2007 Vids

[Thothie]

I dunno if ModDB takes videos, but here's some vids of the progress today.

Chain Lightning Video (11mb, WM9 standard):
http://www.thothie.com/msc/chain_lightning_test.avi

"Sheet lightning" maybe more accurate - but "chain" is to the, rather familiar, point. Bolts are client side, so they shouldn't lag too much - but all that simultaneous damage is another story...

More interesting (to me at least) - is this video of our nearly ready for prime time Ogre:

Ogre Arial Combat Video (21mb, WMV):
http://www.thothie.com/msc/ogre_test.wmv

As you can see, when the model actually has a leap animation - you can do a lot more than with the hip-hop orcs.

PS. I realize that's a Troll - but well, we already have Trolls that look like Ogre's, so I figure... Could also call it a Hobgoblin I guess... Whatever it is, it's fun to play with.

Made some progress on the anti-cheat system today as well, but suffice to say, not real photogenic work that.

 

[Orochi]

Why not just rename all the Trolls to Ogre? Ogre, Hideous Cave Ogre, etc.

 

[The Man In Black]

AMAZING vids. I saw your chain lightning was doing 14.2. What level lightning are you, so that we can gauge the damage?

 

[evilsquirrel]

yeah...i may have to make a enws post of these...if only we had a real map to have that much fun with the ogre on...

and really, i'd say rename the current trolls into ogres and that one is a troll

perhaps with some reskins and such we could have other trolls aswell...once theres maps, of course

(omg old helena with [new] trolls! XD)

 

[PBarnum]

awesome progress.

I really enjoyed the new enemy... what ever it will be. Looks fun and hard so I cant wait.

 

[Jerrid]

WOW! The lightning looked really good until you looked at it from a 3rd perspective. It went from firing about 5 bolts of lighting from your finger tips to all of a sudden it just coming from your body.

Now that new enemy... is way more faster and acrobatic than a Orc or a Troll. Why not just either make it a hybrid like they did in Lords of the Ring or just make it a different creature. And was it head butting you or biting you. That sucker was deadly quick and never letting up and that jump. Hahahaha.

 

[Kuroneko]

Bah, that isn't chain lightning at all! It needs to jump from monster to monster to be chain lightning, not just multiple targets for normal lightning. BAH I say!

 

[evilsquirrel]

howbout "Cluster shock"

 

[The Man In Black]

Cluster Shock sounds as dirty as Electric Discharge, but I'd vote the latter

 

[evilsquirrel]

you would! ... /agree

 

[Iselore]

From the video, it looks like all targets in the immediate area are affected by the CL. Maybe you should cap the max amount of targets to 5 to make it less effective for mass farming.

 

[PBarnum]

yes cap the target count based on SC level.

(make max target count like around 10 or 5 and let it bounce off to another target then another)

 

[ceriux]

i havnt viewed the video's yet but im downloading the lighting one now after that ill DL the troll. be back with comments

 

[Gaz]

Wicked Thothie

 

[BioRage]

Wow chain lighting? :O Is that non-ingame spell? :O!


Anyhow, great vids thothie.. That random orc / hunter looking look alike is l337

 

[Thothie]

Bah, that isn't chain lightning at all! It needs to jump from monster to monster to be chain lightning, not just multiple targets for normal lightning. BAH I say!

Bouncing from monster to monster is a lot more CPU intensive as, best as I could figure, it'd require each monster to make the same scan that the player is making, so I thought this was a good compromise.

What I'd really like to have is a sustained chain lightning, where you just held the button, and it constantly drained mana, instead of these bursts, but I can't figure out how to register that attack at the moment. :/

From the video, it looks like all targets in the immediate area are affected by the CL. Maybe you should cap the max amount of targets to 5 to make it less effective for mass farming.

Well, Fireball has no such cap, and lingers longer. It is true this is a bit more powerful, but not anymore so than the level requisite and mana drain difference would dictate, near as I can tell. It is setup to be easily balanceable (I can easily raise/lower damage ratio, mana drain, rate of fire, and range.)

What level lightning are you, so that we can gauge the damage?

The test character's Lightning skill is relatively low (19). I'll probably raise it some before I finish balance tests. (By my logs, we have some players with Lightning in the 30's)

The lightning looked really good until you looked at it from a 3rd perspective. It went from firing about 5 bolts of lighting from your finger tips to all of a sudden it just coming from your body.

Yeah, best I can do is maybe do the offset to be closer to the upper, forward half of the body, but I just wanted to demonstrate the 360 capability. I do like the bit at the end there where I'm shooting lightning out of my ass.

if only we had a real map to have that much fun with the ogre on...

Yes, sadly, the test map does demonstrate ideal conditions (plus I'm coaxing him). What's worse is the first place I intended to put him has a low ceiling, so he's not going get to show off a whole lot - I dun think I'll have time to redesign it before 2007. Sometime in the future, maybe, he'll get a better playground... I'm sure he'll be REAL fun in groups.

 

[Kuroneko]

Bouncing from monster to monster is a lot more CPU intensive as, best as I could figure, it'd require each monster to make the same scan that the player is making, so I thought this was a good compromise.

Limit the player's initial scan to just what is infront of them. Each monster then does a more limited search (smaller range) with a limit on how many hits it can acctually do, and perhaps even a randomizer to limit that further. On top of that, limit the number of jumps each one can make.

What I'd really like to have is a sustained chain lightning, where you just held the button, and it constantly drained mana, instead of these bursts, but I can't figure out how to register that attack at the moment. :/

Theres no attack type that constantly calls the same function? Hrm..

 

[Thothie]

Limit the player's initial scan to just what is infront of them. Each monster then does a more limited search (smaller range) with a limit on how many hits it can acctually do, and perhaps even a randomizer to limit that further. On top of that, limit the number of jumps each one can make.

Currently I'm using a 0hp radius dodamage to pick up targets, then affecting each target caught in the radius with an applyeffect, based on their resistance to lightning. This does cause a slight spike in server CPU, if a lot of monsters are struck. If each monster does a similar dodamage scan in turn, even with a smaller radius, when they are clustered close together, it'll add up fast. Further complicating that, is the "chain scanner" is an invisible NPC summoned by the spell that does the scan, and figures the damage (since you can't run a dodamage event from inside a magic hand/weapon script - the magic hand instead simply tells the "chain scanner" npc to do a dodamage pulse scan, which works as mentioned). This scanner would have to set off a secondary "explosion" on each monster struck by the initial scan (up to however many the limit would be).

Another thought along those lines would be to place the "chain scanner" on top of the first monster struck by the magic hand hit-scan (and only spawn it, if a monster is struck though aim)... Then draw a bolt from the player to said monster, and then, from there, to all the monsters caught in the blast radius generated by the scanner. That might look a bit more like "chain lightning" - although it'd make the spell harder to use, and a bit less spectacular looking. You would have to hit a live monster each time, rather than just spam. Hmm...

Relevant code bits from monsters/summon/chain_scanner to clarify:

{ fire_bolts //called externally from magic_hand_lightning_chain

   	dodamage $relpos(0,0,-32) SCAN_RANGE 0.0 100% 0 reflective
}

{ game_dodamage //1:AttackHit(1/0) 2:EntityStruck 3:StartOrigin 4:EndOrigin

	if PARAM1
	if $get(PARAM2,relationship,MY_OWNER) equals enemy

	//draw bolts
	clientevent new all_in_sight monsters/summon/chain_scanner_cl $get(MY_OWNER,index) $get(PARAM2,index)

	//noise
	if ( !ZAP_SOUND_DELAY )
	{
		setvard ZAP_SOUND_DELAY 1
		playrandomsound 0 10 SOUND_ZAP1 SOUND_ZAP2 SOUND_ZAP3
		callevent 0.25 zap_sound_reset
	}

	//check resistance, adjust damage, apply damage
	local TARGET_IMMUNITY $get(PARAM2,scriptvar,IMMUNE_LIGHTNING)
	if TARGET_IMMUNITY != 1
	local MY_FINAL_DAMAGE MY_BASE_DAMAGE
	if ( TARGET_IMMUNITY > 0 ) multiply MY_FINAL_DAMAGE TARGET_IMMUNITY

	multiply MY_FINAL_DAMAGE DAMAGE_ADJ //balancing
	
	applyeffect PARAM2 effects/generic_damage MY_FINAL_DAMAGE MY_OWNER
}

Theres no attack type that constantly calls the same function? Hrm..

There's reg.attack.type "hold-strike" - but I can't see what callback event it's triggering (if any). It doesn't seem to trigger spell_casted or cast_start - which may make the entire magic_hand_base null and void for any attempt to use it. (I'll have to dig through the code and scripts to see what callback it might be using - it'd be very useful for other spells/weapon concepts.)

 

[The Man In Black]

If you got the system set up do that each monster would bounce the lightning to another, you would have to add in code to stop ADD Lightning:

*Firing at 2 monsters right next to eachother*
"Hey look! Another monster!"
*Bounces to the second monster*
"Hey look! Another monster!"
*Bounces to the first monster*
"Hey look! Another monster!"
*Bounces to the second monster*
"Hey look! Another monster!"
*Bounces to the first monster*
"Hey look! Another monster!"
*Bounces to the second monster*
"Hey look! Another monster!"
*Bounces to the first monster*

ADD: Attention Defecit Di--LET'S RIDE BIKES!

 

[Thothie]

Having each monster do the scan itself is an additional strain, and could even cause crash from dodamage overlaps. No, the idea is the damage scans are done by the "chain scanner" NPC. If I were to go with Lord K's idea of causing a secondary scan around each monster hit, the chain scanner NPC would be creating each blast, and stop scanning after xx mons were acquired. It's still asking a lot though, as it'd be doing it's initial scan, and scans on the first 8 or 9 mons all at once. I think that'd be too many dodamage radial calculations in a single cycle.

On the plus side, while adding p|Barnum's shield, I looked at shields and I guess I figured how "hold-strike" reg.attack.type works. It doesn't do a callback, but instead sets a "game.item.attacking" flag to 0/1. Basically, I'd have to have the magic hand loop while waiting for it and have it do something whenever it's set to 1, and yeah, it would mean trashing most of the magic_hand_base. I dun think that'd work real good for this spell, but maybe for some other.

 

[PBarnum]

sweet. not even in game and my model is doing great

and on the plus side of the plus side (wtf?)

I am almost done with my ... "secret weapon" animations. Good things are happening.

 

[ITS'aME'aMARIO!!!!]

I say you call the spell just plain "Lightning" and make it the middle ground between erratic lightning and lightning storm... OR call it something sounding similar to erratic lightning cept... cooler... and maybe make the lightning storm and blizzard spells do damage over the area like poison cloud does... for new enemies that walk into it...

Swamp Ogre thing is awesome... I love the stunning headbutt too... I think maybe he can do a little bit more follow-through with that headbutt and the swiping just looks silly... he runs all crouched down which is cool but why must he completely straighten up for a swipe attack that would look so much cooler crouched (i'm thinking alien slave swipe from half-life) Maybe he can do an attack that throws you into the air like a throw/ toss that stuns you followed by a strong aerial attack from above =P or jump on your back if you try and run away or get ambushed... and while on your back he can pound the crap out of your head

 

[Thothie]

If you can find somoene to remake all those animations, sure. Dun think we have an animator atm. (The only one I know is about as reliable as life insurance in Baghdad.)

I do like how he looks real small, until he stands up in your face and it's all "ZOMG, he's big!" - but tis true, the side swing looks bad. I'd prefer it if he did an overhead rake like that once in awhile instead.

I've been meaning to adapt lightning storm to make it work proper again (ie. poison cloud style). Just need to make sure it doesn't start doing it's bit of crashing when it's cast near a breakable. It still has a VERY small % of crashing if it's cast in just the right spot on some maps (if it tries to form a beam inside a small pole) I've yet to figure a way around that.

 

[ITS'aME'aMARIO!!!!]

maybe he can do an opening powerful overhead rake when he gets close and then follow up with some faster crouched down ones with a few more overheads thrown in every once and a while or before he decides to leap away...

 

[Thothie]

Did I mention the lack of animator?