147 replies to this topic

[tabc3dd]

FINAL CORE

 

 

 

THE GAME

Final Core is a real time strategy game set in virtual space, in which the player is given the opportunity to entirely build his ships from a choice of over 100 parts before sending them in battle.

 

 

Download Link : Final Core

 

 

Extremely Outdated gameplay video

 

 

CONTROLS

-All the controls can be accessed from the in-game help file ( The usual Gamemaker one (F1) ).

-Unit controls behave like in most RTS, left click to select, right click to move, numbers for command groups ...
 

 

FEATURES

- Build your ships from a selection of over 100 parts.
 - Innovative base building system with upgradeable buildings.
- A story line with 16 missions, bosses and bonuses.

- Absolutely lagless gameplay as armies engage.
- High replay value : No two games will ever be the same.

- 100 Achievements to obtain, at least 5 hours of gameplay.

- Important strategic depth, part placement and choice is crucial .

- A smooth difficulty curve with no real cap.

- A complete help menu, tips and infos . If ever you get lost or do not know what to do, post here, I'll fix it. This game is supposed to be comprehensive.

- An editor mode where you can export your creations to other players as small text files and pit them against each other. Can you create the ultimate ship ?

- In-depth gameplay featuring multiple ressources, stats, upgrades and strategies.

-Multiple options to adapt the game to your liking.

- Multiple modes, including missions, arena, skirmish, free play and more !

- An intelligent AI for both allies and opponents.

 

 

 

Comments and suggestions are gladly appreciated, thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the game.

Edited by tabc3dd, 24 March 2013 - 04:08 PM.

[tabc3dd]

Bump, no answer ...


Edited out the videos i put, they were way too outdated.

Edited by tabc3dd, 08 May 2011 - 05:58 PM.

[tabc3dd]

No answer, and very few downloads. Why do some game get 4 answers on the first day ^^ ?

Anyways, might have found a reason : 12 MB file size. Worry no more, i noticed i had untrimmed sound, a 7 MB sound file and a 2 MB sound file. Both were reduced without noticeable quality loss to <1 MB in size, and all SFX have been trimmed.

New file size : < 5 MB !

MAJOR UPDATE :

- An option menu, with the three previous option, + four new, + the option to choose team color for yourself, your opponent, and your ally.
- Team color will modify ships, buildings, parts, effects and HuD.
- Improved ship design for T1 of enemies.
- Optimized some more.


+More cool stuff which i probably forgot.

Download link updated in first post.

[tabc3dd]

Bump, main post updated, replaced the screenshots by a youtube video.

Still no reply after 200 views, is something wrong with my presentation ? Some games seem to get multiple replies on the day they are posted, why so ? Am i doing something wrong ? Please help me, be part of the 0.5% that's going to give feedback ^^ .

I'll play your game if you give me feedback, or whatever, but i desperately need opinions on how to improve this game.

[SilentDude56k]

Interesting game! The combination of custom ships with RTS is fantastic. I've only done a few skirmishes, but each one was exciting (I lost them all, but they were fun XD). The intro movie is solid, especially since it was done using scripts along with the normal game engine. The tutorials you have are helpful and descriptive.

Alright, suggestion time

-Gameplay feels a bit slow due to ship weapons firing so slowly. Maybe increase their attack speed and reduce their damage done to compensate, or make this an option.
-The green is very cool at first but it ends up hurting my eyes after a while. I think it's because the green of your cores and your buildings is very similar to the background color. I know you can change the colors in the options menu, but maybe defaulting to a lighter green for your units would be nice.
-While the tutorials are helpful, I think it would be nice to have them all display on some part of the playing screen rather than as message boxes. A few times I forgot what the message box said after it was gone.
-You should totally add multiplayer sometime

This is the best RTS game made with Game Maker that I've seen. Most people on these forums only bother checking out games if they have 3D, MMORPG, or Mario in the title. Don't let the lack of replies discourage you, this crowd tends to be lame like that. This is a very cool game and I'd like to see it succeed. Keep up the good work!

[tabc3dd]

First of all, thank you so much for your answer, you can't imagine how much help you've brought to me !

-Gameplay feels a bit slow due to ship weapons firing so slowly. Maybe increase their attack speed and reduce their damage done to compensate, or make this an option.
- Weapons firing slowly is aimed at reducing lag, whoever, if you press w, you'll increase room speed to as high as your computer can go (around double for a laptop). This feature is presented in the first mission, so you might have been unaware of it. Also, after 4 missions or so, you'll have enough parts to have a much faster gameplay, with shots firing everywhere ^^. And later on, battles will usually involve over 20 units per side.

-The green is very cool at first but it ends up hurting my eyes after a while. I think it's because the green of your cores and your buildings is very similar to the background color. I know you can change the colors in the options menu, but maybe defaulting to a lighter green for your units would be nice.
- In my current GMK, i'v resprited everything to remove the blur effect, making them look much clearer. As a result, it's much less harsh on the eyes, and i don't know why, the color is also lighter .

-While the tutorials are helpful, I think it would be nice to have them all display on some part of the playing screen rather than as message boxes. A few times I forgot what the message box said after it was gone.
- Noted and will be implemented in the next update, thank you very much .
-You should totally add multiplayer sometime
- Multiplayer is planned, but idk how multiplayer works, if it causes lag or not. Modes i had planned where : 1v1 with personal made editor ships (Battle of the titans !); 1v1 skirmish; Two player coop campaign; and then some cool stuff like DoTa with personal ships, a TDS with personal ships, a defend against infinite wave type of mode and such. But all of these will come once the main engine and game is completed.

-This is the best RTS game made with Game Maker that I've seen.

- Thanks, but i'm quite sure some other games beat me ^^. For example, i suggest you check Battleships forever, which is better then my game on most aspects, although it doesnt have base building, creating ships is not part of the main game and it lags far more.

Expect a new version in 1-4 days.


Edit : well, i had free time, so a new version is out. Fixed graphics being hard on the eyes, made the tutorial boxes which stay until you click on the red cross on their top right corner, updated mission 1, other stuff and bug fixes.

Edited by tabc3dd, 13 September 2010 - 09:28 AM.

[tabc3dd]

New version, tons of minor improvements, bug fixes, optimization, clearing up stuff, upgrading missions etc ...

[Dylan93]

Why is this getting so less attention ?

This game is something different on the RTS genre, it does actually is a bit like that space game where you build your ships too forgot the name.

Good AI, ok graphics and fun gameplay if you have your ships build.

Good job

[tabc3dd]

Why is this getting so less attention ?

This game is something different on the RTS genre, it does actually is a bit like that space game where you build your ships too forgot the name.

Good AI, ok graphics and fun gameplay if you have your ships build.

Good job

Thanks alot for the reply.

I think the game you are thinking about is either battleships forever or warzone 2100 .

I'm gonna work a bit on the graphics, but i just bought KH : BBS, so i might spend alot less time on this project for some time.

[Dylan93]

Why is this getting so less attention ?

This game is something different on the RTS genre, it does actually is a bit like that space game where you build your ships too forgot the name.

Good AI, ok graphics and fun gameplay if you have your ships build.

Good job

Thanks alot for the reply.

I think the game you are thinking about is either battleships forever or warzone 2100 .

I'm gonna work a bit on the graphics, but i just bought KH : BBS, so i might spend alot less time on this project for some time.

Yes I ment Battleships Forever

Good luck with your game.

[tabc3dd]

Big update, the link on the main post has been updated.

- Balanced all players' buildings and ships stats.
- Unnormalized buildings build time. (A techlab will now take twice the time to build as a collector.)
- Parts on allied ships now take the ally's color . (Previously, parts on allied ships would be of your color.) NOTE : Allies currently only appear in free play mode and some missions.
- Shots, effects, drones and other stuff of the allied player now take the ally's color.
- Mission 3 and 4 have been improved to their final stage. Now, mission 1-4 are completed, and mission 5-16 are playable but short (10 minutes each.)
- Building connections are now drawn under the buildings with an alpha of 0.5 (Previously : Above with an alpha of 1.) . This makes it much more graphically pleasing.
- You can now input what values you wish when choosing to "snap" and "direction snap" your parts.
- Optimized allot of code, buildings and ships. Should reduce some lag.
- Improved enemy AI
-Buttons now don't leave the screen accidentally.
+ Tons of other stuff i forgot

Please, please, please, please tell me if you have lag. I'm spending an uncanny amount of time rereading all my code and optimizing it in fear of lag, but if there is none, why waste my time ^^. Currently running 100% smooth with a 1 GHZ processing power on a virtual machine, but you never know XD.

[Snowfire]

This is a really great game! It's a shame not many people know about it.
I especially like customising my own ships A bit confusing to play at the beginning, but not too hard to get the hang of. Great work!
Good luck with it!

[tabc3dd]

This is a really great game! It's a shame not many people know about it.
I especially like customising my own ships A bit confusing to play at the beginning, but not too hard to get the hang of. Great work!
Good luck with it!

Thanks!
Could you tell me what you found confusing please, i'd like to make it as simple as possible ^^.

[tabc3dd]

Uploaded a new version with minor fixes.

Only real change is that i obfuscated the game. Makes it slightly larger, maybe slightly slower, but now you can't decompile it correctly ! This GM8 decompiler is scaring me XD.

[Dylan93]

Uploaded a new version with minor fixes.

Only real change is that i obfuscated the game. Makes it slightly larger, maybe slightly slower, but now you can't decompile it correctly ! This GM8 decompiler is scaring me XD.

You gotta be kidding me, is there a GM8 decompiler :S ?

[tabc3dd]

Uploaded a new version with minor fixes.

Only real change is that i obfuscated the game. Makes it slightly larger, maybe slightly slower, but now you can't decompile it correctly ! This GM8 decompiler is scaring me XD.

You gotta be kidding me, is there a GM8 decompiler :S ?

Yep, but it's not open, only a few people have access to it. Better safe then sorry ^^.

New version is out, the main link has been updated.

Changes include (But not limited to):
-Part destruction looks more professional, with a more subtle graphical effect instead of the gray explosion.
-Huge optimization on part creation and shots hitting parts (Took off 2 calculations for both).
-Fixed some bugs and small problems.
-Changed the info message of parts to something more simple, with the possibility of getting detailed stats.
-Damage dealt to the core is increased by 30%. Before, you could hide your parts behind your indestructible core. Now, it's not a viable strategy.
-Gave the player a "class" choice on starting a new game, which affects the parts you start with. RPGs have them, so why not RTS .
-Changed the editor to improve some stuff (Like not having to remember the file's name to be able to load it.)
-Changed most enemy ships so they don't have overlapping parts.(All enemy ships were made with the editor ^^.)
-Performance updates.

[tabc3dd]

A new version is out, which should look alot more polished. Many small improvements.

[celestes9artiste]

Okay, several things I felt were not the best, lots of things I loved.

I have only played the skirmish mode so far so I may cover something that is in the campaign.

Overall, I love the concept and I love the simplicity (by simplicity I mean the user interface is very intuitive). It's a simplistic version of a game I've got in my head with a looot more customization given to the player.

Graphics and Sound:

Graphics are okay, but could use an upgrade of some sort.
Sound is okay, but music in game would be nice.

Bugs:

1) Make current building screen be favored by clicks.
2) Building descriptions got cut off on my screen.
3) Mini-map should go transparent when placing a building along with the rest of the HUD.

Major Changes:

1) Tweak game-play balance. Key: make the game have a feeling of having a begin game, middle, and end. As if there were stages, only they aren't forced by the developer. For example, as is, the begin game is creating the base full of collectors, energy, and relay. Mid-game is defending your base. End game is demolishing the enemy. These are okay stages, but they need to have more competition with the AI. As is there's not enough strategy.

Minor Changes:

1) Allow player to choose between grid-lock part placement and free placement.
2) Allow player to change ship blueprints mid-game.
3) Allow player to upgrade their buildings more
4) Give player credits rather than parts at the end of a skirmish, allowing them to buy the parts they want. Make parts corresponding to their play style cheaper.

Additions:

1) Allow player to demolish their buildings to reconstruct their base (regaining a percentage of the credits based on the health of the building).
2) Add more nuances to the game. Little things that let the player have full control. For example, allow the player to kamikaze their ships. Or allow the player to modify the AI movement and targeting of their ships (in the blueprint hangar area). So the player can create fighter ships like the ones the AI uses. As far as I've played I've not been able to create a ship that does fly-by attacks rather than capital ship type attacking.
3) Give the player the ability to program keys. Say 1-0 will either select a type of ship or a set of ships. If there is a selection of ships already, the number will select the assigned ships *from within the selection* otherwise it will select all of the assigned ships. For example, say 1 selects all of ship type 1. If there's a selection of ships, key #1 will select all of that ship type of the selected ships.
4) Make a building tutorial that explains the uses of the buildings and the balance of them.

I hope all my suggestions don't overwhelm you. I congratulate you on completing this game with a solid concept and good execution and simple, user interface. So don't feel I don't love your game. =D

EDIT: I have since found several of the things I mentioned that would be useful such as the grid lock for building ships. Putting this in the tutorial would've been helpful. =) Remember, if you've got a feature, make it obvious to the player how to do it. For example, upgrading parts was found in a tip that was several missions into the campaign. That needs to be in a tutorial/help file.

Edited by celestes9artiste, 08 October 2010 - 02:21 AM.

[tabc3dd]

Okay, several things I felt were not the best, lots of things I loved.

I have only played the skirmish mode so far so I may cover something that is in the campaign.

Overall, I love the concept and I love the simplicity (by simplicity I mean the user interface is very intuitive). It's a simplistic version of a game I've got in my head with a looot more customization given to the player.

Graphics and Sound:

Graphics are okay, but could use an upgrade of some sort.
I know, trying to do this totally solo (except music), and i suck at graphics. Just going to use the "it's a style" excuse ^^. As for the background, i will make it less visible
Sound is okay, but music in game would be nice.
There is music : A BGM for combat and a BGM for ambiance. If you can't hear it, go to the options and uncheck-recheck the music button. I'll have to check on my side to see if theres no bug.
Bugs:

1) Make current building screen be favored by clicks.
What do you mean ? Currently, there are only clicks. Unless you mean no dragging parts ? I can do that ^^.
2) Building descriptions got cut off on my screen.
Ye, i moved the message from top of screen to bottom, and i didnt entirely check if it always worked. Will be fixed next version.
3) Mini-map should go transparent when placing a building along with the rest of the HUD.
Will be done. However, if you want to build something on the Hud, it already goes transparent.

Major Changes:

1) Tweak game-play balance. Key: make the game have a feeling of having a begin game, middle, and end. As if there were stages, only they aren't forced by the developer. For example, as is, the begin game is creating the base full of collectors, energy, and relay. Mid-game is defending your base. End game is demolishing the enemy. These are okay stages, but they need to have more competition with the AI. As is there's not enough strategy.
Thats probably because you still have won less then 10 games. I want the game to be accessible to all, so the first stage are pitifully easy, but each stage gets harder. Try a free play and set 0 allies, 0 additional enemy and level 20 enemy. Should be better.

Minor Changes:

1) Allow player to choose between grid-lock part placement and free placement.
Done, but i see you saw it .
2) Allow player to change ship blueprints mid-game.
Like in the middle of a skirmish ? With the current game system, id have to rewrite all the code. Just finish the skirmish and change it after ^^, takes like 10 minutes max.
3) Allow player to upgrade their buildings more
Is in progress, i plan on having 4 tiers.
4) Give player credits rather than parts at the end of a skirmish, allowing them to buy the parts they want. Make parts corresponding to their play style cheaper.
Had the idea of implementing a shop, but got bored. Will try ^^. And if i implement credits, i could even sell more things, like core upgrades and such .

Additions:

1) Allow player to demolish their buildings to reconstruct their base (regaining a percentage of the credits based on the health of the building).
My brother keeps telling me to put that, but i told him that the player has to live with his decision. However, you are right, sometimes you can miss click, or can lock yourself in. Selling will return 40% of value, except relays, which only return 100 creds.
2) Add more nuances to the game. Little things that let the player have full control. For example, allow the player to kamikaze their ships. Or allow the player to modify the AI movement and targeting of their ships (in the blueprint hangar area). So the player can create fighter ships like the ones the AI uses. As far as I've played I've not been able to create a ship that does fly-by attacks rather than capital ship type attacking.
Will try ^^. By flyback, do you mean keep moving towards enemy while shooting ? Will implement a button to suicide ships (k like kill). Targeting is already modifiable(you can already aim individual parts), unless thats not what you mean. You can already create fighter ships like the AI uses, unless you mean drones ? Thats another part.
3) Give the player the ability to program keys. Say 1-0 will either select a type of ship or a set of ships. If there is a selection of ships already, the number will select the assigned ships *from within the selection* otherwise it will select all of the assigned ships. For example, say 1 selects all of ship type 1. If there's a selection of ships, key #1 will select all of that ship type of the selected ships.
Already done. Ctrl-1 sets ships to group 1, same for numbers 2-9. Pressing a number selects that group. Like in most RTS basically. Check the F1 help interface.
4) Make a building tutorial that explains the uses of the buildings and the balance of them.
Exact building stats are explained on mouse-over of buttons. If you chose the tutorial, you even get a skirmish tutorial too normally.

I hope all my suggestions don't overwhelm you. I congratulate you on completing this game with a solid concept and good execution and simple, user interface. So don't feel I don't love your game. =D
Thanks ^^.

EDIT: I have since found several of the things I mentioned that would be useful such as the grid lock for building ships. Putting this in the tutorial would've been helpful. =) Remember, if you've got a feature, make it obvious to the player how to do it. For example, upgrading parts was found in a tip that was several missions into the campaign. That needs to be in a tutorial/help file.
Well, upgrading parts is also shown in the tutorial at the beginning of the game. Did you choose ''yes'' when it asked you if you already had played the game at the start ? Looks like you missed the tutorial XD.


BTW, i found quite a few bugs in the version you played, such as building lines going crazy, arena bosses appearing in missions and such. These will all be fixed.

Bold are my answers, thanks for replying. Can't work on it now, but there should be a new version in 1 week +, with all the changes, and more.

[celestes9artiste]

Bug(1) Clarification: When I'm trying to build something say from a relay and say I'm trying to build a turret. Well when the turret button is over say a collector and I click the turret button, it favors the collector and opens the collector's build menu rather than selecting the turret to be built. So make it so that the click is favored for menu items *if* there are more than one click available. Meaning, don't disable other clicks until the player closes the menu. =P

Minor Change (2) Response: All you need is to bring up the hangar screen while pausing the game and then resume the game when the player clicks a button. My guess is you're using rooms. If you were to recreate the hangar to be shown by a controller object, you could bring it up regardless of where you are. This would also be nice in the campaign if you were to create some ships, change the blueprints and then create a different ship. (Yes I realize there are 6 ship cores, but the point is to let the player adapt to the situation as it develops)

Minor Change/Question 5) Another thing I thought of is... When the player destroys an enemy's relay station, does it affect the enemy's buildings that were connected to it? Along this line, there's a bug when this happens. The enemy's buildings that were connected to the relay station (now no longer existing) have their building connection lines shoot to (0,0) coordinate. A simple check whether they have a connection to a relay or home base before drawing the line would solve this.

Addition (3) Clarification: I'm glad you have at least that group assign/select feature implemented. One that would be nice is this: If there is no selection, Shift+1-6 selects all of a ship type. If there is a selection of ships, Shift+1-6 selects all of that ship type *within* the current selection of ships. This would help with strategy way more than the group assign/select feature.

Edited by celestes9artiste, 08 October 2010 - 03:53 PM.