Testers Needed For Sci-Fi Space RPG.

[leRiCl]

I have coded a game (still incomplete) where you control a ship and you run around killing other ships. It is written in Java (Processing). Oh yeah, and this is inspired by Joseph Duchesne's (and diordna?) 3DU entry "Not Asteroids". :)

I have encountered speed problems. Can someone download the game and run it, then:
Download (http://www.appleide.sitesled.com/SpaceFare.zip)

1. Click "Host"
2. Look at the number at the top left corner. That is the frame rate.
3. Restart the game
4. Click "Host" and immediately hold the arrow key 'UP'. Then, press "4" once.
5. Count how many seconds until you see other ships shoot bullets, and post this data along with your frame rate here.

You are also welcome to post any feedback on the game. However, this is not the main point of my post.

For full controls:
1-9 control radar zoom (minimap).
"n" selects nearest enemy
"[" and "]" goes through all units (and select them)
"{" and "}" goes through all planets (and selects them)
SPACE shoots
up = accelerate, left and right = rotate, backwards = point opposite direction of movement.
"Q" sets you hp to -20 (for suicide)
"L" lands on planets if you are close enough to its top right corner and they are friendly.
"P" points your ship towards target. If target is within range, "P" would also take into account the time it takes for your bullet to get to where the selected unit will be if it continues its velocity in a linear fashion. (i.e Auto-Targetting).
"A" puts your ship into autopilot.
"W" to go through your weapons. Currently useful only for planet landings, when you select the weapon to sell, or select a empty weapon slot to buy.
"`" to show the kills/losses table.

Use mouse when landed on a planet to buy/sell weapons/ships.

Thank you very much.

[maximile]

62fps, 11.75 seconds

Edit: MBP Core Duo 2.0GHz

[leRiCl]

Thanks. Without you I wouldn't be able to determine what I did wrong. :) I have now corrected it. The link is updated. It should take 10.5 seconds now, no matter what the frame rate. Perhaps someone can confirm this?

[igame3d]

At 123+FPS and being sleepy I counted to 12.
Thats on an Early 2006 iMac with the ATI x1600
(oh damn its old already!)

IS there no center dot in the radar that says "You are here"?
I saw enemy dots coming at me but couldn't tell when
exactly I would engage them.

I'll have to try this later.

Should be cool to 2D scooter about online space in my Mystery Van,
doing a little spice running, picking up the princesses,
hanging out with space hamsters and such.

[diordna]

Yeah, I did the models for Not Asteroids. The oh-so-detailed models. (Did I do the music too? I forget.)

Will test at my earliest convenience.

[leRiCl]

igame3d: There is actually a white square in the centre... except the unit you control has the ID "0"... so its drawn first before other ships. I am trying to figure out a way to make it be drawn last without being hacky.

diordna: The asteroids were not bad... ;) Music was brilliant, though.

Hmm... Actually, what should this genre of game be called? You can gain experience, and earn money, and buy stuff. But the goal (currently), is simply to defeat the other side. (to Kill the enemy off, just blow up all the planets, which act as spawn points. Or in the version I have now (just coded), you could also fight until one side has run out of money to manufacture ships to respawn).

Seems like Tremulous, but its not. Seems like Escape Velocity, but its not. Actually, a little like Battle for the Universe, but not exactly, since you can buy / change / sell, and you have experience and my game won't have powerups. (and economy and respawn). Hmm. Ares? perhaps? The only difference is that I can't change my ship... and I can upgrade it, and I have money/experience.

Damn... My game is so much like an Ares Clone. >< I will try to fix that too.

UPDATE: I have added a score table. hold "`" to see it. Slows frame rate a lot on my computer, though. Link Updated.

[Joseph Duchesne]

Nice work :) I'm glad to see other people discovering the brilliance of Processing for small scale games :P

And Yay! I helped inspire a game :D That's awesome.

Also, speaking of EV and Ares, they are two of my favorite games of all time :P I really wish Ares was released for Mac OS X

Bother, I would comment more, but I've got to run to class...

[beepy]

Damn... My game is so much like an Ares Clone. >< I will try to fix that too.


Ares & EV have games that they're descended from as well. It's all good.

I can definitively say that Ares was directly inspired by Apple Trek (itself a clone of plain "Trek")

http://apple2history.org/images/appletrek.gif

(fromhttp://apple2history.org/history/ah14.html)

[ERaZer]

Ares & EV have games that they're descended from as well. It's all good.

I can definitively say that Ares was directly inspired by Apple Trek (itself a clone of plain "Trek")

And EV was very much inspired by Elite (even tho Elite was in 3D).

[leRiCl]

beepy: heh, thanks. :)
I have implemented the ability for the player to create their own scenarios (and Units and Weapons and Side color...) look into the readme.txt for details (even though it is currently a bit confusing). Download Here. Same link as first post. (http://appleide.sitesled.com/SpaceFare.zip) I will add and events model, so there will be "triggers" which fire off events.

edit: btw. when creating scenarios with custom images, just place them in the same folder, or place them into a folder called "images" in the SpaceFare folder.

[igame3d]

Is there sound? I don't have sound on intel iMac.
Of course there is no sound in space, but you know, my advanced spaceship should at least come with an iPhone with touch screen hyperspace internet radio.

I think you need a tutorial level.
Game starts out just killing my little ship, I never see an enemy die, just me.
Do some trading or delivery missions to start.
Then bring in the bad guys, after you've explained all the controls.
People don't read instructions, unless they are forced too.

Don't give the user an option to play the tutorial either, they will skip it,
force it down their throat and save some little file so they can pick up the tutorial where they left off should they get caught at work playing your game and have to quit and wait for the boss to go home to try it again.

Definately have progressive dogfights, like one vs one, one vs two.
Throwing players into the fire as soon as the game starts will
just leave players frustrated.

[leRiCl]

igame3D: There is sound... but there are problems with it. I turned it off by default for now. it could be changed in "settings.txt".

That was just a tester scenario. :) It could be editted under "settings.txt". I will add a tutorial. Thanks.
Currently the AI's aiming skill and reaction time is too advanced. The Human, unless using auto targetting (which is basically, AI), will usually lose. Should I 'dumb' down the AI. Although right now the AI is pretty dumb already, just going to the nearest enemy with no regard of its own life~