Drones

[SymbolicFrank]

Ok, my current job sucks and HR managers like young web designers. Given the choice between designing and selling a good bot to sell more clothes in web shops or a new and different video game, I chose the latter.

And, to make sure I actually work on it instead of slacking off, I'm going to post the progress here.

So, what is it going to be about?

Drones.

Well, ok, but... ok. What is a drone?

A drone is an autonomous vehicle. You tell it what to do, and it does. It executes the commands you give it. Which can be quite complex: go there, if you see this then do that, return when done or out of fuel. Etc.

Huh. An "autonomous vehicle"? So, they're cars. Or, planes. Or, wait! Boats! And they carry stuff around?

Yes. And guns. Did I mention all the destructive weaponry yet? No? Well, duh. OF COURSE you can destroy everything. Do it to them, before they do it to you!

So, you pick some drone, and buy or construct some. Right? And then they battle it out?

Well, you could do that. Nothing wrong with that. Go ahead!

Then again, you could design your own. Pick a propulsion, a power plant, sensors, weaponry and script the actions. Like:

1. Wheels. 4. 1m across, each. That gives me me a carry weight of more than 10 tons. With the "hub motors" upgrade.
2. Power plant. Diesel electric.
3. Cannon. 10cm.
4. GPS, radar and heat sensors. Go to position, go around obstacles and shoot the cannon at all heat sources that are over 75 Celsius, once for each position.

And build a hundred!

But, that's boring and not very strategic. We do want to rule the world, right?

So, we need scouting first. Small and/or airborne. Some "grunts" to keep the enemy from our back while we develop the ultimate droids, and some excessive finishers.

There is a lot of room above the surface. I suggest you construct some huge rockets that deliver a lot of interesting hardware in orbit. Just to make sure. :D

 

[levgre]

It could be neat to simulate advanced AI by having a large variety of abilities/commands that a drone can have unlocked. Like think 10-20 different commands that each have their own role (fewer on simpler/low level drones), and the commands could combine/combo with each other for further utility.

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Interesting idea. Like, different CPU's and stuff. Sounds good.

But yes, although not strictly necessary, designing and programming them is what it is all about. Multiplayer is probably a thing, and you certainly have to unlock things.

They're all independent, but they can communicate with one another (if you install the hard- and software for that), and you can only do high-level things like change the coordinates where they should go, after you release them.

Another thing I want to do, is make an AI that plays by the same rules, and can (hopefully) kick everyone's ass without cheating.

And last but not least, I think it should be possible to simply buy the things you need, if you have earned enough money in the game.

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Ok. I started out designing the types of drones and the components they're made of. And about 90% of them were land-based. Wheels, tracks, hovercraft, etc. Which requires interesting terrain to navigate, which takes a lot of development time, and it also makes them hard to control.

So, I decided for the first version to go with only air and space based drones, and just simple bases on the ground. And make the designing more interactive. A bit like Kerbal, but with a totally different goal: destroy all competition. And with just a single planet like the Earth and the Moon, but with a simple terrain and no cities and stuff.

And I researched the easiest ways to make nice 3D spheres.