RTS Development and Something More

[markjacksonguy]

If there is anyone in the P3D community who speaks a language other than English and wish the add that language to this RTS game later on… Let me know.

Italian language here. Contact me when you will need that.

I will, thanks.

You don't mind me adding your name to the credits if you do add a language to the game?

[markjacksonguy]

I'm going to get knee deep into the combat system. I really want to clean it up as much as possible, only leaving the skill moves/ability part.

NOTE: There will be a variety of animations involving battle stances and stuff. For instance...I don't want my magic casters to stance like my fighter.

I won't get knee deep into animations until I get near project end. That'll be apart of the "polishing."

Here's some footage...
http://youtu.be/j0KKTAtl2KE

Subscribe to the video page in order to receive alerts for new videos.

[flavio]

You don't mind me adding your name to the credits if you do add a language to the game?

Not at all!

[aoi]

Hi there.

It's a great project, at the same time wide and brilliant.
Sure it's nice to see RTS type on Panda3d.
And for early development it looks good.

Well, I'm new to Panda3d and I just recently started learning Python, so I'm learning most of the time and I work on my project the rest of the time.
However, I can provide french language if needed. If there's a way I can help, this is the less I can do the community, 'cause you guys helped me to learn and I feel indebted and there are no many things I can do for the moment.

[markjacksonguy]

Hi there.

It's a great project, at the same time wide and brilliant.
Sure it's nice to see RTS type on Panda3d.
And for early development it looks good.

Well, I'm new to Panda3d and I just recently started learning Python, so I'm learning most of the time and I work on my project the rest of the time.
However, I can provide french language if needed. If there's a way I can help, this is the less I can do the community, 'cause you guys helped me to learn and I feel indebted and there are no many things I can do for the moment.

I will make a note that you can translate English to French.

I sent an email to an S.M. rep explaining that I was going to make the game’s language translation open to the community; and add the names of those translators to the game's credits.

I was told to hold off on it even when the project is finished.

It appears the new website for S.M. that’s being planned will include an Indie developers’ login for those that are not directly employed.

I don’t have all the details on it, but when I hear more I will post.

I’m guessing the plan is to allow Indie developers to submit finished games as a portfolio, as well as partake in other things.



Regards

[kcoul058]

Hi there,

I'm teaching a course in Panda 3D this week and want to use your project as an example of a Panda 3D game, is there any way you could share a demo version or the code base? I'm not sure from what I've read if this is a closed source project.

Either way, thanks, and great work!

PS: There is one student who is particularly interested in the RTS genre who will likely join the board and probably ask questions by the end of the week. I'm sure you would be a great mentor for him, if you are willing

[markjacksonguy]

Hi there,

I'm teaching a course in Panda 3D this week and want to use your project as an example of a Panda 3D game, is there any way you could share a demo version or the code base? if you are willing

No I can't. I really don't have ownership of the game. Of course, as the developer...you think of it as your game.

If it goes well... I might get a new office.

I don't know if I'll be able to show content from this project pass level one (which is far from being done), so my online diary and videos might end after level one is complete.


Regards

[markjacksonguy]

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[markjacksonguy]

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Really low polygon as usual.

For any models I use in cut-scenes, I'm thinking about using a higher polygon version to achieve a more cinematic look.

Of course the low polygons will work well for real-time gameplay (RTS).

The thing about models like this one... I can add armors to it if I wanted to and further enhance the look. It's all about how many vertice I want transforming for this one monster type.

I have to finish this model up as far as the teeth and inner mouth.

This whole month for me is low poly monster making month.

The Plant Creature I made turned out cool!

[markjacksonguy]

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Moving on to the next one.

The main goal is getting a hand full done so I can get back to the combat system coding; particularly the randomlized ememy encounters.

Any and everthing can be change/altered/remodeled later during the "polishing" stage.

[markjacksonguy]

Checkout my killer Bee mesh…

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I would run from that...

Once I get this one textured, I’ll stop there since I have a hand full of them ready. What I will proceed to do is create a battle “flitch” and death animation for my Protagonist and Antagonist races. I don’t want to write that code for every enemy separately so I’ll do it before I insert any more enemies; so I can just copy and paste the code. Actually, I won’t even have to copy and paste any enemy code since one class handles all enemies as far as creation, animation and death.

That will be my close out for this month. Next month will start out all about the combat system. Getting those enemies into the run-time and writing the random encounter code. I also want to bring all my hero classes to life and create a random set one for actor and outfit appearance (so I can get a better feel for the actors and combat).

By the end of next month….If I’m still alive…I hope to have a fairly swinging combat system (minus a sweet sound track to create that battle drive; and special effects).

Of course...down the road, I will add a lot more random animation for the combat as well as try some different things with the camera during fights.

One thing about working alone... You can't put as much time into one thing alone because you have so much to do. Like I mention before... Any 3D artist can create any level of graphics, but you have to consider the game's technical issues as well as the engine itself.

Man... What I could do if I had a couple of weeks to do one model for the unreal engine...



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just don't design graphics for a game... design graphics for your world.

[markjacksonguy]

Just about got it wrapped up...

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I'll take a couple of days off after I finish this then finish up what I want to do for this month.

I think I want to blood shot the eyes. For the wings...I wish to leave them a ligher color.

I still have to texture the teeth as well. These bees need healthy teeth in order to chew their prey.

Man... crazy creatures like this were common with the old FF series.

[markjacksonguy]

Final note on this one....

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I think I like this one best out of all of them.

Taking two days off, then closing out the month with some animations; setting up code work for next month.

This is going to be one hell of an RTS game...

The further I go with development, the better it gets. I'm eager to see multiple enemies on screen with a completed set of Heros going at it like RPG Battles of the old.

Of course, you all can't see what I see. I can see the final finished game in my head...well polished and all.




PS,

Crave Interactive is not publishing PC titles at the moment.

[markjacksonguy]

That bit of programming went smoother than I thought. I also found a non game crashing glitch that hid itself well before. The only reason I was able to see the problem stick out like a swore thumb is because of the fact I write my own code from scratch.

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I noticed one of my Actors doing a sudden second “flinch” during combat. I was like “What the heck!” The Actor’s enemy did not hit them so why did they gesture as if so? What I did was simply think about the code block that surrounds the “flinching” animation and how it’s triggered.

Because my Actor motioned as if they were getting hit, that meant their enemy was attacking them while not showing an attack, but indeed triggered a damage dealing function.

I knew that meant the attacker’s attack code block executed, but the animation part did not set correctly. When I took a look at the particular code block in question, I clearly saw the issue. Basic attacks ranged from 1 to 5. My code creates an attack value which uses numbers 1 to 5.

However, the attacks are random which means the indexing would range from 0 to 4. Because of this, an attack value which included a 0 would not execute anything…no animation would play but the attack would still be carried out…dealing damage to the opposite Actor.

The fix was simple… I just added a +1 to the random outcome, which turned 0 to 4 into 1 to 5. I may have never fixed the issue if I was using somebody else’s code. So much easier to avoid and fix issues when the logic is entirely your own; but yet I see others that are into game design asking, “Where can I get code?”

Of course my answer for that would be…”Out of your head.”


Anyway…

Going to get some sleep and then I’m going to start working on some outfits (at least a starting one) for my Protagonist Race. Afterwards, I want to give my Antagonist Race their fleshly texture (base texture without outfit).

I also need to create the male type for the Protagonist and the female type for the Antagonist.

After all of that, I want to start creating some weapons and get those attached to Actor hands.

Knocking out the work little by little but I wont stop until the beast is slain.









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been playing the old RTS game Battle Realms WOTW. The game would have been quite fun if it kept Game Balance in check; but like so many games on the market today...Game Balance became broken after a few levels into the game (which made it unplayable). So freaking glad I learned the magic of game design by the same people who made games what they are today. Breaking Game Balance is something I would not do.

[markjacksonguy]

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Outfits (military) won't have an order...I'm just making them (I'll choose rank later).

What can I do for the headwear...? Hum....

I don't want a helmet... I'm thinking....

[markjacksonguy]

Nope... I didn't go with helmets...

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What I decided to do is give each class their own headwear

(I think I like my healers' headwear best );

and I picked the headwear look based on class; like the class in the screenshot is the "tanking" class. That kind of headwear will look good with a big shield across their backs later.

I want to also change the color of the outfits based on class, but won't worry about that right away. Once I finish outfit set one, I will most likely move on to other things surrounding Actor random creation (looks that is).

My goals is to complete the code that surrounds that (at least enough for now) before I move on to insert all those new enemies and code the random battles.

The good thing is... If I finish the texturing work around the female model type, the UV mapping wil also be done for the male body type later (saves me some time).

There's so much work to do...I'm practically drowning in it.

That's the price I'm paying for designing what will be one of the better RTS games in a long time. It's time for the PC platform to start fighting back!

[kurohyou]

I give in. Who is this S.M you keep referring to?

[markjacksonguy]

I give in. Who is this S.M you keep referring to?

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Thank you for addressing that, Kyindra. You're such a sweet little Monk healer.

[markjacksonguy]

Awesome!!

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Nah... That class does not wield swords; instead, they (him or her) will have a large two handed wand.

I must say... Those Wizzards do look deadly with the swords though.

Not bad for P3D RTS optimized low polygon characters.

I just finshed positioning the weapons for my Archers, who have a Bow (on back), a Arrow Quiv (on leg) and an Axe (on other leg).

So... That's the Shieldmen, Fighters and Archers complete as far as weapon code.

Now...the "clothies." It's going to be different for the Monks, Wizzards and Mages... I will need to finish their class specific battle animations (at least the idle) before I complete the weapon positioning code; mainly because of their two handed grip on their weapons (although I planned class specific animations anyway for all of them).

Man... I'm tired.

SOMEBODY HELP CODE!!!!!



Nah... I like to keep logic all mine if possible.


Man... There is so much all of you don't know about this game... For instance, all the races have natural "racial abilities." The charcter in the screen shot looks human (with exception of eyes), but they are not human (fantasy world) and have some sweet birth gifts! Their main enemy (Antagonist race) also have some "bad butt" racial abilites.

Really... This fantasy world looks good on paper!

I'm hoping it turns out to be the next big fantasy series since warcraft.

I hope you RTS lovers are up for something that's going to have "baby mama drama sexy" all over it!




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been playing football manager 2012 while taking breaks. the injuries for that game is over ridiculous.

Copyright © markjacksonguy@yahoo.com all thread material.

[markjacksonguy]

Got my two handed staff type weapon position code in place. It turned out better than I thought it would.

http://youtu.be/yAd9q5pFVo0

Now I just have to insert all that code into the run-time.

Hum... Once that's done... Which way should I go...?

I guess I'll start getting those first batch of enemies I made animated and inserted, which will set me up for coding in the random encounters.

Actually... I have one more position to get codes for...the staff across the Caster's back. Wow, almost forgot about that one.



Ps,

That character is actually an Archer by headwear.

[markjacksonguy]

It's amazing how this game looks now compared to when I first started designing it...

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I have a long way to go though...

I believe I can go ahead and start doing those monster animations tomorrow... If nothing else pops up that is.

Ps,

You all should see my Shieldmaidens (tanks) in actoins... They look so "freekin" cool!

Almost brought tears to my eyes...

The Mace/Hammer Shield combo was the way to go.

The first weapon set graphics are not complete. As you can see, the "clothies" all have the same staff and that's not suppose the be like that.

Staff like weapons will be either a Staff, Wand or Septor...according to class. For now, I'll just leave things as is.





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building a sports game ai that's nothing more than a "dice roll" deciding who wins and who loses says one thing... you have no mental power when it comes to logic which should render out realistic, non predetermined results. - mark jackson

[Rabbit]

It's amazing how this game looks now compared to when I first started designing it...



I have a long way to go though...

Reading the thread from beginning to end, I will say that I can see a huge visual improvement, but I think you might need to include more colors in the clothes to differentiate between units; the helmets don't seem to do enough on their own.

[markjacksonguy]

Reading the thread from beginning to end, I will say that I can see a huge visual improvement, but I think you might need to include more colors in the clothes to differentiate between units; the helmets don't seem to do enough on their own.

I actually mentioned how I wanted to have each class a different color, for each outfit level (so the classes can stand out more). I have the game's data based setup to do so, I just won't be getting to that right away.

I'm actually doing basic animations for the first batch of enemies.

In the end, the Protagonist Race (which you control) will all be randomlized, thus creating an endless amount of RPG characters (since there's no bring a character back to life once they die; you'll have to draft another Hero to take their place, thus retraining).

Things will look dramatically different once you can finally see different sex, skin color, eye color, hair styles, facial hair, etc... (Although hair styles won't matter with hooded or helmet wearing actors)

Right now, you're seeing the same model, with the same everything for each class, so that also doesn't help stand them out.

What will really make each Actor special is their personality. I plan on having a dialog data based setup so each character speaks differently in the game.

I want each character to have a roll in the storyline, thus giving them a presence in cut-scenes...like traditional RPG actors.

I want the gamer to feel for each Hero and know them by personality; I don't want each Hero to feel like some random actor with no defined character.

You should be able to play this game, see some event happend surrounding your Heros and almost know what each Hero would say or how they would react. I want the gamer to almost bond with each actor...as if they really did exist. You can imagine how painful Actor death will be after a gamer has become "lovingly" attached to an Actor.

All in good time my friend... My fingers can only move so fast... My mouse can only click so swiftly...

[markjacksonguy]

I am still working on getting my first batch of enemies coded into the run-time. I'm only doing some basic animations at the moment; code is the top priority.

When watching this video, you may notice how my Enemies stick to one kind of attack... That's because I'm using the same animations for all attack slots right now; like I mentioned...it's all about the code.

http://youtu.be/JRCGrb9caME

My Healer (the one with the staff), is using the wrong animation set at the moment, so you will see her animations jump or abruptly animate. That will be fixed once I do class specific animations down the road.

Enjoy.





PS,

If the video is blocked in your country, it is going through an edit, which should unblock it; but the edit will take some time to finish.

[markjacksonguy]

Salutations Panda “Goers.”

Man…

There are a lot of people who love this project and follow it (from other forums) and there are always that few who envy stuff like this and hate on it (usually the no talent losers).

Someone stated on another site’s forum,

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“I think allowing people to see a game get developed from start to finish is a good idea.”


I think so too… After all that was the intensions of starting this thread here in the Panda Forums (and still is).

Believe it or not…

Some idiot sent me an email accusing me of Spam and attacking the project. Like I explained to that idiot…

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“Spam is usually aimed towards ads or something.  Allowing people to see me develop a game from start to finish is a viewing privilege and I have nothing to gain from it.  Not to mention my thread is in the correct forum and not place in a random forum like true Spammers.”


I can tell the guy wasn’t that bright and knew very little about game design, because he talked about the project as if it’s near completion, when in fact…it’s stated right on the video that the project is in a(n) early un-polished stage with missing or place holder visuals.

It’s funny how those with low IQ as far as game design love to talk about graphics, but I explain to this idiot…

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“If you don’t take care of things on the code/technical side of an application, you have no application.  Graphics don’t control code, code controls graphics.”


I also gave the idiot a clue…

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“What good is creating a game with super graphics if only a smaller number of people with super PC’s can run it?”


Not to mention, profits from game sells will be higher if more people can actually run the game on their “rig.”

I then went on to educate the idiot even more…

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“RTS games have a(n) high instance count, which means low polygon models are better for keeping performance up.”


I tell you…

Most of the time…idiots like that are the biggest Spam problem on the internet.

I summed things up by telling that idiot how much game developers love him…

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“Developers DO NOT care about what you think. You’re just one little small low IQ person on this planet… Get a clue already.  Think about all the games that sell a countless number of copies…  Now think about those people who jump on the internet and bad mouth those games…  What’s the point?  There are still more people enjoying those games then there are people who attack them, so it’s a wasted effort, thus….Developers Do Not care about what you think.”


And that’s the cold hard truth. Electronic Arts is one of the most coldest companies around and don’t give a donkey’s “poopchut” about what you think, and they will let you know that too. Their John Madden NFL sucks, but yet it sells millions of copies every year. The people who buy it knows it’s going to have the same bad AI, but they buy in hopes that EA has changed it (NOT!).


The funny thing about that idiot who addressed me is….

I guarantee he’ll be singing a different tune when the project is complete. It’s easy to point things out with a project like this while it’s in a messy state. Finished and well polished…that’s another ball game.

God of War didn’t look too good either during development, but man…look at the finished product….


Really…

Why do idiots keep going after developers? Especially when they have never written working code in their life… I’m sure that idiot couldn’t even write a path finding system and I’ve written several different versions that do not use collision detection.

That idiot had no idea… hundreds of people are attached to this project already…and he’s the first person to Spam it.

I bet in the future…he’ll be one of the people playing it.


Anyway…


Just to keep the envy from getting out of hand down the road…I really do believe I will NOT allow viewing of development past the first area of the game. I do wish to bring the first area closer to completion so you all can get a good feel for what this game will turn into. I am far from that at the moment and it will take some time. I’m sure I will be working on this project for months into next year as well.


Rather or not I leave the development videos public when this project is complete is a big as well. I might very well remove the videos down the road.

[teedee]

Well, I would counter by saying that you really should care what people think. Sometimes people want to offer you valid feedback and just don't know how to describe it properly. This often comes in the form of "I don't like the way it looks." or "It doesn't sound good.". Often you can try to ask them for more detail and find out specifically what they do not like, even if it turns out to be something you already plan to change later.

If you feel that someone is trying to be hurtful it is usually best not to respond since this gives them gratification, wastes your own time, and also makes you look like the bad guy. You would not want someone coming back later and quoting you saying you do not care about what people think on a store page, for example.

[markjacksonguy]

Well, I would counter by saying that you really should care what people think. Sometimes people want to offer you valid feedback and just don't know how to describe it properly. This often comes in the form of "I don't like the way it looks." or "It doesn't sound good.". Often you can try to ask them for more detail and find out specifically what they do not like, even if it turns out to be something you already plan to change later.

If you feel that someone is trying to be hurtful it is usually best not to respond since this gives them gratification, wastes your own time, and also makes you look like the bad guy. You would not want someone coming back later and quoting you saying you do not care about what people think on a store page, for example.

Calling a thread Spam when it is valid and then attacking the threads contents speaks for itself. That’s just envy, not feed back. I’ve seen that kind of behavior in life as well.

You look like the bad guy and a fool when you try to remove somebody's thread from a forum because a lot of people on that forum are taking a liking to it.

It's kind of hard to be the bad guy when you have nothing to prove. This work load is nothing new for me, I've done it several times before and in the end, it's always the same result...a master piece.

For one thing, it’s kind of hard to have a negative opinion about something that’s not even remotely close to being complete. The idiot was not giving opinion, he was clearly enraged at the fact so many people where stopping at the thread. In fact, he was begging for a lock to be put on the thread....and for what reason? There is no reason for that kind of BS but envy coming from a loser.

Others in that same thread did give opinion...real opinion and there's a difference between opinion and ignorance.

Not to mention there are hundreds of people who do understand how interesting this project is, being able to see it build up and change little by little.

And you have those who will see this as an opportunity to attack (and they will look like fools in the end).

You just have a lot of people on the internet that can't do and want to do and when they see somebody else doing it, it creates envy. Most people like that can't even write good code, let alone handle a project like mine.

That's nothing new, you deal with people like that in life all the time.

As for the idiot... The only thing he did was caused all those at his website, who were following this project, to lose update reports on it; because I dumped the entire website from my forum up date list. I did that not because of the idiot...but because the site's Administator was a "lap dog." I asked for something to be done about this idiot crashing my thread because he was clearly "Spamming" my post. The Administrator wanted to be an "dipstikck", so I left the site...as simple as that.

Trust me, I'm the last person who is going to care what somebody (who's nobody) is going to say. I have too many people around me in my personal life who knows what I'm capable of because they have seen it before, so I have nothing to prove.

I can very well stop this project from being public, get it finshied and polished and the next time anyone sees it, they'll probably being playing a copy of it.

Like I explained to the idiot, me posting my work is a viewing privilege, one I can take away at any time. So if someone wants to waste their time trying to get my threads removed because they envy my early work...they can help themselves to it.

That's what it was about... The idiot was trying to get my thread removed for no real good reason (I can careless about what some no talent loser could say).

In the end, this project will get finished and will turn out the way it's suppose to and on the level it's suppose to be on.

Words on the internet are just that... Words; and for all those talking their shots out of envy, they are still going to be nobody when this title is on the market and have sold a number of copies; and I moved on to bigger and better things.


PS,

You know what this title looked like at start, and you've already seen how a small change visually have elevated the game... As an artist who doesn't have any limitations, can you imagine what I will do once the programming is out of the way and I can concentrate on just visuals...?

Yeah...

The thing is, I'm not going to drop game performance for visuals. I have enough game designing knowledge to know an RTS game running at 1 fps is no fun, even if the visuals are breath taking.

Even now, if you have the game Majesty 2 (like I do), you'll notice the visuals currently in my project are very similar to those in Majesty 2, but that game is finished and well poslished already (mine is not).

I really am thinking strongly about going private on this project, so I can forget about keeping followers updated and just concentrate entirely on development.

[markjacksonguy]

After having a talk with some friends of mine who also happen to be software developers, I have decided to go private with this project.

They made some really good arguments which were hard to over look.

Doing a public development could cause problems down the road once the title is complete and ready for publishing.

By going private, I can also forget about keeping followers of the project updated from change to change.

At the same time, those who see this development as boasting or whatever can have some piece and mind.

The next time they see this game, it will be on disc inserted into their PC, Mac, Laptop, etc… There is truly nothing like this one on the market and that can’t be understood by observers until they see the final product in action.

I am getting very close to that point in the project where I will poor on the visuals for area one and work on the combat system heavily, adding in special effects, sound effects, missing animations, complete class outfits (which will be different now based on class and technology), camera effects, etc...

With my online diary coming to an end, I can really concentrate and press the gas pedal on this project. My game should be looking like a million bucks by the time this year ends, so I look to finish it sometimes next year. If you have any questions on the progress of this project in the future, feel free to acquire information about it.



Best regards

Mark