Monday, April 22, 2013
Summary
YES!!! It was such a good day
Playtesting has been even more fun that I ever imagined. I'm already having loads of fun with this thing, and I honestly wasn't expecting that to happen yet at this stage. It's a very weird feeling for me...because when I'm coding, I usually just code a feature, verify that it works, and move on. I never actually play long enough to start having fun, so I guess I just assume that the game isn't fun yet. But that's not true
I just needed to spend some time playing it!
But I didn't just play today...it's absurd how many features I implemented. Strange, because I usually think I'm pretty efficient and productive when it comes to implementing things, but today just felt like another level. It was because my gameplay was driving the implementation - I would pause and think, huh, you know, I'd really like to be able to do this right now - and then I'd go implement that. I guess it's a more effective way to work, because you're excited to implement something so that you can have even more fun. Truly a great feedback loop
Most of what I implemented today was relevant to fleet mechanics, since I finally started getting wealthy enough to maintain a fleet. So...what did I do? Let's see...where to begin. I started off by rewriting the combat AI (again), to make the attack patterns more "fun." The previous circle-the-attacker-at-maximal-range was good...too good. It's extremely effective, but it's not fun. You end up chasing down fighters forever because you can't hit them and they're smart enough to stay at long range and keep pulling a heavy circular motion, which makes targeting near impossible. I had to add some variety (I guess, in a way, you could call them "mistakes") so as to make combat fun an interesting. I then made following AI a lot smarter. Like, a LOT smarter. Collision avoidance is really good now, and the AI is also smart enough to use cruise mode when they need to catch up or need to go to somewhere far off, and also smart enough to dock / undock alongside you. So if you dock at a station and the AI is following you, they will dock too, and likewise for undocking. Nice touch
I also implemented a "patrol" command when I realized that I didn't want to have to issue an attack order for every mission that I took up. Patrol just tells a ship to roam around the region and attack anything that's hostile to you, as you would expect. The result is that you can keep a bunch of ships patrolling outside the station, and as soon as you accept a mission and the hostiles show up on radar, the ships will break and go attack. You can then go out and join them in battle if you like, or just hang back and watch them dominate from afar (hey, I've used that phrase before..it's exactly what I said in the KS video! See! Promises are coming true already!!) Once they've wiped the hostiles clean, they'll go right on back to patrolling. I love not having to issue orders, and just watching my ships go do their job
It's also incredibly exciting to fly into battle with them, especially if you've got some big ships!
Speaking of big ships, I worked my way up to my first frigate today
It is really a rewarding experience getting to buy a big ship, since you've got to work hard for a while to be able to afford it. But seeing it in action is just...awesome. I decked mine out with the best guns I could find, four of the best shields I could fine (!!!! yes, FOUR shields on my frigate
), and some really thick armor. The thing is unstoppable! I very much enjoy watching it lay waste to other, less-lavishly-equipped enemy frigates.
Oh, and then I decided that I wanted to be able to name my ships, so I went ahead and implemented asset naming. Just a nice little touch I think. I named my frigate "Vivec" after a certain deity in a certain favorite game of mine
Even though fleet combat is still very simple, it's surprisingly engaging. I purchased a bunch of smaller ships to escort good old Vivec, mainly for aesthetics (they really can't help him much..but it's fun to see them buzzing around). Building a simple formation is as simple as telling them to follow the lead ship, and then setting the lead ship to patrol or attack or whatever. The result is simple but effective...you get the classic "escort" look, but as soon as the escorts get in range of an enemy, they will help out. They don't break formation yet, but that should be easy enough to figure out later. Watching Vivec and his little helpers make the system safe for travelers has brought me several hours of fun so far
Well, I'm happy to say, this thing is about done! I think the last thing I want to do is implement mission cancellation, just in case you get in over your head and don't want to reload. Should be a simple thing. Then I'll play a little bit more, probably work up to a few more frigates (Almalexia, Sotha Sil?
) just for fun..and then...well, you know the rest!!!
PS ~ Can you tell I'm excited today
PPS ~ LTP is also turning out to be nice and stable, for which I am really grateful. Every crash that I encountered today could be explained easily, and I was able to fix them all. So there are no outstanding instabilities that I know of, although I'll certainly keep hunting.
Hour Tally
Business: 0.08
Coding: 9.77
Composing: 0.07
Internet: 0.96
Testing: 4.85
Thinking: 0.19
Total Logged Time: 15.92