Ahh I see! Perhaps a flash-light effect would help with that. Say, you can see the other corridors, but they’re a bit darker, but your flash-light perfectly illustrates all that is in your view. It could just be just like an invisible omni light coming from the center of the 001-unit to just light up all the space around you so you know what’s visible and what isn’t.
thats what i said 
An update…again…the new version can be found under a different URL:
http://www.jpct.net/para3d2/test.jnlp
New features:
4 kinds of enemies :
mover - moves around in the level
defender - moves around in the level but will open fire if in range
fast attacker - tries to catch the player’s robot and fires at him
slow attacker - like the above, just slower but with a higher range and more fire power
damage:
the player’s robot will take damage and can be recharged at certain spots
doors:
Well…just doors…
multiple levels:
two to be exact. One that makes sense and one that doesn’t (press ‘L’ to switch between them at any time)
explosions:
Not my own work, therefor consider this to be a placeholder for now (like most of the textures too)
keys:
UP/DOWN+LEFT/RIGHT: move around
LEFT/RIGHT + SHIFT: strafe instead of turning
CTRL: fire
N: recharge robot immediately (works in case of “game over” too)
L: change level
W: draw wireframe
C: change camera
ESC: exit
Keep in mind that nothing is balanced yet…it’s still considered to be in alpha state. I’m having big problems to make it playable…the classic Paradroid’s controls were completely different. There was no turning…the player moved directly into the direction of the joystick. This is different now and it makes things difficult somehow. Any ideas on how to handle this are welcome.
I think strafing is very useful and was helpful for dodging bullets but I found I couldn’t aim simultaneously. Perhaps you could try mouse motion for turning, and arrow keys for movement and strafe. You could leave the speed cap of course, so there’d be a point where moving the mouse faster left or right wouldn’t help you turn faster, but that would also give you the ability to turn in small incriments. Then the mouse click could fire
[quote]I think strafing is very useful and was helpful for dodging bullets but I found I couldn’t aim simultaneously. Perhaps you could try mouse motion for turning, and arrow keys for movement and strafe. You could leave the speed cap of course, so there’d be a point where moving the mouse faster left or right wouldn’t help you turn faster, but that would also give you the ability to turn in small incriments. Then the mouse click could fire
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And the second mouse button could be used to enter transfer mode…i thought about that too and had implemented it a few days ago using a quick-and-dirty approach, but it didn’t work out too well. Then again, i didn’t have a speed cap in it. I think i’ll try it again. However, there would be a difference in behaviour between “2D”- and “3D”-mode: In 2D, you turn the player object while in 3D, the player object is basically fixed and you turn the level.
in 2D there could be even another option where the arrows would be like global direction keys so that no matter where you’re facing, the up arrow moves you up, and the left arrow moves you left. That could make it really interesting. So essentially movement would be separate from aim.
That’s what freedroid (http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedroid/) does. You move with the CRSR-keys and aim/fire with the mouse. I’m not sure if i really like it, because it makes aiming very easy…it’s a bit like skeet shooting that way. Guess i’ll give it a shot anyway.
Freedroid is actually designed similarly to how Andy Braybrook originally designed Paradroid. There was a separate aim mode and separate move mode. In aim mode you controlled a crosshair. He took it out because it was just too hard.
There’s nothing wrong with making aiming “too easy”. Trust me! Using controls to make a game hard is a bad move. I’ve been there, got the T-shirt, and had it shoved up my ass and set on fire!
So please make it dead easy to aim and move. And make sure there are loads of robots to kill!
Cas 
[quote]There was a separate aim mode and separate move mode. In aim mode you controlled a crosshair. He took it out because it was just too hard.
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I just noticed that while reading Andy’s Paradroid diary. I’ll add it as an option and see how it works.
Freedroids movement style is in for “2D”-mode: You can aim/fire with the mouse and the player’s movement is no longer relative. You can go back to the old controls by pressing ‘m’, “3D”-mode hasn’t changed at all.
Please let me know if this is better…i’m still a bit undecided as i’m having some problems to get used to it.
On movement, I’d make the 2d view fire in the direction you are traveling. Make shift fire the in the opposite. This would let you attack head on and also keep attacking while running away.
I made some other notes, but I’m not sure if they apply yet. IE you may be in too early of a stage for these to be relevant.
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Start adding simple sound, even if its just simple background music or a sound for the doors opening and closing.
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I got the 2’nd level to act weird. It stopped spawning enemies and the lighting dimmed. Did I win? (I emailed a pic to you) Drat, I went to email you and discovered I lost the screen grab.
In essence, everything was very dim and nothing would spawn. The player was sitting on the lower charging pad. -
Slow the recharge effect down some, its really great, but I want to see it more as it rotates around the ball.
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Excellent explosions when you shoot the enemy.
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I like how you can be shot while recharging.
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Maybe add the ability for a door to close on you or an enemy close behind?
Every version gets better than the last!
Dr. A>
[quote]- Start adding simple sound, even if its just simple background music or a sound for the doors opening and closing.
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I’ll add sounds close to the end…Braybrook did it that way with the classic Paradroid too… 
[quote]- I got the 2’nd level to act weird. It stopped spawning enemies and the lighting dimmed. Did I win?
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The enemies are not spawned. They are already in the level, just not in sight. If you kill all (i.e. the counter to the left reaches 0), the level gets darkened. That’s what the classic game did and so do i.
[quote]Every version gets better than the last!
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I hope so… ;D
I’ve uploaded another version that offers three different movement modes for “2D” now. Choose between them by pressing ‘m’. I’m really really interested in which one people like (or hate) the most
3D mode now has mouse aiming too (fps like). I like it, but i really need feedback on which YOU think is the best solution in 2D and 3D.
Edit: This version should also work on systems with no LWJGL support (like Macs, Solaris…)…in software mode only of course.
Excellent! Just excellent! I like the aiming a lot, but it’s hard. I suck at this game, but it is beautifull! Very nice work, guy!
[quote]I like the aiming a lot, but it’s hard.
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It’s harder now that the firing speed is much lower than it has been in previous versions. Anyway, you don’t have to kill all robots by shooting at them. You may also capture them by pressing right mouse button and bumping into them or you can try to kill them by simply bumping into them (works very well when you control a bigger one).
Ah, tactics
This is shaping up very well
Wow this is really cool now, I like it! I gathered that absorbing other balls gave me their abilities, but I couldn’t exactly figure out what those were or whether ot not it was a good idea that I absorb someone.
[quote]…but I couldn’t exactly figure out what those were or whether ot not it was a good idea that I absorb someone.
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That’s why there will be a database about the different types of enemies that you can access. Like in the classic game, you’ll only be able to study the models with a lower number than yours.
However, it’s never a bad idea to capture an enemy instead of running around with the 001-unit. The least this gives you is twice the hitpoints, because your enemies have to destroy the captured robot first before the 001-unit takes damage.
Another rule of thumb: Everything that shoots at you is worth of being captured, because it will increase your firepower. Everything that doesn’t shoot will be armed with the 001-unit’s weapons after capturing, so there is no gain in firepower in that case.
Hint: In one of the three levels (press ‘L’ to change level at any time) there’s a 999 robot. Capture it and enjoy… ;D
Egon, one of the things I really liked about Quazatron (Steve Turner’s Spectrum version of Paradroid) was that instead of taking over the robots you could blow them up and pick up bits of them that didn’t get destroyed and wire them into your own robot. How about that idea?
Cas
neat! So absorbing multiple robots compounds the bonus? Also, I like the idea of wiring parts in That would be made best if you could see what specific upgrades you had.