noobie

Hello,
I want to try for a ww2 combat sim.
Aircraft oriented but with ground forces and ground vehicles capabilities.
MMO, persistant world universe, treasure map world. Basically a Viking clans scenario, using ww2 hardware to capture and use ww2 hardware. That hardware being aircraft and ground attack vehicles. At a semi-high realistic level, non-arcade as possible.

I have zero formal training, just limited exposure, cannot code. Will use unity personal edition until I prove to myself that I will use it and get things accomplished on a primitivive level.

Can I use purchased assets with the personal edition of 5.2.2?
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/?gclid=CP7hrsnL8sgCFVIXHwod-roC9g#!/content/11321
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/?gclid=CP7hrsnL8sgCFVIXHwod-roC9g#!/content/13238
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/?gclid=CP7hrsnL8sgCFVIXHwod-roC9g#!/content/22338

hints, tips, help, pointers appreciated.
want large number player, server play. 200-600 players. If Unity is not the right choice for such, please say so.

 

Main tip: Don't do an MMO for your first game. Especially don't do an MMO if you can't code. Refer to the stickies at the top of this forum...

 

@jhocking is absolutely right, but I want to be clear that this is not a Unity limitation. Unity is absolutely the right choice for making such a game. You just don't have the skill set needed to make it.

So, you can either spend a few years working hard to acquire that skill set (and yes, I do believe you can do it!); or hire some professionals to do it for you; or choose a much easier first project, that could be done with skills you might acquire in just a few weeks or months.

Good luck,
- Joe

 

I figured the mmo part, ie wan, lan networking would be the tuff part.

I have no illusions, delusions about this, been poking around the subject since I learned how to turn on a pc, at age 40+. Been waiting for software to make the apps so you do not need to code, its almost here.....now I'm 50+. he he

Anyways I want my initial approach would be to model an aircraft, I believe a P-40 Warhawk.
Get it in a scene with just sky and ground, fly it and shoot bullets from it. Spawn in sky.
2nd make a ground runway for tale off and landing
3rd make a second aircraft, identical, and shoot it down.
4th attack a runway and capture it

Can I model aircraft with Unity? or UFS for that matter.


My DIY flight gear.

 

You don't make models in Unity, you do those in something else — Blender is popular, though I don't care for it much; if you're on a Mac, I would highly recommend Cheetah3D.

 

Here's my MMO benchmark:

Icons

The last time I looked, WoW had over 2000 icons.

If you can organise yourself to design and produce 1 icon an hour on average (make 1 bag in grey and recolour it, save a basic item, add details for additional icons), you will need 2000 hours to make them. If you work 10 hours a day and don't stop to go to the toilet, eat, or take any break what so ever, you can make all the icons for your MMO in 200 days, or - if you only want to work flat out with no breaks for 8 hours a day - 1 person's working year, which is about 2000 hours.

 

Ouch, that's why I want to do a miniature version, get a base framework that I could then show others to get interested team mates. 1 plane, 1 land based target, 1 air based target. I'm only interested in 1 type of project. I want to learn what applies to that goal 1st.

I have been aware of and tried blender so I will model with that.
I will use the Unity UFS asset to rig the model for Unity environment.
I will use blender to model the aircraft or if I can find a free 3D model available.
Wheres best to animate the aircraft parts, flaps, ailerons, rudder, elevator, gear, trim tabs, etc. blender or unity or UFS?

I'm just trying to pick an expedient path for initial steps. you could spend a month deciding, I want to spend a month learning the various ui's I will be using.

When I was born you had to be a genius and write binary, I'm old now and might get to benefit from the modern tech.....I'm not gonna learn all the high end stuff, I'd be dead by the time I could use it so I learn only the minimum I need. Who knows I might get lucky.....

 

Go for it. Thing is, I'm not sure people actually like mmos as much any more. It's moving to more focused experiences.

 

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/content/11321

If these are mechanical parts, I'd suggest that they could be "rigged" in blender, tho this is probably just manipulating pivot points on the model, and then moving the transforms of the piece around its pivot in unity.

 

I have noticed that most 3D mmo's are now low server player numbers with high end graphics. Many 2D web browser based games seem to get mmo numbers built in. At this point, imo, it has to be the laggy gameplay with client/server games, and the amount of hardware layout to maintain the game environment. Lets face it, angry birds format has little maintenance, lots of profit.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that its corps profit margins that drive what games are played, not client choice. Focused experiences, you mean playing alone against the machine or an AI, boring. I believe that gaming needs to be mano o mano thru the pc. Designed as such, structured as such you get a type of spontenaity that is whats craved by gamers. Rehearsed moves is one thing, but practicing button presses to be a level is another.

Build it and they will come!

 

I know that all here know more than me, but I am a persistent asker of questions.
So I will ask why you say this. UFS is specifically for rigging planes in UNITY, are you aware of poor performance with UFS?
It claims to use physics, I watched 1 tut and it appeared to be a good method for rigging multiple planes in a consistent environment.
It does cost upfront tho, so if blender will do the job.....................................as I said, right now its about setting up the path, not burning dollars and proving to myself that I can do this so burn the dollars on the professional versions.
1 plane that flys

 

I have no idea what UFS is! I was merely answering about where the animation could be done. If I had mechanical pieces that needed to respond to player input, I would make sure that they could move correctly, which would be a modelling issue, and would manipulate their positions and rotating based on data from unity.

 

OK coolio.

UFS appears to be for making up your own planes. It claims realistic physics yada yada. Since its a UNITY Asset, I figure bringing in a model to it would be best to get all those coding attributes I need. It claims you can get a VR plane flying without coding experience.
Its very important to get all the different flight characteristics for the different planes. Each plane gonna have advantages and disadvantages, I wanna capture those. I do not want all planes with same flight characteristics.

I built the full scale flight gear cuz I wanted my body to go thru the motions of a cockpit, not sit at a desk and twist my wrist. I did not know about controllers either. he he...........

Name of game could be Sikings, as in Sky Vikings.

Its a clan game, your clan can claim 1 free field at the edges of the map. With that claim the clan plants its flag to mark territory. With that claim you get old, beat up, middle 1930's, military hardware, plane, vehicle, troops.

Your clan takes that hardware and goes out into the terrain to capture other facilities. Plant the clan marker, add hardware and attack fields to the clan holdings. Defend them or lose them.

Players can add there own artwork for territorial flag. Players can apply there own personal noseart, clans can fly/drive there own skins with hardware.

The map would be fairly large, have many hidden fields with stuff and frankly its not about winning a map or points or ranking. Its about a small group of clannies organizing themselves into a virtual war machine and finding and acquiring better weapons of war to use, against other clans looking to do the same. All in a WW2 era framework. Truly what human kind war has been about...........................

 

Wow! Well, good luck! Don't forget that this flight controller is a third party asset, not an asset from Unity Technologies it seems good! But it is not from the people who brought you the engine. I trust all will be well!

 

Nice! That is a great way to put it into perspective.