To Rollin

Would you like to itemize my task list? More specifically, list the various particle effects we shall need (ex smoke from carriage engine). Maybe you could scan some concept art of where all the particles shall be. Random Side Note: Maybe Necropopolis should always be snowing ash.

Particle Engine

Make it so, Mr. Tom.

Good stuff guys

Chandon: I love your sounds! The engine backfiring is awesome. I'll put them in the game and see how they sync up. You should try to make the vacuum sound next, that would be satisfying.

Rollin: You have great ideas and I'm affraid of giving input because as a programmer I'll just take the easy way out and say we shouldn't incorperate the tough ideas (ex. climbing, adjustable limbs on the carriage, etc). I enjoy the difficult programming task you are coming up with though (so far they are all plausable), so keep them coming. At some point though we need to consildate a final list of requirements (sooner than later hopefully), so I have more direction for programming. I am in the process of putting the vacuum and plow which are looking good! Oh yeah, you had a question about physics. Applying force and torque to one connected body has an effect on the other! So rotating the cannon the opposite direction the carriage is moving will slow the carriage down.

Sound it out

Made some engine and cannon sounds and sent em to you guys. Let me know what you think.

I tried to add to the overall feel of the Necrocarriage by making a rickety diesel engine loop pack complete with backfires.

The cannon loops are all pretty similar with a BOOM and a reload sound. I just changed some stuff with the BOOM in every sample.

New Suggested Controls:

When inside Necrocarriage:

Left-click and drag to reposition cannon, spotlight, plow, and vacuum.
While repositioning:
Right-click and hold to use vacuum/charge up cannon shot. Release to fire cannon.
'A' to move carriage left.
'D' to move carriage right.
'R' to exit carriage.

When outside Necrocarriage:

Mouse aims weapon and light.
Left-click to fire weapon.
Right-click to switch weapons(?). (Are we letting players have more than one weapon at once?)
'R' to use "switches"/talk to characters/pick up object/drop current object/enter carriage (while near carriage entrance).
'A' to move left.
'D' to move right.
Hold direction towards climbable object to begin climbing.
While climbing:
'W' to climb up.
'S' to climb down.

And a Bit About Climbing

I continue to hold that climbing over debris is cooler and scarier than being able to jump over it.

So how, from a design, art, and programming viewpoint, do we make this happen?

I suggest some sort of "attach" key (be it a separate key, mapped onto whatever key "uses" or "picks stuff up," or simply something that happens when you run your character into debris he can't walk over). While "attached," the character can only climb up and down (so we'll need the 'W' and 'S' keys free for this- pick up/use should be remapped to 'R,' and to enter or exit the carriage, the player should just press 'R' as well).

Also while attached, the character's sprite needs to change from two linked sprites (mouse-movable torso and keyboard-controlled legs) to a climbing animation that can be cycled forwards and backwards.

We'll need to figure out what button works best for climbing (I think the 'automatically changes to climbing when the character runs into a climbable obstacle' idea is best, so that the player will be able to carry objects up debris when necessary) as well as how to tell when the character should stop climbing and return to a normal character state.

Sweet

Hey Tom, I was checking out the new version you sent last nite. Looks great. I noticed something: When I drove the carriage off the left side of the background I went into free fall but I could control how the carriage was falling by rotating the cannon. I just thought that was really awesome. Can you also use the cannon to upright the carriage if you land upside down?

Controls Once More

So I've been thinking about how to activate the vacuum. If 'left click and drag' is how you position it, 'right click and hold' could be the suck button.

This would work for the cannon, as well. Instead of having three extra keys to rotate the cannon left and right and fire, or mapping the cannon rotation and firing to the mouse, we can just re-use the cursor idea:

'Left click and drag' repositions the cannon, 'right click and hold' builds up firing power, and 'releasing the right mouse button' fires it.

Then we'll just need three additional keys, while in the carriage: move left, move right, and exit.

However, there are couple of things to consider:
If we do this, it won't make any sense to keep the keyboard rotation for the character outside of the carriage. We'd have to use mouse aim. I guess it wouldn't be so bad: We can attach the flashlight to the end of the player's gun, and try to make it really dark outside of its range.
We can keep the player's facing and movement (torso and legs) separate, so that the player can retreat from zombies while firing (good idea from Chandon).

It'll make the game outside the carriage a lot like Abuse (which is something Chandon's been driving for)... Might not be as scary, but might be more fun to play with while it's in the development stages. Which is important.

Fuck the Order

I totally mixed up the order on the plow and vacuum neck parts on that list down there. Shit.

Just look at the picture, I guess.


...I think both the plow and vacuum need more neck segments. Just play with them? I guess?

The Order

Here's how all the parts are supposed to go together (for now). The vacuum looks like it might need a little tinkering.

Here's the order:
1. vacuum body (bottom)
2. chassis
3. wheels
4. plow neck part one and vacuum neck part one
5. plow neck part two (note tricky placement) and vacuum neck two
6. vacuum neck three
7. plow head and vacuum head

Thought that knowledge would make your job easier. Tom.

And a Little Flair

I thought the vacuum needed a little sprucing-up.

I think it'd be cool to make rags hanging off the Necrocarriage, and have them sway a big as it moves. Any thoughts?

Another Fucking Lamp

Just trying to make it look less sloppy.

Suckaz

Here is the vacuum. The segment at top is the part that connects to the chassis; the one at the bottom is the vacuum head. I made three slightly different connecting parts which you can make the neck out of- it'll probably take 7 or 8 of 'em.

This is my last part for the evening, I'm afraid; I'll put up another part tomorrow though.

Mr. Plow

The plow will probably need more than one neck part (as will the vacuum). I figured we could just flip one. Maybe it needs three, even?

Arguing about controls some more

Chandon:

There are more things than the cannon and light to control. I've mentioned the other things quite a bit. (First link is what the carriage will look like when it's done. Kind of.)


"Taking freedom of movement away from the player doesn't make the game scarier, just more frustrating."
-- What about the Resident Evil series? Alone in the Dark? Out of This World? That is exactly what they do to the controls to make the game scarier... and not being able to mouse aim is nowhere near as limiting or clunky as having to steer your dude like a car. Heh

Anyway, I'm off to do some more parts or something.

Structure of Sound

Short answer:
No need to put the sound files into any folders - just zip them and send them.

Longer answer:
All the Textures I organize into folders because the tools I'm using to code, Visual C# Express and XNA, supports it. However, XNA compiles all the sounds into one file, so there is little or no reason to organize them.

Directory structures

Hey Tom, when I send sound files should I zip them with a directory structure? I'm organizing them as I go...Let me know

Go back to that other part

Um, you'd better go back to the beginning Rollin. From what I see in the demos and screens so far there's like 2 things on the carriage to control, the cannon and the light, so I don't see how being able to toggle them on the fly would be a problem...maybe I missed something in the main idea? I really like the mouse control thing and I still don't understand how using the keyboard makes it easier to control when you can just point a cursor, click and release.

About the commander controls: There's a pretty easy way to get around the "less vulnerable outside the carriage" thing-- just make the commander or his weapons weaker. Taking freedom of movement away from the player doesn't make the game scarier, just more frustrating.

Anyways, the screenie looks pretty awesome once again. Love that fog.
Also, can you start sending me the major updates on the game Tom? Thanks!

Awesome

That looks great!


I am also excited about the sprite scaling.

Foggy Background