knucracker

Pict of the Week – Raise Shields!

A long time ago, in a University not so far away, yours truly was a physics undergraduate sitting in a third year class on electromagnetism.  It was taught by a professor Lado:  http://www.physics.ncsu.edu/people/faculty_lado.html .

Now, nearly everything I know about Maxwell’s equations and electromagnetism in general, I owe to this man.  He was a great teacher and I paid attention to every (well nearly) word.  Later, I would go on to finish my undergraduate degree then proceed to waste my life in software…

But, a few things from those days stuck with me… ok, maybe a tad more than a few.  In particular, I’ve kept a fascination with fields.  You know, the kind of things you imagine forming lines between the poles of magnets.

Zip to the present and it occurred to me how interesting it would be if there were fields in the game and if the Creeper were affected by them.  Fans of the CW series are well aware that Game 2 had fields, and they were used for some interesting and often destructive things.  In Game 3 I’ve expanded the implementation to support analog fields that can push with varying degrees of force in any direction.  Now, rather than rush to make a nightmare enemy I thought, “What about something useful to the player?

12 hours of coding later with fields in place, Shields are born! Shields push outward radially against all Creeper.  They aren’t infinitely strong, but they can sure buy you some time and space to let your weapons do their magic.  In this week’s image I’ve managed to bridge two Command Node networks together and protect the Relays with shields.

114 Responses

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  1. Link327
    Link327 June 23, 2012 at 7:32 pm |

    Well…. the Shields seem to be Repulsors pointing in all directions at once 😛
    I <3 it.
    I recently rushed the CW1 Story Campaign again and if i'd think what would be possible with those….
    wow taht would be AMAZING!

  2. Lurkily
    Lurkily June 23, 2012 at 7:38 pm |

    Beautiful. Have you considered directional fields, such as we had in CW2, perhaps with a cone of effect? I’m eager to see fields that can be used to make AC more effective, as well as holding back the creeper.

  3. Lurkily
    Lurkily June 23, 2012 at 7:38 pm |

    Have you given any thought to the idea of making mods possible for CW3?
    In any indie game, mod support seems to be something that is either incredibly popular, or a footnote, a flop. The largest factor seems to be when it’s implemented, in my opinion. Games that release with mod support have a much better community working on the concepts than those who don’t.
    I suspect the games retain more players from the initial blooming of the community, and therefore also maintain a larger modding community, as opposed to games that implement it later, so that only the die-hard fans tie into the modding community.
    The short story is, if it’s going to be done, it should be complete upon release.

  4. 2b3o4o
    2b3o4o June 23, 2012 at 7:41 pm |

    There seem to be smaller circles inside the main shields. Are those indicators of the shields strength, or something else?

  5. Lurkily
    Lurkily June 23, 2012 at 8:06 pm |


    yomy:

    I very much like how your new game is progressing.
    I suppose that you hate when a newbie comes up with an idea, but here it goes: multiple creeper factions? Example – a map that has two different emitters, each of which produces it’s own creeper that is “rival” with the other… – creeper that destroys creeper – similar to your anti-creeper. It may be interesting for the storyline somehow?

    I support this idea. Intensely. Think of the possibilities of . . . . . . . allied creeper. We could call it AC for short. Oh . . . wait . . . . 😉

    Creeper that isn’t hostile to you is indistinguishable from AC, and can be served by putting AC emitters on the map. Multiple creeper factions hostile to you and each other would be cool . . . but difficult to represent visually, with the limited list of colors that contrast terrain well enough for Virgil’s purposes.

  6. Zackery
    Zackery June 23, 2012 at 9:15 pm |

    could be cool to see it also have a single direction repulse option. make it drain more power but with more distance.
    so itll be like a 2 unit in the form of one

  7. Zackery
    Zackery June 23, 2012 at 9:20 pm |

    oh also

    what about “digging” to get to a emitter
    like with cw2 you had to sometime dig to get to it. why not here? just have it underground and make the player dig to it. then when they get to the emitter have it spill out creeper. like a volcano “subtle hint at a map design”

    1. Lurkily
      Lurkily June 24, 2012 at 5:02 am |

      It’s been said that buried emitters have been considered, and that buried artifacts are very likely.

  8. Sorry
    Sorry June 23, 2012 at 9:21 pm |

    Sheilds, maby they kill creeper as well?

    1. Link327
      Link327 June 24, 2012 at 6:09 am |

      They could actually, put some AC-Source into the Shield, so the Shield will push it into the Creeper.

  9. Havvix
    Havvix June 23, 2012 at 10:42 pm |

    When i think of a shield i think of it as half a sphere, is that the case here? Will the it be like a wall holding back the creep until it reaches 1 elevation before the shield collapses?

    How much energy does it consume compared to teraforming a wall

  10. sweetdude64
    sweetdude64 June 23, 2012 at 11:58 pm |

    ok a few things here 🙂
    1.the shields dont LOOK like they are pushing any creeper back.(note i said look) Will shields be expensive and in the ‘better’ category, or 5 or so packetgs to push back 1 or 2 layers of creeper. Also for shields, does the force intensify if many shields are placed near each other?
    2. I have noticed in nearly every picture how much creeper the emitters are producing. These all look like boss levels! Will the layers of creeper turn out to be a regular amount or actually overflowing the whole map within the minute. now onto layers of creeper…(im gonna go count how many layers there are right quick…)
    ok, i have counted 26 layers of creeper being produced by the creeper in this picture. How many layers can there be!?!?! Note that this isnt the lowest lvl of terrain!!!
    3.along with fields, will there still be gravity? Here is how that could work, in the CW2 map editor, when you put down fields, you have 8 difections to choose from. One is in the middle and ‘stops’ or ‘holds’ creeper in that spot.
    You could make gravity using a more advanced method of the holding fields and possibly make the creeper easily go over terrain when gravity is low.
    4. I was thinking from the comments about new types of creeper and thought about lava and acid. They would act as both creeper AND anti creeper. There would be no way to make it, it would be added to the beggining of the map. For the data structures, you could put a positive number or both possitive and negative if they have a few differances.(i.e. the acid could be used more as AC and lava more as creeper.)
    5.HOw much will this game cost? 5-15 dollars is my estimate.
    6. thx for reading if u did 🙂

    1. Lurkily
      Lurkily June 24, 2012 at 9:12 pm |

      Pretty sure creeper can be infinitely deep. That was pretty much the case in CW1, where you could have MUCH greater density (depth) than the walls could ever hope to contain — so much that in some custom maps, a wall of creeper could rush across the map climbing five terrain levels in the minimum time it took to get a single blaster operational. (That map was a serious pain . . . but awesomely rewarding.)

  11. cavemaniac
    cavemaniac June 24, 2012 at 12:08 am |

    Loving what you’re doing Virgil!

    On a related, but slightly off subject note:

    Gravity.

    Has this been covered elsewhere?

    Will different worlds have different gravities?

    In CW2, gravity played a significant role – the higher the gravity, the denser the creeper, which affected the speed creeper could fill a space and spread, and also affected what weapon was appropriate to deal with it.

  12. BLODSWIPER
    BLODSWIPER June 24, 2012 at 4:34 am |

    Looks Greate!
    Rare Design.
    Not Much to say xD
    Can you guis like try make another game than CW ?
    you could like try make a 3D game.
    maybe 3D CW, like RED ALERT.

  13. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 24, 2012 at 7:30 am |

    Virgilw maybe there could be underground missions,but with no creeper…maybe those ” New sneaky enemies ” that you were talking about…….that would be intresting………..

  14. anon
    anon June 24, 2012 at 7:48 am |

    Repulsors from 2 becomes shields in 3. Does the power still stack? Like when you need to push back a lot of creeper and you set up three repulsors, does doing the same with shields still work? Also, how does the command nodes’ energy display work? Do we see them listed separately on a taskbar, or do we rely on the red energy display on the sprite itself?

  15. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 24, 2012 at 11:26 am |

    How many story maps do there will be?

  16. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 24, 2012 at 11:32 am |

    Strafers and Bombers are ” bumping ” into each other,Just look at 6th screenshot in Air power contiued,take a look at bombers in the corner of the map!

  17. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 24, 2012 at 1:27 pm |

    Maybe there could be Night missions when you can barrely see something,and you wold have to build projectors (sorry if i spelled wrong) so they make light and you see…i dont know how to put this…” things around you. ”

  18. lich98
    lich98 June 24, 2012 at 2:38 pm |

    Game looks great! Work with the creeper pipeline done yet? fields have to be part of it

  19. AnonymousX
    AnonymousX June 24, 2012 at 5:10 pm |

    now if the shield emitters could be mobile and pushed forward slowly towards the creeper…..hmmm still need to keep power nodes connected of course, could be most interesting

  20. MrNo
    MrNo June 24, 2012 at 5:40 pm |

    A small idea, on the subject of these “Shields”:

    Remembering the first game’s wall terrain pieces, which would slowly decay over time when creeper touched them, I’m wondering if something similar to them could be added in relation the these shields.

    My idea, basically, is to add a building that, when supplied with ammunition packets, would connect to the two nearest units of the same type, and create a wall between them that creeper couldn’t pass. When the creeper hits them, it drains the ammunition much faster, and when it runs out the shield goes down.

    That’s the idea I came up with in about a minute, so I understand that there’s going to be huge problems with it.

    If not this, I do hope that the decaying walls will make it back in (or if they have already, and I just didn’t see, yay!).

  21. Thallori
    Thallori June 24, 2012 at 6:36 pm |

    What do you think of the idea of having the shield be of near infinite strength, while requiring much energy, that would allow the creeper to flow over it one terrain unit. Essentially allowing a relay of these to keep your base safe even with entire map covered in creep, provided you have the energy economy to maintain it. Of course this would led to tediously long expansion times….

  22. Nemoricus
    Nemoricus June 24, 2012 at 7:44 pm |

    Hmm. Do the shields only need energy when they are directly in contact with creeper, or do they have a constant draw? If the former, does the amount of energy needed vary with how much Creeper is in the shields?

    Also, these units are awesome and I look forward to playing with them.

  23. Jimlad 42
    Jimlad 42 June 24, 2012 at 8:42 pm |

    I just had an idea! what about super upgrades for most unit, the uupgrade is expensiv, and useing it would also be expensiv. but it would be so awesome. So the AC maker would become a creeper storage unit able to store creeper and convert it into ore, but It would take energy in mass, and it would still take damage like normal.

    1. Jimlad 42
      Jimlad 42 June 24, 2012 at 8:44 pm |

      Ow! ow! ow! ow! I just wrote that horribly! Ignore the spelling errors.

  24. JohnyB
    JohnyB June 25, 2012 at 4:33 am |

    Maybe pulse blasters or mortars will have some sort of armor plating,a white bar would apear showing armor strength,and as creeper touches unit , that bar will slowly drain and when armor is destroyed..,….(EVERYBODY ALREADY KNOWS THAT) it s health will start going down and BOOOOM

  25. sweetdude64
    sweetdude64 June 25, 2012 at 10:50 am |

    1. yes,yes but the shields could not regenerate health and other side effects could be implemented. You could make it so it flies slower or shoots slower.
    2. D:> do shields HALF to consume energy D:> they didnt in the other 2 games <;""C

    1. Lurkily
      Lurkily June 25, 2012 at 9:34 pm |

      The only thing similar to shields in previous games were repulsors in CW2, which did indeed consume energy.

      Maybe you’re referring to unit health? It’s hard to tell, since this post was added as a new post, instead of a reply. (Something I’ve done myself once or twice.)

  26. JohnyB
    JohnyB June 25, 2012 at 11:28 am |

    Virgilw maybe this time spec ops wont be just bonus missions but diffrent game modes? For example i LOVED pushing creper back,activating the totems and escaping the planet,maybe there could be spec ops where you just activate totems and get out? lie cw1 did.Sure survival mode would be good too.

  27. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm |

    Maybe there could be some sort of machine that causes a earthquake,which causes land terraforming?

  28. FraterPotens
    FraterPotens June 25, 2012 at 1:48 pm |

    I have been very happy about your updates, but am a little sad about these shields. I thought the linear repulsars were a really interesting feature of CW2. They created great gameplay moments, where you would be trying to move your line forward, and it was intense, because the gap you created by moving one repulsar could endanger the whole line if you were not prepared. That seems to have been lost here a bit. I would have preferred a cone shaped field with vulnerability from the back and sides. You could even go the full magnet with a push on one end and a pull on the other. Then they would he extra useful paired with anti-creeper, but you would have to think carefully about where to place them. I just worry that a shield without vulnerabilities is going to have to be made weak or expensive.

    That said, I have faith in your (and the mapmakers) ability of balance the game.

    1. Lurkily
      Lurkily June 25, 2012 at 9:40 pm |

      Directional field units are planned, as well, though whether they’re angle-of-effect or linear is unknown, and probably still TBD.

      There are always ways to balance things. For instance, a linear projection would increase in its area-of-effect, and hence its power consumption (I assume) in a linear fashion, while a cone covers exponentially more area as the radius of the circle that the cone is cut from expands. (The inverse square law.) Hence, the winder the cone, the more severe the exponentially increase power draw would be.

      Just preliminary thoughts here, but I think there are ways to manage a shield’s balance according to its area of coverage.

      PS – I like the idea of a shield that pulls from one side, and pushes from the other, like a pipeline.

      1. lich98
        lich98 June 26, 2012 at 7:35 am |

        the idea of a puch pull shield is a good one…

  29. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 26, 2012 at 12:47 am |

    Hey Virgilw,man how old are you?

    1. lich98
      lich98 June 26, 2012 at 7:44 pm |

      Mid 20’s – mid 30’s would be my guess, but I might be wrong

    2. 2b3o4o
      2b3o4o June 26, 2012 at 8:13 pm |

      Wow, that was an extremely relevant comment.

  30. Lurkily
    Lurkily June 26, 2012 at 8:28 am |

    We’ve had people talking about terrain-deforming weapons, subterranean creeper emitters, and having to dig up emitters to get them nullified.

    These concepts could work together to give the player some new time pressure. If they don’t find a buried creeper emitter in time, it might explode from the ground from the pressure build-up. The crater would probably destroy any structures on the deformed terrain, and lots of high-density creeper would be released all at once.

    If the player knows there are buried emitters but not where, it might put him under some time pressure. They’d have to suitably disperse their network, and start trying to locate the emitter (whether through digging or detection tech is of course, up for debate) then try to find a way to release the creeper in a controlled manner so that the huge release didn’t overwhelm their defenses.

  31. JohnyB
    JohnyB June 26, 2012 at 12:15 pm |

    People,people! Dont worry about that balancing,maybe when new enemies will be added everything will balance for itself?

  32. cooltv27
    cooltv27 June 26, 2012 at 1:17 pm |

    I have an idea about the upgrades
    you can upgrade units individually but they cant do anything when being upgraded and they take an amount of “tech packets” some upgrades may be collector: range or effiency
    weapon: range, fire rate, or ammo usage

    also how about in x frames some thing will happen to this spot of the map like a meteor that destroys ground builds and creeper (not emitters)

  33. JohnyB
    JohnyB June 26, 2012 at 2:20 pm |

    Maybe there could be a mission when you rift on a planet but there is NO CREEPER AT ALL…..surprised? So there is the idea-severeal meteors fall on the planet, they fall apart….and creeper pops out of meteor. So those meteors can contain creeper emitters.

  34. sweetdude64
    sweetdude64 June 26, 2012 at 4:46 pm |

    will there be any new packets? grren for building, red for ammo replenishing and white for rifting.(not to sure about that last one)
    you could add…i dont know…yellow for upgrading. That would be a good idea, instead of insta-upgrade,you half to spend packets on it.

  35. Nikolai
    Nikolai June 27, 2012 at 5:47 am |

    What if threre could be some sort of care package,you drop a smoke on ground,then package is beeing dropped on ground and you must put collectors in its range to collect the package. Theese care package’s could contain upragade points,pulse blasters or other weapons. But as soon as creeper touches it it will explode.

  36. Visor
    Visor June 28, 2012 at 8:04 am |

    Maybe there could be diffrent characters to play with? Like at the start of the game you play as one character,and in later missions you could play with other characters,and every character has theyr special weapons. For example, i dont know ” Echo team ” has pulse blasters, ” moon slice 2 ” has bombers and something like that.

    1. anon
      anon June 28, 2012 at 5:40 pm |

      That really only works for RTS’s where all of the factions are basically the same, but they have different god-mode units/weapons and slightly different economies. Obviously, your network =/= ever-expanding mass of blue goo. Creeper World has only ever had the bare minimum when it comes to weapons, and making one of those exclusive to one character would upset the balance far too much. However, something like this COULD work if, instead of unique units, those characters got a specific ultimate UPGRADE on an otherwise universal weapon, e.g. blasters can fire twice as fast, mortars’ range triples…

  37. Alan
    Alan June 28, 2012 at 9:20 am |

    Holy crud…

    Firstly, I love creeper world. It’s about my favorite game(s) in the world right now. I looked at your blog purely because I play the game. I’ve taken classes taught by Prof. Lado. I already have friends who did a physics degree at NCSU and are working in programming, web development, etc. It blows me away that you are from this physics program or a similar program. Can I buy you lunch sometime?

  38. cooltv27
    cooltv27 June 28, 2012 at 10:54 pm |

    ive noticed that you have never had more then 3 command nodes at a time, is this a limit or by choice
    will there be a limit

  39. CobraKil
    CobraKil June 29, 2012 at 10:06 am |

    Looks awesome! I can’t wait to see the finished product.
    One question: Is their still going to be repulsers? How are they going to work? (I guess that’s two questions)

  40. sweetdude64
    sweetdude64 June 29, 2012 at 2:53 pm |


    cooltv27:

    ive noticed that you have never had more then 3 command nodes at a time, is this a limit or by choice
    will there be a limit

    im 99% sure it will be 3.
    there will HALF to be a limit, the map doesnt go on forever 😉

    1. Lurkily
      Lurkily June 29, 2012 at 6:02 pm |

      Virgil has said that there will probably be a coded limit, and that 10 sounds about right – or something to that effect, but that you’ll probably drop 2 or 3, typically.

      That being said, everything is in flux during the alpha.

    2. Michionlion
      Michionlion June 29, 2012 at 6:41 pm |

      there is no limit as of now. Eventually there will be, but i think it will be high. You are also limited by how many CN’s you have manufactures/found.

  41. JohnyB
    JohnyB June 30, 2012 at 10:06 am |

    In every creeper world emitters start makin creeper only then when you arrive ( when you enter a mission ) So is it possible that when you arrive creeper has flooded 3/10 of map already?

    1. Michionlion
      Michionlion June 30, 2012 at 11:21 am |

      In cw2 you could place creeper and anti-creeper in the map editor.

    2. 42ah42
      42ah42 August 3, 2012 at 10:30 am |

      Yeah… If the creeper’s purpose is to destroy other life it shouldn’t politely wait to activate the emitters until you arrive.

  42. JohnyB
    JohnyB July 1, 2012 at 12:40 am |

    I didnt ment games,i ment all creeper world missions.

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