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Oomph - 6DoF space kit for PlayMaker [ Need feedback! =) ]

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by LaneFox, Sep 14, 2013.

  1. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2011
    Posts:
    7,462
    Webplayer:
    http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38606641/Oomph/Desktop.html

    Oomph is a personal project, I plan to create it as a free kit for the PlayMaker users that might be interested in what it offers but then moving along with more on a personal level, adding more advanced features and expanding it into a playable game using other plugins and developing more of my own content.

    But I need some feedback from you guys! Anyone familiar with flight games should be able to adapt to the controls, its a WASD setup to a large extent but I want to know how it feels to other people out there. Is this ship responsiveness too much? not enough? Do the controls feel clunky? What do you think could improve them?

    The feel I'm aiming for is not SIM style, it should feel like an arcade chaser system with fast turning and plenty of control, but the space zero gravity and zero drag should still feel like its an influence on how you fly. I've realized it's nearly pointless to try to create a control system for space combat that is fun because totally legit space physics are really off the charts and not fun to play with especially if you're trying to instance some fast paced, close quarters dogfight combat.

    This is completely done with PlayMaker as I don't have a clue how to code, so feedback including code is pretty useless to me unfortunately.
     
  2. puppeteer

    puppeteer

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2010
    Posts:
    1,282
    Wow, this is incredible!

    And calling it arcade is way off-chart. It's fast paced but it's also very much a simulator, with all the pros/cons of such a system. Took me a minute or so to get the hang of it ( having to hold your fingers on 4 movement axes is quite alot :D ), but eventually I managed to go where I wanted and even hit a few of those enemies. The good part about it is that they hit me back, and with force. Getting throttled in space like that felt good, even if it means I'm dead. I also enjoyed landing back on the pad, aligning myself was simple enough after getting the hang of it.

    This has lots of potential in my opinion. What are your plans for it? Enemy AI? hit feedback? damage feedback? super throttle like in Freespace :D ?
     
  3. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2011
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    Hey, I'm glad you liked it!

    Maybe arcade is a bad choice of words, I say Arcade because personally I think space sims are more boring than I would like.... I like things to be faster pace with more aggressive, tighter dogfights so I want to stray from "sim" until I get to the balance between sim complexity and arcade pace/fun/freedom. I want the complexity of those advanced controls to remain but not enough to make the skill floor too high for beginners. I really like those hard impacts hurling you around as well, they're currently too much but I want to keep them heavy enough to make a difference in combat.

    I just put the enemies in this morning, so they're brand new - you literally must have loaded the webplayer 5 minutes after I updated it lol... They really help give some scale to the area and shape the scene.

    Im glad you liked landing, I had decided to stray away from more "sim" style physics to make that sort of thing easier. It was nearly impossible with the old control style. zero drag, zero gravity sitations in space make for some outrageously hard precision movement and slow speed control so I felt they had to be scrapped and fake drag levels introduced.

    As far as plans... I want to add as much as I can without needing external plugin support beyond playmaker or assets from the store. I plan to offer the whole thing as a free kit to show how you can build these sorts of systems in playmaker without coding. Beyond that I want to get it to a stopping point, spin off and start using the other assets I own to build a short singleplayer game. I considered trying multiplayer this time around but haven't decided on that yet.

    The kit will include more advanced damage feedback, more AI, targetting, different weapon types, homing weapons, hopefully more intuitive shop systems to allow more ship customization, stuff like that. I have a design flow chart (also built in playmaker) that has most of the groundwork I would consider a baseline for a space game like this, once those are done I'll branch it off from the kit and start working on it as a game.







    Video for those not interested in the webplayer yet:

     
  4. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2011
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    7,462
  5. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
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    New Shop
    Created a new shop system that is much more elaborate. Still working with the crummy unity GUI but its much better than before.

    Now it will find the appropriate hardpoint for the part you're adding, put it there, rotate it properly, store it, build thrusters for it on the fly and get rid of the old items. This is great for iterating forward since you just make a prefab with the mount points with the correct names and the shop will build it correctly -- no need to do anything but add a GUI button in the shop for it.

    New Ship Models + Weapons
    Created a new model pack that looks significantly better than the old one but is still very unpolished. I have varieties in the wings and engine, next step is to add a second hull that is unique very different to see how well it manages tossing the mounts onto it. =)

    Hardpoints!
    Added a hardpoint system, the wings are the only thing you can mount weapons on, the shop finds the mount and puts the weapon there. The weapon mounts can be fired in 2 groups and the weapons after being mounted will figure out what group they should be in. This makes it easy to distinguish between a laser group and a missile launcher group, for instance.

    Webplayer
    http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38606641/Oomph/Desktop.html

    I'll upload a new kit once I get the other weapons working and fix some small bugs.

     
  6. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    [video=youtube_share;ZFYqF-v2rig]http://youtu.be/ZFYqF-v2rig

    [video=youtube_share;XTH7ffZD60M]http://youtu.be/XTH7ffZD60M
     
  7. LMan

    LMan

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2013
    Posts:
    493
    That is a lot of fun! Those sidewinder rockets are my favorite- feels so satisfying to lay down a strafing run on an asteroid. The controls feel really good- within minutes I felt like I had the hang of getting to where I wanted to go. I'm curious what the purpose of clutching the engine is.
     
  8. yuriythebest

    yuriythebest

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2009
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    1,121
    Hi! I think the web player is broken - there is no ship (just the empty hangar + planets outside) and it keeps saying "you need parts"
     
  9. primus88

    primus88

    Joined:
    May 14, 2013
    Posts:
    611
    First, select a hull for your ship brother :)
    The webplayer works fine, it is not that user friendly and intuitive though.
     
  10. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
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    Thank you! I also like the sidewinders the most, I've been trying to design more weapons with that same fun factor. I'm glad you caught on to the controls so fast, I'm thinking of ways to simplify it even more so it isnt overwhelming.

    Clutching the engine is for when you want to move in the current vector but be able to rotate/turn in any direction while still maintaining that vector. For instance if you're being followed, just run at full speed, clutch the engine (hold space), you'll start drifting, then turn around to fire heaps of mayhem at your pursuer, unclutch and you'll continue in the direction you are aiming, but momentum applies... I'm working on an AI that stalks the player so I can test more practically.

    see below =)

    Any suggestions on improving it?

    I plan on using the right side of the screen to add a visual model preview of items and a brief description of stats before you load them onto the ship.
     
  11. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    I updated the webplayer with some new things, the devblog highlights most of them.
    • Ammunition
    • Weight/Mass (based on parts you choose to add)
    • More sounds
    • More weapons can fire now
    • Modified weapon effects (going to change more, still isn't what I want)
    • New weapon models missile models
    • 2nd Hull model to choose (It is kind of buggy still)
    • Lots of small internal changes/fixes

    Webplayer Link
     
  12. newb_quest

    newb_quest

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2013
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    Just wanted to say that this looks really cool! I've been working on a similar 6 degrees of freedom thing with flying fighting butterflies. The mechanics are a bit different but there are a lot of similarities. Eventually I'd like to have a similar 'ship construction' type system to what you have so I'm really looking forward to watching your progress on this. Great stuff.
     
  13. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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