Archive: 5 posts

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Greetings, mortals. Just under a year ago, work began on the second version of Velox Nation. The first was awful and my first real attempt at using LBP2's tools. The second was considerably better. Made impressive by it's AI and large vehicle selection, but the communities comments regarding the controls made me feel like perhaps I should've simplified things a little. Sure, Velox Nation vehicles are supposed to be 'floaty' but perhaps not to the extent they were. Well, I'm hoping to have a 3rd and final go at creating Velox Nation. I think my understanding of the tools available have come on leaps and bounds since then, and I feel there's huge amounts of room for improvement with a 3rd and final version of Velox Nation. At the time of writing, I haven't made much of a start beyond an early vehicle prototype so I could screw around with some new controls. I intend to use Local Space camera's, and a proper on-screen display to show health, weapons and whatever other information needs to be visible, but there are a few other factors that I'd like to ask people about, and I'd really appreciate any and all responces. Most of all from those that have played the current Velox Nation. 1) Weapon aiming - While I rather liked the top-down racer crossed with top-down shooter element, I feel some people struggled to use both control sticks at the same time, and I was wondering if perhaps, this time I'd be better off not using a 360-degree turret? If a turret at all. Should I just stick to having vehicles fire straight ahead? If I did that, would it be beneficial to have more weapons with the ability to home-in? 2) Weapon variety The original Velox saw each racing team / vehicle come ready equipped with 2 weapons. Other power-ups and such were collectable, but instantly effected the vehicle collecting them. Should I make all weapons collectable? This means vehicles start with nothing, and must continuously collect weapons scattered around the track. This encourages people to be less wasteful with their weaponry, but I must admit, I did feel there was an extra element of vehicle selection when players knew only certain weapons were available with certain vehicles. Naturally, VN2 will have a much more interesting selection of weapons to pick up. I felt before too many weapons were simple straight-shot medium damage things. I'd love to set up more homing weapons and weapons with unique effects. 3) Possibly the biggest question - Multiplayer races, or single-player campaign? Originally, I wanted to do both. I wanted single-player races and various multiplayer tracks, but I lost my way and felt the project was finished. Thanks to the emitt/destroy technique and large gaps in my own knowledge, I'm going to try and do more with just 1 single level. So, should I do what I did before and focus on making an enjoyable 2 or more player experience, or a single-player-only score challenge set over a 4 race campaign? 4) Respawn One thing I always loved from F-Zero and WipEout was that feeling of panic when you know you're about to get blown to bits. When you know there's a respawn, you just don't get that. I know how to set up a Respawn, I just don't know if it belongs in this level or not. Opinions? 5) Speed Just a quick question this, was Velox Nation too fast? I feel it may have been, but I'm not sure if that's just due to the handling or not. Should I modify the pacing of this level at all? Those questions are all I'm a little unsure on how to handle, but if anyone has anything else to add, please do go ahead, and remember I really appreciate you taking the time to answer. I'll no doubt be updating this thread as I go along as I did with the last Velox project, for those that want to, stay posted. And there's again, no doubt be a playable demo shortly for those that want to help shape this level even further. In the meantime, here are some new ideas I've already put into the prototype VN2 vehicle - L1/R1 'Sideslide' move. Very similar to F-Zero and WipEouts sideswipes. Top-Speed Booster - Once a vehicle reaches top speed for a set period of time, that top speed recieves an increase, allowing players to go even faster. The effect wears off after the vehicle slows down too much.

2012-06-27 19:38:00 Author: Ostler5000 Posts: 1017

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Greetings, mortals. 1) Weapon aiming - While I rather liked the top-down racer crossed with top-down shooter element, I feel some people struggled to use both control sticks at the same time, and I was wondering if perhaps, this time I'd be better off not using a 360-degree turret? If a turret at all. Should I just stick to having vehicles fire straight ahead? If I did that, would it be beneficial to have more weapons with the ability to home-in? 2) Weapon variety The original Velox saw each racing team / vehicle come ready equipped with 2 weapons. Other power-ups and such were collectable, but instantly effected the vehicle collecting them. Should I make all weapons collectable? This means vehicles start with nothing, and must continuously collect weapons scattered around the track. This encourages people to be less wasteful with their weaponry, but I must admit, I did feel there was an extra element of vehicle selection when players knew only certain weapons were available with certain vehicles. Naturally, VN2 will have a much more interesting selection of weapons to pick up. I felt before too many weapons were simple straight-shot medium damage things. I'd love to set up more homing weapons and weapons with unique effects. 3) Possibly the biggest question - Multiplayer races, or single-player campaign? Originally, I wanted to do both. I wanted single-player races and various multiplayer tracks, but I lost my way and felt the project was finished. Thanks to the emitt/destroy technique and large gaps in my own knowledge, I'm going to try and do more with just 1 single level. So, should I do what I did before and focus on making an enjoyable 2 or more player experience, or a single-player-only score challenge set over a 4 race campaign? 4) Respawn One thing I always loved from F-Zero and WipEout was that feeling of panic when you know you're about to get blown to bits. When you know there's a respawn, you just don't get that. I know how to set up a Respawn, I just don't know if it belongs in this level or not. Opinions? 5) Speed Just a quick question this, was Velox Nation too fast? I feel it may have been, but I'm not sure if that's just due to the handling or not. Should I modify the pacing of this level at all? Hell yeah local cam! I must admit Osty, that I've never been to keen on top-down or side scrolling racers.. I've played way too many 3rd person racers and just prefer that viewpoint for racing games, but at the same time, the twin stick shooter aspect of VN made it appropriate. Regarding your 1st question about the revolving turret.. I'd either say ditch it & rely strictly on power-ups for weapons or just have a vehicle-dependent forward shooting cannon. Controlling a turret in this viewpoint would hamper the user friendliness of the controls & I'd highly recommend using the right stick for turning instead. (Unless you want to only use the shoulder buttons to control air flaps like in Wipeout, which would be cool too.) As for the speed.. that's kind of a touchy thing for local space cams just because of the obstruction of frontal visibility.. In the project I told you about I had 3 levels of speed. Kinda like an acceleration thing. The ships could get going pretty fast and still handled really well. So handling is not too much of an issue but visibility can sometimes be. I think multiplayer races would be the best and just have AI stand-ins for any vacant PC ships (maybe even a setting for how many AI ships you want in a race?). If you stay with the traditional race or elimination game types this would be really cool in multiplayer.

2012-06-27 22:20:00 Author: Dortr Posts: 548

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I shall replay Velox since it's been a while since I last played, then I can leave you some suggestions

2012-06-28 05:34:00 Author: damaz10 Posts: 771

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A possible quick fire ability for in front, behind, to the left, and to the right should be a good replacement for the 360 shooting of VN1. I'd like to see a little less emphasis on non-skill factors (vehicle choice + vehicle-specific weapons) and a little more emphasis on pure player skill. Collectable weapons should do the trick for that. Multiplayer and impressive AI should still be the focus of VN2; it's what made VN1 awesome. If you're going to use local space cams, that will change the gameplay significantly, and the pacing should probably be slowed down a little. Well, that's my 2 cents.

2012-07-03 04:06:00 Author: BIGGamerer Posts: 182

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Hi, guys. Now, I realise that it's been a while since I brought this project up, but I'm determined to go all the way through with it this time. I had made a few Logic-based decisions that, in hindsight, were just too much for me to handle. I've come up with several new ideas and shortcuts for achieving the AI logic I was trying to create before, and the level is beginning to come along nicely. In response to my own OP, here are some decisions I've made - 1&2) I've already written up a variety of weapons, designed with front-fire only functionality. I'm definitely not doing turrets. Screecher Missile - Basic homing missile with good pace and tracking. Punisher Missile - Straight-shot missile with a large blast radius and massive damage. Cerberus Missile - 5 missiles with average speed and tracking, each inflicting small damage. Hunter Missile - (My fave idea.) homing missile that 'Cooks' over time. It does more damage, the longer it takes to reach the target. Impairer Missile - Returning from previous VN, this missile reduces the enemies speed for a short time. Sonic Boom - (lol) A radial attack that damages all enemies nearby lightly. Leecher Boom - Radial attack that 'steals' health. Rager Boom - A long charge up, followed by instant death to any nearby enemies. Has a sound-cue to warn other vehicles. Shredder - A spinning blade of death. It bounces off vehicles and structures, inflicting an increasing amount of damage with each bounce. Scatter Mines - 3 moderate damage mines. Waster Mine - Single heavy-damage mine. Electric Mine - Shocks nearby enemies for gradual damage. Shield - Well, duh. Turbo - Again, fairly self-explainatry. 3) I'm going single player. VN will never work on a shared screen, and there's just too much going on for online parties to be able to play in a moderately lag-less environment. I'm planning on using the same system I used in Microwars, where I emmit the required track in large square segments. In addition to that, to add some replay-ability, I'm going to add 'Unlock tiers' to the game. Initially, only some vehicles will be available for players to use. However, if they play well, they are rewarded with a Sticker (Or several) which allow them to access the more advanced vehicles. This has two effects - A) It will ensure first time players pick vehicles that I would deem suitable for them. B) Returning players are rewarded for... Well, returning. 4) I'm doing a respawn. 5) Speed has been toned down a little. On the subject of speed, I'm keeping vehicles with their individual stats, however, the difference between the fastest and slowest vehicles will be considerably smaller. Same for all other stats. I'm very close to having the level be playable, so once that's done, there'll be a little vehicle tester for anyone who fancies a go. I'm not going to bother locking the level, who cares if some randoms faff around for a bit.

2012-12-13 21:20:00 Author: Ostler5000 Posts: 1017

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