Sorry for the bad name. This is a percent (set it to 100 for 'normal') and controls how long bullets last, relative to their normal duration.
This allows a starmap to enforce 'close range weapons' for environments where range counts.
It also allows you to boost it, for super ricochet maps.
----
In addition to this, I made a major change such that your ship's bullets travel further (last longer before expiring) when you have more weapons pods.
So if you optimise for shields or engines, you will also be range-challenged relative to players who optimized for weapons (giving both increased range and power)
And both effects can be in place at the same time.
In the case of my DOTA map, I have reduced all bullets to 33% normal lifetime, plus the pod stuff, so a ship with no weapon pods will have about 1/2 the range of one with 10 weapon pods.
This gives me a melee distance of about 100 grid units, which is pretty short. for 'tanks' who need to get right up to the tower and pound on it.
enemy bullets still kill you way too quickly though, but I am not sure if that is due to them being overpowered, or just allowed to shoot too frequently.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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Note that I decided your ship's bullet weapon was special and this limit basically affects all bullets (even if a new bullet weapon were to arise someday, it would share these limits)
I also like the thought that it isn't necessarily always better to get another ship pod. Like maybe you get uncomfortably fast, or your bullets ricochet so much you shoot yourself, etc.
I'm thinking about tractor beams again. Thinking it might be fun to drag your Factory's reactor core around.
I think my DOTA map will include some flags, with some trick (grab the enemy flag and their reactor shuts down for one minute or something)
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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I think the first stab at tractor beam will just be something like a spring/rubber band object that the script can declare exists and connects any NPC object to any other NPC object (or a fixed point, star, etc)
The engine would then be willing to do the math for up to N of these, and the script just manages the indices and properties of these meta objects.
At the end of the day, it just results on additional forces applied to the NPCs (probably during the gravity computation)
properties - source end point (usually the ship casting it) - dest end point (another ship, or fixed point) - rest length - compress factor (incompressible, to squishy) - stretch factor (rigid to stretchy) - render style (a line, no doubt) - maxlength (breaks past this stress) - duration (maybe it expires)
update: - compute distance between ends - compare with rest length (compress or stretch) - check for breakage limits - work out total force available (stress) - apply stress to both ends (using F=ma and the mass of each end) (stationary points don't move, have infinite mass)
now, I might have to cheat and let the owner of the beam 'be a little heavier' But I'd like to just start with mass = number of pods.
ooh, maybe a planet shoots you with a fishing line and then reels you in. (time varying rest length)
but one ship being dragged by three others still sounds the most interesting to me :-)
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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I'm thinking of the word "effects" as something the script could apply to any ship/npc. And these would be purely ornamental (part of some powerup effect usually, like a defense beam that drew a little circle around your ship for as long as it was 'on')
Anyway, then maybe have some effects which are just for things like these gate Towers, where I think something like a circle around their base would improve them visually, and give them more 'weight' as it were.
They also deserve to use the third dimension (allowed sparingly, mainly for the small powerup pyramids) The clone factory itself deserves a bit of 3D
Actually, I guess in some cases I could even use, dare I say it, a bitmap image...
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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starmap zones can now be circles, as well as rectangles
if the 'bottom' value is -1 (normally illegal), then the 'top.left' is actually the center of a circle of radius 'right'
starmap zones can now be automatically rendered without adding barriers (cosmetic render, not actual barriers).
'texture' element value 0 still means 'no render' and '1' means 'render what dan feels llike rendering but is probably an outline of the zone' but in the case of circles, it is an alpha transparent filled in oval.
If I ever support filling in the rectangles, I will make it so 1=outline, 2=fill, 3-outline and fill
Generally speaking, I pick the color, based on Team identity. But for teamless zones, I should really provide a way to set the color. I have a big round zone around the star on this map, and it has negative energy (hurts everyone) and would be nice to set the color (and the alpha) precisely instead of just letting the engine pick something.
Perhaps I should make the texture column be 'map color index, plus 100 for lines, 200 for fill, or 300 for both). I'm trying awfully hard to not just add new columns for color and alpha. Why is that?
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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OK, so I take that back. The texture argument now works like this:
0 - no zone rendered at all (what we had until thie release)
1-63 -- render zone, using a standard map color
101-163 -- render just the outline 201-263 -- render just the fill 301-363 -- render both
With an example
Why do IMG tags seem to not work immediately, anyway? spell checker somewhere?
Anyway, that's an example of 'both' and note the outline is less xparent than the fill. Works just like a square zone (can stop bullets, heal, etc)
square zones only render in outline, no matter what you ask for.
And HUGE round zones don't look so great due to cosine distortion (plus they won't work if the radius wraps over a map edge.)
Other than THAT, I really like them. And my new '3D oval' technology is just what I need for 'effects'
In the past, I only implement 'proper' ovals, like the compass, where each compass point is mapped accurately to the view. In this case I only map the center of the oval, estimate the radius on screen, then use a 2D oval 'squashed' by the sine of the camera pitch angle. Since I don't allow 'roll' and my pitch is limited to a range, I get away with this and the oval looks convincingly in the plane of the star system. Unless the back of the circle is considerably further away than the front (huge circle leads to this), then you notice the curvature of the plane is not reflected in the oval.
posted
cool, so even on an 'unsafe' map (a map where team members bullets DO hurt you), bullets have just a short moment of 'safety' (so they don't explode on the wait out of the muzzle, as it were).
Which means if you are locked in mortal combat with an enemy who is literally in your face... you are actually safe from the bullet fire.
Of course, the condition doesn't last long, but hey, unplanned reference to the Hunt for Red October
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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OK, this DOTC map is getting seriously interesting, in spite of its simplicity. State distribution is pretty reliable now (newcomers get synced)
minions still seem to take off to fight invisible enemies on occasion, which I think is a form of "I saw you on the far side of the map, so I went the opposite direction to get there"
I might have to add an option for maps like this that really don't wrap and have hard barriers all the way around.
Also, the towers are disappearing when I zoom out, a little sooner than I'd like.
OMG, right, I can paint a black 3D oval at the base of the tower (covering the barrier lines in that spot, visually, but still having collisions in that area) Perhaps that will give me the simple look I need.
Oh, I could call it the objects shadow and let it be a standard (optional) feature. shadowRadius = 0
then add a turretSHELL property to go with shipSHELL that is standard.
So, a shadow and two vector art pieces. That should be enough for ANYONE, right?
now, turrets could be bad, as they allow me to navigate to one destination, while shooting at another without compromising that navigation at all.
Right now, I can do that (enabled by AI "FREE_RANGE") but it requires turning the ship to shoot, so the heading is being dragged by two masters, and I like that. Seems very alive. turret miught be too robotic and perfect
But visually, for a 'tower' I want an aimable turret in addition to a static object, so 'two shells, of which only one is aimed' seems good, so the shell I have today actually IS the turret, and the second shell would be the static one. Of course, I secretly want to recreate a tank from a battle zone arcade game.
I guess this would also allow for another sort of 'effect' when a suitable 'spell is cast upon you' (an extra SHELL on top of you that connotes the illness in question)
preferably an animated shell, using my cool new skeleton editor that I keep threatening to write.
And then I get a tower that is rendered with a black fully filled shadow oval, then a static (well, turned to a fixed heading) boxy shell, and finally a pointy aimy shell on top that turns with the normal weapons heading. (as a non-moving NPC, it presumably doesn't need a heading for anything else).
I passed through an area with an interesting pattern of powerup pyramids in it, and I think that could work as 'a look' for snySpace set dressing (the equivalent of a tent and a campfire, but a little cluster of shapes that you can fly right through, or be stopped in the middle of, at the script's command. And circular zones just make that even easier.
While I currently have no concept of "falling into a scene" (and leaving the main map for the duration), it's possible there could be a 'automatically jump to starting state X in map Y, and when that map's script says so, come back to this point on this map with this cookie set'
but probably not :-) a map should be a full instance. About the overall complexity as a WoW battleground. Something that takes maybe 10-15 minutes to complete when you're being aggressive.
probably fewer than 10 bosses per map (and maybe 20 minions per boss, with the understanding you only see one or two sets of minions at the same time). However many 'quests' or 'missions' that turns into, that feels like a pretty good size for a single starmap. More than that and it probably gets all laggy and unpleasant.
But YOU write the rules!
DOTC is using pretty much all 64 possible NPCs (except the first 8, reserved for humans) and I feel i COULD use more, but these minions are pretty competent, and quite fast and merciless, so adding more might not make sense. Still with 8 humans, maybe it will feel too easy to clear them all.
But, of course, that's the whole point of this map, to connect to the official back story of the game! wewt, like I planned it! Another spot where I capitalize on the human desire to have things make sense, and give the benefit of the doubt when it appears to be true!
I pretty much wasted today, a very very hot day, fixing my network again. My condition just gets better and better, but there are always some nagging problems. Today it was my relatively new 'powerline cat5 extender' which provides wired internet to the upstairs (where it is burning hot on a day like today).
Anyway, I love that thing, and it has served me well for about a year, but apparently it has burned out. I went on a trek to get a new one (in my car with no air conditioning on this brutally hot day), and actually had no trouble finding the exact model I wanted, at the same price it was listed on line, so good on you, Frye's!
After another small emergency (the new unit requires a ground plug and, of course, this old house only has fancy three hole plugs in the places I manually stuck them 30 years ago, which wasn't this place. So there's still some unfinished business there, but I have a hack in place such that.
Not only is my internet restored, but I seem to get over 40 Mbps.. over my power line. That's just so amazing. Of course, the box clais to handle up to 1200Mbps, so I guess I could be upset about that, but really I am ecstatic. The previous one topped out at 5Mbps when it wasn't broken, which was increasingly frequent.
And now I find myself thinking about upstairs wifi again. It's failed me every time I've tried in the past, but these guys (TLink?) sell a very interesting looking gizmo that also connects via AC power, and then just repeats the same wifi as your router and magically works... they say. If I could realize my full wifi potential upstairs as well as down, well, wouldn't that make life even more worth living?
I assume these boxes all report each evening to their dark overlords, who have plans to conquer my toaster next.
the internet of things has a vested interest in my having good wifi reception throughout the house.
Get your hands off my thermostat, you damn dirty AI!
Actually, we had a super cool thermostat back in the day. It was simplicity itself. It started as a blank slate and you just turned the knob to the temp you wanted, adjusting it as needed. Over very little time it put together both a little schedule of what you liked, as well as noting the time it took the heater to achieve the transitions. It then factored all of this together and just did that patterm with foresight so you woke to a warm room, etc. And never did it display the settigs to you, or interact with you in any way other than to display the current temperature and a knob to change it.
But it broke pretty soon, and I think the company was already out of business. It wasn't all that high tech, it was just brilliant in the early days f microprocessors.
Now you can have the same thing with Nest, and let it use big data to factor in everyone's preferences in the world to make a prediction as to whether xmas morning should be warm or cold in your living room, and talk to you about it on demand.
"How hot do I like it?
"You like it 68 degrees at this time of day, except on wednesday's when your hostility to your ex causes you to underheat the house so you know they woon't stay long when they pick up Penney for soccer practice"
a story! that was a story! synspace makes it easy to make stories. yay! Now I need to make a story about soccer practice and learn how to spell Penney. Penny. I guess I am thinking Penelope and picking up the extra e from that.
terminating blabber mode
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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OK, NPCs can now have 'shadows' (not really needed as shadows per se, unless I make an airplane mode someday, which I am just likely to do)
A shadow is just an arbitrary 3d oval, drawn beneath the ship, in the plane of the galaxy. I expect MOST ships to NOT have a shadow
It mainly exists to paint over barrier lines, too close to the NPC (for example my gun towers). It's simple, and generall useful anytime something round can help.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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OK, NPCs can now have FACEs rendered in space. That is to say, all bots have the option for an assigned FACE asset. but since they are generally not assigned to a thumb, they are not particularly seen (unless the bot sends a radio message)
But now (or in a few minutes), I will honor:
faceRadius = 32
(next to the new shadowRadius)
The render will be just above the shadow layer, but before the SHELL layer(s)
The face will be rendered with the radius givem, as if it were a tiny planet/asteroid/whatever. I n this case, I think it will be the clone factory itself.
ANYWAY, so it kinda opens the door for player-created bitmap art in starmap, though at the world's lowest resolution, and I don't know for sure the look will 'match' (and this will probably add some lag to your map)
ANYWAY, that's the goal..
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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you can now embed a FACE in your starmap (will not appear on collectibles list, and travels 'with the map'
Looks like this
code:
-- Here are some directly declared assets
-- this is the FACE bitmap to use for all towers. Everything inside the quotes must be just right. -- Use "options/nerd/export settings" to get this data for your currently selected face
botTower = newBaseBot( botRoot, { id = "tower", ship = glTowerNpcIndexBase, spawnZ = 0, -- in the plane of the system brain = nil, -- will not have a coroutine, just uses engine AI radarColor = 0, -- 0 means - do not show on radar senseRadius = 700, -- cannot SEE you past this
faceRadius = 30, -- render the bot's face, as a bitmap in space of this radius faceZ = 50, -- let it float a little, WoS-style shadowRadius = 40, -- render an oval shadow on top of barriers, but beneath ship shells shadowColor = 200, -- filled with black, no outline (maybe darker colors get more opaque alpha)
-- I need a way to specify a weapon Id (and that should include a range/power adjustment)
pilotInfo = { rank = "Tower", -- n/a for this item which should have no pilot info page name = "Tower", -- face = dataFaceTower, -- Some sort of cool structure that looks good with a vector 'turret' shell = "SHIP_000", -- stock SHIP asset to use VERY IMPORANT, THIS IS THE TOWER APPEARANCE shell2 = "SHIP_001", -- Just an experiment for now podW = 0, -- starting pods set the overall power of the thing podS = 14, -- 14 is the total max. podE = 4, rating = 1000, -- starting rating won = 0, -- starting stats lost = 0, lang = 2, -- G = 0 ? declared language rating of bot. }, } )
so the pilotInfo.face field can EITHER be a face asset id, OR the raw DATA: of some face you make and then use the EXPORT command to see the DATA: for
I probably already covered this, but it is the export settings one that you want in this case.
I'm not sure if EXPORT STARMAP does anything useful yet or not. I think it gives you the conjoined lua library and map script, but none of the top half of the starmap.
EXPORT SETTINGS however, is lots of fun. It makes a text document that includes your currently selected SHELL, FACE, PATCH, and GROOVE as DATA: forms you can copy and paste into your lua script (the bits you want)
This text file is then sent TO your Google Drive, where it arrives as a new file (cannot modify existing files on gdrive, at least I was assured that was the case. I don't want the responsibility!)
I filmed this using one of my dirt cheap Kindle Fire HDs ($39 at xmas!) and maybe they don't have great cameras, and maybe I am just a lousy photographer and probably both.
But what is INTERESTING is that apparently I had the kindle upside down while filming and didn't notice since it inverted the display automatically. But the actual video recorded is of an 'upside down' nature.
OK, fine, even I know how to fix that, but it was really INTERESTING when viewed upside down, like it was happening on the ceiling, and it felt like a nice VR/AR idea to use your ceiling as a flat area to play 2D games on... so to speak... plus its even less work if I DOn'T invert it in the editor.
So I uploaded it 'as is'
Except, google appears to have fixed it for me automatically! Which bothers me a teensy bit since I liked the effect, but the other INTERESTING THING is that while I was uploading it, youtube briefly flashed something like 'you are not the owner of this content!'
Which MIGHT have to do with my switching between google accounts recently, but I prefer to believe my upside down film looked to google like an attempt to get past licensed content, and it sent the message at the moment it decided up upvert it, and after that it realized.. oh, this can't possibly be licensed content.. never mind.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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Lot's of fiddly fixes last night, but the most subtle was that for a long time, I have been frequently getting extra onDEAD messages when an NPC ship is destroyed (the logging showed multiple calls for a single explosion). I thought I knew where the problem was, and finally got around to working on it, but I was wrong. The REAL problem was every time I created a new Bot, I was adding it to the master list of registered bots (which controls where messages are sent), and in maps like DOTC where the same bots get used over and over that left the older versions still registered, so the same bot was i the table N times, so it logged the message N times quite properly.
ANYWAY, so I fixed that.
I added the ability to have baked-in SHELLs, as well as FACEs, in your starmap
Reworked the main loop of DOTC so now it runs the world simulation the moment you launch, through all phases of the battle. So before and after, you are free to blow up towers and watch gates open. Like you want to clean out any remaining gates after the game is over, now you can. More dungeon-ey
added the other attack routes, so there is no safe path any more
added FACE and stuff to factories, and enabled their warlike behavior (can no longer sneak in and kill a passive sheep)
"Rank" strings from the script are now used (for bots) instead of the baked in ranks. I think this offers the most opportunity for fun
Getting very game like :-)
OH, the setDisplay api now lets you add an option uMsg argument. If you do that, then the 'score' field is rendered as a button and the uMsg is sent if the player taps it.
So the DOTC map now has a big fat START BATTLE button on the moderator's display (and just text "waiting for moderator to start battle" on everyone else's machine (but they can all go around and blow up towers while they wait)
When the mod taps the button, there is a countdown, during which everyone is frozen in starting position and the map is completely rebuilt (towers come bac, if you blew any up)
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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