Why am I only finding out about this now? Good map. Still is the system multicastable? How much does it lag does it make with larger tracks? For the movable pieces of track, do you use triggers or data?
Currently the system is not multicastable but I will be adding that functionality as I have planned some puzzles with multiple train cars. This will not be difficult as the motion equations were the bulk of the work. This should also not cause lag as the periodic function which defines train motion essentially only has to move one actor per iteration; the rest of the function is calculating and defining points. Adding multiple cars or even a car per player in a 12-player map should still amount to moving a very small number of actors.
What do you mean by, "does it make with larger tracks?" As in the other 8 track pieces? (The next version will have those). Or do you mean does it allow you to place a massive monorail on your map? (In a city or something). Currently there is one size and I haven't really thought about including more options. However, I think this is an interesting idea; in future versions I intend to further generalize and simply the motion equations which would make a change of this sort trivial. Already I have a speed parameter that is alterable by changing one variable, so ideally yes, I would like to have as many options as possible.
One thing about sizing, however, is that while you could customize the scaling to however you'd like it, you'd still have scale and place the track pieces manually. Thus, either you'd have to know what you were doing with that, or I could include possibly 3 set sizes to play around with.
Oh, and the movable pieces of track use triggers that replace units rather than data that changes unit facing. However, now that you mention it, I think that having the trigger detect facing and altering the motion equations based on that parameter would let me simplify things further, so I will play around with that.
I'm not sure whether people still remember this project, but I do seem to get the occasional comment bemoaning my failure to update it. In any case, I've finally returned to it after almost a year and a half and I just wanted to announce that I will be releasing v1.03 at some point in the next few days. This corrects the model issue that seemed to cropped up with later patches, and more importantly I've included the other 8 track pieces as well (with a fairly good parametric motion approximation - a bit tricky as the "slow bend" tracks don't seem to be as nicely describable with trig functions). What that means for you: Any track creatable with the monorail doodads will now be playable in the train system.
Also, since I essentially don't have time to map in any serious fashion, I thought that I'd release an independent set of puzzles based on this system as a sort of minigame. This should be completed fairly soon as well, since most of the difficult coding is already done. Don't worry - there will be a number of added gameplay components to spice things up, but basically I don't intend to embed this in any larger maps for the time being. Of course, others are free to use the train system in their maps, as ever, so long as they give credit. Thanks, and keep an eye out for the update.
Okay, so the only issue I've been having with this is that the blur effect seems to stop animating after around a minute. I noticed that this doesn't happen in the example map you posted, and I could probably work around it by having the unit replaced every 30 seconds or so... Am I missing something in the data editor, though, that would keep the animation refreshed?
Looks great. I feel like this could catch on even among the masses - the fact that you have all of the concepts fleshed out as simple and effective gameplay features will probably help the most in that respect - but applause for the cute concept as well.
Um, yea! Feel free to take the idea and run with it. I will warn you, though, that, in order to get the right camera angle on the planet, you will end up with the doodads looking NOT like a flat screen because of the perspective from the camera pitch (instead it'll look like you're looking at a bunch of tiles on the ground at an angle because the "top" will have a wider field of view than the "bottom." Now that I think about it, that problem may be solvable just by changing the field of view (haven't really experimented with that), but, anyway, what I did instead was, I triggered the entire screen creation and changed the pitch and height of each doodad according to its position (using loops, obviously). Thus, the entire screen is actually raised and slanted to be orthogonal to the camera, so that you're "looking" at the screen head on. This is just in case you're looking to recreate something like this.
In this vein, this is a screenshot of something I had going for one of my maps that I've stopped working on for the moment. I had intended to flesh it out, too, with some of the landing lights and monitor doodads, but you get the idea. Basically I used one doodad (space platform hatch), combined with the Char tileset and some tricky camera work + hidden terrain (but you could do it with the Space Platform texture set, too, or whatever it's called), to emulate the view from a ship's bridge.
Cool -> I really like this last area, especially the use of the raised terrain, which is, again, quirky, but it works. The island part is my favorite as a kind of "base" area. Dunno if that's what you were going for.
I think zifoon is paraphrasing very well some of the general arguments for intellectual property protection (and the ones that form the basis for current intellectual property laws). I do think, though, that the people who are saying, "it just draws more attention to FF13," are making a good point as well, and it is interesting to note that societies in the past have successfully economized cultural capital on almost the sole basis of copying and duplication alone (be it as either homage or satire). Looking at the so-called "Eastern" cultural and literary traditions prior to the 20th century is in fact a very good example of this.
So, I respect Square Enix's right to their intellectual property and the argument zifoon makes for it (which also happens to be the side the law agrees with), but I also agree that, from an ethical standpoint, there is nothing that can be considered "stealing" about this project in the sense that (1) as zifoon said, a bad fan remake is often an amateur attempt and anyone who knows the game would not even consider it as resembling the original and (2) a good fan remake, such as this one, is something that players will appreciate as a wonderful creation of Team Pandora, yet at the same time also 100% a tribute to the original masterpiece. And yes, you can make zifoon's argument that this may out-do the original product and make for greater expectations from Square Enix, but let's be serious: in a genre (referring to video games as a whole) where 95% of the content already consists of third rate knock-offs or is created as a supplement to the latest superhero film... within such a genre, would a great remake really be such a bad thing?
Anyway, I'm with @Zek23: Go I've already watched someone play through most of FF13, and if I play it myself I'd rather play the PS3 game, assuming that I'm not going to want to play through both of them (which I know some people are planning to do). But if you guys make this project something like FF13 (and it's already looking really good already), hell yes I'm going to play it. So this may not work out so badly for you guys in the end. :)
note: Looks like Atl0s has already responded since I started writing this and said pretty much the same thing. So consider his the TLDR for mine :)
There are a number of different fields that all sound like they mean the same thing, and it gets rather complicated. If you're having trouble finding the Mover, make sure you have clicked "Show Table View" in the Data Editor (one of the buttons at the top) and, right next to it, "Show Advanced Values." It's just easiest to find things that way, (and you should be able to just input "Mover" into the Search field once advanced values are being shown).
So basically the three fields you're interested in are "Movement - Collide," "Movement - Mover," and "Movement - Plane Array." Changing the Collide to Flying (making sure that no Ground values are checked) will affect the collision as you said (unit to unit collision). Changing the Mover to Fly will let it cross cliffs and move like a flying unit etc. Changing the Plane Array to Flying is what will let attackers target it as an air unit. Beyond that, Radius and Separation Radius are two fields that affect its collision size if it's grounded (when it will be bumped aside to let units pass for allies, or what area it will block for enemies), and how far it will spread apart from other air units if it's flying.
Anyway, I think that's all you need to know - it's pretty much just what I've figured out from fiddling around with units. There may be other fields you can tweak but that will get you started.
Wow, really nice demonstration, sir! Those may seem like pretty simple steps when you break it down like that, but you have no idea how helpful that is to a non-artist trying to better his terraining. Also, thanks for the insight as to the Char lava. I ended up not going through with that map, but it's good to know for the future! Cheers
I like your terraining style. I think it could be made to look a little nicer in places, and obviously it doesn't come close to some of the "terrain art" that you see showcased on sites like this. But it does have this quirky, rough-edged charm to it and I like your use of doodads. Sure, it's not super realistic but it has the balls to say, "Hey, this is a game; I know that this is supposed to be something like a forest; you know that this is supposed to be something like a forest; and this is how I'm going to terrain it: Deal with it!" So in short, ya, keep going with this, it looks like it'll be fun.
Ooo, blobs and crystals, and some barrels and boxes too! How is it that you answer like all of my questions lol.
If you guys know of any others, keep em coming. I believe that there are some model files that aren't used by "Models" as well, but that you can see in the Previewer, so if you've come across any of those that's even better!
0
Bump for Version 2.0 (finally)!
0
Currently the system is not multicastable but I will be adding that functionality as I have planned some puzzles with multiple train cars. This will not be difficult as the motion equations were the bulk of the work. This should also not cause lag as the periodic function which defines train motion essentially only has to move one actor per iteration; the rest of the function is calculating and defining points. Adding multiple cars or even a car per player in a 12-player map should still amount to moving a very small number of actors.
What do you mean by, "does it make with larger tracks?" As in the other 8 track pieces? (The next version will have those). Or do you mean does it allow you to place a massive monorail on your map? (In a city or something). Currently there is one size and I haven't really thought about including more options. However, I think this is an interesting idea; in future versions I intend to further generalize and simply the motion equations which would make a change of this sort trivial. Already I have a speed parameter that is alterable by changing one variable, so ideally yes, I would like to have as many options as possible.
One thing about sizing, however, is that while you could customize the scaling to however you'd like it, you'd still have scale and place the track pieces manually. Thus, either you'd have to know what you were doing with that, or I could include possibly 3 set sizes to play around with.
Oh, and the movable pieces of track use triggers that replace units rather than data that changes unit facing. However, now that you mention it, I think that having the trigger detect facing and altering the motion equations based on that parameter would let me simplify things further, so I will play around with that.
Thanks, lots of food for thought.
0
I'm not sure whether people still remember this project, but I do seem to get the occasional comment bemoaning my failure to update it. In any case, I've finally returned to it after almost a year and a half and I just wanted to announce that I will be releasing v1.03 at some point in the next few days. This corrects the model issue that seemed to cropped up with later patches, and more importantly I've included the other 8 track pieces as well (with a fairly good parametric motion approximation - a bit tricky as the "slow bend" tracks don't seem to be as nicely describable with trig functions). What that means for you: Any track creatable with the monorail doodads will now be playable in the train system.
Also, since I essentially don't have time to map in any serious fashion, I thought that I'd release an independent set of puzzles based on this system as a sort of minigame. This should be completed fairly soon as well, since most of the difficult coding is already done. Don't worry - there will be a number of added gameplay components to spice things up, but basically I don't intend to embed this in any larger maps for the time being. Of course, others are free to use the train system in their maps, as ever, so long as they give credit. Thanks, and keep an eye out for the update.
-The Hegemuffin
0
@Chiquihuite: Go
Okay, so the only issue I've been having with this is that the blur effect seems to stop animating after around a minute. I noticed that this doesn't happen in the example map you posted, and I could probably work around it by having the unit replaced every 30 seconds or so... Am I missing something in the data editor, though, that would keep the animation refreshed?
Thanks in advance!
0
@ZealNaga: Go
Looks great. I feel like this could catch on even among the masses - the fact that you have all of the concepts fleshed out as simple and effective gameplay features will probably help the most in that respect - but applause for the cute concept as well.
0
Great idea, easy to implement, and well explained. Thank you!
0
@Lennywing: Go
Um, yea! Feel free to take the idea and run with it. I will warn you, though, that, in order to get the right camera angle on the planet, you will end up with the doodads looking NOT like a flat screen because of the perspective from the camera pitch (instead it'll look like you're looking at a bunch of tiles on the ground at an angle because the "top" will have a wider field of view than the "bottom." Now that I think about it, that problem may be solvable just by changing the field of view (haven't really experimented with that), but, anyway, what I did instead was, I triggered the entire screen creation and changed the pitch and height of each doodad according to its position (using loops, obviously). Thus, the entire screen is actually raised and slanted to be orthogonal to the camera, so that you're "looking" at the screen head on. This is just in case you're looking to recreate something like this.
0
In this vein, this is a screenshot of something I had going for one of my maps that I've stopped working on for the moment. I had intended to flesh it out, too, with some of the landing lights and monitor doodads, but you get the idea. Basically I used one doodad (space platform hatch), combined with the Char tileset and some tricky camera work + hidden terrain (but you could do it with the Space Platform texture set, too, or whatever it's called), to emulate the view from a ship's bridge.
0
Cool -> I really like this last area, especially the use of the raised terrain, which is, again, quirky, but it works. The island part is my favorite as a kind of "base" area. Dunno if that's what you were going for.
0
@zifoon: Go
I think zifoon is paraphrasing very well some of the general arguments for intellectual property protection (and the ones that form the basis for current intellectual property laws). I do think, though, that the people who are saying, "it just draws more attention to FF13," are making a good point as well, and it is interesting to note that societies in the past have successfully economized cultural capital on almost the sole basis of copying and duplication alone (be it as either homage or satire). Looking at the so-called "Eastern" cultural and literary traditions prior to the 20th century is in fact a very good example of this.
So, I respect Square Enix's right to their intellectual property and the argument zifoon makes for it (which also happens to be the side the law agrees with), but I also agree that, from an ethical standpoint, there is nothing that can be considered "stealing" about this project in the sense that (1) as zifoon said, a bad fan remake is often an amateur attempt and anyone who knows the game would not even consider it as resembling the original and (2) a good fan remake, such as this one, is something that players will appreciate as a wonderful creation of Team Pandora, yet at the same time also 100% a tribute to the original masterpiece. And yes, you can make zifoon's argument that this may out-do the original product and make for greater expectations from Square Enix, but let's be serious: in a genre (referring to video games as a whole) where 95% of the content already consists of third rate knock-offs or is created as a supplement to the latest superhero film... within such a genre, would a great remake really be such a bad thing?
Anyway, I'm with @Zek23: Go I've already watched someone play through most of FF13, and if I play it myself I'd rather play the PS3 game, assuming that I'm not going to want to play through both of them (which I know some people are planning to do). But if you guys make this project something like FF13 (and it's already looking really good already), hell yes I'm going to play it. So this may not work out so badly for you guys in the end. :)
note: Looks like Atl0s has already responded since I started writing this and said pretty much the same thing. So consider his the TLDR for mine :)
0
@RurutheWiz: Go
There are a number of different fields that all sound like they mean the same thing, and it gets rather complicated. If you're having trouble finding the Mover, make sure you have clicked "Show Table View" in the Data Editor (one of the buttons at the top) and, right next to it, "Show Advanced Values." It's just easiest to find things that way, (and you should be able to just input "Mover" into the Search field once advanced values are being shown).
So basically the three fields you're interested in are "Movement - Collide," "Movement - Mover," and "Movement - Plane Array." Changing the Collide to Flying (making sure that no Ground values are checked) will affect the collision as you said (unit to unit collision). Changing the Mover to Fly will let it cross cliffs and move like a flying unit etc. Changing the Plane Array to Flying is what will let attackers target it as an air unit. Beyond that, Radius and Separation Radius are two fields that affect its collision size if it's grounded (when it will be bumped aside to let units pass for allies, or what area it will block for enemies), and how far it will spread apart from other air units if it's flying.
Anyway, I think that's all you need to know - it's pretty much just what I've figured out from fiddling around with units. There may be other fields you can tweak but that will get you started.
0
@TimeIbis: Go
Wow, really nice demonstration, sir! Those may seem like pretty simple steps when you break it down like that, but you have no idea how helpful that is to a non-artist trying to better his terraining. Also, thanks for the insight as to the Char lava. I ended up not going through with that map, but it's good to know for the future! Cheers
edit: @longarmz: Go
Heh, I like your take on the docking station, too.
0
I like your terraining style. I think it could be made to look a little nicer in places, and obviously it doesn't come close to some of the "terrain art" that you see showcased on sites like this. But it does have this quirky, rough-edged charm to it and I like your use of doodads. Sure, it's not super realistic but it has the balls to say, "Hey, this is a game; I know that this is supposed to be something like a forest; you know that this is supposed to be something like a forest; and this is how I'm going to terrain it: Deal with it!" So in short, ya, keep going with this, it looks like it'll be fun.
0
@RileyStarcraft: Go
Ooo, blobs and crystals, and some barrels and boxes too! How is it that you answer like all of my questions lol.
If you guys know of any others, keep em coming. I believe that there are some model files that aren't used by "Models" as well, but that you can see in the Previewer, so if you've come across any of those that's even better!
0
@WraithChaser: Go
Mm, good call, as a kind of generic "item" model? ( a la FF13 :) )
Sometimes I feel like I play the actual game so little that I'm still unfamiliar with even all the stock melee models. >.>