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Raiders Untitled


tmo7452
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So I see now that there is much going on with regards to a potential RR sequel. Despite that, I have my own project I started a few weeks ago that I'd like to show off.

pic01.png

 

It looks terrible for now, but a lot of the foundation is there. First get the Visual Studio 2012 Redist (x86) then you can try it yourself. I wrote it from scrach in C++ using SDL2 and OpenGL 2.1, so while this build is only for Windows, it could easily be ported to other systems in the future. I plan to go into game programming and I learn best by diving in the deep end, so I started this project to learn C++ and have something to show potential employers.

 

QWERTASDFG control the camera, Z and X will destroy two hardcoded walls (to show real-time collapsing and exploration), CVB will spawn objects under the cursor.

Everything can be selected, raiders can be ordered to move to a location with a right click.

I'm not insterested in hearing the many ways you can crash the program, but if any of the above features don't work for you, let me know.

 

As for the map file, it's an ugly but effective text based format. Designed so I could make maps by hand and expand features without breaking old maps. The parser is extremely stingy and will complain about anything, but it should all be in the console. Use Notepad++ and watch your end of lines if you want to mess around.

 

I'm going to need some help with the non-programming stuff later. I hope to be able to import the original RR resources (if you own the game) at some point, and could use input on other features as I add them. Right now though, if anyone does want to make a simple map editor/creator, I would appreciate it.

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I don't have time to check it out now, but it looks like you actually know what you're doing, which is fantastic. I want to see this project continue, which is more than I can say for a lot of the fan made/remake games that are proposed on the forums.

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What's this? Somebody is starting a LEGO fan game by actually working on the backbone of the game for once, instead of making a wikia site and concept models in LDD cruddy drawings and textures in MS Paint?

 

Yay! :D

 

(Not that all projects are like that, but man, there sure are a lot of cruddy LEGO Universe fan games out there at the least...)

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That's freaking glorious compared to some of the horrors I've seen. It actually communicates a point, for starters. :P

 

It's rather hard to give feedback on things this early on, but I noticed that while you can't tell them to stand on it, raiders can cross water without a problem.

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Keep it up mate.  Really neat work.  There are/were a handful of projects under the umbrela title of "Open Rock Raiders" (ORR) that are/were trying to accomplish the same thing.  Most have pettered out but a few remain, so you're in good company. 

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Updated the download. Fixed pathing, less crashing, better looking raiders.

 

I originaly called it RRO, but I quicky changed it for 3 resons:

- I didn't want "Rock Raiders" in the title. Changing it early is easier than changing it later.

- In my mind, projects with "Open" in the title are poorly organized and fail to deliver.

- I'm still not ready to release the source. I'm not against it, but since I don't use any GNU GPL code, I have no reason until someone offers to help.

 

I have a good handle on all the coding, but outside of that I'm pretty useless. On that note, I'm rapidly approaching the point where I need an interface. If anyone has any designs, I'll take what I can get. So far I don't plan many features beyond the original RR, just wanted to kill the bugs, improve compatability, and expand the limits. So any design that contains the core RR commands and supports a rescalable window works for me.

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This looks pretty impressive! I may sound silly here, but I take it your goal is to recreate LEGO Rock Raiders? As in, you're not trying to create a different game with similar environments and objects.

 

Right now though, if anyone does want to make a simple map editor/creator, I would appreciate it.

I could have a go at making one in Flash, if you like. I've got a fair bit of experience - a simple nav box in my signature, and the Character Skinner are examples I have to show.

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I suppose I should go into my long term plans for how this will compare to LRR. From looking around, I feel I am in the slight minority in that I enjoy the design of LRR very much as released. In my playthroughs my strategy was to drop down as many Transport Trucks, Loader Dozers, and Chrome Crushers as I could, and not complete the level until I had mined every bit and constructed a massive network of bases.

 

The current list of planned changes include:

- Support for modern hardware and OSes. OSX and Linux come to mind, but with SDL and OGL2.1, I could port the game to Android and beyond.

- Bug fixes. I might not even bother adding slugs as I have only once seen one do what it was supposed to and not totally ruin the game.
- Better support for larger, more epic maps ( <3 Baz's Mod). Specifically fixing the long power path bug. Note the "size=020x020" in the example map, I may expand that to "size=0020x0020" in the future. ;) The picker function supports up to 256 objects (ore, crystal) and 128 raiders in a single 3x3 section when selecting with the mouse. Other than that the only limit is that the 32-bit program caps at ~2GB memory I believe.

- Better pathing. While not enabled in the current build, I will add the ability to check the entire map for the fastest path, thus raiders will always use power paths if possible.

- "Complete" the vehicles. Vehicles with unused buckets will be able to use them. Vehicles designed to carry other vehicles will be able to do so. Transport trucks will only drop the needed amount on buildings... ...Loader Dozer drivers will learn the word "efficiency"

- Despite apparent popular opinion, lasers will be added as I enjoy using them. Recharge seams will not cause landslides if that is any consolation.

- Better support for custom campaings. I'm not a level/campaign designer, so I don't know what you guys would want. Just say it and I'll add it.

- Possibly some new buildings, mainly ways to make erosion control and crystal recharging easier.

And last but certainly not least...
- Multiplayer co-op, something too many games lack.

 

Not a complete list, and I'm all ears if y'all want to just say what you would want in a remake. As for look and feel, I figured it would run stand-alone with the "dumbRenderer" seen above, with the ability to import the original LRR or custom textures, models, sounds and maps.

 

 

I could have a go at making one in Flash, if you like. I've got a fair bit of experience - a simple nav box in my signature, and the Character Skinner are examples I have to show.


Why not? It's a text file designed for easy parsing, just read the #comments and it should be pretty straightforward. I would suggest making a 2D array of mapNode objects, as that is how I designed it. Map coordinates start at 1, not 0, which may throw you off if you are a true programmer.

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I could have a go at making one in Flash, if you like. I've got a fair bit of experience - a simple nav box in my signature, and the Character Skinner are examples I have to show.

Why not? It's a text file designed for easy parsing, just read the #comments and it should be pretty straightforward. I would suggest making a 2D array of mapNode objects, as that is how I designed it. Map coordinates start at 1, not 0, which may throw you off if you are a true programmer.

Ah yes, I always find it annoying how things start at 0, arrays in particular...

I'll download the file and take a look tomorrow :)

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sheepandshepherd

Looks very nice already! I like the co-op idea -- especially on larger maps, it would be fun to have multiple players working on the mission from multiple bases. And I would agree that LRR's design was already pretty decent. It's mostly the little bugs and primitive AI that need changing (slugs, Rock Raider pathing, resource collection, stuff like that).

 

I could update my LRR map converter to also save maps in your map format, since my next update is adding most of LRR's map info anyway. It can't edit maps yet, but until then, it could still take any original or custom LRR maps and convert them to your format.

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Funny thing Jimbob, your sig just crashed my flash plugin xD. Anyway, thanks thanks to both of you! I was hoping to be able to import LRR maps at some point, Sheep, you converter would be extremely valuable with the ability to output to .RUM. Remeber though, the game will not currently accept height values. Sadly, adding height to the engine as-is would prove a significant challenge, and is honestly not as important to gameplay right now. Also, remember the map standard will be evolving as features are added (although map compatibility should never break.)

I am currently working on giving the raiders the ability to drill and dig. Meanwhile, I thought up some questions. I will have a lot of these as I progress.


Q1) How should power and the depositing of crystals (and ore) work? Stick with the uber leniency of LRR? I was thinking of making each building have it's own stock. Once you get the power station up, the required number of crystals would need to be moved from the tool store into the station to power the buildings. Separate bases not connected by path would require raiders to transfer crystals from one to the other as the power requirements of each change. The summoning of vehicles would require crystals to be deposited in the appropriate teleporter/dock. I think this would boost strategy and immersion immensely. Not sure about the same for ore though, having to move hundreds of ore into the upgrade station would get pretty annoying.

 

Q2) How should movement through buildings be handled? Right now they are impassable. At a minimum, raiders will need to be able to grab stuff from the tool store. Should certain buildings (tool store, teleport pad, docks, support station) allow movement through them? Should I make raiders able to walk the edges of all buildings?

 

Q3) Currently raiders are not able to cross corners, the pathing will not let them walk on anything other than floor (no walking up walls, no lava suicides), or diagonally unless the path is completely clear. The map will, however, be revealed through these corners (this bit is easily changed.) If anyone has reasons these should not be, speak now or forever hold your peace :3

 

I would love everyone's input on these before I code them in. I want to make this game for all fans of LRR.

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Oh lovely. I get to reply.

1) The legacy system for resource storage works fine. What I don't like is the actual use of the resources. Crystals, specifically. Consuming crystals for mundane tasks would require a renewable source of crystals. Recharge seams in every level would be a bit silly. I would like to think that crystals would have "infinite" power for the sake of the game, but could only output a certain amount of power. Each building would require some amount of power to function, maybe with additional functions using more power. Teleporters, for example, would require a burst of power to function. A teleport enabled building would have teleport capacitors to enable teleporting. The tool store you have at the start of the game would have precharged capacitors, obviously. The Power Station distributes power out to connected buildings, charging capacitors, etc. When more power is requested from the system, you manage it from some interface menu somewhere instead of switching each building on/off from the building menu itself. The ore transportation issue could be easily resolved by making the Ore Refinery useful. Make it a bit cheaper, but make the refining process longer. Perhaps much longer. Parallelization yay!

2) You could have an image file with the layout of walkable areas, or you could have interface spots along the side of the building. Impassible buildings means choke-points along the side of two buildings right next to each other. Make your base better!

3) I'll get back to you, but the legacy system works fine at the moment.

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I'm not sure about the energy crystals having to be put down... Isn't that the point of Power Paths? To let the power go through them? The ore idea does sound nice, though it would be a pain (as you have said) to put down large amounts of ore there... perhaps they could just be small amounts? :P

 

Passing through buildings, I think anything/anyone can pass through the tool store, and raiders can go through the Upgrade Station (if you're looking at the RR files then it is mounted on scaffolding - it's not solid. Passing through the Docks might also be nice. With the edges, I don't really care. :P

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I'm not sure about the energy crystals having to be put down... Isn't that the point of Power Paths? To let the power go through them?

Valid point, but I think you are confusing the transfer of energy with the transfer of crystals themselves. The power station taps the energy from the physical crystals and distributes it through the paths. Either way, there should still be some limitation when you have 2 bases unconnected by path. From what I remember, LRR either bugs out here or simply doesn't care.

 

Part of this issue probably comes from being an object oriented programmer. Nothing should be "global", everying should have a distinct owner. I apply this to crystals and ore. For example, this would help interactions when co-op is implemented. It's much easer to share when you know exactly where the crystals are "There are 12 in my tool store", not "I gathered them at some point so they exist in that number in the corner of my screen."

 

I have more questions though, and then I'm off to bed.

 

Q4) In LRR only seams have any indication of how far you have drilled. And the method they used for that looks very strange to me. I plan to either have all walls gradually fade to red as they are drilled, or have some texture effect (like minecraft.) Thoughts?

 

Q5) How is erosion control implemented in LRR? I have never used a map builder. Does the map designer control the time/chance for each tile? Is it a mapwide variable that is affected by height? How would you want it in RU? Same questions for landslides.

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fade to red as they are drilled

Why red? I'd personally think of some sort of lowering down effect, (sort of when it's 1/3 drilled a couple of rocks fall off, 2/3 more rocks and then bang. Or they slowly collaspe.) But the texture idea sounds good.

 

With erosion, don't ask me. I hate erosion. You could ask Cyrem - he's the person who made our current Map Builder.

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I'm pretty much on par with TheDoctor with the first questions. As for question 4, the growing crack texture Minecraft uses could work well but it might not look so great on some textures. LRR is meant to look 3D whereas Minecraft blocks are deliberately 2D on each facing, and for this reason cracks may not work so good in LRR unless they somehow match the textures too.

An alternative could perhaps be a wall that actually changes texture as it is drilled, but that would require a lot more effort (especially for texture modders).

 

I can't help with question 5 either, sorry.

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Making a wall get darker as it is drilled might be a good start. Fancy effects like rocks dropping off could be added later. That would keep the texture modders from going crazy.

 

Erosion has a few different properties that work together in LRR. In an Erod.map file, each block is defined with normal erosion, independent erosion, or no erosion. Speeds are also included with each block. There are also level-specific CFG properties that seem to control erosion speed. Here is an example from Level22, Lake of Fire:

 

            ErodeTriggerTime                        20
            ErodeErodeTime                            40
            ErodeLockTime                            300

 

http://www.rockraidersunited.org/wiki/index.php?title=Erod.map

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Updated. Better looking power station, slight change in .rum format, raiders can now drill walls :D !

 

I see now pathing is in poor condition, they run along the left edge. Digging is also tricky with the way raiders should move around as they dig. I might just ignore that bit at first.

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Update: Fixed more bugs, Raiders can now dig rubble and retrieve ore/crystals.

It's coming together folks! Now I have reached the point where bug reports would be appreciated.

 

By the way, the "Untitled" part is open for suggestions. "Unlimited" is the obvious choice, but if someone has something better, I'm listening.

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I was able to crash it. After discovering that I can queue up commands by selecting a raider then clicking on lots of stuff, I created a few dozen crystals and ore. I set one of my raiders to pick everything up and another to drill and clear rubble. The game crashed a little while afterwards. I'm not sure exactly which action caused it since there were multiple things happening at once.

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Maybe you told multiple raiders to perform the same task or told one to perform the same task twice. I don't remember adding any checks for that. The queue is actually a stack, First In Last Out. He does the most recent task, backwards from the order given. Handy if you gave someone lots of orders, but suddenly need him to do something else first without losing those orders. Not sure on the long term plan of that.

 

But yeah, ordering them all over the place is fun, can't wait until they initiate tasks themselves. I'll probably have to slow down on the project for the next few days. :(

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I don't remember it being that small. D8

 

It's great to see how far this has come in such a short time. You're really giving those ORR guys a run for their bricks.

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