Sentience: VB Game (comments please)

a number of graphics currently in production for the next version -should be ready pretty soon.

;)

C'mon boyo!

The next version can't be released without your new, super duper, ready-or-not-here-I-come graphics!

I'm waiting.....

Hum, Arbiter, what about having neutral enemies, like earthquakes and wild animals? ;)

Jotaf ; they're not neutral. They're on nature's team :

Man versus nature ; the road to victory

;)

Now go rent us up a pizza :)

EEK! :eek: I opened the sentience exe file and Norton Antivirus told me that it was infected with WS.Funlove.4099! I got this virus a couple of months ago and didn't know where I got it, now I know. You should scan all your files for viri. I deleted it immediately. Do you (whoever compiled it) have an antivirus program?

Im running Dr.Solomon's with the latest virus definitions list and it never detected any viruses. Nor does it detect any when I do a full system scan ... I dont think you got it from sentience...

MidgetsBro,

I run the latest copy of Norton and keep it updated regularly. I'm clean as far as I can tell. PlenderJ's also clean (well - his computer anyway ;) ) so I'm willing to bet it wasn't me you caught it off.

I've never suffered from that one so I think it must be something else on your system infected Sentience. I'd never knowingly upload something with a virus on and I do scan everything I upload.

Try a full system scan and see if you can track down the culprit.

PlenderJ/Jotaf,

We're trying to avoid having something like native life forms on the planet 'cos then it's getting too SMAC like. It's a running joke between us that whenever we come up with a good idea to put in the game, it's already been covered in one form or another in SMAC.

I'm looking at implementing some random weather effects (lightning storms - to disrupt control of units, whirlpools - to whirl, whirlwinds - to blow over the fences etc) but they won't be in for a couple of releases yet. Behemoth's got his hands full with the graphics for the time being.

Also, as a point to note, there are currently no organic creatures in the game. All the factions are entirely mechanical trying to become sentient. It's the name of the game don'tcha know....

If you can think of a way of adding native life forms to the game then let me know, but if they're going to be anything other than decorative you'll need to come up with a way of how they're going to take out a 30 odd ton battle mech. ;)

PS - if you're renting pizza, mine's Pepperoni....

Well to implement the creatures you could just have them as enemy mechs, but appearing as creatures.

And in earth's history there's been animals that could've eaten a 30ton battlemech for breakfast and still wanted more.

And I'm sure a pack of vulturian razor beasts could have a go at the legs of a mech too !

Plend,

I wouldn't have any problems implementing it - I just think we'd be treading on Sid's toes a bit.

I'm just trying to think of a way we can shoehorn them into the game without it being a) cheesy b) a copyright infringment.

Oh, and could you name some of these creatures that eat battlemechs please?

PS - what the hell is a vulturian razor beast? Which dark forbidding pit in your pysche did you drag them up from?

**** sid.
This is your game, and these are your/our ideas.

We're not borrowing or taking them from anywhere.


In relation to the dinosaur that could eat a battlemech, there are many many dinosaurs that weighed over 30 tons.
The second largest dinosaur (I believe) was the "Paralititan stromeri", which was 80 to 100 feet long and weighed 60-70 tons.

And the razor beasts thing , I dunno it just came to me :)

Yeah! YEAH!!!

COME ON SID, BRING IT ON!!! YOUR AND YER PANSY LAWYERS!!!!

YEAH!!!

JAMIE'S GONNA KNOCK YOU OUT!!!!

Yeah!




*Ahem*

True, there were a lot of things that are big, but they don't normally have a penchant for scoffing metal. A maternally outraged Stegasaurus might launch an attack but would be unlikely to damage anything other than a six legged mech (thin legs) even in a full speed charge.

Nah there's much bigger dinosaurs than that.
That program on bbc had them. It ate a veloceraptor whole. Thing was ****ing huge !

Anyway, the story could be that two big battleships were fighting in space, and then something happens , a stellar burst from the local sun goes off, and the two battleships are right beside it.

All the crew are instantly irradiated, and the ships go onto autopilot and find the nearest habitable planet to set down on.

They land and do their normal emergency crash procedures ; ie. after the crash to automatically setup camp/a base.

And from there the player starts.... and has to possibly battle with any inhabitants.
Which would have to include supergiant mutated dinosaurs ....

Quote:

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Originally posted by plenderj

...supergiant mutated dinosaurs :rolleyes:

---

I'll have a word with Behemoth and see what he thinks.

We already have a plot for the beginning worked out, but we're not sure where we're taking it yet. Supergiant mutated dinosaurs could be a byproduct...

Thanks Plend.

They are byproducts , specifically of : Dinosaur + Radiation

;)

+ Pizza ;)

Hey, grab a copy of 'Startopia'.
Its ****ing unbelieveable :)

And if you dont, I'll be in britain for the formula 1 in silverstone, and I'll kick your ass....

Startopia?

What's that then?

Well its a game where you administer a space station that is a torus in shape. Its a D3D game and myself and my g/f are addicted :)

:rolleyes:

I'll keep my eyes open for it.

And if they don't stock it near me, good luck trying to kick my arse when you come over....

Hum... as to the animals: don't you think dinossaurs is a bit too obvious? There are LOADS of other alien creatures capable of disassembling and eating a mech... Don't you guys have a TV at home? ;)

You can include giant worms... but they're stuck to the ground; when you walk over one you fall, it eats you and uses its new food to create 10 more like itself and die :)
You can also include bugs with corrosive acid capable of digging trough plated armour...
And plants that when touched explode (like hydrogen trees)...

See, there's lots of creatures you can use, just let me think of some more :)

Hey, I've heard a lot about Sentience and it sounds pretty good. But I haven't actually seen it. Could I maybe get a screen shot during the gameplay of the game?


Thx,
Drewski

Behemoth: I'm under the effects of chocolate :D

You can read more of my rantings & get some cool ideas for aliens in the forums here: http://communities.msn.com/InSpace ;)

Drewski: Look at Behemoth's signature... :rolleyes:

Vulturian Razor Bat : A large bat , approximately the size of a fully grown man. Has fangs so sharp they can slice through metal.
Usually fly in swarms ; so beware !

Xenomorph Species 7384 : Large, dark, evolved predators. Little else known about this species.

Jotaf98 : Odd parasitic creature found clinging to the side of toilet bowls.


And of course, for the giant sandworms in the desert, you must call them Shai'Hulud.

Drewski,

If you follow the link via either mine or Behemoths signatures, you can download the full copy of the game so far (self extracting zip - GameDev.exe).

It's not there at the moment 'cos we're not far from the next version which will be up within the next couple of days.

I'll post some screen shots for people to look at though in the meantime.

Alien lovers,

You're all nutters - but some of these ideas are great!!!

There's nothing to say we can only have one life form on the planet, more may make it a bit more interesting. As you progress the tech tree along some of the biological techs we were toying with the idea of having you produce biological creatures as weapons but we were swamped with other work at the time.

I think we can implement it, but it's not going to be for a while yet - Behemoth's snowed under with graphics. We can still thrash the ideas out though.

Right, we'll need monsters for each of land, sea and air. If anyone's capable of doing concept sketches for us to look at then that would be great.

Of course, if you come up with a creature design we use then you'll get a full five star mention in the credits!

Not that we're not already getting a 5 star mention in the credits

*acchem* ;)

grr. dumb machine

I suggested not being able to genetically engineer lifeforms as weapons, but I do agree with wandering monsters- lets not go over the top though.

Jotaf's harmful plants give me an idea though...

Ultimately, remember the machines were part of a terraforming colony, and can transfer and lush garden parasite into a junkie - infested concrete jungle in under 3 generations - where would the wild animals be then?

Well an entire habitable planet void of animal life is a tad unrealistic.

Though I would suggest getting all of the game play etc. done perfect before gallavanting off on wild fantasies about mutated killer guinea pigs of doom ....

Behemoth,

You did, didn't you. Okay, okay, no bio engineered killer bikini vampire penguins. (yet)

You mentioned you had an idea....?

Well, I've built a rough credits screen at the moment. I can't think what to do with it though, so it's just static text.

I'm debating putting some funky effects on there. Maybe some of Jotafs special effects???

Well all games these days seem to have the credits scrolling about the place , so there's an idea.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Jotaf98
Drewski: Look at Behemoth's signature... :rolleyes:

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Umm, I asked for a screen shot not the entire game. I don't want to download the game until I know it's worth my time. I have really slow internet. I mean REALLY SLOW. (28kbs shared between 5 computers)

Thx for pointing out where it is though ;)


Drewski

Hey drewski, I can give you a good price on a small LAN with ISDN internet access for all your machines through a router ...

PlenderJ: Hehe, it's not toilets, but bath tubes in girls' appartments :p

Arbiter/Behemoth: Well, I could make some sketches for you, but I don't wanna use my scanner right now so here's something drawn in Paint :D

The colors need a change I know; and it would be a good idea to have FAR more branches (there should be so much that the smaller ones would have to look semi-transparent ;) ) and some other nice effects on it :)

Jotaf,

Very nice. Put's Behemoths talents to shame.

It's got possibilities. Explode on contact (except small units which can hide in them). Upon getting a required tech, you can harvest them for energy/what nots.

Reminds me of those things in Titan AE.

Plend,

Stop selling surplus IRA goods!

Drewski,

Attached is the main game screen. You can't really get an idea of the scope of the game from the screenshot - but rest assured, it's worth the download.

I'm hoping to have the latest version uploaded by this evening...

Hehe, Arbiter, that was drawn in Paint... :p

Did you see Titan AE too? That's where I got the idea... :D

Hum, that gives me an even better idea: what about an alien under the form of energy? Of course, it would look kinda like a ghost instead of glowing matter :)

Oh, and you could also make creatures that live in clouds... when they rain, you know what happens ;)

Btw, the pure energy creatures could get inside mechs, control them for a while (they would become agressive, incontrolable and more powerful), and when they got out the mech, its energy would be completely depleted; also his energy cells could be damaged (they'd sometimes lose them) :)

A nice upgrade would be an energy cell that would not only NOT be destroyed by them, but could also offer some resistance (the creature has a higher chance to fail the attack) ;)

Wow, lots of cool ideas here!

Jotaf,

Do you take class A drugs?

Thanks for the screen shot Arbiter. The game doesn't look half bad. I think I'll refrain from downloading it though because I don't need any more distractions from my own game :D I can't say my game will be any better than yours ( a far cry most likely ) but I'm gonna try. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it :rolleyes:

Thx & LaterZ

Drewski

I try and download others games if they post them on here as you may end up getting ideas from them to help with your own project.

Also, you should consider posting yours for download on here so people can comment on it.

Sentience would not be the fantastic piece of software it is now ;) without the comments, ideas and support from the people on this forum.