Turn-based, squad level, tactical game implementation questions
by Ryan Neighbour · in Torque Game Engine · 05/30/2005 (3:10 am) · 3 replies
Hi,
I just bought the TGE about a week ago and have been throwing some ideas around for a game/demo. I've done some searching on the forums and have a few things cleared up but I still have a few questions.
1. I know that torque is capable of an isometric view, what I'd like to know is if anyone has successfully implemented peel-away-roofing (possibly upper floors as well) so that the player can see inside the structure when entered. (I have a few ideas about this but no idea if they'll work or be efficient: separate roof and structure objects, run over trigger at door and poof no more roof).
2. Does anyone know if it's possible to allow for nonlinear map progression at the whim of the player? ie, go into the cave (load new map), then go back to the village (by loading the old map) then going somehwere else? I read that torque uses triggers, but are they capable of such a thing?
3. Games like this usually involve action points and grid systems and so forth. I was thinking of using a graph (vertices and edges for those not familiar with graph theory) for movement where a vertex is where you can stand and edges are the links between these places (ie a an edge would go through a door but not a wall). This would make pathfinding very easy and allow for simple calculations involving action points but I don't know if torque'll let me do that without me first ripping my hair out.
I have a few other little things that I'm sure I can answer by searching a little harder on the forums so those are the big three for now. Essentially I'd like to make a Fallout/X-COM/Silent Storm type game (leaning wildly towards Fallout), but I'm not entirely certain what torque does well and what it doesn't do well (except for T2 related stuff).
Any and all suggestions anyone cam give me would be greatly appreciated.
Ryan
Edit: Almost forgot, the graphs would be stretched over the terrain and hopefully be fairly tight. If I didn't make any sense just let me know and I'll try to clear it up (very late, or early) here. I'm not looking for solutions, just like to know if anyone thinks this is possible (especially #3).
I just bought the TGE about a week ago and have been throwing some ideas around for a game/demo. I've done some searching on the forums and have a few things cleared up but I still have a few questions.
1. I know that torque is capable of an isometric view, what I'd like to know is if anyone has successfully implemented peel-away-roofing (possibly upper floors as well) so that the player can see inside the structure when entered. (I have a few ideas about this but no idea if they'll work or be efficient: separate roof and structure objects, run over trigger at door and poof no more roof).
2. Does anyone know if it's possible to allow for nonlinear map progression at the whim of the player? ie, go into the cave (load new map), then go back to the village (by loading the old map) then going somehwere else? I read that torque uses triggers, but are they capable of such a thing?
3. Games like this usually involve action points and grid systems and so forth. I was thinking of using a graph (vertices and edges for those not familiar with graph theory) for movement where a vertex is where you can stand and edges are the links between these places (ie a an edge would go through a door but not a wall). This would make pathfinding very easy and allow for simple calculations involving action points but I don't know if torque'll let me do that without me first ripping my hair out.
I have a few other little things that I'm sure I can answer by searching a little harder on the forums so those are the big three for now. Essentially I'd like to make a Fallout/X-COM/Silent Storm type game (leaning wildly towards Fallout), but I'm not entirely certain what torque does well and what it doesn't do well (except for T2 related stuff).
Any and all suggestions anyone cam give me would be greatly appreciated.
Ryan
Edit: Almost forgot, the graphs would be stretched over the terrain and hopefully be fairly tight. If I didn't make any sense just let me know and I'll try to clear it up (very late, or early) here. I'm not looking for solutions, just like to know if anyone thinks this is possible (especially #3).
About the author
Just started an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering during which I'll be investigating the use of Agent Based Models in the field of Epidemiology. Aside from that, trying to get my first indie project off the ground and having a blast doing it.
#2
A: Make the walls and roof of each building 2 seperate objects.
B: Each tick, cast a ray from the camera to each unit ( things you want the roof to reveal).
C: Each time that ray intersects a roof, fade it.
You might want to cast more than one ray to each unit... center-of-mass and their 'head' (or turret or whatever) for example.
05/31/2005 (8:35 am)
1) I'd think you could pull this off in script alone:A: Make the walls and roof of each building 2 seperate objects.
B: Each tick, cast a ray from the camera to each unit ( things you want the roof to reveal).
C: Each time that ray intersects a roof, fade it.
You might want to cast more than one ray to each unit... center-of-mass and their 'head' (or turret or whatever) for example.
#3
@Stephen: I'll look into dif's to see if I can figure something out. I'll definitely need to look at that AI pack when it's implemented. I figured I'd have to generate the grid with the mission editor but I had an idea about how to hard code a generator today. Once I'm more familiar with the engine I'll have to see if I can work something out.
@Mark: That's what I was thinking originally but I wasn't sure how to resolve the problem with not being able to see inside so that you can click inside to move the character there (am I rambling mindlessly again?)
An idea I had for the roof problem was (hopefully) quite simple. Create levels where the ground and ground floors are level 1. then second stories are level 2, and third floor is level 3 and so forth. Have a button in the gui to change the level and if a floor (roofs would be level +1 more than the floor they are over) is not less than or equal to the selected level it isn't rendered. Don't know how efficient that would be though. I was thinking of having smallish (for torque anyway) maps so I don't think it would be a HUGE problem... I'll have to see.
hmmm... I wonder if portals could maybe help with efficiency (again, really a n008 to torque so I'll have to figure out how portals actually work first).
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll let you know if I get anything working.
05/31/2005 (9:31 pm)
Thanks for the replies!@Stephen: I'll look into dif's to see if I can figure something out. I'll definitely need to look at that AI pack when it's implemented. I figured I'd have to generate the grid with the mission editor but I had an idea about how to hard code a generator today. Once I'm more familiar with the engine I'll have to see if I can work something out.
@Mark: That's what I was thinking originally but I wasn't sure how to resolve the problem with not being able to see inside so that you can click inside to move the character there (am I rambling mindlessly again?)
An idea I had for the roof problem was (hopefully) quite simple. Create levels where the ground and ground floors are level 1. then second stories are level 2, and third floor is level 3 and so forth. Have a button in the gui to change the level and if a floor (roofs would be level +1 more than the floor they are over) is not less than or equal to the selected level it isn't rendered. Don't know how efficient that would be though. I was thinking of having smallish (for torque anyway) maps so I don't think it would be a HUGE problem... I'll have to see.
hmmm... I wonder if portals could maybe help with efficiency (again, really a n008 to torque so I'll have to figure out how portals actually work first).
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll let you know if I get anything working.
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
2) Anything is Possible(tm)! You would just need to make sure you had triggers to handle loading new maps at each appropriate point, and make sure you save off (memory is fine) the appropriate game state variables during the ending of the first mission and the loading of the second. Should even be able to do most if not all of it in TorqueScript.
3) There have been several implementations of nav grids for both AI and specifically pathfinding implemented, including the AI Pack that is being worked on. As with any nav grid implementation there are always issues to overcome, but it's absolutely feasible with a well thought out and implemented generation algorithm.