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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsDuelCide --- A bit of Lighting
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Pixel Noise
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« Reply #40 on: June 02, 2017, 05:08:43 PM »

OK, that makes sense then. I wasn't quite sure if these were intended to be backstories for the player to learn about, or if they were more for world/character building. Obviously, my comments only apply if you were going to present them to the player in some way.

I like the approach to item descriptions and dialogue you just described. I think that's probably enough, at least for in game.
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« Reply #41 on: June 03, 2017, 07:23:11 AM »

OK, that makes sense then. I wasn't quite sure if these were intended to be backstories for the player to learn about, or if they were more for world/character building. Obviously, my comments only apply if you were going to present them to the player in some way.

I like the approach to item descriptions and dialogue you just described. I think that's probably enough, at least for in game.

Yeah, they might end up being included, just not part of the initial plan Shrug , glad you like it  Smiley
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« Reply #42 on: June 03, 2017, 12:25:42 PM »

Today I worked figuring out a 3D animations production pipeline for Duelcide's vertical slice that doesn't get too disconected from what the full version of the game would be in Unity -in case everything goes super well and I can get Duelcide into full mode production-.

I want to create original models and brand animations for the characters, specially weapons' unique attacks, maybe use generic animations for the most basic stuff like walking, running, or regular attacks. These are the approximate numbers:





I really want to include different armors that we can get when we play, like you know: I see that guy and I really really want his armor so I decide if I kill him and get it now, or just be a cool guy and finish his questline to actually heir it later along with an extra weapon.

I really want that for Duelcide and going Pixel art wouldn make this feature impossible from a production perspective.

So Today I've been getting familiar with the Unity asset store and Unity's Mecanim pipeline to see what 3D can offer to the procuction costs of the project and what I learnt was jawdropping:

I imported one model from one author, then I imported these couple animations from this other author and those other animations from... you get the idea.
This is what I pulled so far:



Well each of the elements just blended like they were meant to. Honestly I found it unvelievable that all these animations are free to use so I guess there's some kind of catch?

( btw: sorry the crappy fps GIF but it runs fluid in Unity).

Call me naive but I am super surprised that content like this is taged "Free".
« Last Edit: June 03, 2017, 02:25:47 PM by ManuScythe » Logged



DuelCide A Dark ARPG about dueling, taking lives & dealing with consequences.
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« Reply #43 on: June 05, 2017, 12:11:51 AM »

Today I've been further experimenting with mecanim and mixamo. I've set up the basic state machine in minutes, it is hilarious how powerful this tool is!

The blending is just perfect with the inputs:



I started setting up a simple Finite state machine for the main states. As the majority of the states are attack states,I included them separately to keep things clean:



The states are controlled by mapping the input in variables that are then fed to the mecanim transitions. This is what the attack states look like:

[/url][/img]

Duelcide is planned to offer 3 weapons for the demo, but if everything goes well it will get complicated and have tons of weapons, so I placed the weapon decision inside right before the selection of the animation to keep it simple:



Once the weapon is decided, we assign the animation. And finally, we include some fine tweak blending options to make each move unique.



This blendtree allows us to reuse the same animation for vertical hits, and R1 spam from inside to outside and outside inside, and mirror it with the other hand. Super useful!

This FSM scheme is still theoritical as I only tested the Idle-Walk-Run inputs but it loooks like it's going to be the way to go with Duelcide. Next things I want to try are the rest of the inputs and the interaction with different weapons.
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« Reply #44 on: June 06, 2017, 06:37:10 AM »


Here's another short story of our wolf knight.

What am I doing, killing all those people?

Do I really need this sparkling dust that strenghtens my body and burdens my soul with the echoes of blame and regret for the lives I've taken?

Is that what a wolf does?


  - Wolf, are thee listening what I'm sayin?!
  - Uh, sorry little lady, I was wondering...
  - Listen wolf, I'm sure this cage will lead us to the flying gardens: a stone wall right in between of the Cathedral and the Grand Library. Lots of green blossoms for the taking and a bunch o fresh air for a change.

She was a nice girl. Her tight leather armor wasn't that femenine but it sure provided her the flexibility to dive her main gauche pass her enemy's armor, and te safety to come back to me duel after duel from the latest  six floors. I guess I was lucky she needed some food and she was lucky I had some to spare. -Gutting that shaggy ragged bastard at the armory corridors had taken my appetite anyway-.

- So what ya say Wolf?
- According to the floors we've passed and the corridors  we've traversed, I'd say your suspicions are  pretty accurate, lets go.

We had two rules:
One, we would never face each other in duel, so we always let another duelist ascend in between, and meet two floors ahead, on the next resting area.

Two, she would never hurt a wolf and I'd never touch her brother, a young blond lady enchanter that somehow managed to grow a formidable beard, was expelled from the musketeers, drank like the devil, a and was both  cheecky heartbraker or the most prodigious estoc user one could face, depending on who you asked.

A young man I would rather avoid facing anyway, regardless if she was his sister or not. I still remember that fight two moons ago, when he rolled bellow the legs of that brute twice his size, and drawn a cross with his estoc and that poor brute's spine, rendering him unconscious on the spot.


- I guess this is time, my little lady, I will wait two turns and meet you two floors ahead, as always.
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« Reply #45 on: June 11, 2017, 12:38:41 AM »

I had issues comunicating among the FSM and the mecanim so I'm changing stuff.

First I correct some state transitions that don't actually happen like the Idle-to-Roll, to actually roll through the walk state, or roll to run, which actually requires a special input like the backstep. Anyway, this is how it looks now:



A sI recreate the FSM states virtually from mono behaviour, the FSM directly feeds Mecanim the transition conditions through the "state" bools:



As I have all my states well ordered in an enum, I'm thinking they might be better fit in integers,

then feeding them to the FSM should look something like:

Code:
state = 2 // WALK

rather than how it looks now:

Code:
state_1 = false
state_3 = true

this make sense, right?

This model lets some weird stuff like I need to set the facing direction based on wheter speed is negative or possitive.

Also dunno why I seem unable to properly configure the "B" button of the xbox gamepad. This is how it looks like:



I tried like the 3 types of input with the 28 kinds of axis, yet didn't get the "B" button, but it gets the "Positive Button 1". Weird.

Any ideas?
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« Reply #46 on: June 11, 2017, 05:49:04 PM »

It's on my TODO list but maybe this page can help: http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=Xbox360Controller
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« Reply #47 on: June 12, 2017, 03:30:08 PM »

It's on my TODO list but maybe this page can help: http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=Xbox360Controller

Hey io3 thanks for the reply,

I am afraid the first link doesn't work + The second contains an InputManager config with this setup for the B button:




I tried it on my InputManager:



That didn't work either.

All I have is the clue of a "1" for the config, I am running out of ideas Big Laff
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« Reply #48 on: June 12, 2017, 03:40:30 PM »

Hmmm.  Then it might be a question for the Unity forums.   Or the actual issue has to do with the X-box controller and/or computer configuration.  Could you try another controller?  Or create a build and try it on another computer?

Oh, not sure if you added it yet, but it's good to add an option to restart the game.  Especially, at this stage of development I find it useful to test certain kinds of memory leak issues.  Simply, just restart the game a number of times and monitor the memory usage.  If it goes up significantly and stays there then you know there's an issue.  It's easier to narrow down what that may be then later when you have more levels and features.  Just a thought. Wink
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« Reply #49 on: June 12, 2017, 03:46:34 PM »

Hmmm.  Then it might be a question for the Unity forums.   Or the actual issue has to do with the X-box controller and/or computer configuration.  Could you try another controller?  Or create a build and try it on another computer?

Oh, not sure if you added it yet, but it's good to add an option to restart the game.  Especially, at this stage of development I find it useful to test certain kinds of memory leak issues.  Simply, just restart the game a number of times and monitor the memory usage.  If it goes up significantly and stays there then you know there's an issue.  It's easier to narrow down what that may be then later when you have more levels and features.  Just a thought. Wink

I will take that into account, although this happens right away, after switching on my computer. Anyway I will try all switching on order combinations I can think of and otherwise ask in the Unity forums.

By the way, there's an update of the illustration coming soon Wink
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« Reply #50 on: June 13, 2017, 10:12:10 AM »

I learned what was wrong with the B Button configuration. There is this field "Positive Button" that must be fed with the name of the button. It happens that the button of the xbox 360 controller is a "joystick button X" type thing.



The number on Unity documentation page goes in there.



Voila!

Time to get back to the Unity FSM  Gentleman


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« Reply #51 on: June 13, 2017, 02:56:12 PM »

That's one issue resolved! Smiley
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« Reply #52 on: June 13, 2017, 03:28:49 PM »

Just discovered the Devlog! It's so great to see someone troubleshoot something and succeed, haha!

Wishing you luck on your vertical slice, and in evoking a dark fantasy aesthetic! It's always fun to play around in a world like that done right.
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« Reply #53 on: June 14, 2017, 05:57:16 PM »

That's one issue resolved! Smiley

 Beer! Celebrating every little victory is always healthy!  Beer!



Just discovered the Devlog! It's so great to see someone troubleshoot something and succeed, haha!

Wishing you luck on your vertical slice, and in evoking a dark fantasy aesthetic! It's always fun to play around in a world like that done right.

Thanks Agreeing Machine, I am super newbie at crafting worlds from the narrative perspective and crafting a Dark Medieval Fantasy like Duelcide is going to be a huge challenge for me.

There's still plenty of reading I want to do in order to widen my comprehension on the theme while crafting Duelcide's fantasy but I have a general idea of what topics I want to cover.

My process consists of slowly weaving the web out of mechanics and narrative until they mix perfectly together  -hopefuly-.

Some topics I would love to explore are:
- Deciding whether to incline towards Greed or mercy: Greed provides. Mercy requires. At least materially...
- Responsibility or Consequences for our choices.
- Human insignificance in front of what's beyond our comprehension.
- Rivals joining against a greater evil.
- Dealing with tough, arguably unfair decisions -like being forced to kill a friend or even lose an important part of the progress- and dealing with formerly friendly characters in the same situation.

I can understand some of these things may sound extremely pretentious or plain not-gonna-work-ish like the last one, but this are my artistic needs now and well, still lots of sketching, prototyping and the like are on the road before anything gets actually real.
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« Reply #54 on: June 14, 2017, 06:29:36 PM »

That's one issue resolved! Smiley

 Beer! Celebrating every little victory is always healthy!  Beer!
Yes!  SmileyHand Thumbs Up Right
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« Reply #55 on: June 16, 2017, 03:04:03 AM »

Working on the aesthetics a bit more!
We're still doing some polish to lighten the stairs and the cage-elevators but I am super happy with how it is shaping up.  Beer!



Hope you like it.

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« Reply #56 on: June 20, 2017, 12:00:07 AM »

Hey guys super fast post today:

These days I've been working on simplifying the FSM by using a common "IsCurrentState" int (The actual state held by the Animator) and a "Desired State" int (the state we want it to be).




I have also Wired the Roll state (with Animation)



and the Backstep state (with placeholder animation: backroll)


Next thing I am preparing is a Turn animation, still figuring it out.
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« Reply #57 on: June 22, 2017, 11:12:11 AM »

Hey there!

Turn Animation
I've been working on the new "Turn animation".

- I started thinking 3D, and I realized there's no such thing as "walk left" or "walk right" so we'll be using just "Walk" now on.
- The character will "Turn" when facing a direction opposite to the walking direction.



This is a first iteration and neither it is turning 180ยบ sharp or taking the proper amount of time, so for the rest of the week I will explore other animation options or else I'll try to dive into tweaking a turn animation myself --in case that it happens to turn out as a plausible option-- Gentleman

I am so excited with this powerful tool and how easy to learn it seems! Can't wait to finish wrapping up the FSM and start prototyping the core game loop, the music and the 3D visuals!!  Gomez
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« Reply #58 on: June 23, 2017, 11:34:49 PM »

The Decision making in Duelcide. It is all on an early stage and I would thank any advice on those who had previous experiece with this challenge. Gentleman

Ok so in Duelcide you play as a contestant on a series of duels, in which the winner is forced to judge wether the defeated oponent lives or dies.

At a very early stage of the game you are presented with the dilema for the first time:

You can throw the fallen oponent alive into the elevator machine, and receive experience.

or

You can kill the fallen oponent, but you won't receive any exp.

or

You can spare the oponents life, not throw him into the elevator machine, but you won't get any exp nor ascend from that floor.

I am focusing my efforts on 2 important aspects regarding the Judgement:

1. Choice, or Evaluating the repercusion your decision will have on the life in the castle: maybe you have to decide between looting a shiny plate armor or sparing the life of the soldier who fed you food in your moment of most terrible need, (standing before the last duel's gate before the cecokpoint) or maybe you must decide to keep that filthy thief alive in exchange of that stolen special ring you desire...

2. Consequence, or that that happens next because of your decision.
In the castle it is essential to build strong bonds with other characters in order to progress. Like: tracing a special someone -or a special something- for a felow duelist and report back, or  Killing someone to prevent a comrade of your guild from being killed by a strong oponent that counters him in its only way up, or sparing someone's life just because you shouldn't kill other people dude, what are you thinking!!

Anyhow, not killing people is often perceived as a nice thing to do... But hey... here's the catch:

You can't advance if you don't throw the other one inside the machine.

You can only defeat him, and go back down, and try another path, as you can always take a different path -or almost always- until you are happy with your decision.

But today I want to focus on the actual decision making mechanic, I mean the actual display on screen and the visual comunication of it.

Letting the "going back down" option aside, here is an idea on how to deliver the the decision making for killing or sparing to the player, let me know what you think:

SPARE


EXECUTE


As discused, this case covers only actually throwing your rival either dead or alive.
If you throw them alive, you will get experience points, but the other person will get inside the machine to never come back.

Maybe is there a destiny worse than death?

The experience must not be pleasent, as you can hear horrible screamings coming from the gears of the machine as you ascend. But hey you didn't kill anyone, your hands are clean...

Maybe not. Death is the only thing you can't Rewind after all.

Who knows? maybe we will discover it as the story unfolds (indeed you will discover it and your mind will blow up if everything goes according to plans  My Word!)

Ok guys, so these are just some primary strokes on the canvas, there's much room for evolution on the fiction and the system itself to be done yet so if you guys have some ideas you would like to share...  Beer!
« Last Edit: January 20, 2018, 09:17:19 AM by ManuScythe » Logged



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« Reply #59 on: June 24, 2017, 05:19:58 AM »

That was a great read! Great to see sll the hard work has been paying off!
Csnt wait to give this game a crack Smiley
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