Author Topic: Mainframes screenshot.  (Read 6596 times)

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Mainframes screenshot.
« on: August 29, 2013, 07:50:11 am »
This morning's screenshot of the latest build. :)

There are a variety of "flavor object" groups that we'll be using, the "junk objects" being the ones you saw before.  Now these are the new "mainframe objects," and there are a variety of other groups coming, too.  These are called flavor objects because they don't do anything other than provide destructible cover and block line of sight, and one is the same as the next.  These are distinct from, say, actual meaningful computer systems (which look different and turn to face you) that have a gameplay function.

Also shown here you can now see the final lighting on a number of bots, and you can see the "you can't shoot this far" attack overlay over the TeslaBot, which my mouse (unseen) is hovering over.  There's another TeslaBot down in the bottom left in the FOW, so it's just glowing on sensors.

Also you can see in the log to the upper right the new credits currency that you earn from killing enemies.  I said you got nothing from killing enemies, but since then that's changed.  There is now a central store where you can buy Epic and Rare items (using the common item rarity system found in lots of games) using credits.

And lastly, thanks to Teal_Blue and some others, you can see the portrait of your current commander down on the bottom left of your sidebar. :)

Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Tridus

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,305
  • I'm going to do what I do best: lecture her!
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2013, 09:20:19 am »
Bots look good. :) The one on sensors looks really neat with the outline.

One thing I can't tell from this screenshot is which bot you're aiming with. You said that there's an "you can't shoot this far" overlay on the TeslaBot, but from looking at it I have no idea which bot that's relative to. Is it the one with the health bar showing?

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2013, 09:25:02 am »
Yep, my exo is the brawler up in the top left corner with the health bar showing.  The health bar can show on anyone, it's just that way because I'm damaged at the moment.

You can see that his picture matches on the left sidebar in terms of which one is selected.  The picture is a portrait shot there, but the colors match.

When you first start a mission it is just your exo alone, so it's pretty obvious what is what.  You can also press H to center on your exo.  When you move it also centers on them.  If you hold shift it shows the attack ranges coming from them, with what is in range and what is not.  If you hover over them it does not give the attack symbol, but rather just shows nothing.

So in practice it's pretty obvious what is you, but I can see why it would be confusing in the screenshot. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Tridus

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,305
  • I'm going to do what I do best: lecture her!
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2013, 09:43:49 am »
Ah, okay.

You have four exos, right? Can they all be out at once?

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2013, 09:44:47 am »
You do have four exos, but they warp in and out when you choose one; so only one out at once.  In multiplayer there is one per player, so with 4 players it would be 4 exos.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Breach

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2013, 03:07:43 pm »
Any consideration of having any of the rarer equipment dropping from enemies? Perhaps customised weapons etc. dropping from specific enemies if that's going to be a thing.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2013, 03:12:13 pm »
Any consideration of having any of the rarer equipment dropping from enemies?

We really don't want to encourage people to be trying to farm enemies for that sort of thing... but we said that about currency, too.  So we'll have to see, maybe.  You do get rarer loot from beating certain missions, from the store, and from loot chests.  So going and beating a boss, which wins the mission, already gives you great loot.

Perhaps customised weapons etc. dropping from specific enemies if that's going to be a thing

Think of the materia system in FF7.  This is vaguely like that.  Each part is heavily random-statted, and you put multiple parts into slots on your weapons and other systems.  You then wind up with unique weapons, although you never get to change your weapon itself on a given Exo.  But your shotgun and mine might look veeeery different.  Keith and I were joking just the other day about how you could create a "sniper shotgun," which had us both laughing pretty hard at the time. ;)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline mrhanman

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 764
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2013, 12:36:04 am »
The bots and the cover look pretty cool.  I'm liking them a lot!

Are the complexes you're in multi-floored?  Is that the previous floor you see beneath the grate?  That would be a pretty awesome effect, especially with a bit o' parallax thrown in!  :D

Are all the floors like that?  It seems a bit colorless and bland.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2013, 06:28:45 am »
Each mission is a single floor; think of each mission in general as being a single floor of a roguelike. That's the analogy.

As for the literal floor graphics, it varies heavily. Check out the sub floor details, they are pretty awesome. Each floor so far has two levels of depth to them, which looks pretty stunning at full res. the darkness/blandness of the floors varies, although with them being somewhat washed out and dark and bland the game looks the best. Why? Because then the foreground pops and looks incredibly bright and amazing. You can't see the headlights when the floor is too bright. We do have some more colorful ones, for the sake of variety, though. Each floor has a very different feel to it.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline mrhanman

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 764
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2013, 11:54:14 am »
The detail in the floor is great!  It was mainly the over all greyness I was referring to.  Not  that it should be rainbow colored, or anything.  I'm sure it looks a lot better in motion and in full resolution.  My opinion of which I'd be happy to give at your earliest convenience. :P

As long as the floors vary from mission to mission, it's not a big deal.

Speaking of resolution, how high/low will the graphics scale?  What is the maximum and minimum recommended playing resolution?

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #10 on: August 30, 2013, 12:42:35 pm »
The detail in the floor is great!  It was mainly the over all greyness I was referring to.  Not  that it should be rainbow colored, or anything.  I'm sure it looks a lot better in motion and in full resolution.  My opinion of which I'd be happy to give at your earliest convenience. :P

As long as the floors vary from mission to mission, it's not a big deal.

Cool. :)

Speaking of resolution, how high/low will the graphics scale?  What is the maximum and minimum recommended playing resolution?

It works like AI War or Skyward, where you can zoom in or out, so your resolution can kind of be whatever.  The minimum supported is 1024 horizontal and 720 vertical, however (again like Skyward).  In terms of ideal resolution, playing bigger means you get a more detailed view of the bots (by being zoomed in relative to what you would be on a smaller resolution).

The interface does not scale (again as per Skyward or AI War), so playing too large for your monitor size is a bad idea.  But the font sizes are the same as in Skyward, so if you can play Skyward at X resolution, you can play Bionic at the same most likely.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Greywolf22

  • Jr. Member Mark II
  • **
  • Posts: 70
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2013, 07:57:54 pm »
Looking great!  Can't wait to get my hands on it  :)

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2013, 04:33:19 am »
Ok, here's a question;  looking at the screenshot, some of those bots are pointing at funky angles.   Is this game tile-based, or is it something more like Silent Storm, with turn-based yet free form movement?

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Mainframes screenshot.
« Reply #13 on: September 03, 2013, 06:50:01 am »
Ok, here's a question;  looking at the screenshot, some of those bots are pointing at funky angles.   Is this game tile-based, or is it something more like Silent Storm, with turn-based yet free form movement?

It's tile based, but enemies turn to face you at whatever angle that is, and strafe around.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!