Status Update: Monday 12/28/15

I missed my status update on Friday because I had a lot going on.

Christmas is a done deal, yay.  No more stressing about gifts and running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Stalled projects:
Mechwarrior Dark Age game - on hold until I finish other projects.  Still optimistic I can make it work with the right engine and some porting.
My 'Neo-Monegasque' book series - ... @#$^... I've really come to hate this book series.  After getting bad feedback from one of the preview-reviewers I'm contemplating just finishing it and letting it die a quiet death.
Other books - I keep a mental fire lit, but mostly my energy is on things below.

Active projects:
I have a lot of 'pre-baby' stuff to do in prep for this kid that's coming.  Like finding a better doctor, more suitable, etc.

I did a lot of game development work over this weekend and am very pleased with the results.

The receiving 'opening' area.  I think I've finally licked the interior lighting issues on that pillar.

The right of the pillar; a visible and nearly completed docking area, ship, warning signs/lights and some of the rest of the station extend beyond view.  Had an issue with occlusion killing the objects just beyond the glass so I had to turn occlusion down to 0 to fix it for now.  I need to re position that lightray decal though.  Also missing my red lighting for the warning light, which I had to remove in the process of troubleshooting the missing object situation.  This area still needs a lot of tweaking, I think but with proper lighting it should be fine.

 I really like this hallway, what can I say.  I use it's combination of natural and indoor lighting to provide a nice looking calm scene; this will be contrasted later when things go to pot and things are all busted up.   In all, I like how it looks so I try to include this as a 'progress' screenshot so you can kind of gauge against previous configs.

  Receiving Rec Area/Dining hall.  Continues to be a source of difficulty for me with lighting artifacts that I can't isolate the source of.  That said, it's getting there.  The addition of EAI's arcade cabinets and the old cosmic diner pinball machine gives it a more natural feel.  I cleaned up some of the elements after taking this picture (Pinball machine, walls, arcade machines) so they didn't feel so clumped together.

The new area - the fusion core. Was going to be a water reservoir but had trouble with indoor water setups.   It was tremendously tricky to get the lava functional as it is but I like it.  From here there will be pathways to engineering and the bridge, as well as crew quarters.  I have a lot more work to do here but the start is looking very nice.


I was given some feedback that the lighting looks a lot better than previous screenshots.  Also that it reminds the viewer of system shock, which to me is high praise.  I think system shock most closely embodies what I'm going for here, though obviously these two are quite different. 

Anyways at this point, I'm considering a hub and spoke design for the maps, whereas I was considering something a lot more linear.  This will allow a more reusable level design, though I'm not 100% sold on it.

Another key point of progress was made in getting some older characters functioning with one of smallg's scripts.  It gives me a core AI to work around and that saves a lot of time.  I can clean it up and make it run a lot nicer with my background in AI code.  But the base is pretty good so I'm happy with that.   It also gives me access to models which I can configure for my own use.

BSP's SCI-FI weapons pack

My original BSP weapons (pack 1) review is here.

I have been waiting a long time for something like this.  I've had a Sci-Fi project on the back burner which I have wanted to do for a long... LONG time.  Years before even doing anything with FPSC:R.

So without hesitation, I purchased the kit.

  Hot damn.  Sci-Fi always gets the blood pumping.

 I was not disappointed.

This kit cost a meager 8 dollars; that's a pittance for what you get:

5 guns, one low price.

Lets review the 5 weapons given:

You get the IronFist Shotgun.  I have to say as a firearms owner and enthusiast - this thing is awesome.  It behaves EXACTLY as I want a "Space Shotgun" to behave.  It fires out of an eight round drum magazine and the animation is smooth as butter.  It's easy to handle and frankly just feels good.  

Next up is the Quasar Gun; this is a full-auto carbine which has a good bit of recoil.  Of the bunch, its my least favorite aesthetically though it does have a pretty nice alien feel.  I really enjoy watching the drum rotate as it fires.  It features a thirty-two round box magazine which then feeds into some kind of accumulator drum that rotates.  There's one minor flaw and really my only complaint here.  If you really go frame by frame on the box magazine it shows some pretty gigantic bullets.  I don't really care honestly because it happens too fast for the user to notice but it is a fault and bears mentioning.  That said, ejected shell casings are PERFECT on all weapons - no more full cartridge ejections! 

The S4-VC6 pistol is a fantastic weapon; it's a nice all around weapon with good visibility of the gloved hand.  Now normally I'd complain about how you can see the hands but honestly I don't plan on using non-standard weapons and if I do, I will simply reduce the weapon's visibility via configuration files.

 

A pre-alpha WIP screenshot of my upcoming space-shooter.

The Sniper R400 Panther is a well rounded sniping weapon.  I have a confession to make - I hate sniping weapons in this game engine.  They are quite simply too strong.  They make the game exceptionally easy on a number of levels.  This gun, however, feels balanced and decent with it's twelve round stick magazine- unlike the base level 'remington hunting rifle' that comes with gameguru.  It's a good weapon in most circumstances and basically acts as a long range 'upgrade' to the pistol.  It's also gorgeous in the right lighting.

The Typhoon is straight out awesome.  At first I thought "oh great, another full auto gun."  But in truth, it's a weapon unto itself with a fifty round magazine of what are effectively pistol rounds.  It does less damage than the Quasar but slams out the rounds so fast and cleanly it is my preferred weapon of the bunch.  This little monster feels fantastic and is right at home in any Sci-Fi game.

One important note: All of these guns actually come with an alt-fire mode.  Literally press left-alt and you get a melee attack animation that's not shown in the video or really documented at all.  Your character lowers his gun and throws out a quick right hook.  It's a nice freebie and makes the 'what do I do if I have no ammo' situation less difficult to work around.

Overall opinion and observations: This pack is extremely well priced.  You get 6 weapons for the price of 4, effectively, which is a helluva deal.  The weapons all feel unique enough and their respective weapon boxes/ammo boxes look great too.  The muzzle flash on all of these guns is SPOT on and looks fantastic.  The minor flaws of the other weapon packs (recoil, gun feel, ejected weapon cartridges, etc) have all been clearly lessons that were learned from.  BSP has outdone himself.

If I had to buy just one: It's 8 dollars.  Just buy the pack.  There's really no reason not to.  But if you are absolutely trying to be as cheap as possible - get the Typhoon.  It's too fun not to have.

Welcome to the new blog!

Thanks for coming.  As you can see, I've redone the place in honor of the rebranding of 'FPS Creator Reloaded' to 'Game-Guru'  (http://www.game-guru.com)
All the old archived blog pages are at: http://fpscreloadedreview.blogspot.com

I've got tons of reviews over there and some good original content if you're interested.  Here's some hotlinks to the 'good ones' (In my humble opinion):

• My free NPC code.
• Why FPS Creator Reloaded/Game-Guru? 
• My sordid affair with game making. 
• On Guns Pt 2. 
• On Guns Pt 1. 
• Technique Evaluation #1 - ground clutter 

A list of my reviews (albeit outdated, given the volume of new updates by the authors):

• Wolf's Store 
• Oldpman's Store 
• Tazman's Store 
• BSP's weapons PT 1 
• Henry Ham's Store 
• Gtox's Store 
• Errant AI's Store 
• BSP's weapons PT 2 
• Gencheff's Store 
• Ken Charles Long's Store 
• Bengetronic's Store 
• Nomis3D's Store 
• Rolfy's Store 
• Pirate Myke's Store 
• Dvader's Store 
• Teabone's Store 
• Valuable Asset's Store

These are from oldest (First) to newest (Last).
Thanks!