LAN 2014 Review!

Now that the travelling immediately post-LAN is concluded and I have returned, it's time to reflect a bit on the results of this years LANstravaganza. First the behind the scenes stuff then the gameplay results.

• Setup:
• Installation FAILURE(S). OMG the installer didn't work on fresh machines. Existing installations updated fine but new machines failed for as of yet unknown reasons. Obviously this should be prio 1 for me to fix. It's worked for so long that I haven't checked up on fresh installs. A bit of a pain to diagnose, but so it goes. Not all programming is glamourous.
• Asset acquisition. 2 machines failed to get some of the assets during play. The initial asset set on login all worked, but some were missing rig assets, and Cheryl was notably missing pretty much everything. Still can play though :)
• Server Side:
• Aside from earlier issues, not bad at all. Like last year I didn't have to touch the server nor run a single zone manually. It managed itself nicely behind the scenes, even recovering gracefully from someone putting Outpost on 'server melter difficulty'. 
• No noteworthy problems with the server. There ARE still issues with exploration mode, but that was removed for the LAN for that reason.

Now more interesting stuff:

• Scenarios!
• Tutorial
• The tutorial works good! People seemed to enjoy playing it and for the most part understood what was going on. We have a list of things to improve of course, but that's to be expected. Once the installers are working I'll recommend to anyone that wasn't here to play the tutorial and give more feedback :)
• I believe we had 5 or 6 people simultaneously playing the tut. Not bad for a 9 year old server box.
• In the end 8 people played it most of the way through. Sean didn't get a chance to finish, after he encountered one of a very few breaking bugs in the tut, which will be fixed promptly.
• Glacier
• This was Eirikr's 2v2 PvP scenario, a kill-count race with incrementally spawning units hostile to both teams, of increasing danger and value.
• We played 4 times, with varying teams. It went better than I honestly expected. PvP's a tricky beast in this game just by its very nature. We didn't originally plan to have PvP in the game, but these scenarios are just so easy to make, and are somewhat rewarding to watch being played.
• Notably, a couple people had more control trouble in this map. There are some narrower areas which tend to produce those problems. Figuring out the root cause of those control issues is a pretty high priority for me, it'll probably take some pretty serious analysis at a forthcoming TOASTnight. 
• Balance issues? It's not possible to really say there's any balance to have an issue yet, but watching Max blitz through 2 enemy players without resistance was something of a sight to behold. Mostly ignore this for now, until we're sure all the class mechanics are working. PvP counter play doesn't have all it's necessary bits yet. Improved defensive maneuvers and the focus maneuver may help out, if and when they are done.
• Well done Eir :)
• Outpost
• This is the somewhat scripted defensive scenario I've used as a testbed since just after last year's LAN. 
• The scenario plays out fairly well, but objectives aren't clear and it is somewhat exploitable.
• Allies can cross into the spawn territory of the enemies. Since they spawn incrementally for most of the scenario, this makes it way way easy and needs to be controlled or removed. Most likely we'll make an optional objective to do something across the river in enemy territory, but forbid spawn camping directly.
• Enemy scaling is complicated and occasionally broken. This scenario scales up with player count, which works peculiarly. Double the players cannot handle double the enemies in this case, which is somewhat surprising. In any case this mostly just needs more tools to allow the scenario designer to control the enemy count better. Also, more time to tune against player count.
• Anticlimax. The scenario just ENDS if you win. We need a finale or at least some fireworks :) The win screen doesn't really exist either; it just takes you back to the initial menu for when a scenario is initializing and the players get ready. This is very true of Glacier too.
• Others
• Mostly other scenarios were played in interims and only a bit
• KoboldKing, the focus of the last LAN, was basically obliterated. The enemy defensive power was mostly due to a mechanic that we removed from the base unit definitions (opting to have it be part of the scenario instead), but didn't re-add to the scenario. Sooo, the players pretty much just ran over the boss and called it a day.
• TerraTest wasn't played, it's day is probably done, which is not sad at all because it is bad. As with many others, was mostly a testbed for development.
• Maul wasn't played, it needed rebuilding anyway.
• There are no other noteworthy scenarios... yet.

Overall this year was much better! Last year I said that 'it was more of a game than a demo now'. This year this is much more true. The features added for the tutorial have really improved things across the whole game.

So what's next?

First, incorporating the LAN feedback, as recorded in this pic.

Second, more scenarios! Time to make a new scenario. Maybe an assault scenario or a reverse-escort assassination mission, or an escort mission, or...

Third, details! A pass over animations and sound would be good to do. Fleshing out sounds for the entire tutorial would be an important step forward for media. Most of the LAN played without sound so I got away without much negative feedback there, but I know what it'd be if they could hear it.

To finish up, how bout a couple images? Here's the couple I took after I finally remembered to.

Time to get started, I suppose.

Facepalm of the day.

Was trying to figure out why a unit in a new scenario was dying before the player reached him. Turns out he decided the plants on the road were hostile and sacrificed his life to slay the hideous aloe plant.

aaaggggggg

Terrain Tesselation Skew Test

Had an idea when looking at some images a coworker showed me. Easy enough to rig up, thought I'd see what it looks like. It's just a consistent noise function applied to the non-vertical part of the terrain geometry. It breaks up some hex patterns and makes some more interesting edges.

This is just a test. Do not panic. Obviously it would need massive tuning and surface types would need to be able to disable it (for manmade structures).

http://redtoast.net/Images/SkewTest_1.png
http://redtoast.net/Images/SkewTest_2.png
http://redtoast.net/Images/SkewTest_3.png
http://redtoast.net/Images/SkewTest_4.png
http://redtoast.net/Images/SkewTest_5.png
http://redtoast.net/Images/SkewTest_6.png

Many-Month Update

[ There are images at the bottom section if you just want to see pictures :p ]

It's been too long! Much has been written (code-wise), and much planned for the inevitable demo. I also noted it's been a long time since I've taken any screenshots of the game, so I'm gonna make some :p

Major Updates:

• Build Machine is up and running. It builds client installers automatically, runs a universe which can self-update either the universe engine, the zone engine, the scenarios, or the game database independently. 
• Map code Rebuild. This removes possibly the worst code in World, the bindings between Terra and Zone, and makes for a nice clean implementation instead. The end result here is a correct map graph after terrain changes, less bandwidth usage, faster terrain updates, and easier extensibility when it comes time to add more terra features (shallow media, climbing, jumping, flow)
• Scenario Editor code partial Rebuild. The scenario editor is cleaner and more stable. Scenarios update consistently after terrain changes so we don't have to lock down the map. Added many new terrain tools, which are also used as in-game effects.
• Universe server Stability. Multi-zone execution is FAR better. Zones purge when no players have been active for some duration. Zones can continue to exist in a stale state if there are players, but if the database or zone engine update. This means when we 'patch' the server, scenarios in progress can continue uninterrupted. Launching zones is totally a good way to test the client or scenario now.
• View Phasing. This is a rendering system that selectively hides pixels that are in the way of seeing what matters to the player. It has nasty math. It lets you see through trees.
• Sound effects. We have both a selection of character sounds (sets gloriously recorded by friends and family), and some free-sound sourced audio clips. (If you want to record a set I can provide the executable that runs the script to do it :p )
• Procedural Trees. I decided I wanted some foliage so I made a procedural treebuilder. They aren't pretty but they are... there...

Minor but still good Updates:

• Lots of new additions to the scripting language for scenarios. Mucho flexibility.
• Per-terrain-type system for ground impacts. This gives us the ability to have generic actions produce unique effects based on the terrain. (For example, flame impacts may do nothing to stone, but may create fires and char wood)
• Straight path-lines. Somewhat more natural looking (but less strictly correct) paths when not moving along 60 degree angles.
• Options menu system (currently just sound volume)
• Ground-projection effects
• Beam effects (in retrospect, I haven't used many of these...)
• Per-unit cosmetic data. Right now just rig-parameters and sound bindings, but it could include per-unit props or textures.
• Lots of actual game-effect fixes, but it's really mostly been systems stuff.

Jeez, looking through the logs there's kind of a lot, but there's still so much remaining. It looks like I haven't spent much time on game mechanics in a while, which is kind of hilarious to me. A Client UI pass is overdue as well, and maybe an enemy AI pass as well.

And Now some Imagery

• Blog021014-1.jpg: A shot of trees in Eirikr's hilly scenario. Note that in the center of the image the trees are filtered out by the view phasing. If you look you can see the fuzzy circle where the trees stop being filtered.
• Blog021014-2.jpg: A shot in the scenario editor of some new terrain construction tools: Easy walls, solid or smoothed, using straight lines (on the left) or continuous lines (on the right), some surface replacement in the back, and some bridge construction in the center.
• Blog021014-3.jpg: The new bridge to defend in my outpost scenario. Note the overhang section of the wall is phased out, there are tres, and a pile of debugging UI I REALLY need to get rid of.
• Blog021014-4.jpg: The outpost scenario has a scripted ally, the Captain, who has some special behaviors. This is just him yelling that he needs help. I usually ignore him and let him die. Idiot doesn't know how to retreat properly. :p
• Blog021014-5.jpg: The bridge explosives have gone off, so the bridge is ruined, the tree is on fire, and the enemies have summoned a special scripted unit, circled in white in the top right, that builds dynamic bridges across the river and onto the walls. Also, I levelled, and the Captain is stuck on the other side of the river.
• Blog021014-6.jpg: The first 3 bridges are finished, I'm defending one, but some units crossed the first bridge and killed my archers on the walls. Very sad. Tree still on fire.
• Blog021014-7.jpg: Close up shot of a very happy squad. The bright edges are showing morale. You might be able to tell that they have some different subtle dimensions; that's the per-unit cosmetics. The shield on the left is shorter, and the commander looks kinda lanky. The center archer is taller, pretty clearly. Also trees, bridges from underneath, and ground projections underneath the units. The arrows show when in combat, and make it easier to see orientation. Also if your units aren't engaged the arrow is just a circle.
• 2013 Shirt Image: Cause its neat.

Thanks for readin'. Till next.

Some new music

Recorded a pile of new tracks :)

Trying to keep myself from going too energetic in this one; aiming for some menu music. Not 100% pleased with it, but it's a start.
http://redtoast.net/Music/w_amb1_BbAb.mp3

The same song as above, but energetic, since its hard for me not to be.
http://redtoast.net/Music/w_com1_BbAb.mp3

Working on deciding a musical theme for the game. This is one possibility but the more I listen to it the less I like it. I like the song, but not as the theme for the game.
http://redtoast.net/Music/w_theme1.mp3

Another go at it. Kinda the same feeling about it after.
http://redtoast.net/Music/w_theme2.mp3

One of those hurts-my-fingers kinds of fun rambling songs:
http://redtoast.net/Music/oloud2.mp3

Let me know what you all think of them.

It Is Time

Hey.

I've decided that I like this game, that it is fun, and that I'd like to make it a real thing. Also, it would be kind of awesome to be able to work on it (and/or other games) professionally and full time.

So we're gonna do it.

We're going to make a demo. A polished, complete, but short experience that shows off the engine, setting, and story. A well crafted, focused, and deliberate showing. Not a tech demo, not just the game working, but 2 complete scenarios, and everything about it streamlined and forward. No debug windows, no obtuse requirements to click the right buttons to launch things, nothing obviously missing.

That's something I haven't really done before. It'd be something to be proud of. And more importantly, something that can stand on its own. I want to take this demo and spread it around to professionals in the industry and see what they think. I want to send it to designers and content producers that I respect; and see if they agree that the game is worth making.

And if they do then it'll be time to search for funding. Crowdfunding comes to mind. If we're lucky enough to show the demo to someone who both likes it and has an audience, that could be interesting, :)

But first steps first, gotta make the thing. There's a lot of stuff to decide on and get working. We shall make lists. Yes. Lists.


PS, I think I wrote something somewhat similar a few years ago. I think at the time I was thinking similarly, but I didn't have as much belief that it was actually possible, and I didn't have as much belief in the game mechanics and implementation. I'm actually quite happy with it at the moment. :)

I'll do an update soon; we have a new scripting language and bindings and some trees to look at. I'm sure there's more since July, but right now it escapes me.

New gameplay video recording (+ music)

Hi!

I made a new video finally! It's here: http://youtu.be/DR3oVZfSDVs

I meant for the music to stay backgroundy but I kinda got carried away. It happens.

Also, there's an annoying black bar I didn't notice till afterwards; it'll have to stay since I'm lazy. I'll fix it for next time.