My page.

Could somone please start an official website so we can start working on this?

`N0

Onag, I haven't recieved any feedback from you regarding the tileset. You did recieve it, right?

I talked with CaptainSpam today about getting a forum here for Mechaius, and he said he'd put it up for the other admins to consider.

Originally Posted by Toxic Bunny

Back then I was in my final year of school, but now I'm in my first year of Uni and have all the time in the world

There seems to be a bit of a gloomy view of Uni in the Overlord leaving thread. So to be clear, I wasn't being sarcastic. I DO have a load of time.
Well, more than I did before. The work's really easy, like "an int is a 32-bit integer", "V=IR", and "|x| = |-x|". In fact, it was just plain insulting when one lecturer said "10/4 = 2 remainder 2".

Anyway. About the engine. I don't really want to open source it because the net play code would get out (once I actually wrote it, of course). I also wanted to make money out of it, though there's a bit of wishful thinking at work here.
It's also in C, and so a bit more messy than a C++ equivalent would be. Another thing is that it uses OpenGL, and I understood you wanted to use DirectX. This actually isn't a problem because it will eventually support several graphics libraries.

Still, if you're willing to abandon "open source" and go for "Alister-only source", then I'm willing.

Edit: The engine is heavily reliant on plug-ins for events, playable characters, and the game menu. So that at least would be open-source.

I'm also willing to open-source the editors, but they're pretty crude (in terms of both code and functionality). Probably best if they were rewritten.

Btw, maybe as a temporary website structure a weblog could be used? Very easy to set up, hosting is free. Quite handy, I'd think.

EDIT

When you start to need level designers in the future, remember me. Game level design is something I consider to be my strong point. Other than that I can also give a lot of advice in terms of gameplay balancing and all that.

Imo Evilmike is indeed a very good level designer and should be considered. ;p

Onag, there's a private message in your PM box about the forum.

Ok, so here seems to be the list of things that currently can/need to be worked on:

Game Design

Story/World
Gameplay
Units/Powerups/Enemies
Level Design
Concept Art


Technical Design

Overall Program Layout and Flow
Main Class Hierarchies
Core Components
Coding Standards


The technical stuff should probably be designed out before anybody gets into coding.

It would be useful if we could get these main design documents publicly avaliable somewhere, and come up with a system for contributing stuff to them. It would probably be best to have certain people in charge of actually writing these documents. We don't want too many people writing to them at the same time, otherwise conflicts will occour, and distributing it to a few people makes it less of a burden than if one person had to write it all.

How many people will be needed for each subject?

And how will they be chosen?

Don't we need sound people?

Originally Posted by Infinite Spaz

Don't we need sound people?

Have you ever crushed a whole can of pringles, from the top down? Yeah, well don't do it, they taste better whole.

That was just a list of stuff that could be worked on at this stage. We don't know what we need sounds for yet, although somebody could probably work on music if they want.. You'd have to sort of know the theme though.

Let's make Faw and Strato do concept art because nobody else wants to.

...fine, I'll go slave away now...

Okay, here's how the project will be organized:

1) To protect the plot, the production levels will not be released to the public.

2) To prevent hacking, the net code will not be publicly available. Instead, a compiled DLL library will be included with the source to allow net play.

3) All development areas (sound, music, levels, etc.) will be overseen by one or more team leads. While these individuals will provide game content, their main role is to take content and ideas from the community and compile it into a workable game. In other words, levels, music, sounds, tiles, sprites, etc. will be accepted from anyone, and the best ideas will be used or modified to fit into the game.

-----

That's about it. And please don't everyone ask to be team lead. Just help out here and I'll come to you if needed. Oh, and on a side note, the engine is coming along nicely (considering I've never designed one before). Here are some spiffy statistics I've pulled out of my...I made up.


Engine: 1.2% complete
Game: 0.0000000000000007% complete


-Nag

Originally Posted by Onag

Engine: 1.2% complete
Game: 0.0000000000000007% complete

Progress! \o/


So, when do we start?
Before I can make concept art, I've got to know about the characters.


By the way, how do you like the name 484-DON for the baddy?
It's half 1337 for "Abadon", which is the angel of doom in the new testament.

Originally Posted by Piccolo

Before I can make concept art, I've got to know about the characters.

Robots. If we knew any more, I'd make it.

Originally Posted by Radium

Robots. If we knew any more, I'd make it.

Oh, okay then, oh wise Radium:






<- Good guy


<- Bad guy


Yay. =P

Rad, start thinking, okay?

Originally Posted by Piccolo

<- Good guy

I'd definately keep the wings, but I'm not sure about the eye stalks.

Originally Posted by Piccolo

[ <- Bad guy

Can't complain here.

Here are some things to get you started. The machines will be divided into classes and further divided into models. Here are a couple classes of mechs I'd like to see:

Standard Mechs: legs attached to body (i.e. MechWarrior), very maneuverable, light armor, lighter weapons

Tread Mechs: roll on tank-like treads, less maneuverable, heavier armor, heavy weapons

Tanks: slow, very heavy armor and weapons

Hovercraft: fast, heavier armor and weapons, poor handling

We need mechs specifically designed for different tasks: probing, defense, siege, close combat, etc. Also remember that all mechs will be playable, so try to think of several different moves/abilities they might have.

-Nag

Note that until we have our own forum, I'll be using Possum Forrest for all future posts. I'm assuming it will eventually be converted into a general fangame forum.

Link: Mechaius Engine Design

-Nag

In case some people were left behind, here's a link to the official Mechaius forums:

Link: Mechaius Forums

-Nag

THIS IS REPLY #100 TO THIS THREAD, YAY.

THIS IS REPLY 101! AND IT'S NO MORE SIGNIFICANT! WOOT!

-Nag

102! IT'S DIVISIBLE BY 51! HA!

As long as my mech is in there somewhere, I'm happy.

LET ME JUST SAY ONE THING:
No one get excited, this will just be another Possum that we all rave about for ages and then it dies a slow, painful death.

LET ME SAY ONE OTHER THING: If I'm wrong, that would be very, very cool ;p

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ninja! ;p

-Nag