Battles in urban settings

[SharkD]

I was wondering if you'd approve of the idea of adding battles that take place in an urban setting (kind of like Godzilla... I've always wondered why you didn't already have this)--i.e., where 1 tile constitutes a small city block.

I've already got some sprites for road surfaces and buildings if you want to check them out.

Hmmm, I might try creating a mock-up in HTML just to see what it would look like beforehand.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Urban battles are already a part of GH2. I have no plans to personally add them to GH1, due to the supposed feature lock.

[Tung Nguyen]

What about battles that occur at sea, or over a bridge? Mountain/valley battles would be interesting. Battles on snowy plains and tundras would add some flavour to combat. Hillside/mountainside terrain would add some tactical flair, or something new and interesting at the very least.

[SharkD]

Hmm.. maybe someone could add it with a patch?

Buildings could be impassible for all except flying mecha--unless the building is rubble, in which case it could be walked over but not rolled over.

I'm not too excited about the snowy tundra idea, as GearHead is supposed to be post-apoc (which are generally in hot climates--not to say there wouldn't be any snow). However, I too think that more mountainous terrain would be cool. I wish the mountains in GH were broader and sweeping, like a real mountain range, instead of little hillocks here and there. Also, it would be neat if the terrain transitioned more gradually between grass and desert, with maybe some swamps and wastes in between.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Tung Nguyen

What about battles that occur at sea, or over a bridge? Mountain/valley battles would be interesting. Battles on snowy plains and tundras would add some flavour to combat. Hillside/mountainside terrain would add some tactical flair, or something new and interesting at the very least.

For GH2 there should be battle on the sea, under the sea, on icecaps, undergrounds, on the Moon, and on the other planets. At least, that's what I have planned.

[Anticheese]

Sounds interesting, Insofar as other planets go, How large will the map be for say, Mars or Venus?

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Anticheese

Sounds interesting, Insofar as other planets go, How large will the map be for say, Mars or Venus?

The world maps for Earth, Venus, Mars, and Luna should include the entire planet at a fairly large scale. For Earth, if I remember correctly, the map will be 100x100 tiles with each tile representing 50 equitorial kilometers or somesuch.

The maps will wrap in the east-west direction but not north-south, like the world maps used by Civilization.  There was a discussion on the dev group about how to model a sphere in a tile-based system and I felt that this was an acceptable loss of realism.

[draconuszero]

Should there be battles near/in volcanoes or incredibly hot areas or even nuked areas, would you be getting damage every few turns (due to the extreme heat/radiation) to make it realistic?

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: draconuszero

Should there be battles near/in volcanoes or incredibly hot areas or even nuked areas, would you be getting damage every few turns (due to the extreme heat/radiation) to make it realistic?

That'd be Venus.

[Anticheese]

I thought that Venus was terraformed in the backstory?

But anyhow, Why do we need to obey reality when the Jedi from SW 3 can do it, And fighters in Soul calibur 3 can do it without becoming crispy?

All joking aside, I think it would be a pretty nifty idea, But only if it is used sparingly - Just like Kaysomething Rock in GH2

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Anticheese

I thought that Venus was terraformed in the backstory?

No, it's in the process of being terraformed, but things aren't going as smoothly as hoped.

I'm actually pretty excited to start work on Venus- so far, it hasn't recieved as much attention as anywhere else in the GH universe (major NPCs from Luna, Mars, and the L5 colonies are all encountered in GH1). My plan right now is to do the L5 Colonies, move on to Earth and Luna, then Mars and Venus. I think that the systems I now have in place (scene content, core story, and quest generator) will work well to ensure the different places feel different and provide unique challenges to the player.

[peter]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

The maps will wrap in the east-west direction but not north-south, like the world maps used by Civilization. There was a discussion on the dev group about how to model a sphere in a tile-based system and I felt that this was an acceptable loss of realism.

 Hmm.  Could you have a circular map?  Or could you simulate it by making impassable terrain at the edges of the world?  Or teleporter terrain, so it would effectively wrap at width of the world at whatever latitude you were at.  (Sorry, I'm not taking the time to look up the proper terminology for cross sections of spheres... and non-great circles on spheres.)

 I guess this is an old mailing list thread you're talking about?

--

Quoting: draconuszero

Should there be battles near/in volcanoes or incredibly hot areas or even nuked areas, would you be getting damage every few turns (due to the extreme heat/radiation)

How about getting overloaded (and/or damaged). Regular fire should maybe overload you as well as do damage. BTW, I haven't played GH2, but I guess it has a different overload system.

I was going to comment on under-sea mecha, and say something about that taking energy and overloading your mecha. Probably not rusting. Here's a good idea: mecha have a large MV penalty under water, unless they're streamlined and designed for it. Then the penalty is less. And missiles don't work unless they're torpedos. Guns and beamguns have less range. Yes, I've played Battletech

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: peter

BTW, I haven't played GH2, but I guess it has a different overload system.

Yes, power and overload works much differently in GH2 than it did in GH1. You now have a pool of power points which get spent as you fire energy weapons and perform certain other actions, but which regenerate over time.

Personal scale energy weapons also require power to function, so no more infinitely firing laser cannons.

[Anticheese]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

Personal scale energy weapons also require power to function, so no more infinitely firing laser cannons.

Will this mean universal power cells or personal scale reactors?

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Anticheese

Will this mean universal power cells or personal scale reactors?

Both, kind of. The power cells used by most items in GearHead will recharge themselves through solar energy, the movements or body heat of their users, a heavily shielded radiation source, or some combination of these methods.