I won't be giving a daily breakdown for this last week as game development was not a major part of it. I spent the first couple days of the week preparing for valentines day and was met with some really rough news after that. We noticed our sixteen year old cat had a swollen chin so we took him to the vet. They said it was likely he had cancer and told us we would probably only have a few months left with him. Our pets are a big deal to us. They are like family and this one has been with us for so long. This news was pretty painful to hear. We decided to have a vet oncologist take a look to let us know if there was anything we could do. It was a two hour drive from where we live and the appointment took nearly the entire day with tests. The oncologist came back saying that she could not be sure it even was cancer. She gave us antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs. We are now hoping the medicine works and waiting for our next appointment. He is currently sleeping comfortably on my lap while I write this. I am going to strive to get some work done today.
I will post the results of last week's poll. There was only one person that took it but that might have been due to it not functioning properly when I posted it. I did not notice for a full day before jumping in and fixing the poll. If it did not work for you, please forgive me and trust that I will have it working this time!
Take this week's poll (scroll to bottom of page)
Poll Results:
Question:
"Which modification would you add?"
- Flame Throwers
- Rollover Prevention
- Turbo Kits
- Mortar Guns
- Extra Carrying Capacity
- Self Destruct
Responses:
Skin-a-marink-e-dink-e-dink (aka strange cousin):
"It honestly depends on the dynamics of the game, as in, is it more important to kill stuff or get from point A to point B. That said, in all RTS-es that I have played, I love the Kamikaze tactic the most. Therefore, I'd say self-destruct. I could envision parking a vehicle next to a giant something-or-other, the guy hopping out, and blowing shiz up. A darker way to look at it is it could play into the religious aspect of the game or could be a "you ain't taking me alive" kinda thing. Side note: a massive military industrial complex would be required to produce these vehicles and armaments, not to mention fuel. Is this fleshed out? Also, have you considered cruder, less technologically advanced vehicles (or otherwise) that could get the job done? I just got a ridiculous image of elephants smashing zombies Hannibal style. I think the Sleepy Time tea is kicking in. Good night!"
Reply: I think this comment deserves a reply. To answer your first question, at times it is better to kill stuff and at other times it is more important to get somewhere fast. Our objective is to give the player plenty of tools and options to personalize their own approach. One of our core design concepts is to focus on pros and cons to every decision and option. For example, if you did decide to use the self destruct modification then it might come at a heavy cost of resources, or the detonation time would be relative to the size of the explosion. If you want a massive explosion then the time would be shorter than a small one. Logically their might be a disconnect in that example but that is just one idea to create a 'give and take' with every call made. The fleshing out of the resource, fuel and manpower to create vehicles has been fleshed out. There will be a small amount of "game magic" that will need to be overlooked but I think we will pull the player in enough to make that happen. The basic idea is that resources for these vehicles are pillaged from the surrounding city. This includes re purposing and reforging materials found. Acquiring these materials is part of the challenge of the game. Also, because resources are limited by how much you collect it becomes a strategical decision if you want to amass a fleet of vehicles or if you would rather focus on making few vehicles stronger. You also have to consider all of the other game elements that will require those same materials like infantry weapons, fortifications, and living resource structures. As far as manpower and production goes, the inhabitants of the city will be the constructors. The idea of elephants smashing and colliding with necromorph enemies is a pretty intriguing idea. Other brother and I will discuss this a bit. I do not see it happening to exactness but considering cruder methods might be worth our time. Thanks strange cousin.
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