AI Apocalypse Beta Release

So after getting lost in a sea of final tweaks and refinements, we've decided to release the beta of AI Apocalypse - a first person network multi-player tank shooter. Fighting at your side is a companion bot, whose behaviour you can assign within a configuration screen. Shortly we will also be releasing a version of robotFoundry that will allow users to create their own AI code (without necessarily having had any previous programming experience)

The game will be a free client, which will move towards a micro-transaction model. Players earn credits for each game played and/or won, and can purchase upgrades on the AI Apocalypse Website with those credits.





An early gameplay demo video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8JzuwkLJUM

Mac download:
http://www.cogmation.net/download/AIA_Mac.zip

PC download:
http://www.cogmation.net/download/AIA_Win.zip

Game Website (create a profile here for multi-player games):
http://www.cogmation.com/aiapocalypse

We're also trying out the idea of letting the game players themselves participate in creating the game backstory and artwork, and have created an editable wiki on the site - so if anyone has an interest in creative writing, please feel free to add something.

We appreciate any feedback and criticism - the game will be a constantly evolving project, so we want to hear anything you can recommend to make the game better. This is a great community, and all the feedback we received after our launch of robotSim was extremely helpful.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look.

 

i just quickly tried the dl version, some comments:

- nice overall style

- the tanks control well in general, but on slopes they seem to move a bit unnatural.

- the music was driving me crazy ; ) may just not be my taste but also i don't really think it fits the mood or gameplay, actually i think it works against it.

- when starting any level i was not on the map (seemed to be up high in the air), eventually i had to hit restart to be put onto the map.

will play around with it more later.

: )

 

Thanks for the feedback.

We are working on the Spawn in space problem for the practice mode.

If you do Spawn in Space hit the "n" key and you will self destruct and respawn in the map.

If you hit the "esc" key and choose input options you can control the music volume.

For me hardmusic works well in shooter games

We do have other styles of music lined up for the full release, hip-hop, rock, etc.

enjoy

:twisted:

 

I'd love to see this one develop!

At this point tho, I found it confusing. I couldn't tell which tanks were friends and which were foes. They seemed to be fighting each other and I knew I was supposed to have a side-kick tank somewhere. I wasn't sure who to shoot at.

In general it all seemed a little slow and close.

The tanks seemed to end up bunching up at close range and firing point blank at each other. The shot velocity also seemed slow to target. Aiming and Firing at a greater distance would work with a faster traveling shot.

I've played some tank-sim games, both Miniatures [IRL] and Digital. I wanted to have more control over my tank and be farther away from the enemy. The vehicle combat in URT had a sense of power and perspective that would be nice. I wanted to be able to travel the body of the tank one way, and aim my turret another. Also, I wanted my shot location to count. There was a point where I was backing up with an enemy chasing me, and as the enemy surged up a hill, it exposed it's bottom hull and I fired, instinctively feeling it'd hit the weaker armour; and, of course, it didn't make a difference.

I also wanted to use terrain to protect my hull. I wanted to feel that I was "hull down" and partly protected by my environment.

I was also confused by the HUD. I didn't know what it meant or what it was supposed to be telling me. I wanted to know the status of my armor, and overall condition (health). I also was looking for a load out list/count. What type of shots do I have and how many...

I had abysmally slow frame rates for what seemed to be a simple game.

When I clicked on the "accounts" button, it took me out of full frame mode to open a browser window, and then I couldn't get back to full screen mode.

I too started off in space until I died and re-spawned.

The setup screen doesn't seem to do anything yet.

But - that being said - it's a great 1st step! And it'd be great to see which way this goes.

(P.S. - the music bugged me too, a bunch. Seemed very personal, and not very tank-like...)

(P.P.S. - was that the track name playing at the bottom? I kept trying to turn right to find the "dreadnaught" but it was never there...)

 

I think the choice of music is goofy, but it's not unprecedented. Generally, I don't think music with lyrics and/or constant music that doesn't change based on what's going on in the game are good choices, but I played a Sega Saturn game called Cyber Speedway that had rock tunes playing during the races, and Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball, which had random lighthearted tunes playing all the time, and those titles were enjoyable to me.

Personally, I'd see if you can get the original tracks without the vocals. Even unmastered, I would find that much more appropriate. Still, somebody out there's bound to appreciate the combination of your music choice and tanks, even if that means the game will seem extra-cheesy to others.

 

Damn. That's really bugging me. Why can't I play it in a window?

 

Thanks for all of the great comments, please keep them coming.

We have up loaded a newer version on Friday which address a couple of performance issues.

-- regarding the AI, the AI is very basic for this beta and will be fully customizable by the end users, so my practice game could be using AI code written by someone else. We will be launching a community website where people can share their AI code with other community members.

-- Fullscreen mode. we force fullscreen mode so the mouse will not wander off of the game window, most of our development was done using joysticks. We will allow windowed and non-windowed modes very soon.
To go back and forth between full screen and windowed mode use the Apple-key and the F key (apple-f)

Thanks,

 

Will there be any more music choices? You seem to focus on the modern favorite styles, that's not bad - but I think a bigger range would be better, including ( but not limited to ) orchestral, instrumental, 8-bit ( Mario W00t! ), etc. I personally like the star wars music style, whatever that would be called.. Orchestral? :? Another thing I like is to add all my favorite tunes into an iTunes playlist and shuffle that while I play my game. Works better than you'd think.

It would be cool to import your own favorite music track..

 

Hi,
Absolutely yes . We are working with a number of different groups and hopefully will have other channels available soon. I do like your idea of allowing people to stream their own music from their mp3 collection. We were thinking of adding this feature soon.


Shawn