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Guest Rabbit

Testing a new battle system

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Guest Rabbit

Honestly, I'm not really a huge fan of the turn based battle system, and I feel it detracts a bit from the smoothness of gameplay. Also, despite this not being an RTS game, C&C has never been turn based (and frankly, never should be), so I found a publicly released script which I'm trying to modify to better fit this game.

 

Here's what I've come up with so far:

 

 

My plans for improvement (on the battle engine specifically, disregard what the characters / weapons look like for the time being) so far are:

 

  • Create an actual death animation for guys I stab (they just sort of fade out right now).
  • Create a more consistent death sound (right now, it seems to play incorrectly)
  • Create "smart" enemies (formations, teams, enemies that use shields).

 

Lemme know what you guys think!

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It seems to work pretty good, but there are a couple possible issues: this system will require all enemies to have animated sprites including death animations (though on the plus side, they don't need battle graphics), and boss battles with large monsters and unique attacks might be significantly more difficult to design.

 

The first issue will probably be my problem (for creatures anyway), the second issue will be yours.

 

Those issues aside, I actually quite agree this combat style fits C&C much better and I like it so far.

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Guest Rabbit

Conveniently, I have a neat workaround for the death sprites. When I kill someone, it shows blood splatter over their body, and they morph into a skeleton that drops to the ground, sort of like Red Alert 2. It looks silly yet fitting. I'll upload a video later.

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Hmm... it sounds too silly to me. I think having them just fall down into a puddle of blood would be better, and more C&C-ish.

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Guest Rabbit

Well, here's what I've got so far. I suppose I could create a bloody corpse from their bodies, it would just be a little bit harder.

 

The video is split into three parts. Basically it's just different things they turn into when they die. Bones, blood, then both.

 

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Actually, that looks good. No major change is necessary. I would reduce the size of the killing blood splat though (the stuff on the ground is fine).

 

I like both blood and bones the best, then bones only, lastly blood only.

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Guest Rabbit

I feel like once you see it with both blood and bones mixed, it makes the other options look too plain. I'm thinking of making it to where some of the dead drop a few coins or basic items that can be collected.

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What kind of animations do you use now with this new system? It appears the character sprites do not actually do anything when they attack and the weapons just kind of spawn in front of them. Is this how you intend to keep it, or do you wish to make the characters have attack animations as well? Either way, how will non-human enemies attack?

 

Basically, what I'm wondering here is suppose you have a fiend enemy, how many animations will be required for it?

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Guest Rabbit

It is actually just a second spritesheet that shows up over the sprite that is doing the attacking. It's the simplest way do animate basic attacks without having to create an individual animation for every single creature that has any different weapon. Instead, I just create a specifically positioned weapon sprite sheet that overlays in the direction of the attack, so the character doesn't really change, but the weapon he's "holding" shows up.

 

This is convenient because if we have a visceroid, for instance, I can attach an extra "blob" to it to attack.

 

I might have the option in the case of the fiend of slightly altering the animation if need be when it launches Tiberium shards. I'm not exactly sure how to pull that off, but in any case, it is fully capable of projectile attacks.

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Well what I was thinking as far as humans with weapons are concerned, is not to animate the human holding the weapon, but animate them taking an attacking stance and adding the weapon animation onto it as you do now. Just so they aren't standing there with a magic flying sword swinging in front of them.

 

How variable is this new system? Can the enemies use multiple weapons as you can, or utilize special skills? In the case of fiends, I think they should be able to scratch/bite in addition to hurl tiberium shards.

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Guest Exonno

I can set the enemies to use multiple weapons, have variable speed, random movement, activate shields, etc.

 

It's not exactly limitless, but I'm trying to learn more about the system.

 

I can also set certain enemies (like mutants / tiberium creatures) to be resistant to tiberium based weapons (though I havent' yet figured out how to make them enter Tiberium to heal, it's different from this system), and I can also set them to transform into a different enemy once killed (technically the bones and blood are harmless, stationary enemies).

 

I definitely can create attack poses, I just have to script them in properly, and for that matter, draw them out.

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Although I actually like action packed turned based combat (XCOM for example), the modifications you are currently doing to improve the combat system to be more "C&C themed" are coming along quite nicely. Stick with realtime combat if you can and try to try out different approaches to the task at hand. If needed, set us up with a combat test map with various scenarios to get more accurate feedback.

Edited by AZ-Stalker

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Having animated violence with little blood is okay for teens (especially in any RTS game), but too much of that would consider making that game head to the mature audience.

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Guest Rabbit

Although I actually like action packed turned based combat (XCOM for example), the modifications you are currently doing to improve the combat system to be more "C&C themed" are coming along quite nicely. Stick with realtime combat if you can and try to try out different approaches to the task at hand. If needed, set us up with a combat test map with various scenarios to get more accurate feedback.

Yeah, I'll come up with something soon.

 

Having animated violence with little blood is okay for teens (especially in any RTS game), but too much of that would consider making that game head to the mature audience.

...so? A little bit of blood is a little bit of blood. I think we can all handle it.

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Actually, I think having a fiend grabbing someone in its jaws and ripping them open so entrails spill all over the place would be awesome. And every time you kill someone, random giblets hit the screen and slowly slide down off the bottom.

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Is it possible to change corpses depending on what type of weapon is used to kill an entity? Because I'm thinking that you could use all three current animations depending on the weapon used. (Bloody for Swords, Skeletal Corpse for Energy, etc.)

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Guest Rabbit

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a way right now to change the way the death looks based on the weapon. I can change the death animation based on the enemy (for a visceroid, I can make it look like a dead blob rather than a set of bones), but the weapons themselves are part of a different system.

Actually, I think having a fiend grabbing someone in its jaws and ripping them open so entrails spill all over the place would be awesome. And every time you kill someone, random giblets hit the screen and slowly slide down off the bottom.

I think that would be taking it a little too far in this case. I don't want there to be too much visual distraction, I feel it's unnecessary since it's a "top view" type of game.

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I think that would be taking it a little too far in this case. I don't want there to be too much visual distraction, I feel it's unnecessary since it's a "top view" type of game.

I was being sarcastic (well partially anyway, as fiends eviscerating someone would be awesome).

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