revived Robot City reloaded

[Thomas Jentzsch]

30 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

Here are a couple of variations on the side-view copter (current one is on the right).

 

The left one is similar to what's in Super Cobra, but requires flickering the cockpit and landing skids in the front view. The middle one lifts the skids up a little higher and widens the front view, making it look a little more aggressive.

 

 

I took a shot at making a top-view copter with just the ball. It didn't end well.  

I like the left front view (but it has to flicker), the side view not so much (never really liked the Super Cobra one). The middle one looks OK from the side, but not from the front (too bulky, IMO). Maybe a mix of left and middle would work.

 

As for the top view, below is the best I could come up with (using 2 frames). Maybe with three frames one could create something better.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Thomas Jentzsch

[TIX]

a little heli is possible, but maybe its too similar with the robots ?

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Doesn't look well for me.

 

Here is another try from my side

[hizzy]

52 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Doesn't look well for me.

 

Here is another try from my side

Hi Thomas,

 

I would have to see it in the maze to be 100% sure, but I kind of like that one! Thanks for this game. I'm enjoying it.

 

Just placed RC 5. I don't mind the current helicopter graphics. I know the perspective is wrong, but these games have always required a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. 

 

I've added a jpeg with my 4 favorite helicopters highlighted. 

 

Edited December 1, 2019 by hizzy

[TIX]

7 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Doesn't look well for me.

 

Here is another try from my side

Well mine doesn't work horizontally anyway..

So I played around with your design, can be very good with light flicker on the vertical  position only

 

      

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Here  is my next attempt (quite tricky). IMO it looks good steady, but not so much when moving.

Robot-City (Top View).zip

 

I could do it more rounded and/or with more space inside the ring. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Attached is a more rounded version with space inside the ring. IMO it looks better than the one above. 

 

But I have no idea how to create something similar for vertical movement. And without the vertical graphics, movement looks very odd. So I will most likely return to a side view and experiment with Nathan's suggestions.

Robot-City (Top View V2).zip

[hizzy]

Top view 2 is better, but, to be honest, my favorite is still RC 5.

[lucifershalo]

thanks for the game

it is great

 

just one thing, can the helicopter noise stop when the engine is not moving?

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Just now, lucifershalo said:

just one thing, can the helicopter noise stop when the engine is not moving?

That's the tank noise.  

 

And if it would be the helicopter's noise, the engine would have to keep running.

[lucifershalo]

2 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

That's the tank noise.  

 

And if it would be the helicopter's noise, the engine would have to keep running.

? ok

[TIX]

last try and I'll leave you alone 

vertical and horizontal flicker free !

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

They wouldn't work, because the lines are not 1, 2, 4 or 8 pixel wide.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

7 hours ago, hizzy said:

Top view 2 is better, but, to be honest, my favorite is still RC 5.

I have to agree, my favourite so far is from RC5. The newer ones seem to stray too far from what is recognizable as a helicopter. I don't mind the mix of perspectives between the tanks (top down) and the helicopter (side view).

[+Nathan Strum]

How about these?

 

I like the longer vertical copter in this one, but I can't get that with the horizontal one:

 

 

These are more consistent between the two directions:

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

These look good to me too, but you are using 5 frames per direction, that's 20 frames in total (5 * 4 * 8 = 160 bytes). And my helicopter is only 7 bytes tall. Currently I don't have that space (using just 6 frames = 6 * 7 = 42 bytes) and the game is already optimized a lot (14 bytes free). 3 frames per direction (= 84 bytes) seems to be maximum possible. And even that will be not easy without removing other stuff.

[TIX]

15 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

They wouldn't work, because the lines are not 1, 2, 4 or 8 pixel wide.

oh man..  what a funky limitation

 

   

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That's the 2600.  

 

Given the futuristic scenario, maybe something different than a helicopter would work here too. Thinking about that, something grounded makes much more sense, because for a helicopter, walls and killed tanks should be no problem.

[hizzy]

4 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

That's the 2600.  

 

Given the futuristic scenario, maybe something different than a helicopter would work here too. Thinking about that, something grounded makes much more sense, because for a helicopter, walls and killed tanks should be no problem.

 

I would like to see a grounded vehicle!

[+Nathan Strum]

6 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

These look good to me too, but you are using 5 frames per direction, that's 20 frames in total (5 * 4 * 8 = 160 bytes). And my helicopter is only 7 bytes tall. Currently I don't have that space (using just 6 frames = 6 * 7 = 42 bytes) and the game is already optimized a lot (14 bytes free). 3 frames per direction (= 84 bytes) seems to be maximum possible. And even that will be not easy without removing other stuff.

Well you didn't mention that before.   

[TIX]

6 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

That's the 2600.  

 

Given the futuristic scenario, maybe something different than a helicopter would work here too. Thinking about that, something grounded makes much more sense, because for a helicopter, walls and killed tanks should be no problem.

 

   

[Thomas Jentzsch]

On 12/4/2019 at 5:22 PM, Nathan Strum said:

Well you didn't mention that before.   

Sorry, I really should have done so.

[TIX]

..or some rotating thingy !

 

  

[Dionoid]

This game is extremely addictive!

 

For some reason I end up crashing into the tanks a lot when I chase them too closely.  It would help if there was an option to only change the direction of the gun/shots without moving the helicopter.

Suggestion: if the helicopter is not moving and then you press & hold the fire button, moving into a direction would only change the direction of the shots and not actually move the heli. If you release the fire button, then the heli would stop shooting and start moving again.

 

Anyway, this game is fun!

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by Dionoid

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I was also wondering about the controls and I already asked above, if they are OK.

 

They are a bit "advanced", because they always move you to the next point into the direction you pressed last. I can't exactly remember why I implemented it that way more than 10 years ago (IIRC I copied the idea from other games). But it helps people who do not use the controller's diagonals a lot to get around corners. E.g. Aardvark has the same problem. There the code supports using diagonals and for me and James, who played the game in his show, this works perfect. But his guest Aerlan had problems getting into the holes between the platforms. 

 

The disadvantage is what you observe. If you follow a tank too closely, you may run into it e.g. when you killed it. The solution is to push the controller into the opposite direction immediately after you fired your shot.

 

Your solution might work for you and others, but e.g. James, who keeps the fire button constantly pressed, would probably not be happy with it. It sometimes is almost impossible to make it right for everyone.