Re: [projectx] design doc

[Ben C. <cro...@ne...>]

Nathaniel,

Well, as to the AI players not knowing others are allied, that's a good
thing.  You have to look at it from the human perspective -- if we had
four players, and two players decided to ally behind the others' backs,
that's a strategy.  Keeping alliances hidden can be part of the fun.  And,
with a little extra work, the AI could notice that two or more players
appear to be cooperating, and use that in its strategy.  I'm not quite
sure what #2 means ("Make it so the bots only attack the things the team
leader attacks").  Care to explain?  There *are* teams, mind you.  But
"alliances" (which is what I think you meant) will be strictly virtual
(i.e. set up by players via the chat system).  It adds an extra element of
strategy, and the two humans also get to use the ice rod (as opposed to
just one).

Removing the grunts would be fine with me, though I must say that coding
them will be quite easy (you just take the carrier code and remove the
weapon dropping stuff).  If somebody can think of something cool to do
with them, we'll keep them in -- otherwise, they're gone.

Yes, carriers will have to pack a punch, and have a somewhat large radius
(this could allow for some excitement on small levels -- if you only have
to get reasonably close to a carrier, and you don't see the one in front
of you, all of the sudden you get zapped).  I'm thinking about half the
screen, perhaps a bit less (this is just a rough estimate, mind you).
I.e. if you're half a screen away from a carrier, you'll get zapped.
Also, on multi-floor levels (i.e. where you have roofs and stairs and
such), sometimes you won't be able to see carriers until you get zapped.
And you'll know that a carrier is nearby when you see the flash.  This has
some really cool potential as to gameplay... ;)

What I was thinking for the dark level idea was that each player would
inherently carry a torch (i.e. it's always on the player), and that the
small circle of vision around the player would always remain the same (but
we could have, say, the torch wand light up areas).  So it's a constant
torch at a constant size (though the size could vary by character).  It
makes life a lot easier (and what would you do if a player didn't have a
torch?  Wandering around in total pitch dark isn't terribly fun... ;)).
The block wand, at least as I'm thinking of it, will create a block in
front of the player, at the nearest tile boundary (i.e. draw a vector out
from the player in his current direction and put the block at the first
clear tile).  We don't necessarily have to place them at tile boundaries,
though -- in fact, we shouldn't.  They'll be able to be all over the
place.  So, I suppose, we'll just have the block be placed in the closest
clear area to the player (in the direction he's facing).  Having it placed
at the mouse cursor would be a cool idea, but we don't want to ostracize
those who don't want to use a mouse (like yours truly <g>).  This input is
good, by the way.

Later,
Ben

-- 
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort 
and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
  -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, Nathaniel Newell wrote:

> One problem with the whole virtual team thing is that the AI players
> won't know their allied. Their are several solutions, 1) Remove them
> completely(crap) 2)Make it so the bots only attack the things the team
> leader attacks(could be interesting) 3) Make teams allowed(hard work,
> but it works).
> 
>     I don't think the grunts should be completely helpless. If they
> don't do anything then we shouldn't implement them. Although I do
> think they are a good idea we have an extremely short amount of time.
> 2 months anyone? If it were completely up to me, wich it's not, I
> would just say scrap um, although they could be cool are they worth
> it?
> 
>      Ben and I have talked a lot about the carriers and I am really
> pleased with the way they are turning out. We have to have them really
> pack a punch so people won't even want to be around them, so we can
> eliminate the whole follow the carrier cheat. I think it would be neat
> to have a standard amount of carriers for each map, i.e. 2 carriers
> for each map no matter the size. This would make larger maps more
> challenging and make smaller maps fast action. I don't think we should
> have places were weapons are set permanently. I think everything
> should be dropped by the carriers.
> 
>     I really like the dark level idea. Are we going to have players
> start with torches, or do the players have to pick them up? How will
> the block wand work? Will they appear in a set amount of distance?
> I.e. 50 pixels away? Or are we going to implement the mouse so they
> will just appear wherever the mouse is?
> 
> Just my thoughts,
>     Nathaniel
>