rho's Forum Posts

  • actually copy-paste is not straightforward.. there are a lot of places where you can't paste things.

    for small sections, I copy and paste them and they fall to the bottom of the code block.. then I can just drag the new lines to where I want them. that always works.

    for entire code blocks.. they seem to work more reliably.

    if the paste doesn't work, then you're trying to paste into the wrong section. I find this happens a lot when you try to copy a fragment of a conditional code block and the conditions aren't right.. then it blocks it.. combo's like that are annoying if you don't know about it.

  • Fimbul Naji

    If you want to get into the big gaming companies, you'll need a computer science degree. there are exceptions, but especially with the big games - of whatever type, you are going to need to know a lot more about software frameworks, structures, databases, and a lot of other issues that I am not aware of but that I am sure are important. Fimbul is right. where I live there are a number of gaming companies and they hire CS grads plus a small number of graphics designers. some colleges offer cs+gaming degrees, i'd ignore those.. cs is good enough

    if you are pre-college, go that route. who knows a few years time you may discover you love working with databases, embedded systems, natural language processing, who knows.. you're not stuck with only gaming as your option.

    personally I think most people fall into the hobbyist category, we're the same time of people who do "makers faire" with hardware. if we do something great, wonderful and then perhaps we can launch into it more streamlined.. most creative do it this way too.. get the stress out of our life.. get a job, get a girlfriend/boyfriend, have fun, have your hobby. the balance between all of these is your call but money makes the world go around and puts food on your table and a roof over your head

    PS: now if you are unemployed and between jobs.. trying to do something fulltime AND look for a job is a worthy way of demonstrating your programming skills and can-do attitude.

  • shirogr

    gotcha... I hadn't thought about a slotless implementation. good point

  • shirogr

    that's not needed as this is an RTS type game... once a slot has been built, then there should be nothing else that can be stacked.. I've done something similar.. I have an array of (say) 10 locations with a value, and actually what I did is put the same image down on each square and then set the animation frame to the structure I wanted. that way they are actually always there, but frame 0 is empty. however the trick then becomes how to know which structure is there when you want to do something with it, then you use instance variables to track as well.

    the above method is just a one event to create the display.. making use of it is something else..

  • it's unfortunately not a construct issue but a server issue. from my understanding, the test mode creates a localhost server and the browser pulls from that... however the browser does not allow one server to redirect to another server without a specific command.

    the long term solution is that when you host it, it will pull data from its own servers, and then this issue will not arise.

    however I haven't seen an easy-to-understand solution for testing in development mode. I upload to my server but it is awkward.

    please Ashley.. this is something that should be fixable by Construct for testing purposes.. it would make server/client testing much much easier.

    R

  • aren't you just spawning an image on top of the background. just keep a record of what buildings you have where and upon startup create all the need "buildings".

  • or perhaps more simply

    score1 = score1 + new_points*033

    score 2 = score2 + new_points*0.66

    total_score = score1 + score2

    or you could do

    score1 = score1 + new_points

    score 2 = score2 + new_points

    total_score = (score1 + 2*score2)/3

    lots of different ways to do this. what I would say is that sometimes it's nice to convert scores back to integer numbers or a fixed number of decimals.. so

    integers, use floor or round or ceil

    fixed decimal places, I use (floor ( score*100))/100

  • Rory, I hadn't considered using C2 as a server. I suspect the best way is to look at the multi-player tutorials and the new web-rtc functionality. i'm not sure how best to do it after that as anything significant in size is likely to need a database and c2 doesn't support that functionality yet - to my knowledge. for me, c2 is the wrong tool for the server that you are planning.

  • Samblak,

    I'm working on a similar type game. C2 can make a very nice client, but the guys are right, you need a server-side engine and a good database design and implementation. I'm not really serious about releasing the game, it's a learning experience for me... and I like reverse engineering some of the techniques others have used in deployed games. My background is the old text muds from long ago, so I have some predigree in the area. Some things I have learnt.

    1) the client is fun and pretty, but not that difficult

    2) C2 is a good platform for the client, esp if you are focussed on desktop clients.. but you need to look into your connectivity choice.. websockets, webrtc, etc.. some are easier but then they limit the browsers you can use, and how easy each can be used. At least for MMORTS, the latency issues are not that critical compared to peer-to-peer games.

    3) you need to clearly define the structure and content of what the game updates will be (eg city -stats, armies, research) and how do you check for valid options

    4) the database design is not trivial.. looking at evony (for example), their worldmap is 400x400 which is 160,000 map locations, and say theoretically 10% of that will end up being cities.. big database.. if you need to keep upload/downloading chunks of it to your client.

    5) not only is it big, it needs to be fast. hundred simultaneous users could hit your database for actions leading to say 100 requests/minute, but more likely a factor of 5. doesn't seem much but they could be complex searches. Correct database indexing is important. As it is not peer-to-peer, your server will require some horsepower (OR GOOD CODING) to deliver it consistently

    6) you need a server engine to authenticate and validate all requests, then you need to trigger all actions in a time-sync'ed manner. attacks need to hit when they were promised, or at least in the order they should have arrived. If you can't guarantee that, or that it will operate in a timely fashion, the game will fail.

    so yup.. lots and lots of issues. it's not where I would start if you were new to it... however if you were a good database/server designer, then C2 could be a very easy way to make the client front end.

    PS: before anyone jumps in.. I only disagree with VUUV in that I think he's underestimating effort. Most big games like this take 4-5 team members a year to develop - assuming they already have the game engine in place. There's a reason there is no good hobbyist MMORTS platform out there.. or even indie.

  • downloaded it, I like it!! the music is simple and not annoying. the graphics have a real nice feel to it. I was thinking this would be an excellent game for my kids, but I think it would be frustrating for them as it stands... but I've got some comments that you might find interesting

    1) the first couple of levels are too tough and depend on precise positioning. I'd make them simpler. ironically your later levels look harder but are actually easier. make it easier... good players will fly through them, new players need an easier on-ramp. on level 2... make your fire a little smaller

    2) I like the magic coin at the end for when you clear a level, but when I collected it first, I thought I had died.. a positive sound effect or fireworks imagery might work better than a cloud

    3) your hand-grenades on later levels are hard to see compared to the background. more contrast would be nice... or simply blacker.

    4) it's a pity you can't restart a level rather than just have to start again from the beginning... but that really is a design issue. some games are like that

    so overall, very nice, very jealous best of luck with it.

  • it seems like you're trying to make the server out of C2... if so, that's not likely to work, usually minimal servers need their own scripting.

    if you want to streamline the server, the key is for the server to maintain the schema for all players and the necessary updates, and then for the client to interpret the updates into the "visual/intereactive" representation. in that way you don't need to work about the specific objects in the client, as long as they are correctly tied to the schema.

  • Hi,

    I'm curious, a lot of what C2 offers, especially with the development of WEB-RTC is pretty much aligned to what chrome enables, and not safari or IE (modern versions). When you're targeting mobile, that's not a problem but I've been thinking of desktop-browser applications.

    So I'm curious about the approach different people take, do you take advantage of the new browser-specific features and hit 70% of the market, or do you use some of the more common elements and aim for closer to full browser support.

    PS: for various reasons I use IE11 and chrome about equally and it annoys me to hit a game that doesn't work in IE, though I've never found one on the main game sites.

    R

  • I'm in the same place.. little time and lots of distractions .. sorry can't get rid of the kids.

    My advice is the same as EXCAL's, starting small, start with something that can give an immediate kick back that you'll like.. that's the joy of "print hello world".. quick and works.

    It needs to be fun and it needs to feel as if you are progressing. Don't look at the big picture, look at each step along the way. To do that, you will need to do some analysis of what you want to do in order to find useful small steps. I find that bit much more fun than coding... then start small.. make an icon, a map, detect keyboard/touch input, make the guy on the screen doing something/anything.

    small steps, keep it fun and keep it moving along... no matter how slowly.

    I've watched the indie scene.. some people can dedicate a lot of time to their programmes and can deliver fast, others take years.. just don't stop and pause.

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  • I've been on/off working on a MMORTS browser game, more to see how to put one together than anything else. I would have to agree with many of the points that Fimbul has mentioned. I think arrays could definitely be more integrated. My biggest issue around C2 is not the functionality that it can provide, but around the coding environment. The multi-person collaboration is one example, but for me the thing that gets me is that as games get large it is so time consuming to go hunting for functions, variables, etc. Yes, I've read of all the tricks and approaches people use, but that's to get around the problem that C2 doesn't manage that problem well. Look at modern IDEs to see how it could be done.

    Finally.. please can we have a proper search that runs over the project and not just an event sheet!!! pretty please.

  • Paradox, I hadn't thought about your extra suggestions, but chasing a variable or an object would be really valuable.

    I already name the functions according to the different event sheets, but you hit limits eventually if you'd like to partition function sheets by functionality.

    R