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Hey,
I've been thinking lately about TL and what more we could to to become a better community. At the moment it is mainly focused on SC2. However a lot of members and active posters seem to 'know' what it takes for an RTS to be good.
Now this is we're I want to make a difference. I want to create our own RTS game. Ofcourse loosely inspired by SC but deffinetly not a copy. I want to include unique, inspiring, interesting gameplay in a fully functional 3d envirement.
I will begin working on this project from now on. I will however need to learn many things before I can code the game properly. I'm a master student of mechanical engeneering and have good knowledge of 3d vectors and tensor operations. The kinematics of the program will be no problem for me due to following courses on multibody dynamics and robotics.
What I'm however worried about is the 3d rendering and animations. I've had a little bit of game development experience in my minor using the microsoft XNA framework.
I'm however not sure if I want to use that. The XNA framework is large with lots of options. Since I however are not too formilure with these it can be a burden. Coding a graphix engine from scratch using direct3d11 might be better to have full control over the entire game.
My last problem is learning to make a netcode for the game to run onlinde. And what kind of structure would be needed, IE client - server or client-client.
At the current time I'm not far enough in the proces to ask for design advice. I'd like to hear if anyone has any advice for me. Do you recomend using a 'pre-built'engine like XNA or use the more diffecult way of learning the direct3d library and coding everythign myself for full control.
To show I actually have a little bit of an idea what I'm doing a litle asteroid demo
http://www.mediafire.com/?6sg83ofyj43bpw3
 
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You could just do it in 2D instead of 3D.
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On December 09 2010 00:28 Rudiment wrote:
You could just do it in 2D instead of 3D.
2D is not what im interested in. I hope to eventually create a well playable nice looking game.
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Don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like you've been struck by the "good idea fairy". What I mean by that is...sure, it COULD be a good idea, but the amount of time and money it takes to develop a game that doesn't suck is astronomical...and one man does not a development team make.
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On December 09 2010 00:54 Whiladan wrote:
Don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like you've been struck by the "good idea fairy". What I mean by that is...sure, it COULD be a good idea, but the amount of time and money it takes to develop a game that doesn't suck is astronomical...and one man does not a development team make.
Yeah I know it'll be a lot of work. But if I use the XNA game engine a lot the hard work is already done. I'm playing arround atm with a tutorial and already got a flying spaceship shooting rocks
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2D is probably better/more realistic. It can still be a "well playable nice looking game"...
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I am a student composer out of the Jacobs School of Music. I have scored for many student films and I am trying to extend my portfolio. If you are interested in getting any original, professionally made music for your game, PM me! I'd love to discuss further.
edit also for free. Portfolio extension! if your game makes it to alpha.
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Calgary26003 Posts
On December 09 2010 01:00 Marradron wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 00:54 Whiladan wrote:
Don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like you've been struck by the "good idea fairy". What I mean by that is...sure, it COULD be a good idea, but the amount of time and money it takes to develop a game that doesn't suck is astronomical...and one man does not a development team make. Yeah I know it'll be a lot of work. But if I use the XNA game engine a lot the hard work is already done. I'm playing arround atm with a tutorial and already got a flying spaceship shooting rocks
Cool, just follow the "making a complex 3D RTS" tutorial and you should be fine. Can't wait to see it.
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On December 09 2010 01:14 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 01:00 Marradron wrote:On December 09 2010 00:54 Whiladan wrote:
Don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like you've been struck by the "good idea fairy". What I mean by that is...sure, it COULD be a good idea, but the amount of time and money it takes to develop a game that doesn't suck is astronomical...and one man does not a development team make. Yeah I know it'll be a lot of work. But if I use the XNA game engine a lot the hard work is already done. I'm playing arround atm with a tutorial and already got a flying spaceship shooting rocks Cool, just follow the "making a complex 3D RTS" tutorial and you should be fine. Can't wait to see it.
yeah it's very unlikely that you'd be able to make a well polished RTS with multiplayer support. But don't let that stop you from trying! Any time spent tinkering around is time well spent learning how to code better. Maybe you want to reign the scope in a bit though, if you can make even a shell of an RTS then you've accomplished a lot.
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RTS? So hard...
Know what would be easier?
A card (or board) game!
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Good luck.
It will take a shit ton of time to finish it if you do it alone though. During the process you will get stuck at some point and here is where the danger lies. You will wonder if it is worth to keep going on or if you should just throw everything away.
I say that by experience, at a lot of points during development you will find yourself stuck at something, so if you really want to finish your project you will have to keep strong and continue your work.
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I understand the pessimism of most people. I'll just have to proof you wrong and show you I can do it. I'll update once I got something to show 
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Always good to be ambitious.
BUT, couldn't you just use the SC2 editor to make your own RTS instead? It's a VERY powerful tool. Basically, since you'd be making new models, animations, textures, etc. anyway with the project you propose, why not just take full advantage of the editor to create your game? Since you want the RTS to be inspired by SC anyway, I'd imagine the unit control and basic options would be the same. By using the editor, all of the engine work is already done for you.
This way, you can test out your idea before committing your time to building it from scratch. If your idea works out as well as you hope, THEN if you want you can port it to its own standalone game if you really want to.
No need to reinvent the wheel if you're not even sure your wheel will roll.
EDIT:
Also, if you're really serious about this, I would highly recommend you get a small team together. Even if it's just you and two other people, that's infinitely better than trying to do everything yourself. Trust me, with a project as big as an RTS, you WILL get burnt out, you WILL get stuck, and it WILL take you for ever.
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If you really plan to make a full game, then don't make the same mistake many people in your position make. Far too many people spend forever making prototypes and "experiments". You learn specific things like AI, pathing, animation, etc., but you never learn how to bring it all together.
First, try making a finished game with extremely simple gameplay like walking through a small maze to a goal. Have it complete with a title screen with new/load buttons, options for graphics/audio/controls, in-game pause menu with save/load buttons, a level select screen with later levels locked, have music and sound effects, and have the character animated. Just try to think of things that are general to all games, and include them in your practice game.
The reason I advise this is because if you can't handle doing that with a game as simple as walking around a maze, then you will have a hell of a time bringing together all of the gameplay and interface elements inherent in an RTS, one of the the most complex gaming genres you can develop in. Don't give up on it if you really want to do it, but underestimating the scope of your goal will just discourage you at crucial moments.
As for networking, make an online Tic Tac Toe game complete with lobby and chat, and spectating to learn the basics.
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On December 09 2010 02:57 G_G wrote:
If you really plan to make a full game, then don't make the same mistake many people in your position make. Far too many people spend forever making prototypes and "experiments". You learn specific things like AI, pathing, animation, etc., but you never learn how to bring it all together.
First, try making a finished game with extremely simple gameplay like walking through a small maze to a goal. Have it complete with a title screen with new/load buttons, options for graphics/audio/controls, in-game pause menu with save/load buttons, a level select screen with later levels locked, have music and sound effects, and have the character animated. Just try to think of things that are general to all games, and include them in your practice game.
The reason I advise this is because if you can't handle doing that with a game as simple as walking around a maze, then you will have a hell of a time bringing together all of the gameplay and interface elements inherent in an RTS, one of the the most complex gaming genres you can develop in. Don't give up on it if you really want to do it, but underestimating the scope of your goal will just discourage you at crucial moments.
As for networking, make an online Tic Tac Toe game complete with lobby and chat, and spectating to learn the basics.
I like the networking idea. At the moment I already have just created the astroid game. After relearning what I forgot about XNA it is quite easy.
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Good Luck, seems a rather feirce task your accepting there
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On December 09 2010 01:00 Marradron wrote:
I'm playing arround atm with a tutorial and already got a flying spaceship shooting rocks
Palestine vs Isreal.... IN SPACE@!!@!
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you honestly should build a 2D-engine gameplay prototype first. Even that is an incredible amount of work already but it sure has a way better prospect of getting "finished" than trying to build a complete 3D game from scratch.
If you can get a functional bare bone 2D concept you have a way better chance of finding others who will help you.
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It is not that diffecult to immediatly use 3d. All you need to know is how camera position, rotations and projections work. By first doing it in 3d and then doing 2d you might as well start of with 3d and just rotate and move on one axis.
I made a little test 'game' It's basicly just a copy of asteroids. You can see I added a bit of rotation to the astroids to prove its actually 3d. The camera is at a large height and thus it looks very 2d.
http://www.mediafire.com/?6sg83ofyj43bpw3
Not sure if it will work for everyone at the moment. Might need the .net frame or something + your resolution should be atleast 1200
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Germany2896 Posts
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I would love to see the code. Did you have to code the graphics directly using direct3d ? or did it have some further API ? Heres a screenshot of what I had on the astroid game.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/dOjsP.png)
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http://springrts.com/
Maybe look at this, it's an engine specifically for making rts's. Ofc there's still a ton to do but should be quite much simpler than other alternatives
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EPT![[image loading]](http://winner.cspsx.de/imgs/rts/Rev10.png)
