The Forged Kingdoms OT: Dream Bigger

Started by Legend, Sep 26, 2019, 08:18 PM

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Legend

I've kinda come up with something that hopefully feels good when playing.

Instead of directly moving your avatar, you move a pointer. Then the avatar does everything it can to keep up with the pointer.

So say you are running left at full speed and switch to running right. The pointer turns on a dime and starts moving right but your avatar has a lot of momentum. If it is mid run with no feet on the ground, it can't change its velocity yet. It needs to throw some feet on the ground first. This slightly delays the avatar and as such it slightly increases its change in velocity to catch up with the pointer.

All this is behind the scenes and not visible to the player. It's just my current method of including complex animations without sacrificing tight controls.

Legend



I've been working on an AI based system for animations and just got the sub systems set up. It's hilariously bad but it works!

Legend



Running works. Stopping doesn't.

I'm getting very close to a finished system for the legs. Arms will be relatively easy since they're visual mostly and only slightly influence a few leg parameters.

Legend



Just another quick update. I'm spending far far far too much time on this stuff but hopefully it ends up being worthwhile.

Legend

Oh sweet this video is public now.



It's very similar to my approach if you're wondering how this type of stuff is achieved in games.


One thing I'm still working on but hoping to achieve is feeding my procedural objects back into the terrain. So my system generates the ground, places objects, and then modifies the ground based off objects. For example a tree could have the ground pushed up by its roots.

Legend

I love when math simplifies.

One thing I think will be really cool is having companions physically toss you supplies when you need them. I just implemented the math for that and it becomes really elegant, even with wind.

Code: [Select]

float airTime = 1;
Vector3 throwVelocity = (targetPosition-currentPosition)/airTime;
throwVelocity -= (gravityVector+windVector) * (airTime * .5f);



It's fun seeing the ball thrown a bit too far only to be perfectly blown back into the catcher's mitt. Variations in wind will make it less perfect in the final game but that will just make the the thrower decrease the air time or walk the item over.

Legend

Just some musings on maps and gameplay.

No minimap.
No compass map.

When playing, the player should be focused on their world. Look at the actual places you are going!


For the full game map, the camera just zooms out and the real 3D world is used. The engine supports this and it saves a lot of time. Also is really cool.

I have concerns about it with gameplay though. Unless it is built into the lore like eagle vision, it makes no sense. Why would you be able to see all that?


I kinda feel like it might make sense to take botw's thoughts on maps to the extreme. No maps ever. Instead the map button toggles in world labels. Visible mountains, lakes, rivers, cities, etc. have their names hover over them in medieval style. Climbing to the top of a mountain would not just let you see a good vista, it would let you locate yourself and surroundings.

This is important because "quests" will not mark a pin for the exact location. Instead they use landmarks. If the treasure is between yorky river and mount massive, you focus on finding those first.


With that said, a system is still needed to help the player rember things. There are literally thousands of mountains in the game and the player can't be expected to remember the name of every one. A map is the only way to present that info.

So we have a catch 22 on our hands.


Legend

Mar 27, 2020, 02:33 PM Last Edit: Mar 27, 2020, 03:12 PM by Legend

Testing out conversation wheels.

Legend

Kinda fun but I'm switching my world system slightly so that I can have thousands of "biomes" instead of just a few.

They'll be generated before the game starts just as a way to speed things up. Lots of simple biomes are faster than a few complex biomes, even though to the player it mostly feels the same.

Also works with my evolution mechanic. It's all fake and doesn't happen while playing. Variants of basic animals and plants are made to fit regions. Really simple stuff like brown bear vs black bear, not alien/monster looking variants.

Legend



Buzz, buzzzzzzz!



Instead of showing stuff that is pretty, here's a look at raw game development. This test bed is where I am setting up my procedural lod system, "nested procedural details." The trees procedurally generate the grass and the grass procedurally generates the bugs. Models are are ugly and poppy on purpose so that I can quickly iterate and know what is happening.


This tool is also how biomes work. The same grass species can spawn different insects depending on location and the same tress can similarly spawn mushrooms and birds depending on location.

Legend



It's fun how this test environment is slowly starting to look more like an actual environment.

Legend

What makes The Forged Kingdoms play like nothing else?


Everything is physical.

It's essentially a voxel game without voxels. Items take up real space and everything can be used for anything. Makes it really hard to develop though!

Legend



Very first iteration of my plant gen system. Can't use off the shelf tools since I need to procedurally generate these during gameplay and slowly grow them over time.

Legend



It can grow.

the-pi-guy

Are you using l systems or something more unique?  

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