Author Topic: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron  (Read 19037 times)

Offline abal7

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #15 on: July 11, 2016, 08:14:57 am »
I truly hope this game works out for you Chris. It pains me sometimes to see hard work not get rewarded, and poor / shitty work rewarded. The recent CS:GO scandal really shed light on that for me. All your games have been unique and fun and I've had hundreds of hours of fun with them.

Offline x4000

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #16 on: July 11, 2016, 09:09:13 am »
I couldn't find it in the text (sorry that I didn't read it all, only the most important passages) but is the robot raptor in the pics gonna be a playable raptor type/unlockable skin or is htis an enemy. Like the robots attempt to counter the raptor with his own weapons.

I wouldn't really call it a raptor, although it is vaguely raptor-ish.  It's meant to be theropod-like, but more along the lines of a robot T-Rex.  It's an enemy, and not playable.

In terms of skins, we will be doing a completely new raptor model in general (it's already mostly rigged, but not animated and all the blend weights are not perfect yet).  Whether or not we keep the existing one is up in the air, but we probably will unless there's a reason not to (moveset complications, etc).

Also, since this is going on Steam first and will have a level editor: will you finally support Steam Workshop with this. I was happy that Starward Rogue had mod support and a level/room editor but was disappointed that you didn't include workshop for the Steam version.

I'm not a C++ programmer, and even worse when you're dealing with C++ it's something that has to compile on three freaking platforms at this point.  The C# bindings from Valve seem completely useless to me, as they [redacted because of NDA, just in case].  There is Steamworks.NET, but I haven't explored the later versions of that too much.  Earlier versions were buggy.

You really should consider it this time, makign a game modable or giving them level editors isn't enough anymore nowadays, people also demand an easy way to share their own designs. And a forum isn't really an easy way because you have to work your way through multiple threads and then download of a third person website which isn't always safe. Steam workshop gives customers an easy way to share their stuff and they don't have to worry where it comes from because everything runs through the Steam servers.

The purpose of the level editor, at core, isn't really mods -- for this game.  Rather, it's a tool for making core game content.  Rather than a bunch of workshop stuff, I'm looking more for people to submit things to us that we can build into the main game itself for everybody.  That's what has happened with Starward Rogue, for instance: you've never installed a mod for that because there aren't any, but you've played tons of player-created rooms, bosses, enemies, etc, without ever knowing it unless you checked the game credits.

My estimate is that Steam Workshop support would take 1-3 weeks of my time, which is a huuuuuge undertaking.  That's my pessimistic safe estimate, so it could be substantially faster, but still.  There would have to be a lot of excellent traction on the game for that to happen, and that would have to be something people would want more than whatever else I could do in that same amount of time, OR the game would have to be making enough that I could hire someone else to do it while I do other things.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #17 on: July 11, 2016, 09:13:54 am »
Part of the challenge will be keeping the rooms interesting and varied from a gameplay standpoint, but also having them make sense visually.  Cant be having an apartment building with huge rooms full of platforms and catwalks, now can we...

Fortunately apartment buildings have a variety of types of structures in them, heh.  But RUINED ones have even more.  The general halls and utility halls and stairwells and apartments all need to be pretty much focused on the aesthetics more than anything else, although tying into gameplay.  For instance, utility halls off of main halls that allow you a second way to get past some enemies.  That sort of thing.

But then where the larger and crazier arenas come in is with destruction of these things.  Basically taking a bunch of pieces of apartments all stacked together and smashed out in the middle, and you basically have this giant accidental courtyard full of rubble, with the edges of many apartments on each side in various shapes.  So that gets into a lot of freer design, because the rubble doesn't have to be sensible.

Having "machine-invaded parts" where part of the building has been consumed by robot machinery could also be a really cool thing, and is something I'm considering.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #18 on: July 11, 2016, 09:14:09 am »
I truly hope this game works out for you Chris. It pains me sometimes to see hard work not get rewarded, and poor / shitty work rewarded. The recent CS:GO scandal really shed light on that for me. All your games have been unique and fun and I've had hundreds of hours of fun with them.

Thank you!  I really hope so.
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Offline Misery

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #19 on: July 11, 2016, 09:46:06 am »
The purpose of the level editor, at core, isn't really mods -- for this game.  Rather, it's a tool for making core game content.  Rather than a bunch of workshop stuff, I'm looking more for people to submit things to us that we can build into the main game itself for everybody.  That's what has happened with Starward Rogue, for instance: you've never installed a mod for that because there aren't any, but you've played tons of player-created rooms, bosses, enemies, etc, without ever knowing it unless you checked the game credits.

Yeah, that did work out pretty well, for the most part.

You should write up a set of rules/guidelines and such for the room designs though, if you can.  Avoid the derp that happened with Starward, the bit that led to a patch with like 90 broken rooms fixed that could have been avoided if I'd thought to write up such a thing.

Offline x4000

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #20 on: July 11, 2016, 09:48:29 am »
Yep, I will do.
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #21 on: July 11, 2016, 10:19:19 am »
Cant be having an apartment building with huge rooms full of platforms and catwalks, now can we...

I dunno about you, but my house should have a catwalk.

Offline x4000

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #22 on: July 11, 2016, 10:21:42 am »
That's awesome. :)

The one looks like Cat-pachinko, though, haha.
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #23 on: July 11, 2016, 10:34:51 am »
That's awesome. :)

The one looks like Cat-pachinko, though, haha.

There's a couple people who've done that sort of thing. I was looking for a particular one, but couldn't find it (actual cross-the-room suspended walkway) or at least, not one with a cat on it so that the pun was readily visible.

Offline Logorouge

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2016, 08:43:44 pm »
[...] I'm looking more for people to submit things to us that we can build into the main game itself for everybody.  That's what has happened with Starward Rogue, for instance: you've never installed a mod for that because there aren't any, but you've played tons of player-created rooms, bosses, enemies, etc, without ever knowing it unless you checked the game credits.

Coming from Morrowind, that way of doing things was initially a bit of a culture shock for me. User-made content making it into the main game? That's so amazing! But also, the lack of mods just floating around, available to pick and choose, is kind of a bummer. The very permanent nature of mod additions to a save makes it very unlikely to go in that direction, even though I might still try to do it... I swear I was going somewhere with this post, but somewhere along the way I kinda lost my train of thought.  :-\

Offline Misery

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #25 on: July 11, 2016, 10:59:21 pm »
[...] I'm looking more for people to submit things to us that we can build into the main game itself for everybody.  That's what has happened with Starward Rogue, for instance: you've never installed a mod for that because there aren't any, but you've played tons of player-created rooms, bosses, enemies, etc, without ever knowing it unless you checked the game credits.

Coming from Morrowind, that way of doing things was initially a bit of a culture shock for me. User-made content making it into the main game? That's so amazing! But also, the lack of mods just floating around, available to pick and choose, is kind of a bummer. The very permanent nature of mod additions to a save makes it very unlikely to go in that direction, even though I might still try to do it... I swear I was going somewhere with this post, but somewhere along the way I kinda lost my train of thought.  :-\

Yeah, it was interesting, to say the least.  We didn't get any player-made bosses (not counting Ptarth's Invader, since he ended up on the Freaking Volunteers team), but many enemies are player-made (thus the very different design styles for some of them), and we got a TON of player-created rooms.  Seriously, a ton of those.  You can thank the testers for the game's large room variety, because those doing the actual development just didn't have much time to make those.  We had one specific person that was dedicated mostly to JUST making rooms, and indeed he made a very large number of them (and they were all very good, and needed no changes from me later on), but one person can only make so many, particularly when trying to ensure high quality with every one of them.

It was a very interesting process, the player submissions, but the big issue was quality checking the things, which frankly, I didn't do properly for the rooms, thus the issues later. My own fault entirely. It all ended up very good in the end though.

Hopefully it'll work out just as nicely with this game.   The more rooms this one can have, the more variety it'll get.  I'm interested to see what sorts of designs people come up with for this one, particularly considering it's 3D nature and the possibilities created by the actual gameplay mechanics.

Also interested to see what the new types of bots are like; so far, I've only seen the first three that everyone else has seen.

On a side note, how's that editor coming along, Chris?
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 11:04:07 pm by Misery »

Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #26 on: July 12, 2016, 08:53:07 am »
[...] I'm looking more for people to submit things to us that we can build into the main game itself for everybody.  That's what has happened with Starward Rogue, for instance: you've never installed a mod for that because there aren't any, but you've played tons of player-created rooms, bosses, enemies, etc, without ever knowing it unless you checked the game credits.

Coming from Morrowind, that way of doing things was initially a bit of a culture shock for me. User-made content making it into the main game? That's so amazing! But also, the lack of mods just floating around, available to pick and choose, is kind of a bummer. The very permanent nature of mod additions to a save makes it very unlikely to go in that direction, even though I might still try to do it... I swear I was going somewhere with this post, but somewhere along the way I kinda lost my train of thought.  :-\

Yeah, it was interesting, to say the least.  We didn't get any player-made bosses (not counting Ptarth's Invader, since he ended up on the Freaking Volunteers team), but many enemies are player-made (thus the very different design styles for some of them), and we got a TON of player-created rooms.  Seriously, a ton of those.  You can thank the testers for the game's large room variety, because those doing the actual development just didn't have much time to make those.  We had one specific person that was dedicated mostly to JUST making rooms, and indeed he made a very large number of them (and they were all very good, and needed no changes from me later on), but one person can only make so many, particularly when trying to ensure high quality with every one of them.

It was a very interesting process, the player submissions, but the big issue was quality checking the things, which frankly, I didn't do properly for the rooms, thus the issues later. My own fault entirely. It all ended up very good in the end though.

Hopefully it'll work out just as nicely with this game.   The more rooms this one can have, the more variety it'll get.  I'm interested to see what sorts of designs people come up with for this one, particularly considering it's 3D nature and the possibilities created by the actual gameplay mechanics.

Also interested to see what the new types of bots are like; so far, I've only seen the first three that everyone else has seen.

On a side note, how's that editor coming along, Chris?
makes me regret not taking you up on your offer and getting involved with the level creation process but I'm looking forward to doing stuff with this level editor.
c.r

Offline x4000

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #27 on: July 12, 2016, 08:56:40 am »
The editor is getting close. :)  I sent an email about it last night.  Should have it to you today.
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Offline mrhanman

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Re: Breaking News: Chris is a Grade A+ Moron
« Reply #28 on: July 13, 2016, 10:42:35 pm »
Have you started posting change logs anywhere yet?

Offline x4000

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