Modules 4: Other

Like last time, I am going to start off with what progress I have made. I already mentioned I only had one beginner tutorial left to finish, so I started on the Intermediate and was hoping to add MyGUI to this program, substituting that experience for the seventh tutorial on CEGUI. So after finishing the tutorial which should how to do basic animation, I started on the additional work. These started with small things like adding a new node and making the robot walk farther since the tutorial only gives two spots before idling. I did have a minor problem with the changing of idling to the death animation, for some reason instead of playing once, the animation looped, leaving the robot looking like he was a child's blow-up punching bag. Adding a key binding to add a new location was a little more involved since it required adding all of the key and mouse binding to override the defaults set up in the program. This part did error once, for some reason once the walking animation had finished and the robot was idling, it would crash when adding a new spot to walk. This is because it was clumsily coded and a fail-safe for an empty queue was not implemented, nothing real big. This pretty much finished what I was doing with that tutorial, so I moved on to adding MyGUI to this set of code, which should have been easy since most of the work was in adding the key and mouse bindings into the tutorial. I can add the class and even initialize it without a problem, but once I try to do anything with it I get an APPCRASH error about ms-singleton, for which I have not really found a cure. So my hope is to get CEGUI up and running sometime this week and finish that tutorial like it was suppose to be done. The GUI is a requirement for the second intermediate tutorial which is why I did not move on with the tutorials.

Now, on to more in game items. So far I have covered lasers, missiles and mines. Now I am going to cover some of the odder modules which can be added to the tank.

Shields are a default part of every tank, with a given strength in both the front and the rear of the tank. With the addition of a shield amplifier, which takes up a module, an additional layer of shielding may be added to the tank. This shielding has the same defensive value as the default shield, note that this is equivalent for all tanks since it it the armor value and not the shields that is higher and lower in some tanks (trying to worry about balancing before programming is a fun task). The main difference is how the shields can be applied. The shielding can be move in quarters between the front and the rear (meaning the back can range from 0.5, 0.75, ..., 1.5 to the front's values of 1.5, 1.25, ..., .5; note these always sum to two which is the value of two times the default shielding which is naturally 0.5 front to 0.5 back and these cannot be moved, even with the shield amplifier).

The Extra Battery takes two modules. This attachment to the tank doubles the amount of time that can be spent in enemy territory. Note that the second cell is considered off-line, and thus unaffected by any weapons which may have drained the first battery, until the first battery is dead. It is this added protection from battery destroying weaponry that makes the extra battery worthwhile.

Reconnaissance satellite communicator is an interesting use of modules. While unsure of exactly how many modules it will take up, this will probably be somewhere between 4 and 6. This can be just as destructive to the enemy team as any missile. While standing within range of a neutral reconnaissance point, this is a small circle but not requiring the player be directly on top of the point, this communicator can be activated. A satellite is drawn from the base to the neutral point as long as no other player from any team has a satellite already coming to the point. Satellites over the base are only at one quarter health and do not gain any while in transit. Once over the point, the satellite will slowly regain health. Once inside the safe zone (health > 90) the satellite will fire on enemies with bounties being split among the satellite's team if the satellite get the kill or assist. The satellite will stop attacking when its health is in the danger zone (health < 80) until it is back in the safe zone. Satellites over the base will attack regardless of the health level. When a satellite is destroyed there is a cool-down period the team must wait before the satellite is replaced. Please note this cool-down refers to how long until the number of satellites is back to full count, not how often the communicator can be used. Well played, several satellites can be called to a point if necessary. The total number of these satellites is two plus the number of reconnaissance points at maximum.

Communication satellite also requires a significant number of modules, 4 to 6 like the reconnaissance satellite, but for a different reason. The reconnaissance satellite always a new point to recharge batteries and weapons as well as offering a small amount of cover fire power. The communication satellite is an individualized satellite. It can be destroyed like the reconnaissance satellite, but the cool-down for the satellite to respawn is also personal. This means without two of these, one would need to wait until the timer finished (note this can be accelerated but not voided by waiting on a reconnaissance point) to get the satellite back. This satellite has much less health than the reconnaissance satellite but deals quite a bit more damage. This is meant as a weaker alternate to missiles, which can be drawn to full at any reconnaissance point, but with a more continuous rate of damage. The satellite is not targeting, and will attack the first enemy target in range until the enemy is out of range, then it moves closest to furthest. The animation should have the satellite pointing down until an enemy is in range, the the satellite should align to fire. When idle the satellite moves over the calling player randomly, drawn towards directly overhead.

Well this is the first part of those miscellaneous modules, more to come next time if I do not get CEGUI up and working to finish tat last beginner tutorial and the next intermediate tutorial.

~gunnah