After a week of vacation, then a week of playing catch-up from my vacation, things are rolling along fairly smoothly with Trajectory again.
Eric Forhan has been busy with level design stuff, and even threw me a couple of new png’s for weapon particles – one of them looks AWSOME IMHO. Helps provide a little variety in the various weapons trails. Anyway – the levels are looking awsome! I’ve got enough now to start a beta test with, but, still have other tasks to complete before I can start the beta. Eric is also acting as a beta tester of sorts, and helps come up with improvements to how things work, etc. I’m used to working one man on games, so, it’s an interesting difference, and works pretty well!
Terrain Deformation is 50% working – I say 50% because I can do all sorts of stuff on the server side. What I did was create a new console function – deformterrain – and have the server call it. All it does is call the setheight method of the terraindata. Works cool on the server side. What I can’t figure out, however, is why calling setheight on the client side crashes the client instantly. Any ideas what I’m missing?
The game has shaped up pretty nicely – the playui is starting to look nice, and I’ve created a modified version of Matt Webster’s radar GUI. The modified version now handles two things – shows where players are using one png, and tracks incomming and outgoing weapons fire using a second png.Â
Aparently, I’m gonna have to break down and do all the modeling for Trajectory myself (*SHUDDER*) I had an applicant for the modeling position, but, he’s gotta handle real-world concerns like bills 🙂 (I understand that one completely! I pay out of percentage of project, not out of pocket – I can’t afford the latter at the moment.) That kinda sucks – Kevin’s work looks SHARP, and would have really enhanced the setting for the game, IMHO. Instead now I’ll have to depend on my meager modeling skills (unless someone steps up and wants to do the job!) Oh well…!
The mutators system I’ve setup for the game seems to work pretty nicely – getting ready to program some replacement weapons and such for the game. There’s already a dozen or so mutators in the game, ranging from bouncing weapons to turning on lighting for weapons. Minor stuff, though some of it makes interesting changes in the weapon. I’ve also got to start building the more major stuff – game startup modes, etc., which make a larger difference in how the game is played!
The game is way behind schedule, but, I’m not sure if I care – I’d rather it be right than rushed 🙂 However, that does mean that two other games are being pushed back schedule wise, which isn’t such a good thing. But then again – I don’t have anyone chomping at the bit for me to get them done (ok, MS taps me from time to time to see when I’m going to complete Jumpman: 2049, but, they ain’t pushing me very hard at the moment. And I’ve got some customers who keep emailin’ me askin’ when Gremlin Panic! is gonna be done, but, they understand that I work at a strange pace 😉
Eric Forhan  (Jul 08, 2002 at 13:32)
It’s quite a game, even in these early stages. 🙂
Perhaps someone would step up to the modelling plate if they knew that the game will be released in a month or two? 🙂
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr  (Jul 08, 2002 at 14:25) Â
Now, Eric – why would I go around telling people things like that 😉 Originally, the game was planned to be released already – however, feature creep happened. In this case, it wasn’t a Bad Thing. The game has quite a bit more to it because of that, but, I’ve put a cap on new features now, and am concentrating on finishing up what’s already in there instead of throwing entirely new sections of the game 😉
Matt Webster  (Jul 09, 2002 at 03:46)
One warning Davis. Don’t be using “a Bad Thing”, because I hear anyone even making a joke relating to Martha Stewart can end up in jail.
Heh, funny to see how she made $45,000 from her insider trade and might end up serving time because of it.
Sounds like a cool project, and glad to hear someone else working with the basic radar I made 🙂
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr  (Jul 10, 2002 at 08:32) Â
I’ve been using Bad Thing, usually with a (TM) since back in my BBS days. Same with Good Thing (TM) so I ain’t gonna let Martha Stewart connections get in my way (BIG GRIN)
I like the Radar – had a HELL of a time trying to figure out how one little piece of it worked though (me being dense, not bad programming on your part!) Thanks for contributing it in the first place 🙂 My implementation of it is probably a bit odd compaired to how you originally envisioned it being used.Â
When I get done with Trajectory, I plan on taking most of the stuff I developed for it and tossing it back in the comminity for others to play with. Do you have any problems with me tossing the modified radar out for people to play with? (All the semi-easy to integrate toys like Melv’s FXReplicator, your radar, skinnable controls, Melv’s FXLight, etc. is one of the reasons why I’m REALLY glad to have licensed Torque in the first place! 🙂
Next I’m gonna integrate your cool little model / skin selector, and hack around on it a bit 🙂