Hi!, nor idea or suggestion, more of an advice request...

nsx_nawe

Hi everyone!, my name's Nawe, i use steam for most of my games since its hard to get box retail games down here and the system is pretty usefull for headache-saving...

This is a kind of a presentation post to the community and a request for advice :P

I've been wanting to create/experiment with FPS gameplay for a while now, the last time i tried with UDK, it was great on the map editor side, and trigger editing trough the visual editors, but once i wanted to go a bit deeper and modify Monsters, Gameplay and etc, i faced myself with a huge engine that is too much for a guy with my experience (junior mobile developer for blackberry/android/J2ME) and amount of freetime...


Do you guys honestly think that this could be an easier way? the editor seems great and from the screenshots you can tell the quality that can be made relatively easy...

but how far can you go by using the scripting features that the Ns2 will offer us? by How Far can you go i mean, how much can you tweak the gameplay, the feeling....

for example:
Can i affect world-physics variables like gravity?, how much can i affect the atmosphere? can i create a new kind of weapon/bullets and make them give inercia to the player on impact?

things like that...
or can i use childish assets, set the player camera on a top view camera, build on custom actors/triggers,etc and make a Tetris/Pacman/Whatever clone?


Perhaps im sailing on ignorance here, whoever knows best may enlighten me ;D

Thanks in advance for reading up to here!!

Cheers,

Nawe.

RobB

- Camera is fully editable, we have some sort of breakout mod somewhere on the forums
- You <i>could</i> make new weapons when you can make the model, from the script side you can modify about anything thanks to the "sandbox" system the lua script supplies.
- it is unknown if the engine can handle gravity modification or if it even allows to do so.

spellman23

I recommend if you're having issues to pick a lighter engine to play with. Such as a the Unity Engine.

The UDK is really for hardcore developers who want all that raw power at their finger tips. That means they have a vision and the technical prowness (or time) to utilize it all. It sounds like you want a smaller, perhaps single person project, so pick a lighter engine that may not be as shiny but way simpler to work in.

The NS2 engine is fairly robust and since all the game code is in LUA you can change EVERYTHING about the gameplay. Probably the biggest issue you will have is the same as in all other engines: modeling and texturing.

It seems like you're the programmer type, so doing modeling, rigging, and textures will probably be the hardest part. I recommend you team up with a talented artist who has those skills to work with you.


As far as physics/gravity, dunno how deep the LUA coding goes.

nsx_nawe

Thanks for the quick replies!, im the (business app) programmer type yes, but i do have some insight on game dev, worked for gameloft for a while, but i know that is not enough for a decent proyect having little free time, i have some 3dmax skills as Well as people in the area, enough for experimenting i think =P wich is my objective.

I think this engine might suit the level of abstraction i need.

Thanks!

spellman23

If you're interested, check out the Modding Forums and see what they're already doing with the code we've been given.

It's not all the game code, and the Engine we get to use is not well optimized, but it might give a quick look at some of the power we have at our fingertips already.

schkorpio

pretty sure that the sky is the limit when it comes to modding ns2 - if you can do a bit of LUA you're all set

nsx_nawe

"if you can do a bit of LUA you're all set"

that certainly meant a lot to me :P. i've been doing java mostly, some c++, and a bit of objective-c (EWWWGH horrible but no other option for iphone) all mixed for some years now, BUUUUT i tried LUA for doing a custom AI for my Homunculus in Ragnarok Online and on an experiment for the sony PSP. Not sure about how good are the debugging tools (step by step working properly?) for scripting..

Also the game looks really interesting :) of course (haha just joking its promising a lot and seeming simply awesome!)

Cheers!,

PD: nice community btw =)