Mortal Damnation - Post Apocalyptic Survival RPG

(I'm sorry but, I do not feel like editing this whole post, however this is no longer an mmo. This will now be a single player game with multiplayer capabilities.)

Hey everyone, So lately I have been playing a lot of games, one of them being DayZ standalone. The concept is great, the game-play can sometimes be fun but the networking.. Omg its horrid.. So... Given all these ideas I was having while playing games, I decided to make my own survival MMO game. Heres the result after 1 day of development.

Unlike Dayz, This game will WORK over the network and you will not need to wait 20 minutes for a message to be sent or received from the server .


Plus I have a lot more in store for this other than a plain old clone with better networking . I'm talkin about in-game building, skill system, setting up towns/camps etc.

Development Update #2 (August 4th 2014)

Development Update #3 (August 25th 2014)

Let me know what ya'll think.
Thanks!

 

I like DayZ so this should be fantastic! Hoping to see more updates in the future and not a dead thread.

 

Don't worry I still gots lots of ideas to put into this so not dead yet! heh. Usually I kill off a project only when I believe it has no potential and any more work would be a waste of time and I don't feel that way with this one .

I've been working on the code and have created a stand in backpack model that will hold stuff. Like Dayz the carrying space will be very limited. However.. Instead of space using a grid like system I'm going to base everything by weight.. for example.. you can carry 20lbs in a backpack, a pistol weighs 3 lbs so you can carry a few pistols, ammo, and food or something like that.. The limitations always pissed me off in dayz ha.

Also.. I don't think zombies are the way to go.. I hate the overuse of zombies in games nowadays, so I'm gonna come up with a different idea, maybe creatures from space from landed drop ships? If I go sci-fi then I can add in some future weapons and stuff which would be fun.

Ill post some update images and whatnot when I finish up some more code.

If anyone is interested in helping out.. I'm in need of models and animations. At the moment I'm using stand-ins.

Character: MakeHuman (Open Source)
Animations: Mecanim tutorial + raw mocap data package.

 

Stand in backpack and strafe animations now in.
Player will strafe when gun is being held and aimed

 

Hey guys, Just wanted to post a quick update letting ya'll know my effort has been going into proper design and networking. Have login screen all set up which logs in with user credentials and then connects to the MMO world. As by "proper design" I'm referring to setting up all of the scripts that will control each part of the game.. IE: Events, mobs, player, world, GUI and so on.

If anyone knows of a good source for strafe mecanim animations I'd really appreciate if ya drop me a line! Or anything else in regards to models or animations as I'm looking for free stand-in stuff for now until the code is all set up.

Thanks for viewing
-Eddy

 

This for me just looks well amazing, Keep up the good work.

 

@alphacra
Thanks for the support . I will be holding some basic game-play testing in a few weeks just to test out some features and to test the stability of the server: Loading player customization options will be heavy and I want to make sure it is done right to support hundreds of players in case this ever takes off. I will post the link in a few places when its ready but if ya like I can send ya a message if you would like to test it.

I will definitely make sure pvp works along with random item spawns through out the world before any testing begins, So players can at least have some fun shooting each other. I'm also working on some nice gore touches like heads being blown apart and limbs being damaged which will be lots of fun . Getting shot in the leg (With enough dmg) will render your leg useless and the leg will drag along the ground forcing you to crawl (Assuming your leg doesn't get blown off, which will be an UN-recoverable blow).


While I'm at it, here's a few more ideas I am implementing.. This will take place a bit in the future where medical aid has been advanced. When you die, you CAN be fully looted, however your customized character will survive and you will awake in a medical facility where a doctor has "put you back together" If your clothes have been looted you will re-spawn with a hospital gown.

Along with medical advancements you can have body modifications done to yourself, body re sculpted, arm modifications, leg modifications for running faster or improving melee attacks. This is also how player customization will be done to the players body.

Sorry for the rant. Just shooting out future features and ideas. This is all aimed for the future so don't expect this to be in pre-alpha stability test .

-Eddy

 

Can I ask where you're getting the models/animations. Those animations are pretty nice for being open source.

Lol nevermind. I see you already posted them.

I'll sub to you on youtube for future updates

 

Alright! Yeah the player model I used MakeHuman for and the animations are in tons of the demo assets for mecanim in the asset store.

If you come across any more good animations lemme know where ya get em from! I need some strafe animations for when yielding weapons.

 

So MMO.

 

Game name: Mortal Damnation?

 

Yup, 1 world with a massive land. (Hopefully undivided by loading zones but we will see. Should be doable with Area Of Interest over networking)

 

You should have waited to show more.

 

Why? Having the support of others tends to give me motivation. That's just how my brain works . So having people liking what litte has been showed actually gives me the ambition to get a sh*t ton more done .

 

A character controller and a floor with pixel art textures, not anything to support. Can be done in an hour or so, even for unexperienced people. I'd say when you have working networking, or a working level with mechanics to show. This is still not enough to differentiate you from the eleventeen millon MMOs around here.

 

Maybe so, But still.. This is still a work in progress and has every right to be in the section on the forums. So honestly, I can post whatever I damn well please about what I am currently working on. Also, That is not nearly all that is done nor are you correct. A Character controller does not control the player. Animations and mecanim do which took plenty of time to set up. The networking is in a working state I just only connected with 1 player for the purpose of this video. If you can do better then go for it however at the moment I am happy with the state this is in and am very satisfied with the progress I have been making and tomorrow night when I finish some more I will post another video with a little more done. (But still only a little )

Also note: I am currently employed full time as a software developer so even an hour at the end of the day to work on a project of my own is a big deal to me.

 

Yeah and I get that, but you're not going to get the feedback and praise you want and could possibly deserve when you have something that looks worse(no offence) than some Ludum Dares. My reasoning behind this is people would much rather enjoy eye candy, or a well working prototype over some character controller(with animations and mecanim) and some simple networking. Rather, a complete level, functional GUI and several people online with tons of features and mechanics, don't need to be final, but it's better than this.

 

Yeah I guess you're right. But since I already have this up.. I am going to keep updating it with new stuff as time progresses, and if all people are interested in seeing is eye candy, then this project will not be one for them to follow since I am not an artist or a modeler. I am a coder. So this will pretty much "look" like "From a viewable stand point" a heap of crap thrown together with cubes and open source stuff until it hits the final development stage of polish. (Which is when I will hire some artists or an artist to do some work on it). However.. If people wanna see some great game mechanics and gameplay features then keep an eye out as this type of code will be making its way into the videos.

Aside from all that, I guess I just want to have a project out there that I can say I shared with the public from beginning to end. So everyone can see this blossom from nothing to something and observe the hardships a programmer goes through to get a project to a fun and playable state all for the players . Plus, the ideas from others will help a lot through out this as I don't want to make a game that only I like but a game that has a personal touch from all the people who will be playing it. Something that I don't think a lot of game designers do since most of the mechanics in mmo's these days are washed up and re-used.

 

No worries mate, just make sure it gets done, so you're not part of the 99% of people who have ideas and never get them done. And yeah I get that, I did the same thing which is why I'm letting you know, I made a thread with hardly anything and it never got much feedback or anything because there was hardly anything to give feedback on.

 

Hey guys, sorry for no reply in a few days.. Haven't had much time this week to do work on this until this weekend so here is a quick update with what I am working on:

-Server + MMORoom is now setup, players can join and Area Of Interest works for items and players.

-Networked movement is half way complete. Movement is sent and received, remote players at the moment only take the current position, remote players do not yet animate or move smoothly while moving, They rather just assume the position of where they should be. This will change next time I work on movement.

-Networked items, I have started work on picking up and dropping items over the network. What makes survival games fun is almost everything can be picked up and used somehow. This game will be no different except this will be the main focus of this game. Scavenge whatever you can and build a fancy little shelter to blow the sh** out of some creatures . This will be pretty awesome once players start building big towns with barricaded entrances that will need to be protected 24/7 either via players or turrets. I'd like to implement some sort of penalty system for players killing players within a safe zone but I'm not sure what that will be yet. Although.. Players who have been playing for a long time and are wearing high level armor such as energy armor (Power Armor can suck it!) will have very little dmg taken from low level weapons such as makeshift weapons. So this should stop players from spawning and griefing and create a sort of mentorship persona for experienced players + new players. Of course rewards will be added for that as well. What I'm aiming for is a fun PvP game that allows for friendly interactions and some nice PvE as well.

Well aside from all the high hopes here is a screen shot. Not much to look at for now but more is on its way as soon as I get past the major game systems .



Stand in flashlight + stand-in pants item. still working out how inventory will work.

Thanks for viewing!
-Eddy

 

Just another video for you guys. . Feedback is always welcome!

 

I just found your old equipment system and am using it in my game. Are you using it for this game?

 

Heh nice, I'm using the concept... So the way of designing and equipping clothes by attaching clothes bones to the players bones. That's about it though. I'll be re-creating the inventory and equipment system from the ground up as it will require some special stuff to work over networking .

 

This is really good! Keep up the good work

 

Thanks buddy, Glad you like it!

 

This is great, but will you modeling your own character later in the game?

 

Thanks! I don't really have any modeling skills aside from basic stuff in Blender so I will not be making any models. I am strictly a programmer . However... As this progresses and when I am ready to start polishing and working on art I will be taking money from my personal pocket (If that is what it comes to) to pay for artwork and models and such that are custom designed. This will be a long time down the road but nope I will not keep the same stuff in place . It's all stand in.

 

Also if anyone is interested in the project and can do some good art drop me a line. I'm looking for someone who can do good work for reasonable prices. Thanks.

 

Hey guys, Here's an update!

I've finished the client side and networking code that allows players to pickup items and view them in their inventory. Pretty fun stuff . You can pickup an item by looking at it while it is in your crosshair and while you are within a specific distance from it. The inventory style I am going with will be a simple list of carried items, so simple yet effective. A "Size" carry limit will not exist however a limit of weight will. A player can carry as much as they can lift. Weight carrying limit will be altered by clothes being worn and by backpacks. Also by players strength attribute. Below is a screenshot.



Note: The inventory UI is not finished, the code to get items into the inventory from the networked (server authoritative) item list is though.

 

Looks fun not too dissimilar to Lifeless when it comes to the concept .

We are releasing on the 25th, and it's fully functional with anything you can imagine, crafting, fortifying, gathering, traps, group systems, chats, clothing, levels, quests, achievements, etc etc etc .

Http://lifelessgame.com

 

Wow just watched a video of it on youtube. Amazing stuff. I'll be looking forward to playing!

 

The shameless self promotion is real

 

^ and self promoting is perfectly fine here. I'm a true gamer at heart so to me this just gave me another option for games out there

 

looks cool man i love the jumping around, it adds something, and you should add some parkour elements to it, ive always wanted to see a TPS with proper parkour elements or as its also called "russian urban tactics" !

 

Well, I don't really need to promote it it's doing it on its own by now. I just figured it was very similar (in the idea) to this project, so I said something ...

 

Great minds think alike ^_^ I've already been searching the net for stand-in animations until I can get some custom ones done. Going to have movement techniques and special abilities n crap like that. Lots of fun. The movement is going to be client side so this should work out pretty well, it opens up vulnerability to hacking but I already have some code to do player movement checks for anti-hacks. So if you are somebody who has dialup internet.. sorry but you will be getting kicked a lot for teleporting (lagging)

 

You should look into interest management. You should also do client side prediction etc .
In regards to zombies and things like that, those should all be server sided, but keep in mind that once again, interest management is vital!

If you are serious about this project and want to solve things like this, you should have a look at my document I wrote up on this issue/topic.
http://rigid-soft.com/LifelessOverview/

 

yea i know the animation work is gonna be tough, but would be something that would be great to see in a game like yours ah alright, yea i have no clue about netcoding and clientside stuff, but it sounds like a good improvement i would say keep it up man

 

Thanks guide looks awesome ima give it a read. Yeah I have certain things on the priority to do list but when I get tired of coding coding coding I go in a different direction for a bit until I am ready to get back to tediousness heh. What networking solution did you use for your project? I am using SFS which seems to be working amazing. Also.. How did you handle server side movement for npcs, players etc? I am thinking I should use a headless client on the server machine that get information for the server but am not sure if this is the most efficient. (For pathfinding, collision, etc.)

 

Disregard my last message, after reading it appears you went with Unitys networking with custom code to handle AOI and item management

 

Indeed .

 

Justei, You seem like a pretty intelligent guy, and also a fellow programmer so I have a question for ya, Or for anyone else who can answer this... I probably shouldn't be giving out my dev plan as it will open the door people exploiting.. But.. So I do not have to have a client running server side and so I do not need the server constantly managing creatures/zombies that are not being used (No players around) would this be a good idea.... I'm thinking of having the zombies created via clients (if a client is in the area of a zombie spawn zone and no zombies are around) a client will instantiate a zombie and handle pathfinding and then tell the server the movements the zombie is making so other clients can see the zombie. The client that holds agro of the zombie will be the client that is controlling/managing the zombie and its movement/pathfinding. If the zombie switches agro, the zombie will switch its master controller over to the new client and so on. This will allow for the player who is attacking the zombie to have a flawless battle with no lag. (I assume at least 75% of players will be soloing anyways while scavenging) does this sound like it makes sense and will work?

I would do a strict peer 2 peer where master zombie clients tell other clients the zombies plan but I want the server in between the communication so it can handle cheat prevention and also 90% of the player variables will only be stored on the server and only sends variables to players when they need to view the variables (no altering of vars happen directly on the client except for movement which still requires server authentication)

 

Well, this is not a good idea. Simply because of several reasons:
1. When people find this out, hacking will cause major headaches.
2. What about if a person disconnects? Do the zombies disappear?
3. What about if a person has bad internet, half of the zombies will be laggy, and others will be smooth?
4. What about people with bad performance? Having them run a bunch of zombies etc will just ruin their experience.

What you want to do is (like I said) interest management, as well as proper networking management (default network views etc will not work properly, too unoptimized) and also making sure you put the AI of zombies etc to sleep when players are not around .

 

Heh yeah i Guess so, Been going over and over and thinking of different ways to do this. I solved those issues by.. Only a cpl zombies can be tagged to a player, when they leave or leave the AOI the zombie will switch to a new client for a controller. Player with lowest ping would control the zombies and so on. I still dont know though. You guys went with unity networking which is a completely different beast then SmartFoxServer which is what I am using. mine literally is a server running on a machine while you guys most likely have an instance of unity3d running as the master client / server. I like how you did the networking though and I have done networking very similar in the past with unitys.. Have you done a stress test and if so what is the max cap you can do for players within the area of interest of each other? I may switch solutions. Or may not if I can think of a better way to do this.

 

One more thing.. I actually think I have a solution.. Im going to go with a client running on the server that will be just used to handle positions of objects and pathfinding and what not, this client does not have a player attached to it and because it runs on the same machine the transactions between server and server client should be seamless with no lag.

Only issue is.. This client will need to have every building, mob, and all of that instantiated while they are in existence and im sure will take a hit to fps. Luckily my machine can handle it as its a power pc baby

 

That is not a good solution. What you need to have are obviously dedicated servers that run an instance of the game, where you control all the AI/Zombies etc. And then the players control themselves. That's the only reliable way of doing this.

 

Yeah that's exactly what I mean. On the server machine I'm gonna have an instance of unity opened up which handles AI and such.

 

That's good . You can also run unity builds in headless and on linux.

 

This is looking good, keep it up, keep us posted!

 

Hey all, Just wanted to give an update. First this is first.. This game is no longer being developed as an MMO. I am developing this as a single player game with multiplayer capabilities. Players will control a survivor... And you're objective is to establish a base and survive, you will be able to find more survivors and recruit other survivors and so on, The multiplayer portion comes in by... the game owner can invite his friends to play in his/her game and your friend will be able to control survivors you are currently not controlling.

Anyways enough said, Here is a video...

Development Update #3

Whats New:
-Containers. This system will be what is used to loot chests, dressers, cabinets.. you know all the good scavenging . Containers can also be equipped, ex: Backpack, Pouch, etc.
The item placement is an open canvas, move items where ever you want and organize at your own will. You can store as much as you'd like of items in any container as long as the weight does not exceed the maximum weight limit of the container.

Thanks for viewing!

PS: I'm looking into another GUI solution as unity's is very in-efficient so the design will change a bit but the idea of how it works will remain the same.