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[shojin]

Need music? -shamelessplug-

I'll just leave this here...
http://artembank.bandcamp.com/album/popstar-ruler

[kavs]

Looks awesome Hemp!  Keep it up!

[Wowk]

Looks amazing! Go for it! 

[Hempuli‽]

Ahoy, another day of productivity is at its end. Today I still didn't get to do much cool stuff, instead finalized the base of the online code and fixed a lot of little quirks. Also made all players see eachother's class (which sounds lame but needed a certain amount of struggle ).

I tested the game today for the first time with 'proper' testers (i.e. not just using localhost to connect to my own game), and the results were promising. I also added the important ability to talk in-game (later on I'll also add team-only speech). At first I thought of using a dynamic talk system where only players in your vicinity hear what you say, but I guess I'll have to save that for a 'deeper' online game, since most players just wanna fight and not think about where to talk.


Also a silly WIP class selection screen!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to the 'fun' part, i.e. where I can add actual features and not just try to get the engine to work. Before that I have to think a bit about the UI, though. My idea was to have 4 actions for each class, and then use them with 2 buttons: One switches the action to use and the other actually uses it. We'll see if this works at all. More about that later.

Also, thanks everyone for the sweet amount of kindness you've poured here! That's always appreciated. Shojin, your stuff sounds pretty snazzy, but I'll wait a bit before thinking about the audio: the game is still so early in development that it's hard to say what kind of atmosphere it ends up having. And Carrie, yes, it's basically TF2 meets Minecraft Lite.

[kavs]

Looking sexy. :3 Love how much progress you have made here!

I'm curious to see how you make the miner work. His description states he'll be gathering resources, so it could be cool to see some players have to be the 'economy' for the team while they shell out money on ammo, machines, and defenses. I've always liked the idea of a player-controlled economy like that. The only other example I can think of are the ANT drivers in Planetside (oh so long ago...).

Keep it up!

[Dragonmaw]

As far as actions go, you could probably make there be two buttons: attack and context. Attack does the default attack, and context is you "action" button that operates machinery, does special moves, etc.

[Wowk]

You get things done so fast!
I wish I were as experienced at game developing as you. ;P

Well...I'm looking forward to play it. Keep the good work

[Inanimate]

I like your current idea of two buttons, but perhaps you could do ZSD? Z does the action, S and D cycle back and forth. That'd work pretty well!

[Hempuli‽]

Let's see:

Kavs: Hopefully digging will be the 'main' job of a miner/builder, since the scientists and engineers need the resources to research and build things. Also, mining can be used for funny ambushes-from-below. Besides, I'm planning of adding 'artifacts' that are objects found underground, that can be researched separately to gain special stuff. If you've ever played Space Station 13, you'll know what I mean. The building aspect will probably mostly be about fixing broken walls and building reinforcements, unless the builder is exceptionally good at avoiding death and starts expanding the base.

As for the buttons, I'd really like to use the context idea Dragonmaw mentioned, but I'll have to see to what extent the players need to be able to interact with the environment. Currently the biggest problem is stuff like bombs, jetpacks and cloaking devices - you'd need to be able to interact with them while still being able to use other items, thus making the 'context' button unusable here.


This is how the HUD looks currently. If I use my original idea, it'll have four icons instead of three, but that is to be seen. (If you're wondering why the gun is there, every class will have a weapon of some sort, it's just that soldiers/fighters have much more powerful ones.)(Also that's a syringe, not a sword, darnit!)

Here's a silly explanation your for the icons:
- The first icon is the 'special ability' of each class, so the icon will change depending on the class. The Miner/Builder has the 'build' ability, the Scientist has the 'heal' ability, and the Engineer has the 'fix' ability. I'm not sure what kind of an activateable special ability would fit the soldier, all suggestions are welcomed!

- The second icon is, unsurprisingly, for attacking. As I've mentioned, the weapons vary a bit depending on the class - the soldier has a more powerful gun and the miner can use his gun for mining.

- The third one is currently WIP and pretty ugly, but the idea is that this is for the 'context' command, kind of. Basically when you have this icon selected, you'll interact with items. I'll have to think of the arrangement of the icons a bit, since this should probably be the first!

- I quickly drew an ugly backpack do demonstrate the possible fourth icon. Basically this ability would let you to pick up, carry and throw things. It'd be used for larger carriable things like artifacts and bombs, but also wearable bonus items like jetpacks. I'm not entirely sure how this'll work out, we'll see.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll make a post about today's updates later!

[Sos]

Sooo... when can we test drive this thingie?

[Hempuli‽]

I'm running on a public server, so I don't quite want to release any alphas before the game's ready. If you PM me, I can send you the game though. Also I'll try to organize some kind of a testing jamboree once I get the game to a state where I feel tester input is really needed.

That state is arriving slowly but steadily; today I added weapons!

The weird mess in the hands of the scientist is a gun; I autorotated the diagonals and they look really awful; gotta do something about that later. You can't really shoot yet, but all the weapon sprites are in, the guys can switch between them freely and connected players can see them, too.

I also planned some research stuff:

(note that I just pushed in everything I thought to be cool. Don't expect all of this to actually make it!)(Also, levitation isn't currently anything, just something you need to research for the sake of researching!)

Any suggestions are warmly welcomed as usual. In fact, there's something I can't really decide alone: Just what should the 'personal ability' of the soldier be? He has more health than the others and has a better weapon, sure, but I think it'd be nicely symmetric if every character had evenly icons! The ability should be something that is related to the job of a soldier, and one that could be re-used several times.

Good night!

[godatplay]

Just what should the 'personal ability' of the soldier be? He has more health than the others and has a better weapon, sure, but I think it'd be nicely symmetric if every character had evenly icons! The ability should be something that is related to the job of a soldier, and one that could be re-used several times.

Some ideas: hazing, intimidation, destroy blocks, waste resources, run.

[Danrul]

Grenade, morale boost, shouty shout.

[reetva]

A short rush attack, used for stunning yourself and the enemy (enemies?) you hit, thus setting them up for your teammates.

[Xion]

A loud shout that stuns nearby enemies. If you spam it your voice gets weaker and weaker until you can't shout at all and are stunned yourself as you catch your breath.

A grappling hook that lets you scale walls easily and commando down from ceilings.

A shotgun, with more punch but less speed and range than his other gun.

A grenade toss, powerful but easily avoidable if they see it coming.

A buoy knife that does great damage but has virtually no range.


What will be the difference between the hand and backpack icon's uses? I'd imagine one would be able to pick up and carry things with a context button, but if those are actions for another button, what contexts will the context button have?