Technopolies

[rolz]

An upcoming effort to create XCom/Fallout/Jagged Alliance/LSN like mmorpg.
It is still in extensive development, though i would like you guys to review it and share your thoughts.

I appreciate your suggestions and ideas regarding the game engine and the playability.
I would also appreciate any 3D/2D artists who are willing to work as a part of game development team.

Features so far:

- d20-like rpg framework
- event driven server-client architecture
- 3d game client based on JPCT engine+LWJGL


The client is available at http://212.98.171.182:3298/Download/techno_20050916.exe

Game development forum on JPCT: http://www.jpct.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=190&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=165


Some screenshots:

[Matzon]

wow, thats pretty good already!
are the robots running on the client or the server?
I got no info about framerate - but I enabled everything in the propery file, and it still ran smooth

[anarchotron]

Pretty kewl looking.  Looks like you already have a good bit of framework to build on.

A couple things, which may be known:

I can pick weapons up, but can't equip them.  I tried click, double click, drag, right click, etc.. in the inventory window.

Also, when I installed, it wanted to install into "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox" by default...

Looks great!

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Matzon]

I equipped fine, using inventory...
yeah - the installer path was a bit strange

[EgonOlsen]

I can pick weapons up, but can't equip them.  I tried click, double click, drag, right click, etc.. in the inventory window.

You have to unequip the current weapon first by clicking on it and then click into an empty slot of  the inventory. Then equip the new weapon in the same way. Took me a while it figure it out too...drag and drop would be better.

[Eli Delventhal]

Hey, looks nice! Definitely reminds me of fallout.

Can't play it though, I have Mac OS X.

[Aramaz]

Looks good... it played fine on my laptop

Looking forward to updates!

[rolz]

Folks,

Thanks for your comments, i will try to keep up with the work on it .



answering your questions:



- The game runs entirely on server, 3d client displays server events and records orders from players. Server also does collision checking.

- FPS counter will be added in the next version

- i would like to use 3rd party frameworks for UI, animations, sound and dice game, though i did not managed to find any that would be suitable to be used in the game. So most things had to be written from a clean sheet, except for 3D which was easy to do with JPCT + LWJGL.  I used Netty+homegrown javabean serialization framework for network transport.

- inventory handling will be more user friendly in the next version

- i assume it could run on Mac too , provided proper LWJGL binaries are used. I would appreciate if someone could try to make it run on MacOS.



other things to do for upcoming release:

- projectile weapons (shotgun, pistol, machinegun) - I would like them back from applet version
- picking items from dead bodies
- make bots more agressive.
- respawn points for player and bots


things to do for future releases:

- dialog window, quest NPCs
- shops, money and trading
- add boots and helmets
- add explosives (grenades, rocket launchers)
- more items (armor, pants)
- more locations (aside from Olbridge and Evergreen Forest)

[Eli Delventhal]

- i assume it could run on Mac too , provided proper LWJGL binaries are used. I would appreciate if someone could try to make it run on MacOS.

Well technically yes, but you do need to provide something other than exe if you want me to test that prticular aspect.

[EgonOlsen]

Well technically yes, but you do need to provide something other than exe if you want me to test that prticular aspect.

You should be able to unpack the exe with unrar even on a Mac. At least that's what i did to make it run under Linux and it worked fine.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[rolz]

Oh, that .exe .....

Zipped version here, don't forget to put proper lwjgl binaries instead DLLs

[rolz]

some screenshots of projectile weapons (Beretta) in action

[cborders]

That's VERY cool!!  I like the trail of smoke!!

[Eli Delventhal]

Well technically yes, but you do need to provide something other than exe if you want me to test that prticular aspect.

You should be able to unpack the exe with unrar even on a Mac. At least that's what i did to make it run under Linux and it worked fine.

Hmm, okay. Never unpacked an exe before.

[rolz]

I am interested in creating a self-extracting, self-installing version of a game.

I would like to keep installation simple, and ideally, the installer should let an average Joe to double click on exe and get "Launch game" icon on desktop.  For this purpose i am interested in bundling JRE along with game itself. I did some research and found that there are certain kind of legal issues with that. Can anyone share their opinion/experience on bundling VM within an installation package ?

[princec]

You may bundle the entire JRE, unmodified, under your app's installation directory. There are one or two files you may remove to shrink the distribution.

Cas

[rolz]

Are there any license limitations for bundling JRE with the game ?

I've managed to cut JRE down to 4.5 mb by removing unused binaries / classes.
Can i bundle modified JRE with the game ?

[Eli Delventhal]

I was wondering this myself, as I am using both LWJGL and DevIL in my current game, which means a lot of side installation aside from just my game. I was worrying less about the legal issues and more about how I can get an installer to automatically run other installers as part of its own. I haven't bothered looking for tutorials on it or anything, but this is pretty necessary if you want to make a Java game that is at all widespread.

PS – Don't worry about a Mac installation, they automatically come bundled with Java.

[TheAnalogKid]

Are there any license limitations for bundling JRE with the game ?

I've managed to cut JRE down to 4.5 mb by removing unused binaries / classes.
Can i bundle modified JRE with the game ?

The JRE liscence doesn't allow you to redistribute a modified JRE. Take a look at this topic (particularly ChrisM's post): http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php?topic=1640.0

[swpalmer]

It is legal to bundle the JRE, so long as you bundle the whole thing without messing around with it.

Tools like Zero G's Install Anywhere (free 'lite' version is available), can make an installer that does all this for you.

[Eli Delventhal]

Okay, so I unzipped the zip and I have a bunch of unexecutable jars and a batch file, none of which run. What's a Mac guy supposed to do? Why not make it webstartable?

[swpalmer]

look at the contents of the batch file and then make the equivalent .sh file or something.  If you are really ambitious use the JarBundler tool to package it into a proper Application Bundle.

[rolz]

New update is available here:
http://212.98.171.182:3298/Download/techno_20051003.zip

unpack and execute

1

run.bat

OR

1	java -jar client.jar

new features
 
 - added pistol
 - added shotgun
 - added machinegun
 - added new alien race: Mutons
 - added respawn points for bots
 - TAB key now hilites nearby visible items

Screens:

[rolz]

http://212.98.171.182:3298/Download/techno_20051003.zip

- added sounds (LWJGL OpenAL)

[kappa]

this game looks really good, really would like to try it, but am not on windows, is it possible you could upload a java web start version?

[rolz]

Sure,
 JWS support will be added in the near future.

In the latest version, jar manifest was modified to allow running the game by typing

1	java -jar client.jar

Note , that you still need to put proper lwjgl 0.96 native libraries into the game's folder

[rolz]

TODOs for the upcoming version

- NPCs, dialogs and a first simple quest
- environmental sounds (forest, wind, river)
- water
- some new locations
- player will be able to reach another neighbour location by approaching the border of a level

some shots:

NPC dialog


Water


Big continent consisting of 25 connected level maps

[rolz]

0.94 is out , after 2.5 weeks

available at http://212.98.171.182:3298/Download/techno_2005-10-20.zip


Note, that the this archive contains only WIN32 LWJGL binaries

New features:

- new big map (10 sectors are currently available)
- player can now travel between adjacent locations
- added water
- added experience
- added money
- added stackable items (muton heads)
- added NPCs
- added first simple quest (collect muton heads)
- added shop
- added roads
- new look for items on the ground
- added sounds and music (LWJGL + FMOD)
- added shadows for static objects
- added some enchancements for grass and dirt decorations
- some new items / static objects
- added "tips of the day"
- added "Rest" command. press R to regain HP  if wounded.
- added "Grab Nearest" command - press G to search nearby bodies / pick nearby items
- added "Attack Nearest" command - press A to attack nearest visible enemy
- dead bots are removed from the ground after 1 minute
- items on the ground are now removed after 2 minutes
- fixed memory leaks on server
- fixed calculation of bullet trajectory on server

Some more shots:

[anarchotron]

Coming along nicely.  Very satisfying blasting away at the NPCS.

I had a bit of trouble getting it started on my machine using run.bat.  Basically java was finding the lwjgl*.jar files in the folder with technopolies, but finding the .dll files on my machine (because they are in my path).  The exception I was getting is this:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.LinkageError: Version mismatch: jar version is '0.96', native libary version is '0.97'
        at org.lwjgl.Sys.<clinit>(Sys.java:67)
        at org.lwjgl.openal.AL.<clinit>(AL.java:86)
        at m.c(Unknown Source)
        at techno.client.world3d.Client3D.main(Unknown Source)

[Matzon]

Coming along nicely.  Very satisfying blasting away at the NPCS.

There are Mutants you're supposed to kill! - talk to the NPCs instead of shooting them