Gunship-X -- Move Along

It's been over a month since my last blog and during that time I've been plugging away at Gunship-X in what little free time I have. I can't say there haven't been hiccups along the way, but progress is being made. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

There's still a lot of placeholder art floating around and a lot of the effects and visuals are just quick bang-ups to get the general gist of what I want in to get a feel for the look and gameplay. Given my lack of artists, bare modicum of artistic talent, and the fact that the final game dynamics are still being worked on, I dare say it'll stay that way for a while yet. That being said, if any talented artists out there want to contribute any kind of art, it'd be awful helpful. =)

In my last blog I promised I'd post some actual gameplay footage, so yesterday afternoon I got on and had a bit of a shoot while taking some video via fraps. It's not the best clip ever, it's only got a few people in the game, it's hosted on my 12k/s upstream connection, and it's barely editted, but you can get a general idea of what the game's like so far (ie. ugly but playable). I'd suggest switching to hi-definition when you watch the playback. Unfortunately garagegames still doesn't offer the ability to set it as default...


Click here for the high-definition video


As you can see in the video, the status display (top-left of the screen) has been overhauled since the last blog. This is mainly because of the recent removal of "boost energy" from the game (a mechanic previously there to limit SLAVE thrust and maneuverability which ended up just being annoying). The main change to the HUD is that there's no longer a heat gauge and that the armour display is no longer an arc around a circle. Instead, armour is displayed both as a team-coloured horizontal progress bar and as simple white text layered over that bar. The text shows you exactly how much armour you have remaining, while the progress bar is instantly gaugable from the corner of your eye.

The loadout display (bottom-left of the screen) has also had a few changes made to it. It now also displays class specials and will highlight both specials and defences when you use them. Icons in the loadout HUD can now change as you switch to different ammunition or item types as well. Previously there was a separate HUD icon for the currently selected SPEAR or GEAR. Now, the SPEAR Launcher/GEAR Deployer icons change to reflect the current selection. Rolling all these capabilities into a single element not only simplified the representation, making it easier for players to read and understand, but also greatly simplified the script supporting it all. Gotta love when you kill two birds with one stone like that.

Another item of note and one of the major changes in the last couple of weeks is the implementation of the Strike SLAVE's special class ability -- the afterburner. It took a good deal of testing and messing around with different control schemes and the like before I finally got something that felt fun to use, didn't alter the existing gameplay too significantly and didn't make the Strike the most dominant force in the game (at one point, the afterburner was so powerful and allowed such maneuverability that the Strike wiped the floor with any other class -- it could hit another SLAVE and be gone before the pilot had time to figure out where the attack was coming from -- let alone respond to it).

The afterburner in its current incarnation is pretty simple in its effects -- when it's active, it greatly increases the SLAVE's forward thrust. It also grants the pilot the ability to directly control the roll of the gunship -- allowing him to perform much tighter turns and to generally outmaneuver everything but other Strike SLAVEs also using the afterburner. This enhanced maneuverability comes at a cost, however. While using the afterburner, the pilot has no real way of slowing the gunship down -- he's stuck accelerating forward at full throttle until he disengages the system. While this isn't a problem in wide open areas or well above the terrain and away from obstacles, it can prove rather deadly in tight spaces.

The afterburner is also heat-limited and can only be used for a finite duration before it overheats and becomes unusable (at least until it cools down). Burning for longer durations gives you more thrust, but generates more heat, so you have to think (at least a little) tactically about how you're going to employ it. Do you use it to cover the distance to the enemies quickly and have nothing left to maneuver with? Or do you cover the ground more slowly and risk the enemies claiming a key objective or destroying a teammate who needed your support? Do you use it to outrun a missile attack and save some countermeasures? Or do you drop the countermeasures and use the afterburner to help you turn around and take the fight back to your attacker?

The most important thing about the afterburner though is that whatever its strengths and weaknesses and however you choose to employ it, it makes piloting the Strike SLAVE a lot more fun.

Most of the rest of my time has gone into things that just aren't visible on the clips, like code-based optimizations and improvements or re-modelling the Support SLAVE and re-working some of its weapons (there were balancing and gameplay issues that resulted from their original spec that have since been addressed -- at least in part). My next blog will probably center around the re-specced Support weapons and capabilities and the gameplay issues which prompted them.

Anyway... That's it till next time.