Battle tank 2 - a bird eye view shooter (completed!)

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#1

It is a typical shoot them up type of game, I borrowed some of the game element
from both Quake series and C&C, so you will definitely find something familar there.

Here is a shot:

http://www.freewebs.com/phu004/BT2/Bt2_screenshot.jpg

You can try it here:
http://www.freewebs.com/phu004/BT2/play.htm

If you are interested in the source code feel free to grab it
http://www.freewebs.com/phu004/battletank2.zip

(the total content need to be download is less than 0.5 mb, so the game should start fairly quickly)

controls:
W,S = move forward/backword
A,D = turn left/right
mouse = move turret around
left click = shoot
1 = normal cannon
2 = rocket launcher
3 = railgun
4 = nuke cannon

“q” = toggle between weapons

It would be nice if you can give me some feedback and suggestion about the game.

Cheers

Pan

#2

I like this! Good atmosphere.
Handling needs a bit of a tweak (ie momentum on the tank; it shouldn’t just ‘stop’ when forward is released)
‘S’ to fire??? Make it space or ctrl.
Needs some ambience (darken the background) and instructions (keys? and what are those boxes when enemies die?) on the same page as the app.
Maybe slow the firing rate a little? Seems a bit fast for tanks…?
Otherwise; handles well, looks good - love the water & barriers - I think you’re onto something here!

BTW You can use requestFocus() at the start of the run() method to grab the keyboard without the user having to click on the app to play.

Keep it up!

#3

Thanks for the suggestion SimonH.

If I ever manage to finish the game, the tank won’t shoot/move near as fast as now.
I configured this for the purpose of testing. But I should really take away its godlike
power next time I update.

“s” to fire, because I have made “a,d” for performing dodging moves (similar to FPS game).
I think this setup is more convie.nce for the player. I will let ppl configure their own settings
eventually.

I am sure making the background darker is a good idea, but technically I don’t know how
to do this efficiently. The player tank will always stay in the centre bottom of the screen,
maybe i could apply a precalculated ambient map after I finish drawing everthing.

I guess you don’t played Quake 3 arena much ;D, if you do you will immiditely realise
that these boxes droped by enemy are ammunitions. At this stage the player has
infitite ammo, so they won’t do anything.

Nice hint for the keyboard focusing, I will implement this in my next update.

#4

Looks nice, I like the shadows and the water is nifty looking! :slight_smile: One suggestion, you should use (at least) bilinear filtering and more importantly mipmaps on the textures. I suspect that pixel flickering / artefacts will get tiresome to look at after a while, IMHO of course.

Otherwise it feels very solid start, keep it up! 8)

#5

Yeah, the flickering is annoying. It is definitly a good idea to apply mini maps, and it shouldn’t be too hard to implement.
Thanks for pointing out.

#6

Very nice start, can’t wait to see what it becomes.

#7

Yes, a nice start! Some other suggestions:

  • the auto-align is nice, but also counter intuitive. whenever i move, the turret tends to face forward
  • maybe use the mouse to aim? this would make it easier to drive away from enemies and still fire in their direction
  • fire rate is too high and bullets are too fast. you can’t see very far and it leaves no option to evade enemy fire

nevertheless, this is just tweaking. nice work!

#8

thx for the suggestions

[quote] the auto-align is nice, but also counter intuitive. whenever i move, the turret tends to face forward
[/quote]
Yeah it feels a little weird from a bird eye point of view, maybe I could make the turret rotation slightly lagging behind the camera rotation.

[quote]maybe use the mouse to aim? this would make it easier to drive away from enemies and still fire in their direction
[/quote]
Using a mouse might be a good idea, but I personally don’t like using mouse in an applet, the user could lose focus by moving the
cursor outside of the applet window.
You can press “a” or “d” to move side ways, while keep your turret facing towards the enemy position. (like circle strafing)

#9

I only really meant the background of the webpage containing the applet :slight_smile:


<body bgcolor="#000000">
#10

Using a lower frequency texture as ground texture may help to improve the visual outcome in the short run.

#11

Extra impressive.

Cas :slight_smile:

#12

Excellent start. Keep going and let’s see the finished game.

–Mario

#13

Excellent! And a Java app in a browser that seems to work for all who tried it…Hmmmm…:wink:

#14

Oh pppppuuuurrrrrrlllleeeaase… :stuck_out_tongue:

Great fun game btw.

Kev

#15

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

I just made a few changes to the applet, the tank movement and shooting has have been tweaked,
the applet now have the control of the keyboard when it starts up, and I also enabled collision detection.

[quote]Using a lower frequency texture as ground texture may help to improve the visual outcome in the short run.
[/quote]
That was what I was thinking when I chose the textures. It is not easy to find a perfect one though. I think mini map will be
the ultimate solution.

#16

[quote]That was what I was thinking when I chose the textures. It is not easy to find a perfect one though. I think mini map will be
the ultimate solution.
[/quote]
just apply a blur filter on your image

#17

Very neat. =D

Might I suggest a different movement scheme, though?

W accelerates, S decelerates.
A and D turn the tank but not the turret (ie the camera doesn’t rotate when pressing A or D)
Left/Right arrow keys rotate the turret but not the tank.
Space fires.

Right now you move the tank with both the right hand (forwards/backwards) and the left (strafe left and right), which feels kinda odd. Not to mention shooting with ‘s’ is just weird. :wink:

#18

[quote]W accelerates, S decelerates.
A and D turn the tank but not the turret (ie the camera doesn’t rotate when pressing A or D)
Left/Right arrow keys rotate the turret but not the tank.
Space fires.

Right now you move the tank with both the right hand (forwards/backwards) and the left (strafe left and right), which feels kinda odd. Not to mention shooting with ‘s’ is just weird.
[/quote]
Thx for the comment. Damn why nobody like the key setting that I invented :frowning: .
Anyway I have update the controls to excatly what you have suggested.

#19

[quote]Damn why nobody like the key setting that I invented :frowning:
[/quote]
It’s very nice otherwise! At least we found something to complain about ;D

#20

Fun! I would have liked to change the upwards angle of my cannon.