catbarf on 21/1/2008 at 23:58
Very interesting. A bit cliche, but extremely impressive for a project made by far less than a full development staff.
Edit: Looking more, I'm really loving the Space Hulk vibe. As I am an avid fan of the 'real thing' but far too young to have played the PC game, I look forward immensely to the completion of this game.
Edit 2: Tried it. Very nice, but it's nigh-unplayable due to the lack of real marine AI. Not just the fact that they stand with their backs turned and get eaten, but also the fact that they go nowhere without being ordered. It is... frustrating, to say the least. But still, very good so far!
Kolya on 22/1/2008 at 00:40
Wow! This looks and sounds just right.
edit:
- When I killed one of my own men I couldn't proceed to the next level.
- The mail texts are hard to read because of bad kerning.
earok on 22/1/2008 at 01:36
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Quote Posted by catbarf
Very interesting. A bit cliche, but extremely impressive for a project made by far less than a full development staff.
Edit: Looking more, I'm really loving the Space Hulk vibe. As I am an avid fan of the 'real thing' but far too young to have played the PC game, I look forward immensely to the completion of this game.
Edit 2: Tried it. Very nice, but it's nigh-unplayable due to the lack of real marine AI. Not just the fact that they stand with their backs turned and get eaten, but also the fact that they go nowhere without being ordered. It is... frustrating, to say the least. But still, very good so far!
Have you been using the map screen (press Tab key) to issue commands to the men rather then controlling them entirely in first person mode? Also in map mode you can tell your men to face a different direction when ordering them to move by clicking several times in the same place. The idea is to make your team cover each other by having them standing back to back etc.
Quote Posted by Kolya
Wow! This looks and sounds just right.
edit:
- When I killed one of my own men I couldn't proceed to the next level.
- The mail texts are hard to read because of bad kerning.
Can you please tell me more regarding the problem you had with exiting the level? Which level did you strike problems with? Were all of your other men in the red zone at the end of the level? Did it exit the level but crash or did it just stay in the same level?
Sorry about the mail text! i'll try spacing out the letters a bit more and possibly try a more readable bitmap font.
catbarf on 22/1/2008 at 11:48
Quote Posted by earok
Have you been using the map screen (press Tab key) to issue commands to the men rather then controlling them entirely in first person mode? Also in map mode you can tell your men to face a different direction when ordering them to move by clicking several times in the same place. The idea is to make your team cover each other by having them standing back to back etc.
Oh yes, I use map mode. It's just that every time I want to advance up a corridor, I press tab and then it's no less than ten mouse clicks to move the whole team. When AI is complete, a generic 'follow me' command would be nice. Then when you're at the destination, you could order them around into position.
The other problem is the lack of 'team communication' I suppose. I see an alien, it runs up to me, then it turns a corner and eats my buddy who has his back turned. You'd think that when I see it, my teammates would be alerted and turn.
Also, something that might be good would be when you go into the map screen, instead of seeing what a marine sees, you're in some sort of Aliens-styled command center with five screens, one for each marine.
cosmicnut on 22/1/2008 at 16:25
I'll give it a try at the weekend.
The one thing I will say is that bad friendly AI is a real game killer.
I am old enough to remember the original Space Marines game. For its day it was a good attempt but it was really bad as you had to micromanage your characters way too much.
"Move to point A turn 180 and fire 3 shots"
You moved, you turned, you fired, you missed your gun jammed, you died!
I never really understood all the fuss that was made over the original rainbow 6. I remeber having to replay a level 30 times just to get the guys to throw a grenade into a room, without me doing it for them.
In the end when I had worked out opening the door first, to moving the column so they didn't get hit by the blast, then get into the room.. I then had to work out why a terrorist had survived a frag grenade by standing behind a chair...
I never did complete that game, purely because the AI wouldn't do what I wanted without hours of tweaking.
The latest is a lot better with simple controls and more context sensitive movements, they know how to throw grenades without killing themselves and will actually take cover if given a good cover object. There are still times though when they walk straight in front your your aim and bitch when they get shot!
earok on 22/1/2008 at 19:19
Quote Posted by catbarf
Oh yes, I use map mode. It's just that every time I want to advance up a corridor, I press tab and then it's no less than ten mouse clicks to move the whole team. When AI is complete, a generic 'follow me' command would be nice. Then when you're at the destination, you could order them around into position.
The other problem is the lack of 'team communication' I suppose. I see an alien, it runs up to me, then it turns a corner and eats my buddy who has his back turned. You'd think that when I see it, my teammates would be alerted and turn.
Also, something that might be good would be when you go into the map screen, instead of seeing what a marine sees, you're in some sort of Aliens-styled command center with five screens, one for each marine.
Thanks for the feedback. "Follow me" mode is a widely requested feature so I will see if I can put it in the next version. I may also investigate putting a "Warning" button in as a quick way of alerting your team if there is an alien approaching from the sides or the rear.
Aliens-style command center may not be possible to do on a smooth framerate because of all of the renders required but I will investigate doing that too.
catbarf on 22/1/2008 at 20:25
Quote Posted by earok
Thanks for the feedback. "Follow me" mode is a widely requested feature so I will see if I can put it in the next version. I may also investigate putting a "Warning" button in as a quick way of alerting your team if there is an alien approaching from the sides or the rear.
Follow would be great. The thing about Warning is that it should be automatic. I understand that the marines shouldn't be able to see anything anytime, but it's frustrating to watch one get eaten because I couldn't kill it before it turned the corner.
Perhaps even a 'Take position' command, where they immediately stop moving and turn to cover different directions? So if they're following you and you get attacked, they would stop moving and get ready to fight?
Quote Posted by earok
Aliens-style command center may not be possible to do on a smooth framerate because of all of the renders required but I will investigate doing that too.
Is there some way you could lower the graphics load? Perhaps lowering texture quality (on a grainy picture it won't be noticeable) or having a very low framerate (maybe 3 or 4 per second)?
earok on 23/1/2008 at 03:45
Quote Posted by catbarf
Follow would be great. The thing about Warning is that it should be automatic. I understand that the marines shouldn't be able to see anything anytime, but it's frustrating to watch one get eaten because I couldn't kill it before it turned the corner.
Perhaps even a 'Take position' command, where they immediately stop moving and turn to cover different directions? So if they're following you and you get attacked, they would stop moving and get ready to fight?
I have been thinking about this more and I have come up with three command modes. Normal mode would mean that you could command the marines as per usual, follow mode would mean that all of the other marines follow you and hold mode means that all of your men would stop moving (note that orders aren't cancelled - just on hold) and automatically turn towards any on-coming threat. You will still need to have your men in places they can only get attacked from one direction though, because they could still be attacked from both directions simultaneously. I'll try to implement those modes next and see how it effects the gameplay.
Quote Posted by catbarf
Is there some way you could lower the graphics load? Perhaps lowering texture quality (on a grainy picture it won't be noticeable) or having a very low framerate (maybe 3 or 4 per second)?
I never even thought about having a low framerate for those screens, but that would be the perfect way to render them (say, each of the four screens once every second) without dropping the framerate of the game. Cheers.
catbarf on 23/1/2008 at 11:47
Quote Posted by earok
I never even thought about having a low framerate for those screens, but that would be the perfect way to render them (say, each of the four screens once every second) without dropping the framerate of the game. Cheers.
Have a low framerate, slap on a grainy filter, and you've got a carbon-copy of security camera feed.
