Naked War
Community Forums/Showcase/Naked War
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| Here are a couple of images from our upcoming game "Naked War". The game is just approaching playable stage, still a few months development left. The primary mode of play is via Email but a single player (vs. CPU) mode is planned too. Reaction from the first few testers has been encouraging. Planning a turn:  Execution:  |
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| Looks very interesting. How does the gameplay work, exactly? |
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| It's a turn based war game. You plan the turn by assigning up to 7 commands to each of your 4 units. The turn is emailed to your opponent then you get to see the turn played out. Your opponent opens an attachment which boots up the game and shows them your turn playback. He\She then responds. |
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| will there be a 'direct' network/ineternet support too? this game looks really interesting - and professional tho... any demo? oder vid? |
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| >will there be a 'direct' network/ineternet support too? I'm not sure. I don't like the idea of making someone sit there waiting for their opponent to complete their turn. Especially when emails only take seconds to send. No demo yet. |
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| Looks good. Are you just prototyping with Blitz or planning an actual release? |
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| Looks very pretty and polished! |
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| That looks and sounds really neat. |
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| >Looks good. Are you just prototyping with Blitz or >planning an actual release? Actual release. We hope to port over to Max eventually. |
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| Looks really good! Let us know if there's a demo / test version coming out. |
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| Looks great. |
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| That looks awsome man ! |
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| nice :) good to see some polished looking blitz games that may get finished :) |
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| I have to say.. the first blitz game that i want to play. I like it. .and at least for me it seems very original. Hopefully the tactics will be very well thought out. |
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| nice :D |
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| looks nice... I never play email games though |
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| Awesome! Looks great!! |
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| This looks radical. Of course I would expect nothing less from a veteran like John who has many many commercial/console titles to his name ;) The idea of using email is classic ... I think it will do really well. |
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| Looks extremely 'prettyfull!' Like the game play idea too! Can't wait to check this out and play it! |
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| Me likey! There's another project with the same game style here. Btw why "naked". Any naked tanks in game? :D |
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| Only naked people. |
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| First sticky balls and then naked people. Are you trying to tell us something John? ;) As usual, nice work. |
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| Yeah it's beaaautiful man... |
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| Yeah! A game I can play naked!!!! |
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| >I don't like the idea of making someone sit there waiting for their opponent to complete their turn. You could put a time limit on each turn so as to have a direct connection. |
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| The opponent would still be sitting waiting. I don't see what a direct connection adds at all. I think I'll stick with Email it works really well. |
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| Yeah, I think the email is a totally awesome idea. Nothing stinks worse than having to wait during a turn based game no matter how long you have to wait. |
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| I don't like the idea of making someone sit there waiting for their opponent to complete their turn. But... if it's via email... And someone wants to play a game with a buddy... Then they have to wait even longer for emails to get sent, opened, replied to, etc etc. I don't see the logic behind not wanting to make people wait, and yet making them wait longer. There's a game by Matrix Games (can't remember which one) that would have been a great game if it hadn't done something very much like this. Their approach was to upload the turn to a server and the opponent would then download it (or log in later and download it). But since it was unbearably slow to play that way myself and my buddy that forked out cash for it set it on the shelf and haven't looked at it since. And I hate to say it but I won't buy another game like that. So here's a formal request... Add direct connection network support. :) |
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| > >But... if it's via email... And someone wants to play a >game with a buddy... Then they have to wait even longer >for emails to get sent, opened, replied to, etc etc. That takes seconds. So far all the testers have loved the system. I don't see any point in implementing a new system which adds nothing but a boring wait. Naked War is designed as a play-by-email game and it works very well. |
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| A boring wait? direct connect would allow you to just stay in the window and not have to open up an email and run the attachment, a much more boring monotonus task. Still leave in the email thing, for sure, it might be useful for people wanting to play just a little every day, but I can imagine it getting really annoiying when you really want to see whats going to happen next and you have to wait for your buddy to check his email. I wouldn't buy it anyway, but if i was, it'd need the ability to connect to another comp. nice gfx though. |
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| One thing you could add with direct connect is a chat window---so you can taunt and tease your opponent while you're waiting for them to make their move. |
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| What bot builder said... You say it takes seconds. But you actually have to CHECK for your email... send it... yadda yadda. ON TOP OF TAKING YOUR TURN. With direct connect, you end your turn... That's it. Other player starts his. And as barliesasdqueasd said... You don't get the fun of taunting your opponent while he's making his turn. I saw the email game thing as interesting in the early nineties when direct connect games were few and far between. But now it's just a pain in the arse unless you are looking for a game that your opponent doesn't mind if it takes a day or two to play. If you don't want to add it, then obviously it's your choice. But imho it's the wrong choice. Leave email in, but add direct connect. Do it and I promise I'll buy it. Just on principle. :) |
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| I think you'll need to play the game to understand how it works. Direct Connect would add nothing. Yesterday I had about 6 games on the go simultaneously with various testers. This was at the same time as working. Everyone had fun, no pointless waiting around and it was still possible to get some work done. With Email you can play almost live and complete a game in minutes, or a game can take place over hours, days, weeks. Everyone plays at their own convenience. This is not a game you sit down to play for an hour or so; it's a game that integrates neatly into normal computer use. Responding to a turn can take as little as 30 seconds or perhaps a couple of minutes if you are the more thoughtful type. The way most people will (hopefully) discover this game is by receiving an email challenge from a friend. If they enjoy the experience then they may buy the full version which will allow them to send challenges to their friends. |
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| What I would do for a network version is all players take thier move and then press on a button which sends thier turn to everyone else. Once all turns have been received then its played out. I plan to do this for the next version of WarZone (Space Combat) so you dont know whats happening until the turn is played out and it makes it MUCH more tactical IMHO. |
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| That isn't really turn based is it though? If everyone makes a move simultaneously. |
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| Laser Squad Nemesis is a great example of a play-by-email game that works well - it's also highly popular. |
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| Looks great! |
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| I can remember playing e-mail penalty shoot out with some mates so e-mail battles sound like quite an amusing idea. Besides if you wanted to play a LAN or Inter real time strategy game, there's plenty of them already on the market. |
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| Looks GREAT! Who did your graphics? Can't comment on the gameplay ofcourse. Will there be a demo? |
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| Graphics are by my brother Ste. We've been working together for 20years or so. From now on our games will be credited to "The Pickford Brothers"  We are also setting up an independant publisher: Zee Three, specialising in new original titles (no breakout clones etc.). The whole thing will be launched as soon as we have something to sell. Naked is our main game but we have a smaller title which is likely to be finished first. Yes there will be a demo. The demo will also be a 'client' version of the email game so anyone with the full version can challenge friends via email even if they don't own the game. Map data is tiny (<4k for a big map) which means each turn can send the entire map. One advantage of this is you can design/modify your own maps and still challenge a friend without worrying if they have the map. The map pictured above is <1k when compressed. |
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| Real nice graphic design, your bro did a great job :) Looking forward to trying the demo. |
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| Good luck with it, I just hope guys like you can inject some life back into the games market. |
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| Ah, I 'know' STE. He made cool stuff on the c64... :) |
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| Eh?...Not Zed Three? |
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| looks very good indeEd :] - infact..probably the best looking blitz game ive seen - yet... goodluck... |
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| >Eh?...Not Zed Three? When our old studio was closed by Warthog they made us sign an agreement not to use the words 'zed' or 'two' in any future venture. So it's Zee Three. |
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| Ah...Bummer! The game looks good BTW, but I guess you knew that already. ;o) Good luck with it. |
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| Very nice, polished and professional. I find it - just my personal opinion - a bit confusing, but I guess it's a matter of playing it for a while to get accustomized. Again, impressive. Sergio. |
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| Well I've been testing on my five year old daughter and six year old niece, so don't worry it isn't confusing to play. In the first screenshot Ste was holding down SPACE which forces the game to show the planned route\attacks of all 4 units at once. That was just to make the screenshot look good. In practice the game only shows a quarter of the information and its quite clear. Useablity and clarity are aspects I've taken very seriously as a game with 4 units moving simultaneously could easly become confusing. Our aim is to make a game that is transparent to play without any instructions. I nice feature of the turn exectution is that you have VCR controls at the bottom of the screen. You can pause\play but also access fast-forward and slow-mo (these also affect sounds). The button on the right 'rewinds' to the start of the turn so you can play it over as many times as you like. I also plan to add various camera modes and controls allowing more choice over how the action is viewed. So even playing back your opponents turn isn't an entirely passive experience. My favourite game feature, which I haven't mentioned on here, is the ablity to record sound samples and add them to any command you like. Just before launching a missile you can add "eat this sucker" or whatever. The sound will be added to the turn file and replayed at the appropriate point on your opponents PC. This feature is a lot of fun. |
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| looks great But I don't understand the real use of mail for a straight forward game. You say you have 4 units at once so a turn takes seconds ... if it was something like panzer general etc with 50-200 units, it would be something different as a turn takes up to 20mins (which is why games like M.A.X. 2 introduced the system of simultanious turns if users want to use it). But for a 10-20s turn using 2-5mins to get and proceed the turn is quite annoying if you want to fight your mate. And then there is another problem: How to play in LAN without internet? |
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| It's an email game. I hadn't thought much about direct connection before this thread but now I'm sure I don't need it. I don't plan to support LAN either. A turn-based game with a realtime connection requires one particpant to be idle 50% of the time. That's not something I want to force on players. The joy of using email that that turns arrive by themselves at any time. There's no pressure to respond until you are ready. I think its a great system and the feedback from testers confirms this. If I do a realtime multiplayer game then will support direct links. |
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| > Warthog they made us sign an agreement not to > use the words 'zed' or 'two' in any future venture. Doh!. How petty is that? Now I see why Zee Three is so appropriate ;) > I also plan to add various camera modes and > controls allowing more choice over how the > action is viewed. So even playing back your > opponents turn isn't an entirely passive experience. It sounds quite a lot like Advance Wars. John, have you ever played Front Mission 3 on the PS1? Now that turn based game had inspirational camera angles in it's day to relay the action. |
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| The 'zed' and 'two' bit was pretty funny. Didn't they think we might go for 'three' anyway? Yes Advance Wars is certainly an inspiration. Although the game has some key differences; you always have 4 units and they can't be actually killed. No I haven't played any Front Mission games although someone else made the comparison recently. |
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| Heh. I'm sure they'll unimpressed when they hear of your new name. Here's a snippet I just ripped from my Front Mission 3 disk just now. http://enaysoft.co.uk/parp/fm3.avi Combat bits from the intro, Requires DivX. Hard to believe that the game is 6 years old now. Where does the time go? :/ |
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Here's a shot from the built-in level editor: It's very similar to a 2D tile editor except you can alter the height of tiles, change the way they slope and create suspended tiles for bridges. Texturing is simply a matter of selecting one of the (currently 8) terrain types. Road tiles are chosen automatically depending on the context - you just say 'road' and the editor does the tedious work. Some terrains blend into each other and the engine generates a unique blended texture for each situation. I plan to expand this to allow a larger range of source textures at some point. |
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| Editing at 191.0 fps.... luvly |
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| Great work, I'm really impressed. I like the email approach too, it really fits in with the modern lives of busy people - even if being 'busy' just means browsing the net or chatting online, but also people who are working on projects can take a quick break to take their moves. Very cool. |
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| A turn-based game with a realtime connection requires one particpant to be idle 50% of the time. That's not something I want to force on players. Well, it seems to work fine on The Zone... The joy of using email that that turns arrive by themselves at any time. There's no pressure to respond until you are ready. I think its a great system and the feedback from testers confirms this. I totally agree, but if two guys want to play a speedier game, then why not let them? Having the ability to 'chat' between turns add A LOT to the game. Just allow it to be played both ways. |
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| It's not a matter of 'just allowing' something, it's a matter of spending a lot of time developing a new feature. A feature that I believe adds nothing to the experience - in fact I think it would be negative and reflect badly on the game. I've spent my entire career making games - interactive entertainment - and I'm not about to make something which requires one player to sit and do nothing for minutes at a time whilst hogging the majority of CPU cycles. And I'm not going to waste time writing a chat program when MS messenger already exists. |
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| I don't understand why some people can't just accept that JP is not trying to create every game in one - he's trying to create a particular type of game and frankly if I were him I'd say "if you don't like it then play something you do like". You wouldn't expect an realtime game (something like Command and Conquer) to include a play-by-email option, so why *must* JP's turn-based game include a direct-link option? I don't get it. |
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| hmmm...if he didnt want opinions he wouldnt have made this forum post, i do agree that having all that experience no doubt helps..lol what do i know..i jst think it looks nice :p |
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| I like the look of it alot. I also think that there's no reason to include a direct link option, JP has set out to make a specific kind of game for an area of the market that sets it away from triple A titles like C&C etc. I am sure there was a small wave of play-by-email games a while back, I think there was an X-Com game mentioned. I think the idea behind John's post was to show off a game that he's proud of and perhaps generate some interest from prospective customers :) |
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| I've no problem with people expressing opinions. This thread has at least made me properly consider - and reject - direct link-up. I'm surprised people have such strong opinions about adding a mode to game they haven't played. The way the game works doesn't lend itself quite as easily to direct link-up as some have suggested. Anyway, all will be revealed in time. |
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Here's a level one of the testers made with the level editor. |
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| Well - I maybe put it a bit strongly - I'm just surprised at the number of people who aren't getting what JP's trying to do. |
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| Really nice looking. Just scanning the screenshots it looks a little like a nicely done 3D version of Advance Wars or whatever it was called - fun little game but I only played it for a few hours. Nice work. M |
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| so when do we get the demo ? :) I love this idea. |
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| John, Looking fabulous! I can see this becoming a very popular game to play with your mates at work and especially over lunch time! What a fantastic idea! Originality and talent - what a mix! IPete2. |
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| Any chance of seeing those sexy quadratic equation in action? michael@... |
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| No problemo. Emailed you. Here's a little movie. This is several months old and the graphics have moved on a fair bit since this was made but it gives an idea of the interface etc. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.pickford2/turret.wmv |
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| Rah, that does look top quality! I love the animated interface. Can I ask how Zee Three are planning to launch, market and sell it? I suppose you must know more about that than most indie developers. |
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| We'll be selling through our own website and getting the word out any way we can. No master plan. No budget. |
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| Very pretty. Looks like it belongs on the gamecube. :) |
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| Heh! We were talking about that the other day. We've been making console games for so long that when we try to make a PC game it ends up looking like something for a Nintendo machine. Added a few bits today: Random Noise on rocky terrain.  And grass on 'rough' terrain.  |
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| HEHE I love the look of this. Are you going to release a source to this once it fully done, because this look like a perfect engine for a Transport Tycoon like game :P Anyways keep up the good work later. |
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| looks brilliant :) |
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| looking very professional now, are you going to release any single-surface code? |
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| i want to play this game now! |
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| Here are the beginning of a much-improved water system. Water will 'flow' as the landscape is deformed. Blowing a hole below the water table will create a lake etc. Also it makes the shore-lines a lot more organic looking. The 'sea' is now a circle surrounding the entire level.  The actual appearance of the water (the texture) is likely to change too. It's still early days with this. |
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| Is that a spherical map I see in yer latest screenshot? The grass looks very nice btw, and I do hope you change the water texture, it looks dull & blurred (imo), which doesnt fit in with the bright-clean look of the rest of the textures. Having fun optimizing this to run as well as possible on lower-end machines? >< Reminds me of an old game called Scorched Earth, and I like the play-by-email thing, though the progress doing it that way can be a bit slow (and cumbersome, unless you have a way to retrieve the e-mail directly from within the game) if you want to get a "quick" match over with. |
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| No the map is circular. Well the sea is, the underlying game map is rectangular. The water texture is stretched to twice the size of the other stuff which is why it looks blurry. Like I say, this is early days - I only started on the water this morning. >Having fun optimizing this to run as well as possible on >lower-end machines? I think I've gone as far as I can with that. Everyone seems to be getting a decent framerate now. Reminds me of an old game called Scorched Earth, and I like the play-by-email thing, though the progress doing it that way can be a bit slow (and cumbersome, unless you have a way to retrieve the e-mail directly from within the game) if you want to get a "quick" match over with. Nope, it uses an email client to receive turns. And it isn't slow or cumbersome. I've pretty much said all I can about that. |
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| How long does a turn take? |
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| Depends. You can take as long as you like planning the turn. You plan everything your four units do first then the whole lot is executed at once. Executing could take a up to a minute or two - haven't timed it. You can replay over and over with slow-mo and fastforward too. I'm planning a lot more controls so you can see the action in as many ways as possible - like a single units viewpoint. The video link above shows a very quick turn. Using one unit and one command. That's not unusual, you don't have to move all 4 units if you don't want to. |
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| I'm planning a lot more controls so you can see the action in as many ways as possible Will there be a shell/missile cam? :) Game looking very polished, btw. |
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| Very nice... I actually have to agree, turn based on e-mail is a nice idea. Like the idea of have a game you can play whilst doing something else. Will it allow you to send messages with your turn, like a taunt? That would be fun.. sending the end move to wipe out your opponent with a nice message along with it ;-) Like the gfx and interface. Very polished. Can this be played in windowed mode? Would be nice since you can just have it in a corner of your screen on low res 640x480, whilst doing something else... Another suggestion if I may?? Create a website if usernames who are willing to take on a challenge. People can register for free, then click on a list of players, maybe with a rank? The click sends a challenge? Would be good playing a game for a few days on and off. Not always possible to spend hours playing a online fest ;-)) I cannot wait for a demo. Mango |
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| If you made the water have a layer of reflection using blurred cube map i think it would be breathtaking. I like the rest of the graphics too, but not as much as everyone else praises them. I've seen as good in blitz. |
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| Looks really nice. I'm fine with the email thing - I play email chess and like it that way. One thing I do agree with though is the idea someone mentioned above of every player initiating a turn, and then they all play out at once. The reason is that I like the idea of having to issue 'conditional' orders - i.e. having to apportion a certain amount of action points to reconnaisance and then acting out certain orders based on what the units see. Although I appreciate that could get complicated, and also that it would be a totally different system to yours! I *do* really like the concept that the client program is free. That's a really clever move. |
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| Will it allow you to send messages with your turn, like a taunt? That would be fun.. sending the end move to wipe out your opponent with a nice message along with it ;-) Yes you can add text or voice samples to any command. I'm tinkering with the idea of allowing images (captured via webcam) Like the gfx and interface. Very polished. Can this be played in windowed mode? Would be nice since you can just have it in a corner of your screen on low res 640x480, whilst doing something else... Yep it runs windowed or full screen in any res from 640x480 upwards. There's no need to leave the game running between turns though, your email client does the work of informing you when a new turn arrives. Another suggestion if I may?? Create a website if usernames who are willing to take on a challenge. People can register for free, then click on a list of players, maybe with a rank? The click sends a challenge? Would be good playing a game for a few days on and off. We are thinking about doing something like that. Although of course your email addressbook already has a list of potential players... |
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| One thing I do agree with though is the idea someone mentioned above of every player initiating a turn, and then they all play out at once. The reason is that I like the idea of having to issue 'conditional' orders - i.e. having to apportion a certain amount of action points to reconnaisance and then acting out certain orders based on what the units see A perfectly good idea but also a totally different game to the one we are making. I think it would result in a slower game as nothing happens until both players have responded. In fact, I'm not quite sure how it would work. Both players would exchange emails and the result would be generated when? Simultaneously on both machines I suppose? |
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| If you made the water have a layer of reflection using blurred cube map i think it would be breathtaking. I've experimented with cube maps but they don't seem to work well with this game. I think the scale is all wrong, they work well on a big lake reflecting mountains but for a game like this you'd expect the reflections to match up with the scenery. Also I'd need to increase the polycount of the water a lot to create the sort of 'noise' needed to distort the cube map. I like the rest of the graphics too, but not as much as everyone else praises them. I've seen as good in blitz. Fair enough. Bear in mind these are functional, tile based graphics. The entire landscape is generated from a very small dataset (the biggest maps are currently less than 2K when compressed into a turn file). Far prettier results could be produced with arbitrary modelling but it wouldn't really be practical for this game. And I wouldn't be able to include a fully functional level editor. |
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| I like the level of attention to detail that you have. |
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| Yeah, I appreciate it would be a different game and difficult to implement - having said that I do remember the original laser squad having a feature where each unit had its allocation of action points, but if you elected to not use a certain amount of them, enough were left over to effect an ambush or defence if the enemy moved into its line of sight. For me anyway that was an important feature. But even that, actually, would be difficult to implement in an email game. Just chatting really - I think it looks great as it is and can't wait to play it. :) |
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| Graphically impressive - especially considering the fact that it is essentially tile-based. Looks even better in movement. Very appealing & interesting gameplay and the email aspect is the 'coup de grace' - being able to add sounds maybe even video adds an extra dimension. When released will surely contend for Best Blitz Title to-date ! |
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| Looking fantastic that John. A real inspiration. |
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| Here's an unedited video of me messing around in sandbox mode. It's a large Divx file (60+meg). It's warts-and-all, plenty of rough edges still in there (no character animation etc.) but you can get a decent idea how the interface works. http://s11.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=09UTAE03058M018HM27INOV2J5 Apparently the link will be live for 7 days or a 'limited' number of downloads. |
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| Here's a 10 minute video of me making a simple game map from scratch with the editor. Video quality is quite poor due to heavy compression. I'll be able to post better ones once we have some decent hosting sorted. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.pickford2/mapmake.wmv |
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| Here's a gameplay video. http://zee-3.com/video/big_divide_demo.wmv |
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| looks good so far, nice cartoon style |
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| Will there be a playable demo? Oh and 100th post! ;) |
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| and more screenies please... :) |
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| I love the fact that it will be turn based by email only. I have played Combat Mission, an old WW2 company level game which had both direct network and email play and it was always more fun to play by email. You could spend a few days thinking about what you were planning to do, study the map and what was going on before sending the turn to your opponent. I agree that direct network playing would add nothing to some games. By doing it as email based the players can play the game in their own time not having to find time when all the players are available. It also allows for people in different time zones to play each other as well. |
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| I like the entire concept, especially the email based play. But I do see one problem.. If I were to play forexample, i may only send out 1 or 2 turns per day and really stretch the game out for several weeks. Here arises the problem that I may forget what happened last. This could be easily remedied by having an option to replay the last couple turns before taking your current turn. THis would make the game ore playable in the longer games |
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| This could be easily remedied by having an option to replay the last couple turns before taking your current turn. Yes. That's on my list! The game will keep a log of all activity for each game so the player will be able to go back and play every turn (if they like). In practice, what's gone before isn't that big a deal as you have all the info you need by looking at the current state of the map but looking back over the game will be a nice feature. |
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| The game will keep a log of all activity for each game so the player will be able to go back and play every turn (if they like). How hackable does that become? Wouldn't want some smarty pants to change history to his/her benefit and then play it back and have the game not notice things have changed... |
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| How hackable does that become? History is just history, it won't affect the outcome of the game. Whenever you plan a turn, the entire game state is sent to your opponent before you even get to see the result yourself. Very simple and robust. |
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| I said it up top ... this game seems amazing. I think the graphics are great ... I like the colorful light hearted stuff though as most people probably know. I think it's especially cool that the levels are contained in small datasets and aren't pre-modeled. Is that how everything works, or just the terrain and water? |
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| Yes, the entire level is built from a very simple and compact dataset. Here's a small level: [map] Mazein Map 20 20 [sea level] 0.6666 [map height] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAADDAIBDDDCAAAA AADDDDDDEEIDDEEDDDAA AADDDDDDDDDDDDEEDAAA AADDDDDDDIIIIIIDDDAA AADDDDDDDIDDDDDDDDDA AAABDDDDDIDDDIDDECDC AADEDDDGDIDDDGDDEDDA AADEDDDGDDDDDGDDDDDA AADDIGGGDDDDDGDDDDDA AADDDDDGDDDDDGDDDEDA AAEDDDDGDDDDDGDDDDEA AADEDDDGDKDDDDDDDDDA AADDDDDGDKKKKKKKKDAA AAADDDDDDKDDDKDDDDAA AAADDDDDDKDDDDDDDAAA AADDEDDDDDDDDJDEDAAA AADDAADEDEDCBJDEEAAA AAAAAAAACAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA [map terrain] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAABBAHBBBBBAAAA AABBBBBBBCHBBBBBBBAA AABCCCCCBCCCCCCCBAAA AABCCCCCBHHHHHHCCBAA AABBCCCCCHCCCCCCCBBA AAACBCCCCHCCCHCCCBBA AABBCCCHCHCCBHCCBBBA AABCCCCHCCCCCHCCCBBA AABCHHHHCCCDCHCCBBBA AABCDCCHCBCBCHCCCBBA AABCCCCHBCCCCHCCBBBA AABCCBBHCHCCCCCCCBBA AABCCCBHCHHHHHHHHBAA AAACCBBCDHCCDHDCCBAA AAACCCCCCHCCCCCCCAAA AABBCCCCCCCCCHCCCAAA AABBAABBBBBBBHBBBAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA [map smooth] IIKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKIKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKIKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKIKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKIIIIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKIIIIIIIKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKKKKIKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKKKKIKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIKKK [map object] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAiAARAAAAAAAhAAA AAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAARAAAAARAAAAA AAAAAiAARAAAAARAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAARhAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAA AAAAAiRAAAAAAARAAAAA AAAAAARAAAAAAARAhAAA AAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAARRAAAhAAAA AAAAAAAAiJAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA As you can see it's stored like a simple INI file. All the curves and slope are extrapolated from that. Stuff like trees\grass etc are placed automatically. Unique textures are blended according to the juxtaposition of neigboring terrain types (sand\grass\forest\rock etc.) The map object layer allows a single 'object' per tile. Objects include units\pickups\vehicles etc. The file format is stored in the above way just to make it human readable (& tweakable if need be). But as you can imagine it is massively compressable. When packed into a turn file the larges map I have is less than 2K bytes but that expands in game to maybe 100,000 polys (I haven't counted). Of course there are many limitations to working this way but the key advantages are small data size (essential for the email system) and the fact that generating content is extremely easy. I think I mentioned before but the level featured in the attract mode video was built from scratch in a matter of minutes. My previous experience on full scale (PS2\GC\XBOX) games made me realise that content creation is huge bottleck and resource sink. Levels for my last game (Future Tactics) took at least 1 month to build in 3DS Max. |
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Oh the data above builds this simple level: |
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| Hi, well obviously there is a lot of time invested in this game but after what i've seen in the videos it's not my kind of game. Anyway wish you good luck with it and i like the tranparent stripes in the first screenshot as much as i dislike the water. Greetings, taumel |
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| Well, I'll definitely be playing ... hopefully someone emails me a challenge ;) |
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| Yeah, the development progress of this game is just terrific! I can't wait to get my hands on this game. Jeremy, sounds like a challenge! |
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