(SSGX Origins) Let's make a Wipeout game! This time for real!

[Dusk118]

With all due respect, I would like to make the track icon for my track (Draco Cavernae). I'm rather picky on who works on my stuff. It's just how I am.

[feisar rocket]

We can make many more weapons!

Rapier, vampyre, etc... so many ideas...

[docfo4r]

Yeah I also think it would be cool to have some new kinds of weapons, so not all weapons are actually well known by Wipeouters. I played Fatal Inertia EX [a good future racing game, too] and they had a few nice weapons. They had this effect of letting me think "Wow, what was that just now?" when I fired it off!

Maybe we could have a weapon [call it "E-Disfunctioner"] which makes the glide controls go haywire on AI ships for a moment and if you got shot with it yourself, then for a moment the strongness of steering or acceleration variates between less and much. Also maybe you could do something with the HUD, letting it show up manipulated informations.

Another weapon could be some kind of weapon lockup for half a round [the one who got shot is not able to fire off a weapon or not able to collect a new weapon for an amout of time].

What about a time manipulation weapon? For example, you screwed up in a corner and lost some positions. You also got that time manipulation weapon collected. You fire it up and either you see the time goes backwards or you see a black hole coming up infront of you making the entire race go back 5 seconds or so. You are infront of the corner again and get a second change so to say.


...of course some things might be hard to realise, but just to give you guys an idea. Maybe it would be cool to have something more than just fire weapons.

[TypeProton]

Umm... We're still in Wipeout universe people... :/

edit : I mean we shouldn't have too many weapons. Especially one that have the role overlaps with other weapons. It's also about player reliance on weapon pad randomization. I, for one, would not like it when I have to try my luck on 10+ weapons in a race. That's too much for me.

[Xpand]

....
What about a time manipulation weapon? For example, you screwed up in a corner and lost some positions. You also got that time manipulation weapon collected. You fire it up and either you see the time goes backwards or you see a black hole coming up infront of you making the entire race go back 5 seconds or so. You are infront of the corner again and get a second change so to say.
....

That has a name, it's called cheating!

[Oryx Crake]

perhaps we ought to make a list of suggested weapons and see what everyone thinks. personally I would like it if weapons didn't play such a hug part of whether you win or not but then I'm a racing purist ^^; on the other hand without a multiplayer option I suppose the point is moot. by the way there have been control disruptors before. I think it might have even been in wo 1 I know for sure there was in wo 2097 there it was called electro bolt and it made your craft shake and be harder to control. I think there was one in pulse or pure too but that one was more random, then there was the grav stinger and gravity bomb in fusion.

[Cipher]

haha! electro bolt! good days, never knew what it did, didn't notice anything when it got fired on me xD
and aah yes, gravity bomb in fusion, god i hated that thing

Cipher

[zero3growlithe]

My fourth attempt to make a good HUD: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink (failed xd)
btw. What u guys think about health system where u have health and shield separate where health is not regenerating itself and shield do regenerate but is pretty weak?
EDIT: A little better version of HUD: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

[Xpand]

Aw gawd, that HUD!

The shield idea is nice, I say go. Then we could probably attempt to make some sort of part's shop, where you can costumize things like shield strength and regenaration time..

[TypeProton]

Get rid of unnecessary line (those frame) and it's perfect!
Agree on shield idea. But how do we repair it during race?

About the weapon list I'll start with my own first then let other add up or change it :
- Turbo
- Auto-Pilot
- Cannon
- Missile
- Rocket (Standard 3 shot)
- Shield
- Plasma
- Quake
- Mine
- Bomb
- Repulse (Based on WO Pulse's Repulsor. An energy burst that pushes surrounding opponent away from user. Will defeat Rocket,Missile and Plasma if it comes into contact.)
- Leech (Leech Beam)
- Wall (Fire a ball forward to another 'lane' (WO3's Force Wall style) that deploy into a wall that will damage anyone that crashes through it, Almost like Zone Barrier in Wipeout HD Fury Zone Battle mode.)
- Counter (Temporary energy field that envelope the user. Will defect 1 salvo of any weapon fired at it. Lock-on weapons will be defected back at the shooter. If Leech is used on it, the link will break instantly and zap 30 shield points off Leech's user)

[Xpand]

That counter weapon is almost like the WO3's blue repulsing shield (I can't remember it's name though)...

[docfo4r]

That has a name, it's called cheating!

^^
Well, did you ever play "Voltage" before? It's a nice glider-racer, too [althought the controls are not so great]. Since it's only russian on PC version, I can't tell you the name of the weapon but there is a weapon which activates an autopilot for 2 seconds, and in that time all AI ships freeze up and you travel forward a little faster. It was interesting to see but of course such kind of weapons should be rare to get. Otherwise it'll be frustrating if someone else uses them as much as a shield for example.

I also don't talk about having 10+ weapons, but maybe not to have only weapons who come from Wipeout. Why don't we think of something cool for ourselfes? We could at least replace the Canon...

[Oryx Crake]

I think we should keep it simple weapon wise, I like the weapon ideas so far but the more complex the weapon system the more chance of bugs and glitches and so on, the gravity bomb in fusion was horrible for that for example, sometimes it just shut off the ag generator in the craft within it's area of effect but sometimes a ship would be pulled towards it violently instead ending up in a wall somewhere it was especially unpredictable in loops and on mandarshee if I remember correctly

by the way the reflective shield in wo3 was called simply reflector

also for weapon systems

it could be an idea of instead of having pickups you get to choose what... say 5 different pickups you carry before a race and you get a set number of all these depending on which you've chosen. call it activation slots on the ship where you have say 20 and each pick up takes up a set amount of activation slots. say for example that a quake takes up 7 activation slots, a turbo 5 a shield 2 and a canon 1 so you could have for example: "2 turbos, 1 quake 1 shield and 1 canon" in your craft before a race and you have to be careful with how you use your stuff. that way the weapons become less random and the game more strategic. If these would be used to replenish energy the amount you'd regain would have to be higher perhaps but it would also mean that you cant be too wild with barrel rolls etc.

Just a thought

[docfo4r]

I like the idea!

Another variation could be, like you say a ship can only carry a certain amount of usables [weapons, turbos, shields etc.]. For example, you have 4 free slots. Each weapon fills up a slot. So you could choose to take a turbo, a shield, a leech beam and a quake on board. And in the race, you have an unlimited amount of the things you chose. But you have to fly over a pad to activate them for use. So before you flew over a pad, the weapons are available, but you can' fire them off. And once you got over the pad, you can fire of a weapon, or use a turbo or a shield. And once you used that, you need to fly over a pad again. Just an idea...

Also for the pads: We could instead also maybe create light beams on the track, something like a weapon release energy powerup instead of pads to fly over. And you have to fly through that beam from beginning to end to charge up enough energy to be able to use a weapon. If you get out of the beam too early, you won't be able to use your weapon and that release energy is back at 0%. This could be well used to make difficult tracks even more difficult [for example to place such a beam in a corner] or an easy track [to place the beam on a wide and straight section of the track]. Of course the beams shouldn't be very long, maybe as long as flying over 4 pads in a row in Wipeout.

But I see a problem on Oryx and on my idea about the weapon system: If we allow the player to select some weapons before the race, then we have to give him the ability to scroll through the weapons while in race to choose which one he wants to use or we have to define buttons, like 1 2 3 and 4 to use weapon slot 1, weapon slot 2, ws 3 and ws 4...

[Oryx Crake]

Yeah doc for scrolling I was thinking there is always in wipeout that one unused button in the case of HD it's the one used for 180 degree turn in eliminator and emp in detonator I can imagine a way in which this would work when playing on a keyboard as well. It would would only allow for scrolling in one direction but if you only have 4 or 5 options that might not be too big a problem, alternately holding down the same button and using up and down key to switch between the weapons. I like the idea of activation pads though.

Also let's say that you wanna get the race started quickly we could allow for the player to setup a set of quick race profiles, say three of them so they dont have to pick all the weps individually every time they race.

[docfo4r]

Oh, right. That's a good thing about the quick race profiles!

Hey that would definately be a cool thing to have that in Slipstream GX!

[zero3growlithe]

How about that:
During race player have 3 arrays of weapons: shooting, help & mines category. Weapon pad hit by player draws one of 3 colors (pink{shooting}, green{help}, blue{mines}) and weapon selection in player's array sets itself on first slot of category according to WP color. If player will hit next WP without using selected weapon the selection moves one slot further in same category. As for elements they are placed in categories according to their usefulness which we will decide when weapons will be accomplished. What u guys think?

[zero3growlithe]

Doh, ok maybe I'll do a little final game project overview (what will it include not what is now):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Important: Save Game Preferences (+ Auto Save Feature)
Game Modes:
- Campaign (where u can get money for upgrades)
- Zone
- Battle Arena (something like battlezone multiplayer as I think it would be quiet fun mode)
- BA Options: Arena Battle (fighter) or Track Battle (chaser)
- Single Race
- Simulation Mode (i'm not sure about this mode as it is quiet impossible to fly with this thing in real life as for me... it would be pretty unplayable and not very attractive among players due to many and easy ship crashes and high difficulty)
- Speed Lap (do what u want, beat your lap records)
- Time Trial (beat your whole race time)
- Normal Eliminator (WOHD like)
- Survival (Battle Arena + weapon upgrades + many enemy ships + game play similar to this = fun (as for me xd))
- Multiplayer (...)

Number of ships and tracks: Mods and ship/track adding possibility (EDIT: impossible right now)

Available Speeds: Venom/Flash/Rapier/Phantom (the end)

Options:
- Music Playlist (Built-In, Play mode: Sequence/Random, Possibility of adding new tracks (?))
- Sounds Volume
- HUD Selection (yeah, becouse it's hard to decide which one to take although Oryx's got most votes )
- High Score Tables
hmmm, I'll add some later as I think I forgot something...

Garage:
- view your ships
- upgrade their stats
- change textures (well, I'll think of something on how to achieve that after I'll make Save feature work)
- Ship Creator ( I was just playing game called Spore and it has ship editor from which I got an idea of making an build-in ship creator )

Weapons: Discussions in progress... xd

On track:
- Speed and Weapon Pads
- Weapon Absorbing to replenish energy (i suppose it's the best and easiest solution)

Player's Ship:
- side shifts
- side shift charge slam (double press and hold button to hit stronger)
- using weapons
- pitching
- barrel rolling
- air breaks

Some Eye Candy effects overview:
- when in menu: after selecting ship camera moves behind selected ship and shows as garage doors are opening (light is really strong so you can't see what is outside, from outside there are quiet sounds of loud crowd) and ship's engine is starting, ship starts fast with nice sound effects and camera flies behind it to the light where loading of track begins (you still hear this stupid crowd screaming), when track loads up this fkin light which made you blind disappears slowly finally and shows track from different perspectives and what not you can imagine (hola hola, not so far xd) and when player push button game is asking for u can finally begin this damn race
- during race: when player's health (or enemy's) reach 0, his ship begins to burn really fast (ship is still controllable for... 1-2 seconds?) and after that explodes making it fly... somewhere to the space... and when it hit something hard then it explodes totally but if not then it will just wait for some other ship to hit and destroy it xd Oh and while it's burning before exploding u can hit something hard to destroy it right away ^.^d Go ahead xd

I thinks that's all for now... and give me answer about which HUD to take and send me it's source files (*.psd file or other with layers) and decide on weapon system so everything will be clear Oh. and if there is an idea I've skipped here just let me know as I wrote everything i remembered or thought about.
btw. Looongest post in this threeeeaaaaaad, yeeeeaaaaah!!!

[Oryx Crake]

I like the idea of hud selection man. I like all the hud styles we have now so picking just one doesn't feel right, how about we make them attainable through campaign mode just like in HD.
Also I haven't animated my hud style any but I hope that's alright. I made it in illustrator so it's a vector graphic file hope thats alright. Also I think I should tweak it a little take into consideration what people have said and so on. Get it to you soon as possible.

[Xpand]

Hey, what about animations? Can't you make some sort of script that will take the tagged airbrake parts and animate them along their axis?