PhoenixGames

I have made huge progress in Star Commander over the past week.

In addition to creating animations for grenade throwing (which still need some work!), I added code to allow for “Client-Specific Rendering”. This is basically where an object shows up on one client, but not on another. Since Star Commander is a tactical wargame, I will be modelling real-world variables, such as cover, concealment, etc. This means that some players will be able to detect an enemy before that enemy detects them, or vice versa. For this to work, I need to be able to control the visibility of each player object over the network. I have implemented this by simply hiding the mesh, as opposed to deleting it. The advantage to this is that the mesh is still in the game world, so it could still be hit by stray bullets or grenades, or detected by the footprints it leaves behind, etc etc, which is a desireable feature. I could have achieved this effect on the server of course, and hiding a mesh as opposed to deleting it does allow for the potential for cheating, if a player were to hack the client, so this is something I may look into and improve later.

I create a game lobby, and implemented most of it’s features. There is a fully colour coded (Red Team, Blue Team, and Observer) player list and chat system, the ability to choose teams, choose spawnpoints, and enter the game, and the ability to send chat messages to everyone or only to your team.  A different set of spawn points are loaded for each Team, ensuring members of opposing teams dont spawn beside each other, and a map wil be shown behind the spawn select buttons, providing a visual indication of where it is.

I implemented the beginnings to the games rules. Star Commander will have a complex system of rules for governing things like accuracy, detection ability, chance to be detected, etc etc. These rules wil be based on variables such as morale, stamina, health, whether the AI is in cover or not, how many casualties have been taken by the players team, or the enemies team, etc. I have come up with al algorithm to convert all of this into a percentage chance of hitting a target, and an offset vector determing how much a player misses by if they do miss.

I spent quite a bit of time implementing a point-and-click object selection system. I had to make several changes to the C++ source for this to work, as well as do a lot of GUI work. Players can now click on the screen with the mouse and the 2D screen coordinates will be translated to 3d coordinates, and used to select items in the game world. This means I can combine an on-screen gui with object selection, I don’t have to hide the gui menu while the player is controlling the camera, and then show it again, which is what I was doing before. Players use the left mouse button to select squad members, select orders, and issue orders. Holding the right mouse button allows the player to rotate the camera in full 3d. The videos below show this in action.

Finally, I added some simple Decals to indicate which player was currently selected, and I implemented frag grenades. (Both of these should be in the video below too) as well as creating and setting up a dedicated server for the game. For the initial release of Star Commander, I will have about four or five dedicated servers, running different missions. I will eventually add the ability for players to host their own missions.

I have tested the network play on a LAN, and everything seems fine. I can’t test the network play on the internet from my machine, because due to the way Torques networking works, I can’t connect over the internet to a game while I am on the same network as the game server. I intend to upload a simple playable test version of Star Commander soon, to be used for internet testing.

I have managed to get the trajectory for my smoke grenades working, thanks t o some help from the Garage Games forums. I now just need to add the animations for the grenade throwing, and I am basically done. Adding animation support may be quite tricky, since I have to move the player from a normal pose to throw the grenade, take the grenade from a belt or pouch, and then throw it, creating a projectile just at the right moment.

Grenades will be a major part of combat in the early release of Star Commander, since the choice of weapons and equipment will be quite limited at this stage.I think that, without grenades, combat would become monotonous “trench warfare”, where players stay in cover and simply fire at each other until they score a lucky hit. With smoke grenades, however, players can deploy smoke to cover an advance or retreat, covering ground that would normally be impassible. With frag grenades, they can clear enemies out from cover, or from building, forcing them to change positions or retreat. This should make the game dynamic and fun.
It may not be possible to see the grenades being thrown in the video below, but they are in fact there.

I have made an excellent start on this project. As can be seen from the videos below, I have created character models and textures for two Teams (Red and Blue) and implemented a simple orders and movement system. I have also created a weapon model and some animations for it which I think look quite good, as well as a “Fire” order.

There is still some modelling and texturing work to do on the character models, and I have yet to add additional weapons, and grenades. The user interface also needs a lot of work. Context-sensitive pop-up command menus, like the one shown in the videos, are only really effective for small numbers of commands. This game will have a large number of possible commands, meaning a conventional permanently visible GUI menu will be required. The problem with this is the issue of focus in T3D. If the on-screen gui has focus, IE, if the mouse cursor can bne used to interact with this gui, then the mouse cannot alos be used to control or influence the game world. With a context sensitive menu I can give the game world focus, and then switch focus to the on-screen gui while it is visible, then switch back.

There are resources available to extend and modify  torques mouse select and gui systems, which I will have to use, but I will leave that for slightlt later in the project.

I hope to have a playable (alpha) demo of what I am working on by the end of the month. Such a quick development time should be possible due to the milestone based approach I am using, with iterative releases gradually adding features to the project.

After coming to the end of my previous game project, I wanted to work on something slightly different. I had an idea for an extensive and complicated game, which would no doubt take a long time to reach any kind of releasable state. Instead of jumping straight into a huge project like this, I decide to start with a simple but feature complete version of the game, and add elements over time in the form of “milestones”, with each milestone being a fully playable game in itself.

Star Commander will be a Sci-Fi themed squad-based tactical wargame. The play style will be somewhat similiar to the old X-Com games, although the first iteration of the game will be real time. I have not decided yet if the final version will be real time or turn-based. I intend to simulate realistic factors such as psychology (soldiers may panic, become stressed, etc) resource management (players may run out of ammo in the field, and require resupply) and advanced squad-based tactics and cooperation between players.

The final game will have single player, multiplayer, and multiplayer coop modes.  I intend to allow for large-scale campaigns in both single player and multiplayer modes, where players will be able to slowly achieve strategic objectives through fighting many tactical missions. There will also be options for more casual play.

Milestone 1 will be contain primarily the Movement and Combat system, Multiplayer play and general game concept. This version will be simple, but should also be fun to play. It will feature an in game chat, 3-5 online dedicated servers featuring different maps, a small number of different types of weapons, and a promotion and rewards based system to encourage cooperation and tactics during play.

I used to play a free game called “Chain of Command”, which was also a simple squad based online game. It seems to be gone now, but it was relatively successful at one time, so, simple games can work. Especially if they are added to and improved over time. It is a lot easier to do this, than try to embark on a huge project all at once with limited resources.

I expect to have a working prototype of this project done fairly quickly, and hopefully get something uploaded in a few months. MS1 will probably be mostly multiplayer, with a singple player tutorial, and possibly some support for AI Players.

I will then build on this, adding more features in stages.