Make it rain

Got the collision detection and resolution working now. Showing in the gif is about ~300 active sliding entities. You can think it as 300 units moving about in this environment. The smoothed voxels are irregularly shaped and thus they require the triangle - box tests. It's a fairly computationally expensive operation given how numerous the triangles are, even after optimizations.

This particular rain effect is unlikely to make it to the final game but its a nice way to detect errors in the terrain collision + resolution system, and to benchmark their performance.

Overall quite happy to get it working, (I thought it would take longer TBH) but still need to make it handle multiple chunks + further optimizations.

Terrain Gen (Part III/???)

Good news everyone, after another week of hard work, the the seam issue seems to be solved. Woohoo :D

I like to point out that the focus atm is to get the geometry right, and not necessarily to make it look awesome, yet. There will be plenty of opportunities for that later down the line. Nor do I care too much for the "trees" at this point. There is little reason that they have to be built from voxels like Minecraft instead of being actual models with much higher detail. Just something so the terrain doesn't look so barren.

The reason why getting the geometry right first is important is because the player (and any other "physical" object) need to interact with the generated geometry for collision to work properly - like walking on them, don't phase through walls, etc. And this is the feature that I am going to implement next - moving around in this generated geometry.

Oh and in case this isn't obvious, no demo for July. What I am working on is really important and fundamental to the game, and I certainly don't want to rush it.

And like last time, here are some in-development pictures:

These ridges from last week are the stuff I want to fix.

After much trial and error, managed to isolate the problematic vertices.

Smooth normals and solved the seam problem across different chunks as well. (this is 4x4 chunks). Some surface normals are still generated incorrectly (the black spots)

Decided to make a bird thingy to test it out. Noticed how limited the tiles are - there are only 8 of them with very small color selection... 

Still the same crappy tiles but with better lighting 

Autumn is here. (I wish I had a white tile :P)

Bonus: "Floating islands" Turns out there are still few cases not handled correctly 

(the black spots on edge). 

Terrain Gen (Part II/???)

Finally had sometime to hammer away at the new game, and made significant progress on the terrain system.

Some people have expressed concerns regarding the size and scope of the new game, and it is an indeed a legitimate concern. But in actuality, many features outlined in the design document were either implemented in Heroine Rumble already, or almost implemented, so they are a simple porting job.

However, the terrain system is not. And it is actually a very ambitious undertaking. Note that what I am going for is a fully modifiable, "infinite" (to very large number),  procedural voxel terrain. Think Minecraft but with the inclusion of smooth blocks rather than only cubes. Now obviously I am not going for a Minecraft clone but the fact that everything is in a grid will make a lot of things much easier. Not to mention that once it is finished, a huge number of environment and biomes can be generated. Or create your own wrestling-ring/room/building and what not.

Here is a summary of last week's progress:

Rewrote the smoothing algorithm to support smoothing on all sides. I don't know what this is supposed to be. Modern Art?

Here is a cave, some rocks and a "tree." Note that each height layer is very visible. 

Here is another attempt at smoothing out the cube layers. Note that smooth blocks and solid blocks are not joined together properly.

Here is a building with both smooth blocks and solid blocks. Light is too bright in this picture.

Combining different chunks together to create one large terrain. With flat lighting on to help debugging.

All in all, I am quite pleased with how the terrain geometry turned out. The ridges right now are too visible for my liking and what I am currently working on right now. 

Design on New Game

Been busy on working on the web version of Heroine Rumble, so didn't have much time to work on the new game yet. But, I did finish a draft of the design document for next game, for those that are interested:

NOTE: Everything documented here are subjected to change.

PLOT

For as long as you can remember, you have been a personal slave to the Queen. She is powerful, yet cunning. You were kept on a close leash and you pleased her at her every whim: at night, in her chambers; at the courtyard, fully bare; in the dungeon, where screams can’t be heard. You are trained to be nothing more than a loyal puppet, and you have been trained well.

Or so everyone thought.

The Queen, in her delight, imprinted on you the Queen’s Mark, marking you an Elite Agent of the Queen. You were given a daunting task: find the rare Monster Girl breeds and escort them back, discretely. The Queen doesn’t want an open war, she tells you. So despite your new founded status, you are to act without authority, and without… official support.

“This is no easy task, but you are the only one I can trust. Deliver the packages on time and keep the nobles busy, or else I am forced to send the Royal Hunters after you. Understood? Ok. … And… stay safe.” Those were her parting words. Somehow, you get a feeling that she misses you.

What about you?

GAMEPLAY

• A lewd version of Mount & Blade x Elder Scrolls
• That is to say:
• It’s fairly opened ended; there is a main story quest and side quests but the player do not have to do them
• The player directly controls her own party and decides where to go, what to spend Lewds on, which fights to take, and so on
• The world is a combination of randomly generated zones and pre-built zones.
• The player starts off fairly weak, just by herself with limited resources at the start game. Eventually, she may enslave other heroes to her cause, raise an army, acquire powerful artifacts and maybe, just maybe, take her revenge on the Queen.
• The rough gameplay loop is to capture various breed of Monster Girls to meet the Quota. If you don’t, you will face the Queen’s wrath and it may lead to Game Over.
• To capture rare hostile Monster Girls, you need to sex her to submission. More information on combat later.
• Besides sending Monster Girls back to meet the Quota, or just pawn them off in various “shops,” another option for the player is to acquire powerful strains of Monster Girl and combine them into super Monster Girl, (aka “breed” em). These super Monster Girls may be enlisted in the player’s party to help capturing other Monster Girls, or they are be pawned off for a generous sum of money, or perform other tasks. More on “breeding” later.
• Characters are divided (at least) into 2 categories: Heroes and Minions.
• Heroes are powerful individuals that can engage in sex fights against other Heroes.
• Minions are weaker beings that can only rape other Heroes but not be raped (in combat at least)
• Heroes are fully customizable (in player’s party) whereas Minions are based on Templates. (eg “Neko Scout”, “Neko Dancer”, “Neko Assassin”)
• Rare and breeded Monster Girls are considered Heroes and regular Mon Girls are Minions
• The game will feature an actual equipment and inventory system, and those items and artifacts can be equipped to increase the character’s power and change their appearance.
• Likewise, there is a much stronger focus on RPG elements and level, stats, and equipment plays a far larger role in combat effectiveness.

SEX FIGHT

• Grapple system will see significant changes
• First of all, grappling isn’t just limited to doing some extra damage to a defenseless opponent, but an entirely new “mini game”.
• It will be entirely possible to 100-0 someone in the same grapple alone. Something not really possible to do in HR.
• The grapple system will be semi-turn based or entirely turn based “mini game”.
• There is a “position advantage” system, and those who initiate the grapple will start with an advantage. However, it is expected that the advantage is drained over time and the roles may be reversed.
• The aim this time is flavor over balance. “Putting the enemy into your favourite positions” is more important than do X-Y-Z for most damage. (eg. Humil -> sex)
• Stats will play a far large role. A sex-fight oriented character may seduce the opponent to take the initiative, and of course, **** the **** out of the enemy despite starting out with a disadvantage.
• Talking to NPCs and asking “got time for a game of gwent sexfight (name TBD)?” is going to be a thing too.

COMBAT

• Combat will be inspired by Mount & Blade melee combat
• Will be weapons based rather than only unarmed combat
• Directional attacks and guard. 4 swing directions for each strike and 4 guard/parry directions. Blocks are only successful if the directions match. (See M&B, Chivalry, For Honor for reference)
• Weapons require stats to wield and they promote different fighting styles.
• Eg a Longsword may have longer reach and damage than a Shortsword, but Shortsword may swing faster and uses less stamina per swing.
• Unlike M&B (base game), this is a fantasy world and Ultra Greatswords + friends will totally be a thing.
• Also unlike M&B, cleaving mechanic (hitting multiple foes with each swing) will be a core mechanic.
• Thus, if leading an army isn’t your thing you can totally use a small party of well trained, well equipped, and well breed Elites and roleplay as terminators. Or heck, solo by yourself.
• There is likely to be some sort of Command stat so the player have to make a decision what units to bring to the encounter. Stronger units costs more Command to field.
• Some zones, like Dungeons, may have a restriction on max number of units you can bring with you.
• Another change from HR is that the Grab Attempt button will be gone - it is too hard to balance.
• Instead, when an Hero gets damaged enough, she will start flashing and be vulnerable to sex. The sex is initiated by getting close to a flashed hero and press attack.
• There are likely to be buttons and various UI elements for giving commands to your units in an encounter.
• There will be a battle-size option of some sort so people with toasters can enjoy the game too. Although I do hope to support at least to 50v50 fights because, why not?
• There may be ranged attacks as well (hitscan, projectile, and AOE) but those things are not on high priority at start.
• Also like to add mountables & chivalry eventually but it may have to be a Patreon goal due to high development costs.

[Public] - v0.5 web version

Web version of Heroine Rumble v0.5 is now available on Itch.io! You can play it here.

[Patreon] v0.502 Auto Escape

Patreon LINK.

Changelog

• Added Auto Escape under Options - Gameplay. If this is enabled, characters will automatically kick out when the escape bar is filled rather than having the escape bar reset. Default is on.
• Fixed enabling watch not working on a level 0 AI character in exhibition.
• Fixed game freeze when AI starts a grapple when AI is controlling characters that have non-full (<4) move set.

Also happy to announce that there will be another public build soon. Almost ready. Sit tight.

Terrain Woes. (Part I of ???)

WARNING: LONG POST with pictures.

On the new game, I want to do a third person, open world action RPG, with a over the shoulder camera. Think Soulborne games or third person Elder Scrolls games.

Anyways, this new viewing perspective and player freedom means that the environment is far more visible and important. As such, I like to have more diverse and interesting terrain. At the same time, I need some method to quickly create those said terrain; AND give them the right collision behavior; AND make them navigable by the AI.

The first thing that comes to mind is voxel terrain, or Minecraft. If everything is in a grid, then it simplifies a lot of the math underneath. So let's start with that. With some amount of effort, this is the result:

(PLACEHOLDER ART)

Not too bad huh? This picture doesn't shown it but the engine already replicated most of the Minecraft features, such as "infinite" terrain extending towards all directions, creating/removing blocks, and even Minecraft's unique "lighting" system.

But of course, there is a pretty big problem: Cubes. Lots of cubes. Lots of not exactly pleasant to look at cubes. So the next step is attempting to smooth out the cubes:

After considerable amount of effort, this is the result. Looks fairly solid at first glance. But there is a severe artifact on diagonal "cliffs":

Unfortunately, after even a greater amount of effort trying to fix it, I concluded that this is a limitation due to the constraints of the grid system. I am not sure how to solve it, or that it is even possible to fix.

One thing I could do is to use a regular height map for the terrain instead:

Much smoother.

Unfortunately, height maps are only 2D, and they don't allow things like caves, or tunnels, or buildings... So this is where I am stuck now.

Something I considered is use the heightmap for the base terrain and the voxel grid system for things that are build on top of the terrain. It will take some effort to integrate the two separate system together tho. Or perhaps just use the smooth voxel system, accept it's limitations and call it a day? Or something else? Not sure yet. Currently weighting the options...