Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411281 Posts in 69324 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: bob1029

March 28, 2024, 11:30:51 PM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsModulus:Phase One - Space RTS
Pages: [1] 2 3
Print
Author Topic: Modulus:Phase One - Space RTS  (Read 10029 times)
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« on: December 14, 2014, 10:56:38 PM »

  
 

 

 
UPDATE

Combat sandbox demo is now available!The day has come!

Having realized I cannot continue work on the 4x mode without disabling the demo sandbox stuff, I am releasing the 'Modulus Combat Demo'  to the public! (much cheering was heard in my head)

The Combat Sandbox mode consist of waves of ships that increase over time attacking a space station you must defend by designing/building ships of your own.  Resources have been disabled - GO NUTS!!11  

I added some control layout help infographics at game start - but you can hit f1 at any time in the battle room to see them again.

 
Short TLDL for play -


Game is played with KB + M and or Gamepad (including direct ship control mode ala Starsector!)-

 
A ship needs min of 5 section to be valid (And up to 100 sections) -

You really want an engine on there (unless you really don't like to move)-
 
You really want at least one sensor/radar on there  (Cant hit what you want see!)-

The game is far from content complete (as you will see from the sparsely populated sections of usable parts and entire classes sitting empty).    

Demo doesn't have ending (resets if you LOSE, but there is no winning condition), will keep spawning ship till you die or something breaks....

 Win10 users be sure to DL dx9 runtimes!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/d55xypaklxl04hh/Modulus+Combat+Demo.zip




My one man crazy crusade for three years! At last I am opening a public devlog. Modulus is a 2d space RTS built on dynamic ship creation/destruction and emergent behavior systems. Action takes place in procedurally generated "galaxy" of 81 star systems each made up of 9 solar regions.
 
 Background:
 
Concept:
 
When I started this project I imagined a world where I could build my own armada of ships from the ground up, not just by choosing what ships would be in my fleets but by building each and every ship from the ground up, hull piece by hull piece, weapons by weapon. hard point by hard point.
 
So I created a modular ship section concept and an easy to use ship editor with which I can create my own ships, in the shape that I like, with the radars that I want, with the attack systems and defence systems that I want!!!
 
With a large variety of ship parts,  weapons, engines, defense platforms and other modular components to suit most any personal taste I can basically build any ship I want and mirror the ships from my favorite sci-fi space series such as "Star Wars" "Star Trek" Babylon 5" "Battlestar Galactica" "Space Battleship Yamato" and others.
 
 
Images:
Enough talk. here are some pretty pictures
Hit by heavy mass drivers, ship is ripped in half, destroying it


Two ships flying right into the thick of it!


VLS interceptor missile launches!



And that one. I guess he won't tell having seen a Shadow ship



Building drone assembling a ship



There is more to see

YouTube channel:
 
 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTMmhT5m9RHSPWdKrdEwgTw/videos
 


Vine Videos:
    https://vine.co/u/1112907919592181760



Imgur Albums
 
 http://imgur.com/a/fJuCy
 http://imgur.com/a/imJ8f
 http://imgur.com/a/fJuCy
 http://imgur.com/a/imJ8f
 http://imgur.com/a/XhVu3
 http://imgur.com/a/XhVu3
 http://imgur.com/a/JKn0R
 http://imgur.com/a/JKn0R
 http://imgur.com/a/7p1FS
 http://imgur.com/a/7p1FS
 http://imgur.com/a/eVveZ
 http://imgur.com/a/eVveZ
 
 
Engine Features:
Aegis like Combat system making for very efficient target designation
 
Modular destruction system. As you build your ships with modules... they can crumble in the same way, a ship can be cut in half, if you're lucky it can still run around in battle and possibly be as efficient as a chicken with it's head cut off... nonetheless if it survives the battle it's a good day!!
 
Easy Command  and control system which was a challenge with the limitations of android touch devices
 
AIs can react differently depending on the Mode they are in and their weapons capabilities
 
Aggressive, defensive, passive, escort modes selection
 
Easy to control with touch devices
 
Galaxy system
 
Planetary system
 
You can navigate through the galaxy by making interstellar jumps
 
You can navigate to different areas of a planetary system with system jumps
 
You can do tactical jumps... The "Ricker Maneuver", if you will, during an attack Smiley
 
 
The weapons, there are a ton, hard shells turrets, lasers, missile launchers, plasma beams, defence hardpoint, mines, nuclear devices, beams that can cut a ship in half.... all that to make an amazing fireworks display!!
 
 
Editor Features:
Modular Building of Ships
Wide selection of hull pieces
Wide selection of attack weapons to choose from
Wide selection of defence systems
Wide selection of radars
Wide selection of lasers
Selection of engine
Multi leveling of components
 
 
Game:
The game is currently a sandbox, player vs AIs, but I am adding features to have clans and civilians and various outposts/stations to build and protect. Working on resource management system to limit what you can build in the editor based on the resources you gather and tech you find.
 
At this point in time the game could go in any direction, but I am getting close to formulate and test a few ideas.
 
Platforms:
PC,
Android,
IOS
 
Development Platform:
Game Maker Studio
 
 
More to come!  Just new to this whole public dev log/ other people exist thing. >__>

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TMC_LordVTP

Affiliates:
http://www.themojocollective.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheMojoCollective



« Last Edit: June 21, 2016, 05:13:15 PM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
oodavid
Level 8
***


Discombobulate!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2014, 12:17:21 AM »

Loving the colour palette, very rainbow! Great screenshake too, following Smiley

Edit - it's a shame you've been in stealth for 3 years, I would have loved to see how you've achieved this - I suppose starting now we can!
Logged


Button up! - Out on Android and iOS

latest release: 13th March 2015
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2014, 01:30:54 AM »

Loving the colour palette, very rainbow! Great screenshake too, following Smiley

Edit - it's a shame you've been in stealth for 3 years, I would have loved to see how you've achieved this - I suppose starting now we can!

Thank you!  I've hit the point were I just cant work without feedback on this. Not all the systems are set in stone yet so I'll be bouncing idea's off the crowd here in the days to come.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2014, 02:02:18 AM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
lapinozz
Level 0
*



View Profile
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2014, 05:33:20 AM »

NICE!!! Grin
I am currently making a game like this but whit crew inside the ship, i love to this that the concept is working beautifully.
Good work, cant wait to see more.
Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2014, 07:14:25 PM »

NICE!!! Grin
I am currently making a game like this but whit crew inside the ship, i love to this that the concept is working beautifully.
Good work, cant wait to see more.

TY! =]

I made a choice not to deal with ship crews as my goal with the AI is to have them be reasonable capable of action, but also for scale reasons.  if your going to have dozens/ even hundreds of ships under your command you simply do not have the means to micromanage it all. Instead I give the player the means to purposely alter behavior away from the pure generative/emergent choices. For example you can build a heavy long range fire ship, tell it to hold a position, and then tell it to prioritize command and control ships for destruction. The agent system is based on AI War's logic design, expect in this with dynamic ships, the ships are make their decisions based upon their own makeup and comparing it to the enemy at hand.
 
Made another gif! Seems imgur is much more size friendly then  twitter.



Some of my fave screens. Wallpaper grade!

http://i.imgur.com/j1I5lfM.png
http://i.imgur.com/xmLGiND.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QI5dnG9.jpg
« Last Edit: December 16, 2014, 02:12:49 AM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2014, 04:05:12 PM »

This week on Modulus!  

Added a system to properly handle fullscreen display with proper aspect ratio correction for all elements! Supports  16x10, 16x9 and 4x3 aspects. Playing around with the idea of more a complex wreckage/shrapnel system.  

Thought i'd take a moment explain the radar/sensor setup in Mod! There are three types of basic radars in game.  Type 1 are considered navigational, and only ping structures and ships. These are meant to emulate rotating mast longer wave radars. Type 2 are directional and only ping "threats" as in missiles, fighters ect. These are meant to emulate static phased array systems such as the SPY-1. These are faced to the direction of the hull section they are attached. Type 3 are mixed mode and ping as both types.

The balance for these type works like this - At an equivalent cost-

Type 1 - Will have greater range and faster scan rate then a type 3. Omni-directional-

Type 2 - Will have much greater range then type 3 and much faster scan rates. Only radiates in a 90 degree arc though-

Type 3 - Sacrifices range and scan rate for dual purpose detection. Omni-directional-

In addition, there are "Combat Computers" that increase the total number of hostile tracks and intercepts a ship can handle.
My reasoning for all this is to delineate between picket ships and real command and control types. A well designed picket ship needs good sensors, defensive weapons and combat computers to perform it's role.  

The way radar pings in Mod are handled is this -

Each radar on a ship pings based in it's scan rate,  if an object if within it's base range parameter it will apply radar energy to that object based on distance/max range while applying the square inverse law. Energy bleeds of a a given rate on each object and it the energy overcomes it's detection threshold it will then be flagged radar visible.  Things like fighters and missiles have a hard detection threshold but ships have a RCS(Radar Cross-ection) value based on their build.  In general terms a smaller simpler ship is harder to detect.  I've thought about adding radar-jammer ability's and a method for actually turning active radar off with a massive reduction in detection probability, but haven't worked to implement this yet.

Now what happens with that radar data?

Hostile tracks (missiles,fighters ect) are evaluated based on the ships targeting envelope mode. In default mode tracks will be prioritized based on probability of impact and time to probable impact(rather then on pure distance). Essentially the ship will launch on tracks likely to be a threat to only that ship. In the second level intercept envelope size this is expanded to cover a region large enough to cover immediate allies. In the largest envelope the logic switches to a battle-space control mode,  where all tracks are registered for intercept within range regardless of threat probability.    

Now that the targets have been given a priority they are entered into a figurative(and in this case literal) target stack. The data is also side fed into all the CIWIS(close in weapons systems), which can rotate through the tracks at random to allow for multiple simultaneous intercepts.  In the code it is also possible to select how many missiles will be launched per track as IRL 2 missiles per target track is standard to increase PK(probability of Kill), but in most ships wont have the missiles to spare. In the future I may make a button for that though!

All of this work is to avoid one of my major peeves in RTS/strategy games TD's ect.... Units simply target the closest target regardless of efficiency!

EDIT- One thing I forget to mention is the idea of adding a proper cooperative engagement mode for battle groups to further increase the intercept efficiency. 

Oh, here's some raw game play footage I took last night to test the new aspect ratio system, debug visuals and all!






« Last Edit: December 20, 2014, 04:23:20 PM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2014, 08:51:30 PM »

This week on Modulus!  
CHRISTMASTIMEHELLS YAH!  (No time for gamedev eating)-
Still managed to sneak time in here and there, running late today with all day efforts!

Today I purchased licenses for all the music I need or trailers and in game (insofar as beta would go at least).  It’s fairly interesting how much easier this has gotten in the last few years, with the internet allowing for small time content producers to market and disturbed there works to people other than major entertainment concerns.  Still… $200 in music licenses hurts my skinny wallet >__>
I have plans for some in game cinematics to start the demo out-   Picturing a nomadic pre-iron age tribe moving across a plain on a clear night, some looking at the stars above.  One of them notices colored lights and flashes, points and gets the other attention.  This would transition to a battle line of ships high above the planet, determined to keep the opposing force away and protect the primitive peoples below…
It’s a concept anyhow; to be honest I haven’t nailed down the plot in anyform.  

I've been implementing code for an idea I got from a twitter comment, about implementing a way to capture enemy ships.   I’m thinking of using it alongside a change in how unit unlocks are done.  I’m thinking of having two modes for the mothership to participate in this capture mechanic, either in capture mode, or consumption mode.   Consumption mode would take a nod from Space Pirates an Zombies (in that you get access to hulls via blueprints taken from destroyed enemy) with a given number of each type needing to be consumed before being unlocked.  In this case it would be more fine grained, as the number of parts can be consumed will be much higher (in time). I'd like to hear your thoughts if you'd like to give them!

This weeks dev pic album!


« Last Edit: December 28, 2014, 01:45:03 AM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2015, 07:03:48 PM »

Just wanted to how of my new jump drive effect!
Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2015, 02:28:04 AM »

My second attempt at a decent trailer! please tell me what you think! ;----;




Logged
lapinozz
Level 0
*



View Profile
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2015, 08:51:43 AM »

Epic! but it would be nice to see the building gameplay and maybe a more closer view of ship Smiley
Logged
bdsowers
Level 3
***



View Profile WWW
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2015, 10:04:08 AM »

This looks great. I normally don't go in for space battle games, but all the fancy particles and craziness give this an epic feel to it. Like one of the massive Battlestar Galactica conflicts.

Your trailer is coming along well. I watched without sound (in a coffee shop), so I can't comment on that. Some of your early cuts seem a little jarring - you might want to hold on the scene a touch longer or transition a little differently.
Logged

TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2015, 10:29:23 PM »

Epic! but it would be nice to see the building gameplay and maybe a more closer view of ship Smiley

Yah I was thinking about that afterwords... Next one will go into the editor more in depth. You want closer ship views the min scale level atm is 3x (through 19x) but i could adjust it down if you like the idea of getting closer to individual ships =]

This looks great. I normally don't go in for space battle games, but all the fancy particles and craziness give this an epic feel to it. Like one of the massive Battlestar Galactica conflicts.

Your trailer is coming along well. I watched without sound (in a coffee shop), so I can't comment on that. Some of your early cuts seem a little jarring - you might want to hold on the scene a touch longer or transition a little differently.

They are! Still learning the ropes of the editing software.  All the footage came from one game session so I was a touch limited(still was 2 hours of source footage to make that lol).  I'm trying to see how far I can get with just game footage before I try to add game art type stuff via After Effects... 

Thanks for checking the video out guys I really appreciate it!
Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2015, 02:32:20 AM »

Got a new video for you! This is an overview of the ship editor.




Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2015, 04:12:21 PM »

Today's awesome is brought to you by....me




This video represents about a weeks work on Modulus, what do you guys think of this new look?
Logged
lapinozz
Level 0
*



View Profile
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2015, 10:09:07 AM »

These graphic feel nice, will they all by in that style?
Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #15 on: January 26, 2015, 01:21:54 AM »

These graphic feel nice, will they all by in that style?

The idea is to create nice set of faction sets!  With lots of variety, this set is meant to be a steam-punk/boilerplate WWI ship look. We got some weird ideas, even a set of parts for ships made all of gems/crystal! I am happy to take suggestions if you got a
idea we could translate into a ship design style!
« Last Edit: January 26, 2015, 11:58:54 AM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #16 on: February 21, 2015, 01:43:47 PM »

New video!



More new parts in the new style, hope soon to have colorized textures for them.

Logged
lapinozz
Level 0
*



View Profile
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2015, 02:32:40 PM »

The video is really cool, i love the missiles at 4:12 x)
what is "phase 1"?

Keep it up, the style is so nice i didn't even notice the texture was gray lol
Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2015, 11:28:15 PM »

Not dead yet! (or anything close to it!) Just haven't been working on anything visually interesting in some time. The combat emo is getting closer to release every day (if i could only prob the artists a touch harder >__>;; )

That said, NEW VIDEO!
 




Showing off the new shield effect! took some time to get something fully dynamic and representative of the segmented shield setup.
Logged
TMC_LordVTP
Level 0
**


View Profile
« Reply #19 on: September 18, 2015, 12:41:54 AM »

Wow, it's been some time since i updated this....  Shrug
Ok well I have been quietly working through things in the game (as well as adding finished assets at last).

Bigger news is I showcased the game at the Portland Mini Maker Fair at OMSI!


pay no attention to my old man who is hiding his face (he helped me get set up)


Another kiosk shot



Surprisingly half (of two to three hundred) the people who played where kids! Totally did not expect that!
I was so busy I hardly got a chance to grab food....



Folk's around me at the Portland Indie Game Squad tables (Who I have to thank for this opportunity)

Got allot of good feedback (mostly pertaining to the mix and match of old and new art assets).  Folks really digged the new art pieces as well! This was a first experience for me (showcasing my work in public) and I was really nervous (didn't sleep a wink the night before). Funny story actually I only had about 24 hours to prepare, and ran all over town getting a poster and business cards made as well as a final build of the game ready. My laptop sucks so I decided to take my main machine. this was a problem as I have a huge external cooling system. Ended up running to Fry's to grab a AIO liquid cooler to make it mobile. Used a 32inch 1080p TV as the screen on the kiosk (and i should totally get a 40+ inch 4k tv for the next time!)


Side not, guess how much size differnce there is between tiny and huge ship class in Mod?


last but not least, I have another build video to add here!




Watch in 1440p60 in chrome for best viewing!


 



« Last Edit: October 23, 2015, 02:38:04 PM by TMC_LordVTP » Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic