Game idea! Feedback wanted.

I spent 2 years trying to develop a game almost exactly as you described. It failed. So... good luck.

I think the idea sounds better with robots. The fight plans could be some type of simplistic player-programmable AI. Robot parts could be upgraded with the money earned from a match. When players don't have much money, they could come up with clever or sneaky AI to beat a better-equipped opponent.

Thanks for the feedback. Could I ask why the game failed? Lack of interest or just problems in putting it together?

Sounds very much like the game Pyrosaur, which goes back to DOS days. You'd create a fire-breathing dinosaur, edit his moves and strategies, and pit him against another dinosaur.

I just don't remember it working on my computer at the time. :P


This kind of idea sounds like an interesting programming experiment. As a game, I can't get past the idea that once my character is in battle, I have no more control, but I get it: The fun would lie in watching the fight play out, going back and rebuilding after the dust settles to get it right or make it better.

But give it a shot. [smile] Could be fun.

I think I'll give it a shot. It has a lot of interesting directions I can take it. I'll keep you updated! Right now I'm looking for Pyrosaur :).

I came up with a possible algorithm for incorporating the speed attribute today. Tomorrow... the world!

Quote:

Original post by Benjamin Heath Sounds very much like the game Pyrosaur, which goes back to DOS days. You'd create a fire-breathing dinosaur, edit his moves and strategies, and pit him against another dinosaur. I just don't remember it working on my computer at the time. :P

I was going to point out the game as well. I didn't have a modem back then, so I could only make the dinosaurs and run them in simulation.

The game is out there somewhere; I found the site last year, but I can't remember where. The server isn't running though, so you won't be able to actually play; just be able to make a team of dinosaurs.

There's a game in the announcements board right now that uses the same core concept: Tile Wars. You may want to check that thread to see some of the problems that can pop up. It's an interesting idea but implementing it well requires some thought - and playtesting sessions.

Because no human input is necessary, the game would make a good candidate for a web based game. Like 'Kings of Chaos' or one of those sport management games. Users can create an account, make a robot and enter a league/tournament to win cash for more upgrades.

I'm sorry this is a far cry for a VB coder, but the idea is there for those web developers out there.

Have a look at Roboships for an interesting way you could program without having to learn code (you still have to think like a programmer :D )

Yea, I'm a VB/C++ coder. I chose VB because as far as text-based games go, it's just easier. Thanks for all the feedback, I am checking into some of those similar games for ideas. I'm still working on the actual system for simulating the fights and brainstorming character creation so I can get everything right before I start the heavy code. Oh the power of pseudocode.

I just about have the whole character creation process finished.

The AI part is pretty simple, you assign percentages to different skills and these are used to select your characters actions. There are two sets of skills per class, attack skills and defense skills. I'm thinking about changing it to six different sets of skills; attack above 75% health, attack above 25% health, ect. to add more strategy to it and slightly lower lucks role.

When creating your character you choose characteristics such as name, gender, age, race, class. I was wondering if there were any other characteristics that would be interesting to see, to make every character truely unique.

Maybe status (nobility, commoner, soldier) or appearence (battle-worn & scarred, myserious). Alignment (lawful-good, chaotic-evil).

Equipment is unique. There are different sets of balanced armor and different balanced weapons. One armor may lean more towards ranged defense, one towards magic defense. One sword may be lighter and quicker, one may be slower and stronger, one may be better at parrying. Each weapon set and armor is planned to have customization options also, custom grip, green dye, ect.

Anyways, a lot of this stuff is in-place, but before I move on to the simulation part I want to have everything in place and the character creation process to be fairly in-depth.

So any feedback, thoughts, ideas would be appreciated.

Once the character creation process is finished, I'll post a screenshot.

There was a old PSX game called Carnage Heart. It was a turned based stratigy title with real time battles. The player developed robots and had to program them useing a innovative and simple programing interface featureing the placement of tile basied "chips" that could be interconnected.

Battles were fought three on three and useing certain "chips" your robots could communicate with each other in simple ways to cordinate attacks/defense. Very deep game. With the right program a basic robot could clean the clock of a much more powerful robot with average or below intelligence. Additionaly the game allowed players to fight head to head by shareing robot programs saved to thier memory cards.

I said I'd get a screenshot up soon. This is the most basic possible screen of the fight sim engine. It is lacking 90% of the depth, it just includes two classes with a minimal number of skills and very basic AI.

I planned on having more done, but I got 4 wisdom teeth taken out.



Main purpose of this is just to show something got done.

Still plenty of time to make suggestions, I'm just not a robot person though. =P