Warscale Combat (w/screenshots) and call for models

Hi everybody reading this blog series!

One more week passed and now I made some interesting progress. I'm glad everything almost fell in place and even when now I see that my magic system will need a rework, it looks like the Object Oriented approach taken for all the game will help me solving a lot of problems.

What was planned
The plan for the last week covered refining movement.

Movement fine tuning
The movement points are correctly used and to its maximum capacity.


Cant-reach positions
Complete. The game now appropiately marks the area the player can reach in blue color. Inside the area the player can reach, if there is a point occupied by another unit, the point will be rendered as red to suggest that position is unreachable.

Running
Complete. A run button was added to the action buttons for the unit. When the player runs, the area is marked as purple. Running allow the unit to move two times its available movement points. A unit cannot run if it has already attacked or used any special power. Of course if a unit has run, it cannot attack or do any special actions. The exception is the Avatar who is always able to summon even when it has already run (but as any other unit, it still wont be able to attack or use an special action when run).

AI movement
No progress was done on AI. I want to have all actions working as I feel the programming will be easier that way. The basic AI is already implementes though even when not being refined right now.

What wasnt planned but programmed this week
Yes! Even when I decided to drop development of AI this week, I still used that time implementing the combat system. The progress was excellent for the available time.

Better interface management
The interface locks and unlocks appropiately waiting for the server response. It shows an appropiate message. As usual, even when the game is currently implemented as single player only, the core is based on a web based architecture. I'm pretty sure everything will work fine on a full client server environment.


Combat!
The attack button is enabled in the unit actions. When clicked the client requests a target unit and marks all the units in the attack range so you know which units you can attack. A unit is allowed to attack any unit even units in its own team. The ground is also painted in order to show the area in the attack range. This makes easier to understand the action.

When a target unit is selected, the lient validates the action and then sends the request to the server. The server validates the action again and if everything is ok then applies the attack, then verifies any end condition. If everything is ok then it commands the clients to execute the attack.

In the clients the attack is executed and the animations are played. I'm still using Kork as my dummy object but I make the source and target to play some animations. Of course if it is a mortal blow, the target dies painfully, then after a few seconds its body becomes a ghost and appears in the graveyard.

Defend
I want every unit to be able to use a defensive stance. The defensive stance requires the player to use one attack in order to increase its AC in 2 points (its like gaining a 12% damage reduction). The bonus stays there until you decide to move or run to other position. So you are losing one attack at the moment but improve your combat in the long run if you plan to stay guarding a position.

Shadow transparency
When a unit dies and its ghost was placed at the graveyard, it just looks weird to have a ghost with a shadow. So I decided to modify the engine and add some parameters to allow me control the shadow opacity. Works fine now.

Maybe I can create a defense property on the units so that some units win a higher benefit from the defensive stance. Anyway it is working fine.

Screenshots
This week, I have 3 screenshots. The first shows a unit selecting a position to run.


The second shot shows a unit picking its attack target.


Finally, this shot shows the unit on the opponent tasting the flavor of the dust.



Plan for this week

The next step should be to implement the special actions and spell system, but I have some issues to solve first. There is a problem with the player defensive stance animation (once played it locks and prevent any other animation to play) but I think it will be easy to solve.

Also, now that the units can deal damage, its time to implement the end of the game and also allow the players to concede the game. I have also to consider the reward system.

As you see... this will be another busy week.


Call for models
This week, I bought the critter pack from the MMOWorkshop. I need some time to make this pack work so I can buy the Monster pack and the Mithical Creatures pack too. I also plan to but the Warriors and Commoners pack from Frogames and the Zombies and Skeletons pack from 3DRT.

Of course if you have nice models you may be interested in selling me, or if you would like to create 3D monsters and animations for Warscale you are welcome to send your quotes.

On the other hand, Warscale is designed so that each model will show its artist and designed names in game. If you are interested in creating models for Warscale and your name appear on the units you created send me an email so we can think about a collaboration scheme.

Luck with your projects!
Guimo