Magnetonics

[Pendrokar]

Hey guys,

The only real reason I am here is that I was a contender for a Latvian game development contest and I thought I'd make an RTS game based on an idea that I threw to someone in this community. Thought it be the fastest if I created it using the Spring Engine.

So the idea is that units don't deal damage, instead they push or pull other units around. The only real way to destroy a unit is to push it into water or outside of map borders. This offered a challenge to buildings, which even with a 'mobile hack' didn't work out well so they have to be reclaimed using the Recycler units in order to destroy them.

I even restored the King of the Hill gametype to a somewhat working condition. Though I believe it might desync in multiplayer games. I tried hosting multiplayer games in an attempt to get a Latvian player, but in the end only got around two established Spring players.

Here is a gameplay video (~5 min.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryK76RC ... 2C&index=5

Uploaded to Springfiles - https://springfiles.com/spring/games/magnetonics

The winner of the game development contest was determined by polls and this game got the number 8 spot out of 14. What can I say, first impression matter the most. I released the 1.2 version at the last day of voting, which added the heavy factory and two units it can produce.

I don't know about the future of this project, so if anyone likes the idea they can move the project forward.

[gajop]

Good job! Impressive thing you made :)
Can you tell us a bit more about the competition, how long did it last, what were the rules and who the winner was?

Push&Pull mechanics don't work that well in Spring in my experience: there are issues with angles, sometimes it requires hacks such as the y component be greater than 0, and there are a number of issues with precise physics for collisions against heightmap, buildings and other units (we previously made a game that used the same mechanics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1D295mRqdE)

For game competitions, I would advise against multiplayer games: either make simple lua AIs or rely on the default Spring "AI" for the computer opponent. In general you cannot expect players to setup multiplayer games or use Spring lobbies, but the biggest issue is that there aren't likely going to be enough players online.

Can you elaborate a bit more on your units/game mechanics? How are some simple strategies supposed to be formed in this game? Are there any rock/paper/scissor counters or unit combos that people are supposed to execute?

[Pendrokar]

Sure.

The competition was set up that any game was valid as long it hasn't been previously publicized anywhere. So there was a 20 day development period and a 7 day voting period. So anything goes. I actually wasn't planning on creating this rather a platformer hybrid of Worms-Liero-Soldat, but feared that I wouldn't be able to create AI for it.

For the push&pull mechanics I simply used the impulse parameters on the weapons. I did try overriding them when creating the Ruby unit, but gave up when I found out that I can also cancel impulse with the PreDamaged lua call.

There are a total of 5 units and 3 buildings in the game:

• Recycler - Construction unit, is able to build extractors, generators and factories.
• Pyramid - Single target pusher with the ability to switch impulse direction.
• Pyracone - A lighter unit that can push three targets at once.
• Ruby* - A heavy, but slow. Powerful, but very short range pusher. Had created a short video demonstration to hype excitement at the last day.
• Cone - Pulls in a single target for others to push. Combined with a Ruby makes for a fearsome duo. Had created a short video demonstration to hype excitement at the last day.

* - The main difference from other units is that impulse must affect all enemy units around it. I mimicked this by adding a starburst launcher which fires underneath the unit in order to create an impulse explosion.

On the building side there is a metal extractor and two factories.

The only thing I really noticed about impulse are the positions that you apply it to. Sometimes a collision volume set too low or too high would mess up the expected mass of a unit.

In terms of strategy. I did manage to create a somewhat working AI with AAI, though it may crash sometimes and of course it has no idea about the actual objective in KotH games. AAI probably determines best units based on weapons and damage, so it mostly builds Pyracones, while I expected Pyramids to be the main force and an actual cheaper counter to Rubies. Pyracones don't have enough impulse to seriously affect Rubies. Cones still might have too short range to be really useful.

[hokomoko]

Haven't played yet, but I really like the idea!
Good job :)

P.S. OMG you're the person behind voiced BA :D :D :D

[Silentwings]

Nice work.

I suggest putting it up on github for ease of access + the ability to point someone with a link directly to a file and say "here's an implementation of what you're looking for" is very useful.

Someone was looking recently for voiced BA, although I don't remember who. Maybe that could be put onto SF too?

[Pendrokar]

I suggest putting it up on github for ease of access

Very well, although I started unnecessarily copying too much of BA and Zero-K code... code that is actually in Spring by default. After I clean that up, I will put it on github.

[edit] Commited to github: https://github.com/Pendrokar/Magnetonics (Music files removed)

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P.S. OMG you're the person behind voiced BA :D :D :D

Yes.. wait no... don't mention it! I lost the bomb...game. Do you have it?

Someone was looking recently for voiced BA, although I don't remember who. Maybe that could be put onto SF too?

You probably mean the Zero-K forums, that was me. I was too lazy to create new ones for this game, instead I added a few I made myself. Maybe I will do voiced sound effects for another gamejam on a Spring game... perhaps a certain sub-mod made by TradeMark needs a standalone version. Hey this still counts as unpublished, right?