3000AD’s new simulatory shooter has a demo, and you can get it here. It’s a mere 290mb. The demo includes a bunch of instant action scenarios and a taste of the various careers in the game. More info can be found over on the blog. We understand from the most recent postings that the game itself is imminent.
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“The default key bindings are just fine and you don’t need to mess with those modifiers.”
What are the SHIFT and CTRL keys use for in-game? By default, I always bind these keys to “walk/run” and “crouch” in every action game I play.
P.
Sure, but my point is that massive draw disatnce does not have to equal bad performance. Many games have huge arenas of play and yet manage to run and run well.
I’ll give it another go, assuming I can get it to stay upright, but running a game that is low detail at even LOWER detail is just counter-intuitive and utterly against the nature of PC owners.
“Your call. I don’t care what choice you make.”
Drama!
@oceanclub
Exactly – Predefined modifiers are just annoying. Full customisation is the only way to go…
@JBrophy
Actually, I’d like reverse CTF! One bomb on the map, bring it to your enemies barracks. =)
@dsmart
1. Cars need automatic handbrakes when you get out of ‘em. Got to dropship rendevous, stopped car on incline, checked map to see dropship location, exited to find car rolling away downhill.
Either automatic handbrakes or automatic Benny Hill music. Your choice.
2. Regards putting links to the manual etc in the start menu and including a short-cut in game, no, that’s not good enough to guarantee you’ll draw people’s attention. Put a link in your main menu.
3. Can players record demos in order to facilitate bug reporting? Seems like a good idea.
4. Do you intend to allow players / modders to alter and / or remake your bases, add detailed ground geometry (smaller buildings, walls, etc)?
5. To further promote understanding among the peoples of mankind, the following two pics may demonstrate the issues some have with the supposed flatness of the terrain in AAW. Doesn’t really bother me (as I haven’t really played the game yet and haven’t encountered the gameplay implications of flat areas of terrain), but it might be a good example for anybody who wishes to continue the converesation. Pay particular attention to the foreground terrain in the second shot.
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/09-05-25/pic016.PNG
http://www.freakygaming.com/gallery/action_games/enemy_territory:_quake_wars/desert_fly
One of these things is not like the other. Remember, scale of the overall world is not the issue here.
6. The following requests for information would be useful for me (and possibly others) in determining whether to continue giving you feedback on your game – we’ll all be on the same page.
* Interested to know your definitions of ‘consolified’ and ‘run of the mill cookie-cutter’ (examples would be appreciated).
* Would you accept the argument that a game should demonstrate worth before expecting investment of time and effort (eg., reading an eight page tutorial and a four page command sheet) from the player? If so, what level of worth would you consider appropriate?
* Would you not like your game to be an indie blockbuster?
No wiggle room, no talk about compromises here, no references to your team size, this is just about whether you would like your game to be popular with a very wide group of players – say the amount of people who enjoyed World of Goo?
Or would you rather just recoup your initial investment?
7. Again, making people refer to your manuals when they hit a problem in-game is symptomatic of unacceptable poor modern game design. You are asking us to buy the Trabant of user interfaces, Mr. Smart, in an era of ubiquitous Bugatti Veyrons.
Some of us have sympathy for the Trabant, but we’re fucking WEIRD, Mr. Smart. Such an interest borders on the perverse, not ‘niche’.
“Whats the problem exactly? Of course everyone is going to get confused playing a game the first time. Thats what a tutorial and manual are for. They are meant to be read.”
Last decade, maybe. Nowadays we’re looking for a little less work in our play. That doesn’t mean that we’ve become lazier, necessarily. It just means that design standards have risen. Again, Quake Wars is NOT a prefect example, but it’s well worth examining for systems that educate players and for efficiency in control design. Obviously, a better one is TF2, but that’s far less wide-ranging than your project.
The potential AAW is awesome, but it’s currently covered in dust, UI crud and two decades of niche flight sim assumptions. For the product to shine, it needs more polish.
…is wot I think.
Alt would be a fairly safe modifier, I’d think. Shift and CTRL are, sadly, taken by conventions.
Regards the Crysis comparisons, of course, the key point is the amount of content per square inch it delivers. Sheer scale is not everything.
It’s what you d*EXPLODES*
Random note – quite like the suit designs. You could give ‘em a lotta character with a slight paint job. Anybody?
Speaking as a technical writer, I love overly-complicated inpenetrable interfaces; they keep me in business. :D
P.
Ok, so I messed around a bit last night. Played the scenarios a few times (died a lot) and then played in an empty server for a bit.
Constructive Comments:
- An impressive array of cool looking vehicles, it seems that in a vehicle is going to be the best place to be.
- I liked the building designs, good aesthetic, although it would have been nice if they’d had some balconies/perches or other external features which made them more than pretty boxes.
- I had real trouble entering and exiting vehicles. It seemed I had to hunt around trying to get the little icons to appear to click on, and if I go too close to a vehicle I would be killed by touching it even though it was stationary. This happened a lot.
I would also take (falling/jumping?) damage for reasons I could not determine while climbing around on an empty server.
- I agree with the comments about the bases feeling empty when on foot. When you’re on foot you just feel like road-kill in waiting. Some cover like short concrete walls, and a bunker or two would be good for gameplay. Rocky outcroppings in the desert would provide cover too.
- I don’t want to use modifier keys if at all possible especially when on the ground ctrl alt shift etc. I would like to map these to single actions.
- The grenade action was odd. The grenade flies out and a second later the guy makes his flailing throw animation.
- I wanted to pull up sights with the machine gun. It just feels like Rambo when you’re shooting from the hip.
It looked like it could be a lot of fun with a lot of people on a server. I’ll try the updated demo tonight if it’s up.
@Reverend Speed
Excellent post.
I’ve just been playing through the IA map again. This time no crashes (I think that was just a driver FU: it happens) but god on a bike this is clunky. Touting the scale of the game as a caveat for its shortcomings can be valid but, as you say Reverend, scale is nothing without content. Right now these EPIC SIZE!! maps are utterly bereft of…well bloody anything O_o
Should you find yourself without ship the sheer effort of slogging about the place is incredible, even over “short” distances. I cannot imagine how long it would take to run between bases.
Moreover this huge scale with minimum content just makes the game seem weird, as does the massively sparse layout of the bases. No human would EVER lay out a military base like that. You have things located close by for ease of use and defence, not scattered over a couple of square kilometres.
On a performance note: I turned all the details down to high and the AA to 2x and the ANI to normal. I still max out at 22 FPS and now the game looks decidedly scrappy. Building flicker and pop at any distance and the utter lack of detail on the floor makes judging distance nigh impossible. Serious optimisation is needed with the renderer.
Last point – there are a few more…errr… (what will not start a row?)…unforseen behaviours?
-When I get near to (i.e. touching) small objects (such as what I believe are resupply points?) they turn bright, bright white and lose all texturing.
-I have also observed that when a flying vehicle goes behind a building I can still clearly see it but it too is rendered in bright white (deliberate?)
-Other people mentioned mouse sensitivity as a problem – For me its not the sensitivity but the mouse lag. This may be a symptom of the poor FPS but right now there is a clear delay between me moving the mouse and anything responding.
There is a definite something here – I am reminiscing about Tribes 1 and Battlezone – and I would like to get into it but the game is not exactly forthcoming with the love, you know?
Also, I understand I don’t get to make any decisions, but if the desert is just one part of the map and is the most dull, why not situate the demo in a forest near a river?
I’ve only seen desert so far in this demo and the videos.
Damn you RPS for shutting off editing! I had to go away a while after and didn’t return until now… My comment has long since passed, but what I meant with “And I’m saying this as a fan of soldier-sims, Planetside and the BF-games among others.” wasn’t that BF or Planetside were soldier-sims (as dsmart so kindly points out heh) but that I am a fan of soldier-sims (ArmA, Red Orchestra – wich is a semi-soldier-sim in a way – plus others) -and- BF and Planetside.
I felt that this game was a little too off from my taste (plus the bugs and crashes I encountered) and that’s why I don’t feel like I want to invest more time learning it. Atleast that’s what I think. But who knows, this may turn out awesome to me in a few years!
@ Reverend
Press 0 to kill engines. And do try not to park on inclines.
I can’t think of one game that does that. But since we have our docs in-line, that might be a good idea.
No. Use Fraps
Probably. Depends on how well the game does as that will determine if I should throw additional resources at prepping the materials for the public.
Unfair comparison. They put the base on a flat plane nestled between mountains. Well, we have those too. Except that this base (one of ten) happens to be in a DESERT and a predominantly flat part of the map.
400 sq. km of map to explore and people are nitpicking about one small 20km area.
To wit:
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/thumbs/005.jpg
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/thumbs/001.jpg
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/thumbs/002.jpg
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/thumbs/026.jpg
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/09-05-13/pic028.PNG
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/09-05-13/thumbs/pic025.jpg
A game that has been developed for the console target but ported to the PC. Or developed as multi-platform but with console as the target audience. MANY games fall under this category.
Cookie-cutter fps: All first person shooters which are like the one before it.
Yes. And coming from my niche background, you’re preaching to the choir. We can’t all make games for the same people. The key – and the reason I’m still in business while a LOT of others are out of work today – is because I know this to be a fact.
But you can’t quantify worth without a level of commitment and thus investment (time, money, whatnot).
I wouldn’t mind. But thats my goal. My goal is always to make a game that I want to play and which a bunch of others find worth in buying and playing. And if that bunch is large enough to justify the development, then its already a blockbuster for me because then I get to make more games. Been doing it for 20+ years. It works. At least for me it does.
Rubbish. Manuals are written for a reason. If you choose not to read them, thats you problem not mine. Heck, even the dishwasher comes with a manual.
And you are entitled to those opinions. I, like many, don’t share that opinion, but that doesn’t make it any less important to you.
Don’t buy into the hype. There’s nothing complicated about the UI. Play the game and see for yourself. Heck, here are the full docs. Includes full manual, key commands, tutorial. You be the judge.
http://downloads.3000ad.com/aaw_game_docs.zip
@ jonfitt
Add /use_godmode to the shortcut and you won’t die in single player.
Also /no_intro disables the intro movie
They’re line of sight distance cued. They glow Yellow when you can use the current one.
In the demo, the assets you can use depends on the character you are playing. See manual p13. In the upcoming demo update, I have disabled that completely.
You will take damage when jumping/falling from high altitude.
@ jonfitt
Because the entire planet is hostile. The Terrans only managed to capture one base. That one. The others are all in Gammulan hands – except in multiplayer where they are devided evenly.
The captured Alpha base just happens to be the one in the desert. And it just happens to be the one used in the demo.
ack!! no edit button is just making things nuts around here. Why was it removed?
Anyway, revised links:
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/005.png
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/001.png
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/002.png
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/08-11-06/026.png
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/09-05-13/pic028.PNG
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/09-05-13/pic025.PNG
“There’s nothing complicated about the UI”
I didn’t mention these before as I assumed that there were issues to be fixed later on.
I had to use the shoulder buttons to tun my car while driving, I have to use a keyboard modifier (ctrl+use) to exit a car, selecting weapons on the joypad is somewhat of a lottery of holding the button down and watching it spin round the menu till you let go and hopefully get what you wanted and the flight joystick is inverted in all directions on the 360 joypad.
“There’s nothing complicated about the UI”
Hmm… cant say I agree there.
However, those level shots do look very cool. I have no issue with the flatness of the demo level. I mean you gotta hold something back for later to make people buy the game, right?
Editing’s been borked by a back-end wordpress update, alas. Hopefully there’ll be a fix for the plugin soon.
Can someone else try plugging an x box 360 controller in and tell me if they get the Sliding while standing bug too?
These images are awesome Derek. You will see less if your game looked more like that. Whatever the reason, the demo don’t generate these screenshots. The demos has nice buildings, and a example of what the final game include, but nothing as pretty these screenshots. Not that I know…
Those images look much more enticing! like I say, not my decision, but I would definitely have set the demo in a scenario more in that terrain.
One thing about:
http://www.3000ad.com/aaw/media/shots/09-05-13/pic028.PNG
What’s going on with the ground behind the fighter? Is that a graphical glitch or just some really low poly terrain? I’d suspect it’s a factor of the distance, and up close some smoothing would kick in, is that the case?
@James Brophy
What does it look like? Are you just moving when you think the sticks are centred? That’s a common problem with joysticks, and you can try recalibrating, or seeing if there’s somewhere to adjust the dead zone.
I’m using the standard Microsoft pc game pad, (aka a 360 controller with a usb attachment)
When the game starts I am moving. I roll my sticks around and this some times stops the problem. Not always however. I have not found any menu oprions in the game for altering a dead zone.
There are no options for altering the dead zone in the game controller properties in windows. I have recalibrated them and the problem is still there. I think it’s just a matter of the game being a scooch too sensitive when it comes to joy pads. Gotta give that middle 10 percent over to the sticks being at rest. or at least let there effect be incremental.
On looking at how the controller throws out it’s raw data to a pc, I sense that the 360 pad is not being designed for.
Would I be right?
@ James
“Anyway we’ve revised that handling now as well so that the LSTICK is used instead.”
Cool, glad to hear about the driving!
Ah ok, seems I had it wrong about the joypad and inversion, Once I inverted the 360 pad things got a lot more reasonable when it came to flight.
However; according to the menu the inversion of the look is the same as the inversion of the up and down while running and shooting.
Any chance you could add a toggle to swap Yaw and roll on the controller? It might help unify all the craft. and soften the “Learn flight sim” factor in the controls.
I went looking for some of this lovely scenery in the instant action option and got shot down. I tried to join an empty server and all I got was a server disconnected message.
about the use key by the way, I bind use to space bar. and group movement around wasd with q to jump and e to crouch. I definitely take your point on accidentally falling out of a ship but I also like it when controls are whittled down to the fewest options possible. To facilitate pick up and play gaming.
@ James
Add the /use_god cheat mode and you won’t die.
Also the quickest way to do that is to use a DJP to go from one base to the next. You can do it either in fp mode or in a vehicle (but not a fighter or gunship). So you could DJP from MZD01 (the desert area) to MZM01 (moderate) and go from there.
What do you mean? What are you trying to swap? Anyway, this is what the new revision is like.
[BEFORE]
VEHICLE:
- LSTICK : F/B to throttle (W/S)
- LSTICK : L/R has no effect
- LT/RT : increase/decrease thrust (W/S)
- LB/RB : L/R to turn/yaw (A/D)
AIRCRAFT
- LSTICK : F/B to (i) up/down in VTOL (F/Z) (ii) throttle (W/S)
- LSTICK : L/R to roll
- LT/RT : increase/decrease thrust (W/S)
- LB/RB : L/R to turn/yaw (A/D)
[AFTER]
VEHICLE:
- LSTICK : F/B to throttle (W/S)
- LSTICK : L/R to turn (A/D)
- LT/RT : no effect
- LB/RB : no effect
AIRCRAFT
- LSTICK : F/B to throttle (W/S)
- LSTICK : L/R to roll
- LT/RT : up/down in VTOL (F/Z)
- LB/RB : L/R to turn/yaw (A/D)
That should be /use_godmode
New build should be up later tonight or early tomorrow.
Here’s whats new since the demo version 1.18.15
Just a quick one. You refer to CTRL+Y and ALT+Y as doing the teleport thing in different paragraphs.
That sounds great for not getting lost!
Are you going to enable bots on the demo servers that you’ve got running?
Can we get a toggle to swap…
AIRCRAFT
- LSTICK : F/B to throttle (W/S)
- LSTICK : L/R to roll <= this
- LT/RT : up/down in VTOL (F/Z)
- LB/RB : L/R to turn/yaw (A/D) <= and this
So that turning can be universally the same from the controller.
While I'm here may I also suggest…
VEHICLE:
- LSTICK : F/B to throttle (W/S)
- LSTICK : L/R to turn (A/D)
- LT/RT : increase throttle \ Break
- LB/RB : no effect
@ jonfitt
Thanks. Its CTRK+Y, that was a typo. And its a mappable key – so have at it. :)
Yes. Its going to get crazy – especially in Co-Op.
@ James
OK on both.
We used to have a roll/yaw toggle in previous builds. But when we mapped yaw to its own keys, we removed the toggle.
Any chance of getting Ctrl and Shift to be bindable?
I’ve spent probably thousands of hours playing fps’s now, and Shift is run, and Ctrl is duck. I’m too stuck in my ways now to change. For the longest time I didn’t think you could duck in AAW until I pored over the keylist looking for it!
Flight-sims are fair game, I’ll Ctrl-F and Alt-G all day, but in an FPS I need to know where things are without looking down.
I feel that I’m a little late to the party [installing the demo will wait until the morrow], but just thought I’d say how incredibly ace and refreshing it is to have Derek here to help people out, talk honestly about the game and generally do a very very good job of promoting the game.
–
Seeing the resulting INTERNET FURY does make me realise why more people don’t do this. So double-kudos for you, chap – I can think of many devs who would do well to follow your example.
“I’ve spent probably thousands of hours playing fps’s now, and Shift is run, and Ctrl is duck. I’m too stuck in my ways now to change. ”
I’ll add a me-too to that; I really think it would add to the game being more intuitive.
P.
I’ve played FPS games since you couldn’t even duck, or look up or down at all for that matter matty. the way ducking/prone ect works in this game is nothing new. This is how it works in Rainbow Six type games, OPflash ect because it allows you to change your position with great detail and is pretty common way for keys to be set up.
You WILL get used to it, your human brain is always capable of accepting any changes it will just take a while. I know after I play Arm-A for a while or Universal Combat then go back to playing DOD I have problems relearning the other keys :P Not to mention in arM-a running around to much literally can make your guy pass out and die lol.
I REALLY wish my computer could play AAW but I supose I’ll just have to settle for playing UC for now (Then again UC is better in my book becasue it technically has everything AAW has, plus space so there) You guys can attack a base with some gunships and fighters ect, I can attack it with a warmonger battle cruiser for sub-orbital levels HAH :P
What does the SPACE key do in this game? I read in the new Op Flash game it makes you throw your character to the ground as this is generally more useful than hopping about uselessly ;P When you start getting shot it being able to slam the largest key on your keyboard to lay down is not a bad idea. Even more so in a game where laying prone takes you off enemy radar (if that is still true in AAW)
cool, I look forward to the new version.
em, while we have you here; I gotta ask about the battle cruiser 300 advert with Jo Guest. Who’s idea was that and how did it come about?
From my perspective, in an age of adverts that made massively unrealistic promises when it came to graphics, it was a stroke of genius to do something simply shocking to make people aware of the name.
Speaking of strange adverts I’m still trying to figure out wtf this local dr paid tons of money to have a CGI dr come on tv and talk about their office instead of just . . . coming on TV and talking about their office. I mean at least it should have been a CGI monster or something but it was just a Dr . . it was really badly done like it would have been better with a stop motion lego dr.
OK demo v1.18.17 is currently being uploaded to our server so mirrors can grab and host it.
I’m not gonna host it because my bandwidth already spiked this month. So am going to send an email to my mirrors guys. Hopefully they will start hosting it very soon.
The patch weighs in at 65MB.
This will be the only update for the demo. If you are going to get the game, then wait for the final version due out……soon. I think.
The patch is actually a little under 9MB. You can download it from the link below. This link will go dark once all the mirrors have it.
All Aspect Warfare Demo v1.18.17 Patch Update
I will update the servers in a bit.
WorthPlaying mirror
@James Brophy
I remember that advert and it blew my 13 year old mind. You can imagine my disappointment however when I discovered that it Battlecruiser 3000AD had nothing to do with half naked women…
I want to see this ad now! Found Jo Guest on the Youtube but no 3000ad ad
Sorry I can’t participate in this discussion at the moment, have friends over, busy weekend.
BUT!
http://www.granhaug.no/mikael/old/pics/Battlecruiser.jpg
Yah, that was all Take Two marketing’s idea. I had nothing to do with it. In fact, the first time I saw it was when I got the sell sheet. Imagine my horror and surprise. But back then I was a Green game dev n00b with no power to fight (though I eventually did and nailed them – twice) “the man”, so it stayed.
What most people don’t know is that despite all the bad press, the game did do very – very – well. Especially when I released my version shortly after Take2 shipped the buggy BETA version to meet their Christmas deadline. My game was one of the games that took Take 2 – as we now know it – public. Yes, little known fact. Search for battlecruiser in the original SEC filing and see for yourself. Then do the math.
Second link above was duped. Here is the correct one for the sell sheet.
http://www.3000ad.com/bin/bc3k_promo2.jpg
Derek Smart is one degree of separation from Jo Guest?
I doff my hat.
Some more detail on the ad from a Jo Guest fan who has obviously studied this in, ahem, detail:
“In 1996, Jo did a photoshoot for a company that was promoting the “Battlecruiser 3000AD” game for the PC. Only one (black-and-white) photo from that shoot was used: it showed Jo wearing a black leather bra, panties and thigh-length boots – she was perched on a stool with the game itself held in front of her on the stool. The photo appeared in that form (with only the name of the game repeated plus the name of the distributor) in several PC magazines, including the November 1996 issue of PC Gamer.
However, that was not the only version of the advert. For the more “laddish” magazines (e.g. PC Zone) one or two alterations were made. For a start, the caption “She really wants it” was added, and in this version of the photo it looked like she wasn’t wearing any panties (the game box obviously obscured the interesting area). Having examined both adverts carefully I’ve come to the conclusion that the panties were airbrushed out of the PC Zone version, and NOT digitally inserted on the PC Gamer version. But I could be wrong…”
P.
Paul, you should get out more. Seriously. :)
Took a quick go a few minutes ago…
Finally managed to get to a canyon with water. Prettyish. Not spectacular. Jumped in for a dip.
http://img208.imageshack.us/i/aaw05.png/
My arms are apparently hinged to my ears.
Also, to my mind ‘mouselook’ is not ‘mouseSTEER’. I never asked for mouse steering in vehicles. I wanted to be able to look with the mouse (like one of the car passengers) independantly of steering with the keys.
You would benefit HUGELY in creating an FPS by labeling a few weekend’s RESEARCH and playing HL2 and TF2 and taking many, many notes on the UI.
You’d both gain a thorough knowledge of modern gaming convention and access to the common concepts and terms most FPS gamers use when discussing FPS titles.
Like MOUSELOOK while DRIVING.
Will say more later after weekend, only had a few seconds.
By the way, did you get my bug report & suggestions by e-mail a few days ago? Received no confirmation.
Are we going to try this again, RPS?
Tried the new demo version this morning… was spawned in a lovely field with a jet pack and nothing to do… I opened the map and it was a solid field of green. with no markers, I looked for friendlies and found reverend speed in the distance…
for some reason unknown to us we respawned… and suddenly we were beside each other. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, standing in a field with a jet pack.
In the instant action, Not able to find the new controll toggles in the menus, still driving with the shoulder buttons. However I did manage to fly a craft and Kill something finally! then i accedentally activated mouse flight while looking for night vision and promptly ploughed into the ground…
Is there any point in continuing to play once you have to start walking from the desert?
Not sure this is really my type of game, will probably give it a go as I love the idea but I am just too lazy to give this the attention it deserves.
However, I wanted to echo the comments regarding Mr Smart’s activity here. Stuff like that needs commending as too few people do it.
@ Reverend
When swimming in real life, don’t you see your arms in front of you when you do that stroke? Yeah, its like that.
No. My mailbox is protected by ChoiceMail One. So unless you respond to the challenge question, it won’t get through. Check your email or spam filter for it.
@ James
You should ALWAYS spawn in a base. Not out in the open. We ran a bunch of tests last night – and just now as well – and didn’t experience that at all.
If you can reproduce it, press N a few times to cycle to the NID/LOC view and give me the name of MZONE and detected base.
Anyway am uploading 1.18.18 now which has the new controls, since some people seem to be using xbox controllers.
Demo build 1.18.18 is up.
Changelog:
http://downloads.3000ad.com/aaw_dev_changelog.txt
@ James
That spawning in a remote area seems to be related the addition of bots on the demo server. One of our testers just reported it and it doesn’t happen in the full game.
Don’t have time to investigate atm, so I have disabled bots on our official servers.
The Worthplaying mirror now has the 1.18.18 patch