Warscale 34 - Game creation procedure
by Guimo · 02/24/2009 (7:31 pm) · 2 comments
Hi again to all those who survived my last week biblical-proportions blog.
I was really unproductive this last two weeks. Its not intentional, it looks like since my wife got her job my free time is considerably shorter. Anyway in this obscure financial times we need to accept everything. One nice thing is that at last... after 15 months being here in Sydney, we were able to buy a proper couch and dining room (at least the table... chairs still missing). Of course looking for furniture takes a lot of time which I lost.Now I have my mind set to buy that nice 60 inch Sony Bravia TV (yeah sure Guimo... keep dreaming and return to work...).
Now I hope you remember my faithful laptop whose video card was damaged... yeah that one... well... it died... no... worse... only the video chip died so its like it was mocking me. I can turn it on and I wont get anything on screen but I can hear windows loading and I can login (in the dark) and I know it finished loading and I even can turn it off. But no image. So I ordered a new mainboard (still waiting for it) and dissasembled the laptop (scary). I still dont know if I will be able to reassemble it but i least I know it died of overheating as the fan was clogged with a thick crust of dust and other things H.P. Lovecraft would be proud of.
Add to it that my apartment door lock broke, I broke one of my car side mirrors and my son got sick. Interesting week for me but not for Warscale.
What was planned
Create/Join game
I never thought this would become so complex. I found tons of bugs in this code but I think I finished with all of them. The create game dialog has been adjusted to handle some adjustments to the game type. When you select the Kill the boss type of game you are not allowed to use an army (more on this later). Also, an army size parameter has been added which means you can only join a battle with an army of the required size. If your army ir larger then it will get randomly cropped to match the army size requirement. This allows the player to select if they want to battle using an army or maybe with minimal aid other than their equipment. Equipment is never limited.
Game room
Renamed to battle room, I added a title and squashed a couple of nasty bugs on the client and server sides. I also included more detail in the player info so now we know how many units is he using in his army. I also applied the GUI animatiod describen in my previous blog and made it work appropiately when switching with the loading screen (which can be really nasty).
AI Opponent selection
The AI opponent selection for the Kill-the-boss game type has been fixed. Now the server computes the level of the boss taking into account the player equipment so the more equipment you bring the more powerful the boss will be. You are not allowed to bring an army to this kind of game, only your equipment.
What wasnt planned
Kill the boss mode change and consequences
I was coding the game creation when I noticed the single player Kill-the-boss type of game was kinda unfair. I mean... you and 40 units against a single monster???... really lame. And the idea of creating a lot of monsters to balance the fight defeated the idea of the one, unique and butt kicking BOSS.
So I decided to change the idea so now the Kill-the-boss game wont allow the use of armies. Its avatar vs monster. You against a nasty monster which will have a level equal (or slightly higher) to you and your equipment combined.
A consequence of this change is that I removed the condition where the game ends when you cannot draw any more units so, in theory, it may continue indefinitely until a player is dead (not really, I will add a 50 turn count limit).
One good thing is now players have full control of their game types. Now players can create a Gladiator Arena game type where avatars fight with no additional spells. Just their equipment. Imagine a colisseum and your players fighting there!
A secondary benefit is that now the game is focused on the player. Its no longer an Army vs army thing. You can start the game with minimal equipment and enter the arena to win some gold and more equipment. With the gold you can improve your equipment, maybe buy some spells and go on. The point is that the army is no longer the focus, now the center is your character. So, if you want you can play the game as a complete munchkin and focus on your equipment or maybe get just 4 fireballs as your backup spells for those pesky griffons your opponent can send to you.
Max army size
This change was really large. I know I should stick to my design document but in this case the benefits outweighted the cons. Unfortunately it required lots and lots of small changes and bug fixes. On the good side this change helped me to kill at least 5 bugs in the standard code that I wouldnt have noticed otherwise.
Removed the minimum number us units in an army
In order to make the gladiator game type work, I removed the minimum number of units required in an army so you can go alone if you want.
Map loading bug
Just before reaching Alpha, the maps were working fine but now they just wouldnt load. It was a problem with the sky definition file (the dml) not being commited into the SVN server so when I checked out the project the files were missing. I only received a CDROP message and the loading stopped. Fortunately I was logging so the console.log file told me about the problem. The moral is... when someting goes wrong, always check your console.log!
Screenshots!
Nothing interesting to show this time. Most of the enhancements are internal. Sorry.
Here is the create game screen with the army size limit.
Here is the army size validation.
And the game room.
I promise next week I will have something better to show.
The plan for this week
Chat windows persistence
When you are chatting with somebody using the IM functions and switch to other screen, the chat windows dissapear with the old screen. I need to add some kind of persistency so that when a window comes into view, the IM chat windows should remain in the same location.
Loading procedure
I think the Loading GUI is fine but when the load finishes the game activates inmediatly and you still can see some camera transistions and some stuttering. It looks really bad.
Game finish procedure
The gold pieces earned after a game are not being assigned. Also, when there seems to be a bug if you kill an opponent and inmediatly and pass the control to the other player before the game has decided the game is finished.
I think that should cover all the basic game workflow. If I manage to close all those problems this week, the next week I can start debugging and enhancing the game per se.
Good luck with your projects!
Guimo
I was really unproductive this last two weeks. Its not intentional, it looks like since my wife got her job my free time is considerably shorter. Anyway in this obscure financial times we need to accept everything. One nice thing is that at last... after 15 months being here in Sydney, we were able to buy a proper couch and dining room (at least the table... chairs still missing). Of course looking for furniture takes a lot of time which I lost.Now I have my mind set to buy that nice 60 inch Sony Bravia TV (yeah sure Guimo... keep dreaming and return to work...).
Now I hope you remember my faithful laptop whose video card was damaged... yeah that one... well... it died... no... worse... only the video chip died so its like it was mocking me. I can turn it on and I wont get anything on screen but I can hear windows loading and I can login (in the dark) and I know it finished loading and I even can turn it off. But no image. So I ordered a new mainboard (still waiting for it) and dissasembled the laptop (scary). I still dont know if I will be able to reassemble it but i least I know it died of overheating as the fan was clogged with a thick crust of dust and other things H.P. Lovecraft would be proud of.
Add to it that my apartment door lock broke, I broke one of my car side mirrors and my son got sick. Interesting week for me but not for Warscale.
What was planned
Create/Join game
I never thought this would become so complex. I found tons of bugs in this code but I think I finished with all of them. The create game dialog has been adjusted to handle some adjustments to the game type. When you select the Kill the boss type of game you are not allowed to use an army (more on this later). Also, an army size parameter has been added which means you can only join a battle with an army of the required size. If your army ir larger then it will get randomly cropped to match the army size requirement. This allows the player to select if they want to battle using an army or maybe with minimal aid other than their equipment. Equipment is never limited.
Game room
Renamed to battle room, I added a title and squashed a couple of nasty bugs on the client and server sides. I also included more detail in the player info so now we know how many units is he using in his army. I also applied the GUI animatiod describen in my previous blog and made it work appropiately when switching with the loading screen (which can be really nasty).
AI Opponent selection
The AI opponent selection for the Kill-the-boss game type has been fixed. Now the server computes the level of the boss taking into account the player equipment so the more equipment you bring the more powerful the boss will be. You are not allowed to bring an army to this kind of game, only your equipment.
What wasnt planned
Kill the boss mode change and consequences
I was coding the game creation when I noticed the single player Kill-the-boss type of game was kinda unfair. I mean... you and 40 units against a single monster???... really lame. And the idea of creating a lot of monsters to balance the fight defeated the idea of the one, unique and butt kicking BOSS.
So I decided to change the idea so now the Kill-the-boss game wont allow the use of armies. Its avatar vs monster. You against a nasty monster which will have a level equal (or slightly higher) to you and your equipment combined.
A consequence of this change is that I removed the condition where the game ends when you cannot draw any more units so, in theory, it may continue indefinitely until a player is dead (not really, I will add a 50 turn count limit).
One good thing is now players have full control of their game types. Now players can create a Gladiator Arena game type where avatars fight with no additional spells. Just their equipment. Imagine a colisseum and your players fighting there!
A secondary benefit is that now the game is focused on the player. Its no longer an Army vs army thing. You can start the game with minimal equipment and enter the arena to win some gold and more equipment. With the gold you can improve your equipment, maybe buy some spells and go on. The point is that the army is no longer the focus, now the center is your character. So, if you want you can play the game as a complete munchkin and focus on your equipment or maybe get just 4 fireballs as your backup spells for those pesky griffons your opponent can send to you.
Max army size
This change was really large. I know I should stick to my design document but in this case the benefits outweighted the cons. Unfortunately it required lots and lots of small changes and bug fixes. On the good side this change helped me to kill at least 5 bugs in the standard code that I wouldnt have noticed otherwise.
Removed the minimum number us units in an army
In order to make the gladiator game type work, I removed the minimum number of units required in an army so you can go alone if you want.
Map loading bug
Just before reaching Alpha, the maps were working fine but now they just wouldnt load. It was a problem with the sky definition file (the dml) not being commited into the SVN server so when I checked out the project the files were missing. I only received a CDROP message and the loading stopped. Fortunately I was logging so the console.log file told me about the problem. The moral is... when someting goes wrong, always check your console.log!
Screenshots!
Nothing interesting to show this time. Most of the enhancements are internal. Sorry.
Here is the create game screen with the army size limit.
Here is the army size validation.
And the game room.
I promise next week I will have something better to show.
The plan for this week
Chat windows persistence
When you are chatting with somebody using the IM functions and switch to other screen, the chat windows dissapear with the old screen. I need to add some kind of persistency so that when a window comes into view, the IM chat windows should remain in the same location.
Loading procedure
I think the Loading GUI is fine but when the load finishes the game activates inmediatly and you still can see some camera transistions and some stuttering. It looks really bad.
Game finish procedure
The gold pieces earned after a game are not being assigned. Also, when there seems to be a bug if you kill an opponent and inmediatly and pass the control to the other player before the game has decided the game is finished.
I think that should cover all the basic game workflow. If I manage to close all those problems this week, the next week I can start debugging and enhancing the game per se.
Good luck with your projects!
Guimo
#2
The idea is you are the avatar. You will start the game with limited equipment. A robe, a short sword and a small shield. You will enter and fight monsters in the Kill-the-boss games or battle other players against up to 4 players at the same time.
The Kill-the-boss game is a single player mode. Some people just like to play alone so this is the game for them. Enter the fight and the server will pick an opponent to use against your. The server will move that opponent and if you beat him you will get a reward which you can use to upgrade and enter another kill the boss game (again, the server will generate a new suitable opponent for you). This game can be used for leveling.
The army size limitation is a feature for people who doesnt like to play using armies or for those who just want to limit the army size. Say you can crete a game with 0 army size and it will be just you against me. Equipment only. So you can bring your ring of +300 hp, your sword of +20 fire damage, your armor of 30% damage reduction and your boots of +1 attack/turn against me but no additional help.
Or maybe somebody likes to have very little help so he can set the limit to 5 unit armies, maybe a fireball or two, a heal spell plus some hindering spells like slow or paralize.
Of course some people may like to have strategic games where they can combine their armies. In this case you would be better dropping that sword and bringing a staff of +2 mana/turn so you can cast your spells faster. It becomes a wizard game style.
The arena is just a location, I like the idea of a roman colliseum and you are fighting inside.
Warscale may not be for everbody as it is turn based so single player battles may seem boring to but of course I plan to add some equipment to solve that. Rings of blinking, boots of speed, wands of magic missiles... some people may like a tank like warrior with a big armor, others may like a nimble archer and others a warlock type. Your decision.
Luck!
Guimo
02/25/2009 (3:09 pm)
Hi Michael,The idea is you are the avatar. You will start the game with limited equipment. A robe, a short sword and a small shield. You will enter and fight monsters in the Kill-the-boss games or battle other players against up to 4 players at the same time.
The Kill-the-boss game is a single player mode. Some people just like to play alone so this is the game for them. Enter the fight and the server will pick an opponent to use against your. The server will move that opponent and if you beat him you will get a reward which you can use to upgrade and enter another kill the boss game (again, the server will generate a new suitable opponent for you). This game can be used for leveling.
The army size limitation is a feature for people who doesnt like to play using armies or for those who just want to limit the army size. Say you can crete a game with 0 army size and it will be just you against me. Equipment only. So you can bring your ring of +300 hp, your sword of +20 fire damage, your armor of 30% damage reduction and your boots of +1 attack/turn against me but no additional help.
Or maybe somebody likes to have very little help so he can set the limit to 5 unit armies, maybe a fireball or two, a heal spell plus some hindering spells like slow or paralize.
Of course some people may like to have strategic games where they can combine their armies. In this case you would be better dropping that sword and bringing a staff of +2 mana/turn so you can cast your spells faster. It becomes a wizard game style.
The arena is just a location, I like the idea of a roman colliseum and you are fighting inside.
Warscale may not be for everbody as it is turn based so single player battles may seem boring to but of course I plan to add some equipment to solve that. Rings of blinking, boots of speed, wands of magic missiles... some people may like a tank like warrior with a big armor, others may like a nimble archer and others a warlock type. Your decision.
Luck!
Guimo
Community Manager Michael Perry
ZombieShortbus
Kill-the-boss game: I really like this feature. I think arena battles are a far better solution to normal grind. If I'm going to grind for cash, loot, or XP, I'd rather do it in a setting that makes sense: Final Fantasy VII did it, as did Castle Crashers. They were fun, a nice test of my characters, and often led to some awesome rewards.
@Guimo - Are you actually making it a full game type where you can play start to finish as an avatar? Or will this be a physical location the player can go to just for Boss battling?