My Missle Command Re-Make Help???

[ScottieB]

Once again congradulations on an job well done!  Yes, I like your terrain it's just your buildings now look 2.5 3D-ish and I thought maybe a 3D-Mesh terrain wiuld be more appropreate.  Your doing so well.  It's ok if you don't wanna program I understand. So Graphics-Designer! is good enough!  You think the plane looks too big? Maybe, Your right. But we can scale it down right. So it looks like your doing colored cities. Awesome! So that's 3-4 so far right? and we could always use explosion bitmaps for there destruction if you don't wanna make destroyed ones. Man, Those colors look kewl!  Why, Do you like the 2nd bomb better?  Well, Hope to hear from you soon and peace for now.  p.s. How did you make the airplane so fast? Did you just have it in your past library or something?

Peace,
Over and
out!

[LBFN]

I've made 5 different cities so far.  You seemed to like the grey one, so I went with the different colors.  Making explosion images for them should not be a problem.  

Why, Do you like the 2nd bomb better?

I like the second Smart Bomb better, as the animation is much improved (I wrote a short program to grab the images and play them).  I like the second silo bomb better because the first one looks like a bunch of bowling pins  ;D

How did you make the airplane so fast? Did you just have it in your past library or something?

I had previously made a 3D model of a F-4 Phantom.  I simply grabbed a pic of it.

EDIT: City2 (grey) exploding image attached.

[ScottieB]

Kewl! I sent you an e-mail with the missle command program in it. (Like I promised!)
I think I'll just use bitmap explosions for when the bases get hit but...
I am going to use the 2.5 view cities.  It would be nice to have more of the same colors and maybe so new ones of different colors.  Sorry, You went though al that trouble above trying to make them explode but I got an eaiser way.  Have fun with the program I sent to you.  Please don't give it out to noone.  Feel free to do with it what you want. If you wanna experiment.  You will see when you run it what we need.  It's 6 months of work for this year.  and once again sorry for the above.


Thanks,
Peace,
and
out!

[LBFN]

Alternate version of the 'terrain', yellow city and orange city:

[ScottieB]

Neato! I like it!  Hey, Did you get the program I sent you?  If so did you like it?  I think I will keep the terrain after all but is there a way to get some variants for different levels?  Man, I love you collored cities are you going to go for any more?  Yeah, some different terrain colors would be good also like gray would be nice but keep them dark.  I think we almost have all the graphics done for this game though I think maybe just alittle more variations like terrain,satillite but for the most part we got it almost finished graphiically. please, just hold in there alittle bit longer. and really thanks for all the help you deserved a copy of the program for all the hard work. Peace for now but hope to hear from you soon.

[LBFN]

Hey, Did you get the program I sent you?  If so did you like it?

Yes, I got it.  It shows you have invested some time in it.  The graphics definitely needed some work, so I am glad to help. 

I think I will keep the terrain after all but is there a way to get some variants for different levels?

Do you mean physically different locations for the cities, or just different colors / texture with the same locations?

It would be nice to have more of the same colors and maybe so new ones of different colors.

I can make more cities using the same colors, but it seems like it won't really come off as different in-game.

[ScottieB]

For the terrain I meant maybe some new ones with dark colors like gray. the same locations are fine.  The cities are ok. We now have a bunch of colored ones that look great! Would you know of any bitmap fonts that might be around for the downloading?  Are you going to mod my prog? 

[LBFN]

For the terrain I meant maybe some new ones with dark colors like gray.

Okay, I'll see what I can do.

Would you know of any bitmap fonts that might be around for the downloading?

Google is your friend here.  I do have some, but it's easy to find sites that offer free ones.

Are you going to mod my prog?

I hadn't planned to do that; at least not now anyway.  I am busy working on a platformer using PB and am still in the process of understanding practical uses for all of the available commands.  I have found that it is sometimes more difficult to pick up someone else's work than it is to simply plan / write out the code out yourself (which is half the fun anyway).  I haven't looked hard at the code yet, so I can't say for sure about the future. 

I was wondering about some sort of missile launcher at the three sites.  It seems like it would be better to have something there instead of the missile simply coming out of the ground.

[ScottieB]

Yeah, Maybe instead of the missles we could make a sylo base and launch the missles out of them.
I think that they did that in the x-box 360 version.  Sylo baes instead of a line up of missles that way we could use the missles with trails during gameplay.  Perhaps some kinda box type graphics that looks something like a distorted rectangle where the top in smaller then the bottom and the sides are at an angle. Do you get what I mean?


       

[LBFN]

I know what you mean, but would that work?  The 'missiles' currently go straight to the target, regardless of the angle involved.  If you had a silo, then it would look silly to have a missile come out of it at the angle required.  Realistically, you would have to re-write the missile movement code so that it comes straight out and with regularity turns to the correct angle, while still moving upward.  At some point the missile would finally be angled correctly, but you could be far above the target spot.  It would actually be more realistic to do it that way, but I believe that the gameplay would suffer.

I was thinking more along the lines of a Patriot missile launcher (example attached).  However, this does mean extra work.

[ScottieB]

Interesting point you have there.  I think your right.  The patriot missle seems to be the way to go.  So we can get tilt out of it but like you saiid that would be hard to make.  All's I can say is try to think of the most basic shapes that could construct it. Maybe, two rectangles one for the missle(s) and one for the arm but it would have to be sort of animated to move to different angles.  0-90 for left and right silo's and 180 for center silo based.

[LBFN]

I will see if I can make a decent 3D model of a launcher that is similar to the patriot missile launcher, only it is permanently mounted instead of being on a truck.  If so, I can grab pics from the side and back at say, 10 degree increments.  You could then code it so that the corresponding image is shown based upon the angle needed to get from the launcher to the destination.  

When a launcher is hit, you could also blow it up and delete the missiles in the silo for a more convincing effect.  It will require some coding on your part, but I think if you can get it to work, it would be a nice addition to your game.

Give me a few days or so to get something together on it.  I will plan to post preliminary pics as soon as I can to see if you like what I am working on and to get some feedback from you.

EDIT: Here are a couple of preliminary pics.  Will something like this work?

POST EDIT: Here is another ground texture.

[ScottieB]

Awesome!  That'll work!  Nice pics!  I will just have to tilt the sprites based on that angle from sylo's to mouse pointer.  Did you say you would make 10 degree incs?  Remember the ones on the left and right only need 90 degrees and the one in the middle needs 180 degrees. 90 on both sides.  Did you model those? If so that was real quick!  Hey, and the new terrain look neally nice too.  It's got like depth to it now sort of like parrellax scrolling almost execpt it does'nt need to scroll.  Your a real good graphics designer.  I don't think I could through together all of what you have done in so little time.  Keep up the good job! and really thanks!  I can't wait to put all this new stuff together.

[LBFN]

Thanks :)

I did make the model, but I did not UV map it and texture it, I simply used solid colors on it.  I didn't want to invest the time UV mapping it until I knew that you liked the general design.  Normally, it takes me much longer to UV map and texture a model than it does to create the model itself.  I think I will add some more missile tubes to it as I think it will look better. I also plan to add more detail.

As to the animation frames; yes, I planned to grab images at 10 degree angles.  The two you see are at 10 and 50 degrees.  For the center silo, you could use 9 images straight on when the target is almost directly above the launcher (based upon the height of the target) and use the images from the side angles for when the target is left or right.  You wouldn't really go at 180 degrees.  If you really wanted to, I could make transition pics between the straight-on pic and the left / right pics, say at 45 degree angles, to give the illusion that the center launcher is rotating left and right.  It seems a sprite sheet will need to be made just for the launchers, as there will be a lot of different pics.  It will also take a little bit of coding to make sure the correct pic is displayed.  Let me know if this is what you want to do, as I should be able to do it fairly easily.

Thanks for the comment on the new terrain also. It is my favorite one so far.

[ScottieB]

Yes, it all sounds good and it is definately a go!  I very much thank you for all the help you have given me and I hope we can continue to work together for a bit longer. I swear when I get more free time when school is not in the way. I will put it all together.  This won't be wasted hard work. I can even send you the updated version when I get to it and thanks again. bye for now. ScottieB.