Blog for Scott Coursey at GarageGames.com

Claude gets a makeover

Scott Coursey — 2007-01-24T02:53:35+00:00

I've been diligently working on my Raiders of Leeros game and found that my brain was fried from the AI (I wondered what that smell was...). So, I decided to take a short break.

I played Minions of Mirth for a bit (I'm Jazak) and wanted to work on some 3D graphics for a bit (and dig into MoM to see how they made some of their mobs).

The result is, I pulled Claude out of CVS and began working on him again. If you don't remember Claude, that's ok. He's a character I made in Blender that I've released to the community (he's been downloaded about 100 times now).

After fiddling with him and working on the textures, here's what I've got:

(this is an image taken from the Torque Show Tool Pro in TGE 1.5)

I still have some work to do, but I think he's coming along nicely. When I get the textures better and some more anims done (root and forward for now), I'll post a link for a download of the .blend and a zip of the DTS, PNGs, and DSQs.

(He's still using FK. I didn't feel like messing with IK right now)

Finally, I can beat my game!

Scott Coursey — 2006-12-30T06:09:11+00:00

A little bit ago, I wrote about how I could not beat the AI in my game. I've taken some advice and worked more on it. Now I can proudly say that I can beat the AI. It's not a hard thing to do - it just takes some muscle. I also have the units set to flee a fight if they're too badly damaged. And, if you've captured all the AIs Keeps, the units don't have anywhere to go. So, they just run for their lives. It's kind of funny to see them scamper away.

Also, I've updated my OmniGraffle script if anyone wants it. You can now directly insert echo'ed comments in the decision tree. It's not a major update, but it really helps in debugging things.

Oh, and another major change I've made is the ability to pan and zoom on the screen. Originally, my game was set at a fixed map size and camera view. Now, the maps can be as big as I want them, and you can zoom in really close for detailed views or pull back to see what's going on all over the map.

Yay! Onward!

My AI is so frustrating

Scott Coursey — 2006-12-24T04:11:58+00:00

I have a long way to go before I complete my strategy AI. The reason I'm saying it's frustrating is because it's working very well. Ok, too well. As I'm testing the AI, I need to play around with it during a game.

I'm realizing that I can't really beat it.

Not that it's flanking me and wiping out my forces or anything. It just sits on its Keeps and buys more units when needed. It's forcing me to come to it.

Just now, I had enough gold to purchase 27 soldiers. Talk about a huge battle. I gave up.

Progress on strategy AI...

Scott Coursey — 2006-12-22T17:39:15+00:00

Well, I now have a modified and filtered depth-first search algorithm implemented (A* just isn't necessary here). It's all written in script and runs rather well.

I also have the code in place where the AI will seek out unoccupied Keeps (small castles) and advance towards them, trying to capture it.

*whew* I need a nice, stiff drink about now...

Gotta love scripts...

Scott Coursey — 2006-12-17T17:00:11+00:00

I'm working on the AI components of my game right now. It's in the early phases, so there's plenty of work to be done. I've made a few false starts on it and decided to take a step back and model the AI's behavior so I could visualize it better.

Since I'm a Mac user, the most logical choice (for me) was to use OmniGraffle. I already had the tool and was familiar with it. So, off I went to design the thought process.

The diagram soon became quite large and the idea of turning it back into code was daunting, to say the least. I looked at the data file from Graffle and saw that it was XML. Cool.

So, after a while of putting some script together, I was able to translate this:

into skeletal TorqueScript. Very cool indeed. It not only writes the main if/then/else blocks, but includes the function stubs so I can fill those out later. Like I said, there's LOTS to do, but this is a great start.

Now, if I just change a part of the model, I can re-extract the code from it and have the TScript re-written.

My brain hurts...

Scott Coursey — 2006-12-12T03:54:19+00:00

I started writing the AI code for my game yesterday. I've been planning it for months now, along with other aspects of the game.

I have the AI broken down into eight managers that perform specific tasks: movement, attacking, defense, strategy, etc.

All the intricacies are making my head hurt. Time for a break. I'll get some more written tomorrow.

I'm off to play Quake 4. It's either that or dishes...

Raiders of Leeros pre-beta DEMO

Scott Coursey — 2006-11-29T02:51:41+00:00

(I submitted a dev snapshot, but don't know how long it'll take to get up, so I'll put the same thing here)

I am very pleased to announce the availability of The Raiders of Leeros pre-beta DEMO!

Why a "pre-beta"? Simple. Exposure. I'm very excited about this game and want to share its progress with you.

The snapshot above shows a typical battle between Blue and Red, with the wizards positioning themselves to protect their comrades (healing spell). The other two images are the spell menu and units movement menu. To get to the unit menu, just right-click.

This demo comes with two maps and four different types of units: soldier, knight, archer, and wizard.

The full release will include dragons, and other fun units. The wizard currently has five spells, with a sixth in planning (hint: you need 50 spell points to get the fifth spell on the list).

The demo is playable in single-computer multiplayer mode with two players.

Have fun, and find someone to conquer!

(I do have the multiplayer support almost completed; I just have a few kinks to work out on the server side)

The game is being developed with TGB Pro and everything so far does not require any changes to the engine.

www.CourseyTechnologies.com/downloads.php

Both Windows and Mac versions of the demo are available.

Filtered Movement Maps Done

Scott Coursey — 2006-11-26T01:21:20+00:00

I found some time today and completed a piece of code that's been bothering me. My units display a grid letting you select their movement. There was a problem in that, if you had a line of enemies, the grid would extend beyond their logical barrier, as seen below.

With my fairly simple fix (don't you just love those "Ah-ha!" moments?) and just over 100 lines of script, I got the filter working just the way I want it.

It's just another step towards completion...

Screenshot and progress

Scott Coursey — 2006-11-18T02:57:04+00:00

I've been working, with what time I have, on my Raiders of Leeros game. I'm very pleased with it. The game is completely playable with up to four people and I've added knights (strong soldiers) and wizards.

Now, for some eye candy...

What you see here is a battle at the top between the Blue House's two soldiers, archer, and knight. The knight is almost dead, so he's getting away (running to the Keep at the upper right).

The Red House currently has a soldier at the bottom, which just captured an unoccupied Keep. That'll bring in more gold for more unit creation as needed. Also, the Red's Wizard is just about to cast a spell. His spell points are on his lower right, but obscured a little by the selection cursor. He has 50 spell points. Enough to cast a Death Hand. That'll pretty much mean death to anything within range.

The images of the knight and wizard are first-pass images. I need to adjust their scales and proportions. Their heads need to be closer to the soldier and archers. But, hey, not bad so far...

New major milestone

Scott Coursey — 2006-11-10T18:44:09+00:00

I just checked in my fixes to my game, The Raiders of Leeros, completing my 0.2 milestone: full networking.

As I'm not using any TGB/TGE networking other than the TCPObject, this is a very good step. The multiplayer support completed now includes the following features:

o Using a single computer for multiple players (ie, "hot seat").
o Seeing which servers are currently running via my Web site.
o Requesting a new server through the Web site (can request all setup options and password-protect it, if necessary).
o Stores all actions on the server in a transcript for emailing and analysis on the client (I haven't written in the playback of a transcript, yet - that'll come later).

In all, it's coming along very nicely.

My next milestone:

0.3: Full complement of units available and the magic system installed.

That should be a fun one to write.

I did release a demo of my 0.1 milestone, but I think I'll hold off until 0.4: An overhaul of the GUI elements to match the proper RoL theme is done. That shouldn't take too long... (I hope).

If you'd like to check out my Web site (which received a major rework as a result of my 0.2 milestone), visit www.CourseyTechnologies.com. You can request a server to come up (you need to register first), even though you can't do anything with it yet. It's timed to shut itself down after 60 minutes of idle time. Some of the settings (like the map name) are definitely bland (ie, "Test Map 1" and "Test Map 2" for the map names), but you can get the general idea.

Everything is data driven (PHP/MySQL), so expanding and making changes are very simple on my part (make a new map and it's up in a few minutes).

More and more fun...

--Scott Coursey