Gbax 2007 Coding Competition Entries Online

[skeezix]

*g* I'm pretty pleased with the AI; it even runs on the second CPU to avoid chug

If you pull up the opponent character sheet (right trigger), you can see how 'mean' he is; the more mean the more bastardy he plays .. looks a little more ahead, looks to damage you more. In practice, the more mean uses less spells and more board play, while less mean uses spells and chills out a little.

The AI is an 'emergent behaviour' AI .. I code up rules, weights, thigns like that, and alter it by the opponent type, meanness, abilities etc .. and then just see how it works. In general, it often works pretty well, and other times its silly (sometimes it'll decide to do moves which look stupid, when it could just finish you off.)

I find that perfect.. it gived it character. Sometimes an opponent could just finsih you off with a couple moves, but it decides (!!) to take its time.. chug back a healingm potion,m cast a heal spell, stealth and screw around.. its cool how iut 'works out' given all the rules.

It shoudl get whackier when I add more gear and make the skills do more stuff as level up occurs.. but thats a _huge_ topic .. the power-growth curve, so I'm trying to planm it dslowly, while keeping it 'just fun' from the onset.

I also tried to plan out how the spells cost various manas and life, to allow for mroe spell variety (a lot of spells are coming down the road, for buying as you get mroe experience).

The tirck is.. all this planning doesn't show, which is perfect. The more planning, the more smooth it shoudl feel.. the more hidden all the details, and let them just come out as you dig in

I hope it works like that anyway .. I spent months tuning this bastard!

jeff

Will be adding the Vampire class, and the Alchemist, soon

Edit: Just watch out for the Dragon; hes not so frequent, but his AI is much more vicious; he just likes ot beat you down quick, but he loves to go for gold grabs as well (a weakness.) Still, don't mess with this guy.. the Dragon is a challenge. (Hes a good opponent for healing classes and healing pot use; hes harder on the damage classes, since he does a lot of damage too and is very single minded. A Mean Dragon, who happens to start with Epic Lootz, is your worst BJ nightmare so far

 

[nickspoon]

Block. Or Blocked, can't remember. The one where you have to pick up the blue blocks. Interesting level design, plays most funly, and definitely deserves an expansion - just very very charming.

If you mean Mister Block - and I hope you do - then thanks. It's really nice to hear all this great feedback. I'll get to work on some new levels soon, I promise.

 

[Tobriand]

Block. Or Blocked, can't remember. The one where you have to pick up the blue blocks. Interesting level design, plays most funly, and definitely deserves an expansion - just very very charming.

If you mean Mister Block - and I hope you do - then thanks. It's really nice to hear all this great feedback. I'll get to work on some new levels soon, I promise.


That's the one. It reminded me very much of the "Monuments of Mars" games from the ID Software/Apogee hayday. Which, being a game I remember very fondly, is definitely a good thing! The next step is to have a few levels with moving red blocks

 

[dosteridge]

Finally had time to play all the entries and my personal favs are: (in no particular order)

Ruck-man
Knightlore
Glouton
Floaters
Escapa
Blastriot
Battlejewels

A big thanks to all the coders and I wish evryone whom entered 'The Best of Luck'

 

[critical]

A fantastic array of entries this year - congratulations to everyone who entered. This contest has been really good for the GP2X... the fun and quality shine through.

 

[fusion_power]

Edit: Just watch out for the Dragon; hes not so frequent, but his AI is much more vicious; he just likes ot beat you down quick, but he loves to go for gold grabs as well (a weakness.) Still, don't mess with this guy.. the Dragon is a challenge. (Hes a good opponent for healing classes and healing pot use; hes harder on the damage classes, since he does a lot of damage too and is very single minded. A Mean Dragon, who happens to start with Epic Lootz, is your worst BJ nightmare so far


Never had problems with the dragon. My gladiator can handle him pretty good.
I noticed, that on enemy, the on with the stealth spell can use this spell in multiplied way, if he cast it many times, I can`t neutralize the spell with only on death row. I have to hit him 3x when he casts stealth 3x to disable it. Is this supposed in this way?

 

[skeezix]

Dang, board lost my reply.

The quick version is .. the stealth oddity is something I've been debating; really, a few 'effects' can be turned on multiple times, and I've debated making them 'unique' so that can't happen. But it seems fun .. when the opponent (or player?) stealths 3 times in a row, you really need to work to whittle them down. Is that fun, or annoying? I've not decided which yet

I suppose now that GBAX version is entered I can experiment more; I've got a half dozen classes partly developed I'd like to drop in, and some more gear and such; and some more music for win and lose and such.

We'll see.. I'll be going on paternity-leave for a couple weeks, to play with my new daughter. If I get time when she goes to bed, I'll pop out a few new builds soon

jeff

 

[damned]

Ruckman is very fun so is Beatbox i definally would like a tutorial to make my own songs for it, i like it more than beat2x its very fun

 

[greenmikey]

Thank you author of ventifact..its a fun game. I'm glad you took the time to code this. There is nothing like crashing through bases and blasting enemies! I hope you can find the time to answer a few things.

Is it possible to heal your own buildings or tanks much like the enemy does? (this would rock)

What does the power building do?

And the R-shoulder seems to switch units..is there a way to quickly get back to your main guy? possibly hold in R for a second or 2

And finally a few bugs for the picky player (Me )

Your infantry seems to be the same color as the enemies infantry. Although I don't really like using them honestly.

It would be handy to move the screenshot function to something different than both volume up and down, as it makes a delay in game if you try to switch weapons and hit both on accident.

And one last thing..why is it so fun?

 

[Uprising]

Thank you author of ventifact..its a fun game. I'm glad you took the time to code this. There is nothing like crashing through bases and blasting enemies! I hope you can find the time to answer a few things.

Is it possible to heal your own buildings or tanks much like the enemy does? (this would rock)

What does the power building do?

And the R-shoulder seems to switch units..is there a way to quickly get back to your main guy? possibly hold in R for a second or 2

And finally a few bugs for the picky player (Me )

Your infantry seems to be the same color as the enemies infantry. Although I don't really like using them honestly.

It would be handy to move the screenshot function to something different than both volume up and down, as it makes a delay in game if you try to switch weapons and hit both on accident.

And one last thing..why is it so fun?

Thanks very much for the feedback!

You can heal your infantry and buildings with the repair gun (you receive that on the third upgrade to the player) but currently there is no way for you to do the same as the ai. It would be very easy to program it in so that they would though.
If you want to try it out quickly go to options and turn on cheat, then you will have all weapons, infinite ammo and lots of health on your next game.

The power building gives you 10 credits every second, a citadel gives you 5 per second.

I wasnt planning to let the R button do that it was just for testing . I may add it some time later, thats a good idea though thanks.

I will definitely update the infantry colour/graphic in the next release.
The infantry is good at taking down buildings so if you go up to an enemy citadel and press the Y button (make sure you are on version 0.81) instead of B then it will use its rockets (like the ai does) and stay at the citadel while you can do other things.
But it is pretty weak if you let it follow you around as it does tend to run into enemy tanks.

I was running out of buttons when I implemented the screenshot, I could use the stick click but that would be even worse! Maybe I will have to put it in options.

As for fun, I dont know as I have spent ages looking out for crashes and bugs when playing! Thanks again.


Looks like I may need need to reupload again as all the games in the GP32X archive have been replaced with the ones sent to GBAX2007. Unfortunately the one I sent to GBAX2007 has two gpe of different versions
and is messed up.

 

[fusion_power]

The quick version is .. the stealth oddity is something I've been debating; really, a few 'effects' can be turned on multiple times, and I've debated making them 'unique' so that can't happen. But it seems fun .. when the opponent (or player?) stealths 3 times in a row, you really need to work to whittle them down. Is that fun, or annoying? I've not decided which yet

Well, when I'm doing this move, it's fun, when the ENEMY is doing this move, it's annoying.
But I just mentioned this with another (test)character. I tried the wizzard and I was not happy with him. My Gladiator has no problem with stealth, because he can eleminate even on single skull so the stealth is removed after the first cast and I don't let him get 2 in a row XD

I have over 800 Gold and nothing more, that I could buy. Is ther more inside the game yet or are the current shop items all at the moment? Well, I hope I can keep my savegame, when the game is updated with more content, was alot of work with my character. ^^

 

[skeezix]

(Should move to another thread

When I change the file format, I will have to make an importer

I will be adding more gear and such for sure; more potion types, more armor, mor weapons; and gear that effecvts different skills more . ie: some skills let you occasionaly get a free move, or always get first move, or a extra move when you clear certain things, etc etc. This way you can alter your experience based on buying and equipping things.

I've been holding off so as to not unbalance "level 1", but the whole levelling difficulty/growth curve is very daunting to design..

Not sure which pieces to proceed on first; ie: I think I will add a couple new classes very soon, and one of them (alchemist) can make his own potions (salves), so that'll go in. But more enemies? more gear? work on levelling? What shoudl I do next..

For your maxxed out character, what would you like next?

jeff

 

[fusion_power]

Not sure which pieces to proceed on first; ie: I think I will add a couple new classes very soon, and one of them (alchemist) can make his own potions (salves), so that'll go in. But more enemies? more gear? work on levelling? What shoudl I do next..

For your maxxed out character, what would you like next?

jeff

-First, maybe better performance of the game
-Option to disable Music
-Option to switch B and X button functions
-the rest ^^

If you want to steal some good balanced RPG Skill/enemy/cara/stats -calculation formulas, for Diablo II all formulas exist in many, many sheets.

Oh, My maxxed character is missing Equip on Head, Neck, legs and feet... (really, a little bit to much body parts has this game for equipping I think :lol: )

 

[___]

I think levelling would be cool It would make it a lot more fun to play as you get a little reward and it motivates you to continue.

What would be really neat is little pictures for the inventory items. That is something for the future though... I guess game play is the top priority.

 

[skeezix]

Levelling is very interesting and challenging; ie: As you level up you need to feel stronger, so you need to have an option to face lower level opponents; you need the regular opponents to levle up too.. so you're challenged still. Smarter AI? Better gear, and skill/spelled up like a player too. But not more or less powerful than a player, so need a way to measure of a player and all that. Further, the store needs to allow the right gear options, and need enough gear of the right typesd tro make it interesting.. not just throw a mass of gear at you, but the right pieces so you can assembvle interesting things over a series of levels.

I'm all about combos.. item and spell combos to do interesting things, but its a lot of planning.

And to keep it all balanced, across classes, across levels, across playstyles..

I never dreamed how much work it would be. I think I did pretty well for the existing 3 classes and gearouts and opponents, but once I drop in another half dozen classes and some more gear, I need to make sure the opponents still stand a chance, and _then_ start levelling everyone up..

eep

I need a big pool of active testers, so I can throe stuff out there and see what sticks!

jeff

 

[Tobriand]

Two solutions to a couple of problems you mentioned:

1) Balancing equipment
Simplest way is to implement a basic map - indeed, something along the same lines as FFTactics Advance or even Tikka Dungeon Explorer. Have several different towns or shops or such, which it takes several encounters to get to. Possibly make some towns specialised in some equipment, rather than in low/med/high level equipment. Just the high level stuff would be a long way out of league for the time you'd get there the first time round...

2) Levelling.
Try and implement an adaptive levelling report system. I.e. implement very basic levelling. When people like us play your game, it creates a file that says how tough the last enemy was to beat. Adjust alogrithm accordingly to make sure it is actually balanced. Release updated version. If keep the other platform version well maintained, then that could fairly quickly provide the necessary feedback to create a proper levelling system over and above the basic one.

Just some thoughts...

 

[rtb7]

XUMP3D for gp32 : source code released (I'm surprised that no GPL integrist already asked me to release it earlier) :
http://four.fsphost.com/sodthor/index.htm

 

[fusion_power]

Levelling is very interesting and challenging; ie: As you level up you need to feel stronger, so you need to have an option to face lower level opponents; you need the regular opponents to levle up too.. so you're challenged still. Smarter AI? Better gear, and skill/spelled up like a player too. But not more or less powerful than a player, so need a way to measure of a player and all that. Further, the store needs to allow the right gear options, and need enough gear of the right typesd tro make it interesting.. not just throw a mass of gear at you, but the right pieces so you can assembvle interesting things over a series of levels.

I'm all about combos.. item and spell combos to do interesting things, but its a lot of planning.

And to keep it all balanced, across classes, across levels, across playstyles..

I never dreamed how much work it would be. I think I did pretty well for the existing 3 classes and gearouts and opponents, but once I drop in another half dozen classes and some more gear, I need to make sure the opponents still stand a chance, and _then_ start levelling everyone up..

eep

I need a big pool of active testers, so I can throe stuff out there and see what sticks!

jeff

Smarter AI in later levels could be useful I think. AI could do special moves, players like to do to. Me for example use the Thrust skill to neutralize the Stealth spell of the enemy. With thrust, you always can make damage when destroying one Skull, very useful against stealth. AI could do such moves to.
I think the current AI has not the main focus on making damage to the enemy (good for me XD ) AI sometimes not see a possible 3 row skull field.

Oh, the skelly really do cheating! I had it down to 18 lives, skelly had no healing potion and after the skelly undead spell it had 30 Lives again, and again and again and again.... boooh!

 

[quasist]

Has anyone put infinite loop in his/her entry since two weeks have already passed...

 

[pferguso]

I wonder when the judges are going to finish judging the entries and announce the winners... I'm starting to get antsy...