XXon
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Posts posted by XXon
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Yes, those are space pirates in the background. Something I'm working on.
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Awesome. Thank you!
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Let's say I want to make a roller coaster. Can i join two paths together or modify animation paths? What I see is a preset path, just an arch that scales up and down. Is there more to this?
I made a flying "floating platform" that despawns/respawns under your feet as a way of joining two paths and that works alright, but I would much prefer you are seated, like a roller coaster.
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I figured it out thanks
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The game is DARK ART, you can play it now, you can download and edit it. The plan is to make a blueprint series, simplified so you can easily customize the enemies and effects, but my scripting is pretty bad and needs work to be user friendly. For now, I am using this game to work out the basic ideas, it changes over time and a final boss battle is a great place to figure it all out.
Just added the world destroyer: Fire God (new boss). Also, the specters now cause blindness, which is pretty cool. Poison bombs are probably next, just trying to make some cool enemies. I'm feeling good about the wand and the staff, although they could probably use some sound and effects work, they really work together nicely, the spells complement each other.
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Well. you can play it right now, Dark Art and you can download and edit it and use it however you like, but it's just a proving ground, more than a real game. You can see the possibilities for quests and the whole nine, but I'm still getting the six basic spells worked out. Then add a few more, maybe, or focus on some cool enemies. Also, my scripting is horrible, although it performs well just because I am relentless.
It's a moving target, though. The game play is feeling really good today, but it changes all the time. Just modded the heavy healing spell into a flask that tosses in the air, that's working much better than the scattershot I tried before and it looks cool. It could very easily be made into a poison flask thrown by an enemy. I am also curious about being blinded by enemies. Right now, when you damage an enemy. he calls for help. Currently, this is scaled to 10, just for a second, right there where he gets hit. Any enemies nearby will attack you. Scaling it up makes things harder, which is good, but I'm considering changing it to a following help bubble. This would change things , more like Everquest , where the injured enemy picks up every enemy he passes, like a snowball. It would discourage lobbing fireballs from a distance. It encourages tactics like proximity pulling, which means closer contact and danger. That could be really cool, maybe not. What about a giant fire golem that randomly is born from a fireball and then rampages, setting everyone on fire (you also).
So yeah, go test.
That's the best part. I keep trying to get cool screenshots, but I always miss the good stuff trying not to die, I mean, trying to continue the test.
And yes, there actually is a game in the works, but messing around with this is more fun.
edit: The help bubble is now fixed, so be careful throwing a fireball into a crowd. Healing is much better now and Wind Nova (straight from Azazil's Wind Staff) is the final spell to complete the set. Wow did I learn a few things from just poking around in Azazil's scripts. For a moment, I thought I should rework everything, but I am way off base on a great many things, so there is no real point. It's not about that anyway, I'm just trying to get across this idea. I have felt for years that the player/enemy interaction is THE missing piece of this game, both in editor and explore. I know the patch is coming and I hope it blows my lame ideas out of the water.
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I improved some melee particle effects, turned the fireball into a flamethrower, very nice! Many happy hours just messing around with details, finishing out the wand attacks. I haven't figured out the jump attack for the healing staff. Is it a hit point buff, armor buff or a self defense move. That wind attack on Azazil's wind staff is pretty cool, like a pushback effect. I wonder if you could make a circular blast radius that pushes enemies away, that sounds pretty cool, just not sure if it's useful enough to be worth the effort. Azazil's scripts are way over my head.
Thursday update: Improved the casting for heals and lightning, remade the whole map, changed the random distance of spawns to a wider area. For being so simple, it feels like a choreographed fight. It draws you in too deep and then the pet starts trouble and you die. You gotta work the perimeter and watch out for the witch, she is really nasty.
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A continuation of Spawn Engine Experiments. Pets, lightning, you know.
Dark Art
Just added the fireball, it needs sound and a few touches. Right now it is player only and you will quickly learn how not to use it. I think an freeze spell might be next, for the wand jump attack. Then, a heavy and jump attack on the healing staff, something like an armor buff or regeneration. That would complete the set, then it just needs more types of enemy attacks.
PS> Wand now has a fear spell as jump attack. I wanted to do ice, but I couldn't figure out how to make all the enemies stop suddenly, but fear is pretty cool and does the crowd control just fine. Oh, plus I just had to swap enemies for the latest models, so now you fight bugs and ghosts.
PPS> Adjusted just a few things and it is much better. Much more like a boss fight. Never underestimate the power of fear....
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Spawn Engine Experiments got a bit crowded.
New map, it's fun. Healing staff plus other stuff.
Dark Art
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oh I see. I did not know that existed.
Thank you again!
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Red, green and blue lightning with full blown all out lightning war! Not perfect, but it has a great flow, very fluid fighting. The wand is a bit overpowered, I need to slow it down some. I will post a pic later. Awesome! I feel very pleased with how this is going.
Spawn Engine Experiments, the switch with the purple arrow, tell 'em Larry sent you.
Edit: Act now and get a free mutant bear pet. small handling fee may apply
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My script uses a global variable, just within the script itself (a wizard pet). I want to make another pet, very similar, it has the same variable setup to keep track of its targets, only now, because they are global, the two pets overwrite each other. I see the setting for module variable vs global variable, is that what I need and how does it work, please? I find no info on modules. Or what would be the correct, solution, if that is not it.
Thanks
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The wizard pet and the wizard enemy both work now. They will fight it out, but they are both toned way down, otherwise they kill everything in seconds.
The pet targets the closest and the wounded, he has attack mode and defense. Once he attacks, a percentage of nearby enemies move to him and attack. NPC melee vs pet is not done yet. The spellcasting part of the lightning needs work. Enemy choosing to attack player vs pet, lots of details before moving to bigger spells.
It turns out, the pet cannot be human. Humans cannot follow you around like everything else can. I lost a lot of time and effort before I figured that one out. The pet kept running far away or randomly freezing in place.
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NPC AI Bug? is a game I made to show the problem. It takes 30 seconds to play and can be edited.
All entities have the same AI, but humans act differently. I'm trying to make an NPC wizard friend who follows you around, but I cannot. He is a currently a goatman wizard and is working well, but he would be way cooler as a human.
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It looks larger on the inside, very spacious. The archway makes it.
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Backend request error [500] when I try to update.
What's that?
Yeah, I know the forum is kinda dead, but that's why I post on it.
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Super great pet! Except, it randomly targeted any enemy within a radius. There were badly injured enemies everywhere, not dead, just mostly dead
But now, any enemy in range with health under 20% gets targeted for the kill. Nice!
Please, excuse this stream of consciousness monologue as I try to puzzle some things out, mainly NPC vs pet interactions.
So... really the pet should chose targets based on proximity most of the time. How does the pet (or an enemy NPC) choose which target to move toward. Or make decisions in general. A priority list. First priority, choose the injured one. Second, choose the closest enemy. Third, return to owner (no enemy in range). Every time the aggro bubble scales up and down, every 0.3 seconds, a new target is chosen. There is a built in lag before the pet actually moves to a fresh target, otherwise it is always on top of the same enemy. There is a bigger lag when it comes to following the player around. The pet will hang out and think about it before following, so he isn't all over you all the time.
Right now, the pet targeting bounces all over the place. Using proximity of the enemy as second choice (instead of just random) is the fix, hopefully. Final Fantasy 12 used gambits, the player could choose different priorities for each member in your group of AI "pets". Lots of games do this, like Baldur's Gate. You can set which AI attack has first and second priority. This is an approaching problem if this pet (or enemy NPC) has multiple spells, it must choose. The "pet" healer should use a small heal for a small wound, saving the best heal for when it is needed. Or...first, the "pet" throws the bottle of oil on the enemy, then it throws the match on the same enemy.
In the current example, the enemies the pet is attacking just flee by default.The current version of the "cry for help" bubble system tells nearby enemies to move to the player only, causing the player to flee and creating a mess of a fight. The enemy NPCs should choose a target based on priorities, exactly like the pet, hopefully with the same system. If you ever played "F.E.A.R.", the enemies have great AI. They talk about you, or their strategy. They use cover, choose attacks and evade under fire. So, if you were the enemy, what target would you choose first? The closest? The injured? Attack whoever attacked them last? I suspect it's the last one. That means the pet is going to die, but we deal with that later. So, the NPC gets an aggro bubble just like the pet and chooses a target just like the pet, but with different priorities. Like healers and wizards die first, that's always a solid attack plan if you are a melee fighter under attack. A caster under attack would probably throw up a smoke cloud and teleport, then attack. But for now, 1st priority is target an attacker, 2nd is target the closest player or pet. There is always the "run to a healer" option for both pets and enemy NPCs, but that's for later on.
Damage to the pet right now is just faked as a random percent of the damage the pet deals out. In a fight, every enemy NPC in close range should get in a hit on the pet. The NPC enemy needs to deal damage with lightning and hit pets and players with it, so the NPC needs a damage bubble, too. Probably a double bubble, one triggers on pets and one on players. On move end, or on causing damage, it selects a new target based on priority.
Sorry for rambling. If you have any thoughts, speak.
P.S. Targeting the closest enemy, euclidean vs manhattan. I had some fun and I learned a few things along the way, just like Fat Albert. Plus, now you can set the pet to aggressive or defensive to keep him from running amok (maybe) in a dungeon, chasing things on the other sides of walls, etc.
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Here is a wizard who travels and fights along with you. He just has the one spell at the moment, but he will learn more.
Emperor Palpatine lightning attacks. Next step is lightning wars, NPS vs NPC.
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Thank you! I was trying to do it the wrong way.
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One wolf pet is cool. 12 not so much, but what if you had a friend instead of a pet. You give them equipment, they use it. The more they use it, the better they get, like 30% better over time, but then he dies and his equipment falls to the ground and you must find someone else to train. Maybe a fighter for hire, expensive, but he has some training and a little equipment. Enemies might charm your friend and make him kill you.
What if you could charm any animal. like a druid or ranger. Or anything at all. like an enchanter. A powerful beast would be hard to control and might break charm and turn against you mid-fight. Isn't there logic for controlling other entities? Enchanters and bards are really fun. Weaving songs together by swapping instruments, drums for speed, flute for healing, etc.
That's what I might try next, anyway. You are an enchanter and you have a bard sidekick that you can give equipment to. And a pet dog. That sounds pretty fun.
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WOLFPACK !!!
Six pets at once. Crazy, crazy action. Prepare to die.
Play now: Spawn Engine Experiments
Makes you think. Full party. Healer, shaman, wizard, rogue, berzerker and necro (possibly with their OWN pets). Or just a boy and his dog.
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If you haven't noticed, I update this game all the time.
NEW KILLER PET. it seeks out and attacks anything nearby, but won't run off (too far). It can be healed during combat (and needs to be). This means you must switch between weapon, pet heal and healing potion during a fight. The pet takes friendly fire, so you must avoid hitting it during the fight, making the fight much better because you cannot just stand there, you must move strategically to avoid the pet and either attack or evade.
This game does not really want me to use an NPC to kill an NPC, so the script has lots of work arounds to make it seem like combat is happening even thought it's really not. It flows WAY smoother without any emotes, which destroy response time, (there aren't any attack emotes anyway) and I wonder if that's why the big crab is always so crappy.
Oh, one more technical remark: When I change an entity in the editor, I usually don't need to resample using the entity template before I test the game. When I make any changes to game logic, it MUST be resampled from the logic Template before testing the game. If you forget to resample, the logic template uses the old logic prior to changes. I always forget to resample it and then I wonder why my fix did not work and then I remember. I was not sure if this was intentional, it seems clumsy. Endless resampling.
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Dev Diary #262 Changing Challenge
in Dev Diaries
Posted
Thank you this sounds awesome.