Couple of questions

[Metal Vendetta]

A few questions have sprung up during the course of inputting data into the game which I hope you trustworthy fellows can help me with:

I've got a basic sizing system in place for TF size, 0 = Cassette or Insecticon in altmode, 1 = Micromaster, 2 = Minibot/Cassette, 3 = Autobot car, 4 = Seeker/Dinobot, 5 = well, I haven't had a 5 yet but there's still time.

So, does this system work? And where do I put, say, Breakdown? I'm inclined to have gestalt limbs as size 2s with the body as a 3, but when he turns into the exact same car as Sideswipe, shouldn't he be the same size? He's usually depicted as smaller in the comics and the cartoon, so should I ignore this and include him with the size 2s (agreeing with comic, cartoon and toy) or should I try and make it more "realistic"? Same with CLiffjumper/Jazz, First Aid/Ratchet, or even First Aid/Groove, although I'm finding that the odd toy scaling adds to part of the charm to the thing.

Oh, and what kind of fuel to tanks, helicopters and hovercrafts use?

[Guest]

I'd size the robot modes to their robot modes, and their alt modes to their alt modes.

Breakdown would be a smaller robot than Sideswipe, but their alt modes would be the same size. Unless, you're going to avoid mass-shifting (which would probably exclude micromasters from the game, were you to decide they were to be used. )

As to the fuels, for simplicity, you could have four types of basic fuel.

Tanks, Hovercraft, Trucks and Plant (construction, etc.) could use diesel,
Cars and Motorbikes could use petrol,
Helicopters and Aeroplanes could use aircraft fuel,
and Spacecraft could use rocket fuel.

Or, you could have dozens of fuel types, depending on whether the vehicle needs premium, unleaded, super-unleaded, LRP, Gas, Electric, Avgas, Avtar, HTPB, LOX or UDMH.

[Metal Vendetta]

I'd size the robot modes to their robot modes, and their alt modes to their alt modes.

Breakdown would be a smaller robot than Sideswipe, but their alt modes would be the same size. Unless, you're going to avoid mass-shifting.

Makes sense, Mass shifting does exist - for example Insecticons and Cassettes can shrink to size 0 and disappear from the map. Then again, I was going to have Micromasters as size 1 in both modes. I could have a mix of both, I suppose. Were Micromasters supposed to mass-shift into their alt-modes?

As to the fuels, for simplicity, you could have four types of basic fuel.

Tanks, Hovercraft, Trucks and Plant (construction, etc.) could use diesel,
Cars and Motorbikes could use petrol,
Helicopters and Aeroplanes could use aircraft fuel,
and Spacecraft could use rocket fuel.

Or, you could have dozens of fuel types, depending on whether the vehicle needs premium, unleaded, super-unleaded, LRP, Gas, Electric, Avgas, Avtar, HTPB, LOX or UDMH.

Actually the 4-fuel system you describe above (and this question was largely pointed your way) is very close to what I already had planned, with a little variation (jet fuel is better than aviation fuel, rocket fuel is better than shuttle fuel etc) but generally that's what I have already. Cool

Spacecraft will be able to jump to other planets...providing they have enough fuel. Everyone else will have to use the Spacebridge, or shuttles.

That is, of course, once I introduce the other planets. G1 TFs and Earth at the moment, though me and my friend Matt are scheduled to do the first online playtest at the weekend. After that I hope I'll be able to open it up to beta testing

[Guest]

Were Micromasters supposed to mass-shift into their alt-modes?

Well, I do remember in the Marvel comics with Roadbuster, that their vehicle modes were Earth vehicle size. So, a yes , I guess.

As to the fuels, for simplicity, you could have four types of basic fuel.

Tanks, Hovercraft, Trucks and Plant (construction, etc.) could use diesel,
Cars and Motorbikes could use petrol,
Helicopters and Aeroplanes could use aircraft fuel,
and Spacecraft could use rocket fuel.

Or, you could have dozens of fuel types, depending on whether the vehicle needs premium, unleaded, super-unleaded, LRP, Gas, Electric, Avgas, Avtar, HTPB, LOX or UDMH.

Actually the 4-fuel system you describe above (and this question was largely pointed your way) is very close to what I already had planned, with a little variation (jet fuel is better than aviation fuel, rocket fuel is better than shuttle fuel etc) but generally that's what I have already. Cool

Sounds good. Standard and High Performance for all! Would Monsieur prefer the Energon or the Super/Ultra Energon with this evening's meal?

Spacecraft will be able to jump to other planets...providing they have enough fuel. Everyone else will have to use the Spacebridge, or shuttles.

That is, of course, once I introduce the other planets. G1 TFs and Earth at the moment, though me and my friend Matt are scheduled to do the first online playtest at the weekend. After that I hope I'll be able to open it up to beta testing

Beta testing? An Implementation Phase process so soon after an Analysis Phase process, which was presented during the Development Phase? My various Software Engineering lecturers would all have fits!

[Metal Vendetta]

Beta testing? An Implementation Phase process so soon after an Analysis Phase process, which was presented during the Development Phase? My various Software Engineering lecturers would all have fits!

I'm just inputting/updating character model data, and it's something that's always bugged me... so far everything's been toy-scaled, apart from obvious mass-shifts, but if Starscream and Air Raid are both F-15 Eagles then they should be on the same footing, at least in jet mode. And mass-shifting for Micros is fine too, I've already implemented a form of subspace. At this level, I'm just fine-tuning the various figures in the database.

It's gonna rock.

[Guest]

It's gonna rock.

Based on the strength of this quote alone, I'm sold.

Then again, I was sold on the idea even before I was sat in a pub throwing ideas at you to make your game more difficult to make.

The best bit, tho, so far, has to be the apparent simplicity in the user interface, which IMO suggests a radio/book style of game where the player's own creativity and imagination can become involved, rather than tv/film styles where the player is fed someone's specific interpretation of a given scenario.

[spiderfrommars]

I liked the way in the comics/cartoon everyone was roughly the same size.

Well, I do remember in the Marvel comics with Roadbuster, that their vehicle modes were Earth vehicle size. So, a yes , I guess.

Roadhandler you mean. I expect better from you Reebs!

[Guest]

I liked the way in the comics/cartoon everyone was roughly the same size.

Well, I do remember in the Marvel comics with Roadbuster, that their vehicle modes were Earth vehicle size. So, a yes , I guess.

Roadhandler you mean. I expect better from you Reebs!

Gah!

I make one naming mistake in five years, and everybody's on my case about it!

Damn you, Spiderzoid!

[BB Shockwave]

Since I myself worked on a TF game - on paper anyway - this is what I'd use:

-Fuel types? Well, everyone uses Energon, right? Just because they look like cars and planes, their inner workings are not the same.

-Size: I decided to go with the toy sizes in most cases, as otherwise gestalt limbs would have been more powerful, this would make Superion have much more HP then Menasor, and with the Combaticons, Swindle would have very little HP while Blast Off would be a titan...


I choose a few size categories, like small, medium, normal, large, very large, then distributed Hit points like, say, Medium has 10 HP max. Now then, I simply used the tech spec of each robot to decide what the HP is, so if someone has an endurance of 9 and is medium sized, he has 9 HP (I worked in Ago of Wonders where 50 HP is the max for an unit).

My size categories were:

-Tiny size: human soldiers

-very small size: micromasters, target/head/powermaster partner nebulans (since they wear exo-suits)

-Small size: casettes, minibots, Firecons, Sparklers, Monster Pretender inner robots, Roadblock, Skyhammer

-Medium size : all gestalt limbs (except Predacons and including constructicons), Triggerbots/cons, Insecticons, Monster Pretender shells, small Pretender inner robots (Bludgeon, Thunderwing, etc), Micromaster Transports

-Normal size: Autobot cars, seekers, small head/targetmasters, Powermasters (except Doubledealer), Triplechangers, Deluxe Insecticons, Jumpstarters, Clones, Battlechargers, Pretender Inner robots, Kup, Blurr, Hot Rod, Cyclonus, Scourge, Wreck-Gar

-Large size: leaders (Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime, Megatron, Galvatron, Shockwave) Jet/Skyfire, Soundwave, Blaster, Perceptor, Quickswitch, Deluxe autobots, Gestalt leaders, Predacons, Dinobots, large head/targetmasters, Horrorcons, Monsterbots, Doubledealer, Powermaster Prime smaller mode, Pretender shells, Pretender beast shells, Roadgrabber and Gunrunner shells, Groundshaker/Skyhopper vehicles

-Very large size: Ultra Magnus, Sixshot, Sky Lynx, Roadblock/Skyhammer shells, Skystalker base

-Gestalt size: Gestalts except Predaking, Omega Supreme, Overlord, Powermaster Optimus Prime 'super' mode, Countdown base (depending on scenarios - I planned to do both Marvel and cartoon based ones - Scorponok and Fort Max are here as well for Marvel).

-Semi-giant size: Predaking (I simply didn't want to give him as much HP as a giant. He has as much as his limbs have together).

-Giant size: Scorponok, Trypticon, Metroplex

-Titan size: Fortress Maximus

I might missed some, I put this together out of memory.

[Best First]

i think it was always assivley glossed over with micro's, although when they were on Earth Felicia Reporter Lady got in Nightbeat quite comfortably so i guess its safe to say their behicles were earth sized.

That said it was all drawn in an almost heroically inconistant fashion.

If you are basing it around g1 - I'd just go with the robot mode to be honest, otherwise i think its going to get a lot messier and require a lot more thought with, as far as i can tell, not a great deal of gain for the game.

[Metal Vendetta]

I've pretty much got it standardised now; Concordes, passenger jets and the like are size 5, fighter planes, tanks and so on are size 4, cars are size 3, smaller TFs (cassette-bots and so on) are size 2 and micros and Neo-Knights are size 1.

The thing about the engines is that there's a great dearth of energon on Earth and so the TFs will have to adapt local fuels - makes sense that an Autobot Car will convert petrol into energon, while a jet requires jet fuel to convert into energon.

Successful test this weekend, but there's still a bit to go, killing other TFs works fine but I haven't got medics sorted yet (about halfway there) so life in the game is nasty, brutish and short atm.

[Best First]

is it going to be teh case you can actually die, or more of a stasis lock - cr chamber - back in the game approach?

[snarl]

I think the possibility of death would be fookin mint. Not a definite outcome to a beating, maybe a 1 in 10 chance with the chance of death chaning depending on the respective levels of the characters + the amount of characters fighting.

[Metal Vendetta]

Both - if your HP are reduced to zero but you have 10 or more triliters of energon, you can use that to restore 1 HP and limp back to a CR chamber or medic. While in stasis lock, you diappear from the map, though if someone is actually on your square, they well see you.

It's possible to keep on whaling on someone after you've knocked them into stasis lock, and detonate the energon left in their body until they die, but you don't get any more XP for it - it's purely a grudge match thing, and I'd hope that in the spirit of fair play, players would use this kind of brutality sparingly, though if it does happen it'll open up some really nice gang-warfare style honour killings, I'm sure. I've noticed that a lot of the Urban Dead talk is about PKers, when someone has a grievance about not playing by the "rules of the game", whatever they may be. I'm trying to create the best of both worlds - a noble opponent will leave you in stasis lock and move on, a vindictive opponent will go for the kill...but he'd better not use up all his APs before he manages to knock out your energon otherwise when you spend that 10 to stand up, you could unleash a lot of pain on them before retreating back to base.

Death can also happen if you're knocked into stasis lock over the ocean and you don't have sub-aquatic capabilities, or if you're flying over the ocean and transform into a non-flight mode (something I've been trying out with the Tracks "winged Corvette" altmode Tracks can't fly in robot mode, so he falls into the water and becomes a fossil) I may have to put a Javascript warning on that, though, something like "You will die if you do this, are you sure?"

If you do die, there's the option to keep your character name and make a new character or to give up the name and start over.

[spiderfrommars]

This sounds great!

[Best First]

So… and stop me if I am asking too many questions here, it will be a case of having a TF character with an alt mode who you happen to call Tracks rather than actually picking Tracks as a character?

So if I had a Tracks and I died it would be a case that my Tracks was dead rather than Tracks is lost from the game? Yes?

I have a sneaking suspicion this will be mint.

[Metal Vendetta]

At the start of the game, you choose an altmode from the "rank 'n' file" G1 bots - the classes of robot I've entered so far are:

Autobot
Actionmaster, Aerialbot, Car, Cassette Spy, Deluxe, Dinobot, Jumpstarter, Minibot, Omnibot, Protectobot and Throttlebot.

Decepticon
Actionmaster, Cassette Spy, Combaticon, Constructicon, Insecticon, Predacon, Seacon, Seeker, Stunticon and Terrorcon.

There will be a few more of these categories; Clones, Monsterbots and the like, but probably not as far as Pretenders or 'Masters at launch...I may add them in at a later date, along with oddities such as Lithonians, Junkions and so on...

As far as possible, I've stuck to the original toyline and tech specs, so if you choose the Porsche 935 Car altmode, you get a solar-powered photon rifle and a flamethrower. If you choose to be a Cassette Spy rhino, you get 6 laser-guided heat-seeking missiles. Though the playing field isn't exactly level at the beginning (a Throttlebot will fare far less better than a Dinobot) it should even out over the course of the game as you get XP, skills and weapons.

A short note on weapons, since every Transformer released seems to have a unique weapon, there are a hell of a lot of these. Lots of kinds of ammo as well