ID:50459
 
Keywords: titannet_08
So, I was thinking today about how TitanNet is basically my single consistantly popular project which I enjoy working on. People seem to like Frenetik, but there's really only so much you can do with that game, and the fact that I can't figure out the damn scoreboard is really annoying.

My first super-original release of TitanNet was essentially my first game release - TitanNet theoretically embodies one of my dream games, a blend of action and role playing a la Deus Ex (the other more or less being the same, but in space. Everything is cooler IN SPACE). The original release of TitanNet was ugly (even uglier than the more recent releases, believe it or not!), buggy and inefficient. After about 6 months of patching, fixing, improving and still failing (somewhat unsurprisingly, in hindsight) to attract a significant number of players I gave up and did something else.

But a year or so later, I started work again. This time I got as far as a dynamic mail system which had letters and packages shooting around in tubes before I got bored.

The third iteration of TitanNet, TitanNet:Prime, I started work on about 3 years ago. With the programming experience I had gained over the years I was able to put together a game most people who worked out how to play found fun, although the lack of a decent host meant it was super laggy and the low responsiveness this caused made playing it a bit of a chore. I also failed in some of the key areas I wanted the game to have: a Titan system for player-run gangs never substantially materialised, and the computer system was basically the buggiest thing I ever programmed. I had no clear vision of advancement, which meant that you could be packing the best guns in the game within an hour of play, and although I eventually put in a cool 'dynamic' mission generator, the fact that I couldn't draw interesting environments, the somewhat limited choice in types of mission (kill everyone, kill just the boss, kill just the boss and steal his briefcase, blow up the big box), and the difficulty of the missions, meant I, at least, got bored of them pretty fast.

So eventually I closed development on TitanNet and more or less copypasta'd the combat system into Frenetik. This, I decided, was the end. Without significant design work, and more importantly, attention paid to that design, TitanNet would never work.

But now I'm starting to relapse. I get the familiar feeling of wanting to program The Bestest Action RPG Evahâ„¢ and I'm starting to consider listening to it.


Also, do I need a new CSS? It's kind of painful to read long posts on this one.
The colors don't hurt my eyes, but I'd get in the habit of putting blank lines between paragraphs.
I think I'll go for it, but I need to put together a decent design document first. Hopefully I can design around the shortcomings in the previous iterations of the game and get something that doesn't explode out of control once it gets to a certain size.