Scratch

Elite48 · 2012-02-24 18:47:38

I'm working on a galactic rts based losely on Sega's Total War games. A link to the unfinished project is below. Check out what I have so far and see if you are interested. If so, reply and I will consider adding your name to the final project. I will be posting a list of technical aspects that I need help with, opinions that I want from testers, and things that I am currently working on shortly.

http://www.scratch.mit.edu/projects/Elite48/2354203

Happypieman · 2012-02-25 15:40:26

Yes, i will help, so what is there to do? big_smile

Elite48 · 2012-02-25 21:30:07

Technical things I need help with:
- cutting down on inefficient scripts in the selection process: I tried to make as few sprites as possible do as much as possible but I think there is a better way.
- button transition glitch: this glitch happens almost every time I play through the game. When you push a button in the selection process, the same button is pushed immediately when the next background loads. It's a little hard to describe so here's an example project that has the same problem: http://www.scratch.mit.edu/projects/Elite48/2195754
The problem is much more apparent in this project. Bascially, the last item that player 1 selects cannot be selected by player 2. The button does not show up. I have tried many times to fix this but can't figure it out.
- resource gather rates: I need a currency system that makes sense but can't figure anything out. First of all, I need a base system. For example: in Starcraft, SCVs gather at a rate of 5 minerals. In Galaxy Total War, your two resources, materials and energy, are gathered at changing rates. I just need a reasonable gather rate of material and energy/second.

Opinions from testers
- ship aesthetics: I am considering making an option in the selection process than alters your combat ships' appearance. The options I am thinking of are Star Wars Imperial theme, Halo Reach Covenant theme, and Starcraft Protoss theme. I want to know if this is a good idea because right now I'm thinking of skipping this and just doing classic sci-fi theme for all ships.
- energy and material: should there be two resources or just one? My plan was to have ships and buildings cost an upfront price of "x" material and then constantly drain a small amount of energy. Farms and factories would produce materials and energy plants such as solar, nuclear, etc. would produce energy.
- factions: how many should there be? I'm certainly not making this like Rome Total War where there are like 20+ factions because it would simply be too much for Scratch. So how many should there be? I was thinking like 4 or 5.
- other factions themes: What theme should other factions have? Should they all be human or would there be some alien factions?
- battles: how to do them? I originally wanted to do semi-Rome Total War battles in which you commanded several ships at once against an AI. The problem is, you can't make too many ships in Scratch and I can't make an AI. Instead, I was thinking of doing Advance Wars style battles with ships fighting each other 1 on 1.
- buildings: what other types of buildings should there be? Right now I have: Capital City (start with, limit=1), Factories (materials, limit=10), Farms (materials, limit=20), Nuclear Power Plants (energy, limit=5), Solar Power Farms (energy, limit=10), Space Port (trade, limit=1), Orbital Station (military, limit=1), Planetary Canon (defense against asteroids and enemy ships, limit=3). What other ideas do you have?
- diplomacy/trade: how to interact with other factions? In Empire Total War, you just open a diplomacy window and are presented with several options such as "trade rights, alliance, declare war, tribute, ceasefire, etc." I don't want diplomacy in Galaxy to be that complicated. I think it should be limited to "trade rights, declare war, ceasefire" but what do you think?

Stuff I'm working on right now:
- making an in game Menu Screen that pops up when space bar is pressed and presents the player with options: Galactic Council, Planet Stats
- making a stats screen that shows you population, population growth, number of military ships, government type, and gather rates
- making a Galactic Council screen that displays the other factions and your policies towards them (i.e. trade, at war, neutral)
- making a space laser (Planetary Canon)
- making asteroids that periodically crash into your planet and destroy stuff they hit (unless you have a Planetary Canon that is)

I will add more as work progresses but for now I'm mostly interested in your opinions (and if you have a fix for the button transition glitch). I want to make a serious Scratch game that is accessible and engaging for all players. Thanks for your help!

Happypieman · 2012-02-26 13:44:59

WELL THEN, where do I start? First of all, rate of resource gathering: Why not make it 2 per second? Two is a nice number.

For the sprites not showing up properly, just use everything as a different sprite! That's what I do. And by the way, if Spice Pirate only takes up 300kb, how does this take up 3mb?

Now as for battle, I think the most efficient battle engine in scratch would b to use a battle screen. The battle does not start until you push start (and you won't need to do anything until the end of the battle), and the winner is determined by the faction with the largest amount of troops added to their advantage which is determined when you push 'Battle'. You also have an advantage but whether or not yours is bigger is determined by the planetery defence and attack techniques you and the enemy use.There are a few, including but not limited to:
--Planetary Defence
=Worker rally, really weak, but it's strength is determined by your worker population.
+10% -20% to your advatage depending on population.
=Planetary cannon, strong, but not too much of an advantage. +30% to your advantage
=Bio warfare, you need a LABORATORY to do this. -50% to your enemy's advantage.
=Nuclear holdback, you need a Nuclear Missile Plant. +150% adavntage, but has a 40-50% chance of destroying some buildings.

I will post the planetary attack bit later, as there is something I must do.

Elite48 · 2012-02-28 00:19:43

If I make it 2per second, how much should the buildings cost? It should be proportional to the importance of the structure.

I actually tried using different sprites for the Chopper War game and experienced the same problem. I think it has something to do with the screens changing before the buttons can load and thus, the same location is clicked twice in what appears to be one click. If that makes sense, which it probably doesn't.

The game is close to 3mb because of the detailed planet images which can be accessed in game by clicking on the "advanced options" button in the selection process.

For the battles I'll probably do exactly what you suggested and just have the unit with the most ships in it win (if they're the same unit type) and the strongest unit win otherwise. If you have a Planetary Canon when enemy ships arrive, one ship from every one of their units will be destroyed.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "worker population." I wasn't planning on having gatherers like in Starcraft or Age of Empires just buildings that produce resources.

The Laboratory and Nuclear Missile Plant buildings were good ideas. I'm thinking we use those to unlock different types of military ship units.

I'm very interested in the planetary defense bit because I can't figure our how I should make the other factions attack you when you go to war. I was also thinking of putting a Star Map option on the in game options screen that lets you see the other planets for the other factions.

Happypieman · 2012-02-28 14:22:03

It does make sense, don't worry, i get it. Building cost? Read the bit below.

My next idea is big, and could potentially change your game completely. How about making it a Turn-Based game. This way, every turn you could have a random chance of something happening or not happening. Turn based games are more time intensive, but I like them better than RTS games, because you can actually just wait a while and see what your colony/enemy/everything is doing. Another point of this: Buildings are low cost, unless you buy them straight up, but they take a few turns to build. Then you can have upgrades!

I was working on something interesting, a technology tree! I since have lost the project, but it is easy to remake. You start off with the most basic technologies, Basic Communications (which leads off into diplomatic stuff, reforming your empire, changing to democracy if you are a theocracy ect.), Basic warefare (Self Explanatory), Basic Constructon (which leads into Economics, Planet improvement, Better farms, Planetary Defence) and Basic Research(which then goes into better research facilities, better ships and ~~~=+=!!STARBASES!!=+=~~~.. More advanced technologies mean that it takes a base time (usually more) - your technology level. If you have a better technology level, the less time it will take to research things.

And remember this...

1 turn=1 week

So that's my whole plan revealed, but I probbly will think of something else later too so... oh! Planetary Attack methods.

-Information warfare, convince some of the enemy to join you. No advantage, but some soldiers will join you.
-Traditional Warfare, no added advantages.
-Mass Drivers, lauch meteors onto the opponents planet! +200% advantage, but about 70-80% of buildings will be destroyed.
-Gas warfare, -100% advantage to the opponent, but 30-50% of building are destroyed.

I will post more stuff soon!

Happypieman · 2012-02-28 21:17:53

And as for you clicking problem, just make the things wait a bit before loading.

wait [0.5] seconds

Elite48 · 2012-02-29 00:10:06

I tried using the wait__seconds command but it doesn't help.

The problem with turn based strategy is that it would force me to make an actual AI. With rts, I can simulate an AI by making enemy ships show up (when you go to war) on time intervals based on another faction's military level. For example: you go to war with faction X, faction X has been constantly increasing its militarylevel variable since the start of the game, as soon as you go to war, faction X's ships are prompted to attack you so they wait (militarylevel) number of minutes, after that time (militarylevel) number of ships and (militarylevel/2) unit types appear at the edge of your planet screen and proceed to attack your ships until all either all the attacking ships or all the defending ships are defeated, if you have an orbital canon one ship from every enemy unit (each unit being about 4 ships) will be deleted before the attack begins.

This way, I won't have to make an actual AI, I can just make one or two "militarylevel" variables for each faction that will determine how much and by what unit types you get attacked when you go to war.

The tech tree is a brillian idea! My original plan was to make a university building that would increase your research rate and thus improve you technology eventually allowing you to build more advanced stuff. But the tech tree is a much better idea.

I think I'm going to draw up a HUD that will show unit and building details for units and buildings that you left click on. I'm going to make a university sprite that, when clicked, will display different research options. These research options will take minutes to load and will unlock new buildings and, eventually, new space ships.

Thanks for the idea.

Also, you had asked earlier if you could use some of the sprites and images. The answer is of course you can. But, I should warn you that the more detailed planet images from the advanced options section are all pulled directly from Google Images.

Happypieman · 2012-02-29 13:40:28

Hmm, i thought it would work.

Anyway, the turn based game. I forgot about having to make an actual ai. I could try and experiment with it, but knowing me and AI history, it's not going to be that good. I have had a look around the wiki on AI, so that may help.

I can easily re-do the tech tree, and i have a plan of action. I'll make a new project so that you just import it. Be sure to have the tech tree open button set to the same broadcast which will probably just be 'opentt'.

However i was thinking, you shouldn't need a university, a Laboratory might be better ,but even then they will just increase your research ability. I think you should be able to start researching from the very start of the game. However, should opponents be able to research? Maybe they have a focus, and they will mainly research that. However, if they are beaten in battle, they will decide that they will need to research something to do with war! They should also be able to sense wether they are being beaten by xx in tech xx in which case they should focus on that area. Of course they don't get it instanly, they have to research it like you.

I suppose a Turn based game is a bit tricky.

Happypieman · 2012-02-29 13:51:17

Another thing, technologies dont just help you build stuff, they give you bonuses too! Supposing you researched Basic Diplomacy, you might get a +5 diplomacy bonus.

So what do you think about the ~~~=+=!!STARBASES!!=+=~~~ ? You can build them and they will give you a bonus in three categories, Economy, Military or Influence. You can also upgrade them to attack, provide better bonuses or help your ships in battle. This means they will provide an advantage while being attacked.

Happypieman · 2012-03-04 00:20:05

bump for you!

Elite48 · 2012-03-05 15:00:40

Starbases is a good idea. How about when you conquer an enemy faction's planet by destroying their capital you will be presented with two options: Harvest (enslave populace, planet starts producing resources for you), and Starbase (builds a Space Port that doubles your allowed population of combat ships).

Also, do you have any ideas about the alien factions? How many should there be and what should their themes be?

Scratch

archived forums

#1 2012-02-24 18:47:38

Galaxy Total War help wanted

#2 2012-02-25 15:40:26

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#3 2012-02-25 21:30:07

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#4 2012-02-26 13:44:59

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#5 2012-02-28 00:19:43

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#6 2012-02-28 14:22:03

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#7 2012-02-28 21:17:53

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#8 2012-02-29 00:10:06

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#9 2012-02-29 13:40:28

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#10 2012-02-29 13:51:17

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#11 2012-03-04 00:20:05

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

#12 2012-03-05 15:00:40

Re: Galaxy Total War help wanted

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