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

[Toast]

This is very fun. Keep up the good work.
If you do add AI, perhaps you could have a design a mech contest and have the winner be included with the game or something.

[MirrorIrorriM]

This is very fun. Keep up the good work.
If you do add AI, perhaps you could have a design a mech contest and have the winner be included with the game or something.

Perhaps some default mechs couldn't hurt. What would really be good is if I got some sort of a mech-sharing server for people to show off their creations with.

That would make more sense, however, if I made mech building harder and add more possibilities.

What does everyone think about making mech construction more complicated and elaborate, but having working examples to go along with it so you could see first hand what works and go from there?

[Gilo000]

Man, I'd love to help, but to be honest I have no art skills nor do I know any programming languages. Still, if you need some help with something other than those two (which I doubt), you can tell me and I'll try to help.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Man, I'd love to help, but to be honest I have no art skills nor do I know any programming languages. Still, if you need some help with something other than those two (which I doubt), you can tell me and I'll try to help.

I probably can handle most of the assets myself. What is really helpful is discussing stuff with you guys. I'm not really the best guy at thinking things up and I actually do need help with that.

[Toast]

Perhaps you could add power sources as a cap for how much stuff you can put on robots. Bigger power sources let you have more parts but also weight down your robot.
I would also suggest having two multiplayer modes. A mode with the default limits, and a mode where you can use robots made in sandbox mode.

Some melee weapons such as drills and blades would be a nice addition.
You also need to add lasers.

[NineFourEightSeven]

I know we have tracks, but how about wheels?

A pretty cool new weapon would be a rocket pod, like a tube that fires 4 spiraling rockets in a circle, and then has a reload time.

[Didero]

Maybe I'm just being stupid, but attaching parts together is a bit confusing. Between rotating the part with R and changing which side attaches with C, I can't seem to be able to attach the tracks the way I want.

Other than that, great prototype for a game


EDIT: Oh hey, I just tried again, and apparently I was doing it wrong. I was trying to attach the tracks to the blocks I placed, and that gets confusing quickly, but it works perfectly if you place the tracks on the ground.

EDIT2: Hey, this is fun! Two small suggestions though:
1) This is maybe the OCD side of me talking, but could you make the 'Force' setting a textbox and a slider? I'm a bit annoyed at all those decimal numbers, and I'd like to set it to a nice round 700. I understand if you don't want to do this though.
2) Maybe add two fire keys to weapons, just like tracks have two sets of controls. That way you can more easily make groups of weapons. For instance, set one Gatling gun to fire with R and F, and another with E and F. That way you can fire everything by pressing F, or fire more precisely by only using one gun. This could be handy when ammo count is introduced, and you can be more conservative with remaining bullets.

EDIT THE THIR Another small suggestion: Disable camera controls when a dialog box is up. For instance when typing in a name for a savefile, or when assigning keys. That's also a pretty small issue, but it would help things a bit.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Maybe I'm just being stupid, but attaching parts together is a bit confusing. Between rotating the part with R and changing which side attaches with C, I can't seem to be able to attach the tracks the way I want.

Other than that, great prototype for a game


EDIT: Oh hey, I just tried again, and apparently I was doing it wrong. I was trying to attach the tracks to the blocks I placed, and that gets confusing quickly, but it works perfectly if you place the tracks on the ground.

EDIT2: Hey, this is fun! Two small suggestions though:
1) This is maybe the OCD side of me talking, but could you make the 'Force' setting a textbox and a slider? I'm a bit annoyed at all those decimal numbers, and I'd like to set it to a nice round 700. I understand if you don't want to do this though.
2) Maybe add two fire keys to weapons, just like tracks have two sets of controls. That way you can more easily make groups of weapons. For instance, set one Gatling gun to fire with R and F, and another with E and F. That way you can fire everything by pressing F, or fire more precisely by only using one gun. This could be handy when ammo count is introduced, and you can be more conservative with remaining bullets.

EDIT THE THIR Another small suggestion: Disable camera controls when a dialog box is up. For instance when typing in a name for a savefile, or when assigning keys. That's also a pretty small issue, but it would help things a bit.

I like those ideas but the last one confuses me. The camera controls only are active while you are holding a particular button. So does that mean you are holding middle click while you are saving and loading?

[Didero]

When I was building my bot, I wanted to set the 'Forward' button of my tracks to 'W'. When I clicked 'Set Key' and pressed 'W', the key was set properly, but the camera moved too.
The same with saving my bot. There was an 'S' in the name, and when I typed that, the letter appeared and the camera moved.

[MirrorIrorriM]

When I was building my bot, I wanted to set the 'Forward' button of my tracks to 'W'. When I clicked 'Set Key' and pressed 'W', the key was set properly, but the camera moved too.
The same with saving my bot. There was an 'S' in the name, and when I typed that, the letter appeared and the camera moved.

Silly me, I thought you meant the camera was rotating with your mouse. Yes the WASD controls would be difficult to bypass because, even if I did disable them while the key-press dialogue box was up, it would still reactivate the millisecond the dialogue box closes.

I'll definitely do it for the saving and loading though, and while I'm at it, I'll implement it for the key dialogue box. Just know that for the specific example of the key dialogue box it won't really change anything.

[Didero]

It's not a game-destroying bug by far, just something I noticed. Thanks for fixing it though
I don't really know how Unity handles the keyboard, but in something like Game Maker or Java a way to solve it could be to start camera movement on a KeyDown or KeyPress event, and stop on a KeyUp or KeyRelease event. If you intercept the KeyDown event when a dialog box is up, the camera won't move. And it won't matter that the event that stops the camera fires when the key is released.
I should probably stop telling you how to make your game though

Oh, another thing I noticed while driving around my spiffy little tank this afternoon, was that it would rock back and forth a bit while driving. The front of the vehicle kept going up and down a bit, even when the ground didn't slope much. I don't know if that's a problem with my tank or with the physics somehow, but I just thought I'd mention it.

I hope I don't come across as just complaining about everything. I like what's there of the game so far, and I'd like to help with finding bugs.


Oh, random thought just popped into my head: Maybe after you've taken care of the combat side of the game, you could add non-combat gamemodes, like racing or endurance races or something. That's for the far future, but I just thought I'd mention it before I forget about it again.

[Toast]

Would it be possible to set up and down on the mouse wheel to zoom while in the creator?

[MirrorIrorriM]

Would it be possible to set up and down on the mouse wheel to zoom while in the creator?

I could do that, yes, but I might want to use it for something else. I.e. a part quick select or something.

If you intercept the KeyDown event when a dialog box is up, the camera won't move. And it won't matter that the event that stops the camera fires when the key is released.
I should probably stop telling you how to make your game though

I like that idea, and I don't qualify that as telling me how to make my game, that is giving informed and helpful advice.

Oh, another thing I noticed while driving around my spiffy little tank this afternoon, was that it would rock back and forth a bit while driving. The front of the vehicle kept going up and down a bit, even when the ground didn't slope much. I don't know if that's a problem with my tank or with the physics somehow, but I just thought I'd mention it.

It is a problem with the physics engine that I have battled with for a while. Believe me, it used to be so bad it was unplayable. This is one of those problems where I know what it is, but I have no idea how to permanently fix it, just deal with the symptoms. The problem is because of the way the physics engine handles friction. Friction between your tracks and the ground cause your machine to by drawn back by the force, then the center of gravity falls back some more and my tracks (which apply suction to the ground to stay flat on the surface) pulls it back. The result is a rather annoying bobbing up and down that I really tried to kill but it proved to be a hard challenge. One way I plan to fix it is by using creating my own friction system (I have partly done this already, but it only works for linear motion and not torque) thus bypassing unity's.

I hope I don't come across as just complaining about everything. I like what's there of the game so far, and I'd like to help with finding bugs.

I would never want to discourage suggestions of any kind. Your input is very much appreciated.

Oh, random thought just popped into my head: Maybe after you've taken care of the combat side of the game, you could add non-combat gamemodes, like racing or endurance races or something. That's for the far future, but I just thought I'd mention it before I forget about it again.

Although it is kinda still combat technically, I did have an idea for a sumo arena mode.

[Gilo000]

Sumo arena would be SO COOL. Then you'd have to think of traction and power instead of guns and complex mechs. Also, I was kind of wondering if you could add a flat portion to the test area so that I could check something out. But you should really think about that sumo idea, it sounds cool.

Edit: Also, races sound pretty neat. Even if you don't implement them.

[NineFourEightSeven]

Does unity support typing in values on sliders?
It'd make it a lot easier to balance hover blocks.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Does unity support typing in values on sliders?
It'd make it a lot easier to balance hover blocks.

Unity didn't make that little slider screen, I had to program that myself. All unity does is provide the graphics engine, physics environment, and a real time datastream to make programming more time efficient. The input-able values on the sliders will be mine to program. It is also decided that it will be in the next build because it is the most suggested feature.

[NineFourEightSeven]

It turns out hover blocks can effect other physics objects.
An array of maxed out Hover Blocks works great as a repulsion cannon.

[Karhs12]

It turns out hover blocks can effect other physics objects.
An array of maxed out Hover Blocks works great as a repulsion cannon.

Oh man this plus lots of little cannons in boxes that are held on by thin rods that are pointed at by lasers equals remote-detonation bomb launcher!

[NineFourEightSeven]

I managed to harness the repulsor tech for the worthwhile purpose of SPORTS.

I made a little ball, and put a claw shape for catching and redirecting on the front of a tank with the innermost edge lined with repulsors, firing the Hover Blocks when I want to "kick" the ball.

[Gilo000]

Any info on what update wheels may be showing up in? I have a burning desire to build a halftrack. And a racecar.

[NineFourEightSeven]

Is there any way we could get a checkbox on turntables that makes them start going reverse when they hit the end of their arc if you limit rotation?
Would be great for actual legs.

(Sorry if I'm overwhelming you with suggestions.)

[Inconspicularity]

People like really fucking complex games.

It is much more satisfying to build a cannon using smaller parts than to just drag&drop one in. People figured that out from minecraft.

The Hover Blocks seem like they're a very versatile tool, stick with that kind of design. Everything needs multiple ingenious uses.

By the way: FOV slider. Please.

[MirrorIrorriM]

Is there any way we could get a checkbox on turntables that makes them start going reverse when they hit the end of their arc if you limit rotation?
Would be great for actual legs.

(Sorry if I'm overwhelming you with suggestions.)

That idea seems awfully specific, but I don't think it would be too hard to add.

Also it is nearly impossible to overwhelm me with suggestions. I keep an ordered to-do list of all suggestions I have received. If I like an idea, I prioritize it accordingly. The absolute worst thing that can happen is you suggest something and I just don't add it. Even if I reject an idea, however, I still have your suggestion on the back of my mind, which plays a major role in decision making for the game. Rejected ideas still prompt me to answer, as a developer, the underlying question of why was there a NEED to suggest that? What is the underlying flaw in the game that would prompt them to suggest it be changed? This is more important than just flat out doing what people say, because sometimes you can do something even better than what people want! Say instead of doing all these changes to the turn-table, I made another joint that worked way better for legs instead (haven't decided on that one yet btw). But without your suggestions, I wouldn't even know there is a problem. So ask away! Worst I can say is no.

People like really fucking complex games.

It is much more satisfying to build a cannon using smaller parts than to just drag&drop one in. People figured that out from minecraft.

The Hover Blocks seem like they're a very versatile tool, stick with that kind of design. Everything needs multiple ingenious uses.

By the way: FOV slider. Please.

One of these days I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and make a graphics options screen like every other game ever made has. FOV slider will definitely go in it when I do that.

Btw, sorry it is taking so long for me to release this build. I got a Trojan that has completely killed progress for now. I should be able to get my computer cleared up within a few days.

[NineFourEightSeven]

How goes the computer virus?

[Inconspicularity]

How goes the computer virus?

What?