[WIP] tank move (working title)

[renderhjs]

update:

demo:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/flashkit/tank_move/demo9/

- tire marks (not yet in correct direction though), they even cross each other even from different tanks even you can´t see much of it yet as they are all placed in the same direction
- new camera system and scroll behaviour. when you place a move action the camera will follow that tank, otherwise move the mouse towards the edge to scroll into that direction. Feedback on speeds & sensivity please
- improved GUI : heart containers [no tank damage function yet], big star icon on the lower left displaying the available action points

for now if you press the "s" key it will switch to the next player and the camera focus will go to that player- though of course later it will cycle automaticly once your points are all used.

[T1ger]

Nice, nice I like the new camera system.. Sensivity, okay I think..
You probably know this, but when the tank is making a right turn, it rotates 270 degrees ccw instead of 90 degrees cw.

[Quit]

I sure you realize this as well, but I'll state it. If you shoot the other tank once his "power" goes down one point ... except for visually the game considers him not there, cannot shoot him and can get in his spot.

I really like the way this looks by the way, when i saw the first few mock-ups i thought you were re-creating the tank game that is on the "WiiPlay" disc for the Nintendo Wii. I like where you are going with it much better. VERY impressed with it so far.

[T1ger]

I sure you realize this as well, but I'll state it. If you shoot the other tank once his "power" goes down one point ... except for visually the game considers him not there, cannot shoot him and can get in his spot.

I really like the way this looks by the way, when i saw the first few mock-ups i thought you were re-creating the tank game that is on the "WiiPlay" disc for the Nintendo Wii. I like where you are going with it much better. VERY impressed with it so far.

I actually just LOVE the tank game on my Wii.. The best minigame ever for wii!

[renderhjs]

no demo this time:

- added end round button on ones own tank
- 2 tank colors
- automaticly ends round if all stars are up
- started on designing 4 individual characters, each tank a user to transport emotions and little dialogue

@Quit: yes I am aware of that- those are things I like less to fix and this will endure a little bit.

[Xploder]

no demo this time:

[renderhjs]

but therefore I have some character illustrations:

I really love the colors together so far (orange-red, warm ocker-yellow, cold blue) and now those grey illustrations _ I really love it all together (color wise).

here a orginal size of the chars

one is still missing - I´ll do him tomorrow

[tidenburg]

What the hell is the world coming to? How did these kids manage to end up on floating islands with tanks?

[Xploder]

The drawings are really nice.

What the hell is the world coming to? How did these kids manage to end up on floating islands with tanks?

Zee one guy seems Russian. Maybe its that US tank that had a nuke as a shell. Or was it that nuke rocket launcher? This could be a scene from WW3. Hey... I could do the voice overs for Russian/German - accents or speak it.

[Schfifty Five]

This game looks great, and I love the tank model
One thing though, if you mouse over an area where your tank can't go (like a single sand tile surrounded by water), it lags for about a second. That was back in demo 7 or 8 though, maybe you've fixed it already.

Can't wait to see the finished game

[Quit]

I actually just LOVE the tank game on my Wii.. The best minigame ever for wii!

Same here! I have a platinum medal in it for a reason :P ... just didn't want to see it recreated by someone with as much talent as renderhjs ... unless it was recreated with even MORE addiction gameplay ... maybe someone with less talent like myself should undertake this task.

sorry for the off tipic.

Looks great renderhjs, ... from what you said it sounds like you are keeping the characters gray scale. I'm not sure if I personally am keen on this idea ... I was expecting more bright vibrant colors like you have used so far.

Visually they do stand out, but is that because of good design or just because they don't fit in at all?

But either way, they are nicely designed an portray a lot of character in such simple illustrations ... just wish they had color .

[renderhjs]

they will stay greyscale for now,- perhaps it´s not so odd to someone who reads on a regular basis mangas

update:
a set of new tiles:

tiles in editor view:

automatic shadow generation

casts a shadow if the tile is higher as the cell grid height. But you dont notice them very much or did you noticed them on the green pipes from that shot?

besides from visual updates and the things I wrote before:
- fixed the tank rotation issue

demo:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/flashkit/tank_move/demo10/

[T1ger]

Nice, this just keeps getting better and better

About all the details you add: good job! I just love all those small little details, it's those that add up to make a great game

One thing though.. when I tried to drive to a far away tile, nothing happened, and i didnt understand why. You should add something to visualize that you dont have enough actionpoints to go there

[Alluvian]

Looks very nice. Reminds me of the bright cartoony colors for the game I am working on. And it makes me so green with envy since I know mine will not look as nice, certainly not animate as nicely.

I love the big red arrow showing the movepath, is that drawn dynamically with lineTo's or is it made up of tiles?

My only real complaints are just things that are obviously not finished yet.


I am curious how you are doing the tank movement, as it is a somewhat similar task that I have in my current game. For me if I have a ship turn right, if first moves 1 forward, then rotates right, then moves one forward. I decided to put all assigned but not yet executed moves in a string called movequeue, so turnright assigns movequeue to something like: "move(1),rotateright(),move(1)". The move(1) method sets a 'beingmoved' flag to true, then moves the ship, and then when it arrives sets the being moved flag back to false. The movequeue handler checks every frame if the ship is not being moved and the movequeue string is not "". When that happens it cuts out the next move from the string and calls it with some dynamic evaluation and 'apply'. Just curious if you run your path similar or if I am way out in left field.

My biggest problem as a newb is trying to slow things down so they don't all happen at once. Small delays make things flow so nicely, but it is a constant struggle for me to not have things happen too fast.

[Xploder]

Awesome stuff as usual Render. As T1ger already said it keeps getting better. Are you planning on making it an online multiplayer game? Would be cool to play and I'd love to help. The tracks didn't connect into a correct path but that should be easy to fix.

[EvilKris]

See now THIS is pimp-worthy.

[luxregina]

looks really good ! I can't wait to play the whole thing once finished !

[mr_malee]

yeah, its looking great. I did find a bug however, not sure how it happened, was clicking frantically all over the place, the explosion gfx played on a wall, the wall stayed and then the tank moved ontop of the wall.

I'll try to re-create it and explain the problem better.

[renderhjs]

thx guys,

@Alluvian:

I love the big red arrow showing the movepath, is that drawn dynamically with lineTo's or is it made up of tiles?

tiles because as you can see they are depth sorted meaning they have interact with the other tile groups (shadows, marks, tank,...).
Everything that has to do with the surface is tile- based
...
data wise a simple array holding the coordinates in movement order each element with just X & Y cell coordinates. The rest goes through a renderer (that´s what I call methods that are executed with the framerate interval) and manages rotation, position & sprite assigning (because the angles are pre rendered I need to display the correct angle).
Before it can pass an array element the position and rotation have to match (with snapping mechanics) then it automaticly goes to the next array element.
From my expierence with such stuff (and I played alot with such) it´s best to leave the data itself as simple as possible (no command queue,...) and rather write the function more complex. As it gives you the flexibility to add features (like adding sparks when turning a curve)- without having to alter other methods that execute the same data.

@mr_malee: the space key is a cheating button, of course it can cause issues because it is hacked. Only shooting with available stars and on mouse click will destroy later on elements, the space key will be removed.

anyway the last hours been watching TV and:
- adding a mini map wich you can drag (fast map access + overview of map status)
- working on display for available star moves (shows cells colored on wich you can make a move)

[renderhjs]

update

- added visualisation for movement range,- they show how many fields you can move (not shoot yet!)
- mini map (dragable & scrolls with actual map scrolling)
demo:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/flashkit/tank_move/demo11/