Spring RTS Engine

This is just a screenie/random commentary thread I'm setting up to document what's going on with NanoBlobs.

First screenshot of a new unit:

This is the Spire Rook. Reworked the walk script with my partner-in-crime, rebuilt the main textures, and it's a lot more like my original vision of the unit- kind've spooky-cute.



The Spire Rook is a tactical unit, specialized for blocking the advance of the enemy. It fires a very mean green laser, is well-armored, and is self-healing, although not at nearly the same rate as the Knight. Its primary weaknesses are that it brings your economy down, it will not last long against a pair of Knights (but will almost always defeat one), and can be killed by Archers. Multiple Spire Rooks, backed up by some of the other things that will be in NanoBlobs 0.3, will be your primary defenses, as well as being your starting-point for territorial raiding.

Because I've figured out how S3O hitboxes work, they can even be bunched up and shoot around each other surprisingly well.

mwha, can we see a shot of it next to a knight or sheep for comparison?

I sorta get the image of there even being 2 versions of this, a huge version and a smaller version, each with slightly different advantages so you mixed them, ending up with big ones with lots of little ones inbetween them.

I also think the legs would look better if they where much bulkier, rather than spindly legs like a spider in the shot...

Is it amphibious?

Here is the unit list, as of now:

Lord: The Lord is the Commander-equivalent. You only get one. The Lord is "blessed" with a number of remarkable powers, and can build some very special things that nobody else can- and can build at extreme distances, allowing it to project power. However, the Lord does not have anything like a D-Gun, and is relatively easy to kill.

Queen: Second only in overall power to a Lord, the Queen possesses strange but useful powers. Strictly a strategic-level unit, used with care, the Queen is the most powerful offensive weapon you can possess. The Queen is very costly to maintain, however, and is not invulnerable.

Knight: The Knight is the epitome of close-combat prowess and brute strength. For those of you who've played NanoBlobs before, the Knight will feel fairly similar- it is still armed with its fearsome flamethrower, still self-heals, and still gains experience at ridiculous rates. Knights dish out more damage than most other units, by far, and are one of the few units that can take on Rooks consistently and win on cost-effectiveness.

Wolf: The Wolf is a raider, pure and simple. The Wolf has been given a weapon that maximizes its abilty to run-and-gun, taking out whole economies in a flash. Wolves are the only unit capable of crossing water at high speed, but not the only unit capable of crossing water.

Spire Rook: The Spire Rook is a defensive unit, designed specifically to take on Wolves and Knights. In numbers, their combined firepower is enough to stop large numbers of attackers, and they aim very quickly. They move very, very slowly, however, and take quite awhile to build, so they must be placed carefully and advanced with finesse.

Round Rook: The Round Rook is an offensive unit, whose primary purpose is to destroy Spire Rooks and Anti-Archers. It is countered only by the Wolf and Knight, which can destroy it fairly easily, or a lucky Archer that can get close enough.

Bishop: The Bishop's goal is to delay the foe. It has a number of tools at its disposal that allow it to do so.

Archer: The Archer, along with the Knight, and Round Rook, provide the main structured offense. Firing long-range weapons that can kill most other units fairly quickly, the Archer is best used in large blocks where it can saturate the ground- it is not terribly accurate.

Anti-Archer: The Anti-Archer is a bulky, slow-moving unit that has a high-powered, very short-duration pulse laser mounted, which can destroy an Archer's shells in mid-flight.

Light Unit Beamer: These can build the common units, and can be placed just about anywhere. However, compared to a Lord, they build slowly. More quickly than Sheep, but not by a great deal. Good for pumping out Archers and Wolves, though.

Heavy Unit Beamer: These cannot be built anywhere except for geothermal spots. They build as quickly as Lords, and can build almost all of the units, except for the Bishop and the Queen. Taking these spots is a good way to achieve victory on maps that feature them.

Sheep: The core of your economy, the Sheep is weak, defenseless, and yet essential. Sheep can move, which is their primary way of avoiding death. Sheep can build certain units, albeit slowly.

MegaSheep: a "step above". the MegaSheep provides extra resources- at a price. It cannot build units, and explodes rather violently. It has extra armor, and is able to defend itself (weakly), but it is very slow.

Flying Sheep: A Sheep that puts out fewer resources than a standard Sheep, and cannot build units, but it can fly. Good for hiding an economy somewhere, or as a scout.

... subject to revision, editing, and other Good Ideas

This reads like Nanolobs is destilled RTS essence.
I imagine its quite refreshing to play it.

Would you please provide a download link to the mod in this thread?

Wird!

I mean, really really really wird!





But awsome!

This game sounds interesting, is it possible to download it somewhere or is it in a sort of closed testing stage? Did not see it on file universe, but that does not mean its not there. Well if we can download it, please put up a link, thanks.

nanoblobs V2 is out on fileuniverse somewhere, but V3 is not released yet.

if it is there it is hidden in the source code with out a link

Go here

thanks

Woot! I have discovered that RLE TGAs work just fine. That takes care of a major performance hurdle- a RLE TGA with 32-bit alpha at 1024 is not too scary. Wish I'd figured out that a while ago, it would've saved some time. Screenies are coming of some of the units, in pre-skinned state.

Wow...the spire rook looks so much better now...

excelent work, Argh!

A first look at the Archer. Got the uvmap made, going to give it to would-be team member and see if they can make it pretty

It's all looking very H.G Wells...

A little of this, a little of that. I am aiming for something between comic-book shlock and symbolism. Don't expect realism, even in the vaguely escapist sense of TA or C&C- NanoBlobs is a very symbolic experience, like any of my more experimental games. In the case of the Archer, I was talking with my animator (I only have one official team-member right now, although we're holding tryouts) and he suggested the basic premises- after some back-and-forth, this is what we settled on.

I was originally going to do something a bit more radical, but this is an acceptable unit, and the method of locomotion should be a fun surprise

Model the archer yourself then, asshat.

<sigh> you didn't tell me what you were going to try making, and I'm trying to get the basic units out've the way, with mixed success.

We will take a look at whatever you submit, of course- don't get hot and bothered. If I had to guess what you'd submit, I would've assumed it'd be something sexier than this, but obviously I was tragically mistaken

If you make a nicer Archer, that's what we'll use, or we'll take a look at it and decide that it really looks like another unit to us- we have some wiggle room

Trust me, if I'd known you were going to make this one, I'd have spent my two hours on something else. Like the Knight, which I keep having conceptual fits about, because I'm going to have fully-animated treads on it, and pre-planning the scripts is driving me nuts. Or I could've started working on the Lord, which I now have fully planned but is going to take a lot've work, because I'm going to try a weird modeling strategy and it's going to have some fiendish animations.

Sorry- someone else wanted to try skinning... we had this design sitting around, with big, flat, 90-degree angles... a cool animation idea... what can I say? I don't waste people's time if I can help it, but I had no idea what you were doing. Just finish the darn thing, and we will go from there, k?

<heads to bed>

Yes, this is straight out've Spring.

hawt.

The legs look a little gimpy (maybe just to me, that's all), but it looks neat otherwise.

It's not quite done being animated yet. It'll make more sense when you can see it moving, and the legs will splay out a bit, making it all make a little more sense, we think. From a top-down view, it's pretty clear that it's still basically a square. I'm not terribly happy with the way that Spring's auto-weld treated the bottom "pistons", but I doubt very much that anybody will have problems with the way it looks in game, really.

Gotta wait for the animations to get done, so I can play with it and get some neato screens of a whole herd traveling by a lake or something...