Tribulation Knights Dev Blog #2
by John E. Nelson · 02/23/2009 (7:52 pm) · 7 comments
Progress
You may not be able to see all of the progress being made in the new video, but there has been a lot. Hours and hours of work this month has paid off. I feel renewed by the results and very excited about finishing the game. I want to thank everyone for their great posted resources, and blogs, I read and use them daily.
Model Work
I currently have hundreds of models I have been purchasing for this game over the last two years. When the game was in a different engine (that remains unnamed) I had exported all the Max files to 3ds and Obj model formats. Ever since I moved to TGEA I have known I have a lot of conversions to do. Since last month I have been slowly converting all my prop models to the Torque DTS format. Of course everyone here who has done this knows that there are always a few issues that have to be taken care of. Mostly I had to rotate models before export, and to re-save the textures with the correct bit settings so they would appear in TGEA. Created some new normals, and creating new material.cs files for each of them.
NPC's
Over the years I have been buying characters, and now I am having to script all of them into Yack Pack scripts. This is when the written player interaction doc comes into play. There are literally 40+ NPC's to talk to so far and that is still increasing. These do not include the ones that will simply attack you when detected. It is a massive city environment so you can't keep talking to the same 5 people, that would be boring. So I have multiple versions of each of the characters, with different textures.
Lighting
I have been playing with the various lighting effects, and found a good setting for the bunkers, and the marketplace, with the exception of the night time city. It is still too dark so i will have to experiment with that a lot more. I need to have darkness but not absolute. This will take me a bit longer to get right. It is a bot frustrating currently so I will have to take a break from it and go on to another assignment, and come back later when I can use fresh eyes.
AI Attack and Combat
I spent some time looking at the resources that are published and tried versions in the game, but I do not have that working fully to my satisfaction yet. The code is needed so that the security bots and guards will attack the player if the security zones are breached. This will have to be completed in March, and is at the top of the list for next month's work load.
You may not be able to see all of the progress being made in the new video, but there has been a lot. Hours and hours of work this month has paid off. I feel renewed by the results and very excited about finishing the game. I want to thank everyone for their great posted resources, and blogs, I read and use them daily.
Model Work
I currently have hundreds of models I have been purchasing for this game over the last two years. When the game was in a different engine (that remains unnamed) I had exported all the Max files to 3ds and Obj model formats. Ever since I moved to TGEA I have known I have a lot of conversions to do. Since last month I have been slowly converting all my prop models to the Torque DTS format. Of course everyone here who has done this knows that there are always a few issues that have to be taken care of. Mostly I had to rotate models before export, and to re-save the textures with the correct bit settings so they would appear in TGEA. Created some new normals, and creating new material.cs files for each of them.
NPC's
Over the years I have been buying characters, and now I am having to script all of them into Yack Pack scripts. This is when the written player interaction doc comes into play. There are literally 40+ NPC's to talk to so far and that is still increasing. These do not include the ones that will simply attack you when detected. It is a massive city environment so you can't keep talking to the same 5 people, that would be boring. So I have multiple versions of each of the characters, with different textures.
Lighting
I have been playing with the various lighting effects, and found a good setting for the bunkers, and the marketplace, with the exception of the night time city. It is still too dark so i will have to experiment with that a lot more. I need to have darkness but not absolute. This will take me a bit longer to get right. It is a bot frustrating currently so I will have to take a break from it and go on to another assignment, and come back later when I can use fresh eyes.
AI Attack and Combat
I spent some time looking at the resources that are published and tried versions in the game, but I do not have that working fully to my satisfaction yet. The code is needed so that the security bots and guards will attack the player if the security zones are breached. This will have to be completed in March, and is at the top of the list for next month's work load.
About the author
An experienced producer of interactive media and games going back to the 90's.
#2
One thing you might want to look into is a stand/turn animation for your player. He looks a little funny just pivoting with two feet planted on the ground ;).
02/23/2009 (11:18 pm)
Wow, this is looking good. Reminds me a lot of Deus Ex for some reason. You've got some nice character animation going on, and that airship/blimp thingy looks pretty cool. Only thing is, it didn't look very mobile - maybe that was just the video.One thing you might want to look into is a stand/turn animation for your player. He looks a little funny just pivoting with two feet planted on the ground ;).
#3
02/24/2009 (10:33 am)
Looking great John, as others said, it reminds of Deus Ex but I think you had mentioned thats what you were going for anyway. It also reminds me of Omikron: The Nomad Soul. 
#4
02/24/2009 (10:33 am)
Looks fantastic, great work!
#5
@Matt, I think I still have the Omikron CD's somewhere, that was like 1999 right? Now I want to go put out a Windows 98 computer and play that game again.
@Steve, and Gareth, Thanks!
02/24/2009 (2:27 pm)
@Daniel, I am glad someone thinks it has the Deus Ex feel, that is something I am shooting for. Also yes the player needs some more animations. That bothers me too! I have it on my list of things to eventually get to, probably will have to contract that work to someone.@Matt, I think I still have the Omikron CD's somewhere, that was like 1999 right? Now I want to go put out a Windows 98 computer and play that game again.
@Steve, and Gareth, Thanks!
#7
thanks, max
12/28/2009 (7:29 am)
could someone point me in the direction of a blog about what this game is about? coz it sure has been catching my attention latly, but i'm not sure what it is about.thanks, max
Associate Steve Acaster
[YorkshireRifles.com]
I don't think anyone would ever be completely happy with their Ai (I know I ain't!) but keep going. You do seem to have a nice variation of models/elements.
Anyhow, keep up the good work, it's nice to see long term projects still going strong!