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Diffuse Lighting, Particles, Powerlines, Thoughts
Posted by polyfrag,
10 November 2012
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500 views
The modeller has finished the factory model and I finally got the diffuse lighting to work. It turns out the MilkShape 3D was exporting the normals incorrectly. This isn't the first bug I've seen in MilkShape 3D. I also added particles.
Powerlines:
I'm working on specular mapping but so far it isn't working.
Some thoughts on the design
The last version of the game suffered from a problem where the trucks transported resources without a priority; while Consumer Goods needed to be produced to keep the Labourers alive to keep the economy going, the trucks were busy transporting Ore and other resources that were in excess. What would happen is that while the trucks were transporting the most readily accessible resources the limiting factor was ignored and eventually there wouldn't be any more Comsumer Goods to keep the Labourers alive.
I thought of how to fix this problem and the first idea I had was to allow only one truck to transport resources for each building so that when the player had enough trucks they would transport for all buildings.
I thought of having some kind of graph of resource production and consumption to track the problem and see how to fix it.
My next idea was to prioritize the buildings based on how far removed they were from the production of Consumer Goods. Transporting to Shopping Complexes would thus be the main preference for trucks, and, failing that, would be supplying buildings that produced Electricty for the Shopping Complex and Production. Labour would not be counted since it is produced by units and not by buildings and is a special resource.
Apartments though were also necessary for Labourers and were thus a limiting rate for the economy. But since they only required Electricity which was a secondary priority resource I think they would be supplied too.
The result is that Consumer Goods would e produced until the requisite resources ran out. Once they ran out, the next priority resource would be transported. As soon as 1 requisite resource was created Consumer Goods would take priority once again. And this would repeat for all levels of resources. Resources on the same priority level would be randomly prioritized.
Another issue is user friendliness. Hints need to be added. There are several kinds.
First the player needs to know what to build. There a number of buildings that are hard to understand and the player doesn't know where to start. The first building that needs to be built is probably the factory so that the player can build units. The second is the apartment because labourers will immediately need to rest after work. The next is the shopping complex so that labourers can "eat". And so on. The hint can be given as a red square and arrow pointing to that building's button.
The next kind of hint is the floating icons on top of buildings when a building doesn't have electricity or isn't road-accessible (kind of like in SimCity). Another is if a refinery isn't connected to any derricks. When the player clicks on the building to find out more a message box should pop up indicating what the problem is and how to fix it with the button image of what needs to be built.
Another issue is how trucks drive on the roads. Trucks will need to drive on lanes and avoid from driving on sidewalks. The pathfinding will have a preference for driving in the right hand lane and if the path is blocked by another unit then the truck will stop and wait. Labourers and trucks are non-blocking among each other because it was found necessary to avoid gridlocks so the only unit they can be blocked by are military units.
Powerlines:
I'm working on specular mapping but so far it isn't working.
Some thoughts on the design
The last version of the game suffered from a problem where the trucks transported resources without a priority; while Consumer Goods needed to be produced to keep the Labourers alive to keep the economy going, the trucks were busy transporting Ore and other resources that were in excess. What would happen is that while the trucks were transporting the most readily accessible resources the limiting factor was ignored and eventually there wouldn't be any more Comsumer Goods to keep the Labourers alive.
I thought of how to fix this problem and the first idea I had was to allow only one truck to transport resources for each building so that when the player had enough trucks they would transport for all buildings.
I thought of having some kind of graph of resource production and consumption to track the problem and see how to fix it.
My next idea was to prioritize the buildings based on how far removed they were from the production of Consumer Goods. Transporting to Shopping Complexes would thus be the main preference for trucks, and, failing that, would be supplying buildings that produced Electricty for the Shopping Complex and Production. Labour would not be counted since it is produced by units and not by buildings and is a special resource.
Apartments though were also necessary for Labourers and were thus a limiting rate for the economy. But since they only required Electricity which was a secondary priority resource I think they would be supplied too.
The result is that Consumer Goods would e produced until the requisite resources ran out. Once they ran out, the next priority resource would be transported. As soon as 1 requisite resource was created Consumer Goods would take priority once again. And this would repeat for all levels of resources. Resources on the same priority level would be randomly prioritized.
Another issue is user friendliness. Hints need to be added. There are several kinds.
First the player needs to know what to build. There a number of buildings that are hard to understand and the player doesn't know where to start. The first building that needs to be built is probably the factory so that the player can build units. The second is the apartment because labourers will immediately need to rest after work. The next is the shopping complex so that labourers can "eat". And so on. The hint can be given as a red square and arrow pointing to that building's button.
The next kind of hint is the floating icons on top of buildings when a building doesn't have electricity or isn't road-accessible (kind of like in SimCity). Another is if a refinery isn't connected to any derricks. When the player clicks on the building to find out more a message box should pop up indicating what the problem is and how to fix it with the button image of what needs to be built.
Another issue is how trucks drive on the roads. Trucks will need to drive on lanes and avoid from driving on sidewalks. The pathfinding will have a preference for driving in the right hand lane and if the path is blocked by another unit then the truck will stop and wait. Labourers and trucks are non-blocking among each other because it was found necessary to avoid gridlocks so the only unit they can be blocked by are military units.
