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[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?

[Hempuli‽]

Xion: Well, the hand icon is used for using machines and vehicles and otherwise 'using' stuff. Why I thought I'd need a separate icon for carrying is that if you for example want to pick up a bomb that is in front of a machine, what would happen? Or if you picked up said bomb and wanted to take a ride with a plane to the enemy territory, how would you go not dropping the bomb when you use the same 'ability' to do both? Also some of the items, like the aforementioned cloaks and jetpacks need some way to be put on, but also some way to be taken off. I still have to think about this a bit, since I doubt my way of doing it is the best possible.

Anyway, to the suggestions (thanks a lot guys!  ):

hazing, intimidation - I'd love to have 'hazing' be the ability because of the name, but I don't really get how these two would work. Did you think of hazing/intimidation being sort of buffs/debuffs for the other characters?

Grenade - This is a bit problematic since throwable bombs is a separate thing. Also it'd feel strange to me if the soldier had an endless supply of them; even though the same happens with bullets, grenades are sort of more 'concrete' stuff and seeing them appear from nowhere would be slightly awkward.

I guess that some kind of a stun ability would be the best here. Originally I had thought of a 'stun ray' of some sort, but that would be quite overpowered since the soldiers would just get to the enemy scientists, stun them and kill them. The rush stun would be pretty cool, though it'd require very good coordination from the team to avoid the soldier being killed when he's stunned himself.

The knife is one I also thought about. Backstabbing would be pretty darn neat and also quite satisfactory, albeit really hard unless those cloaks were researched. I have to see if the connection allows such fine-tuned action as knifes, but otherwise this idea would be pretty cool!

I've thought of making the soldiers start with a jetpack, to make them really powerful. The grappling hook wouldn't be very useful in comparison to a jetpack, and since there are also stuff like planes and diggers, I'm not sure if they'd be useful.

I guess that either a stun with a drawback or a knife would be the best choices. Of course I don't know how the gameplay will turn out, so stuff like temporary buffs or the grappling hook may seem more useful later on. We'll see, hopefully I'll get shooting and so on done today. Again, thanks for th suggestions, hopefully I didn't sound too rude when I made such a "why this might not work" -list!

[Dragonmaw]

Soldier is easy. Give him a self-heal, like a stimpack or healthpack of some kind. Makes it so he can stay in enemy territory longer.

[Hempuli‽]

Uh oh, the public server I've been using is down. I hope this'll be resolved eventually! Fortunately I can currently use localhost for testing.


Boing, you can shoot now! There was a reallly annoying bug that somehow made the characters disappear upon shooting, but now it works all right!

The next thing to do is quite a large one: I'll need to change the walls from MMF 2's base backdrop system to a custom one, in order to avoid unnecessary lag when the players dig/build a lot of stuff, and in order to allow easier terrain destruction. I'm also thinking of making the terrain between the team bases be slightly procedural, along with the resource deposits underground. After that it's just damage-taking and I think I'm ready for some testing coolness (assuming the server comes back up or I find an alternative ).

EDIT: Oh, and Dragonmaw: I guess you're right, though there should also be a reason for the healing ability the scientists have!

[Hempuli‽]

Now there's slight procedural generation going! Also I managed to make the game send the required data to other players, so everyone sees the same level! I'm quite happy with the progress here, dudettes! (If you're wondering why there's flat stuff on the sides, it's because the player bases will be there and they'll be every time the same.)

Next thing will be tweaking and adding damage-taking, and possibly digging. Then I think I'll try to get a larger testing session going. I still wont probably release any kind of a playable version, but anyway.

[Hempuli‽]

So, before going to sleep, I started making the first drafts of the team base:


It's really ugly and awful, I know, but at least it's a start. I'll have to think a bit what kind of base design would be coolest-looking while simultaneously being relatively easy to defend and access.

[godatplay]

This is coming along nicely.  Nice mini-map too

[jibowski]

HaHa! looks FUN & SEXY ! 

[Hempuli‽]

Digging works now! I also added taking damage from shots, as indicated by the health bars in the screenshot. It required some fighting to get the game register damage properly but now it seems to be working.

[Rob Lach]

Looking good. Definitely has the possibility of going places.

[FinalSin]

This looks seriously hot. Can't wait.