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RetroNeo Games
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« Reply #20 on: November 16, 2015, 06:04:27 AM »

Back now and I've hit the ground running! While away I was notified of a bug where in certain Quality settings on the PC download of the demo, all ships would move way too quickly.

For any Unity coders out there, here was the solution:
In the engine scripts (which were called in the Update function) that caused movement, I was using the engine speed X Time.fixedDeltaTime (a constant) in a few places, instead of just Time.deltaTime (the length of time since the last frame).

So I was multiplying a constant into each frame, and on faster graphics settings there's a higher number of frames per second, resulting in faster overall movement.

The bug has been fixed and the PC download should now work on all quality settings.
Get it here! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70298032/Games/SOS%20combat%20demo%20%28PC%29%20v0.1.6.rar
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« Reply #21 on: December 06, 2015, 04:24:14 AM »

Have decided not to have ships regenerate health. This means that if you or your wingmen take hull damage, that you have a real tactical decision to make as to whether to continue or retreat. The FPS 'strawberry jam' health system suits more of a dumb action game, but that's not the feel of the games I take inspiration from; namely X-COM, Wing Commander, X-Wing, and Total War.
To go along with this, ammo and afterburner fuel will also be limited.

If you have any experience with these types of decisions, please leave a comment.
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« Reply #22 on: December 14, 2015, 07:04:15 AM »

I'm pleased to say that I've finally gotten Vibration support for the gamepad into the game. This has been something of my Everest (or at least K2) for a while. I've tried and failed to implement it before. Unity doesn't naturally support controller vibration so you have to import certain namespaces and I could never find good instruction on which ones or where to find them.

Finally I've done it. The instructions (and a link to the download required) are here.
https://github.com/speps/XInputDotNet
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« Reply #23 on: December 16, 2015, 02:56:56 PM »

Behold!



Not mad hard to do, but I had put it on the long finger for a long time. I've made it so that radar signatures don't disappear off the edge of the radar. Instead, if they're outside of radar range they'll linger on the edge of the circle and shrink with distance.

Even though the tactical map I put in before could be used to find far away enemies, this is a far more elegant solution to the problem of players not spotting enemies. Some people have still said that they'd want the indicators brought right down to the centre of the screen, but others have said they like the radar up in the corner. As do I.

If you have any thoughts on that, please chime in! It's a big UI decision to make. (While I'm at it, please note that all the rest of the UI is woefully "temporary" Tongue)
« Last Edit: April 16, 2017, 01:12:54 PM by RetroNeo Games » Logged
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« Reply #24 on: December 19, 2015, 05:57:07 AM »



This GIF actually shows three new major changes that haven't been discussed before. I'll follow up posts soon about two of them, but the most obvious is that I'm playing around with some levels being fought above planetary surfaces. This means infinitely scrolling a planetary background texture based on your movement as you orbit the planet.

I'd love to hear what people think. There's currently a bit of a mismatch in the art styles used but I think it's promising.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2017, 01:19:19 PM by RetroNeo Games » Logged
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« Reply #25 on: December 19, 2015, 10:59:05 AM »

I like the radar in the corner for the UI. I think it's what more people will expect/be comfortable with as well. Great job with the updates and progress - I don't know why this log hasn't received many comments - but keep going Smiley

Also like the idea of the new planet surface map. Obviously needs some work, like you said - but looks like a good start.
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Pixel Noise - professional composition/sound design studio.
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« Reply #26 on: December 20, 2015, 04:37:17 AM »

Thanks very much for the feedback! I shall keep it up!
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« Reply #27 on: December 31, 2015, 05:04:05 AM »

I've been trying to perfect the dodge mechanic. Previously the player could select an auto-dodge powerup at the start (in the full game it would be a "training"/upgrade) which makes the craft dodge for one second if you're hit, but it has a 3 second cooldown, so a second shot within 3 seconds would likely hit you. Your health was also on a slow recharge. There were no shields but "luck"/dodge sort of replaces that need. There was also a manual dodge button with the same cooldown. This was originally the only way not to get hit, and so it fed into the skill-based combat ethos. The auto-dodge ruined it I felt.

I tried to marry the two. In a current build (not public at the moment. Msg me if you want to try) There's a 4-bar powerup ability, like mana. I call it "situational awareness".
If you manually dodge and then bullets pass through your space, they charge your mana.
If you have mana and a bullet hits you without you manually dodging, then you will auto-dodge and drain one mana.
If you have no mana and get hit you take permanent hull damage (no recharge).
If you fully charge the bar, then your next shot that hits an enemy will one-hit-kill them, and drain your mana back down by 3.

This was to feed into the skill based system without making players complacent, but still being a bit forgiving.

The game now becomes much more about mashing the dodge key, though. Totally changing the gameplay and becoming button mashing instead of skill based. Now to fix that I need a reason NOT to dodge. I'm trying disabling player shooting while the dodge animation plays, but this feels like taking away control for not a good enough reason. So I need a reason NOT to dodge all the time. Maybe more mana drain for a wasted dodge?

I'd really appreciate opinions, particularly from game designers.

A second problem is that the player's health system is now different to their wingmen's, creating a bit of a disconnect, when really this game is a skill based Newtonian 2D space shooter, about a SQUADRON, not a single player. The squad have to feel present and correct.

Ah, game design..
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« Reply #28 on: January 23, 2016, 07:52:06 AM »

I haven't posted in a while. Christmas was part of the slow-down, of course, but I also hadn't much visual stuff to show until now.
I want to share a few GIFs of the new and greatly improved Asteroid Fields.

Parallaxing background layers have been added through a very inexpensive particle system and a parallaxing script.
There are now 6 different Asteroid images used in random rotation, instead of just 1. This really fleshes out the field.
The big weakness is that these assets were taken from a (paid) Asset Store pack (2D space kit) and they're at different resolutions. I had to scale some up and some down, so the quality isn't uniform, but I think these will serve for now until I get an artist to make so original asteroids at the proper scale.

Enjoy! It might take a moment to load all 4. Feedback welcome.







« Last Edit: April 16, 2017, 01:17:49 PM by RetroNeo Games » Logged
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« Reply #29 on: January 23, 2016, 09:28:27 AM »

The layering of the various asteroids definitely adds depth - but just at a glance, I had expected the lighter asteroids would be on the same level or height as the ships, meaning they would need to be destroyed or dodged - but in the 3rd GIF, the wingmen fly right over a couple of them. Is that intended? I did notice that the main ship didn't fly over any asteroids, so is that the only ship you need to worry about dodging with?

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Pixel Noise - professional composition/sound design studio.
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« Reply #30 on: January 23, 2016, 10:55:22 AM »

You are entirely too correct and astute. Smiley

The dodge mechanic is being reworked at the moment. The player ship (centre) is the only one you control and you always need to dodge things. The wingmen's AI hasn't yet been caught up with the changes to the player.

I've 3 options.

1. Allow the AI ships to continue their current behaviour (sometimes they "miss", passing over with no animation, sometimes they hit and take damage, sometimes they "miss" and roll).
2. Make them prefer to pathfind around asteroids the same way that you have to (might be more effort and processing than is necessary).
3. Make them always dodge, but they'll be burning their nitro to do so, same as the player. This is a limited resource now, same as ammo, which encourages you to wrap up dogfights quickly and sometimes choose to let enemies retreat. Nitro is your dodge-juice basically (afterburners too). You can always use main engines but without nitro you're going to want to leave the battle fast.

Was going to post on this in a few days but now's good too. Would love to hear your thoughts on that.

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« Reply #31 on: January 23, 2016, 01:59:46 PM »

I'm trying to think of which would make me the most angry if it kept happening. I think having no control over the ships, I'd rather have them dodge and use nitro when needed, rather than just blindly taking hits from asteroids that could have been avoided.

Or maybe there's a way to tie their actions in to yours? Like, if you dodge, they also dodge (or at least take no damage, even if they visually run over an asteroid)? And if you don't, then they are susceptible to taking damage from objects they run into. (And maybe there's still a chance they execute a dodge on their own? Not sure how involved the AI is going to be, and how many variables you want to program in)

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Pixel Noise - professional composition/sound design studio.
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 https://pixelnoisemusic.bandcamp.com/

Recently completed the ReallyGoodBattle OST!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=vgf-4DjU5q
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« Reply #32 on: January 23, 2016, 03:41:14 PM »

I want the wingmen to be capable. I want the player to respect their abilities, start to feel for the characters, then weep if and when they're swarmed and killed. This means pretty credible AI is required. So you're right, they shouldn't take avoidable hits, and the player shouldn't be responsible for their every move.

After all, while that GIF shows them in formation with you, you can order them off separately to hunt down other targets, so they have to be able to handle themselves.

Raycasting and pathfinding is probably the ideal solution, but for time's sake, my immediate solution will probably be to make them dodge.

Characters also gain skills and abilities. It may be that rookies suck at dodging asteroids so if you choose to take them into an asteroid field before they're more experienced pilots, it's on you if you take damage.

This is a design challenge in trying to take the character development style of Xcom and putting it in a game where you don't directly control the characters. The player may tend to think "stupid AI got itself killed" instead of "I ordered him there and now he's dead. It's all my fault".

I did a blog post on this design challenge if anyone's interested.
http://www.retroneogames.com/blog/makingcrowsnestpt3
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« Reply #33 on: January 24, 2016, 08:44:06 AM »

Read over the blog post - you've really thought this out! It sounds like you've got enough decisions to make that the player will definitely feel responsibility for the outcomes of battles.

I also like the idea of being able to upgrade the wingmen. This gives you even more control over how they function, and puts more (I think?) responsibility on you. Especially if you have to choose between upgrading yourself or your wingmen - it could lend itself to different playstyles. But, if the player chooses to complete ignore their wingmen, and only focus on upgraiding their own abilities, they are basically saying "I'm not interested and I don't care about these guys", which defeats the connection you are trying to build between the player and wingmen, and meaningful death.
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Pixel Noise - professional composition/sound design studio.
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Recently completed the ReallyGoodBattle OST!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=vgf-4DjU5q
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« Reply #34 on: January 24, 2016, 10:00:04 AM »

Thanks for reading. I'm honestly surprised you did, but very grateful for the feedback.
You pretty much spelled out why the player won't have to choose between themselves and their wingmen for upgrades. I think everyone will level on their own terms, and when they level up, you just choose their new ability from a choice of 1 or 2. Akin to XCOM.
In all current builds there's just a blanket skill level so that whole balancing and testing process is further down the line.
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« Reply #35 on: February 13, 2016, 02:22:59 PM »

Working on a lot of stuff. The most visual change of late is the thrusters seen here on the player ship, soon to be on all ships. It should add a lot of feedback to the player input and clues as to what way the enemies are moving.
Any thoughts on the look of this?

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« Reply #36 on: February 16, 2016, 08:32:29 PM »

Definitely a good addition I think - I like the first set the most, with the rear boosters. The front set (second set, when reversing) needs to be tweaked a bit to make it "feel" right. The others seemed pretty well balanced after that.
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Pixel Noise - professional composition/sound design studio.
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Recently completed the ReallyGoodBattle OST!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=vgf-4DjU5q
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« Reply #37 on: February 17, 2016, 01:27:46 AM »

Thanks for the input Pixel Noise! Any particular pointers on which way the 'feel' of reversing should go? Like the jets moved in closer, or made bigger? Or smaller?..

The next public build is a few weeks off, but getting your hands on it would probably be better than just seeing this short GIF. As in, you could probably say what's wrong with the feel pretty accurately at that point.

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« Reply #38 on: February 19, 2016, 06:25:58 PM »

I think I figured it out - they don't seem to "attach" to the ship accurately/fully, in the same way the others do. Like, on the outside edges, especially noticeable on the rear two. It looks like the effect actually hangs a bit over the edge of the ship on the back two - so I think maybe just shaping them a bit more to the contour of the ship? Or maybe it's just me lol.
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Pixel Noise - professional composition/sound design studio.
 https://soundcloud.com/pixel-noise
 https://twitter.com/PixelNoiseMusic
 https://pixelnoisemusic.bandcamp.com/

Recently completed the ReallyGoodBattle OST!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=vgf-4DjU5q
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« Reply #39 on: February 20, 2016, 08:44:08 AM »

Thanks. I've made a slight tweak to the position so more of the rear ones are visible when they fire (they were partly obscured by the ship). Next build I put out I'll listen carefully for any mention of the thrusters.

Much appreciated as ever, Pixel Noise.
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