Kabouik
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Posts posted by Kabouik
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I've made a jellyfish that kinda behaves like a jellyfish when it flies or hits a wall.
And a video here that shows a little more: https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/NimbleUnfoldedGyrfalcon (the video feels good when played at 2× speed on gfycat)
Of course it's not very efficient to clear planets (although it is not useless either). Building the logic parts was a nightmare, it doesn't seem like much, but I think all the keys of my keyboard are bound except Tab, there were so many exceptions I had to deal with to make the tentacles spread and behave correctly.
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I wish I had those upgraded lasers your describe.
The gifs are pretty big so I'm just going to URL them. Anyone know how to make a hyperlink open in a new tab?
This should be in your browser settings. They open in a new tab for me.
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I agree with this too, meaningful strings would help and increase the number of logics we can combine. We'd just need an additional part to bind strings to keys for the final inputs.
Or an toggle option in the Edit mode to overlay current inputs/ouputs on the green/red leds of all logic parts, and in the middle of other parts that can have inputs. It wouldn't allow meaningful strings, nor increased number of combinations, but it would allow for a much more easy way to read and edit the overall logics and have an overview.
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- Hey, just a few things I miss in Edit mode (some may have been mentioned or may already be on to-do list):
- Toggle option to overlay Input/Output keys on each module, on the green/red lights for logic parts and just in the middle of the part for thrusters, weapons and sensors (this would make editing of complex drones a LOT easier, and would also display the main controls of any drone).
- Toggle option to overlay dashed lines between parts that are set with Inputs or Outputs in common (functional relationships), although suggestion 1 would make much easier to visualize already.
- Toggle to show part hitbox, as suggested by GalladeGuy in another thread.
- List of history changes (Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Y can be hard to follow when many changes have been made).
- Snapshot feature that allows to do some changes but revert to a previous state at any time without duplicating save files or losing history (like in raw image processing).
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Symmetry feature. It's already there, I missed it: G/F.
- Filtering on weapons with checkbox for available upgrades or damage and projectile types.
- Option to allow digging in the test room, without procedural generation to avoid loading time, but just borders made of fully uniform terrain instead.
- Multiple selection (useful for dragging sets of parts that are not attached together yet and see their current connections).
- Additional setting on the proximity sensor: "Anything, including own drone".
- Show "flexibility" of parts in their info (some seem to be more sturdy than others for attachments). Or does it just depend on their mass?
- Allow assembling beyond the green range, but gray out the parts that are too far away and don't spawn them when testing the drone. This would allow creating sub-assemblies to put together at a later point but using all space available on the screens to keep things tidy. Variations of sub-assemblies could also be made without deleting the original ones and without duplicating drones, which would help comparing them. Example of the benefits for the latter situation: one could have a saved drone with sub-assembly-1 attached in range (therefore functional and spawned when playing the drone), and sub-assembly-2 out of range, but similar to sub-assembly-1 except it has a slightly different configuration (like thrusters adapted to higher gravity, or attack terrain instead of enemies with a more appropriate set of weapons). Now that same saved drone could be used in a range of situations by just enabling the correct sub-assembly (by putting it in range and moving the replaced one out of the green range) and without duplicating saved files (the number of saves can get messy at some point, and it's kind of not adapted to small changes since you cannot preview them on the thumbnail).
I may add some other ideas later as they come.
I must say I love the editor though, these are just QOL ideas. I've spent more than 15 hours in the demo in just a few days, 99% of that in the editor; reminds me of KSP in that ratio. That is a good sign that the game is going to be awesome!
- Hey, just a few things I miss in Edit mode (some may have been mentioned or may already be on to-do list):
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Exactly, I use the magnets to repel rockets, I think it does not work too bad although I couldn't push the radius too far for the side magnets:
I need to work on drones that split when they arrive on a planet now, with a digger and a roamer, I haven't done it yet but you just reminded me I should!
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It lacks thrust though, won't work at all against Ball of steel for instance (but that one is a bit special as the key is to dodge it and let it go out of the ring).
I've built another drone with Arenas in mind, and planets to a lower extent. I'm kinda happy with it because it has only 97 parts, no satellite for remote fuel and electricity (I think it's a bit broken so I try to avoid it), and still a lot of features without between an overkill assault machine. It can follow terrain, climb or descend walls, attack enemies when in range, dig, hover stationary, land (including walls), repel rockets, and maintain/correct orientation to always face upwards (except when climbing/descending). It has toggles for roam/land/shields/magnets, and it can also be used manually (and flown at higher altitudes) when the roam toggle is off.
Excavator mode when sensors are set to attack terrain (or when weapons are fired manually):
Roamer mode (fully autonomous):
Lander mode + magnets and shield toggled off (the drone now has landing legs for smoother landing, not shown on this picture):
Wall landing:
Rocket repelling:
Roamer mode when enemies in range (autonomous; weapons are divided between upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right and fire only according to the location of the enemy):
Weapons can also be fired manually, and manual input on thrusters is possible as well. The drone is not perfect, but not too bad for 97 parts and no external energy! The number of parts could be decreased easily by removing solar panels or batteries, but I wanted it to be good at sustaining waves on enemies for a long time.
Controls:
Alpha 1 - Toggle magnets on/off
Alpha 2 - Toggle upper shields on/off
Alpha 3 - Toggle lower shield on/off (useful to save energy when landed)
Alpha 4 - Toggle over on/off (toggle off means landing)
Insert - Roam to the left
Page up - Roam to the right
A/D - Lower thrusters (use both simultaneously to fly upwards, A to turn left, D to turn right)
Z/C - Side thrusters
Q/E - Upper thrusters (use both simultaneously to fly downwards, Q to lean left, E to lean right)
W - Jump boosters (use in conjunction to Alpha 4 to return to hover mode after a landing on a high gravity planet)
Minus - Fire to upper left
Plus - Fire to upper right
Left bracket - Fire to lower left side
Right bracket - Fire to lower right
P/O - Change the synchronization of the rotation of sensors and weapons
Removed with the latest update:
Mouse 1 - Fire upper EMP shotguns (those will fire automatically when an enemy is detected)
Mouse 0 - Fire lower EMP shotguns (those are only manual)
Now it is better to disable magnets for digging (using Leftbracket and Rightbracket), as it allows rockets to go straight down instead of deviating them to the sides.
Edit: I improved it with better weapons and a better placement of magnets and shields, weapons are not divided in four groups instead of two since they are more effective and there is no need for extra spread anymore. The drone is now much more robust. However, it now has 97 parts due to the extra weapons, which annoys me (the smaller the better!):
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We don't have plans for online multiplayer, aside from drone sharing and competitions using fully autonomous drones.
Local co-op may be a good idea
Offline cooperation with others' drones could be nice as well without the need of all the netplay code. We could imagine 2 vs 2 team sumo fights, and people/friends could organize each other on Discord/Reddit/their own community to build complementary drones and organise tournaments, all autonomous like current sumo mode. This could even enable "support" or "fence" drones that keep the more offensive team mate on the ring.
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A sumo drone using magnets to stick to the enemy and then combining jump engines with repel magnets:
And a spiderweb version for those enemies that try to dodge in early fights:
Images are clickable.
The shields are not necessary, but I was playing with pulsing shields so that they use less energy and could not resist putting some on my sumo drone.
Cool Nimbatus GIFs
in Discussion & Feedback
Posted
Thanks for the kind comment!
There is probably room for optimizing it, but I don't think it could be simplified this much while keeping the same flexibility. For instance, I did not want the sensors on the tentacles to have any effect on the main body when the tentacles are retracted, otherwise it would trigger the tentacle engines and impede movement for no reason, so I couldn't use a direct binding between sensors (3 per tentacles) and said engines, yet I wanted the lower engines to ignite in concert with the main body when retracted so that they can contribute to the thrust of the whole drone... But not when extended, because tentacles have to stay extended regardless of the drone movements. You'll notice also that the main body is keeping level when tentacles are extended, but can be moved freely in the "travel" form with retracted arms. All these little exceptions really add a lot of complexity to logics when you only have AND/OR/XOR gates. :<
I also wanted tentacles to extend evenly and react to obstructing terrain in two different ways: first, if the terrain is not too difficult, then the tentacles stop overextending laterally to avoid bumping into it, and instead they slowly go upwards to try passing over the terrain barrier before extending again behind it and continuing progression if successful. But if the terrain is too difficult, then the tentacles have some kind of reflex movement, quickly retracting under the body and not extending back again until the obstacle is passed (this needs jump drives, and therefore an impulse logic). This keeps tentacles from jumping all the time as it would be annoying and could get messy with the spring or bump into other parts, but still make them have this "natural" behavior that I wanted, only when necessary. All this had to be lateralized, so I could not use the same sensors, keybindings and logics for both sides. This behavior should make climbing walls unnecessary if the proximity sensors are set to appropriate distances: the jellyfish will just pass over terrain irregularities, and so will the tentacles, while keeping the overall extended form. Climbing walls would be for another drone I build previously that hovers at low altitude. This one can retract the tentacles and fly easily if really necessary.
Also, I needed the gravity sensors because all the movements I've configured on the tentacles made them wobble too much with just a free hinge, it was not good. It would be OK if they were more passive, but I really wanted them to be more than just weapons hanging on springs. The engines are necessary to maintain them horizontal but it's not a big loss because all those thrusters have secondary uses, be it extending the springs vertically and horizontally, reacting to obstacles (I cannot retract tentacles without bumping into the body if they are not overextended thanks to downwards thrust in the first place), or supplementing the overall thrust when retracted.
I wanted some automation as well, which is not all shown in the video, but adds some logic parts. Again you're right that it can probably be simplified here and there, but it would be a lot of work to review all the sensors, overhaul everything, and test again. I feel way to lazy for that now.
It still needs some adjustments though, the drone is far from perfect. With the absence of zooming feature in game, the current settings for the proximity sensors are very frustrating because you can't see the ground when hovering. I need to lower the altitude a little, but keep tentacles far enough from the body not to alter the overall shape too much. Very rough terrain can be difficult too, but this could be worked around with shorter tentacles and longer distances on their proximity sensors; it just does not look really good so I prefer the current setting even if suboptimal.