MechCombat (Version 0.1.4) New Build! 6/5/12

[MirrorIrorriM]

Mech Combat

This is a game project with a simple goal. To achieve large battles between completely custom machines build out of lego like pieces in an easy to use and intuitive editor. To accomplish this task the player will be given many decisions regarding mobility, sensors, weapons, and other miscellaneous tools needed to achieve dominance on the battlefield. I intend to use insight from users of the game to help shape the final product.

For now, however, I have an editor and a little field for you to try out mobility with.

You can find the game here :
http://www.gamefront.com/files/21800...uild_0_1_4_rar

-------------Due to a lot of stat changes and interface overhauls, save files from 0.1.3 are incompatible with 0.1.4-------------

Changes from 0.1.3 to 0.1.4 :
--Improved the respawning on the field to allow robots to be destroyed. (Before the system merely relocated your machine, it didn't create a new one and delete the old.)
--Made a basic framework for destroying blocks with weapons.
--Made a basic framework for destroying sections with weapons.
--Added ricocheting to bullets. Although every bullet technically has a very slim chance to ricochet of any surface (even dirt) it gets slimmer the softer the surface and the heavier the round.
--Made so recoil is now directly linked to the mass and velocity of the fired rounds.
--Added a very basic material system that controls the hardness and "bounciness" of a material. This effect how bullets collide with it.
--Improved the builder engine to allow placement of parts with more tilted attachment points.
--Added an attachment point to the Inverted Three Sided Corner on the tilted side (made possible by engine improvement).
--Added a death sequence for when a section takes enough damage to be destroyed.
--Slightly changed dimensions of corner pieces. I am working on making blocks stretchable and their current dimension had no rhyme or reason to it, so I changed the size to be a little bit easier to work with.
--Bullets should no longer fly through objects even when experiencing lag spikes.
--Added a barrel part.

**Some notes about damage :
Currently how damage works is each individual part placed contributes a certain amount of health to a larger health "pool". This pool is the health of the chunk the block belongs to. Damaging any block damages the chunk it is connected to, but if an individual block is destroyed, you can no longer shoot it to damage the chunk. With the current system, you need to destroy roughly half the blocks to make the entire chunk explode.
Destroyed block still offer structural integrity to the chunk they are connected to. This means you cannot defeat someone by "chopping them in half".
When an individual part is destroyed, if it has a use (such as tracks, guns, hover, etc.) it will be permanently disabled.
Destroying the brain, or the chunk that the brain belongs to, defeats an entire mech, no matter how large or complex it may be.
Currently explosions do no damage.

**Some notes about ricocheting :
Rounds are more likely to ricochet the more parallel to the surface they are. This means that using 45 degree angles on the mechs can drastically decrease the chance of bullets actually penetrating your blocks.
Certain rounds (like the tank cannon's shot) are explosive and will be set off when they collide going at a particular velocity. This means that they will be set off no matter the hardness of the surface. If the angle between the shot and the surface is shallow enough, however, then it is still possible for the explosive to ricochet.
If a round explodes on impact instead of going through the target (like the tank shot) then it is possible for the round to be stopped without actually exploding. Think a round impacting soft sand at a very shallow angle and being stopped by it.

**Some notes about builder improvement :
Although this improvement doesn't actually show up to the player very much, it was a rather jarring flaw with the system I had programmed until now. You see, with parts such as the corner, the player is able to place other parts at a tilted angle. The engine, however, only supported having parts which have a tilted attachment point along the z and y axis (forward and up), it did not allow angles along a combination of x and y, or x and z. Now that the engine supports this it should allow me to make some more complex parts. Such as a sphere.

Bug fixes :
--Further improved the stability of joints and decreased their wobble. Large machines still experience some issues.

Known Bugs :
--You can't enter negative values in the parameter boxes.
--Bullet trails sometimes go past the bullet when it collides with an object. This does not effect the bullet itself, however.

Screenshots (These are old and need to be replaced.) :

show spoiler

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Build machines using a nonrestrictive editor!

Use your inventions in full 3D physics environments!

The game's controls are in the included readme file.

I also apologize that there isn't too much to do at the present moment besides try out designs. Any suggestions for filling in the content are encouraged.

Suggestions and comments are very much appreciated.

[Benfclark]

This looks like a nice idea, work on it!

Also, if you are in need of an assistant artist I might be up for contributing some assets

[Karhs12]

This sounds like an awesome idea, and I would be glad to contribute what little artsy skills I have.
Also, it looks like you meant to have a link to the current game, but you don't.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Also, it looks like you meant to have a link to the current game, but you don't.

It wasn't until I got to my job that I realized I forgot to link it. Just posted link btw.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Just updated with new build.

[Gilo000]

Oh, man this is so cool. I just built a 6-tracked tank with a total of 3 gatling guns and 14 tank cannons. I can't wait for this to get multiplayer, it has tons of potential.

[Ross_Varn]

I really like this concept- but my mouse doesn't have a middle button, and no amount of rekeying seems to allow me to turn the view of the building screen, which leads to some really funky builds.

[MirrorIrorriM]

I really like this concept- but my mouse doesn't have a middle button, and no amount of rekeying seems to allow me to turn the view of the building screen, which leads to some really funky builds.

Oops! Looking back at the code you are correct, I didn't make rotating the camera use the input screen's set control. I'll re-release later today with build 0.1.1 with that feature fixed. Right now I'm adding saving and loading to the builder, but I need to iron out a few bugs first.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Just updated to build 0.1.1. The biggest change in this one is the ability to save and load mechs.

To help spur some discussion, I would like to ask some advice of how you guys would like to see the game shaped.

I would like to start with some simple questions.

First off, is building the mechs too easy? Should there be more complex components such as engines, fuel, ammo, or would that just make mech creation a chore?

[Karhs12]

Having fancy construction would be neat, but it would also be a bit of a hassle if you just want to blow stuff up.
Maybe have a simple mode, just like the current setup, and a complex mode that includes those things?

[Gilo000]

Ammo is pretty game-destroying if there's not enough of it, and given the rate of fire of the weapons, I'd say it'd render most mech designs useless. Although, if you make them modules to actually build, it does seem like an interesting concept. Engines are a must. Even if they aren't for locomotion, it could serve as a "weak spot" of some sort. I honestly think that right about now, mech building is a bit too easy. Adding either engines or ammo (Both explodable, of course.) would make it a bit more challenging, finding somewhere to put it, and would also make the game a bit more tactical, since now players have something to aim for in a mech, instead of just shooting madly all over the place. Also, legs. No mech game is a mech game without big, mechwarrior-style legs. Right now the game is TOO COOL FOR SKOOL, but it's still pretty lacking, obviously. Also, will there be a map making tool? I'd love to see some city maps in the game. But, that's just my rambling.

[MirrorIrorriM]

I was thinking when it came to ammo, we would be talking blocks you place to give yourself a large amount of ammunition. My original plan for mechs would be a block-by-block severing system, allowing people to chop up mechs into tiny pieces, which sounds good on the outside, but is horrendously cpu tasking when actually implemented.

A compromise would be all the blocks sharing a big pool of hp, and some blocks changing a damage multiplier from incoming damage (armor plates take half damage, cockpit takes 10x damage, stuff like that). Combined with armor piercing rounds that actually penetrate armor a certain distance, this could be quite interesting.

Another compromise would be to make so blocks could be "destroyed", but all this really does is make shots go through them, allowing them to easily hit your more sensitive parts (cockpit, engine, etc.)

Legs are of course something which I have been thinking about since before I started this project (Mechwarrior was one of my favorite games), but leg physics are a tricky problem. When you look at the mech warrior games, they didn't actually use physics, which allowed the legs to work without much hindrance. In mech combat, since it is a full physics environment, this is a lot harder to achieve. One thing that would make it astronomically easier, however, would be to make non-bipedal legs. Although this kinda destroys the typical view of the mech, spider bots would be far easier to program than magic humanoid ones.

About the map editor idea. Seeing I was able to make a mech constructor, I don't see it being out of the possibility of having you be able to place massive building "blocks" together. Kinda like placing a bunch of massive chunks and creating skyscrapers with them.

On the subject of my coding progress so far, I almost have a turntable joint ready. This joint would allow you to build actually rotating tank cannons separate from the main body. It is kinda glitchy right now so I am trying to iron out all the kinks before releasing it.

[weirdguy]

Tiny suggestion: in the editor, put a small rotating image of the selected piece next to the menu so I know what the object looks like when I select it, instead of reading a description that kind of depicts what it looks like but doesn't really tell me anything.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Tiny suggestion: in the editor, put a small rotating image of the selected piece next to the menu so I know what the object looks like when I select it, instead of reading a description that kind of depicts what it looks like but doesn't really tell me anything.

Ah yes, interfaces. Eventually I'm gonna have to redo all the GUIs on the screen, because I'm not really digging the placeholder gray that is all over the place. Also on resolutions of 1024x768 and lower, the screen gets really crowded fast because of how large the left and right panels are. Ultimately though I like the idea, little graphical representations of everything would certainly make it more appealing to the eye.

[weirdguy]

My ultimate goal is to make a Drillgorg.

[Gilo000]

How about weapons? What weapons do you have planned? Also, forgive me if I'm asking too many questions, it's just that I haven't seen a game this cool in a few years and the fact that I can suggest things makes it even better.

[MirrorIrorriM]

How about weapons? What weapons do you have planned? Also, forgive me if I'm asking too many questions, it's just that I haven't seen a game this cool in a few years and the fact that I can suggest things makes it even better.

No no, questions are great. The more I discuss the game with you guys, the better the final product will be!

So about weapons. My original plan for weapons was to have 3 damage types mechs can receive. These types are Ballistic, Impact, and Heat.

Ballistic damage can be surmounted to something being "shredded". It represents the accumulated damage from blocks being turned into Swiss cheese by bullets.

Impact damage is damage received from sudden changes in velocity, such as an explosion or another robot smashing into you.

Finally there is heat damage, this is dealt by repeated explosions, firing your weapons too much without rest, and other things such as lasers, flamethrowers, stuff like that. While it doesn't do much damage to blocks themselves, it would cause indirect damage to your machine. This indirect damage could be represented by weapons ceasing to function, your motors and wheels moving slower, or a general decrease in efficiency. Heat could ultimately destroy an object, however, if it exceeded the mechs "melting point".

While none of these damage types have been implemented yet, this leads to some ideas for weapons using these ideas. To name a few:
Laser Ray : Deals heat damage. Travels to target instantly (hitscan)
Pulse Laser : Deals minor heat damage and ballistic damage. (hitscan)
Plasma Cannon : Deals heat damage and minor impact damage.
Mortar Cannon : Slow traveling shot that falls to the ground after a while. Deals major impact damage and minor ballistic damage (shrapnel)
Spiked Plate : Transfers a % of the impact damage done when colliding with another mech to ballistic (shred) and adds it to the base impact damage for extra carnage.1

These also lead us to some ideas for defenses against these weapons. Such as:
Mirror Plating : Reflects the laser ray and pulse laser so they bounce harmlessly off the hull.
Heatsink : Causes heat on the block it is placed to be dispersed much faster, lessening the effect of overheat.
Impact Plating : Plating specially designed to reduce incoming collisions. Think a plate with a spring at the base.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Just updated with build 0.1.2. The most important change in this one is the implementation of joints into the game. This should open up for far more mech design possibilities. Another notable change is the implementation of new "helper" attachment points on the bottom of locomotion pieces. These should make it easier to design machines.

[Gilo000]

Yes. YES. Downloading right now. By the way, what's the news on textures? Will they be solid colors or will you make actual textures for the blocks?

[MirrorIrorriM]

Yes. YES. Downloading right now. By the way, what's the news on textures? Will they be solid colors or will you make actual textures for the blocks?

The plan for individual blocks is to eventually have a "material selector" that would allow you to select whether a block is steel, iron, aluminum, etc. How they will actually be designed at the end is a little be tougher. What about having every block consist of a multistage texture. This texture would have a base material that shows, but you would also be able to select designs. The default design would be a brushed metal pattern, but perhaps other designs would include stuff like rivets, bands of colored metal, stuff like that. I would think I could incorporate blocks having a default metal color while also having selectable colors in a palette.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Just uploaded with a small update that just fixed a major bug. Apparently the turn-tables did not place properly on some people's computers and they would just fall off on start. I tested it on several computers and didn't notice it the first time but it is fixed now (had to collaborate with a few people who had the bug to iron it out). Also there was a small memory leak for turn tables without anything placed on top of them. That is fixed now too.

Edit : I accidentally forgot to change the tooltip for the turn table from saying "DO NOT USE" to an explanation of what it does. Ignore that tooltip, it should work just fine.

[Gilo000]

Just made a little "toy" to screw around with. This thing. This link is mainly just an experiment to see if I could share mech designs.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Just made a little "toy" to screw around with. This thing. This link is mainly just an experiment to see if I could share mech designs.

Yes the link worked and I was able to download and test it. Pretty nice, and pretty big. I will have to figure out a way to improve the performance times on large machines like that. My computer could barely handle it. :P

[Gilo000]

So, just out of curiosity (And the fact that I want to annoy you), what's next in store? What are you currently working on, if you're working on anything?

[MirrorIrorriM]

So, just out of curiosity (And the fact that I want to annoy you), what's next in store? What are you currently working on, if you're working on anything?

Well deciding the next big feature to go from 0.1.2 to 0.1.3 is still taking place. From 0.0.4 to 0.1.0 I made the builder which pretty much got the game started. 0.1.1 introduced saving and loading. 0.1.2 added a joint (still trying to think of more joints for future releases btw, suggestions are welcome as always). What 0.1.3 will add has yet to be determined.

Lets see what major changes need to be added first.

--Implement damage types so machines can be destroyed.
--Implement a map loading system (current system only supports the one map I have).
--Implement the material system that will make blocks able to be unique.
--Rework the attachment point system to support a "grid size" feature, allowing people to place objects on the corners of blocks and whatnot.
--Add AI Bots. (optional because I might just make the game multiplayer only)
--Make engines and "support" parts (ammo, fuel, batteries, etc) that will make mech building more challenging and interesting.
--Make sensors that are linked to joint systems. Think a laser pointer that makes your turn tables automatically point to a given target. This would also imply something like linking turntables together so you can have 5 systems of them all pointing in the same direction without a hard link. Another sensor I have in mind is making so moving around your head in the cockpit actually moves around a cross-hair on your screen that you can link weapon movement to.
--Add a money system to the game that makes so mech pieces actually cost credits. This will be a big step towards making the builder a challenging construction experience instead of just a sandbox editor. (When I do this I will also add a "sandbox" mode to allow building of whatever you want.)

I won't attempt multiplayer yet because, from personal experience, code that supports multiplayer is much harder to work with so it is better just to make it multiplayer towards the end. End in this case probably being after I implement both the map loading and damage systems. Multiplayer will also be hard to get servers running for, so I will hold off on that until the game is in a working condition and, well, a game and not just a glorified builder.

Even with all of these the game will still be far from done, however. Along the way new ideas will come up and old ones will be dropped for better ones. I hope to see many of these bright and bold ideas come form you, the player, so as to make an environment that pleases and challenges everyone. Also it is important for me to keep a perspective of what users see vs what I the developer see. This is my first 'public' game release and I'm still learning how to address the masses.