The Daily Click

::. ::.

Project Started:	15th March, 2010	Last Update:	14th December, 2010
Project Owner:	HitmanN	Project Members:
Project Type:	2D turn-based strategy	Project Progress:

Project Overview

"Tank Game". It's obviously not the actual name of the game, duh. Just something to use for the time being.

In a nutshell
I always wanted to make a turn-based Scorched Earth type tank shooter, and that's what I'm trying to do here, while I'm exploring new stuff with MMF2. Except I'm overdoing it by turning it into a turn-based strategy, with resource collecting, customizable weapon selection for units, building some structures for defense or utility, etc.

Gameplay
The best way to describe this is probably Scorched Earth Worms with Tanks doing Command & Conquer. ;P Please do note that even though we have tanks and other supposedly land-traversing vehicles, they all do have the capability of flying with various means, either by rotors or jets. However, you only get a certain amount of energy to spend moving and/or firing each turn, and trying to fly that Heavy Tank around is gonna cost you... a LOT of energy. Energy that you could've maybe used to shoot an Explosive Shell over the hill, maybe to damage or kill an enemy vehicle.

Game Modes
For now the game will be purely 1vs1 humans only on same computer, no AI's, but multiplayer options, more player capacity and AI opponents may find their way into the mix eventually, should I find myself learning how to go about doing some of those properly. That'll be quite a while after the initial releases though.

The game is already well on its way, and in a playable state, though without victory conditions in place. You can move around (the level layout doesn't affect vehicles' orientation, partly because it's something I've never done before, and partly because my inner arcade gamer likes to keep it that way), shoot with various weapons, capture gold mines or destroy rock tiles that contain gold, to get more gold each turn, use the gold to unlock weapons for your units (unit-specific, so you can unlock different weapons for each of your Heavy Tanks, for instance. All combat units should have at least 4-5 different weapon options), and destroy some of the environment (make no mistake, this'll be HWA, with lots of active objects. Good thing it's all in 32x32 tiles, so a level editor will be a must!

).

Still to be done
All there's left to do really is improve the interface, add more vehicles, weapons and some structures, as well as make some more level graphics... and that's it. I'm already having a blast playing against myself with what is already there. The units do all have their uses, so selecting what units to build and what weapons to unlock will play a big role in your campaign against your friend. Hopefully the strategic part of the game will be strong enough aspect to forgive the lack of elaborate physics (I do have custom movements, but I ain't no math genius).

When's the release?!
First release is already out:
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8170

The timeframe of the next release is yet to be determined.

RELEASE 1
The first release has some playable levels, 9 different units, and several capturable objectives and two game modes. There's approx. 20 weapons. At this point the game is local multiplayer only, 1vs1 human players only.

RELEASE 2
The second release is planned to have more levels, and a publicly released level editor. Possibly also additional units, features and capturables. Possibly tutorial or challenge levels for quick practice fun.

RELEASE 3
If there's enough demand and interest, an online multiplayer mode will be added at this point.

RELEASE 4
If things get this far, we're looking at possibility of AI opponents.

CONTENT

Yellow Star = DONE or lacking only final touches.
Blue Star = WIP or to be added soon.
Grey Star = Might be added, but not 100% sure.

Weapons:

Rubber Ball

Explosive Shell

Armor Piercing Round

Mines

Grenade

Light Machinegun

Rocket Pod

Standard Issue Rocket

Guided Missile

Anti-air Missile

Anti-armor Rocket

Cluster Shell

Mortar Shell

Artillery Shell

Anti-armor Shell

Heavy Machinegun

Flamethrower

Turret Machinegun

Sentry Machinegun

Bunker Bazooka

Bombs

Napalm

Skills/Bonuses

Repair (Engineer)

Missile Jammer (Gunship)

Minesweeper Tool (Combat Tank)

Missile Relay (Launcher/Gyro Scout)

Gold Finder (Mining Drone)

Units:

Mining Drone

Gyro Scout

Combat Tank

Heavy Tank

Launcher

Artillery

Gunship

Engineer

APC

Bomber

Constructable Buildings:

Machinegun Turret

Machinegun Sentry (APC deploys)

Bazooka Bunker(APC deploys)

Capturable Buildings/Objectives:

Gold Mine (+25 Gold)

Factory (your HQ, builds units)

Guard Post (Capturable turret)

Barracks (infantry cap+)

Air Control Tower (missile relay)

Artillery Depot (new artilleries MaxHP+10)

Rubber Factory (Free Rubber Ball unlocks for tanks)

Black Market (50% chance of +10 Gold income per player turn)

Interactive level elements, in addition to basic land:

Tree (Domestic/Trimmed)

Tree (Oak)

Tree (Birch)

Tree (Maple)

Wooden Bridge

Decorative level elements:

Bright Sun

Twinkling Sun Rays

Clouds

Mountain scenery

Gameplay features:

Capturing Gold Mines

Building Units from Factory

Building Turrets with Engineer

Destructible level tiles

Trees have a chance to block most ammunition

Capturing enemy factory (victory condition)

Randomly spawning crates (mainly good stuff inside, occasionally boobytrapped)

Build caps (max # of units/buildings/infantry you can have deployed)

Winner Announced (Game Ends)

~~Victory Condition: Capture opponent's Gold Mines and Factories~~

Victory Condition: Control Flags

Victory Condition: Last Man Standing

Victory Condition: Destroy Reactor

Other:

Map Editor (functional, but needs a good overhaul. Will probably redesign it properly for second release.)

Stuff possibly added in further releases:

More skill/bonus unlocks

Weapon: Incendiary/Napalm weapon(s)

Weapon: Remotely detonated grenade

Another buildable turret

More tree types

Level element: Water

Level element: Steel Bridge

Weather conditions

More capturable things in the maps.

Project Forums	Topics	Posts	Last Post
Public Forum Public forum for open project discussion	3	16	Example for you By: HitmanN On: 9th May 10, 21:17:08
Private Forum Private forum for project members only	0	0	No Access

"Tank Game" v0.47.1 available, bug fixes

Posted 14th Dec 10, by HitmanN

Post A Comment

A small update for "Tank Game" is available. v0.47.1 fixes a major bug introduced by v0.47, which caused at least two things to malfunction, as well as attempts to correct two other issues.

v0.47.1 Changelog:

#Fixes
* Fixed Weather Icon alignment when not using Flag Control victory condition.
* Fixed a major bug introduced in last version. The performance 'tweak' that disables barrels of units outside screen had the nasty side effect of affecting both unit cap calculations and shooting from off-screen. Considering the new menu options for performance enhancements are in place now, the change for the unit barrels was hardly needed anyways.
** Units should fire properly now even when they're off-screen when you click to fire.
** Unit counts should now calculate properly, instead of based on what is on-screen.
* On very rare occasions (for me at least), the engine sound of units was constantly playing. Added an extra check to see if the said sample should be playing or not. Whether it helps or not remains untested. I'd appreciate it if you let me know!

DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://create-games.com/download.asp?id=8170

For now "Tank Game" is not being developed further, but I'm not abandoning it yet. I came back to it once already, so I probably will again, sooner or later.

"Tank Game" v0.47 is out!

Posted 28th Nov 10, by HitmanN

1 Comment

Sorry for taking my sweet time with this folks. It's been pretty much release-ready for a month or so, I just forgot about it.

;

Anyhow, it's now available!

DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://create-games.com/download.asp?id=8170

The full changelog is couple of pages long, so I'm just summarizing what's new since v0.42:

New unit: Bomber (droppable air-to-ground weapons)

New building: Reactor (victory objective)

New weapons: Bombs, Napalm (Bomber)

New skill: Concrete Block (Engineer)

New Victory Condition: Destroy Reactor (replaces the old buggy Factory Capture)

New map theme: Lava , includes new background graphics and hazardous lava pit tiles.

Variable Wind: Classic artillery game element. Wind affects ballistic weapons' trajectories and unit movement slightly. (Optional feature)

Weather Effects: Instead of constant sunshine, you can now have dark clouds, rain and even thunderstorms. Lightning bolts may strike units and trees at high altitudes during storms. (Optional feature)

One new tree type

Customizable crate content ratios

Customizable gold mine income and fixed income

Option to limit player turns in 1 minute steps from 1 to 5. Default is 'no limit'.

Four new maps, including two lava-themed maps

Most menu options are now saved for future sessions

Options to reduce or remove some effects, to improve performance on slow computers.

Some tiny general performance tweaks.

Half a dozen bugfixes

Bunch of unit and weapon balance tweaks, such as improved cluster shells for artillery.

NOTE:
Some features still require testing, so please do report any problems you encounter. The player turn time limit in particular is still fairly untested in a serious game. The performance options in the menu bar are also mostly untested on other computer than mine, but they should only result in visual anomalies at most.

Giving you even more control!

Posted 18th Oct 10, by HitmanN

1 Comment

Crate ratios
I'm currently working on a new menu page. On this page you can define the ratios of content you can find in crates. The menu itself works, but the values are not in use yet. Should take me but a moment to put them in use though.

Screenshot on the side show the new menu window, as well as the ratios that have been in place in recent version.

Weather & Wind
Also, optional weather conditions 'Rain' and 'Thunderstorm', as well as 'Wind' will be available in the next version:

* Rain pushes units and ballistic projectiles down ever so slightly to make a minor difference. (Rain is not available on Lava-themed maps.)

* Thunderstorms may happen when Rain has set in, and they're scary. All trees and vehicles in the upper half of the map are at risk of being struck by lightning between turns, which deals a lot of damage, enough to kill units such as gunships and gyro scouts in one strike. The higher the altitude of a unit, the bigger the risk. To be struck by lightning requires a direct route from the unit or tree to the sky, so keeping units under land tiles and next to tall walls can reduce or even remove the risk. Just don't keep your Gunships at the top edge. You're looking at a whopping 20% chance to be hit there... Every 50 pixels down is 1% less risk. (Thunderstorms are not available on Lava-themed maps.)

* Wind affects mostly projectiles' speed and trajectory, but can also affect unit flight slightly. Wind changes slightly between turns. Unlike most other artillery type games though, the wind doesn't take drastic turns like being strong to east one turn and then strong to west on another. For that to happen it takes several turns in Tank Game, and a lot of bad (or good, depending on situation) luck. 'Major Ballistics' are affected most by wind, 'Minor Ballistics' not quite so much, but still somewhat. Wind strength is measured on scale of 1-30.

Second screenshot on the side shows a tree struck by lightning, as well as wind and weather icons. Wind is at its strongest, at 30. Rain tilts to the direction of the wind, and trees bend slightly in the same direction as well, and generally sway faster in wind. At 0 wind, the trees are pretty much static.

'Weather Conditions' and 'Wind' are separate options in the main menu, so you can have both, either or neither.

Holy crap!

Posted 16th Oct 10, by HitmanN

3 Comments

"My tank went boom! D:"

Note to self: Keep tanks away from high ground in thunderstorm.