Overview Core Dump - Work In Progress Episode 9 January 13, 1997: Control methods, busy-o-meter This weekend I've been redoing the control method of the player completely. You see, I had this problem doing "interesting" enemies in AKIN because of the weapons you had and the way you could use them. Basically, you could "slash" left and right, but nothing else. You could run up slopes, duck, jump... but that was it! So I've been doing a lot of thinking about control methods and types of weapons. And since last weekend the player can do a lot indeed!! obvious things: duck, jump, run up/down slopes swim! there'll be all kinds of water in Core Dump hang on rails (like Super Contra on the SNES) Fire in all directions (also like Super Contra) Control Drones/Missiles that have been fired. This means I can throw complete hordes of aliens at the player (I've been playing Super Contra too much, I admit it) from ALL directions! That'll be really hectic, not to mention pretty darn cool! I've also been considering homing missiles, but I'm afraid that might prove too processor-time consuming for my MSX. It's not too difficult to program, but with a lot of other things going on at the same time, it might be too expensive in the time-departement. I've also included a very ingenious (if I might say so) method to combine graphic fx and speed. I've been rating all the onscreen-happenings from 0 (very important) to 7 (graphic detail that is not important, but just cool to look at). In the game I always measure the frame rate. If it's very slow, only the 0-rated FX are done (very important), and when it gets faster more surface FX are shown, up to the full-detail level. Before you start saying "oi! so you're going to skip cool FX sometimes!", let me explain. At this moment, I've already got a lot of details implemented: Water splashes when you jump into or out of it, bullets hitting walls explode, bullets hitting water cause small splashes, bubbles are caused by swimming players, andsoforth. That's a lot of detail! So, obviously, bullets making water splashes and bubbles rising aren't that important. And in the midst of battle you might not even WANT to see them. So there's been a lot of keyboard-thrasing this weekend. I really think the improved control methods will make this a far better game than Akin, with much more action than ever before in my games! Go on... Read the previous entry