Wolfire Development Blog!

Post by **Eric** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:46 am

wow, what a good call zip

Nuky · Post by **Nuky** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 7:42 am

Poor guy, that Zantalos.
I'll miss him.

SMNMX · Post by **SMNMX** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:04 pm

Amorphous Tom wrote:I disagree intensely. Sure, more fighting moves would be great so long as the control system doesn't lose its excellently elegant simplicity. Also, I love Lugaru's stealth. It requires skill, but is clear and effective, also satisfying. All of the stuff that the team's been saying about Lugaru 2 excites me immensely, with its persistent world and more complex NPC interaction, but don't overcomplicate the gameplay. More weapons and a slightly more complex health system, fine, but don't overburden the player with special moves he'll never actually use in practise. Also, it'd be a shame for the health system to require extra keypresses or a HUD. The sound of a rapid heartbeat in extreme conditions, paired with a red glare on the screen would be enough, surely.

Okay, I replayed Lugaru 1 and here's my revised opinion on the gameplay (I still support everything I said previously about online play): The stealth in Lugaru 1 is good, but should allow for enemies to notice their missing buddies and go on high alert. They should also not forget that Turner is nearby when you run off, instead spreading out into search parties. This would be especially cool if there was combat in the planned city levels. Enemies should also be able to call out to their allies from a distance if you give them a chance to gather their breath.

Also, to combat the increased enemy awareness, players should be able to drag corpses to hiding spots (either totally out of the way or hidden visibly, like under a bush, which would only be noticed at close proximity) and stealth-kill wolves better if you're very good. Sneaking behind a wolf would require being downwind (more signs of this, such as foliage gently blowing, would be nice) and getting to them quickly. Because of this, wolves patrolling together would still require a fight.

However, for players that would like to take a different approach, how about these suggestions:
1. Add bow and arrow support. I believe there's already a thread detailing how a good over-the-shoulder zoom camera would work marvels, and allowing stealthy players to get headshots (crouching should improve accuracy by reducing the shake on the bow) on confused patrols, who would spread out and try to find you, would rock. Ammo could be recollected from the ground, corpses, or the quivers of fallen archers, so that wouldn't be a problem, and it would be essentially impossible to use once an enemy has found you. An enemy that sees you fire will know where you are and will try to dodge the arrow, or if they're nearby and they simply hear the shot, they'll still come over to investigate. Wolves, with their heightened senses, would be able to see and hear better, even hearing and attempting to dodge an arrow simply based on the sound of its flight. Arrows become even more important in another mode I'll detail later.

2. The health system is fine. A slight red tinge around the edges when the screen blurs would be cool along with a slightly more sophisticated blur, and a heartbeat could work, but I don't think it's really important. It's very clear when you're hurt in Lugaru 1, although it does get confusing if you have the blur turned off.

3. Combat additions: traps and spears. Spears are essentially poles that can cut and be thrown, making them a very deadly weapon. Traps is actually a rather misleading name for what I'm thinking of, which would be more intuitive. I'm simply thinking that all those boulders and slabs that lie around Lugaru's levels could stand to be a little more interactive. Round boulders could be moved simply by running against them, letting you push them up an outcrop (or use an existing rock), then leap down towards a patrol (or, more effectively, shoot at them with your bow) to lure them towards the outcrop, which they will attempt to climb, only to be foiled by you kicking the boulder down, Lord of the Flies style, sending them scattering and flattening a good few enemies. Larger, wall-esque blocks would still be interactive and physics based, being pushed over by hard kicks to them or characters, rocks, etc. crashing into them. This means you can hide behind a wall, wait for a patrol to come by, and smash the wall into a few of them. The huge crashing sound any of these rocks produce would attract more enemies, but by then you might have another trap rigged. This could carry over with different types of objects into different environment types.

Essentially, I'm just saying that more objects should be physics based. I'm a sucker for cool environmental interactions.

Also, as I'm still latching onto online ideas, I'm wondering how stealth could be implemented. It could be possible to have enemies that the player hasn't "seen" by having them in front of the camera to appear invisible until they interact with the player. However, since normal, Turner-esque characters will probably just be running around fighting constantly, getting stealth kills on them might be fairly difficult. Therefore, I return to the Rogue VS Guards mode type. Then the guards would gravitate towards the objective to defend it, patrolling various routes to it. This means that the Rogue player could use stealth kills very effectively, and the "non-seen invisibility" would work fine. I was going to suggest that the guards could be in first person, like in the Mercs VS Spies gameplay in Splinter Cell, but that wouldn't work with Lugaru's degree of maneuverability. I may be in a minority, but I think a knife-wielding Turner trying to take on spear-and-bow using guards online would be absolutely awesome. Of course, Turner could grab weapons from his foes corpses, but it would still be a toss-up between melee and long-range prowess.

Also, online character customization would be cool... choosing fur type, armor type, helmet type, pants type, tattoos or scars, etc. to build your own rabbit would be neato, although a basic choose-your-skin would work totally fine, too.

That was a hideously long post, and I salute anyone with the masochistic power to read all of it.

Nuky · Post by **Nuky** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:09 am

Yupp, I read it. Good post.

Hmm... You know, Lugaru II will have some sort of skill-based stuff in normal play, so... Any plans of a multiplayer mode in which you do the same?
(Anybody ever played Invasion on UT2k4? There you can upgrade your skills by point-based system as the level gets harder and harder. Which would result in a fair unfair, but fun, noob vs. pro if you remove the invaders and set the gametype to deathmatch or similar.
Only here you wouldn't be upgrading at will.)

Post by **Eric** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:12 pm

I've played invasion (for some reason Jeff loved this mode even though I hate it), although I didn't notice that feature.

Renegade_Turner · Post by **Renegade_Turner** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:24 pm

Amorphous Tom wrote: Also, I love Lugaru's stealth. It requires skill, but is clear and effective, also satisfying.

Well, I would not say it is terrible, or flawless. Some of the time it can be very difficult to sneak behind someone in a way that it shouldn't be difficult, like a rabbit somehow seeing me around a corner. Mainly I have no qualms with that side of the game, but I think it could do with touch-ups.

Post by **David** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:10 pm

I updated the Wolfire blog again, this time with a movie of the new animation system I am working on!

http://blog.wolfire.com/

Albab · Post by **Albab** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:17 pm

That looks really cool, David!

One thing, though: Weren't the ears floppy originally? I don't really care, but did you decide it was too distracting or something?

Post by **Ninjas** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:26 pm

It's a work in progress. I'm sure details like floppy ears will be added later.

Even at this early stage, I am really excited by the animation system. It's tons of fun to play too!

Post by **Jeff** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:38 pm

If you look really closely, you will see that the ears actually interact with the ground when he rolls. The videos are probably not high-res enough to see, but take my word for it.

The full-fledged ear engine will come later.

Post by **Eric** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:27 am

Jeff wrote:The full-fledged ear engine

I like it

Sectaurs · Post by **Sectaurs** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:23 am

d'oh! I didn't know you could do backwards summersaults.

*opens up the engine and starts rolling backwards 'till the sun goes down*

Post by **Eric** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:45 am

is that when the sun goes down in the game or in real life?

Nuky · Post by **Nuky** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:52 am

That's the most awesome work-in-progress clip everrrrrr.
Holy yays!

Zaphon · Post by **Zaphon** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 7:44 am

HOLY SHIIIIiish kabob!
That is so awesome! He moves so fluidly!! Aaaargh! *spasm*
What's even cooler is that the animations in the full game will be even better, since David states the system is in early development.
And also, the sun? Holy Jesus, our Lord and saviour, show your tits, INCREDIBLE. :O

Now I'm even more hyped for the game!
Keep up the great work, Wolfire!

Haha, Zantalos is going to freak out! ;D