Spring Racers!

zwzsg · Post by **zwzsg** » 23 Sep 2007, 00:00

New version, for Spring75b2.
- Run Settings.exe and enable LuaUI.
- Download Spring_Racers_v007.sd7 into /mods/
- Download Spring_Racers_Track_01.sd7 into /maps/
- Host, get someone else to join.
- Wait till the Ready, Set, Go.
- Play with the arrows key.
- After 30s you get a turret, which you control with the mouse.

Obligatory pics:

This is just a proof of concept, but if you like Spring Racer, then grow some modelling and texxing skill and make nicer car models, and grow some mapping skill and make some pretty maps, grow some coding script and make better LUA.

Maps must have:
- an area at full speed corresponding to the road (make graphic and terrain type match plz!)
- an area at slow but not null speed around the road for the off-road, where you're slowed but not stopped
- an area at 0 speed, seperating the road area so no shorcuts are possible. Make sure it's wide enough so that even at full speed it can't be crossed.
- an area at altitude under -50, for the finish line

Models must have:
- pretty rears, because you'll see close-up of the car butts much more often than the car tops
- nicely animated wheel, with supsension script, steering script, etc... because there are few units they might as well be well animated.
- of course would be nice to have diff model with diff weapons, like one slow accelerating but high top speed, one good acceleration but low top speed, one buggy with arced missile, one truck with laser, or whatever.

Continuation of this thread, new fixed version because of popular demand.

REVENGE · Post by **REVENGE** » 23 Sep 2007, 00:11

Rofl the win.

Now make this into a spectator minigame for more win.

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 23 Sep 2007, 00:47

Very cute, zwzsg :)

My suggestions:

- Needs engine noises! ones that get louder as you go faster!

- Needs 'power slide' areas of the map where you can give yourself a big boost in speed by travelling over them (Terrain gives speed multipliers)

- I find that at times I am going very slow. I think the car might need a higher top speed, or perhaps quicker acceleration.

- The weapon thing is cute, but doesn't really add much to the game. I think you should try to explore this section more, as there are so many weapon types already built for you in this game, it seems a shame to waste them in a racer built inside an engine that was made for a wargame. The tough part is working out how players 'earn' their weapons. Speed? Kills? Time?

REVENGE · Post by **REVENGE** » 23 Sep 2007, 01:07

Must maek ctf moad...

Vintage · Post by **Vintage** » 23 Sep 2007, 02:17

Here's that quick mockup for a racecar we were talking about in the lobby. Modeled it in about 1-2 hours. May need some texturing.

since I'm not allowed to post hyperlinks, copy paste this code below in your browser.

greets,

Thomas

zwzsg · Post by **zwzsg** » 23 Sep 2007, 02:18

Warlord Zsinj wrote:- Needs engine noises! ones that get louder as you go faster!

I'm not sure how to do that. But yeah, racing in silence doesn't feel right.

Warlord Zsinj wrote:- Needs 'power slide' areas of the map where you can give yourself a big boost in speed by travelling over them (Terrain gives speed multipliers)

I'll leave that to whoever will make me new maps. Current one is so fugly it badly needs to be replaced by a decent looking one.

Warlord Zsinj wrote:- I find that at times I am going very slow. I think the car might need a higher top speed, or perhaps quicker acceleration.

Don't go offroad!

Or maybe there's something in the Spring code that makes terrain effect not be immediate enough, sometimes it seem I can cut corner without losing speed, other time I'm just a meter from the road and am limited to snail speed. Or maybe it's just because I used many different speed multipliers without any visual indication save for the road area.

But acceleration must stay low, as the whole racing concept lies around managing to build and not lose your momentum.

Warlord Zsinj wrote:- The weapon thing is cute, but doesn't really add much to the game. I think you should try to explore this section more, as there are so many weapon types already built for you in this game, it seems a shame to waste them in a racer built inside an engine that was made for a wargame. The tough part is working out how players 'earn' their weapons. Speed? Kills? Time?

The idea was to have several car model, each with its own weapon, like limited firecone arced rockets, frontward firing machinegun, turreted laser, etc... Also, I should use the energy & metal bar as a slowly regenerating pool firing weapons draw from. Having some weapon create huge crater would be nice too, but blow would be dangerous because there's the risk of blowing cars accross impassable terrain. Oh and I need to make wreck. I don't think gaining weapon over kill or speed is a good idea, game don't last long enough and properties don't carry over games. Right now I use a timer just because I don't want each game to start with a big fight in the starting block.

But anyway I'm soon disappearing, so if you feel anything needs change, change it yourself, don't count on me.

I don't want to be the warden of Spring Racer, I simply wanted to provide a base, a bagfull of script and lua trick to make racing game work, so others could build their racing game over. I do the technical bits, others must do the arts!

Edit: Very nice Vintage, but yes, needs texture, and link to 3ds/s3o/obj/lwo/whatever model format instead of pic.

Zpock · Post by **Zpock** » 23 Sep 2007, 03:26

Very cool, always great to have further exploration of LUA possibilties in different directions! Also nice to see some my stuff being useful.

At the moment Im working hard on learning LUA, wich is going pretty well. I might enhance the suspension stuff with LUA someday, can see the LUA physics control being very useful.

But anyway I'm soon disappearing, so if you feel anything needs change, change it yourself, don't count on me.

I hope you're not saying your leaving the community altogether???

Neddie · Post by **Neddie** » 23 Sep 2007, 04:13

I too am concerned about that statement, z.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 23 Sep 2007, 06:48

My 50 cent. Model isn't finished, front missing some details and I need to decide on a gun. Probably some rocket launcher. Polycount is about ~800 and you'll get a model once it's done and UV mapped.

RavingManiac · Post by **RavingManiac** » 23 Sep 2007, 09:30

I suggest weapons that don't do damage, but instead paralyse or blow other units off course.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 23 Sep 2007, 09:51

You could Lua powerups...

Do destroyed cars get respawned or is a player who lost his car out for good?

zwzsg · Post by **zwzsg** » 23 Sep 2007, 11:25

Currently cars destroyed are lost for goods.

Dun wry, I'll be back.

I had enough trouble with the tiny bits of LUA I had to use (until I gave up and returned to trusty bos instead (for the FPS mode detect)) that I dare not endeavour making LUA powerups.

Being paralysed is very frustating, especially considering there's not any other unit to play with when your car is paralysed, I know I'd rather stay in control while getting shot, then just leave or alt-tab when I'm dead, rather having to dealt with period in which I'm out of control.

Rattle, your model looks like an off-road car, and although I could probably use trick to have diff car get cast in diff type to use diff terrain type speed modifier, I'd rather have only cars that stay on the road.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 23 Sep 2007, 11:47

How about a 1 second paralysis or something? Thats not enough to bore you but enough to throw you off your place in racing.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 23 Sep 2007, 16:11

Hmm aren't buggies actually off-road vehicles as well? I'll change the tires to be more like racing tires, if that's ok.

Mr.Frumious · Post by **Mr.Frumious** » 23 Sep 2007, 17:48

Note: short-term paralysis is a good idea, but it should also be followed by a few seconds of immunity/invincibility after you recover. I mean, assuming all players have access to their weapons at all times. Otherwise, you get a player in the lead getting stunned by the 2nd place player, then each player behind him also gets in a stun shot as they pass by, until he's in last place.

Also, will there be any catchup feedback? X time behind leader = X bonus to speed?

Decimator · Post by **Decimator** » 23 Sep 2007, 18:09

Why not use impulse instead of paralysis? It would be more interesting.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 23 Sep 2007, 18:44

Because that could fling you onto impassable terrain

REVENGE · Post by **REVENGE** » 23 Sep 2007, 20:06

KDR_11k wrote:Because that could fling you onto impassable terrain

Perhaps if that occurs, lua rule could be written to respawn you out after a period of time?

Mr.Frumious · Post by **Mr.Frumious** » 23 Sep 2007, 23:17

REVENGE wrote:
KDR_11k wrote:Because that could fling you onto impassable terrain
Perhaps if that occurs, lua rule could be written to respawn you out after a period of time?

At that point you may as well make the weapons lethal and play for keeps. Just have very, very frequent checkpoints.

Actually, there was a good Half-Life racing mod called "Turbo" that followed a fun scoring system - you got points for both laps and kills. Tracks were super-short, too. This meant that you could be way behind in the race but win by violence, and because the track was so short you would frequently "lap" each other. Of course, it's tricky to balance the game so that players are still encouraged to progress forwards, rather than simply kill everything and forget the "race" part.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 24 Sep 2007, 10:11

There's also Excite Truck's scoring system...

Spring RTS Engine

Spring Racers!

Spring Racers!