[color=#81A7EF]EXO-Squad

This map is all about selecting one of the E-Frames from the old 90's cartoon exo squad, customizing it and defeating your enemies. E-frames are mech weapons that are slightly larger than the human body. Imagine the loader in Aliens. there is one E-frame that looks much like that but most are a bit smaller. You strap into it the same way with your legs moving the actual legs and your arms fit into the actual arms. There is a circuit that connects to a chip at the base of the pilot's neck. They are all flight capable and combat is very fast paced and dangerous. they are much more agile than gundams but probably easier to pilot. These frames are use in a war between the Terrans and the rebelling Neosapians (a worker race bred by the humans to do work). Neos or Sapes, as the terrans call them, are large ,blue four fingered four toed creatures taht are much taller and stronger than humans. also they all look exactly alike except for a racial tattoo marking on their foreheads.

Features:
9 E-Frames
"Falcon" Aerial Attack E-frame #AA-500 - JT Marsh's Frame 300lb max weight. Only 2 missiles.
"Wraith" Spy / Logistics Field Communications E-frame #SLR-345 - Alec Deleon's Frame. 200lb max weight. 4 missiles.
Rapid Assault E-frame #RA-678. - Marsala's Frame. 500lb max weight.
Field Repair E-frame #PO-024. - Maggie Weston-s frame. 600lb max weight. 2 missiles.
Field Sergeant E-frame #LD-029. - Rita Torres' frame. 275lb max weight.
Ground Assault E-frame #BD-100. Wolf Bronsky's frame. 250lb max weight. 20 missiles.
Mobile Land and Air Command E-frame. - Phaeton's frame. 300lb max weight. 4 missiles.
Amphibious Assault E-frame #AA-569. - General Shiva's frame. 450lb max weight. 6 missiles.
High Speed Stealth E-frame #RA-643. - Thyponus' frame. 200lb max weight. 14 missiles.

Customization
There are many ways to customize your frame based upon its weight, its engine range, and how many missile pods it has. You can choose from armaments, equipment, engines, and one special "Algernon" upgrade.

There are four types of engines. The selection range of your engine is based upon which frame you choose. As engines get larger, they weigh more and also provide a percentage bonus in HP. For example the smallest (and fastest) frame, the high speed stealth frame, can only use engines A and B (rocket engines, and thermo nuclear reactors respectively). A player may opt to get the smaller engine and leave more room for equipment and more missiles. Or he may opt for the larger engine and also purchase an armor upgrade (which also takes weight).

Currently the only purchasable armaments are machine guns which attach to any weapon slot, missiles which attach to missile pods and lasers which attach to any weapon slot.

Currently the equipment available is increased armor, heat sinks (to reduce heat), anti-missile defense grids, radar systems

Algernon upgrades also cost money and have weight requirements. the best upgrades weigh the most and are only place able on the largest frames. They include:
Solar Pulse Cannon - 60lb
Electronic Distruption Field Generator - 35lb
Cloaking Field - 155lb
Chain Lightning Cannon - 100lb
Holographic Decoy system - 100lb
Armor Piercing Charge Emitter - 50lb
Multiple warhead grenade launcher - 45lb

General info:
The map includes a heat system much akin to mechwarrior.
Using equipment and weapons add 'heat' to your mech. For example firing a missile generates 5 heat while firing a laser generatse 8.
Heat sinks can be installed in equipment slots to increase the rate at which this heat dissipates.
If your heat reaches 100 you will temporarily shut down while the heat goes away.

Game modes:
player one can choose between multiple game modes:
1 player mode sets money and allows players to play around with their mech creation
A campaign mode splits the players up into Neosapians and terrans as they fight along side their race to destroy the other teams bases and resources.
Arena mode lets players traverse the world to acquire equipment and money to upgrade their frames so they can face each other in arenas. This is also available in campaign mode except only between players of the same race.



Here is a picture of one of the E-Frames with its info when you purchase it. This info is also put into your mission objectives because it is important when selecint equipment, weapons, engines, and Algernon. The red nuclear launch dots show you where your weapons go. The missile pods are on solar array panels while the weapon slots are on light plate panels. You are told how many weapon slots, equipment slots, and missile pods your frame has when you choose it. This frame has 6 missile pods but no weapon slots. since missles generate about 5 heat each it may be a good idea to get a heatsink or two to reduce heat for this frame.

My favorite tactic is to get a heavy frame with lots of weapon slots, load it up with heatsinks and put lasers in ever weapon slot and get an anti missile defense grid. this lets me disable the smaller, faster frame from doing bombing runs on me and lets me rape them will laser barrages while keeping heat down a little bit. But there are counters to everything =]


another frame. This one is the neosapian heavy frame called Amphibious assault which was a common infantry frame but a variaty of it was used by General Shiva.


Here's what you see when you get info on the frames before you buy one. It's very wordy but I'm going for a complicated interface....so....people will have to go with it.


Text you get when you look at engine info after choosing a frame. Engines give hp bonuses but also have weight and credit costs. pushing the heavier frame to their weight potential will slow down the movement speed of the frame. the engines are listed as A-D because only certain engines can be used by certain frames. For example if you get the medium weight ground assault frame you can use engines A-B-C but D will give you an incompatible message. Also the heavier frames are not compatible with the lower power engines because they need more boost to get them moving.


Here is a shot of New Chicago which is the Starting area for the terran players. It is all busted and burning because when the Neosapiens revolted they took over most of the human cities. This city, and the other two terran ones, have been taken back by the Terran Resistance.


Phaeton City. Starting area of the Neosapiens.


Napier under attack


My meddling has helped the Sapes amass a small force.


And they are pushing up to New Chicago


They reach the Terran HQ but the Colonial Defenses will take them out. It takes some player interaction to really destroy those.

Attachments:

Post has been edited 13 time(s), last time on Dec 7 2009, 4:27 pm by PearS.

The only way I can see this becoming epic is if you really went to town on the interface to really make it feel like there were an overwhelming amount of controls inside of the mech.

Also, What kind of gameplay are you going to utilize this for?

Well I'm doing my best with square terrain to make the mech out of terrain where the pilot sits in the cockpit and it has slots for weaponry. And i have a system to use weapons and equipment...but it is very simple. I'm thinking of possibly implementing damaged areas that cause you to lose control of certain things. For example your right arm may be blown off and with it your 2 missile pods and the laser you equipped.

As for game play. The 'campaign' mode would have a world map with cities on it and general objectives that the players can work together to accomplish. There will be fighting on the map but the CPU players won't use many things like misses and what not. The opposing player teams will be around each other the whole game impeding each other progress and trying to help out their forces in order to achieve their mission objectives while sabotaging their opponents objectives. There will be side quests to gain money as well as killing the other units that are fighting each other on the map. Player killing also gives money. Exp is not an issue because all you need is more money to purchase better frames, and better equipment/weapons. Town on the world map will be their smaller versions and when you enter them your pilot will walk in town which will be off screen (think of that old FF3 map the way towns operated).

Arena mode is just player's building up their mechs and going head to head or 2v2s 3v3s etc. I would like to see players saying WOW...what are the specs on that stealth frame you made...it melts my face! etc. so I'm trying to make it open so that there can be lots of customization...while limiting some factors and equipment specifications so they can only be used on certain frames.

if anything it will be a blast to make.

one issue I'm having is that there is no real downside of getting one of the mechs that has a high weight capacity. I made their costs above the beginning funds of the players so if they do campaign mode they have to start with something else and come back to trade their frame in for a better one later after they accumulate more funds. But for arena mode where everything is unlocked to players (money wise)...there would be no point in getting a smaller mech. I was thinking of a heavier weight = slower movement speed and putting a ling under them to slow them down.

Is there only one way to use that? or is there a way to increase or decrease it....say....constantly move the ling under the unit makes it hella slow while only moving it there about 2 times a second or once a second will be slow but not quite as slow??

also sorry for no screens. I was running around all day doing thanksgiving preparation stuff. BOOZE!

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 26 2009, 5:20 am by PearS.

Of course there is a way to do this, I utilize it for CW in HS. Send me a PM when you start working on this system and I'll give you some pointers.

kk will do bro.

I got to put in a couple hours on the map today. Finished the terrain of the Frames. Also did rough draft of gameplay area including offscreen cities. Started working on frame selection and customization.

Posted four pictures and a bit more info under the pictures. Theres some text on kinda how you can customize to make certain strategies. Its really fun making this and i hope it will be as fun playing it when testing time comes.

So i've only got one more frame to code for building/loading. That should take 10 minutes. Then i can start on actually having them on the playing field and using their abilities and missles and whatnot.

I'm slightly worried though because i use visual representation so that involves lots of 'bring' triggers. I use a buttload of death counts as it is and it would really be a pain to go back and make a bunch more just for triggers used to move the visual items to their respective spots on the frames so the player can remember what the hell he bought.

I did however include a death count toggle when those parts get moved so when you fire a weapon, it will read the death counts and know what weapon you have in each spot. So that's good.

Also i was planning that when campaign mode is played that some players would only be able to use the Terran frames while the other players can only use the Neosapian frames (because the fight is between the terrans and neos). but i think i'm giong to scrap this for two reasons.

1. the terrans have 9 frames while the neos have on 3. so...kinda lame there.
2. It would be a pain in the ass to go back and include triggers so that they can only use the right frames when they are on each side. That would triple the triggers for choosing a frame and there are about 30. I mean not TOO much work but they are big triggers and i'd rather not. Lots of grind with the coding on this map as it is.

little update

The whole system for building frames is set up as is the system to sell all components back.
I just put in the location follow triggers and triggers to enter/exit towns.
next is actually firing the weapons and heat systems. then i'll work on the few group quests and the triggers to make the npcs fight each other. Then arena stuff. Then it should be play ready.

Running into a couple snags today. The way the missile system works is that for every missile pod on your frame you get a corressponding "Fire Missile Pod X" in your shuttle which is your control panel.

When you fire a missile there is a four second delay until you can use that pod again and i show this delay by giving the fireing unit in the control panel 1 health. So if it is red...you cant use it yet. Also. Each pod has three missiles in it so when you fire one it will subtract from another count saying there is one less missle in that pod...and add to a count which lets you rebuy missiles later.

well the hyper triggers are messing everything up because all three possible messages/actions appear each time you unload the fire missle unit.

you get the missile popping out
the message that the pod is not ready to fire again
and the message saying that the pod is empty(when it is actually empty)

also the unit doesnt go to 1% hp about half of the time. i think its because it enters the shuttle too fast....although i said modify that units hp at anywhere....maybe it doesnt read them when they are in shuttles.

ima have to rethin kthis whole thing. much work is in my future =[

I worked on random ins and outs today like little unit balances and some town stuff. I posted a screen of each team's main base.

Im'a go try to finger out this missile stuff now.

dunno why i even type this stuff -.-

i figured out the whole mess i was having trouble with. such a pain in the ass. It's going to take tons of triggers to fix. 4 trigs per missile pod, 25 missile pods, 6 players...that's 600 triggers. JUST TO FIRE MISSILES! and they aren't cake trigs...complex and i gotta pay attention. so ghey.

i took some more screens but photo bucket is sucking so ill put them up later.

Maybe I'll just code two of the cheapest frames, lock the rest, and then put a demo out in showcase. Maybe this will stir up some enthusiasm/conversation about this project.

Interesting concept. The map looks fun. I remember seeing this show a long time ago. Good luck on your map.

ya my girl bought me the season 1 dvd so that inspired me. The map is a pain in the ass to make but i'm kinda having fun. I don't think it will be popular though, even among SEN folk, because of how difficult it is. I mean once you nderstand that gas=weight and that you can scrap and rebuild your frame if you mess something up then it is pretty easy.

also posted a few pictures of the npcs fighting.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 3 2009, 6:50 pm by PearS.

I think that this map is looking to be pretty great. I'm planning on testing your Beta later today, and if you ever need help with testing and stuff, let me know and I'll do my best to help you out.

I love the concept of the two competing factions. It brings a sense of realism to a map like this, rather than it just being an arena style.
I wish you luck on those missile pods!

well thanks brudda. I figured out the missile stuff...it just sucks because i think with 6 players there may be lag...and if so it will be a PAIN to go back and fix it. Also the triggers for missiles are very tricky so there is a lot of room for error. So i have to test ever missile for every frame for every player. haha lame. I hope the demo doesn't let you down.

I tried out campaign today. It was pretty confusing because I didn't know how to get out of the choosing area until I found the "finalize" ultralisk. I think it would be better if you automatically finalized it when they don't have enough cash or they got everything they needed. I couldn't find heal in the game. Is there a heal?

Attached is a demo. It is a rough draft of the map and is limited:
-Only 2 frames available
-No Heat system/quests/arena/Algernon/some equipment
-Balance issues. The Frame weapons make quick work of NPC enemies. Also heat from equipment use is too low so i'm going to up that later.
-Terrain is rough

This is pretty much customize two frames with about half of what will be available in the final game and kill some comps/look at towns/maybe duke it out with another player.

Thanks in advance for any 'constructive' criticism. Just keep in mind its a rough draft. Things like missiles may be IMBA but that's because the stats aren't done and things like the Anti Missile Grid System are not yet implemented...nor is overheating from using lasers and such constantly.

Couple things i forgot to mention in the briefing. To finish your frame MC the ultra to the right. Also to restart it you can MC the "scrap frame" and get your money back. Once you finish your frame you can go back to get more equipment or scrap the whole thing by entering a town and going near a "E-Frame Garage". Once there you will get your archons at the bottom to make purchases.

The solar panel squares on your frame are for missiles while the lighter color plating squares are for weapons. This is just for visuals because you are told how many weapon slots/missile pods your frame has when you first choose it. Also it goes into your mission objectives.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 7 2009, 4:28 pm by PearS.

@Echo.

Yeah the learning curve is high. The problem with your method of finalizing is that would limit the players to going for broke every time. A strategy may be to lower expenses so you can swap out for a better frame ASAP after killing some enemies.

Also...if you choose a lower end frame...it's tough to spend ALL of your money depending on how you want to configure your frame.

No there is no heal in the demo. You can heal by going to an E-Frame Garage and scrapping your frame then rebuilding it. I havent decided how i will be doing healing yet. It sucks because its a lot of trigs to heal because of all the different engines and whatnot but it's a pain in the butt to have to rebuild your guy every time you are really hurt.

Thanks for playing bro =]

Oh also there is a quest to turn on vision for your faction by defeating the enemy garrison that is occupying your team's observatory building. Because no ally vis is a pain as well.

I figured it was going to be the garage, but I was afraid that I would just lose my unit.
I tested the map alone, but I saw 2 human slots. Was it supose to be tested with 2 players?

I coded it for player one and two so they can fight each other along with the comps. not mandatory. normally when you play alone it would initiate solo mode where you get tons of money and you can play around with different frame builds but for the demo i decided to remove that.