unnamed "Age of Empires" style game

Community Forums/Graphic Chat/unnamed "Age of Empires" style game

nazca(Posted 2007) [#1]
Here are some snapshots of the realtime strategy game I started working on about a month ago.

It's somewhat based on one of my favourite games, Age of Empires.

Right now I'm just trying get the look right, and I'm focusing on random map generation (where to place trees, where to place rocks, cliffs, etc). Here's what I have so far









All the objects are saved in a Type cache and can be selected. The FPS is being killed in this shot, because I guess FastText doesn't work with v1.99 :(


That's all I have so far!


nazca(Posted 2007) [#2]
Oh, and I guess for anyone who cares, the map is 2.5 km long and 2.5 km deep, there are 10,000 - 20,000 trees and about 30,000 rocks (it depends on the seed)


Jsoren(Posted 2007) [#3]
ohhh, this is looking nice!
are the different textures on the terrain textured realtime when the map is randomized? if so, what system do you use for the multiple texturing?


caff_(Posted 2007) [#4]
Looking ok so far - have a look at:

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=53162

For some different ways of doing the water. Bet you could get a nice effect if you play around with them. (Not that your water looks bad - I like the colours, but it just needs a little more 'texture' to it).

Oh and how are you doing shadows?


nazca(Posted 2007) [#5]
Thanks Caff, I'll have a look :)

And Jsoren, right now, I have 2 textures applied to the terrain, one is a "detail" texture to make it appear rough, and the color map is generated according to heights, I made a pre-defined array which has a different color for each elevation (sand color for areas close to water, grass for middle elevations, and rock for higher elevations.

I also use a modified version of Flynn's terrain shadow mapper and mix that with the color map, to give the effect of lighting on the terrain

the little map in the bottom-right corner is basically the generated colormap, shrunk down

thanks guys


Jsoren(Posted 2007) [#6]
Oh cool, i was wondering how the map would work randomly!
personally i think the water works nice with the 'style' graphics...although i keep seeing a face in the water on the second screenshot down...it may be i've been up too long.


Curtastic(Posted 2007) [#7]
Nice minimap!


Zenith(Posted 2007) [#8]
looking beautiful nazca, I *love* these series of games, Empire Earth, Rise of Nations, Age of Empires, all brilliantly created. Please continue work on it!


puki(Posted 2007) [#9]
Exciting stuff.


N(Posted 2007) [#10]
Looks good. Only one question: why are trees units?


Matty(Posted 2007) [#11]
@Noel - so they can turn into Ents in the fantasy mods ;)

Yes it does look good. The water looks unusual however. I don't know myself though how to go good water so can't help there...


nazca(Posted 2007) [#12]
Thanks for the comments everyone. I know, the water is a little weird looking, I just can't seem to make it look right with reflections.

Here is what the water looks like with reflections turned off. Which is better so far? with or without reflections?





you can't see it in the pictures, but the water has an animated 'wave-like' texture

Oh, and about the trees being units, its because I wanted to test my "select unit" function, and I didn't have any other models to use at the time :P

Thanks again everyone, I'll try and keep this updated


chwaga(Posted 2007) [#13]
they both look good, make a .exe so we can see the wavelike thing, and have a button to toggle on/off reflections.


nazca(Posted 2007) [#14]
Here's an exe, as requested

hopefully this link works: http://www.keepmyfile.com/download/6839f41939803

Controls:
'W' to switch between water effects
Move the camera with the mouse
Press R + L Mouse keys to rotate camera

It's still a very early beta obviously, comments and criticsm are very welcome.

Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks


chwaga(Posted 2007) [#15]
I like it, the waves are a bit exadurated (don't say I spelled that wrong) though.


Jsoren(Posted 2007) [#16]
looks nice and professional. the reflections in the water are a little pixelized. not sure if making them alittle more detailed would reduce the fps too much though. using the middle mouse button to scroll would be a nice addition too. otherwise i had no problems with the water or waves, it all looks nice. cant wait to see how you handle cliffs (if you do them) I've yet to see an RTS game handle them in a nice looking and effective way.


xlsior(Posted 2007) [#17]
I like the 2nd water mode better than the first - the big waves seem a bit distracting, and look wrong around the small islands.

And one usability observation: I noticed that when you are doing a selection box around a group of units/trees, and you run into the mini-map, the scenery immediately jump to the location on the minimap instead. You may want to disable the jump while you are in mid-selection.


nazca(Posted 2007) [#18]
Thanks for the comments, and thanks xlsior, I'll fix that right away


chwaga(Posted 2007) [#19]
also, how about having ALT + RMB to rotate the camera around a pivot located at the center of the camera's view to the terrain? It would help a lot for viewing, especially for a dramatic effect should you have large-scale battles.