Ballistic NG - Wipeout fan project

[il_mago_di_Doz]

The void space is actually for the weapon icons when those were made, in an attempt to have a HUD that was completely at the bottom.

Well, now it makes sense!

[Thane Corrigan]

I like the segmented design of the left one, it harkens back to the Wipeout 64 hud (the game is pretty underrated, tbh).

But yeah, in terms of actually conveying information, the right hand one is much more streamlined and less confusing to the eyes. Playing around with the style a little, I'm wondering if it would benefit from small notches along the shield gauge each 10%/25%, but not exactly banding all the way across the shield bar. Some people identify numbers quicker while others identify visuals easier, so reinforcing the shield percentage at certain points down the bar, especially at critical levels, would probably help a lot.

[mdhay]

Kinda funny you should mention the resemblance! http://imgur.com/ExZkodL

Yeah, that's a great point about marking out critical thresholds- right now the red portions are still left over from experiementing for my uni project where I converted the shield gauge into engine RPM. I'll have a crack at it and see how I get on!

Cheers!

[Thane Corrigan]

The wiki has gone a little quiet. Anyways, I've updated a number of things on Caliburn - just the Team Director spiel and a little play around on the stuff in the loading screen team info, but nothing too substantial on the backstory.

The different username is because I completely forgot what my other wikia log-in was.

[TheXTR09]

Wow, game's starting to gain momentum here.

I like the HUD a lot, fits quite nice to Designers Republic's style. Should look good if it can adapt to the teams' liveries.

Holidays' over. I was going to come up with a HUD but nooooo, I was too busy fiddling with CS: Source mods and Wings Of Vi before Doomsday comes. Great.

[mdhay]

Yeah, it is going to have the colours adapt to team liveries.

I put the HUD together because I'm designing some AG craft of my own, that are mostly* accurate from an engineering perspective. I wanted something like this in the glass cockpit, so why not kill two birds with one stone?

*Really stretching it, there, but it's using currently existing technology. Okay, xpand?

[il_mago_di_Doz]

This game is becoming more awesome every day; I think that you must experiment and implement your ideas more, it already has enough WipEout-ish feeling

[TheXTR09]

I happened to stumble upon these Unity projects while on my school's computer club class.
https://youtu.be/tHIRZ65Qeks
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MxcLA--2v-Y

The one on the bottom actually has it's source code publicly available.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Not so hot on the short render distance, needs more fog if you are going to do that.

Unrelated to issues of render distance;
Is it possible that we might get unlockable low-poly SSGX ships as well as the importable W3O/2097 ships?

[mdhay]

[...]as the importable W3O/2097 ships?

That's a copyright violation, so I highly doubt that'd happen.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

In the past, there was a video uploaded where some tracks would let you play with extra ships, though none of them had any models and data; you were supposed to import them, but the description said that you could use the models and stats of the Wip3out or 2097 ships. The only reason they weren't included with the game was, as you said, Copyright.

The video where I saw this was on Von Snake's channel.

[bigsnake]

The ability to import ships from the original Wipeout games by reading the files from the disk is planned, but no where did I specify that you can import Wip3out ships. The reason is simply because next to nothing is known about Wip3out's data structures so it's unlikely being able to import them in the near future is going to happen.
The video you're talking about is this one.

[AGgamer]

Can someone please post the stat distributions of the ships and/or the backstories of the teams?

[bigsnake]

The final stats are still to be decided but here's here a document containing the story for the game's world, team lore and stats, copied straight out of the game's design doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

All this information will be on the wiki at some point, I would have done it sooner but I've been caught up with college as of recently.

[AGgamer]

The final stats are still to be decided

BALLISTIC NG STAT BALANCE NOW
(speed / thrust / handling / energy / total)(specialty)
Omnicom ( ? / ? / ? / ? / ? ) (no comment)
G-Tek ( 4 / 6 / 8 / 6 / 22 ) (Balanced plus handling, frail poor craft overall)
Diavolt ( 8 / 9 / 3 / 8 / 28 ) (high thrust low handling, good bulk)
Nexus ( 8 / 7 / 3 / 5 / 23 ) (a weaker diavolt)
Wyvern ( 7 / 5 / 7 / 6 / 25 ) (okay at everything, frail)
Scorpio ( 6 / 9 / 6 / 7 / 28 ) (High thrust, average bulk)
Tenrai ( 7 / 7 / 10 / 4 / 28 ) (Exceptionally better than G-tek)
Hyperion ( 6 / 8 / 6 / 5 / 25 ) (a weaker scorpio)

Caliburn ( 8 / 3 / 9 / 5 / 25 ) (The only craft with poor thrust)
Barracuda ( 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 40 ) (The overpowered monster because fun)
There is an obsession with poor shields and high thrust in this game. Here is a revised stat distribution:

BALLISTIC NG STAT BALANCE TRUE
(speed / thrust / handling / energy / total)(specialty)(wipeout counterpart)
Omnicom ( 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 28 ) (The beginner’s balance)(auricom)
G-Tek ( 4 / 9 / 9 / 6 / 28 ) (thrust, handling)(AGS)
Diavolt ( 8 / 7 / 4 / 9 / 28 ) (speed, bulk)(Qirex)
Nexus ( 9 / 6 / 5 / 7 / 27 ) (speed)(Piranha)
Wyvern ( 8 / 8 / 7 / 5 / 28 ) (speed & thrust, but frail)(EGX)
Scorpio ( 5 / 9 / 6 / 8 / 28 ) (High thrust and bulk)(Goteki)
Tenrai ( 7 / 7 / 9 / 4 / 27 ) (Good speed and high agility, low shields)(Icaras)
Hyperion ( 6 / 5 / 8 / 8 / 27 ) (handling, shield)(Feisar)

Caliburn (8 / 4 / 8 / 7 / 27) (No wipeout counterpart)
Barracuda (10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 40) (The overpowered monster because fun)

Stats range from 4-9. the total ranges from 27-28. there is a craft with every level of quality for each stat. ie. it is possible to experience speed from 4-10. ie. it’s not like there is no craft with 6 speed. I put a lot of thought into this, I hope it looks good to you

[AmigoJack]

Thanks to MAD I've now seen this project and it's truly amazing! I never met someone both being able to deal with Unity and bringing up such a realistic W'O'' clone. Congratulations! Due to the 300+ videos on YouTube and their dates I see this is going on for over one year already - yet I think this is an astounding short time with a huge progress for a spare time/open source game. I instantly felt home when steering thru the tracks (although I'm not that used to the keyboard for W'O'').

The tracks look great, the scenary has fantastic textures and also is more detailled than I would have ever dared to imagine, the craft's behaviour and look are perfectly fitting, the music is well done, and the menu so far is also quite intuitive (I only didn't expect ENTER to do nothing).

If you want suggestions for improvements/ideas I'd be happy to list them, but those are rather cosmetic, not fundamental. So I don't want you to loose focus on the main work and rather come up with this after you're done and feel kinda bored for the first time.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, let me format that for you:


BALLISTIC NG STAT BALANCE NOW

           speed  thrust  handling  energy  total  specialty
Omnicom    ?      ?       ?         ?       ?      no comment
G-Tek      4      6       8         6       22     Balanced plus handling, frail poor craft overall
Diavolt    8      9       3         8       28     high thrust low handling, good bulk
Nexus      8      7       3         5       23     a weaker diavolt
Wyvern     7      5       7         6       25     okay at everything, frail
Scorpio    6      9       6         7       28     High thrust, average bulk
Tenrai     7      7       10        4       28     Exceptionally better than G-tek
Hyperion   6      8       6         5       25     a weaker scorpio

Caliburn   8      3       9         5       25     The only craft with poor thrust
Barracuda  10     10      10        10      40     The overpowered monster because fun

BALLISTIC NG STAT BALANCE TRUE

           speed  thrust  handling  energy  total  wipeout  specialty
Omnicom    7       7      7         7       28     auricom  The beginner’s balance
G-Tek      4       9      9         6       28     AG.Sys   thrust, handling
Diavolt    8       7      4         9       28     Qirex    speed, bulk
Nexus      9       6      5         7       27     Piranha  speed
Wyvern     8       8      7         5       28     EG-X     speed & thrust, but frail
Scorpio    5       9      6         8       28     Goteki   High thrust and bulk
Tenrai     7       7      9         4       27     Icaras   Good speed and high agility, low shields
Hyperion   6       5      8         8       27     FEISAR   handling, shield

Caliburn   8       4      8         7       27     none
Barracuda  10      10     10        10      40              The overpowered monster because fun

[Thane Corrigan]

Final stats ultimately come down to what feels comfortable and balanced.
The numbers in handling especially are a rough estimate, based on the effect of 3-4 different qualities.
I.e. I thought the analog might be similar to post-fall Assegai, but Caliburn's poor thrust is made up in a little extra hidden turning grip that isn't fully represented in the handling stat and that the other ships don't have, quite similar to Harimau, to be honest.

But I still like the proposed new stat balance, AG. There currently seem to be one or two ships with very close stat line-ups, and a few suffering overall.
I'd be interested in seeing how these new ones feel.

[bigsnake]

Thanks to MAD I've now seen this project and it's truly amazing! I never met someone both being able to deal with Unity and bringing up such a realistic W'O'' clone. Congratulations! Due to the 300+ videos on YouTube and their dates I see this is going on for over one year already - yet I think this is an astounding short time with a huge progress for a spare time/open source game. I instantly felt home when steering thru the tracks (although I'm not that used to the keyboard for W'O'').

The tracks look great, the scenary has fantastic textures and also is more detailled than I would have ever dared to imagine, the craft's behaviour and look are perfectly fitting, the music is well done, and the menu so far is also quite intuitive (I only didn't expect ENTER to do nothing).

If you want suggestions for improvements/ideas I'd be happy to list them, but those are rather cosmetic, not fundamental. So I don't want you to loose focus on the main work and rather come up with this after you're done and feel kinda bored for the first time.

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it so far I wouldn't be nearly as far as I am right now without Dreadofmondays and Xpand, they've both been a huge help with assets and Dreadofmondays has done a fantastic job with the backstory. I'm always open to suggestions and ideas so let me know what you've got in mind!

BALLISTIC NG STAT BALANCE NOW
(speed / thrust / handling / energy / total)(specialty)
Omnicom ( ? / ? / ? / ? / ? ) (no comment)
G-Tek ( 4 / 6 / 8 / 6 / 22 ) (Balanced plus handling, frail poor craft overall)
Diavolt ( 8 / 9 / 3 / 8 / 28 ) (high thrust low handling, good bulk)
Nexus ( 8 / 7 / 3 / 5 / 23 ) (a weaker diavolt)
Wyvern ( 7 / 5 / 7 / 6 / 25 ) (okay at everything, frail)
Scorpio ( 6 / 9 / 6 / 7 / 28 ) (High thrust, average bulk)
Tenrai ( 7 / 7 / 10 / 4 / 28 ) (Exceptionally better than G-tek)
Hyperion ( 6 / 8 / 6 / 5 / 25 ) (a weaker scorpio)

Caliburn ( 8 / 3 / 9 / 5 / 25 ) (The only craft with poor thrust)
Barracuda ( 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 40 ) (The overpowered monster because fun)
There is an obsession with poor shields and high thrust in this game. Here is a revised stat distribution:

BALLISTIC NG STAT BALANCE TRUE
(speed / thrust / handling / energy / total)(specialty)(wipeout counterpart)
Omnicom ( 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 28 ) (The beginner’s balance)(auricom)
G-Tek ( 4 / 9 / 9 / 6 / 28 ) (thrust, handling)(AGS)
Diavolt ( 8 / 7 / 4 / 9 / 28 ) (speed, bulk)(Qirex)
Nexus ( 9 / 6 / 5 / 7 / 27 ) (speed)(Piranha)
Wyvern ( 8 / 8 / 7 / 5 / 28 ) (speed & thrust, but frail)(EGX)
Scorpio ( 5 / 9 / 6 / 8 / 28 ) (High thrust and bulk)(Goteki)
Tenrai ( 7 / 7 / 9 / 4 / 27 ) (Good speed and high agility, low shields)(Icaras)
Hyperion ( 6 / 5 / 8 / 8 / 27 ) (handling, shield)(Feisar)

Caliburn (8 / 4 / 8 / 7 / 27) (No wipeout counterpart)
Barracuda (10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 40) (The overpowered monster because fun)

Stats range from 4-9. the total ranges from 27-28. there is a craft with every level of quality for each stat. ie. it is possible to experience speed from 4-10. ie. it’s not like there is no craft with 6 speed. I put a lot of thought into this, I hope it looks good to you

I'll have to try that out, the ships do have more of a base for their final stats right now though, it's mostly thrust and top speeds that need to be tweaked the most, I'll probably create a drag strip track to balance those. I've laid out what I have in the table below, let me know any changes you think could be made

	Speed	Thrust	Handling	Energy	Firepower	Wipeout	Focus
MAIN:
Omnicom	5	6	5	7	6	Auricom	Balanced
G-Tek	4	5	9	7	5	FEISAR	Handling
Diavolt	8	5	3	5	8	Qirex	Firepower
Nexus	9	6	5	3	5	Icarus	Speed
Wyvern	6	7	4	6	5	AG. Sys	Speed/Thrust
Scorpio	5	9	6	8	4	Goteki. 45	Thrust/Shielding
Tenrai	7	5	8	4	2	Assegai	Speed/Handling
Hyperion	7	4	5	5	6	Piranha	Speed
UNLOCKABLES:
Caliburn	6	2	10	7	4	No Equivalent	Handling
Barracuda	10	10	10	10	0	2097/XL Piranha	Everything except firepower
NX2000	10	10	10	2	7	No Equivalent	Speed/Handling/Thrust/Energy
MTechP1	4	5	10	7	5	No Equivalent	Handling
ProtonicAG4	7	7	1	8	3	WO1 Qirex	Being a heavy ****er

These are all the meaningful values that are given to a ship for anyone who is interested:
Max Speed - Maximum amount of force that is applied to the ship
Acceleration - How fast changes to the ship speed happen

These two values stay the same, having both of them is pretty much redundant at this point:
Power Gain - How fast the engine reaches maximum power
Power Falloff - How fast the engine losses power

Turn Speed - How fast the ship can turn
Turn Gain - How fast the ship starts turning
Turn Falloff - How fast the ship stops turning
Grip - How much drag is applied on the ships lateral axis
Slip Amount - How much the airbrakes reduce the grip
Slip Gain - How fast the airbrakes reduce the grip
Slip Falloff - How fast the ship recovers from airbrake slip

These are global across all ships:
Airbrake Speed - How fast the airbrakes rotate the ship
Airbrake Gain - How fast the airbrakes start rotating the ship
Airbrake Falloff - How fast the airbrakes stop rotating the ship
Airbrake Drag Multiplier - The percentage of the max speed using the airbrakes can slow the ship down
Airbrake Drag Gain - How fast the airbrakes slow the ship down
Airbrake Drag Falloff - How fast the ship recovers from airbrake drag

There are a lot more, but those are the settings that effect the ship the most.

[AmigoJack]

Suggestions:

1. Menu selection overflow: when the first item is highlighted and I press <UP>, the highlight should go to the bottom item. Same for <DOWN> on bottom item, or <LEFT> on leftmost item, or <RIGHT> on rightmost item. Examples: when selecting the track or the craft I highlight the first track or craft (using the keyboard), but then have to tap <DOWN> several times to reach the "ok" button, whereas one <UP> could go there directly.
2. In-game console and configuration files: the more a user is able to adjust, the longer the whole software remains future-proof. Examples:
   • various fine tuning to the graphics, like disable lightning or anything else that might help low end computers, or just increase details for high end computers;
   • setting the craft's attributes (speed, handling, plasma trail color...);
   • setting track details (disable rain, enable snow, daylight/night);
   • modifying the menus (so the user could create his own item that is already a combination of a specific craft+track+class);
   • modifying HUD setup (reducing/increasing displayed bars/items);
   • key assignment thru a configuration file as well (so you don't have to care for a GUI setup anymore)...
   if this could be done thru human readible files everybody would be able to fit the details his needs, i.e. one may want to disable all HUD elements.
3. In-game billboards show custom pictures. Again: works thru a configuration file, where one lists file locations and assigns them to specific billboards, and in which mode (3 pictures alternating, or permanent display in random order thru the track, or...). Picture format virtually doesn't matter - in doubt I could write a tool that'd prepare everything for the game.

Oh, and how do you currently record game videos?

[bigsnake]

Nice ideas!

a) I was originally going to add selection overflow but I forgot about it after trying to figure out how to do it with Unity's built in UI system. I just figured out how I can setup the navigation to do that so I'll be doing that after I finished typing this

b) There's not really too much to adjust with graphics other then weather effects, lighting is 100% baked and there aren't any other real-time effects being used other then the toggable post processing effects already implemented, there is going to be a draw distance option in the future though. A console is something I have tried out in the past that I need to re-implement, it's definitely something I want to have because debugging wise it can be useful and it also provides some fun commands to mess about with.

Menu modification is something I plan to semi-implement with the track and ship editors, I plan to have a system like WOPulse and HD so you can build your own mini-campaigns using custom content, it would be in a grid instead of hexagons though. HUD modifications is also something I had mentioned wanting to do quite a while ago, it's likely it'll be a feature much later in development though.

Then finally key configurations is something that will take a bit more work because I'll need to use a custom input manager, Aybe had created one a while ago so I'm most likely going to implement that. Unity's default input manager doesn't allow rebinding at game runtime so I have no control over that right now. There is a config file containing settings though, check the userdata folder created in the game's directory when you launch the game.

c. That's a cool idea, I can't say it would be easily achievable through already existing tracks in the game because all the track textures are bundled into atlases so the environment is rendered in 1-2 sweeps as 1 object. In the track editor though it's something that can absolutely happen, I will probably end up making some form of basic modeling tools to go with the track editor at some point so that can be integrated into that.

And I use OBS Studio to record videos, I record then upload the output file straight to Youtube

Edit:
I now have a spreadsheet for all of the teams indepth stats, they're really unbalanced right now but I'll be working on that soon. Here's the link to it