Xero Lynx RTS

Hi all,

I noticed that the Unity Asset Store has a strange absence of stuff pertaining to real time strategy games and I love that genre. So, I came up with an idea: I'll build a foundation for an RTS game while simultaneously working on an actual game. It's still super early in the development of all this work but there's a little over 2 months of part time work done and it's starting to really come along with certain things.

The idea is: I'm strongly considering getting this put together as a modular, extensible product for the Asset Store as well as plug in some assets to create an actual game. But we'll see what happens - depending on how well it's coming along at around the month 5 or 6 mark will probably determine if I work on it in the long term (say the next 2 years).

Progress on this can be followed at: http://www.scottfreecapital.com/

First, some gifs:






Some things I'm trying to accomplish with this:

• A moddable/extensible unit database and construction/creation system
• A great selection system, including good controls over groups using hotkeys, great management via the UI
• Solid UI mechanics - it doesn't look flashy yet but right now at this phase that's not the point. The point via this prototype is getting it to feel good and provide good management tools for the player
• Resource gathering, this is already coming along pretty well - it's very plug-and-play too. A GameObject can become a resource by just dropping a component on to it
• A solid basic combat system that can utilize both melee style and ranged attacks
• Unit clustering/formation/obstacle avoidance
• A solid mini-map system

Come to think of it, there's a lot about this that is pretty ambitious but I think I've gotten a fair amount done so far before the 3 month mark. The mini map is currently not so mini, as here how it currently appears in its early stages:



Any questions, thoughts, and feedback are extremely welcome. I suppose it's fair to say that nothing here is too impressive and thus it's not surprising that I haven't gotten that much feedback just yet. I'll try to return to this thread in the future to post new updates.

 

I want to make 3D building city game.. I hope this kit will help

 

Ah, yeah - there are some city building elements you could do with this although it's not really built to be something like a Cities: Skylines or SimCity, if that's what you mean. This is primarily meant to be a foundation for creating a base building RTS like some of these games:

• Age of Empires
• Command & Conquer
• Supreme Commander / Total Annihilation
• Dune 2

Edit: Having said that, though, it is probably feasible that if you have resources in a city building game that have to be managed (water, money, electricity, etc) then you might be able to build something in. You'd have to use some other traffic system, or perhaps build a custom one. I could foresee a fairly quick way to construct a basic little AI for pedestrians that works kind of like RollerCoaster Tycoon where they wonder back and forth along paths and conduct certain actions when near other GameObjects.

 

It included all I want (actually I like clash of clans) I'll hope to see soon in the asset store

 

Hi scottfreemedia,

First, that's awesome that you want to do more for the RTS genre in Unity. I applaud you for that

Second, I was wondering if you've seen some of the packages already on the asset store? For instance, one of the more recent frameworks I've seen on the asset store is the SRTS package. I don't want you to have to "re-invent the wheel" so-to-speak. Of course, you could aspire to make your RTS framework better and more awesome. But just wanted to let you know some of what's out there already.

Also, for RTS, pathfinding is huge. Are you going to try to make your own pathfinding system, or use one of the ones on the asset store already?

I'm just wondering really. Because I've thought about making an RTS framework before, but I never wanted to program my own pathfinding, and I'd have to piece together systems taken from other people lol.

Anyways, good luck. And you're right, RTS is ambitious. But I always say, if it's what you love to do, do it!

 

I think there are so many pathfinding asset... don't make pathfinding system but support other pathfinding system.. It is good to cooperate with other developers you should just support integration

 

Hey Velo,

SRTS is actually the only full foundation I've found. If there are others, it would be awesome to point me in their direction. Having said that, I did look at SRTS and while there are a number of similarities from what has been done so far in that pack and what I am working on, there are a number of important differences in what I am working to achieve.

Pathfinding is not particularly important to me, at least not yet. As thedreamer mentioned: I think there are plenty of other solutions out there for pathfinding that work really well. The A* Pathfinding Project appears to do a pretty outstanding job, in fact. Xero Lynx currently uses Unity's built in pathfinding. There are some things on my road map pertaining to Xero Lynx, particularly procedural world generation, in which case it will be very important that pathfinding and navmeshes can be constructed procedurally as well. Again, not sure if I'll stick with Unity's pathfinding or not, just haven't crossed that bridge yet.

Hopefully, as XLRTS (Xero Lynx RTS) continues on in its development it will begin to become evident some of the major differences between XLRTS and SRTS. Right now, the healthbars work drastically differently, the UI uses Unity's new UI system, and I see virtually no substantial similarity from SRTS to the XLRTS "minimap" system.

I admit, there is a deeper motive and agenda behind my building this foundation too: it is a foundation meant to support very specific features in a strategy game to be built upon it and Unity. I think I recently inquired about SRTS's ability to kind of interlink with different custom systems and haven't yet seen a response. I might be particularly interested in kind of meshing the two together if it's possible, it might save me a lot of work when it comes to stuff like a fog-of-war system, which looks solid enough (at the very least as a good starting point) in SRTS.

XLRTS actually didn't start as a pack, it started as a game, but then I realized that since it's going to become pretty modular and extensible anyway, I might as well work with keeping it as a pack in mind. But even so: the priority is not to create it as a pack, the priority is to create the mechanics necessary for a certain game design. At the time I started, I didn't have any other system in mind (SRTS or other) and probably won't going forward.

So, it's a bit too early to really say what XLRTS might have as a difference or any sort of superiority over SRTS. Where SRTS will be in 6 months versus this project - who knows? SRTS could be great and Xero Lynx could be so-so. The advantage for me in creating a particular game is: I control exactly where Xero Lynx goes and I have no control over the development decisions of SRTS (or any other pack/framework that comes along).

 

Yes, I know what you're saying in pressing forward. I just didn't want you to have to do a lot of extra work if you don't have to. I wish you good luck.

The pathfinding I'm using is so integrated into my project now that changing pathfinding systems would take a really long time. But I'm seeing new features in some pathfinding assets that I would really like to have now, but can't use unless I switch or upgrade. I'm using Aron Granberg's A* right now. And it works really well, but it's not perfect.

 

I have read your blog.. I Was impressed by your development philosophy
I wish I had seen soon in the asset store
However, Sale strategy is important in the asset store
I think Upgrade Plan is important
at first starting sales and consistently update
of course Initially sales record is bad
but Sales of new assets are poor

consistently update strategy attracts the attention of the user
Continuous updating is the best marketing strategy
I saw unpopular products grow Best Asset..

but Good products disappear without upgrade..
I don't buy asset, have passed Three months after the update
It is fun to watch that asset's growth

 

Thank you, thedreamer, for reading the blog. I don't know how much development philosophy I've expressed just yet, but yeah, there are definitely some mental meanderings there.

Doing a design for any RTS and reducing the dependency of each of its individual systems down to a minimal state is extremely challenging and making this an Asset Store product really revolves around a lot of that, I think.

So, just a quick little announcement as I'm responding to you here: I'm going to make a playable prototype of this available for free sometime in July 2015 for those who are interested to help me in development. Note: this is not going to be any access to the actual assets or code, it's purely to assist in testing purposes and to get feedback from players.
http://www.scottfreecapital.com/2015/04/18/xero-lynx-week-10-big-announcement/

 

WoW Great! but I really want asset in the asset store..

 

I totally understand!

 

I would be interested in assisting ,how can we get in touch ?

 

I'm not currently looking for assistance but I will probably be hiring an artist to put together some work later.

If you have something else you feel you could meaningfully contribute, you're welcome to start a conversation outside the thread to discuss it further.

 

Small update this weekend showing some early progress on the beginnings of the individual unit AI:
http://www.scottfreecapital.com/2015/04/25/xero-lynx-week-11-i-see-you-human/

And a GIF:

 

Bookmarked. Very interesting. I hope you consider Dota style gameplay support for your project. Will you release it soon?

 

It has a long way to go. No release date yet. Also, just an update on this: I'm working on a built in AI that will come with it, and that's taking a lot of work.

But it's exciting and coming along well!

 

A few updates on this: the project has been renamed to Revelation RTS and I will probably start a new thread eventually, perhaps upon an initial release. No price or release date has yet been announced but here are some important links to take a look at regarding this project's progress.

• Can I Build My RTS Game With Revelation RTS? (important: includes info on all planned features for first release)
• Revelation RTS is now on IndieDB
• October Update (describes info on input management work to be done, AI, UI, play config, others)

The build menu has received a significant update, as you are now able to configure unit data through XML, and the dynamic build system imports that data at run time.