Something lately that’s been on my mind is level design. With the games physics engine and the fact you’re a much bigger-sized character as opposed to Spherack 2, levels need to be bigger and we have to work out methods of designing levels that we can actually use. The current map I have made so far took me about an hour to build in GM’s editor and sucks.

So what if I as well as users could have the ability to take a program had a much more creative, easier and fun-to-use way of choosing the maps we’d play on? We’d do this by introducing a level editing package, but not just any level editor. This won’t be using plain sprites as our old S2 levels did, instead users would be able to draw lines and polygons onto a screen as they please. Then when they finish, it’ll save their work to a file which the game engine would understand and there you go! A fully functional level. Whatever you think is good for a level, you can now make into a level.

Marbs, my old development partner whom I developed “Racer Online” with and who also did some small work on the Spherack 2 engine, was once experimenting with making a level editor as I described once. I have the source to it but it’s rather unfinished and I’m not fully sure how it works due to lack of commenting and also what is done barely works to begin with.

This is how it looks though:

Like it? Of course you do. I dropped him an e-mail tonight talking about the new Spherack and asking if he’d be interested in returning to the PCS crew to work on it with me. He’s return would be a great benefit to Reloaded, by giving us a functional level editor which will completely change the game for the better.

I thought I’d take advantage of the whole profile system and possibility of having an in-game shop. =]

• Keep track of your wins, losses, kills, deaths and more!
• Link your profile to your D-Pad account to show it on the forums
• Online profiles
• Live server list!
• Possible in-game weapon shop & upgrades
• Game record saving
• And More!!!

May not seem much in bullet-form, but I believe the new profile system people will become very appreciative of. Not only will you also be able to see a list of online servers along with this system, but you’ll be able to keep track of your progress and look back on your old saved records.

Concept Diagrams…

• Client & Server Connections
• Data Storage
• Process Flow
• Profile Saving

Explosives is probably the most popular game mode in Spherack. The concept formed from Spherack One where each team would have to try to install Windows 95 into the other team’s computer and turned into a game where the Eradian team would plant the bomb and the Spherans would diffuse it.

Now it’s being re-done yet again.

In the middle of the map, there will be a suitcase (containing a bomb). The players on each team will be racing to pick up the suitcase and take it to their target base where they’d plant and guard it while the other team tries to diffuse it. If a player holding the suitcase is killed, they’ll just drop it in the location they were standing and the game will continue. Kind of like capture the flag, except its more of get rid of the flag. It’ll be pretty cool when its done. =]

I did some work again! I have actually been working on the project off and on really… meaning do nothing for a few weeks then do a ton of updates in one day. Between June and so far this month I’ve got done a bit of work, the biggest of that being the new ragdoll physics engine I added to take control over deaths.

It works like this really:

Previously: When a player was killed, they would just change to a “dead” sprite… which was their guy laying on the ground. BORING!!!

Now: When a character is killed, they will dynamically react to the way in which they were killed, meaning you’ll get something different each time! When your player is shot from the front they may fall backwards. If they fall a distance to their death, they may either bounce back up and roll or else their legs will break off. Best of all, when they’re caught in the blast from a grenade they’ll be thrown away from it, and if they’re close enough their bodies will explode causing limbs and blood to fly everywhere. =]

Additionally, I’ve completed a few new features such as:

• Player Score Tracking (Kills, Death, Ratio, Streak, Total Score)
• Health bars above enemy’s heads
• Better-looking Blood
• Increased performance with rendering blood

and tons of bug fixes.

Well I’ve finally gotten a map made for the game, who knows if I’ll keep it in and release it for the game, but that’s not to worry about right now because this means something else: I can now start developing game modes! That’s right, now that I have gotten the gameplay engine mostly down and a decent map to work with, I can now start programming in all the deathmatch and explosives stuff. I’m also thinking about including more but I’ll see with that once I get these done. For now, just settle with the small image at the top, but maybe I’ll get you a full look at the map later on, okay?

Additionally, here’s a time line of recent changes since the last blog update (we’re now at development build 29 by the way)

• Added Grenade Explosion Sounds - 26 May 2008

• Grenades explode if shot with bullets

• If shot while holding/throwing a grenade, it will explode

• Grenades will be blown up by other explosions or else bounce away

• Flashbangs can be blown away by grenade explosions

• Player gets launched if by grenade explosion

• Fixed other clients recieving arm grenade explosions

• Fixed a memory leak with flashbangs that heavily effected performance

• Added noises on fall injury

• Bleed on mild/major fall injuries/deaths

• Started on the “player died” message system

• Started on a first map - 27 May 2008

• Fixed the HUD lag

• Added stamina system

• Sprinting uses stamina

• Jumping uses stamina

• Heavy landings use stamina

• Being shot uses up stamina

• Flashbangs temporary kill sprinting capabilities

• Frag grenade explosions will deplete stamina

• “Killed By <Name>” messages added

• Respawn message added when dead

• Respawning will now clear any stun effects

• Merged the armor and stamina system

• Fixed issue where stamina wouldn’t replenish if shift key was held down

• Fixed the stamina from restoring higher or lower than it should be

• Fixed an issue where you could shoot while holding a grenade

• Started Suicide System - 29 May 2008

• Done work on first map

• Disabled being sent flying by grenades because it was glitching a bit