The Supreme Cube Engine Game (temp name Slayer)

by Nixot on 07/06/2010 14:12, 50 messages, last message: 08/23/2010 02:43, 27081 views, last view: 04/25/2024 12:07

Hello everybody.
Some of you may recall a mod of Cube I posted a while back called "Newcube". This time, I have gone further. If you don't want to read all this, just skip to the demo video at the bottom.

I propose to bring together all the best bits of the Cube mods there have been to create one "super Cube", and also to make a cool SP campaign and multiplayer maps too. I've been working in secrecy on this for quite a bit now and have decided to give it a bit of public exposure.

I have already integrated fisheye rendering from Fisheye Cube and all pCube mods, plus fixed several bugs and added lots of tiny features, but I have yet to integrate Rick's Cube But mod as I have been busy creating levels to get ready to test it with people.

The theme of the game is as of yet undecided, but I've been leaning towards a sort of sci-fi thing like there was in Doom 3, but I've been playing a lot of F.E.A.R recently (I completed it in a week) so I want to add in a bit of a scare factor and lots of darkness too. Anyone who's played the original Newcube, expect to see quite a lot of metl4ish and exol2 looking maps.

I'm not expecting everyone to rush forward, but if you want to be a playtester then feel free to e-mail me (click on my name at the top and reformat the e-mail address).

And now for a demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrIW5VekRRk

Thanks for reading (if you did)!

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#1: Impressed

by LeftClicker on 07/06/2010 21:13

I was expecting to be neutral about this but inside think about why the hell somebody else was modding Cube instead of Sauer, but this looks pretty good. It sounded like you were using some weapon sounds from the game, and it would be cool to see Sauer's octree editing integrated, but other than that, congrats! I can only wish their was a Mac version, but that's not your fault.

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#2: ..

by Pieter on 07/08/2010 00:54

"The theme of the game is as of yet undecided, but I've been leaning towards a sort of sci-fi thing like there was in Doom 3, but I've been playing a lot of F.E.A.R recently (I completed it in a week) so I want to add in a bit of a scare factor and lots of darkness too. Anyone who's played the original Newcube, expect to see quite a lot of metl4ish and exol2 looking maps."

I think you should keep the look fairly simple. The thing with the scary game thing is that games such as Fear and Doom3 rely heavily on advanced rendering feats such as normal mapping and shadow volumes. Not to say that you shouldn't try, but i'dd keep it fairly straightforward. I think you could pull off a cool classic Doom or Quake 1/2 kind of game with it.

Still love Cube1 myself :)
By the way, does anybody know about "SoulCube" ? it's just something I came across on the Sourceforge projects list. It's a rewrite of the first Cube.

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#3: Re: ..

by Nixot on 07/08/2010 12:00, refers to #2

Thanks for your input Pieter, and I understand where you're coming from - yes, FEAR and Doom 3 do have lots of fancy effects that Cube does not, but whereas Doom 3 relies heavily on those effects and also monsters jumping out of closets and teleporting in front of you, FEAR has a lot of low detail areas and relies heavily on strange things happening and wierd noises instead, and is even scary on minimum graphics.

But yeah, for the test episode, I'm going to try out some action levels and some scary levels and see which of them works out best. Using all the things I added (hub teleportation to start with) I could do all sorts of crazy things. First and foremost however, Doom1-style slaughterfest. ;)

And I have seen SoulCube around on Sourceforge, but it looks pretty much like vapourware to me. There's no releases and I think the project was probably abandoned a long time ago.

Thanks for your interest :)

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#4: ..

by Pieter on 07/08/2010 13:32

I think Duke 3D and the first Quake still had a good horror factor, so I guess I might be wrong about the lighting thing.

Just looked at that Soulcube thing again, and saw that it's over 4 years since the last news. It was just something I recalled seeying.

Anyway, I like how it's looking, hope you'll follow it trough :D

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#5: ..

by Nixot on 07/09/2010 12:08

Yeah, I thought, sod it with the scary bits. I'm making this full-on action.

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#6: ..

by Nixot on 07/09/2010 23:33

Bot support has been implemented! Yay!
I'm not showing you any videos or anything yet because A) I just compiled the code successfully (bloody linker errors!) and B) (partially as a result of A) the bots are REALLY buggy. I'm working on fixing their behaviours. Until then, wait please. Thanks!

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#7: Suggestions

by Whales ( Dthdealer ) on 07/11/2010 04:25, refers to #6

This looks very promising and I'd like to make a few suggestions.

All of the cube ( one and two ) related modifications I have seen all try and base their gameplay around two things:
* Balanced weapons
* Fast action and movement

Most other FOSS FPSs seems to also revolve around these principals ( eg Nexuiz, Warsow ).

Slowing down the movement speed of the characters brings in the importane of skill and planning rather than chance when you are avoiding projectiles as you bunnyhop through a hallway. You will poke around corners, flee and try and get around your opponents knowing that they might have the advantage, which is where the second point comes in.

The weapons in most cube games seem to all be the same. They fire pretty fast, deliver X amount of damage and when pitted against each other everything is equal. What if certain weapons are useful against others, similar to a scissors-paper-rock strategy but not to that extreme.

A lot of developers are scared of overpowering any particular weapon. As long as everyone has the equal ability to access the weapon ( eg on ontop of a hard-to-get to spot on the map ) everything becomes balanced, as all of the other players will gang up on the player with the dominant weapon. If AI is involved ( as you plan to achieve ) priority could be given to the best weapon wielding player/bot.

I hope this project continues. Good luck

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#8: ..

by Nixot on 07/11/2010 12:59

Sorry, but I like the fast action and movement. Tactical games are not my type.
As for the balanced weapons point, I have tried to made my weapons have disadvantages but if you have any suggestions feel free to make them.
They are:

Fist - fast but very weak
Blaster - Fast but weak, also is a projectile
Shotgun - Medium speed (should slow it down a bit?), thin spread (should widen it a bit?)
Machinegun - Very fast but weak, also accurate (which I should change).
Rifle - Powerful and accurate, but slow fire and you can't easily see where the bullet hit.
Rocket Launcher - Powerful and a fast projectile, but slow fire (also explodes)
Flak Cannon - like shotgun but fires projectiles with a twice as wide spread, each shot is twice as powerful as a shotgun shot - slow fire
Railgun - very powerful beam, yet slower than flak cannon and hardly anny ammo for it
EMPiRe X - very fast fire, powerful fast-moving projectiles, and highly innacurate
Apocalypse Cannon - like a BFG, and explodes with twice as much force as the RL, and very slow rate of fire and projectile.

Would you like to make any amendments to this list?

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#9: ..

by Pieter on 07/11/2010 23:33

I'dd like a mighty foot (kick) instead of fists. Just so you can use it whenever you like, plus you could kick in doors and stuff :P

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#10: Re: ..

by Whales ( Dthdealer ) on 07/12/2010 08:28, refers to #8

A good list - it is nice to see more weapons than the standard quake array.

From someone who has never seen the Cube source code, could the railgun be able to shoot through walls?

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#11: ..

by degrave3 on 07/12/2010 10:49

I think many weapons can be justified only in singleplayer or in coop single mode, for multiplayer it be unbalanced anyway.

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#12: Re: Kicking

by tentus_ on 07/12/2010 14:53, refers to #9

I actually really like the idea of a good kick. A kick is far more powerful than a punch, and makes more sense against an armored opponent, because your foot is protected. It's got slightly more sensible range, and it doesn't leave you wondering where your left hook is in your time of need.

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#13: Re: ..

by Nixot on 07/12/2010 15:32, refers to #9

Sounds like a cool idea, Pieter! Kicking would be way more efficient than a fist. But I don't know about the kicking down doors and things.
It would be a good "finishing move". You shoot the guy and then kick him in a humiliating defeat!

Oh, and Whales (Dthdealer) (what name do you use anyway?), why on earth would you want the railgun to shoot through walls? It would be pretty hard to do, and I see no logical reason why it would happen.

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#14: ..

by Nixot on 07/12/2010 15:42

Also, bots have been fully implemented and I fixed all the bugs and everything! Yay!

Tentus, if you still have Cube Legends anywhere, what was the code you used for A) the logo at the start and B) the footswitch thingy? I tried to use it but the animation is wrong and I was wondering if the frame numbers were different or something.

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#15: Re: Kicking

by Razgriz on 07/12/2010 16:01, refers to #12

unless your models have 3 feet, it will be hard to maintain a realistic relationship between kicking and running. you don't run with your hands, so a fist seems like a logical idea.

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#16: ..

by geartrooper2 on 07/12/2010 17:33

you can jump, hop, and kick. I like the idea of a kick always available.

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#17: Re: Kicking

by Nixot on 07/12/2010 20:42, refers to #15

A kick, or a punch with your other hand, whatever you can hit people close up with that'll damage them and keep your ammo levels intact. It's all good :P

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#18: Re: Kicking

by Razgriz on 07/12/2010 22:01, refers to #17

you can always use a normal melee weapon, a bat for example. or a crowbar :P

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#19: Re: ..

by tentus_ on 07/12/2010 23:23, refers to #16

@gear: and if you have rockets, you can do all of the above but oh so much more so!

(I can visualize a combat game entirely centered around creative use of rocket boots pretty easily actually...)

@Nixot: the code you mentioned was a simple hack that wouldn't work in Sauer anymore. Look into the HUD code and you should be able to make something similar without too much trouble.

As for the footswitch, yeah, the frame numbers are probably different. I'll look into it but no promises.

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#20: Re: ..

by tentus_ on 07/12/2010 23:24, refers to #19

**if you have rockets boots, you can do...

Omitted a key word in there, sorry.

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