Adding some realism to a game.. in Design Philosophy

ID:153522
 
Nov 3 2003, 2:30 pm
Do you think that making it so a player cant see behind his mob? Like in real life you cant see behind yourself. I would add some little messages like "You hear footsteps behind you" or something so the player can still make sure he/she's not being stalked.
#1 Nov 3 2003, 2:38 pm
I would say not such a bad idea, except that in an overhead view, you're already giving up some measure of realism/perspective to begin with, and any attempt to block the view behind you is just gonna look hokey and weird.

One way to do it is to make client.eye be constantly set to be 5 or 6 steps ahead of you in whatever direction you're facing. I used something like this for a scout class in a CTF game I never released... the advantage is that you can see further ahead of you, you can't see as far behind you (or at all, depending on the distance you set it ahead), and unlike some other ways of blocking view behind you, you don't have to worry about a bunch of black space cluttering up the screen uselessly. Drawback: the screen will jerk whenever you change directions.
#2 Nov 3 2003, 3:00 pm
In response to Hedgemistress (#1)
I already have the programming for it, and it works great! I just wanna know if anyone thinks its a good idea or a bad one..BTW mine is just adding a black image to the client.screen and it works.
#3 Nov 3 2003, 3:01 pm
In response to Hedgemistress (#1)
Hedgemistress wrote:
One way to do it is to make client.eye be constantly set to be 5 or 6 steps ahead of you in whatever direction you're facing. I used something like this for a scout class in a CTF game I never released... the advantage is that you can see further ahead of you, you can't see as far behind you (or at all, depending on the distance you set it ahead), and unlike some other ways of blocking view behind you, you don't have to worry about a bunch of black space cluttering up the screen uselessly. Drawback: the screen will jerk whenever you change directions.

Yeah, SSGX's Murder Mansion uses this, so you can only "see" one tile immediately behind you. It's not that bad; I think he smooths out turning over a couple of frames, but I can't tell. Anyways, it's a pretty decent effect except when the server is laggy.
#4 Nov 3 2003, 6:34 pm
In response to Leftley (#3)
Your view is focused on an eye object. The eye object moves probably via a step_to() allowing a smoothing effect.
#5 Nov 3 2003, 10:40 pm
In response to Exadv1 (#4)
Exactly... (although I think that it's technically a walk_to(), but I forget...lol)

I've got a very short delay in the steps that the eye object takes, so that (under normal operating conditions) it moves a bit more smoothly...

However, like Leftley mentioned, if the game lags (and it tends to do that) the effect is ruined...

It also needed some other tweaks to make it work in the desired manner...

For instance, it has a check to see if the turf it plans to move to exists, and is in view... If it isn't, then the eye object moves to your mob's location...

It has to do this for a couple reasons: 1) Can't send the eye to a null loc, obviously... and 2) In small spaces (like bedrooms or bathrooms) you might need to move back and forth often, and if the eye keeps moving into the opacity-blocked areas around the room, it becomes very annoying... So, when in tight areas, or up against a wall, the eye remains closer to you to keep this from happening...

All in all, I think it's a good system... It definitely takes some getting used to, and it seems to be the biggest gripe new players (and some of the old ones) have about the game, but I like it...

Plus, it just looks awesome when you're walking in the dark with a lit flashlight... And that was as simple as changing the eye object's luminosity...