BOSCONIAN - Map Pack Created 9 years ago2015-05-13 17:32:27 UTC by Tetsu0

This will serve to be the discussion thread for my Bosconian project so I don't need to Hijack the WIP thread anymore.

BETA 001 was released on 5/12/2015 - http://twhl.info/vault.php?map=6054

---

KNOWN BUGS & ISSUES AS OF 5/13/2015
1) There is only 1 level
2) There is no End of Game

---

FIXED
Small fortress guns don't always fire
Respawns are a bit glitchy
Lasers are difficult to see against background
Player ship shoots too far - player can essentially snipe across map
Game is Noisy

---

ALMOST FIXED
Enemy fighters tend to bunch up
Enemy fighters don't always die when shot

---

Small fortress guns don't always fire
Game is Noisy
There's something fishy with the func_tankpulselaser entities I'm using for the projectiles. I originally set a 'Max target distance' of 512 units but it seems that setting is opposite and the lasers only fire when you're outside that range. Anyway, I fixed it by manually Enabling / Disabling the lasers with physical triggers circling the fortresses. This also keeps the noise down because the Fortress Main cannon timer is also Enabled/Disabled with the proximity triggers.

Respawns are a bit glitchy
I tweaked some of the timings and it's functioning much better now. After your ship explodes fully, you zip back to spawn and start again. I was having issues with the ship's collision box actually colliding with stuff while you're zipping to spawn, but I fixed that by unparenting the hitbox, then teleporting it back to spawn, then re-parenting it back to the ship when it got there.

Enemy fighters tend to bunch up
Enemy fighters don't always die when shot
I'm still keeping the Enemy Fighter navigation a secret until it's working perfectly... but I did get it working better than before

Lasers are difficult to see against background
I will have to make some new backgrounds. The nebula is too colorful. For now, the BG is just black, and all the particles/lasers show up perfectly.

Player ship shoots too far - player can essentially snipe across map
Was as simple as reducing the lifetime of the laser pulse

Diagonal movement is odd
So tonight was the first time I've encountered this:I haven't officially added any movement other than cardinal and I wasn't originally going to include diagonal movement, but I might in the future - this will stay as is for now.

Holy Shitballs you did it!

I wish I had your motivation to do these fun projects.. Never played the original, but it looks like a revolutionary-styled game for the time. I'll post a review soon as I can!

Hey everyone, Beta_002 is out!

This update included a Laser attack overhaul. I finally solved the particle spam problem that happens when the fortress opens or the ship starts firing in a new direction.

That was crashing the game previously BUT I FIXED IT - what a relief too because the game runs like butter now.

Grab it HERE!

Some more entity spam for you:From left to right:
AI Control Logic
Ship Direction Logic
Ship Laser Logic
Menu Logic

runs like butter

Is that a good thing?
Once again, I shall give it a kick and report back my findings.

EDIT: Ooh, yeah, that made it a lot better. Looks like you've addressed just about everything (as you've stated). Only found one bug this time round. It seems that pressing fire and then a direction nigh-simultaneously, you can end up shooting parallel to your line of travel. Obsoive (Note that there's no turns in the trail):Other than that, fighters seemed a tad... hesitant to bother coming after you, but that sporadic-ness actually felt like a nice touch either way.

Only thing that bothered me was that fire-stopping-when-you-turn thing, but you've acknowledged that.

All-in-all, a lovely improvement!

---

I'm curious as to what kinds of levels you could create with this. Presumably it isn't limited to this kind of somewhat aimless fly-around-shooting-at-platforms. I know this is "heavily influenced" by another game, but I was just wondering, since you asked about people designing levels, what kind of freedom would be possible in that.

Well that level, for example, took me about a minute to create because i spent my time perfecting the prefabs.
So you just drop prefabs down in any pattern you want - fortresses and mines are prefabbed.
Then you specify fighter spawn points and intervals.

The difficulty will increase with a greater density of enemies.

Its a game made in 1981.there really isn't much to it.

Haha, dude! This is very freakin' awesome. I've never played Bosconian before and that's why I thought this would play like any other traditional vertical/side scrolling shooters from the DOS era like Tyrian and Major Stryker, but this is pretty darn neat. Nicely done.

It's pretty tough lining yourself up to attack something without getting hit, it doesn't help that enemy shots one hit kill you.

You should definitely develop this further with more ships, more lasers and more explosions because awesomeness.

This whole thing got me thinking of attempting something similar of my own, however, I'm going for vertical scrolling shooter gameplay. Hopefully I can put something playable together in a reasonable short time. Attack of the B-Team (Minecraft Modpack) is taking up all my free time at the moment.

Thanks Atom!
I tried to hold pretty much true to Bosconian; enemies one shot you. I might make the player lasers more powerful so it's more balanced, but I think I can balance it out by using different attack strengths for an Easy, Medium or Hard mode.
The major thing I'm missing from the original game is Diagonal movement; but I just haven't set my mind to figuring that out yet.

Gameplay hint - Use your reverse lasers

If you wan't some help setting up a vertical scroller, let me know and I will definitely help. I've learned a LOT about the logic system and func_tanks making this game so I'll be happy to answer any questions, or set up a base level for you.

I think your head might explode if you saw the VMF but It's a very flexible system and making this into a vertical scroller should be pretty easy.

Assuming you used the point_viewcontrol camera, how do you maintain the aspect ratio on different monitor/game resolutions?

I haven't thought of that yet.
I've only tested the game on my computer running a 16:9 aspect ratio.
I'm not sure how the HUD will react to different aspects.

In other news, I fixed the 'shooting sideways' bug.

Try windowed mode for different resolutions! You won't need to change monitors or wait for other people's feedback.

I'm gonna play Bosconian on MAME tonight awhile, and then play/compare yours

Do you have an impending new version, or is it still Beta002 for now?

I have a new version coming once I feel like working on it again TBH.
I can fix the firing rates, and I want to speed it up, but once I do that, It's really just making different levels and releasing it.
Kinda not in the mood to work on it right now - y'all know the feeling I'm sure.

But with everyone posting in the thread, it helps keep my mind on it.

I'll release another version for sure.

Just played the original Bosconian on MAME, and I must say it's a really fun game! The game is pretty fast-paced and plays well my only wish there was a secondary-fire weapon like a torpedo

Your Ep2 is very faithful to how the original game plays, well done! You did a really good job with the lasers, they remind me of a star destroyer repelling enemy fighters with multiple laser batteries.

I had to play with the sound disabled because people were sleeping, but I'll play it again tomorrow to check out the groovy sound effects =)

My only complaint with the game is I wish the fire button was a little more responsive, other than that you've really done a fine job! Nice work on the radar faithful to the original as well, and the mother ship energy core thingies

Diaganonal movement doesn't work for me at all. (In MAME, you can make the ship go diagonal by combining W or A with S or D)

Thanks for the Review Capt! It made me want to fix it again
Next update will hopefully include Diagonal movement and I'll try to get the firing to be more responsive.

Also, I just read your review in the Vault, Thanks.
In response to this:

Also Brett, REALLY NICE job scripting this! Would it be possible/practical to make a MP version, where say you have 5x5, both teams with their own motherships and fighters? =D

Probably... You'd need some sort of waiting room with consoles on each side. Once everyone is ready and has chosen a side, the players walk up to consoles to control their ships.

As it stands right now, the HUD is parented to the camera... so if another player's ship flies in your view, you'd more than likely see their HUD as well XD. So I can probably get multiple ships working, but I would need to figure out how to change the HUD. It'd be funny to see as well... I could control friendly fire too

---

I may have found an AI improvement.... I'll test in a few hours.