There certainly are alternatives, but you're coming across as saying the WASD/Mouse combination is "bad design", when in reality it's just a personal issue with your lack of coordination.
Your contest, your rules, I'm just saying it's pretty silly to make a blanket statement about a wildly popular (and succesful) game design simply because of personal preferences.
The "auto-aim" feature would actually be pretty nifty, but I think you lose speed when you implement it. I can mouse over to someone much more quickly than I could cycle through nearby available targets, considering how slow BYOND is. The nice thing about not having to target things via the client is that you aren't as bound by the sluggish timing of BYOND, so while you may not be able to immediately fire after mousing over to your opponent, you'll likely still get the shot off before they're done auto-targeting over toward you.
Then again, BYOND's never really done "action" very well. Luckily it sounds like most of your prospective contest entries will be more strategic in nature.
Then again, BYOND's never really done "action" very well. Luckily it sounds like most of your prospective contest entries will be more strategic in nature.
Meanwhile, ACWraith, King of BYOND Strategy and Keeper of the Tech Tree, is trying to do an action game. ;) | |
Mine has quick targeting via hotkey which rotates between targets in a cone in front of you based on distance. It works, but as a long time PC FPS player, WASD+mouse would be infinitely more usable.
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Evre wrote:
The "auto-aim" feature would actually be pretty nifty, but I think you lose speed when you implement it. I can mouse over to someone much more quickly than I could cycle through nearby available targets, considering how slow BYOND is. You misunderstand. At least in an FPS, once you place your crosshairs over a target, the system automatically locks you onto that target. I wasn't suggesting cycling through targets -- that's auto-targetting -- but rather allowing the system to guide your fire towards targets that you are apparently shooting at -- that's auto-aiming. The idea I was getting at would be that if you faced in one direction and pressed the throw button, it would pick the nearest or best enemy, calculate a lead, and throw a snowball directly at that target. No targetting necessary: face and fire. This reduces the spread between power gamers and casual gamers, encouraging group tactics and giving way to interesting things like drawing enemy fire and stuff'n'such. | |
I thought about the contest for a few minutes before realizing I must not let myself be sucked into it.
The aiming solution I wanted to use: a targeting point that rotates around the player every second or two, allowing 8 directions or maybe even 16. When the point is facing in the direction you want, just press the "throw" key. It would take good timing, but that's part of the fun! | |
That's a nifty idea indeed!
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I'm actually not doing that old project that some of you saw. I'm now doing one called "Frozen Earth." It's based off of Scorched Earth, except you'll be throwing snowballs.
Of course that's not going to be the only difference. I'll add all sorts of new things to fit the winter theme. | |
Vegetassj9: The game has good graphics so far but it looks like it's still incomplete. (I'm especially digging the slow-falling snow and the map border. Very nice.) Using something like client.edge_limit or some unplayable snowy space beyond the edge of the map would help presentation. The map is tiny, and the snowball-throwing sound effect is a bit annoying. Also I don't see any way to build snow forts.
I like that the players are snowmen. Very fun idea. Maybe using SwapColor to change the hat color or something though would look better, because adding RGB to the icon for coloring is making it look like rubber stamp art. | |
Here is my entry do far. No sound yet, hopefully I will get around to that. Although school starts back tomorrow for me.
http://games.byond.com/hub/Asielen/Snow_War | |
This is kind of a problem for me. There's a bit of work for me to do on my entry, but I have midterms this week. Almost no time to work on the game.
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If you play around with SFXR for even a short amount of time you should be able to get some decent sound effects. That is one of the requirements so entries without sound will be disqualified.
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Fair enough.
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Here you go, Sir Lummox JR:
http://games.byond.com/hub/EGUY/Snowblaze I hope it meets all the qualifications. | |
Added sound and fixed it up a bit. Not the best since I started on it last Friday oh well.
http://games.byond.com/hub/Asielen/Snow_War | |
However, an auto-aim feature for a BYOND game would be very nice... if anyone's reading, feel free to steal it. ;-)