Army of Destruction 2 - Here are 3 update video's

http://www.789site.com/other1/
Here are 3 update video's from my game I am working on Army of Destruction 2.
I have added some more vegetation and some buildings in some levels for clutter.

I am working on a bunch of levels, I have around 24 levels that I am tweaking at the moment.

I will have to update the ending video clips for when you complete the missions
so that they match the scenes in the updated levels.

I am just doing what I can with this game I get a little better each time I make a game. I don't clame to be a pro at making games I'm just a beginner.

I just put the video's online so that if you have been keeping up with my other post you can see how things are going so far with the game.

I am not feeling well I have alot of health problems. So I will not be answering questions or comments. I don't like to answer comments when my blood pressure and blood sugar are both up because I can get a little cranky.

Please visit www.789site.com my music is also avaliable at apple iTunes just put in a power search for Kenneth J. Williams most of the music I do I also use in my games.

Thank you.

Looking good, but the level looks too cluttered with the new vegitation, and gameplay seems really slow.

I like what you've got tho, looks like it can be interesting, with the real fundamentals of fun gameplay there! Me gusta.

I can edit the vegetation some to speed up gameplay that is no problem and I should be tweaking that soon after I have gotten a little rest.

The explosision sprites do not look good, and the camera isn´t shaking when shooting or getting hit. Everything else looks ok.

I don't have any more explosion sprites to use avialable to me at this time.

I think the camera shakes only when getting hit with an enemy luancher but not sure about that.

I have some enemy luanchers through out the level hidden where you get close to exits.

The luanchers in video 3 the flying level were not set up right when I made the video they are shooting lasers for some reason I will fix that.

Thank you.

The only issue I have is that your clipping range either should be hidden by fog, or extended a bit, because you don't seem to be able to see very far before it cuts off in your level.

Yeah clipping was a problem because if I extend it anymore the game starts to slow down to a really bad frame rate so slow that it is to hard to play at all.

I have it set this way so that I can use all the models in each level it cuts off the view a little early so that all the polygons don't halt the game.

I have not gotten the hang of working with fog.

I will not be adding any new content to the levels I can't aford to buy anything much more to go into the levels of this game no more add on's for my system either. All resourses are all used up for now.

Anything I do now will have to be done with what I got.

Note I may be changing some textures before releasing this game I was going to update my texture package that I had bought from How in the World texture package to commercial but then the price went up to $500 for commercail so I won't be able to do that.

I can still make some more textures I was only using them for terrain and should be able to make my terrains look ok anyway using multi terrain and smee2.

http://www.789site.com/other0/
I have changed the textures on the terrains on these 3 levels now and added some new weapons. Now you can see the weapon shots better they are more colorful now and have more variety to them.

Oh yeah I also took out some of the trees and plants to speed up the game.

I had to take out muzzleflash because they were not staying in sink with the gun and drifted all over the place.

The second level is still a little slow I think I have to many buildings in it because the blocks I used to surround them I think that is what is doing it and I just have to take out a few of them.

www.789site.com

You must imporve your sprites. There are enough tutorials out there. If you are really unable to make better sprites, make models instead of sprites, for rockets, instead of these blue plasma balls.

All the Tutorials in the world wont help if you don't have the proper software to make the graphics and I don't have any more money to buy software.

My funds are use up and the models that I were trying to use don't show up because they have to be small or they backfire into my gun model because they are big too.

I am happy with the sprits and that's what matters to me.

TheGimp is free, so money is not the problem ...

Cheers

I will try I have not been able to find a turtorial on making photons are FX yet so if you can give me a link that will help.

I want to make them kind of look like they are glowing.

I have had a hard time getting particle weapons to work with my game because I am using the templates.

I had a particle FX script written for me but it has some problems.

So I want to stick with the sprites because they are working but I do want them to look a little better so I am looking for a tutorial that I can use with TheGimp now.

I am still having trouble trying to make any improvments on the sprites I have some that are slightly better that I made but none with Gimp yet it is hard to get the hang of at the moment still learning how it works.

well, I never used gimp (with never I mean maybe one time) but here a quick tutorial:
1) data -> new file -> size 64x64 pixel 24bit color
2) fill picture with blue (the fill tool looks like a bucket I guess)
3) select airbrush and draw a slightly white blurry cirlce in the center
4) go into channels (there are some windows, like tools, layers and so on, and one should be called channels (RedGreenBlue/RGB))
5) create a new channel (if you don´t understand how, read the damn manual what it says about creating CHANNELs)
6) draw with the airbrush in the new CHANNEL (usually called alpha1) a white blurred circle on the black background
7) go back into the rgb channel
8) go on save file as
9) file name: plasma.tga, file type: targa bitmap (TGA) 32bit(!) not 24bit(or was it byte?)

I tryed just about everything all morning but the background is showing up in the plasma.tga file I don't know why it keeps showing up. I will keep at it though.

Ok I got some graphics going on I found some sprites and edited them to make more colors they are electric plasma balls.

I also found a way to fix the clipping range and I also found a way to speed up the gameplay to.

I will have some update videos online by tomorrow.

http://www.789site.com/other6/
Ok I got some new videos here.

I got the plasma to work in the indoor level with the single weapon. But if I use those in the outdoor level they dont look right because a little bit of black would show.

I did get some better sprites to use for my outdoor levels that don't show any black around the edges and they look ok.

I did try and make the explosions look a little better. I also made some movement in my weapons a little recoil.

I fixed the clipping range on most of my levels, and I also made gameplay a lot more faster. Everything works at a very good speed now.

.................ugghhh

Can you stop milking this tired series please?

These games you make are incredibly annoying, it seems you dont put enough time trying to flesh out every aspect of the game. The keyword is "seems" because I know your going to tell me you worked so hard on this, and thats wonderful. But the impression is that you just keep slapping on unoriginal models and sound effects with the same "engine", and keep trying to sell this game. Im glad you are getting sales, but I dont see why.

People keep trying to tell you how to improve your game but you insist on trying to offer some excuse, such as no money or how only "YOU" like it and "thats the only thing that matters." If the game only matters to you, then dont bother selling it or putting it on these forums. These members offering critiques ARE your customers, and they dont have to be game developers to offer suggestions. My aunt can tell when a game is bad or good, and she dosent know a thing about game development.

You should spend a massive amount of time just on the sprites, trying to perfect them. Dont be so quick to be satisfied by your initial work:

The explosions as said before need lots of work. The explosions are the "in the moment" reward for destroying these ships. Having just a sprite increase in scale does no justice to the craft, and no visually impressive award for the players. Use multiple sprite objects to fill out the volume of the explosions, put in sparks, flying debris, after smoke. In one of your movies I had seen a large mothercraft explode in just one sprite, this totally ruined the grandeur of the ship, and the act of seeing it taken down.

Your projectile sprites dont look like projectiles, mainly because they are static looking, non-areodynamic flying billboards. If you want to shoot electricity, you dont make a horizontally wide sprite that follows the camera, but you put the electricity in the shape of an orb/sphere shape. These types of shapes look better in fast motion (think of sonic when he runs fast and turns into a ball, a bullet in saving private ryan is an elongated yellow beam, etc)

What I did like was the whole commotion of the environment. I had seen beams come from behind tree lines and this added to the whole war atmosphere. Non scripted NPC's battling each other give the player a sense that he is in a moving and fighting world without his direct influence (this is in a non-multiplayer world I assume)

Kiss my ass you don't have to play them if you don't want to.

I agree with Straight_Heart.

I think everyone should nowadays able to use a photopaint program. I am getting sick of the students in my school who are absolutely unable to use photopaint, golive or freehand, and I am afraid when they will get teached flash. They got teached these programs many years, and they still act like idiots when using such a program. They are absolutely not interested in learning these programs. What happened to this world?

I am not glad that you are taking money for your games. YOu shouldn´t make games because you want money, but because you like video games. You should be glad to learn something to make better games. I don´t get it how you just can focus on the next time you will make money. You are pushing out your games like... wow!

Never thought to create a game to learn C-Script(better LiteC), photopaint and all the other things you need for a professional game? Create a hollow large cube put the default texture on it save it as "mycube" and build it, go into map properties, add as script "mytry.wdl" (type it). Create a textfile. Change the no_name.txt to mytry.wdl. Write into the mytry.wdl with a text editor or sed:

string lvl1 = <mycube.wmb>; //name of your cube level
var countforme;

function main
{
load_level(lvl1);
wait(3);
while(1)
{
countforme += 15*time;
countforme %= 360; //note: if >= 360 set to 0+rest amount, if < 0 set to 360-rest amount
camera.X = sin(countforme)*500;
camera.Z = sin(countforme)*100;
wait(1);
}
}

function getout()
{
EXIT;
}

on_esc = getout;

I hope this helps you understanding how to create a 100% own project. It is realy easy.

hey, guys... stop...
critique is important, yes... but in the end it's still Kenneth who has to decide how to do it all.
The game isn't perfect, but it's not done yet, either... I would work a bit on the sprites, Straight_heart's right in that. If you wanna sell this game, good sprite's a great way to make it look a bunch better. But the game idea's good, and I'm sure you have spent a bunch of time on the game. So, just keep it up!

Hi, everyone I can work on the sprites some more don't have a problem with that.

I have just started to use the sprites in the game as the weapons luancher in the game. I was using models at first.

If I don't get the sprites to look better on some of the levels they can always be switched back.

I am just learning, the game is not done I just posted it because I wanted to get input on tips for improvement. I am not releasing the game this year.

I have been working on it for the past year or so.

Any help on creating the sprites would be welcome. I would give you credit in the game if you need to be paid for your work if your price is reasonable I would pay you.

Just look me up use the forum to contact me. I am looking for double plasma sprite weapons. In red, green, blue, and yellow. I am using them in my luancher weapon. I have been having trouble with them showing black around the edges and need this problem resolved.

But don't get angry with me because I don't get perfect scores on working with paint programs. When I was using the old A5 I would always use the built in sprites so I just never messed with making them before.

All they need is a little work.
Thank you.

Here some useful GIMP tutorials for videogames:

http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/fire/fire.html

http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/fire2/fire2.html

http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/reflection/reflection.html

http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/rusty_obj/rusty_objects.html

http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/shot/shot.html

http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/reflection3/reflection.html

http://www.arcanefractals.com/tutorial_part1.shtml

http://gug.sunsite.dk/tutorials/tomcat9/

Btw, you can upload the TGA wwhere you cant get rid of the background, then I will tell you whats wrong.

I have to say game looks quite good. I watched that 43mb or something trailer. Just some sprites are awful, like the yellow one when you shoot. I hope you will make better ones.

No Exciter, I dont ever plan to make MY games for money. Getting money for your games is an after effect of your labor. Judging by Kenneth's other series, he seems to be selling these games in the same style. So I thought this one will eventually be sold. Where did you get the idea that I sold my games?

"You are pushing out your games like... wow!"

Tell me if I'm wrong, but this comment seems to imply that why should I be critiquing Kenneth's work when I havent sold as many copies as he did. You've failed Exciter, because you missed the whole point. I and every other person here is the PUBLIC, we play your games, whether we are in the development field or not. You think all those game magazines that have people review games require these people to have years of modelling and programming? My aunt cant review a game because she has never sold a game in her life? I dont have to sell games to critique someone else's game. In fact its easier to critique a game when your not in development because you dont give sympathy to the team when they make technical excuses.

Im sure as hell Kenneth WILL sell this game when hes finished with it. Most of us use 3dgs as a toy, protoyping little games here and there, but never really selling it. When somone decides to sell the game, we always try to critique their work, because people's money is in the mix, and they will pay for things worth their time.

Im sure I was out of hand in the beginning of my original post and I appologize for saying it while you are cranky, but I ALWAYS offer a critique, ALWAYS. At school I always take in critique to heart, and change for improvement.

" When posting your work here, you expose it to criticism. If you are easily offended by negative opinions, don't post. When criticizing other peoples's work, don't forget: even making a bad game is a very hard and difficult task. "

which is why we critique.

Hi, everyone I just got the plasma working corectly they are transparent with no black showing and look great I will make some videos later. I could not seam to make double plasma but I am able to stretch the single shots a little I am using some sprites that I found in Easy Particals 3.

Thank you all.

hmm, could u post some regular screenshots to?

http://www.789site.com/other2/
Here are the video shots of the new Plasma weapons.

I made the videos a little shorter my eyes were starting to bug me because I was working on it all day.

Thanks everyone for pushing me to correct the sprites for the plasma weapons.

Ok. I will post some screenshots too a little later because it may show what the game looks like a little clearer.

Here are the screenshots
http://www.789site.com/images12/

The blue white sprite in screen shot 2, and the orange yellow sprites in screen shot 4 and 5, take a lot of quality of the game. You should look how the sprites(models) look in other games for that effect.

I think this is looking kinda cool in general, I like the indoor stuff.. those aliens dont seem to have textured skins though...

Defineitely work on sprite effects some more, also remeber that mos tgames dont use just one sprites, but a clusture of sprites for explosions.

To improve look of most sprites in game: Always use my.bright=on and my.ambient=100, and adjust the sprtie material in materials.wdl...

for instance, the sprite material is deifned as

_mat = mat_sprite;

//set the values to something like this

color = 255;
_mat_set(_mat.emissive_blue,color);

color = 255;
_mat_set(_mat.ambient_blue,color);

color = 255;
_mat_set(_mat.diffuse_blue,color);

color = 0;
vec_set(_mat.specular_blue,color);

_mat.power = 0;

_mat.albedo = 0;

http://www.789site.com/other2/
Don't forget I also posted videos just above the screenshots so you can get a look at the sprites in the gameplay.

I found the material setup in the wdl but where do you addust use my.bright=on and my.ambient=100 where is this located?

And can anyone help with the explosions I want them to look like muiltiple explosions maybe also throw in a ring and have more color in them.

I am using the templates and I am having a hard time trying to get anything to replace the explosion graphics.

I worked on the alien skins some here are some Screenshots.


Here is another screenshot of a flying level.

The ship above is a little dark I will fix this by removing the extra shader on that model because it does not seem to work with it that well.

I just wanted to say thanks again for all the help so far. Some of you were a little hard on me but thanks because it made me stronger and I did not want to stop until I got the sprites looking way better. I removed the older video clips.

Oh yeah still have not found where it says to addust use my.bright=on and my.ambient=100

You can assign these flags in the sprites action, like any other flag. my.bright=on and my.ambient=100 .. show me the action for a specific sprite or particle and i can help..

I'm lost at the moment. I just replaced the shell.mdl models with shell.tga for my sprites in weapons00.wdl near the bottom of the code where it talks about luancher. I don't know where to locate the specific actions for each of my sprites to change the settings.

look in the manual, search for bright, flare, transparent, alpha, pan, tilt, roll, etc...if you need to find anything use the manual's search feature. what image program do you use to make this stuff? if you don't have gimp, get it, and search google for gimp tutorials, google is your friend. some of your sprites are not bad, however most of them look like the same thing, just with a different color, if you need ideas, look at other video games, and here's a post that could help you get better effects:
http://www.coniserver.net/ubbthreads/sho...e=0&fpart=5

as you can tell it'f from the preva forum, but that is not important, this can help you get better looking effects, don't be afraid of making plasma a model, it looks ok, but i think you could do better

I put the Sprites onto models and also did the same with explosions.
http://www.789site.com/other2/Explo_plasma.wmv

Looks better. The muzzle flash still looks not good. Isn´t there a explosion particle effect in the templates? I mean you should use models with particles. I did that in robotector: http://nearfatal.net/robotector.zip

I made that game in one week. Look into the explion.wdl. There are particle effects for explosions. When you opened the explion.wdl in sed, click on the button to search in folders for a word. It´s next to the goggles. Search in the robotector folder for the effect you like... well, no.

I see I have also the actions emitter in that wdl. Then search the folder for emitter2. And you will find some ent_create(emitter2...)... Copy this line in the wdl you found and put at the end of your action before ent_remove(me); And put a wait(1); between the ent_remove(ME); and the ent_create(emitter2...)

You have to include the explion.wdl. If you included it and still get error messages not regarding missing sprites, but missing variables, let me know.

I see there are also alot of exlosion effects in the wdl.

I think I got the explosions right now I will upload 2 videos but it will take a couple of hours.
They should be in the other2 folder on my website by 6:00AM Eastern Time.

The Robotector game looks nice But I want to see what people think of the new explosions I have been working on.

I also made a few more effects on the sprite models for my weapons coming up in the new videos.

Check http://www.789site.com/other2/ tomorrow morning I will delete the other video's.

I watched the first 50% of the second video. The explosions are much better. The first two three ship which explode still appear too suddenly. Best would be if you make the big ship split into parts which explode then with the smaller explosions. Without good software that´s quite some work, so you could try to make a bigger explosion so I don´t see how the ship disappears (removes) or you make it more and more tranparent until it vanishes or black because space is black too.

The other big explosions after the first three ships which explode are perfect.

The bullets look very interesting. This spread shot is a very good idea. Maybe you could make realy spread shots, not just an image with multiple colored glows. Like a plasma shotgun.

The video's are complety uploaded now. Sometimes the ships do break up. But You can't control when it happens sometimes the animations don't play all the way through.

I geuss it's kind of like an reward in gameplay if you get the big ships to break up because they swing at you when this happens and the splinters come right at you but you can't control the explosions.

Software I used I had corel draw I just had to find it. I used some particles that I found in easy particles 3. I used Milkshape 3d to make a plane flat model for the weapons. Then went into Med to place the skins on the model copy the model and reversed it one side.

I edit material in Med made copies of the models to make up muiltiple shots. For muiltable color sprites I just Merged the other plasma models together to make new muiltable weapon shot.

Used the same Models for explosions just put new Flash.Tga I used 5 Flash skins 5 models with Particels found in Easy Particels 3 Stretched the models copied them and I made criss cross models to make the explosions show all sides when they expload.

Flash1.Mdl is flat because it is suposed to make up a ring like explosion.

Went into weapons00FX.wdl in notepad and changed Flash.Tga files to Flash1.Mdl through Flash5.Mdl where it talks about explosions.

I fixed the muzzleflash last night so it does not drift around and made it blink a bit faster so it does not stay on the screen all day.

I also put some fire effects in the red level in some of the trees and around some rocks with Easy Particle 3.

I put some red lights on the towers that shoot the green shots at you and did some other stuff that I can't think of right now.

I would post some more videos but my ftp programe is on the fritz. I will get a new one in a couple of days.

http://www.789site.com/other2/

I have 5 new videos online I uploaded the videos today. The 1st video is the red planet with the mech. I added a new sky background a wrecked ship some fire and some solders that follow you around a bit. The moon base levels are on videos 2 and 4 with skyscrapers. Video 3 is a new space level. Video 5 is a red and green planet you play while flying.

I updated the graphics alot on all of these levels.
I had bought the skyscrapers a while back I had to reskin them again before they would show up in 3d Gamestudio.

I will check back from time to time to see what people think of my levels.

The music that I use in my games have been selling pretty good now if you want a CD just visit my webpage or click on the link to go to Apple iTunes where you can buy the tracks you sample. Visit www.789site.com

Are you sure the frame rate is ok when playing the game? It seems sometimes like it´s lagging heavy. Like when these realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy realy big explosions appear.

No it does not lag on all the levels just on the first one with the mech and the flying level with the moon base.

The explosions are not causing the lag time on the first level with the mech it is the trees. Can fix it with clipping range.

On the moon base flying level it is the skyscrapers causing the reload weapons to lag.

I am trying to make it work faster in the moon base level but the only way to do it that I have noticed is to shorten the clipping range. that works for both levels but then things are left out of view and it looks kind of strange.

I also wanted to note before anyone saw it. I put in the wrong muzzleflash tga on the second video it should only show one flash not two in front of the gun. I will fix this.

Thank you for your comment. It will be a while before I update the videos with the problems fixed I am very tired and been working on these levels for a few days now.

I think I took care of the problem it is working alot faster now just had to change the cycle time in the weapons and change the clipping range just a bit.
Seems alot better now but I am to tired to go about making some more videos at the moment.

You should get a good idea of what the levels already look like from these first videos.

Thank you for pointing out that problem.