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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsSpaceHero Command
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CrazyMLC
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« Reply #40 on: December 21, 2011, 02:17:02 PM »

Hey there happymonster! I remember you from pixelation, cool to see you're working on a game.
I really like X-Com, so I'll be looking forward to this. Good luck with the project!
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happymonster
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« Reply #41 on: December 21, 2011, 02:36:10 PM »

Thanks!

Even if I'm not good for much tonight after work, I've at least managed to improve the camera. Now it will accelerate towards the new position and then decelerate smoothly when it gets close to the new location. This all happens quickly, but makes the movement feel smooth, whilst still feeling accurate and that you are in control. At least when I test it..

This kind of work is very important to me, it has to feel right else I won't like to play the game, nevermind other people! It's all these little bits with tweaking and testing that might not appear obvious but can have a big impact on the overall feel.

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happymonster
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« Reply #42 on: December 22, 2011, 10:34:45 AM »

Map-making

Christmas is almost here, and I've now got auto-map saving and loading implemented.  Gomez

The way it works is that when you start on a blank map the viewing area is actually in the centre of a 256 x 256 map. Once you have drawn a map the game will analyse the map to see what part of the larger 256 x 256 map has any newly drawn tiles on. Only this part of the map is saved, and when it is loaded again the map is placed automatically in the centre of the large 256 x 256 map.

This makes it easy to expand and shrink existing maps, whilst only saving the area that's relevant.

Does that make sense?
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happymonster
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« Reply #43 on: December 23, 2011, 12:21:18 PM »

Shadowlands

I am using a shadow effect in the game to make the walls and other objects look a bit more solid and 3D'ish.  One problem with this is that the angle of lighting to make the best shadows (probably top left, shadows going down right), also means the lighting is behind most objects. This means that if we try to have semi-realistic lighting then the front of walls and other graphics will all look quite dark.

Clearly, this wouldn't look very appealing, so like the Matrix we have to bend the rules and make the gfx look a little lighter then would normally be the case.. Wink

With that decision out of the way, we also have to look at the shadow direction. One of the most common (and effective) is the shadows falling to the bottom right of objects. However I tried this, and it just didn't work too well for me. Not sure why. So in the end I've gone for a small shadow cast to the bottom of objects. This lets me use a shadow around the bottom of our soldiers / enemies as well without worrying about it overlaying other graphics to the right.

However one thing I have added is a soft edge to the bottom of the shadows. It does help might it look softer and I know it is now commonly used in games. Not sure if I've seen it used in this kind of genre before.

Next I want to get highlighting of units when selected, and start to do the selection logic so we can look at moving units around.  Gomez
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happymonster
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« Reply #44 on: December 25, 2011, 02:58:27 AM »

Just want to say Merry Christmas Everyone!!  Gomez
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Yodhe
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« Reply #45 on: December 25, 2011, 07:19:06 AM »

Thanks, now stop slacking and finish your game.  Grin
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happymonster
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« Reply #46 on: December 26, 2011, 10:59:11 AM »

Well it is Christmas!!  Big Laff

Anyway, I've added some code to make the game deal with different screen aspects. For example my laptop is 1366 x 768 (16:9 ratio) with the inbuilt screen, but my large external monitor is 1280 x 1024 (4:3 ratio). Now the game will alter the amount of drawing and positioning to suit different aspect ratios and screen sizes.
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happymonster
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« Reply #47 on: December 28, 2011, 05:12:53 AM »

Got the first stage of character highlighting done (when you move your mouse cursor over them).

Also added in text drawing which I will use for the GUI details (unit's name, etc..)

Smiley
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Durruti
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« Reply #48 on: December 28, 2011, 06:22:49 PM »

I'm a huge fan of turn-based squad tactics games, so, I'm just dropping a line to say that I dig your concept. Keep up the good work, this shit sounds awesome.
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happymonster
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« Reply #49 on: December 29, 2011, 09:51:38 AM »

Cheers! I've been busy with relatives over christmas, but also had a tiny amount of time to play around with gui status panels. Still trying to work out what content I need and what it should look like.. Smiley
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Catman
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« Reply #50 on: December 29, 2011, 11:11:32 AM »

Looking forward to your demos! I like what I see so far, especially how you are explaining your choices!
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Alec S.
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« Reply #51 on: December 29, 2011, 11:49:11 AM »

Posting here so that I can keep track of all the awesome going on in this thread.
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happymonster
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« Reply #52 on: December 29, 2011, 04:04:04 PM »

Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad people are finding this interesting, despite the lack of screenshots!  Coffee
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happymonster
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« Reply #53 on: December 30, 2011, 02:37:00 AM »

Putting a brave face on

One thing I really liked in X-Com was that at the first few levels of armour (the starting one, and Personal Armour) your soldiers faces / heads were clearly visible. That always seemed to make them seem more like individual people rather than faceless soldiers to me. Especially when they had different skin colourations and hair styles from each other. In that game it was a bit disappointing then that you lost that when you developed the Power Suit and Flying Suit armours. Everyone then seemed like generic space lobsters marines..

I think other games like the Gears of Wars series realise the advantages of showing faces too, as you have these super-uber marines with massive armour and guns but a bare and exposed head. Clearly saying to the enemy "Yo ho! Look at me, I've almost got a target painted on my forehead for you to aim at!" Still it helps make you identify with the characters more, so realism be damned eh?

The original Final Fantasy games (NES era, 16 x 16 graphics) were successful at this as well in that they made the characters have a recognisable face to help give them personality. Even though this resulted in large heads relative to their bodies (admittedly perhaps part of the charm),it really did make them seem more interesting and alive.

For me, the 10 x 10 graphics are a bit smaller than for the original Final Fantasy Games, but I'm still going to give the soldiers (and hopefully most of the enemies) the details for a face. Probably more along the lines of the eyes being shown (rather than a mouth & nose) as in the graphics sets developed by the great OddBall and Onyx! Wink

Another advantage with portraying eyes is that they also show the direction the soldier / creature is looking (and facing) for indicating directional fire, line of sight, etc..

I'm considering adding different skin colourations and hair styles to your soldiers as in X-com to make them a bit different from each other as well. But this might have to wait until the game is a bit further on and playable.
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happymonster
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« Reply #54 on: December 31, 2011, 11:33:24 AM »

Satnav

If you move your mouse over a unit you will now see that the locations where that unit can move to are highlighted in a mid greenish colour. This effect occurs in each tile square where the green highlight enlarges in size and in opacity. The nearest tiles to the unit has the effect appearing before the tiles further away which gives a little growing highlight effect.

Of course this happens quickly as it would be annoying if it took too long, but it's just a little bit of polish which looks nice I think subtly shows the range that can be moved. I plan to make the highlight colour change depending on whether you can still shoot if you move to that tile, but this is something to try out when the game is playable.

The routines were easy to adapt from other games, and as I've done them a few times anyway, path finding routines like this aren't too difficult for me to do. Next I'll add the extra selected highlight option if you select that unit to move. This will be a brighter square appearing over the already highlighted squares.  Gomez
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Yodhe
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« Reply #55 on: December 31, 2011, 12:00:47 PM »

All sounds excellent, can't wait to see how your words translate onto the screen. :D
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happymonster
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« Reply #56 on: January 02, 2012, 09:12:38 AM »

Extra selected tiles highlight effect now added. I've been playing around with different GUI ideas as well, but not found anything that I like completely yet.

Also, new year stuff with friends and family. Smiley
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happymonster
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« Reply #57 on: January 02, 2012, 01:53:27 PM »

Arrows point the way

I'm not sure where arrow signs came from, but they sure are useful! One case in point is that if you select a unit in the game and then move the mouse to one of the highlighted squares the game will now show you the way with handy arrows and an X (for X marks the spot) at the end. Smiley

The code was pretty much ripped straight out of Chaos Groove, but works fine. I want to make the arrow graphics looks better, and then I can start at making the units actually move!

Of course that will mean some basic animation I'll need to do for the 8 directions (groan!)
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happymonster
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« Reply #58 on: January 03, 2012, 02:15:35 PM »

Follow the lights

Ok.. I've improved the arrow graphics and made them fade in/out when moving around the selected tiles (rather than simply disappearing or appearing). This makes moving around the selected tiles look smoother and overall nicer really.

I've also added a subtle fade in/out following the direction of the arrow trail, in the same way that lights can seem to scroll in a certain direction.

Finally I've managed to optimise the graphics drawing so that's boosted the frame rate quite a bit.

A productive day! Wink
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happymonster
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« Reply #59 on: January 05, 2012, 02:43:57 PM »

Actually, the lighting arrow effect seemed a bit too distracting (upon reflection) and not what I was after. So I've turned that off and worked some more on the saturation to make the arrows brighter than the surrounding highlighted tiles. I'm happier with this now.

It's been very busy for me at the moment, so little time for work on the game.  Huh?
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