Biophysics: The Shattered Universe is an RTS game currently under development by me. It features organic starships, which you can morph in various ways to create new types of ships. There is only one basic type of unit: the Warship.

Morphing works as follows: You select the ship you want to morph, then select the morph you want to apply. Morphs come in four types: Weapons, Carapace, Expansions, and Specials. Weapons morphs give the ship another weapon, Carapace upgrades cause the ship to take less damage from each attack, and Expansion morphs allow the ship to equip more morphs. Expansion morphs have the secondary effect of raising the ship's HP and HP regeneration. Special morphs give the ship special abilities. Weapons morphs may then be morphed as well: You can give them more range, more damage, or a faster rate-of-fire. Each morph will visibly change the ship: Each time you morph a ship, the upgrade will rapidly grow out from a random point on the ship. (Well, not exactly "random", as that would sometimes lead to morphs colliding with each other or with the hull. >.> But you get the idea.)

The economy system works as follows: neutral Genesis Station units are placed on the map by the map-maker. They will spawn Biomatter Chunks over time. A Warship equipped with a Harvester morph may mine a Biomatter Chunk, giving you extra Biomatter. (Biomatter is the only resource in the game.) You also have a small timed Biomatter income, but most of your resources will come from mining. A Warship equipped with a Genesis morph may use harvested Biomatter to produce another Warship. Morphing units also costs Biomatter.

I will, of course, also take advice on any aspect of the game.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Oct 29 2009, 12:53 am by TassadarZeratul.

Control points sound kewler.

Are you going to have multiplayer?

I dislike them, though, because they're pretty "traditional". I doubt anyone has ever done a system like my square-root one. And I've always disliked it when you have to fight over certain predetermined spots on the map. Even in StarCraft.

Yes. Multiplayer will combine RTS with what amounts to a real-time version of RISK. (There will also be "skirmish mode" which is pure RTS, though.) Want some more details?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 21 2009, 12:00 am by TassadarZeratul. Reason: You lose The Game.

Whoa whoa whoa! You are coding this? Are you using any preexisting libraries, or from scratch? Or is this some sort of SC mod? If you are actually coding it, what language are you using to do the coding? Are you just adding on to a pre-existing game? Is this just a total conversion mod?

I am coding it from scratch using C++. I am using a few preexisting libraries to help me (OpenGL/GLUT for graphics, probably a few more later in development), but it's mostly my own work.

Oh geeze! That's extremely impressive! Where did you learn to do all of this, how long have you been coding for? How long have you been working on this, exactly how far along have you gotten so far? What compiler are you using?

[Edit]I'm extremely interested in this! Sometime on MSN I want to talk with you about it! When you first talked with me on MSN about it, I thought it was a TC mod or something.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 21 2009, 12:41 am by CecilSunkure.

Idk if you said this as I kinda did not understand some of your eco systems but what I was thinking was the control point idea but instead of control points its more like spawn points for "floating" biomatter that gets harvested from the synthesizer as the bio matter Junkyards around the map. Or you could do it like Astrogears/starquest and have it show up randomly. But i think thats more of a UMS thing tho right?

After a discussion with someone named "Brandon" on MSN, I have decided to scrap the square-root system because it could cause slowdowns, which DOES NOT WANT. (The game is supposed to have almost no downtime.) For now, I'm going to go with MadZombie's first idea.

Is it gonna be 3d?

Not currently, but they way I'm setting it up, converting to 3D would be really easy.

approximately how long will this take, at best and at worst?
that way ill have something to look forward to

Demo should be out by the end of the year.

Nice TZ! Good luck with it. If you become famous, be sure to mention my name.

If it's from scratch, it's probably C++. And it's not terribly difficult to make a game from scratch.

Oh it isn't? I've always heard it is. Can you make a game from scratch without using things like Torque? Have you made a game from scratch?

I have made extremely simple pong-like games, with very simple AI, but that wasn't with C++..

I mean not "terribly difficult" as in not impossible for a person to do. It still is pretty hard to make a game. I'm actually at school to do that very thing.

Oh yay, and wow you're really productive, kudos.
Going to supply me with further information on MSN? Going to give you as much adivse as I can.

Yea not to mention his TBC TCG or w/e game he was gonna code from scratch. I thought he left SEN too? I would call it... ambitious more than productive, though still more productive than most here. :S

The TBC TCG has been killed with fire because I like Biophysics better.

Made a somewhat major change to the morph system: Carapace morphs now subtract damage from each incoming attack (like armor in SC) instead of raising the unit's HP. Expansion morphs now have the side-effect of raising the ship's HP and HP regen rate. (Each Expansion morph substantially increases the size of the ship, so it makes sense for them to raise the HP.)

Economy system has been officially changed to MadZombie's idea. However, instead of Synthesizers mining, a Warship equipped with a Harvester morph does it. (Synthesizers are not in the game at all.) You also have a small resource income over time, but most resources come from mining.

Had a random idea while in the shower this morning: I'm going to add in an alternate game mode where you command a single Warship with a Harvester morph and nothing else. There will also be a Phantom mode. (If you don't know, Phantom is a StarCraft map where one random player gets free resources. The goal is to kill Phantom. The trick is no one [besides Phantom] knows who the Phantom is.)

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Oct 29 2009, 12:55 am by TassadarZeratul. Reason: You lose The Game.

TZ WILL FAIL AND EXPLODE AS HIS SHIP CRASHES UPON THE GROUND AT HIGH-SPEEDS AND HIS JOURNEY WILL BE FRUITLESS

Good luck on your endeavor. Also, make sure it can be easily modified as opposed to hard-coded. ;o

And by "demo," I hope you don't mean "half-finished with strings still missing in gameplay." Also, your balance will suck, so you should make your game easily modifiable so I can balance it for you. :D:D:D