'Best Laid Plans...' Combat Viper Racing

All about Chaos for Unreal... (UT3, UT2004, UT2003, UT)
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R.Flagg
Chaotic Dreams Team
Posts: 8460
Joined: Thu May 09, 2002 2:55 pm

'Best Laid Plans...' Combat Viper Racing

Post by R.Flagg »

You know the saying, "best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry".

Well, here's one of those ideas we 'sat on' for quite some time, hoping that it would see the light of day. Naturally we'd still like to see it released by Chaotic Dreams, but no longer are we keeping the concept quiet. Maybe posting it here will someday inspire a passing coder to work with us.

In addition to the beginning code work listed at the bottom, we have alpha-status maps already made for it as well.

----------------------
CVR Design Doc - Internal, very rough draft

<blockquote>
Project goals

<blockquote>- To create a high quality custom game type for UT3, in the combat racing genre.


- Functional on both PC and PS3 platforms.


- Playable online, or offline with bot support if possible.</blockquote>


Management Guidelines:

<blockquote>CVR is the working title for a custom, stand-alone game type for UT3. The working title is simply an acronym of a basic description of the game type, which is 'Combat Viper Racing'. Final name to be chosen following group discussion, at which time logo concepts can be created.

CVR is intended to be released after it is fully functional on both the PC and PS3 platforms, with PS3 porting and pre-release testing to be done completely in-house.

The current plan is for no public promotion until CVR is complete (ideally on both platforms), quality tested and approved. </blockquote>

Common Questions:<blockquote>
Why create this mod?

We feel it is an excellent opportunity to create an exciting game type, that is relatively unique to the Unreal world, and that can be enjoyed by players online (and offline?), and with either a PC or a PS3.


Where does the mod take place?

Players will race on tracks that have a great variety of themes, as is normal for games in the UT series.


What do players control, what do they actually do?

Players will control one viper, and it's weapons. They will be able to race through the tracks while simultaneously fighting with opponents.
</blockquote>

Mod Overview:
<blockquote>
General
<blockquote>
The mod is combat racing, based on the Viper vehicle which comes included with UT3 (and only the Viper).

Players will spawn on Vipers at the starting line of a racing track. They will race to be the first to the finish line. They will fight each other along the way, and when killed they will quickly respawn on their vipers (near where they died) and continue the race.

** IS This Possible ?? ** The mod - preferably - will consist of several races, that add up to a match. Each race will award points to the top finishers. At the end of the specified number of races, total points are added up and a winner declared.

<blockquote>Example scoring per race:

<blockquote>1st place = 5 points
2nd place = 4 points
3rd place = 3 points
4th place = 2 points
5th place = 1 point
</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>

Features
<blockquote>

Items and Weapons<blockquote>
We will create two categories of pick-ups, that players can find and use while racing. "Items", and "Weapons". Players will get these simply by flying into them with their vipers.<blockquote>
- "Items" will be something that players can drop out of the back of their vipers, as an obstacle for players who are chasing them. An example would be a slomo-field. Players will only be able to carry one item at a time (this is a balance measure, so that players in the lead aren't stacked with all the available items).

- "Weapons" will be fired out of the front of the viper, to attack players who are in front of you. Players will be able to accumulate and use as many weapons at a time as they can find (this is a balance measure, so that players who are behind have many ways to attack players who are leading).
</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>

Design Issues to be addressed:<blockquote>

-Players joining mid game<blockquote>
Current top proposal is to allow them to join and begin racing right away. They of course may not win, but that can be considered a 'Law of Online Gaming', and there's nothing new there. If however they haven't missed too much of the match, they can still have a chance at winning. Granted there is less chance of them winning the current race, but that's the Law of Online Gaming again. With our scoring system however, they can still try to be a top finisher in the remaining races, and possibly still win the match.
</blockquote>

-Server Options<blockquote>
Is it possible and/or reasonable to allow server options such as
<blockquote>How many races total vs How many points to win</blockquote>
</blockquote>
-Viper Tweaks<blockquote>
Early play testing will include trying out the following tweaks (where possible of course):<blockquote>
- include speeding up the default speed of the Viper (perhaps by 10% to start with). It is anticipated that this will be preferred for this game type.

- decreasing the ROF of the Viper. It should be expected that some play testing will be done with this tweak.

- we will increase damage done when a Viper collides with it's world, but slightly decrease the amount of damage done to Vipers by other Vipers.
</blockquote></blockquote>

-Possibility of Team CVR.</blockquote>

Basic coding steps include:<blockquote>
- Players must start within a Viper

- Players must not be allowed to voluntarily leave their Viper

- Lap racing mechanic implementation. (Should all maps be essentially circular in designs, with the Start and Finish positions in the same place?)

- Allow maps to have branching pathways (shortcuts)

- Generate a way for mappers to be able to create the track rules (how a player must race a certain track)
</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>

</blockquote>

Changelog:

version 0.1 (12/28/07)
- Players spawn on Viper, at starting line
- Players cannot leave their Viper
- Kamikaze ability removed

version 0.2 (1/25/09)
-added working laps mechanic using volumes
-increased default viper speed
-added respawning from pathnodes
-have useable items
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