Screenshot (s):
Yay, sequel! 
I certainly hope it turns out like you originally planned! I’d like to see where this goes in the future.
I added a random name generator and death messages today.
EDIT: I tweaked it a bit to remove names with 4 segments or 1 letter.
Fixed bugs etc.
Played around a bit by spawning loads of entities.
Tweaked classes to balance them out.
Gave everything more health.
Also, I added corpses last week, but forgot to mention it.
I’ll get a screenshot of the aftermath soon. ;D
Before:
After:
This is awesome! How far do you plan on going with this game?
AI
TL;DR:
- AI needs to be tweaked for different attacks.
- You can indirectly control units
- AI is split between behaviours and tasks.
- Tasks are what you tell a unit to do.
- Behaviours are how a unit does something.
- Squads are a group of units lead by a general.
- Tasks are assigned by squads.
- The player is the “commander”.
- You can directly control the commander.
- If the commander dies, units panic and run around like retarded chickens*.
Full version:
The original Guardian had some flaws in the AI system. For example, the usage of special attacks was poor. Assassins with their blades would only ever switch to their crossbow during the middle of a fight. You can see why that would fail.
So the first fix I need is different AI behaviours for using special attacks.
Secondly, in Guardian (I), control over the units was not there. Allies would start running back to the tower to put their gold in the chest, but then run back to defend their post. In the end, you needed to push back the enemies long enough for the guard to put their gold away.
So, I need a way to control the units. I am thinking of combining this game with a sort of RTS. In a weak way. I want the player to be able to tell the unit where to go, but I also want the player to be a part of the fight as well.
The AI will be split between two groups: Tasks, and Behaviours.
A task is something you tell a character to do, like charge into the battle, or retreat etc.
A behaviour is HOW the character does such a task. eg: An archer when told to defend a point, may run back further and find a good place to shoot from. Meanwhile, a warrior would block the path of enemies until death (or a new command).
I will also introduce squads. A squad will contain a general, and other members. Tasks will be assigned by squad.
Squads can be assigned both passive and active tasks. Passive tasks are done when nothing else is needed. Active tasks are done ASAP.
Finally, the player will be able to control 1 unit by themselves. This unit will become the commander. The commander must be alive for the player to be able to give out orders. If the commander dies, all (or most) units will enter “panic mode” and run around aimlessly. The same happens to a squad if their general dies.
There may be a way to have second-in-command to stop units panicking until a new commander is appointed. I will also allow the player to give command to another character (probably the second in command) (in case the commander is critically injured, or an unwanted class).
Hopefully this will create interesting gameplay without removing the player from the action.
(*Retarded chickens may feature in the game. It would make an interesting unit. :persecutioncomplex:)
I finally beat procrastination and got a text renderer working.
Currently it only handles letters and spaces. (CAPS LOCK ONLY)
Those are 2 separate drawings. I need to add functionality for new lines.
Click the image for the full size version.
Basic Text Interface done.
Classes tweaked for smaller scaled battles.
Added milestone titles. eg: sniper, marksman, slayer etc. (and color-changing names depending on your title)
I added stats a week ago, but was unable to show them. Now they are in the top RH corner.
It’s starting to become a game now.
New Unit:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/99583484/Project%2016x/Animations/Healer.gif
Healer.
Heals any friendly units in an area the same size as a warrior’s attack by 1 health.
AI:
Added 3rd AI behaviour for all units.
Melee units have Attack and Counter Attack (attack the closest enemy who recently attacked)
Ranged units have Attack, and Run Away (when attacked). Random chance to go into panic mode where they run around like retarded chickens ;). Once in panic mode there is a random chance to get out of it.
Healers ‘attack’ the weakest friendly unit, and run away when attacked (and panic mode too).
Stats:
There are now stats for taking damage, giving damage, kills, accuracy, and healing.
There are 5 milestone titles for each category. Some are ridiculously hard to achieve depending on the map and number of enemies.
Notes:
An AI controlled Assassin will beat a player controlled Warrior in a 1 vs 1 fight. When you try to attack, the Assassin slips past you and shoots. When you try again, the same happens. Eventually you die.
If anyone wants to be a tester, send me a PM.
Chaos Lord
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/99583484/Project%2016x/Animations/Chaos%20Lord.gif
Sometimes I reuse artwork. You may recognise this guy from “Lord of Corruption”, my LD25 entry.
The background is blue because his armour is the same purple as the purple I use for the other backgrounds.
Just noticed:
If you healer has a semi-transparent animation thing…
and your background is colored, isn’t this going in your way?
Why not simply use a transparent background? That’s much simpler.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/99583484/Project%2016x/Animations/Knight.gif
The Knight.
Because the tool I use to create .GIFs is retarded and turns everything black transparent unless I have the pink.
Any recommendations on some good tools for animating spritesheets?
I know it doesnt sound like a good idea, but Game Maker 8( i think thats the 5th time i said it here xD). It allows you to easily add black transparency, and exports to strips.
That’s actually pretty true. I used to work with Game Maker 8 a lot these days. I loved the Sprite Editor. My avatar was made using Game Maker… ôO…
But now I took a linux to the knee…
Well, for any kind of pixel art…
PyxelEdit(I personally use this)
GraphicsGale(the free edition is quite powerful, surprisingly)
SpriteSomething(iOS, also use this a lot)
Aseprite
These are some really handy ones, and all of them support transparent animations.
Yeah, same. I run Ubuntu 12.10 or whatever the latest version is now. But, sometimes I use VirtualBox(i don’t prefer wine) to run Windows applications. I also have a separate Windows graphicsing computer sitting there when I need to gfx. I like to split development up onto 2 computers so I don’t get caught up doing both at the same time.
I would use Linux Mint (I have dual boot) but the graphics applications suck REALLY BADLY.
GIMP is a mess, and is ridiculously hard to use, while Paint.NET is so simple, yet it is at the level of Photoshop.
If only Paint.NET were cross-platform, then I’d use Linux all the time.
On Topic: Skeletons are now in the game. Warriors, Archers, and Spearfighters.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/99583484/Project%2016x/Animations/Skeleton%20(Archer).gif
Trying not to derail but what part of GIMP do you find difficult to use?
Anyways, the game’s looking pretty nice, good work with the animations as usual.
I have tried really hard to make it as close to Paint.NET as possible (even changing all the main keyboard shortcuts) but it still has little things that make it really hard to use.
- Right Click doesn’t use secondary colour.
- The colour picker doesn’t have a switch to Pencil/last tool.
- No Ctrl-Select.
- Select has to be done from the opposite corner of a pixel or else it does not select that pixel
- You can’t draw with the arrow keys.
And some others that I can’t think of now.
You will not believe how much the last one slows me down.
And just annoying things that don’t really make it hard to use:
- Select tool has stupid boxes in the corners.
- The toolbox is too big and it keeps disappearing when I start drawing.
Basically, in the time it took me to do the skeleton archer (yes, the skeleton archer was made in GIMP), I could have done 3 new skeletons, or 2 completely new units.