Plan for Justin Mette
by Justin Mette · 01/21/2002 (2:04 pm) · 0 comments
Project
As usual, we will start with introductions; it's our pleasure to announce Christopher Brethen as the latest member of the Myrmidon development team. Christopher's experience with creating maps/missions for Tribes 2 will help us flesh out the Mission Generator and provide us with some overall continuity in the Phase 2 missions.
We devised an art development and approval process this week based on the lessons we have learned over the past 3 or 4 weeks. Hopefully, they will help keep art asset generation moving along smoothly.
Myrmidon, Terran, and Bug (oh my!)
Some of the biggest news this week was the integration of the Terran and Bug models/animations into the game itself. They had been working in the show tool, but had yet to be integrated. It took a while to figure out how to activate the movement related animations (like walking, running, and sidestepping) but we eventually conquered the learning curve. This marks a great milestone for the team, as we are armed with the information we need to really start cranking out the assets. The Myrmidon model is being textured and animated this week and should make an appearance in the game by the end of the week.
Artificial Intelligence
Another great story this week was the introduction of basic AI routines along with an in-game test facility. AI features implemented include; the ability to assign instructions to a bot, basic bot movement, target acquisition, and chase mode. The test dialog lets you create/disconnect bots and assign them various orders.
Inventory System
We now have the server-side component for the inventory system that will support a backpack (unequipped) and equipped slots for a character. Work also started on the hotkey system, but currently the only things that you can hotkey are consumables (things that you use up when used, like an injector). This coming week, a basic user interface will be built on top of the inventory system.
Weapons
Concept art for the weapons was created and approved this week. The model sheets are in development and should be done by next week.
The process of exporting weapon and projectile models was also figured out this week. As soon as the concept work is done, the weapons will be modeled.
Most of the code for integrating the two new weapons into the game was completed this week as well with stub art assets. We hope to have both weapons fully integrated in the next two weeks.
Mission Objectives
The Mission Objective infrastructure was implemented this week. Features include the ability to attach an objective to an NPC, item, or trigger. Completing the objective rewards the player with experience points. Item rewards can now be implemented because the new inventory system is available.
Mission Generator
The Mission Generator received a ton of upgrades this week. The new enhancements include the ability for scatter regions to overlap without object collision issues, random water placement, random day/night settings, and a few bug fixes (like plugging the holes in the terrain).
Support Ship
The Support Ship now has a new dome covering the main section of the ship. It was intended that this dome be transparent, but then we realized that we could not reuse the skybox of the current mission as it is not always a space scene. The Support Ship is supposed to be in orbit around the moon so we put a space scene on the inside of the dome instead. Also, some additional frame rate improvements were made and the med lab got some new shelves!
The merchant and healer NPC's in the support ship were conceptualized this week. Full-color model sheets were also drawn. Modeling is expected to start within the next week.
Injectors
The repair and neural injectors were modeled, textured, and exported this week. These injectors will repair your Myrmidon and enhance its abilities, respectively. This coming week, these items will be integrated into the game play experience.
Energy Shield
The Energy Shield was enhanced this week to actually take damage. Also, NPC's have shields which facilitates testing. Concept art has already been created but the model and texture still need to be designed.
Vortex
A quick concept model of the vortex was created this week. Upon trying to integrate it into Myrmidon, we realized that getting static shapes to run their root animation will require a little work in the engine. We expect the programmers to have that feature up and running this week. This will allow us to introduce animations for other static objects as well, like trees.
User Interface
The Options Dialog now allows the user to remap all the keys in the game. This is very similar to Torque 1.1 implementation with the added twist of groupings like Camera, HUD, Inventory, and Movement to help organize the large amount of key binds in the game.
Sound Effects
Some great SFX were created for the Myrmidon character this week including moon surface footfall (walking and running), metal surface footfall (walking and running), damage, low health warning, and death. Unfortunately, the programmers didn't have time to incorporate them. With any luck our first custom SFX will be introduced to the game this week.
Logo's
One set of concept art on the 21-6 logo made the rounds this week. It was a good start, but still needed some tweaking. We ended up making a collage of a ton of game company logos and all wrote up what we liked and disliked about them. Hopefully, this information (albeit a tad late) will help out with the next logo concept.
Tools
Added an "enablelog" command line parameter that will cause the game to dump all console output to a file. Also added a "-playas" command line parameter that allows the modelers to play the game using any character model as a substitute for the main character. This allows them to more easily see and test their model/animations in the game itself.
As usual, we will start with introductions; it's our pleasure to announce Christopher Brethen as the latest member of the Myrmidon development team. Christopher's experience with creating maps/missions for Tribes 2 will help us flesh out the Mission Generator and provide us with some overall continuity in the Phase 2 missions.
We devised an art development and approval process this week based on the lessons we have learned over the past 3 or 4 weeks. Hopefully, they will help keep art asset generation moving along smoothly.
Myrmidon, Terran, and Bug (oh my!)
Some of the biggest news this week was the integration of the Terran and Bug models/animations into the game itself. They had been working in the show tool, but had yet to be integrated. It took a while to figure out how to activate the movement related animations (like walking, running, and sidestepping) but we eventually conquered the learning curve. This marks a great milestone for the team, as we are armed with the information we need to really start cranking out the assets. The Myrmidon model is being textured and animated this week and should make an appearance in the game by the end of the week.
Artificial Intelligence
Another great story this week was the introduction of basic AI routines along with an in-game test facility. AI features implemented include; the ability to assign instructions to a bot, basic bot movement, target acquisition, and chase mode. The test dialog lets you create/disconnect bots and assign them various orders.
Inventory System
We now have the server-side component for the inventory system that will support a backpack (unequipped) and equipped slots for a character. Work also started on the hotkey system, but currently the only things that you can hotkey are consumables (things that you use up when used, like an injector). This coming week, a basic user interface will be built on top of the inventory system.
Weapons
Concept art for the weapons was created and approved this week. The model sheets are in development and should be done by next week.
The process of exporting weapon and projectile models was also figured out this week. As soon as the concept work is done, the weapons will be modeled.
Most of the code for integrating the two new weapons into the game was completed this week as well with stub art assets. We hope to have both weapons fully integrated in the next two weeks.
Mission Objectives
The Mission Objective infrastructure was implemented this week. Features include the ability to attach an objective to an NPC, item, or trigger. Completing the objective rewards the player with experience points. Item rewards can now be implemented because the new inventory system is available.
Mission Generator
The Mission Generator received a ton of upgrades this week. The new enhancements include the ability for scatter regions to overlap without object collision issues, random water placement, random day/night settings, and a few bug fixes (like plugging the holes in the terrain).
Support Ship
The Support Ship now has a new dome covering the main section of the ship. It was intended that this dome be transparent, but then we realized that we could not reuse the skybox of the current mission as it is not always a space scene. The Support Ship is supposed to be in orbit around the moon so we put a space scene on the inside of the dome instead. Also, some additional frame rate improvements were made and the med lab got some new shelves!
The merchant and healer NPC's in the support ship were conceptualized this week. Full-color model sheets were also drawn. Modeling is expected to start within the next week.
Injectors
The repair and neural injectors were modeled, textured, and exported this week. These injectors will repair your Myrmidon and enhance its abilities, respectively. This coming week, these items will be integrated into the game play experience.
Energy Shield
The Energy Shield was enhanced this week to actually take damage. Also, NPC's have shields which facilitates testing. Concept art has already been created but the model and texture still need to be designed.
Vortex
A quick concept model of the vortex was created this week. Upon trying to integrate it into Myrmidon, we realized that getting static shapes to run their root animation will require a little work in the engine. We expect the programmers to have that feature up and running this week. This will allow us to introduce animations for other static objects as well, like trees.
User Interface
The Options Dialog now allows the user to remap all the keys in the game. This is very similar to Torque 1.1 implementation with the added twist of groupings like Camera, HUD, Inventory, and Movement to help organize the large amount of key binds in the game.
Sound Effects
Some great SFX were created for the Myrmidon character this week including moon surface footfall (walking and running), metal surface footfall (walking and running), damage, low health warning, and death. Unfortunately, the programmers didn't have time to incorporate them. With any luck our first custom SFX will be introduced to the game this week.
Logo's
One set of concept art on the 21-6 logo made the rounds this week. It was a good start, but still needed some tweaking. We ended up making a collage of a ton of game company logos and all wrote up what we liked and disliked about them. Hopefully, this information (albeit a tad late) will help out with the next logo concept.
Tools
Added an "enablelog" command line parameter that will cause the game to dump all console output to a file. Also added a "-playas" command line parameter that allows the modelers to play the game using any character model as a substitute for the main character. This allows them to more easily see and test their model/animations in the game itself.
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