Maze landscape

So I thought I would jot this idea down while I'm thinking about it.  In landscape design I plan on having 3 levels of caves which go from 1-20 meters from the bottom, 21-40, and 41-60 and then a surface level which is from 61 meters up to 100 meters.  So one possibility of the surface landscape would be similar to a hedge maze with occasional open areas where bases can be built.  While it might be frustrating for some, I think that others might really enjoy trying to navigate such a maze.  This could be in an area where there are higher quality materials, just as an additional challenge to get them back to base.

Intellectual property

So somewhat related to what I post here on this blog is a question of intellectual property.  I recently listened to an NPR interview entitled "When Patents Attack", and I realize now that virtually anything I do in regards to this game will technically encroach on someones patents.  The short version is that there are companies out there that hoard large amounts of patents, and then they do the equivalent of a mafia shakedown saying that they will sue unless you pay large amounts in licensing fees.  These companies do not use the patents, indeed many of the companies don't even have employees and probably consist of the lawyers doing the litigation.  It's clear to me that intellectual property laws need to be rewritten.  The thing that scares me the most is that if I am even moderately successful in this endeavor it is possible that one of these companies will come after me.  After all this game concept borrows heavily from many other games.

Also as you can see by having this blog public and sharing all of my ideas openly anyone could conceivably take all of these idea and make this game.  I personally wouldn't have a problem with that, and all I request is that you make me a part of it.  That being said though I don't see it really happening any time soon.

For those of you who are willing to take the time, please take some time to let the government know why and possibly how intellectual property law should be changed at Regulations.gov before July 25, 2012.  Let's make it so the little guy has a chance of making it too.

Laser pointer function

So I know that I mentioned that I wanted to have a laser pointer function in the past, and this post is to elaborate on exactly how it will work.  I think that there will be 2 modes which will be changeable via a right click.  The first mode works just like a normal laser pointer in that one will only see the dot at the end.  The other mode will be the same as when one fires a laser through smoke or steam and the whole beam is illuminated.  This mode will obviously draw more attention, and so players will be able to communicate quickly by essentially pointing something out.  It will also alert enemies that you are close.  As far as appearance goes I think that it will be just a slight protrusion from the multipurpose handle

Idea for my Masters Project

So as many of you have seen over the course of the posts I have created over the last year, this project is not a small undertaking.  I have researched a lot of different game engines (set's of programming that one can build a game upon) such as Unity3D, Unreal, Cry Engine, C4 Engine, and a few open source ones as well.  The problem is that each one of these tools has their own little quirks that must be learned in order to make a game with them.  So the thought that I had was why not propose to the college the possibility of creating/finding an open source project that students could work on and add to for college credit.  This has been done successfully at other colleges with programs like UCOSP, and this is apparently a rousing success.  It gives students an opportunity to work on a real life project very similar to what they will experience in a job after college.  I find that combining teaching and as close to real life experience is one of the optimal learning environments for students, and it will give them a taste of what it will be like once they graduate.

Proposing this will need to be put into a well organized plan of action so that I can show the powers that be that not only will this be beneficial to students, but it will enhance the learning experience of the University and therefore make it more successful.  So along with making a game, I think that something I will attempt to work on is organizing and setting up such a program at UCCS.

Grouping UI

So I have been working out how to do grouping as that will be very important.  So this is what I have worked up so far.  The first grouping is called a pod and will look like this for the three colors.

Basically there is 7 players involved with 1 player acting as lead.  I want the colors to reflect the amount of health that a player has, so if say half your group is frozen and 2 others are injured it would look like this.

The next size will be called a drit and will be comprised of 3 pods with an additional leader.  This one I will do in just green.

This takes 3 pods and puts them together with another leader for a total of 22 players involved.  The closer one is to the center the higher they are up in the chain of command.  I'll have to tweak the colors so it is clearer as to who is a higher rank, so for right now if they are brighter they are a leader of some sort.  I want to make it so only the leaders will see this formation, so basically the 4 players in the middle will see everyone, all of the other participants will only see the pod that they are a part of.  The last formation will be called a plat and will look like this which has been depicted in blue this time.

Again this takes 3 drits and attaches them to an additional leader for a total of 67 players.  Again only the four players in the middle will see this formation, which is the plat leader and the 3 drit leaders.  The pod leaders will only see the drit formation above, and all other participants still only see the pod that they are in.  Commanders would then have a special interface allowing them to see all of these formations in a given hexfield, or if they are in the main base everywhere in the game field.  Players will be able to identify group members by special icons or different colored text over the heads of group members.

Game Networking

I have been reading up on what is necessary to do game networking, and yes there is a lot that goes into it.  In reading about the history of game networking I found that the evolution has changed based on the technology available at the time (you can read more about it here).  One interesting thing that I feel bears looking back into is what is known as a pure server/client set up.  Basically the game will exist on the server only, and clients act as a dumb terminal that only accepts inputs and displays game output.  I have already said that I would like this game to go on Onlive, and since the Onlive system essentially uses this concept already it would be very simple to take it one step further.  This means that there would only be one game being rendered, with players logging into this game and seeing it from their viewpoint.  It would be the same experience as playing on a LAN, which is something Onlive touts as being one of it's strengths.

So long story short, I will probably set up the game to run on this pure server paradigm.  Also I looked into the profit share on Onlive and it is a 60/40 split, which is a little higher than some of the other systems, but is understandable as they have server upkeep and bandwidth costs.  My goal would be to make it into the playpack, but we'll have to see how things go.

The Timeline

I was considering going back and editing older posts to reflect some changes in ideas that I have, but I have reconsidered since I would prefer that this blog outline the whole process and evolution of this game from beginning to end.  That being said there may be some repeat posts coming up as I need to update certain aspects.  The changes won't be particularly large, rather a refinement of previously discussed concepts.

As far as where I am in the process now, I am having to go back and relearn Blender after taking a break from it while in school.  I'm finding that I understand quite a bit more about haw the program works now that I have taken linear algebra.  I'm also reading Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics and I'm starting into OpenGL.  I still have a lot to learn, and keeping up with all possible technologies is proving to be an overwhelming challenge, so I'm going to work to keep it as simple as I can at this point.