Saturday, January 19, 2013

T-40 hours

The jam starts Monday morning for the Pro16 format and the following Friday for Hardcore48.  I've built out my assets and prototyped some of the systems.  Building out something playable in 16 hours from this base is going to be a challenge.



Here's my lightly prioritized task list.  It is still mostly focused on getting the sailing mechanics and sea/wind simulation down.  Combat is a distant secondary concern.


NEXT

- Water visualization scale + offset for debugging
- Handle scrolling of water with occasional large steps so that water can cover the entire world
- Make water height conventions consistent throughout the program (e.g., tide level, world-to-water scale)

AUDIO
- wave sound as boat comes down
- luffing sound
- ambient wind sounds
- breakers

SIMULATION
- Make ships turn to weather under sail
- Reduce rudder + tracking efficiency with heel
- Make sailing backwards more realistic
- Create a large scene
- Running aground
- Firing cannons!

UI
- Luffing indicator
- Weapon indicators
  - Current loadout
  - Cooldown timers
- Show sail trim on HUD
- On-screen charts
- Show sail plan on HUD
- Menu for adjusting sail plan
- Try drawing HUD under ship

AI
- OMG

PERFORMANCE
- Make a cheaper depth of field shader for sailing scenes (it is currently slow on GK107)

VISUAL
- Coastline highlighting
- Towns and other decorative elements to show scale and distinguish areas
- Particle system
  - Cannon trails
  - Wake phosphorescence
  - Wind/fog particles
  - Wave bubbles and spindrift
- Water micro ripple texture to show wind
- Rendering guard band around screen
- FlagModel w/ ripple
   - ripple rate based on apparent wind magnitude
- Add actual displacement of water mesh



3 comments:

  1. Are you going to have a Regatta mode where users try to turn around tight points?

    I've only done it in a Hobie Cat, but I'm sure memories of those skills would translate.

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  2. That's a really good idea! If I can't get combat working, I can still race against a human ghost ship that you don't interact with.

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  3. I think your AI task list may be identical to my task list for my whole game. :)

    ReplyDelete