I'm finally ready to announce my biggest project yet:
Dogfighters
Dogfighters is a third person team action game with a focus on aerial combat. See the video below.
Everything shown and described is subject to change since this is a work in progress.
Features and design philosophies:
Purely physics based game mechanics, to maximize "emergent gameplay" and "awesome moments"
Mechanics based in reality, for intuitive player adaption
Mobility as a defense
Importance of survival; feeling of urgency
High levels of customization, with no arbitrary limits - but consequences for every decision
Emphasis on fun, fairness, and freedom
Fast paced and high skill ceiling; low skill floor
Many game details; don't have to understand everything to play effectively
No snowballing; should never have a reason to leave the game before it's over
Game modes:
Currently three modes: Tutorial Mode, Arcade Mode, and Showdown Mode
Arcade Mode
This is the preferred mode for beginners, comparable to games like Battlefield and mobas. Random vehicles are spawned in your base, a set amount of money is spent on upgrading them, and all the player has to do is choose one and hop in and start fighting.
The objective is to destroy the enemy Command Center. Each base is surrounded by a big blue shield, which destroys projectiles and forces enemies out. The only way to take down the shield is by destroying the enemy Bunker.
Bunkers are extremely tough and require siege tanks to reliably damage. They can shoot down your projectiles and zap your bullets before you can hit it. This way players can't snipe them from across the map, since there is no arbitrary range limit on projectiles. The only way to get in and damage a bunker is to attack it while it's preoccupied, by shooting at something else like a group of marauders. The best method, however, is to let your team's siege tank get in range and start laying on artillery. The siege tank's projectiles are the only projectiles impervious to bullets, so the bunker can't stop them.
Vehicles continue spawning whenever your team needs one. Their value is based on how long the game has been playing, which increases over time so you start with the simplest vehicles and progress to the high end ones with many weapons and upgrades. Whenever a new vehicle is spawned however, your team produces one less marauder for the next wave, or even the tank if there are no marauders left to sacrifice. So if your team wastes too many vehicles, it will struggle in the land battle.
Dying is not a big deal and you respawn 10 seconds later (with adjustments if teams are uneven). However, every death increases your respawn time by 1 second permanently. You can sometimes save your life by ejecting from your vehicle before it explodes.
Showdown Mode
This is the preferred mode for experts, who wish to have more control over their vehicle's loadout. It's more akin to Counterstrike because you build your vehicle from scratch and upgrade it however you want. And the objective is to eliminate the opposing team; when you die you don't respawn until the next round. Best of 9 rounds wins the game.
There are still marauders and siege tanks, but no Bunkers. In its place is a Power Facility, which can be captured by your team's ground forces. If your team owns both Power Facilities, then the enemy base's shield goes down and their Command Center is vulnerable. You can destroy the enemy's Command Center to win if the enemy players are hiding from you. These rounds are supposed to be finished much faster than Arcade mode, which is why there are multiple rounds.
Each successive round you are given more money to spend on your vehicle, and an option to rebuild your previous vehicle for the same price, and then continue to add on to it. This is useful because of the market simulation in this mode.
Every vehicle, weapon, or vehicle mod purchased will have some impact on its cost in the next round. Simulating supply and demand, the more of something you purchase/upgrade, the more it will cost in subsequent rounds. This helps to encourage variety in builds, as well as suppress imbalances by making overpowered things more expensive.
Tutorial Mode
This mode is triggered whenever there is only one player in the game. It gives you the option to go through a step-by-step tutorial to get used to the controls and features. Or you can skip the tutorial and just play in a sandbox with unlimited money and some dummy vehicles for you to test your weapons on.
Customization
Each vehicle has its own set of available weapons (there's room for up to 15, but not that many implemented yet) that you can buy, upgrade, modify, change hotkey, buy ammo, install/uninstall, and reorient. There is no arbitrary limit on weapons; you can have all of them installed at a time. The drawback is their weight. Newton's Second Law requires that Acceleration = Force / Mass. So as you can intuit, the more stuff you put on your vehicle the more sluggish it will be. You can counter this with engine upgrades to improve your movement Force, and for aircraft, weight reduction upgrades. Nothing is required, though, and the game won't save you from making stupid decisions. That's why Showdown Mode isn't for beginners.
Weapons have up to 5 Mods, as shown at the end of the video. These make drastic changes to the weapon's functionality, unlike basic upgrades which are incremental and consistent. Each mod has an upgrade level requirement, however. The last weapon mod is usually the best.
Combat
There's way too much to explain. Just play it and see!
Join me in channel Dogfighters on North America, where you can help me test and offer suggestions.
It's now published for public on North America! Try the tutorial and let me know what you think.
@SouLCarveRR: Go
It's based on the Magecraft physics, but with much added since then.
@zeldarules28: Go
Thanks for the front page!
I'm finally ready to announce my biggest project yet:
Dogfighters
Dogfighters is a third person team action game with a focus on aerial combat. See the video below.
Everything shown and described is subject to change since this is a work in progress.
Features and design philosophies:
Purely physics based game mechanics, to maximize "emergent gameplay" and "awesome moments"
Mechanics based in reality, for intuitive player adaption
Mobility as a defense
Importance of survival; feeling of urgency
High levels of customization, with no arbitrary limits - but consequences for every decision
Emphasis on fun, fairness, and freedom
Fast paced and high skill ceiling; low skill floor
Many game details; don't have to understand everything to play effectively
No snowballing; should never have a reason to leave the game before it's over
Game modes:
Currently three modes: Tutorial Mode, Arcade Mode, and Showdown Mode
Arcade Mode
This is the preferred mode for beginners, comparable to games like Battlefield and mobas. Random vehicles are spawned in your base, a set amount of money is spent on upgrading them, and all the player has to do is choose one and hop in and start fighting.
The objective is to destroy the enemy Command Center. Each base is surrounded by a big blue shield, which destroys projectiles and forces enemies out. The only way to take down the shield is by destroying the enemy Bunker.
Bunkers are extremely tough and require siege tanks to reliably damage. They can shoot down your projectiles and zap your bullets before you can hit it. This way players can't snipe them from across the map, since there is no arbitrary range limit on projectiles. The only way to get in and damage a bunker is to attack it while it's preoccupied, by shooting at something else like a group of marauders. The best method, however, is to let your team's siege tank get in range and start laying on artillery. The siege tank's projectiles are the only projectiles impervious to bullets, so the bunker can't stop them.
Vehicles continue spawning whenever your team needs one. Their value is based on how long the game has been playing, which increases over time so you start with the simplest vehicles and progress to the high end ones with many weapons and upgrades. Whenever a new vehicle is spawned however, your team produces one less marauder for the next wave, or even the tank if there are no marauders left to sacrifice. So if your team wastes too many vehicles, it will struggle in the land battle.
Dying is not a big deal and you respawn 10 seconds later (with adjustments if teams are uneven). However, every death increases your respawn time by 1 second permanently. You can sometimes save your life by ejecting from your vehicle before it explodes.
Showdown Mode
This is the preferred mode for experts, who wish to have more control over their vehicle's loadout. It's more akin to Counterstrike because you build your vehicle from scratch and upgrade it however you want. And the objective is to eliminate the opposing team; when you die you don't respawn until the next round. Best of 9 rounds wins the game.
There are still marauders and siege tanks, but no Bunkers. In its place is a Power Facility, which can be captured by your team's ground forces. If your team owns both Power Facilities, then the enemy base's shield goes down and their Command Center is vulnerable. You can destroy the enemy's Command Center to win if the enemy players are hiding from you. These rounds are supposed to be finished much faster than Arcade mode, which is why there are multiple rounds.
Each successive round you are given more money to spend on your vehicle, and an option to rebuild your previous vehicle for the same price, and then continue to add on to it. This is useful because of the market simulation in this mode.
Every vehicle, weapon, or vehicle mod purchased will have some impact on its cost in the next round. Simulating supply and demand, the more of something you purchase/upgrade, the more it will cost in subsequent rounds. This helps to encourage variety in builds, as well as suppress imbalances by making overpowered things more expensive.
Tutorial Mode
This mode is triggered whenever there is only one player in the game. It gives you the option to go through a step-by-step tutorial to get used to the controls and features. Or you can skip the tutorial and just play in a sandbox with unlimited money and some dummy vehicles for you to test your weapons on.
Customization
Each vehicle has its own set of available weapons (there's room for up to 15, but not that many implemented yet) that you can buy, upgrade, modify, change hotkey, buy ammo, install/uninstall, and reorient. There is no arbitrary limit on weapons; you can have all of them installed at a time. The drawback is their weight. Newton's Second Law requires that Acceleration = Force / Mass. So as you can intuit, the more stuff you put on your vehicle the more sluggish it will be. You can counter this with engine upgrades to improve your movement Force, and for aircraft, weight reduction upgrades. Nothing is required, though, and the game won't save you from making stupid decisions. That's why Showdown Mode isn't for beginners.
Weapons have up to 5 Mods, as shown at the end of the video. These make drastic changes to the weapon's functionality, unlike basic upgrades which are incremental and consistent. Each mod has an upgrade level requirement, however. The last weapon mod is usually the best.
Combat
There's way too much to explain. Just play it and see!
Join me in channel Dogfighters on North America, where you can help me test and offer suggestions.
It's now published for public on North America! Try the tutorial and let me know what you think.