[XP] Creations - A Multi-Player Building Game

Started by Wizered67, February 22, 2012, 12:54:56 am

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Wizered67

February 22, 2012, 12:54:56 am Last Edit: October 20, 2012, 01:32:07 am by Wizered67
Introduction:
Creations is a 2D multi-player build-and-destroy game created with RMXP. Players are able to build structures while interacting with each other. Players are also able to create kingdoms in order to claim a map. Kingdoms can be used in many ways, and it's up to the players whether they will create a simple trade route, or make an empire and claim the world. If 2 kingdoms want the same land, they can challenge each other to a battle for the land. The entire world is in the hands of the players. Peaceful or violent, mining or farming, good or evil, the choice is yours.



Gameplay:
The style of gameplay will be similar to Minecraft. You will be able to place tiles, break them, and interact with some. So far, only a few decorative tiles and doors, chests, and signs have actually been added. This is definitely a work in progress so far. Only the main systems (Building, destroying, etc) have been created so far. I am not quite sure what to do with the game from here, but I am hoping for some ideas while I come up with my own. The game will be multi-player.



Features:
Green means completed, yellow means in progress, and red means not started. There may still be some issues even if completed.

  • Basic Building

  • Basic Destroying

  • Basic HUD

  • Global Maps

  • Interactive Tiles

  • Crafting

  • Battle System

  • On-map Menus





Known Issues

  • Problems with multiple players building at the same time

  • Issues with scrolling maps

  • Risk of data corruption or hacking

  • Issues with moving events

  • No battle system, little content

  • Problem with multiple players using the same chest at the same time





Screenshots and Videos
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New and improved walls.


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Global day and night system.


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Building a City.


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Trees and Plants.


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New Destruction System.


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Crafting!


Multi-player Test Video!



Demo
Demo removed, but let me know if you want to help test!



Credits

  • Blizzard - Scripts

  • Nathmatt - A few lines I borrowed from him

  • Game_Guy - Item Storage

  • Ryex - Mouse Window API

  • Homerunbom12 - Ideas



Thanks for looking at my project! Feedback is appreciated!

SBR*

Seems pretty cool. I hope you'll get a (possibly multiplayer) demo done soon :).

Wizered67

February 22, 2012, 11:48:32 am #2 Last Edit: February 23, 2012, 07:48:26 pm by Wizered67
Well, I'm working on the multiplayer part, but the problem I have is that none of the friends I sent the demo to are being very helpful.:P

edit: It is really hard to test this alone! If you have any interest in helping test the basics of the multiplayer such as building, destroying, and global maps please let me know!

edit2: My testing clearly isn't happening, so if anyone wants to do me a favor and help me test here is the demo. Basically I need to make sure that the global building stuff is actually working as it should be. The controls are pretty basic: WASD for movement, left click to build, right click to destroy, you turn towards the mouse, and clicking the middle mouse button will rotate the item you are using to build. I can't guarantee that the server will be up 24/7. Please help me test this!

Wizered67

I got a friend to test the demo on their computer, so I can confirm that global maps are working. The only thing I'm not sure about is how well multiple people building at the same time would work. Anyway, here is a screenshot of the map after it was changed on 3 different accounts on different computers.
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Wizered67

I've made a ton of progress recently. Here is a video showing me and a friend testing the multiplayer. This was the first test of the game with someone else on at the same time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL0QiMSq3Uo

The video is very laggy. The issue is that I wasn't able to test the multiplayer stuff before with someone else, so I didn't know how bad the lag was. I will try to work on reducing it.  If nothing else, the video shows that the main systems are mostly functional and that global building definitely works.

So now what? Here's a message I sent someone detailing my plans for the game.
QuoteConcept - Players can start Kingdoms. (Guilds) They can invite other players to their kingdom and build with them to create cities, villages, trade posts, etc for their kingdom. Anyone can build on an "unowned" map, but if a kingdom "claims" a map, only they can build on it. Kingdoms can always claim unowned maps. When a map is claimed, the kingdom that owns it can give the map a name. Examples of the names would be "Capital City", "Fort", "Outpost". That way, the way the map is being used can be shown and the maps can be referred to by name. If a map is owned by another kingdom, there must be a challenge between the kingdoms to claim it. An officer or the leader of a kingdom can challenge another kingdom for a chosen amount of time. If an officer or leader from the other kingdom accepts, the challenge begins. During a challenge, the "ownership percentage" can decrease on maps between the fighting kingdoms. Every couple seconds spent on a map decreases its ownership percentage if it belongs to the enemy, or increases it if it belongs to you. For example, if 3 players from kingdom A are on their home map, the ownership increases up to 100%. However, if there were 4 enemies on that map, the difference between the amount of players would be 1 and the ownership would decrease slightly. If the 4 attackers killed all 3 defenders, the ownership would constantly decrease until reaching 0. When at 0, the kingdom is free to claim the map as their own. The reason kingdoms would compete for maps is to get the buildings on it, to use it for strategic positions, or for the "map bonus". Map bonuses are special bonuses that some maps have. For example, maps with a river running through them give a "farming" bonus which increases farming, while some may have an abundant supply of a rare mineral (like gold) that will respawn over time on the map.

So that's pretty much the idea. I'd appreciate some feedback on it to make sure I'm not missing anything important in the idea or whatever. Also, here's a screenshot showing some of what I've done so far. The minimap doesn't work, so I plan on removing it and putting the "map info" (name, owner) elsewhere on the screen. The kingdom name shown here is "Vipers".
http://i43.tinypic.com/21enh4j.png


Thanks for reading! I appreciate feedback if you have any. Also, some testers would be nice..

Wizered67

I improved the walls to make them look more like actual walls. Houses now look much better.
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Still looking for testers...

Wizered67

Here are some screenshot of the menus I've been working on for the game.
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Ryex

hey look, it's my window API at work!  nice work wizered67.
I no longer keep up with posts in the forum very well. If you have a question or comment, about my work, or in general I welcome PM's. if you make a post in one of my threads and I don't reply with in a day or two feel free to PM me and point it out to me.<br /><br />DropBox, the best free file syncing service there is.<br />

Helskyth

Really awesome idea. Best of luck with it. If you do some more closed Beta's, drop me a message. I'd be happy to break things for you :P
It's not me that's addicted to coffee. It's the coffee that's addicted to me!




My Deviant Art
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Spoofus

man this had better get completed and not dumped halfway in the making.
this has huge promise and looks like it would be great to play.


My Blog site I am working on: http://spoofus.weebly.com/

Wizered67

Thanks for the support everyone!

For anyone interested, you can see some additional screenshots and news here, although I will keep posting major updates here, so don't worry. :)

Ryex

wait... I'm not in the credits list but your using my Window API? for shame Wizered67 for shame. (I'm not really mad, but it would be nice if you fixed that.)
I no longer keep up with posts in the forum very well. If you have a question or comment, about my work, or in general I welcome PM's. if you make a post in one of my threads and I don't reply with in a day or two feel free to PM me and point it out to me.<br /><br />DropBox, the best free file syncing service there is.<br />


SBR*

Will the game exist out of "matches" or will the servers run permanently (like MC)? Because if the servers run permanently and a challenge starts and you're not online, the enemy might capture the map with your house on it, thus stealing all your stuff. Anyway, this really looks promising and I'm looking forward to playing it when it's done!

Wizered67

The way I decided challenges will work is that both kingdoms must accept the challenge and specify how long it will last for. If you log out during the duration of the challenge, its your fault if your stuff gets stolen. Otherwise, you shouldn't have to worry about any stealing like that.

Spaceman McConaughey

March 26, 2012, 07:03:19 am #15 Last Edit: March 26, 2012, 07:07:52 am by Tuggernuts
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69 views...
3 likes...
0 dislikes...
Things are looking good for it over on YouTube.



This looks pretty awesome, man. Great job.

SBR*

Quote from: Wizered67 on March 25, 2012, 12:00:03 pm
The way I decided challenges will work is that both kingdoms must accept the challenge and specify how long it will last for. If you log out during the duration of the challenge, its your fault if your stuff gets stolen. Otherwise, you shouldn't have to worry about any stealing like that.


Uhu, if you log out. But what if you're just offline?

Wizered67

If your offline, you wouldn't be involved in a challenge unless your kingdom participated in one without you. So I suppose it is possible for your stuff to be stolen if your kingdom loses control of a map during a challenge when you weren't online.

SBR*

Quote from: Wizered67 on March 26, 2012, 06:38:23 pm
If your offline, you wouldn't be involved in a challenge unless your kingdom participated in one without you. So I suppose it is possible for your stuff to be stolen if your kingdom loses control of a map during a challenge when you weren't online.


Which means that either there will be hardly any challenges, because not everybody is online, or you will loose your things occasionally... To be honest, I dislike both. But whatever :).

Magus

reminds me of minecraft... (from the video)
LEVEL ME DOWN. THE ANTI-BLIZZ GROUP IS AMONG YOU... Do it for the chick below...She watches..<br />

Wizered67

Quote from: SBR* on March 27, 2012, 10:32:22 am
Which means that either there will be hardly any challenges, because not everybody is online, or you will loose your things occasionally... To be honest, I dislike both. But whatever :).


I think that the better option would probably be to risk losing your stuff while you are offline. I think that although it is annoying, it would at least put some extra emphasis on choosing a good kingdom to join rather than joining a random one.

Quote from: Magus on March 27, 2012, 01:32:24 pm
reminds me of minecraft... (from the video)


I was kind of trying to get a "Minecraft" effect with the game, but I do plan to change things. Do you think that being similar to Minecraft is a bad thing in this case?

Wizered67

For anyone interested, I will be releasing a test version next Thursday to anyone that signs up for testing. Just post here or message me if you want to help test. So far about 15 people have signed up.

Oh, and here are some screenshots of a city built in Creations.
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SBR*

I would love to join you, as I have a day off that day.

Wizered67

Thanks for volunteering to test. Unfortunately, the testing has been delayed because I have to work out a few final issues. The game will be released for testing within the next few days. (I'm hoping for tomorrow, but not sure)

Wizered67

Here's a quick video showing the ability of the player to choose their own sprite for use in-game. Sorry the video quality isn't higher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldIbSJo1JqY

Wizered67

A test version of the game was released to help me find the issues and eliminate them as well as giving everyone a taste of the gameplay. Let me know if you want a copy!

flrodude

I can sprite characters and smaller objects, let me know if I can help!

hansiec

Alright I'd like to help with this, mostly to see how much better yours is compared to mine.

Wizered67

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. So, do you want to actually help make the game, or just help test?

Either way, I feel I should let you and anyone else that happens to be reading this where things stand with this game. I was desperately trying to reduce the lag and fix an issue where the maps were randomly lost. Unfortunately, my solution to this has only caused more issues so far, and I do not plan on releasing a new demo of the game or put the server back up until this is fixed. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make the final adjustments on the system soon so that I can continue adding on to the game. Right now, I am so jealous of singleplayer games - getting this to work for multiplayer is a pain! (Technically it worked at one point, just slowly)

hansiec

Both, I am currently trying to build up my networking experience and since I'm working on something similar I can also help with this better, also I have a few ideas to reduce the lag if you would be kind enough to let me look at the source.

(taking the events and loading em with "game_map" is one way to reduce lag or you can use an event spawner and use it's saved events method to properly load/destroy unneeded events if you are using something similar to my map system where it overwrites one map only then I have already got a small lag reducing fix which might not even work since I'm not sure how much your game lags...)

Wizered67

Actually, the lag was/is caused by the server sending so much data over to the client every time the map changed, and then reloading the entire map. Looking back, this was a really stupid way of doing it. Now I'm trying to get it to work where it only modifies the changed parts of the map, not the entire thing.

hansiec

Quote from: Wizered67 on May 10, 2012, 08:10:51 pm
Actually, the lag was/is caused by the server sending so much data over to the client every time the map changed, and then reloading the entire map. Looking back, this was a really stupid way of doing it. Now I'm trying to get it to work where it only modifies the changed parts of the map, not the entire thing.


Do something like so: Send object info/time edited (Time.now.to_i is a good method) now when the player saves the map remember to save the last update the player had on the map and load every change between current time and last update (unless the update is X amount and it has no longer a value to the server) also delete any "overlaying" data so we don't load even more data than we should (if the player was last online a year ago it would be best to load a scratch map instead) but in any case I'm not that good with networking (except a very small portion of mysql/php) hope you understand what I mean.

Wizered67

Well, that's not exactly how it works. I'd rather not go into too much detail here, but if you are interested in knowing how it works, message me.

Wizered67

Time for an update! I'll be gone for a week and a half after today, but I thought I'd whip something up for Creations first. Here it is, the voting board. Essentially the voting board allows players to vote on important decisions in game, such as electing officials, deciding who to go to war with, and much more.

Here's a video demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMxuzL0zbq4

hansiec

Nice progress on this, I still think you need a perlin map generator (if you need one I have already made one but not released properly yet.)

Wizered67

I'm planning on using a map generator... eventually.

In the mean time, here's a quick look at the time system. It's pretty much the CCTS, but I modified it so that time is calculated serverside and applies for everyone. :D

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SquareMan

QuoteThey've got helmets on they're heads. But I gotta watermeloan instead!

Wizered67

I've made some significant progress in the last couple days after a period of inactivity. I've added:

Basic Trees
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Trees will play a large role in getting wood, which is crucial for development of towns and cities. Eventually, specific maps will be "forests" and generate lots of trees.

Paths and Roads
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Basic, yet extremely important for guiding others or yourself to a specific location. Players will be highly encouraged to use roads.

New Destruction and Building
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Building and destroying can now be done from a distance, as well as tiles taking multiple hits to destroy. Tools will be coming soon to speed up this process. As seen in the screenshot, tiles have a defined amount of "hit points" to destroy, which are saved globally. Because of this, you can start destroying a tile and come back later to finish with its hit points retained. Additionally, 2 people hitting a tile would literally destroy it twice as fast, making team work possible for mining operations.

See this for the full list of updates.

Also, like our facebook page at www.facebook.com/creationsgame

Wizered67

October 07, 2012, 02:48:41 am #39 Last Edit: October 07, 2012, 02:50:57 am by Wizered67
I finally got around to adding crafting! Big thanks to Ryex for making his Mouse Window API so easy to adapt. I'm using it for pretty much every window imaginable xD

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I'm open to suggestions and feedback if anyone has any.

hansiec

October 07, 2012, 02:34:32 pm #40 Last Edit: October 07, 2012, 02:36:09 pm by hansiec
Quote from: Wizered67 on October 07, 2012, 02:48:41 am
I finally got around to adding crafting! Big thanks to Ryex for making his Mouse Window API so easy to adapt. I'm using it for pretty much every window imaginable xD

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I'm open to suggestions and feedback if anyone has any.



looks like progress is going good here, also is this going to be a hosted server or like minecraft's host-your-own game?

Wizered67

The current plan is that its going to be a hosted server, but I would consider looking into the alternative of host-your-own-server.

hansiec

Quote from: Wizered67 on October 07, 2012, 04:33:48 pm
The current plan is that its going to be a hosted server, but I would consider looking into the alternative of host-your-own-server.


Alright, either one if fine by me, also you should at the very least include offline play for people who aren't online always.

Wizered67

Just a quick report on my progress (no screenshots this time), I've managed to get a basic growing system working. Currently there are only 1 type of seeds, tree seeds, which when planted will eventually grow into actual trees to use to get logs. This growing system is one of my first big updates that will take advantage of the time system, and will later include different growth rates for different crops as well as different stages of growth. Stay tuned for more updates!

Interesting note, because of the way the tree growth is simulated, no players need to be online for anything to grow, the server only must be up. This way, you can plant stuff, leave, and come back later to harvest your crops.

Loveless

This is looking great. Feel free to PM me if you ever need another tester. Also, are there going to be monsters you can fight or at least when going to war are you fighting players?

Wizered67

Thanks for the offer to test, I'll get back to you once this gets back to the testing stage. There will be combat of some sort if that's what your asking and there will definitely be PvP, but I'm not yet sure to what extent the battles will take place. I had an idea that I'm toying with about having it be a turn based strategy battle system, and the way you build your maps can affect how you do in battle. Just a random thought.

KK20

Quote from: Wizered67 on October 20, 2012, 01:17:18 am
Thanks for the offer to test, I'll get back to you once this gets back to the testing stage. There will be combat of some sort if that's what your asking and there will definitely be PvP, but I'm not yet sure to what extent the battles will take place. I had an idea that I'm toying with about having it be a turn based strategy battle system, and the way you build your maps can affect how you do in battle. Just a random thought.

Quote from: Wizered67 on October 20, 2012, 01:17:18 am
I had an idea that I'm toying with about having it be a turn based strategy battle system, and the way you build your maps can affect how you do in battle.

Quote from: Wizered67 on October 20, 2012, 01:17:18 am
turn based strategy battle system

:troll: I didn't influence this, did I?

By the way, never really said anything about this game yet. I love the idea and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. What you have here is a brilliant project compared to some of the things I've seen in my Game Design club at school.

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Wizered67

I had the idea a while ago as a sort of alternative to an abs, and when I was thinking about your post, it kind of reminded me of it. I also kind of thought making one from scratch may almost be easier than getting the Blizz-ABS controller working perfectly with RMX-OS xD. And thanks for the feedback :D

andreadixon

Hi is this project still active? I would really like to have this, I will buy it if you do not want it any more. Please

Subsidedgibbon0

Me to i would love to see this continue if not i still would be interested to a link to the release beta or whatever it was.

Wizered67

Yeah... this project is fairly old now. The server is no longer up, so having the beta wouldn't do you much good. I've been considering releasing everything as open source in the future, but frankly the code is so disorganized I'm not sure it would do much good.

Zexion

I'm sure it would. It could serve as something for people to look at o.o

andreadixon

Ya Please release this I really want to do the same, I would buy it if you let me and I can continue the work, Please

Wizered67

It's something I'll think about. I have all of the client and server stuff backed up, so I can put it up at some point  if I decide to. Like I said before though, I never made this with the intention of it being shared, and since I was pretty new to programming at the other time, I didn't really follow good programming practices. As such, many of my edits were made directly in the RMX-OS script, though mostly in one place. Additionally, the way I did the build/destroy component was very flawed. Every time a change was made to the map, the entire map files was sent to the server and then sent back to the clients, even if it was only a change in one place. I started fixing that near the end, but it was still pretty buggy.

andreadixon

April 19, 2014, 11:29:44 pm #54 Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 11:39:19 pm by andreadixon
Ok think about it, I really need something like this, and If you do want to sell it I will buy it, just contact me, and by the way it looks really good you should give your self a big credit for this. :)

Oh and I just sent you a message.

Crasger


whitespirits

i think some1 with ability to fix could create a great addon system for rmx

PhoenixFire

I agree that this could be something to look further into, especially with the XPAce project, and the engine F0 is making.. This could servebas anbreally cool base for some neat games..
Quote from: Subsonic_Noise on July 01, 2011, 02:42:19 amNext off, how to create a first person shooter using microsoft excel.

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alisgames

Hi, there. Are you planning to release this at all. This looks really cool and I would love to try. Thanks

amjrl

Hello, I like this system you made in rpg maker xp , I wanted to know if you have a demo, or anything, I'm trying to make the same thing and just wanted to ask if you can share this project with me. Or if you can show me how you made it, Thank You

Wizered67

July 06, 2017, 01:34:52 am #60 Last Edit: July 06, 2017, 01:39:31 am by Wizered67
Quote from: amjrl on July 04, 2017, 10:28:09 pm
Hello, I like this system you made in rpg maker xp , I wanted to know if you have a demo, or anything, I'm trying to make the same thing and just wanted to ask if you can share this project with me. Or if you can show me how you made it, Thank You


Hello! Unfortunately I haven't worked with RPG Maker in several years and don't have a demo available. I'm also not very active on these forums anymore although I do check in from time to time.

I can't help much, but maybe I can point you in the right direction. First, check out this script. This was the script that originally inspired this project (over 6 years ago, holy cow!). If you look at the add_map method in that script, it has code for copying tiles or events from one map to another. At the beginning of this project I would do the same thing, but with only a single tile. When a player placed a tile I would copy it from another map (which had all the possible tiles laid out on it) into the current map, save the map to a file, and send the file to the server. Then when a player changed maps or was on a map when someone else made a change, the server sent them the map file and the client loaded the file and replaced the whole map with it.

Do you see the problem here? I was foolish at the time so it took quite a while for me to realize the problem. Sending an entire map file just for a single change is insanity! It caused a ton of lag because the entire map got reloaded for every single change. Eventually I did catch on and somewhat fixed the problem. Here's what you would probably ideally do: When a player makes a change, send *only that change* to the server and have the server send it to the rest of the clients on the map. The server could edit the map file to save the change to a file, but what you want to avoid is sending an entire map file every time there's a change. When a player changes maps/logs in, sending the map file from the server is probably fine because it's a one time thing, but for every other tile placement find a way to send just those changes to the clients on the map and have them change the affected tiles.

In effect:

When a player logs in or changes map, the server sends them a map file to load the map from.

When a player places a tile, send that change (which tile to place and where) to the server. The server should save the change to a file to make it permanent and so new players can get the most recent map. This part might be tricky with the default rmxp map files. I'm not sure if you can easily make a single change like that without loading the whole file, changing it, and resaving it. Ideally you should consider making your own format for saving/loading maps. In addition to saving the change to a file, send the change (just the change) to all players on the same map and alter their map.

Hope that helps a bit, it's probably the best I can do at this point.

Edit: Also just remembered and stumbled across this script, which could be helpful, especially for autotiles.