tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post1496051874242422300..comments2024-03-17T16:13:55.262-07:00Comments on Blobs in Games: Game Component: Spaceship editor, part 3Amithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12159325271882018300noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-16406513180477873842011-04-15T06:42:39.363-07:002011-04-15T06:42:39.363-07:00Idea for 'gameizing' this component:
- Wo...Idea for 'gameizing' this component:<br /><br />- World starts off with a fixed set of ships (hardcoded) controlled by the AI. These ships would be poorly designed.<br />- A metric is calculated that includes "total damage dealt to player" and "time survived".<br />- The metric is used to select the parents in a genetic algorithm.<br />- The chromosones would be used to control the AI and design individual ships.<br />- Enemies come in wave cycles; each wave with its own GA history and 'tendencies' (a further metric where the ship should gravitate to certain graph types).<br />- Enemies always do the same amount of damage.<br />- There are always the same number of enemies.<br /><br />Now the idea is that this would exploit any weaknesses in the player's ship; and the player himself. The game would have a natural difficulty progression as the GA optimizes the ships.jcdickinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03059168484410900320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-18827605896127377662009-02-10T07:48:00.000-08:002009-02-10T07:48:00.000-08:00"If you press A for 5 seconds and are now rotating..."If you press A for 5 seconds and are now rotating quickly, it takes 5 seconds to decelerate back to 0."<BR/>This is of course boring, but the problem begins with the notion of accelerating (as opposed to merely pressing the acceleration button) for 5 seconds.<BR/>The avionics of any starship would limit angular velocity (not to mention velocity) to reasonable amounts: the ship should reach the top angular speed (I suggest 5 to 60 rpm) in a fraction of a second (I suggest 1-3 animation frames), turn for a while and slow down equally quickly.<BR/>Regarding controls, the ship can stop spinning automatically when both buttons are released (suggested by the first anonymous) or keep spinning indefinitely, stop with a press of the opposite button, or start spinning in the opposite direction with a single press of the opposite button; the choice can be left to the user and/or made during tests.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11743958953032493295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-59517552723087547202009-02-01T08:49:00.000-08:002009-02-01T08:49:00.000-08:00Hi twifkak, thanks for the suggestion. There are ...Hi twifkak, thanks for the suggestion. There are two things I hope will work here. One is that the thruster calculation is based on how the direction you want to move differs from the direction you are going. So if you are still going east but you want to go north, I'm calculating what combination of thrusters will both stop the eastward motion AND make you start going north. The second is that the friction will slow your eastward motion. As you say, expert players will be able to make better turns than this but novice players can rely on the defaults to do what they want.Amithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12159325271882018300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-41185363228341884212009-02-01T02:04:00.000-08:002009-02-01T02:04:00.000-08:00Towards making it "fun," you might consider thinki...Towards making it "fun," you might consider thinking of the direction of the ship not in regards to the direction of the thrusters, but as the player's desired direction of motion. That is, if I'm going east, and I turn to face north, there will be some inertia, but I will eventually be going straight north, without having to compensate by turning a little further left. Expert players can learn to make sharper turns by overturning.Devinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15911239330255379726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-10825564249946247172009-01-30T19:49:00.000-08:002009-01-30T19:49:00.000-08:00Hi Darren,No, I hadn't thought of having a brake. ...Hi Darren,<BR/><BR/>No, I hadn't thought of having a brake. That might be worth a try!<BR/><BR/>I agree that the environment will matter. I had imagined you'd design a different ship for each environment you're in, or perhaps you'd adapt it over time. Perhaps I need to set up a few test environments for this prototype.Amithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12159325271882018300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-34846672048157113642009-01-30T00:07:00.000-08:002009-01-30T00:07:00.000-08:00Hey Amit,Dismissing 'realism' when it comes to gam...Hey Amit,<BR/>Dismissing 'realism' when it comes to game physics is always a good idea, just so long as the physics are self-consistent.<BR/>In regards to your friction problem, have you considered implementing a brake which the player can apply to -gradually- reduce all motion to zero. This could be in combination with the world friction. Never mind that spaceships should not be affected by friction, they can always be flying on a planet, or you could make the exact same game using boats or some other vehicle.<BR/><BR/>I think the importance of varied ship design will only really become clear when you know what environments they will be flying in. If the ships are racing on a circuit, perhaps as in Star Wars Phantom Menace, some circuits might favor high speed, others will favor tight cornering.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-28561142283999055102009-01-28T09:16:00.000-08:002009-01-28T09:16:00.000-08:00Anonymous: Yes, the ship automatically applies a t...Anonymous: Yes, the ship automatically applies a thruster to set velocity to zero. That's what I originally implemented and that's what wasn't that much fun. It was -cool- but not fun. If you press A for 5 seconds and are now rotating quickly, it takes 5 seconds to decelerate back to 0. I added friction so that (a) deceleration would be much faster than acceleration, (b) acceleration would not lead to unlimited velocity.Amithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12159325271882018300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-26134589845664239652009-01-28T02:46:00.000-08:002009-01-28T02:46:00.000-08:00Why do you need to introduce friction in a space g...Why do you need to introduce friction in a space game? You already have a ship that can use its thrusters to stop itself. Simply make it that when the users releases a both keys on an axis (W-S, Q-E, A-D) then the ship automatically applies a thruster to make the velocity in that axis 0. This will also make choosing between symmetrical/assymetrical thrusters important, because in one case you'll accelerate quickly but slow down slowly, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com