Enemy Pathing. Shmup.

Monkey Forums/Monkey Programming/Enemy Pathing. Shmup.

Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#1]
Getting close to the point with my project where I will need to start working on the enemy ships, and their flight paths and modes, and just wanted some opinions on the subject before I start.

I actually have a pathing system written in BlitzMax for one of my other projects which I think will fit amazingly with this once I port it over, but thought I would ask in case some one knows of a less complex way to handle flight paths in shmups on monkey.

My Pathing system uses lists of waypoint nodes, my system allows each node to have its own heading, speed and steering which the node then passes onto the ship as the ship passes over it, can this be done with a spline system ?

for a peek at the system I mention in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrPCb6QjSyA


Soap(Posted 2012) [#2]
http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/

Check out the tutorials there.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#3]
I'm a forum mod on that forum :) but asking here for a more monkey specific answer.

just in case there is anything platform relevant, like s method that works on android but not on ios, that sorta thing i wana know before i make a start.

thinking i will probably stick with my pathing system from my Node Project tho, been looking at the code this morning and should be able to port most of it over without to much trouble.


Soap(Posted 2012) [#4]
It's a small world! :)

I'm thinking then you have more domain specific knowledge than most of us. I'd like to make a bullet hell game some time with Monkey.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#5]
I hate them lol, I grew up playing things like Tatsujin, Tigerhelli Xevious and r-type or hell-fire , Aphydia, impact ,Project X, Swiv you know solid shooters that spanked you hard if you made a mistake.

But all these bullet hell games have a common trait they all forgive the player to much for getting hit, some games give the player a shield, some a big health bar, some just don't check all collisions, but the thought seems to be the same, were throwing so much at the player lets give him a little break.

NAH!..

I think games in general, and not just shooters, everything from mmo's to rts' games are just getting far to easy, we need to bring back that mentality of its the game vs the player, and not the game holding the players hand.

really think back in terms of the games you have played , I will be willing to bet the really memorable moments are those ones where either the game kicks your ass, or you just make it through some epic fight with 1 hp or 0 lives left and no shields.

those moments are becoming a thing of the past sadly.


zoqfotpik(Posted 2012) [#6]
I would say sine functions of time, possibly several sine waves of varying amplitude and frequency superimposed on each other, in addition to some degree of response to player actions like trying to line up for a shot.

That should provide you with interesting paths that are also nondeterministic.


Samah(Posted 2012) [#7]
@Soap: I'd like to make a bullet hell game some time with Monkey.

Danmaku? I assume you've played the Touhou series then?
I've always wanted to write one of those too. :)


Soap(Posted 2012) [#8]
I love the Touhou games! :) Very beautiful and fun. While I appreciate difficulty, I also enjoy making games which reward players for everything they put into it - think of games like Monster Hunter or Demon/Dark Souls which are considered very difficult but still can reward players. I mostly do not like the older arcade games which are both very difficult (built around the arcade quarter eating mentality)and also do not reward players much. Modern games at least try to balance fun with difficulty by scaling games toward what a player is capable or making difficulty a choice which is then rewarded - like in games which implement bullet grazing to increase score but also increase risk and require mastery of the game to be successful with. You can make a game which is painful to play, which makes people rage-quit, and caters to a select few who really enjoy having to replay the same parts of the game over and over until they finally beat it... or worse require them to restart the entire game on death... but that also limits your audience and depending on your goals limiting your audience is a very bad thing to do.


Samah(Posted 2012) [#9]
Cirno has always been super hard too. She's my favourite Touhou character. ^_^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9w1wkxGR7Q


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#10]
does that game even have collisions detection, from that video it looked like every other bullet was just going right through the players ship, I did note he dies a few times although couldnt really tell why.

This could be one of those mar-mite things, you know , you either love them or hate them, for me I hate them, spending what must seem like minutes on a boss where your largest movement is 1 pixel left and 1 pixel right does not seem like fun to me.


Neuro(Posted 2012) [#11]
Bullet hell shooters of this caliber typically only have a 1 pixel collision point on the player. Otherwise, there would be no way in bullet-hell anyone could survive those. I think its great :).


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2012) [#12]
yeah I dont like em. it's actually really annoying me that I will have to use crappy circle to circle detection for compatibility, would rather be able to use pixel detection..

Wondering why there is no imagescollide or something like it for monkey, does each of the native ports, iOS , Android etc not have some equivalent set of functions ?