets and slower aiming times, especially for things like tanks, so microing positioning and flanking become that much more important"


I think the mod should probably be somewhat like this, thoughts?

[Crayfish]

I thought this said BikiniWars for one sweet moment.

Looks good. Naked women next though? :)

[Sheekel]

From this point forward Steppo has stepped down from the mod as he didnt like the direction it was taking. I'll be continuing work on it though. Tentative names of races are Robobots and Mag (taken from old version)

[Sheekel]

For the sake of time, I'm thinking of condensing all the Ages into 3 simple ones: Classic, Modern, and Future, each with three separate tech levels. Each tech level will feature different technology from that Age, you must build through all 3 tech levels of one Age to be able to "upgrade" to the next Age.


Classic:

T1 - Clubs, rocks, spears, bows, caves, pyramids
T2 - Longbows, archers, phalanxes, catapults, calvalry, castles, ships, radar
T3 - Muskets, cannons, steam engines, artillery, wooden forts, galleons

Modern:

T1 - Rifles, pistols, machine guns, tanks, aircraft, A-bombs, bunkers, submarines, seismic detection
T2 - Armored vehicles, rocket launchers, carbines, helicopters, hydrogen bombs, fortification
T3 - Stealth, radar jamming, cruise missiles, simple lasers, guided rockets, kevlar combat suits

Future:

T1 - Plasmaguns, phasers, forcefields, spaceships, Tesla coils
T2 - Deathguns, battle mechs, energy blades, freeze rays, mag rails, EMP, sonic weapons, freeze rays, drone vehicles
T3 - Starships, disintegrator guns, teleportation devices, Cyborgs, particle cannons

[SinbadEV]

From this point forward Steppo has stepped down from the mod as he didnt like the direction it was taking. I'll be continuing work on it though. Tentative names of races are Robobots and Mag (taken from old version)

Well maybe he'll make his own BRIKWARS mod.

[CarRepairer]

From this point forward Steppo has stepped down from the mod as he didnt like the direction it was taking. I'll be continuing work on it though. Tentative names of races are Robobots and Mag (taken from old version)

LOL, "Robobots"

How about Andro-droids?