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Author Topic: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?  (Read 21806 times)

Offline bayo

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #30 on: November 11, 2009, 01:29:22 pm »
The 1 look very nice :)

Another thing, but maybe more a problem about the game engine.
We will have problem to move from the rail to the station, no?
Is the planning algorithm will work here? Can/must we add a jump animation?

Offline H-Hour

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #31 on: November 11, 2009, 02:02:04 pm »
Another thing, but maybe more a problem about the game engine.
We will have problem to move from the rail to the station, no?
Is the planning algorithm will work here? Can/must we add a jump animation?

The platform is accessible from the other side via a wheelchair-accessible ramp, and it is accessible from both sides of the street via an underground passageway with stairs.

But I envisioned the platform to be inaccessible from the right. There's even going to be a small railing fencing off the train tracks area (although it will still be accessible from the street level on the top and bottom). This is a) about realistic urban planning that would try to prevent people crossing the tracks and hopping up to the platform and b) meant to offer a tactical obstacle to both vision and movement for the player.

This, of course, brings up a bigger issue that bayo raises. Why should a meter-high platform stop a specially trained soldier? I'm new to UFOAI development, so I'm not going to be the one to make the call on these sorts of things. I'll just do my best to design around the problem whichever way it falls.

I think there are two ways for this to go: a) designing out these kinds of obstacles but reducing the tactical complexity of the map, or b) including them as realistically as possible but recognizing that sometimes the player may be annoyed that he can't access something he feels he ought to be able to.

My own feeling is that you can never design out everything like this, because at some point a player will think: why can't my sniper climb up to the roof of this shed/bus stop/etc? I think it's fair enough to prevent players from certain kinds of mobility, so long as the conditions of access and the visual cues used are consistent throughout the game.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2009, 02:08:18 pm by H-Hour »

Offline Mattn

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #32 on: November 11, 2009, 02:10:03 pm »
there is currently no jump or climb or something like that implemented. As a workaround you can add a small stair at the start and end of the plattform (like they are there on real-life stations, too)

maybe when Destructavator is ready with the models and they are animated and we are able to replace the existing models with the new ones... we will also get a climb or jump animation. but for now, work around it please.

Offline H-Hour

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #33 on: November 11, 2009, 02:24:23 pm »
As a workaround you can add a small stair at the start and end of the plattform (like they are there on real-life stations, too)

The only concern I have about that is that it undermines the reasoning behind my underground passage. I think the underground passage plays a key tactical role in that the long avenues will be a kill zone with long sight lines. The underground passage will allow a player to cross the street and close the distance to any alien without exposing themselves to too much fire.

Just to clarify, the platform is accessible from underground as well as from the top-left ramp. It's just not accessible from the right side...

Offline Mattn

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #34 on: November 11, 2009, 02:43:45 pm »
maybe i didn't understand you correctly - can you show a sketch or something like that of the layout of your map? or at least from the part we are talking about (underground, ...)?

Offline Kildor

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #35 on: November 11, 2009, 03:00:56 pm »
+1. Don`t forget, passable part of the map must be upper zero on Z-axis.

Offline H-Hour

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #36 on: November 11, 2009, 03:12:57 pm »
Here's an outline of what I'm planning to accomplish. In my mind, the underground section provides important tactical options, and I'm just worried providing street-level access to the top and bottom of the platform will undermine the reasoning behind the underground crossing. In my mind, I envisioned this as a main avenue that might not want to have too much pedestrian crossings to stop for.

Offline Mattn

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #37 on: November 11, 2009, 03:16:59 pm »
i thought you were searching for a way to allow the walking from rail line onto the plattform... of course you must not allow the pass from rail to plattform. it looks like i just missunderstood you. sorry.

Offline Bartleby

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #38 on: November 11, 2009, 03:19:57 pm »
i loke option 2 =).

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #39 on: November 11, 2009, 05:58:52 pm »
Quote
maybe when Destructavator is ready with the models and they are animated and we are able to replace the existing models with the new ones... we will also get a climb or jump animation. but for now, work around it please.

When they are ready, yes, there are animations planned for climbing ladders and other things, as well as crawling, lying prone, etc.  Jumping - perhaps across two squares at once and also vertically? - should be easy to add as an animation, adding that would really be a question of if the coders can implement it in the game for the actors to do such things.

Side note: I haven't forgotten about the soldier models, I'm just waiting on the MakeHuman team to finish with the new and much-improved base model that should make building the female version much easier.  The MakeHuman project page was hacked a while back, putting them off schedule and delaying their development, but if they don't have the new mesh ready soon I'll just try to grab a nightly dev alpha build from their website and start working with it - all in the interest of getting things moving.

Edit: @vedrit:  If you're reading this, how's the animating going for the male soldier model?  Any new progress?

« Last Edit: November 11, 2009, 06:00:43 pm by Destructavator »

Offline H-Hour

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #40 on: December 08, 2009, 05:22:14 pm »
Ok, I'm short on inspiration for movie posters and advertising billboards. Anyone got any ideas? I'll need a bunch. You can see the /tex_misc/ folder in the trunk for two examples of movie posters and one static billboard.

Couple of things to remember with suggestions to make my life a little easier:

1) No humans (unless you have an appropriate GPL'd photo to use): I can't really draw, I can only make basic shapes and dirty things up.

2) Some animation is good (I'd like most to be flashing or moving in some small way), but try to think about how many frames it would take to make a certain motion realistic. If it gets more than a dozen it turns into a lot of work and a lot of images for the game to load. See the adverta* files in /tex_misc/ for examples of basic animation.

Offline Bartleby

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #41 on: December 08, 2009, 07:47:44 pm »
havent time to search and watch ure examples atm, but its always funny to take known movie posters and modify them....... a poster from "back to the future", "star wars ix" or something like that might be an idea.
.... i would like to see a poster of sam & max - THE MOVIE :).... or monkey island....

not movie:
-warnings because of ozone, the sun, water, hurricans or something like that with articles of newspapers right beside that say something about an alien invasion or conspiracy theorys about the existance of aliens.
- er... or even an advertisement about ghost busters... ok... thats maybe a bit too heavy :P.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2009, 07:52:17 pm by Bartleby »

Offline Mattn

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #42 on: December 08, 2009, 09:48:59 pm »
movies are not really possible as we have to use copyright free material to be able to release it under the terms of the gpl

Offline Bartleby

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Re: Picking through the TODO list - what should my first project be?
« Reply #43 on: December 09, 2009, 01:53:11 pm »
er... why not? ok.. other name: "back to the real future" or "star fights ix". thought would be enough to modify them a bit. enough that ppl know what u mean ;). like in a humorous spot on tv.

Offline bayo

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