Warz, can we get a video of this game? I'm not following what the red lines represent. The path taken by the tank? Also, add collision right away, tanks in tanks in tanks look weird.
I tried recording one with Fraps and uploading it to youtube, but youtube said something about it not being able to encode my video. If anyone knows how to upload a fraps video to youtube then I can do that.
The tanks are just temporary models. I should probably use cones or something instead, so people don't get confused. I haven't picked a theme for my game, yet, but it's going to be a large-scale tower defense. The maps are large, although you can't tell it there because I've got the models drawing at about 500% of the size that they will eventually be. My goal is to basically allow the user to zoom in and out so they can micromanage the entire strategy or smaller parts of it, and sort of require the user to focus attention on different parts of the terrain. Sort of blending tower defense and RTS, I guess.
In those screenshots, the red line represents the least-cost path from point A (some random point on the map) to point B (the origin, 0). The paths will not be visible in the final version. The paths are calculated using the
A* search algorithm. The first screen shot shows the algorithm with a generic euclidean distance heuristic equation. The second screen shot is using the same euclidean equation, but with some generated noise - that's why the lines are a little more random. The third screenshot is just using a different, free roaming camera class.
I'll probably be moving onto collision detection relatively soon. I'm most likely going to do something along the lines of making each enemy unit have a "positive charge" so they repel each other if they're too close. Before I add collision detection, though, I have to add the ability to place towers. Then, once I have towers, I'll make them fire at the closest, living enemy. That's when I'll need collision detection, at a generic level, for detecting bullet collisions.