Some stuff I got done - also, Nations... (Long post!)

So, I'm still working on the first scene of the story mode, but I've gotten a few notable things done.
Remember the Vignette you see around pretty much all taeHD games? (Lone and Revelations)
Now it looks a lot better, giving off a blurring effect. The main reason it's still implemented is to limit your line of sight a little bit more than just being top-down.

"Legacy" and "Survival" modes are available. You can go to Wave 13 in Survival, it might not be a big number but it can be hard.


"Story" mode levels ("Scenes") will work like this:

• Objective 1 
• Exploration opportunities (bonus content)
• Objective 2
• Objective 3
• Scene Complete

It seems very "Main Goal, Main Goal, Secondary Goal", but the Exploration Opportunities are more optional then that. When you are in a part of the level Exploration could lead to something, it'll just say "Explore", rather than "Kill optional guy XYZ". These Opportunities are mainly for Tutorials or chances to boost your score in that level. Depending on how the rest of development goes, it might lead to alternate endings or variations in dialogue.

Imagine having the main goal of catching a crook. You can head straight and do what the main objective says, but it'd end in losing your target. But you had a chance to Explore the area, if you did that you could find a second route to him, and end up catching him. The story would change according to how you performed.

Here's the current rendition of the Main Menu (If you click "PLAY.")

It's very simple, meant to throw you into doing something rather than messing with something else, or going through a sheet of controls.

The Story Mode is the best way to start. The opening teaches you what you need to know by actually doing it. Movement, Weapon Switching, Turret Controls, and how active reloading works.

Of course it leaves some stuff for you to discover on your own, such as maximizing your score through Combo Kills (Having both "Nice Kill" and "Stealth Kill" up at once gives you tons of points per second)

Now to talk a little about Nations.
Nations will be a even bigger project than Prologue, so I want to save it for even later, Revelations and Lone are great practice but this should really get me prepared. I know how to manage a big open world (from Lone) and handle weapons in a way I can be proud of (Revelations and Prologue) and now how to make a good, full game with Prologue.

CSI:P - New Feature: Perspective

Here's a neat little thing that'll be in CSI: Prologue, Prespective zoom. If there is dialogue, most of the time you'll see a shift like this. The game doesn't actually play (mostly) in this view, it stays top-down like Lone or Revelations. It looks a little bit weird with the 2D graphics, but I still like it!

Moving on...

Here's the first status update for CSI: Prologue!

1. The current Revelations levels will survive, and live on in the "Legacy" mode.
2. New menu interface is pretty much complete, it's very simple and works well, screenshots coming.
3. We have progress on the save system! Currently it's just saving and reading a score, not positions and levels yet. More on this after this section.

So this is how saving will hopefully work... In all of the game's modes.

• STORY MODE

You'll be able to save from the menu, you will have to restart whatever scene you are in though if you load. 

• SURVIVAL MODE

Either your top score or most recent score will be saved depending on what I can pull off here, you'll be able to see it before you start Survival.

• LEGACY MODE

There's a chance of saving in this mode not being implemented, since Revelations in it's last update was only around 15 minutes long. We might get score saving per level, so if you're a score fiend, Legacy and Survival modes are for you.

The Return

Back with more news on the restructuring of this series.
So we know CSI: Revelations is getting a big revamp. It's going to be larger than I first thought. Completely redesigned to have my cousins (that created the series) enjoy it more, it'll just be called CSI: Prologue.

Here's the stuff that will survive the restructuring:

• Survival Mode (Hordes)
• Pistol/SMG base weapons, the whole ammo system
• The engine, it won't be updated to the awesome taeHD you see in Lone sadly, but it will play and look the same as Revelations did.
• Scores, although they'll be more balanced than before (no combo running with sprint!)
• Character sprites and interface, expect more detail and cinematic stuff though.

What won't survive:

• taeConnect integration, it'll be focused at being appropriate and enjoyable for my younger cousins.
• The map, gone are the winding corridors.
• The current main story mode. This is completely wiped.

New Stuff:

• A completely new story.
• Completely new map.
• Probably some more weapons.
• A new mode...?
• New menu interface.

I'm baackkkkk.

I RETURNNN! Yup, I've been on break from gamedev-ing for a while. Mostly due to my laptop needing to be sent back for repairs and school.

I'll be getting back to work on Lone: Outskirts Expansion pretty soon! I also want to see what I can do with Revelations. I also have a new ideas for the future of taeHD (tae3D just isn't viable for being done in Multimedia Fusion 2, the app I use for my game development) including a way to manage seamless "Frame" transitions, future Open World games will switch between areas much better than ever before, this hasn't been necessary for  any of the current set of games, though. Revelations or Lone. Nations will probably use this, as well another game concept I'm still thinking about. I'll say this much, I want to try making an RPG. I'll post about it later on.

Yet Another Info Drop

Yeaaaaah I'm still working on everything. Yet still not Nations really, that's pretty much still just in planning.

BUT HEY HERE'S SOME OF MY MORE RECENT IDEAS ON IT.

• a looooooot of 'taeconnect' integration. I.E. showing the most popular items to buy in the store at the moment. And a lot of statistics about the in-game economy and maps.
• A big chunk of the game will be the currency system, earning it, trading it, spending it, all of that. More info on that later but for now I'm still gathering ideas. There'll be something of a win/lose stock market thing in the game, I'll say that much.
• Instanced missions will hopefully not be very repetitive... as in having side missions, alternate routes, etc. Rather then just doing the same thing over and over for some credits, you'll be able to do it differently every time.
• Something of a multiplayer WILLLLL be implemented. It might be multiple profiles, split screen, LAN, online... something. I just don't have that down yet. FFFF IT HAS TO BE AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER THAN LONE DAMN IT.

And yeah, progress on the Outskirts update of lone.

... I still haven't gotten to finishing it. YUP.

and the live update to Revelations.

... I AM WORKING ON IT. Hopefully it'll be out sometime before I go on vacation next week. 

~fin.

A lot of information on Nations.

I'll be pulling out all the stops with this one. Taking everything I leanred from Revelations and Lone, with a ton of new stuff. Here's some of the stuff I want to do.

- A game-wide 'credits' system, you earn credits from doing pretty much anything in the game. Earning badges, travelling distances, blowing stuff up, or killing baddies and surviving high wanted levels.

-You'll use these credits to unlock new stuff, from character customization to weapon upgrades, and new missions.

-Something like lone Outskirts 'ePhone' except with more prominent usage. At any point while exploring the game world you can bring up this device, and it will host the menu system, gamepage implementation, your credit count, and more; hopefully a map.

-Missions. The original version of Nations wasnt going to have these because it'd just be too hard to implement mid-way through development, this one will have them. They will be repeatable 'siege style' instances seperated from the open world. They'll be repeatable, and award credits.

-The Open World: The story for this game admittably doesn't exist, as Revelations is now what really happened in the CSI 2 story arc. It'll take place in an Italian-style countryside with some city areas, water and one or more islands.

-Vehicles: Cars, dune buggies, helicopters, boats, and more. This'll be about going over the top.

-Weapons: Will be upgradeable with credits, you'll start out in the Open World with just a Combat Knife, kill some bad guys or commit a few crimes to get some credits then purchase (or find in the game world) your next weapon. My goal is for a Pistol, SMG, RPG, and Triggered Explosives, at least.

-Graphics: I'm guessing they'll be a little bit worse than lone. I know, not moving ahead in this department, but I'm only one guy, who's not good with drawing!

Here's some more information on the Credits Store idea.
There will be a high yeild of credits. Low-end new items will cost around 1000, while ammo packs will cost around 600.
Item ideas by cost (not counting upgrades, customizations and etc): Ammunition, Pistol, Triggered Explosives, SMG/Assault Rifle, RPG/Missile Launcher, and finally Missions.