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Yes, I know it's a video game, but all you have to do is look at just how much detail we put into the environments and sponsors, considering what society might be like and the logical functions of it. Plus it's inspired by WipEout and we don't make "the sky toxic orange with 10 moons flying around it." We try to make it as believable as conceivably possible.
The Black Ops II Zombie example you gave is exactly what I based my model off of. They did have a set number, but if that number was higher than the number of zombies allowed on the map at one time, they would continue to spawn as the existing ones were killed. I think you have to have enough time with your single cannon pickup to make you ration it and use it strategically, i.e. reloading at every checkpoint, which was my original concept.
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Hmm... You do have a point. I guess you've won this argument. ;)
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Well, I hate to argue with you, I've liked you ever since you joined here and I still do, I just have a more "rough" vision of this mode, just a battle between machines, trying to survive, in a simple concept form. We'll see what Kai (docfo4r) says tomorrow and go from there. I am happy you care about this project too, and I'm not saying your ideas are bad, they just don't fit with the game the way they are, but like I said, we'll see, it's all good, mate :)
Anyway, my concept. I've set up a spreadsheet that shows the number of zombies in each wave and the number of Bosses and regular zombies in boss waves, which are every five waves. Carlos will come to assist you in boss waves, he will have a cannon as well. He will also come to replenish your energy after every five zombies you kill, even if he comes in during the wave, he just recharges your energy, does not fight, and drops back. However, Carlos does not assist you on boss waves 110 and 115, you are on your own, but he will still replenish your energy after the wave. I doubt anyone would even make it there, no one is supposed to ;). I'm thinking of adding an extra zombie every two rounds instead of every one, to make the mode take less time, but what are your thoughts on this idea?
Edit: Wow, forgot to even link it, that was dumb! :P
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...VE&usp=sharing
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I think that would be awesome. If you could put a download link to the spreadsheet by PM. Energy replenishing after every 5 kills? Well, that may be something to ask for as depending on the strength of the cannon you are given, I think that the Zombies should have about 75-90% of your health, and maybe have a power ram attack to ram, slow, and destabilize your craft. So, I think a good start is 10 Zombies. The thing is, the game would get fairly boring if the AI behaved exactly the same if only a maximum of 7 zombies were attacking you at the same time, as eventually you would develop a strategy to just kill all of the zombies, and just do it over and over again. So, if the AI would change every wave or so, or add more zombies to the mix, that might make things more interesting. Arenas (Not circuits) would probably make things also more strategic with obstacles and such. Also, how would Carlos behave during the boss waves?
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I debated between 5 and 10, and it would depend on the strength of the cannons, shields, etc. which will be up to the devs. I think the AI could have varying levels of strategy and aggression, but the only reason that I limit it to 8 ships on track at one time is simply because of game performance. Even my quad-core computer with Nvidia GeForce card stumbles every once in awhile with the current 8 ships in a race, and I have a feeling that too many more would make the game perform badly. I think it would be cool to have more, but it just may not be possible for hardware reasons. Arenas would be interesting, but environment design is one of the most time consuming parts of this project, and I don't know if it would be worth the time if you could run it on circuits.
As for Carlos, I imagined him going Rambo with proton cannon bolts flying from the front of his ship in every direction, but we'll see what Kai thinks ;)
And I will modify the zombie numbers in the spreadsheet. :)
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Well, the game just immediately crashes for me (I'm on a Mac btw), so I don't know how the game will perform on my laptop, but we'll just have to see how the devs react to our discussion.
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Yeah, we'll see what they like and what they don't, good discussion anyway though, we covered a lot of ground. :)
As for your laptop, the first problem is that it's a Mac (I'm a Windows guy), and maybe it just doesn't have the processing power to play it. My laptop runs it, but only at about 5 fps on the lowest settings possible.
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Hey Mike, try to use Stuffit Expander to unpack the thing on Mac instead of UnrarX, which destroys the package by unpacking for unknown reasons.
As for the Zombie mode: Well, I don't really want it to be too complicated, considering pickups and pause-menu tuning. It needs to be one "flow". Like in the Zone mode: If I hit pause and continue later on I most likely loose because I am out of the flow for that session.
No matter how many Zombie ships we use, when Carlos appear, what weapons are used etc. there is one key thing that I didn't figure out yet: You gotta destroy the Zombies using the Cannon, right? And the Zombies ram you. What I don't want is to take away the speed of the mode. So you gotta have to move forward constantly, at least if you are racing on a circuit rather than Sao Paulo. And for a Cannon to be effective, the Zombies need to be infront of you. So I am not really sure how we can solve this problem...
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Good point, Kai, I agree with everything you said. Maybe you could have two weapons, one activated by the fire button and one activated by the absorb button. One of the weapons could be a sort of mini-impulse blast, where there is just a small disruption and a little damage done. The other could be a minigun mounted on a swivel on the back of the ship that locks on to a ship and shoot it until it is destroyed or out of range, basically a lock on cannon. Each of these could be replenished at checkpoints and only reloaded to a certain amount of ammunition, making you ration it and use both weapons wisely. The cannon could have much more ammo than the impulse, making the impulse most useful in a tight pack. Basically, it would keep the same idea of a forward cannon, except it would be facing backward naturally and able to rotate 360* to fire on locked opponents. That's my best idea so far, but I may come up with something else later, so stay tuned. :D
Edit: I digitalized my Zombie ship concept for a more clean and smooth look, to give you an even better idea of what I envision it to be. :)
Attachment 8218 Attachment 8219
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Or, why not have a "Flip" button like in Eliminator that could allow us to fire backwards?
Good ideas so far though. The locking minigun seems a bit overpowered though, so why not give it less ammo than your main cannons (If they exist with the small impulse blast)? Also, nice Zombie ship design so far, looks like the FEISAR Prototype from 2048. If you want to have a sense of speed in this game mode, why not make Sao Paulo a fairly open track with some techinical sections to break it up somewhat?
Those are just some of my ideas (Quite exhausted, so I couldn't come up with more ATM).
Happy Thanksgiving / Hanukkah to all.
~Mike