Here's where I'll occasionally post progress on my game for the Christmas competition.
'Snow RTS' is the current project name, since it sums up the major elements of the project - I'm attempting a Real Time Strategy game, and the core mechanics will revolve around the use of snow.
Snow will act as the primary resource. Your units will use it as ammunition, and also to build defensive walls. Naturally, as you use snow, it will either disappear or be displaced somewhere else. For example, heavily pelting an area might do a lot of damage, but 1) you'll quickly run out of snow to use if you're counter-attacked in that area, and 2) you're supplying to enemy with a lot more snow than they're using!
Structures, I think, will not play as big a part in this game as they do in most other RTS games. I suppose it will be more tactical than anything - a focus on snowball fighting action with a selection of highly varied Units.
I think that's all I'm going to tell, right now
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The fun of testing has increased ten-fold since I implemented units 'dying' (stylistically - getting hit by too many snowballs and surrendering on the spot). I now probably spend a little too much time setting up assaults on fortified positions and seeing who wins with a set number of units. Due to the nature of walls reducing chance to hit those behind them, the defenders often win, but depending on the snow they have behind those walls they can run out of ammo and be helpless. Hit n' Run tactics are very effective, allowing the assaulting force to reload fully and be able to fire several successive shots when they charge in. Making a direct run for the walls to reduce the accuracy penalty is also a good tactic, if a little reckless.
Add to the above the different units that will eventually be in the game, and it should turn out pretty deep! I'm hoping players will find their own tactics for the different units, combining units into groups strategically, and setting up sequences and stages of attack that have the best odds of breaking a defensive line - as well as forming their own defensive setups to hold fast against a siege!
I'm not really sure what to move onto next. There's still:
- Creating and editing different unit types in order to get more of a grip on the gameplay. What I have right now is a pretty robust prototyping engine, so I could learn a lot by simulating basic gameplay situations.
- Graphics, to get a little out of the way and perhaps stumble upon a style I can easily replicate for everything else.
- Weather effects, which will likely be very simple to implement. They will be important, none-the-less, or I'm certain a battlefield would quickly run out of snow, leading to a very slow, dull stalemate.
- The system for ordering/producing Units into the game. My current design is to be able to order anything for free, but the player and the computer are limited with a number of transports required to carry units onto the map from elsewhere. Each time you order a unit, one (or more) of these transports is used, and they have to 'recharge' before you can use them again. There would also be a total unit cap. The desired effect is to encourage saving transports to reinforce when you need to, with the best units for whatever challenge you're facing - a last-minute drop of Reindeer Riders, for example, could turn the tables of an assault in your favor.
- A menu and possible campaign structure. I usually have fun doing stuff like this, and it makes the game seem more stable through development, or at least makes the final result seem more in-reach or 'real'. Constant core engine work can make things seem a little bleak, at times, like you're not really adding anything.
Alright, I underestimated the difficulty in implementing the Attack order. I've been tearing my hair out trying to get units to follow and throw snowballs at enemies when they're in range, but I think I have it to a fairly acceptable level. Acceptable probably wont cut it, though. However, I've been thinking that due to the nature of units requiring ammunition (i.e. a snowy tile) in order to attack for a prolonged period, a traditional chase-and-attack control might not even be necessary.
The way I'm thinking of having it is with most units able to attack while moving, and most of the player's controlling will be in positioning units where they have the best advantage. Directly attacking specific units would still be possible, but if a unit happens to move out of range then little or no effort would be made to pursue - if they did, this could lead pursuers to a vulnerable position, potentially frustrating!
The above would also make AI much easier, as it wouldn't have to go around designating specific targets, but rather find the best areas to send groups of units to either attack or defend, or moving units to snowy patches to reload.
That's basically all I've been doing today, but really once Attacking is truly sorted, development will start heading in more defining directions - aspects that will start to form the character of the game. Right now, it could be anything, and I intend to use the engine in some way for future projects! Maybe RTS games will become my specialty...
The attack system is in! At the moment, only for units that are standing idle and attacking enemies that are in range. Right-clicking on an enemy to order an attack directly should be much easier, since what took the most time was figuring out how to get units to target enemies correctly.
Everything is there now for projectiles to have accuracy (for example, when attacking a unit that is behind a wall, it will be harder to hit) and to deposit snow where they land. I'm sure I can find ways to do some awesome powdery snow particles, too! What would a snowball fight be without the satisfying 'whomp' and the spray of snow exploding from your target?
Next big thing on the agenda is getting snow to update in real-time, and having units reload on snow properly. I'm thinking they'll need to be able to draw from adjacent tiles as well as the one they're standing on, to minimize micromanagement. That, or have units search for a nearby tile with sufficient snow.
Minor Update: Recently I started having some doubts as to how well the game would actually be running. It was getting to a point where any more than 10 units was a real burden on the CPU, and FPS would start dropping below the 20s. Thankfully, I put some work in to make the code more efficient. It's easy to rely on fastloops for a lot of things, but I'd crowded too many of them in there doing a lot of unnecessary stuff. Also, the pathfinding object was set to calculate paths of over 60 steps, where it's much more efficient to calculate 10 at a time, especially since an object will often have to re-calculate to get around anything that interrupts its path. So now I'm up from 10 units to at least 18, or even 20 is good! I don't plan on this being any kind of epic army game, so this works perfectly.
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Here's where I'll occasionally post progress on my game for the Christmas competition.
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