Van Andreas - a completely new project
(and this time its a fallout-like one)
Yet there isnt much safe information about this project. Ive got a set of concepts for various stuff,
but didnt decide for which way to go exactly.
Just one thing is for sure: it will feature the iconic turn-based combats and bird-perspective.
I might base certain other stuff on the original Fallout-series (Fallout 1/2), but I dont like
just copying all the stuff, so Im actually curious what its going to be.
Developement of this project will be much more public. Ill put stable snapshots on the MauzoLAB testserver,
public for everyone who would like to try it.
For the future Im looking for some creative assistants. Van Andreas will be a fan project, conforming
with the Fallout universe, so there are many things to consider, and planning the setting and story is too much
for me alone. So if you got good knowledge of the Fallout universe and would like to help, send me a message!
SA-MP Forum threads with videos:
Proof of concept
Inventory, looting, etc
A combat between two groups
Changes, updates and news:
on the database interface which manages storing everything from characters to the entity map. Database design is done,
and Im implementing the stuff right now.
I switched to another server provider by the way to save money. As my current server isnt as strong, the MauzoLAB wont be
running 24/7 for the moment. Ill upgrade it when developement is at a certain point. Till then, Ill start the server on
demand, so if you want to test it, just send me a message.
the project is not paused itself. Ill continue working on it soon.
but I stumbled across some old bugs that I had to fix first, and this was a straining task.
However, the arena is almost ready for public testing. But there is just one wave yet. I have to add a bunch of new NPCs,
items, and waves first, to actually make it interesting.
update with some minor improvements. The Arena Mode is now on MauzoLAB, but not yet fully working, just its structures
are done, and it needs some wave mechanics now. So I also wont reveal how to start it yet.
Rev 100 is at least reason enough for some more random numbers of the day!
Suprisingly the first file of the project is exactly 2 months old now.
GUI still makes 57% of the code in file size.
Total lines of code: 10579
mentioned "Arenas". It wont just be a deathmatch arena though, but a co-op/solo fight against waves of AI-controlled enemies
in a limited area.
Gaining EXP and loot with every survived wave, the enemies will also grow stronger. The game ends when every player is dead.
I even thought about adding a highscore list for the guys/teams that made it furthest. This might even have enough potential to
work as an own server, independent from the Van Andreas mainproject. Lets see how far this gets in the end.
initially create a character, and allows some unique things like distributing SPECIAL points and choosing tagged skills
(Tagged skills define the characters profession, they get a bonus and increase twice as fast).
When this is finished, using /psv will ask you to either create a character with the new GUI, or to use a default char, in
case you just want a quick test, and dont want to create a character for that.
I also reworked the camera positioning. On spawn the camera wont get stuck inside of buildings now, in the worst case it lands
on top of them. As a result of that there now also is a "secret function" that focuses the camera on your character (JUMP+SPRINT).
(Windows working). I fixed that so the MauzoLAB is useable again. Apart from that I just did some "cosmetic" stuff for the
Char GUI.
Just need to add some perks now. For the non-Fallout players: Perks are (mostly passive) character bonuses that can be picked
after each x level-ups. They may have pretty much every imaginable effects and so are another great way to build unique
characters that exactly fit to the playing style of the player.
With that thing being done, the engine is almost finished now.
I reactivated the global chat (instead of chat bubbles only) as I didnt consider this is essential for a testserver.
Also fixed some small bugs.
Apart from that I thought about the game concept a lot to have a direction for future developement. Until the full server
setting is done, I might set up a "Deathmatch Arena" first, to offer a safe way to test the combats, and allow people to
get used to the system.
Random number of the day: right now, GUI makes up 57% of the code (in file size)
Might look a bit chaotic, but still thats adapted from the original Fallout GUI, and once you got used to it its a great
way to adjust you character and check information about it. The SPECIAL part is still missing though, and the tabs in the
bottom left are just provisoric fakes, but you can already spend your skill points gained every level-up. Feel free to
"cheat" some exp points with "/giveexp your_id amount" to level up and try it!
The character GUI will still take a while, as its a huge thing that will get close to the textdraw limit, even without
any "decorations" it takes about 100 textdraws, just because there is so much stuff to show about the character.
expanded, and it finally slowly starts to feel like a real Fallout combat when fighting with AI NPCs.
I also recorded a video of a combat, to give an impression of that. Combats also work on MauzoLAB, but its a bit
complicated yet to spawn enemies manually, so this still needs my guidance. Message me if you want to try it.
Next stop: Character GUI, levelling up, editing your character.
ingame, but it actually is a big change internally, makes certain things a lot easier for me, and some things would
have been completely impossible with the old structure.
Apart from that, critical hits are working now, using the classical Fallout crit table.
new features to it. For example I added the iconic "aimed shot" GUI now, that allows to target single bodyparts.
I also added some stuff to make combat more "comfortable", especially by improving the combat GUI. Its still a good
amount of work till I can make the combats available for everyone.
I did some bad major misconception at a very early stage, that now causes the script to get complicated at some points.
So Ill have to restructure some large parts of the script now and this is going to burn some hours of work, but at least
the new concept will have some nice "sideeffects", Ill get back to that later.
follows some very easy rules, but thats actually enough to be challenging.
Well, in Fallout the combat difficulty greatly depends on the stats/items of your character and the stats/items of the
enemy. Fighting against an enemy with a likewise strong character is really tough and depends mostly on luck.
For Van Andreas I adapted the Fallout engine rules (and parts of the Fallout PnP rules), some are even taken over 1:1, so
its no wonder I lost against a "stupid" AI, as the character stats and items were all the same. This means AI combats can
be really challenging, even if they just got a basic AI.
I need to finish some "cosmetic stuff" and some smaller technical problems, then Ill record a video of some combat action!
are possible now. The only problem is that combats cant be ended yet, even if you die during it.
Ive even been working on a test AI, so I dont have to work on 2 PCs at the same time for testing. Well, at least it does
something, though its not doing it well. In general, the AI will have unlimited possibilites. As both normal players and NPC
players share exactly the same data structures, and use the same functions to act, AI NPCs will be able to to all the stuff
that normal players can do, its just about teaching them.
In the near future, Im planning to get the combats fully working, and creating a very basic AI, so I can show some fighting
in a new video. Im really curious how far Ill push the AI here.
though till a stable, working version is ready for tests on MauzoLAB.
The recent server update was a small cursor optimisation, this should make the cursor much easier to handle. Still, theres
a offset between the entity grid and the MapAndreas grid, making entity selection still a bit difficult in some cases,
especially for big camera distances. Ill fix that some time soon.
because it sucks to talk about the "fallout-like something" all the time.
I did some GUI finetuning, and added a path preview for movements (the path to the cursor position is displayed with
arrows). The current action also got its position in the GUI now, a texfield in the center will now show the context-dependent
actions (telling you what is going to happen if you hit the FIRE_KEY). With that, interacting with the environment is much
more intuitive now.
I also fixed the earlier mentioned RNPC problems, the NPCs will now also move to the right positions on MauzoLAB.
Not sure about what Ill do next, either the character screen, or starting with the turn-based fights.
You can now use '/chesti' to spawn a example chest next to you. Interacting with chests (or any other entity) is done
simply by clicking at it with the checkpoint cursor. Your player will move close to it. Then click again to interact.
You spawn with some basic items for testing, that you can equip or put in a chest. I wont explain how the inventory
works exactly, I think its intuitive enough to learn that by testing ;)
Then theres the new 'Skilldex'. This is where you can pick from your active skills. Clicking on one of the skills there
will activate it (either directly like for sneaking, or it is assigned to the cursor) You can then click an entity to use
the skill on it (currently only lockpicking works on the chests). Depending on the skilllevel you may succeed or fail, or
eventually fail horribly and jam the lock.
Right clicking (AIM_KEY) will undo the skill selection, and you can use the cursor again to move your character and use stuff
normally. Theres no real display for the current cursor action/skill yet, unless some debug info in the messagebox. If it says
that it switched to 1024, youre back at the normal cursor functions, 2048 is Lockpicking.
Theres a problem with compiling the latest RNPC changes on Linux, so the NPCs dont move well in some situations. But this
shouldnt cause any problems, it might just look stupid. Ill look into that soon.
Again, all this works almost in the same way as in Fallout 1/2. People who played the games will probably have no problem at all
with the controls, would be nice to hear how well you come along with the GUIs and stuff, so feel free to send me some feedback
about that.
So in addition to common mapping it is now possible to add any kind of interactive object in runtime, just like
adding a normal object. Entities are organized in a object-oriented-like way, offering great scripting freedom, to
add any kind of interaction without much effort. I guess this is enough to get Fallout-like possibilites, hope I
didnt miss a thing when planning the infrastructure.
With that, another major part of the engine is done. Im going to add some more entity types to play around with
before uploading it to the MauzoLAB soon.
stealing). Had some trouble with exceeding the 100 sprite TD maximum, so I changed some elements back to normal
TextDraws, but that shouldnt make a real difference.
The containers to loot are still just virtual though, you cant find them ingame, but just access it with a command.
In order to make them physically available I need to implement the entity types, which are the data model for pretty
much every interactive object ingame. Thats what Ill do next.
I also did a fast update for RNPC. The NPCs have always been stopping right in front of their movement target, but not
on it, so it was rather difficult to target other NPCs with the checkpoint cursor. This is fixed now, need to test and
refine it, so I wont directly release this as a new version.
Both weapons and armors will instantly affect the players look. Theres just a small amount of different items yet for
testing (given on spawn automatically), as it takes a bit to position the models for them correctly.
Weapons now got their own internal representation, allowing to set a large amount of attributes for them, just like in
SutD, with some extra stuff needed for the Fallout-like-engine. Most of them arent considered yet though, just the damage,
caliber, and ammo.
Armors also got their representation, but they affect nothing at all yet except the look of the character.
The update is online at MauzoLAB, and Ill create a video of the inventory usage soon.
With that, roughly 1/3 of the GUI work is done now. After that theres the combat system to be implemented, which is a
relatively easy job with proper concepts, and the engine is pretty much ready. Lets see if it works out that way.
are no items yet to try it (there are, but manual spawning with unknown IDs isnt safe yet and I dont want the server
to crash all the time ;)). It can be accessed with the INV button.
Again, the inventory is very close to the Fallout 1 inventory. Using it also works similar to that, except that you
have to select items you want to move/equip/interact with, as you cant drag stuff in SA-MP.