Welcome to Game Dev update #7!
It’s been a busy week again with tons of changes in the code base and some new features being added which will help the game grow in a number of areas! So in this update I am going to be talking about Steering, more specifically evasion, squad movement, status effects and a couple of other bits! Remember as always if you want a summary version with actual demonstration, check the video at the bottom of the post otherwise without further wait let’s get into it.
Status Effects
In many games with moves and tactical battle, status effects are a key component and can turn the tide of battle as well as add an unexpected element to the game. So with that knowledge it was imperative that they be implemented into Hierarchy with a robust system that means they can be added easily, reused, and be simple enough to simply attach onto any of our living game objects.
In addition to this in order to truly take advantage of a good battle system we will need to introduce a number of properties for our living units, both players and AI. Instead of just a base health system living entities will have armour, health, resistance and more added to them and from that a system that calculates damage better. We already have a great algorithm in place to handle this but more on that next time.
Heal Buff
The first buff that we have implemented is a simple ‘Heal’. It doesn’t take up too much energy and lasts just over a second healing a significant amount of health over time. However this would be completely out of balance in game, so when the time comes this will be ‘nerfed’, but for the sake of demonstration it is being used. All status effects have optional particle effects associated with them. Naturally the heal buff has a number of green bars emitting from the player whilst it is active. The screenshots show this but I recommend you watch the dev video for a better idea.
Buffs will lay the ground work for player powers and attacks, with some attacks even having a chance to plant a ‘debuff’ on enemies, or for more buffs to be used by the player or perhaps even environmental status effects!
Default Ranged Attack
With the redevelopment of movement and some of the battle system logic I have finally implemented ranged default attacks – up until now although there was a melee default attack and ranged powers there wasn’t a ranged default attack! So that’s another feature sorted – for now it just uses the throwing knife as a representative, but it is slightly faster and is effectively a ‘homing’ attack. Hopefully in the next update I can show off some better ones.
Evasion and Steering
I don’t remember if I mentioned it last week or not, but I have been looking into getting living entities to evade the player or other living units in order to emulate animal like behaviour, for example when walking towards a herd of Deer, they aren’t just going to stand there, they are going to run! And they are going to go as far from the player as possible. I have finally implemented a system which seems good enough to emulate this – when there aren’t any other entities nearby they will simply wander a short distance within the same area, as if grazing. I never got a chance to add in a decent Deer model so for now I am using the trust ‘Cylinder’ primitive to represent these entities that will try and evade other entities.
As the screenshots depict, before the players arrival they are just roaming the local area, as soon as they can see the player (indicated by the red line) they will try and run away, as I get closer they will try and find alternative routes of escape, in some scenarios they are split up. I hope to add more mechanics in time so that they may try and regroup later on.
Squad Movement
A much desired feature is the ability for AI to be in squads, to move as a squad and attack as a squad. I believe after a couple of days of coding I have got a good system for grouping units and moving!
However I am still amending my code to handle the squad leader issuing an attack order, or squad members spotting enemies and notifying the rest of the squad, but as a system it’s coming along nicely, I expect by the next update I would’ve resolved any issues surrounding it. For some examples of the squad, be sure to check out the video for a more detailed look at the bottom of this post!
Where Next
The development in code and features has been heavy as of late, but the project is finally getting to a position where I can start looking into some more cosmetic areas. I have already marked some texture packs and environmental sets that I will use for the ‘world’. In addition I have got in contact with a highly recommended artist to commission some concept art. I am on the hunt for a level designer, 3D modeller to get on board the project and finally I am looking into purchasing some 3D models for other parts of the game, as well as our protagonists! So another busy week ahead, but I am looking forward to it, and I hope you are too! Be sure to ‘Watch’ the project, subscribe on YouTube or follow me on twitter!
Leave comments for feedback and thanks for reading! See you next week!
Video Overview and Demo
