A word about Microbe

Hi!

For the last copule of days, I have been so focused on Microbe development, that I almost forgotten to write something about the game.

So what is Microbe? The game is a sandbox RPG bacteria "simulator". You take a role of a bacteria (at least at the begining) and try to survive in an ocean full of danger. 

You need to collect food to survive, avoid oxygen geysers and other hazards, flee from stronger microbes that will try to eat you, collect "resources" such as DNA or aminoacids to mutate and cteate new cellular structures.

You will be able to find a kind of items, that will grant you specific bonuses. Being an anaerobe? Collect peroxysomes that will help you to remove all that oxygen from your cell. If you collect enough elements and evolve specific genes, you will be able to craft some items too.

If there is no food around, you can spend some of your lipids to produce energy. But be aware - using lipids to produce energy generates oxygen that is extremely dangerous!

I am currently working on player statistics and equipment window, evolution steps and items system. Work goes on very fast and I am pretty sure that playable version will be available soon.

Microbe - my new project

Hi!

Three days ago, I have started brand new project - Microbe. I always dreamed about this kind of game after playing Spore. Unfortunatelly, I have never heard of a game like first evolution phase in Spore, so I decided to make one myself.

For now, I have made only some basics mechanics. You can swim around, eat red balls (food), attack other bacterias and duplicate. You need to avoid blue oxygen bubbles, at last until you evolve into aerobe bacteria.

What is more important, AI bacterias can do the same. Thats, why it took me three days to do all what you can see. AI decided whether should it look for food, or duplicate, or fight back while attacked.

What you can do in my game? Well, firstly you need to look for food, because without nutrition you won't be able to even move. You have to collect DNA, aminoacids and lipids from food, or enemies. Then you can spend some DNA for new abillities (new genes) that will give you eg. speed bonus, or better metabolism, that will make you heal faster.

In the first phase of the game oxygen will be your enemy. Swimming through oxygen bubble or spending lipids to make energy raises oxygen level inside your bacteria cell. This oxygen slowly leaves bacteria "body" but until it vents it will harm you in time. But some day your bacteria will learn how to use oxygen to boost all metabolics, make you move faster etc. Then, collecting oxygen bubbles will become your priority, because it will give you certain advantage.

Bacterias will be able to learn abillities, that allow them to produce new ways to fight with the enemy, for example: antibodies that will act as a homing missiles trying to hit specific bacteria species, or antibiotics, working as mines for other bacterias.

Of course The Tanks will still be developed :-)

Short dev entry

Hi!

This week, I have been working on fixing a copule of issues. Firstly, I have added missing AI selection button to Random and Versus game modes. I have also finished campaign mission selection and added (for now) two new missions placeholders. I have also cleaned up the code, removed a lot of debug.logs and rewritten the code. Last but not least, I have completed color pick-up screen: added secondary and detail buttons, added text color change and button color change and prepared all scripts for secondary and detail color elements. All I need to do now is to add an object (for example just ordinary cube), drag it into designed field and - viola, I have got secondary coloured part!

I have also added working shield (Man of Steel) abillity.

You're in the army now - Operation Flashpoint review

Hi!

Today, I want to tell you about a game that is just brilliant, perfect. Operation Flashpoint is a game developed by Czech game studio Bohemia Interactive. This is the first game in the battlefield simulator series. Currently, due to copyright affairs Operation Flashpoint is known under the name ArmA: Cold War Assault - yes, this is the first real part of ArmA series.

The history of the game takes place on a fictional archipelago of islands in the 80s, where US troops repel the Soviet invasion of an unspecified republic. However the story is not very important here, but the gameplay. Operation Flashpoint is a "GTA on the battlefield." We can drive any vehicle, fly a variety of war machines and shoot with multiple types of weapons. Developers focused on realism. One enemy bullet ends our life really often and battle takes place here at distances, that many so called "snipers" from CoD would get a heart attack seeing it. Enough to say, that the enemy, which we will shoot, has the size of two pixels at common.

 Graphically OFP stands out from the modern standards. Primitive trees, simple models of buildings, characters and objects (even on release in 2001) do not look very beautiful. Limping animations have become a sign of the game under the sign of Bohemia. In return, however, we get a huge open world, around which we can travel freely. The world, despite the limitations of graphics, was really beautifully designed. Towns, forests, groves, farms, ruins and meadows create together a real harmonic whole.

  Availability and openness of the game engine and the presence of the built-in mission editor with a huge potential deserves on a separate long paragraph. With this openness and hard work of fans of the game a whole lot of additional missions, as well as lots of accessories including new vehicles, aircraft, troops and weapons was created, as well as the entire mods changing virtually everything - graphics, realities and possibilities.Among other things, mod which takes us back in time to the Civil War, the First World War, mod dedicated to Operation Barbarossa, the Finnish defense forces were created, or the famous FFUR that changes the game so much that it almost become the next part of the series.

 
Gameplay is a masterpiece and an essence of this game. It is a simulation of the real battlefield, where vigilance, cooperation with the team and thought-out tactics are nessesity. The key to success in the OFP is to remain hidden, knowing enemy position and fast attack on the enemy. Unlike games that usurp the title of "simulators" (Battlefield, I'm talking about you) here shooting is short and ends bloodily. If you do not think-out your movement, you'll end up three inches under the dirt. In the OFP every armored vehicle is deadly, anti-tank weapons is bulky and rare, and ammunition can only be obtained in corpses and rare ammo boxes. Sometimes we are faced with a choice: spend the remains of our resources to gain an arsenal, but risk to been compromised, or attack our main target with what we have, but with an advantage of surprise. Sometimes using cleverness, we are able to acquire the enemy vehicle and defeat him with his own weapon. I could talk hours about the game, but it's best to try it yourself! Be warned, however, that the difficulty level is so high that even first mission of the campaign could be a real challenge. In Operation Flashpoint don't give a second chance and even the number of saves in each mission is limited - here, as in real war, you make a mistake usually only once. But if you want to give it a try, I have some tips from a veteran for you:
- Remember that you are nothing. Actions alone arrive in 99% of total diseaster, so you need to take care of your teammates and as a member of the squad, follow leader orders.
- Lying should become your favorite position. While crawling you are really difficult to hit, so you should always fall to the ground when approaching (even distant) threat!
- Bushes are your best friend! If you can hide in the leaves of trees and shrubs, you are so good hidden, that you can flood unsuspecting enemies with a rain of steel and fire.
-Running in the open space = certain death.
- Rush is your biggest enemy. Before each movement, think three times, check the way, you have chosen, is safe, is there any enemy movement and ensure you have a way to safely retreat.

Garage menu finished!

Hi!

I have finished garage menu. All basic options (including color change for all three players) are implemented. I have just finished model with normal maps and I am quite proud of it!

You can rotate the tank around using A and D keys (it will be later replaced by auto-center on selected part mode) and camera by holding LMM and moving the mouse cursor around.

I have also started to rework basic player model. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

Looks much better than the old one.

I have also started a small project called "The Archer" as a playground for me and my crazy ideas. I need a place to test some new mechanics (eg. camera rotation was invented for The Archer and then put into The Tanks garage module) and try new features - I am trying to understand Blender animation module now to make tracks actually moving.

Work on garage continues [Update 2]

Hi!
Short post just about my garage progress and some minor issues. Firstly - screenshot:

You can now adjust camera (by clicking LMM and moving the mouse) AND the platform with tank - at the end I want to make the platform rotate and center on camera view a tank part that you select to change.

I have also disabled color customization for a while. I need to rework this module a little - but I have other important issues now.

A copule of textures, I decided to be finished, got normal maps. "Classic" player chassis is going to be reworked soon. I think, the garage will be finished today - at least without furniture and misc. things.

I think about "tank race game" based on The Tanks models - maybe as another game mode ;-)

[Update 1]
New color picker submenu ready. Now I need to add color picking script - but there are some more important issues (garage roof!).

[Update 2]
Color picker is working correctly! Yes, I know, I need to finish this damn roof...