VizionEck

Gaming => Game News Discussion => VizionEck Dev Blog => Topic started by: Legend on May 31, 2015, 10:03 PM

Title: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on May 31, 2015, 10:03 PM

(http://media.vizioneck.com/webassets/vizioneck_logo_800.png)


A mysterious puzzle driven campaign

A tactical and competitive multiplayer





      Battle is a re-imagining of FPS multiplayer into an arcade like experience. Strategy and reflexes are more important than aiming precision plus a limited variety of weapons keeps the playing field level. Fundamentally it's a shooter unlike anything you've played before.




The Basics

      Each player plays as an advanced artificial intelligence, remotely piloting a robotic soldier. This soldier, called a "Ranger," is fast, deadly, and cube shaped.

(http://vizioneck.com/forum/thumbnails/F71pT6xKE3JeQTx.png)

      This cube however is only half the Ranger's volume. The other half is an invisible energy field.

(http://media.vizioneck.com/images/viz_ranger_field.png)

      Since this upper half is non physical, bullets and shots freely travel through it. Rangers and other energy fields are kept out.


First and Third Person Shooter
      Rangers shoot and see from their invisible upper half, effectively making the camera third person. Players can hide behind cover while shooting, look around corners without showing their presence, and see their own body.


Spawning
      Rangers are remote controlled and need pilots to function. When an active Ranger is destroyed, the player assumes control of a new inactive Ranger.

      Spawn rooms contain a large amount of inactive Rangers, placed in a ring along the walls.

      There is no visual distinction between an active and inactive Ranger. If an enemy player is in the spawn room, it's impossible for them to tell which Rangers are empty and which are real players. Freshly spawned players have the element of surprise, but give away their status as an active Ranger once they move or shoot.

      This makes "spawn camping" a balanced fight, not a one sided exploit of the game mechanics.


Health
      Every Ranger has a finite amount of health, with no healing or health packs. The Ranger's health status is depicted as the brightness of their outlines. Solid white and the Ranger is at full health. Near black and the Ranger is almost dead. The player knows their enemy's health by looking at their Ranger. The player knows their own health by looking down and seeing their Ranger's body.
(http://vizioneck.com/forum/thumbnails/heJNQZMuc561hqa.png)




Platforming

      Battle maps are intricate and tall, while Rangers are fast and mobile. Skilled players can traverse very quickly.


Power-ups
      When an active Ranger is destroyed, they leave behind a small power-up.

(http://media.vizioneck.com/images/viz_power_up.png)

      Collecting this power-up increases the player's jump strength. Specifically one power-up equals an additional mid-air jump for the rest of the match. Players start with zero air jumps, thus confining them to the starting area of the map. Each power-up they collect naturally increases the areas they can reach. Rangers may alternatively down jump when using a mid-air jump. This quickly shoots the player to the ground.


Green
      Surfaces outlined in green have unique properties. Landing on one bounces the player back into the air. Green walls pull the Ranger upwards. Green ceilings hold the player, stopping them from falling back to the ground.


Red
      All red surfaces act the same. Touching one temporarily disables jumping. Landing on a white or green floor ends this effect and re-enables jumping. Being destroyed also re-enables jumping.


Blue
      Blue floors/ceilings allow one way travel. Floors block the player and do nothing, while blue ceilings can be freely jumped through. Touching a blue wall rotates the entire world, so that the wall is now a floor. As a result the player can freely move around on walls and ceilings.

      This change does not affect other Rangers. If two Rangers have opposite orientations, it's possible for them to jump onto each other and float as a team. Each Ranger's relative gravity counteracts the other. Large floating formations can be created out of multiple Rangers, capable of moving through entire maps without touching the ground.




Shooting

      Rangers have four weapons available at all times, each with unlimited ammo. These weapon-blocks are formed in the Ranger's upper energy field. Once fully charged, the weapon-block is ready to be fired.

(http://media.vizioneck.com/images/Charge_block.gif)

      Weapon-blocks have their own health, and can be destroyed by enemy attacks. This makes the weapon-block explode and damage nearby players.


White
      Shoots a large short range burst plus a centralized mid range shot. It acts like a shotgun and pistol overlaid into a single weapon. Charges at medium speed and has the highest health of any weapon-block.


Green
      Weapon-block that fires a continuous stream of shots. Once started, the fire cannot stop until the weapon-block is depleted. Is slow at charging but has a high amount of health.


Red
      The most powerful weapon in the game. Shoots a bomb that detonates a few feet from impact, destroying every Ranger in the area. Takes the longest time to charge, and has average health.


Blue
      While charged/charging, the blue weapon-block projects a small blue portal wherever the player looks. This is like a laser site, except it goes through Rangers and power-ups. When fired, the weapon shoots backwards from the portal and directly towards the player. If there is a Ranger or power-up between the two, the shot hits that object and does damage. Otherwise it flies back and kills the player who shot it. Blue weapon-blocks charge very quickly and have practically no health.



Strategy

      Every Battle game mode has unique rules and goals, but these select strategies highlight some of the more interesting aspects of VizionEck's gameplay.


"Ghosting"
      A Ranger's health is depicted as the brightness of its white outlines. When the Ranger is on the brink of death, these outlines are dark and blend in with the black background.


There is a Ranger hidden in this picture.

      Since players can look down and see their own bodies, it's also possible for players to look down and shoot their own bodies. Ghosting is the technique of purposely getting on the brink of death, so that they become practically invisible.


"Airships"
      Rangers can use blue surfaces to change gravity and float as a team. Large formations can be built, with nearly infinite configurations. Some teams may make a shape similar to power-ups so that every direction is watched. Others may make a tight group protected by white weapon-blocks on the outside. This technique works best on larger maps.


"Blindfire"
      Blue weapon-blocks shoot from the portal, not the Ranger. Players can look down and shoot enemies through their body. Only if the player misses does the shot come back and hit them. However it hits their body and not their weapon-block, so the Ranger is damaged but not destroyed.


"Floor Hugging"
      Except for blindfire, Rangers cannot shoot directly beneath them. They also cannot see beneath them, and weapon-blocks only act as shields for the top. This all results in Rangers being most vulnerable on their bottom. Staying on the ground better protects the player's bottom side while also giving the player a better vantage point against enemies.




Modes

      VizionEck has over 100 Battle game types. Deathmatch, capture the flag, king of the hill, juggernaut, survival, no reloads, one hit kills, and VIP only scratch the surface of what's available. Here's a sampling of some a few of them.


Tournament
      The game starts as a 8v8 team deathmatch. Players work as teams to kill the enemy and survive. At the 5 minute mark though, things get a shake up. The losing team is eliminated from the game: their players die instantly. The remaining team of 8 is randomly reorganized into two new teams of 4 without respawning. Players change colors and are suddenly fighting their previous teammates. After another 3 minutes, another shakeup occurs. The losing team is eliminated and the winning team is redivided into 2v2. After 1 minute it becomes a 1v1 sudden death. Last player standing wins.


Blockade
      4v4v4v4 battle fighting to reach a team score of 100. Once the first team passes 100, a respawn lock is placed on the lowest scoring team. Kill all 4 members and the team is eliminated. However if the team fights well and overtakes another team in score, then the respawn lock is passed on to the new last place team. Once a second team passes 100, a respawn lock is placed on the second lowest scoring team. This pattern repeats until only one team is remaining.


Duel
      A 1v1 mode placing two players head to head. Each player spawns on opposite walls with pre-charged white weapon-blocks. First player to kill wins the round.



Warfield
      Two teams, each with two human players and six computer controlled players. Bots have double health but no respawns. Fight till the enemy team has zero bots remaining.


Dreadnaught
      One random player has massive stat advantages against the 3 others. The dreadnaught has 10 times the health, 2 times the speed, and 2 times the attack compared to a regular player. Any self  inflicted damage though and the dreadnaught is destroyed, giving every other player a kill point.


Colors
      Standard deathmatch, except each kill needs to be done with a different color attack-block. First kill with white, second kill with green, third kill with red, fourth kill with blue, fifth with white, etc. Attack-blocks of the wrong color may still be fired, but they do zero damage.


Timed Attack
      Free for all, with every player having a personal timer. They have 90 seconds to get a kill. If they fail, they are eliminated. If they succeed, their timer resets to 80 seconds. Then if they succeed again, the timer is reset to 70 seconds. Then 60 seconds, 50 seconds, 40 seconds, etc. Players need to make a kill every timer round, but it's advantageous to make it as late as possible. The last remaining player wins.


Team Killstreak
      4v4 match battling for the best killstreaks. Each team's player's top killstreaks combined make up the team score.


Spy
      5v3 no respawns, with one member on the 5 person team being a secret agent. This team has two ways to win. They can discover who the secret agent is and kill them, or they can kill the three enemy players. The other team, the secret agent and the three players, need to kill all four enemy players to win.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Dr. Pezus on May 31, 2015, 10:16 PM
This is the same as the campaign?
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on May 31, 2015, 10:30 PM
This is the same as the campaign?
No this is the multiplayer.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Dr. Pezus on Jun 11, 2015, 05:31 PM
Dat innovation
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Xbro on Jun 25, 2015, 10:03 PM
This is actually quite informative now that I've taken the time to read it.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: ethomaz on Jun 26, 2015, 02:19 AM
Hummmm... I can't say I understood :(
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: the-pi-guy on Jun 26, 2015, 02:30 AM
I'm really excited.  :D
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Jun 26, 2015, 05:30 AM
Hummmm... I can't say I understood :(
It is a lot of words and you're a non native speaker so I can't blame you.  :D

I'll be uploading videos for all this stuff... soony.
This is actually quite informative now that I've taken the time to read it.
I'm really excited.  :D
Yay!
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Jul 02, 2015, 05:34 PM
Things change pretty quickly when you're just a one man team.

The mode system is being completely revamped. Instead of having 4 modes at launch, it'll have around 50. Then post launch as free DLC I'll release a mode creation tool, allowing players to make their own modes from scratch. Want a game mode where every kill slows you down? You can do it.

Or how about a 1v5 game mode where the lone player has one hit kills? Sure, you can do it.

What about a 2v2v2v2 battle of stock where each human player is teamed up with an AI side kick, that transitions to a 1v1 battle amongst the last remaining team? Of course.

Or how about a match where every 2 minutes you must make a kill, or else you're eliminated? Sure.

Practically anything will be possible for players to make.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Dr. Pezus on Jul 02, 2015, 05:39 PM
But will you be able to share your modes??
That would make it the next MM game!
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Jul 02, 2015, 05:51 PM
But will you be able to share your modes??
That would make it the next MM game!
Not sure how to handle the modes online. You'll at least be able to play in online private matches using them.

LBP coding is kinda similar to my mode coding...
Spoiler for Hidden:
nodes ftw
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Jul 06, 2015, 09:45 PM
I don't like infection/zombie modes. It feels off to me that as a human your only goal is to survive, yet if you fail you just switch to the winning team. I'd love it so much more if one team or the other was purely AI controlled. That way when you died and turn into a zombie, it's now a different being controlling your character. You've failed and that's that. Only negative of this approach compared to classic zombies is that dead players don't get to keep playing.

I'm sure I'll include a traditional Infection mode and one could always make one with the custom mode creation tool, but it doesn't sound fun to me.

How about any of you guys. What are your thoughts on Infect/Zombie modes?
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Xbro on Jul 06, 2015, 09:46 PM
I don't like infection/zombie modes. It feels off to me that as a human your only goal is to survive, yet if you fail you just switch to the winning team. I'd love it so much more if one team or the other was purely AI controlled. That way when you died and turn into a zombie, it's now a different being controlling your character. You've failed and that's that. Only negative of this approach is classic zombies is that dead players don't get to keep playing.

I'm sure I'll include a tradition Infection mode and one could always make one with the custom mode creation tool, but it doesn't sound fun to me.

How about any of you guys. What are your thoughts on Infect/Zombie modes?
I think you hit something on the head there, but I'm not sure of a remedy for it.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Mmm_fish_tacos on Jul 06, 2015, 09:57 PM
I don't like infection/zombie modes. It feels off to me that as a human your only goal is to survive, yet if you fail you just switch to the winning team. I'd love it so much more if one team or the other was purely AI controlled. That way when you died and turn into a zombie, it's now a different being controlling your character. You've failed and that's that. Only negative of this approach compared to classic zombies is that dead players don't get to keep playing.

I'm sure I'll include a traditional Infection mode and one could always make one with the custom mode creation tool, but it doesn't sound fun to me.

How about any of you guys. What are your thoughts on Infect/Zombie modes?
Actually I think it's quite easy. So the way I'm thinking about it would be the Zombie team is always going to loose the match. The goal is not to be a Zombie when the Match ends. RNG is used to detriment Who gets placed on the Zombie team at the start and how long the match is. Grantee a match of at least 3-4 mins but beyond that who knows when the buzzard will ring. Anyone who's a zombie at the end of the game looses. So Zombie kills a Human Becomes Human While the killed Player becomes Zombie and vice versa.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Jul 06, 2015, 10:04 PM
Actually I think it's quite easy. So the way I'm thinking about it would be the Zombie team is always going to loose the match. The goal is not to be a Zombie when the Match ends. RNG is used to detriment Who gets placed on the Zombie team at the start and how long the match is. Grantee a match of at least 3-4 mins but beyond that who knows when the buzzard will ring. Anyone who's a zombie at the end of the game looses. So Zombie kills a Human Becomes Human While the killed Player becomes Zombie and vice versa.
But that would keep the teams even. There's no sense of the zombie team getting bigger and bigger, while the ods of the humans winning get lower and lower.

Sweet mode on its own, but not an infection mode alternative.


Glad to see I'm not the only one that finds problems with traditional Zombies!
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Cute Pikachu on Jul 06, 2015, 10:11 PM
Looking good!
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Jul 07, 2015, 01:31 AM
What if players could fight the infection?

Every human is a real player and the alpha zombie is also a real player. When a humen is killed, they don't respawn. Instead their body stays there for a few seconds as the infection takes over. Soon a CPU is in charge and trying to kill humans. However the player is still in there too, trying to fight off the CPU and not kill the humans. CPU has 75% of control, player has 25%. Maybe have player control fade in and out.

Thus the goal never changes, and no players are stuck on the sidelines once killed. Also would make for fun voice chat, warning the humans you're coming.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: the-pi-guy on Jul 08, 2015, 07:29 AM
I've on played the CoD zombies.  Your complaints seem to be reminiscent of turned mode, but your positive suggestions are much like the original mode.  
At least in the first comment.  
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Oct 24, 2016, 04:37 AM
Has it really been over a year since the last post in this thread? Developing a multiplayer game is odd.

Almost all my time with Battle has just been spent refining the gameplay. I prototype new mechanics and throw away old ones so often. Making an arcade FPS is so fun.

Right now the game feels like it has a good amount of strategy options so that's nice. I'm using every button except L3 and R3 though so hopefully I can optomize that a bit. Just today I added a mechanic that uses all of the d-pad so it was lucky I wasn't already using that.

More or less though I think Battle is pretty close to its final form. Now if only raw gameplay of it wasn't so confussing...
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Oct 26, 2016, 01:03 AM
Unity doesn't support multiple audio listeners. Splitscreen just isn't that popular I guess. So now I'm having to create my own audio system for Battle.

Works out I guess but it'll be pretty basic.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: the-pi-guy on Oct 26, 2016, 01:10 AM
Right now the game feels like it has a good amount of strategy options so that's nice. I'm using every button except L3 and R3 though so hopefully I can optomize that a bit. Just today I added a mechanic that uses all of the d-pad so it was lucky I wasn't already using that.
What would be really cool is using every button several times over.  ;)
(I actually wanted to do something kinda like that.  Every button except the directional buttons.)

Unity doesn't support multiple audio listeners. Splitscreen just isn't that popular I guess. So now I'm having to create my own audio system for Battle.
Works out I guess but it'll be pretty basic.
Clearly the solution is to switch between each one.  Just enable and disable each one like 60 times a second!
(I know nothing.)
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Oct 26, 2016, 03:14 PM
What would be really cool is using every button several times over.  ;)
(I actually wanted to do something kinda like that.  Every button except the directional buttons.)
Clearly the solution is to switch between each one.  Just enable and disable each one like 60 times a second!
(I know nothing.)
I'm still planning to have fully customizable controls so if you want to play the game with everything mapped to combinations, be my guest  ;)


The audio problem is that you don't want sounds playing twice. Instead for each sound you determine the closest/highest priority player and play it based off that distance and angle data.
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: the-pi-guy on Oct 26, 2016, 04:38 PM
I'm still planning to have fully customizable controls so if you want to play the game with everything mapped to combinations, be my guest  ;)

Nah, it'd be great for certain kinds of games.  
Like say for Avatar the last Airbender.  You could hit a directional button to change the entire moveset.  
Maybe up turns all moves to fire, down turns all moves to water. Etc.  Up+down turns all moves to ____.

The audio problem is that you don't want sounds playing twice. Instead for each sound you determine the closest/highest priority player and play it based off that distance and angle data.
Is it possible to send the audio directly to the PS4 controller?  Each controller would get its own sound with its own specific volume based off that specific players distance and angle data.  
Title: Re: VizionEck Battle
Post by: Legend on Oct 26, 2016, 04:55 PM
Nah, it'd be great for certain kinds of games.  
Like say for Avatar the last Airbender.  You could hit a directional button to change the entire moveset.  
Maybe up turns all moves to fire, down turns all moves to water. Etc.  Up+down turns all moves to ____.

Is it possible to send the audio directly to the PS4 controller?  Each controller would get its own sound with its own specific volume based off that specific players distance and angle data.  
Yup I plan/hope to have that audio option but most players will want the sound coming out of their speakers like it does for every other multiplayer game. I've been pulling out all my old splitscreen games to experiment and see how they do it. It's surprising how well the brain can ignore other player's audio.