Hi All,

I have now completed the exhaustive update to the voting board which included removing redundant items, revising relevant ones and adding in a selection of over 1000 items suggested in 2016 with emphasis with those that are often repeated and those which resonate with items that popped up a lot in the forums. Before I press the big red button and reset all votes, I would like you all to check out the new voting items and let me know one of two things:

(a) Is there an item missing you consider VERY IMPORTANT for your own game project? (your game in progress)
(b) Is there an item you think should be completely DELETED as entirely redundant? (give reason)

The plan will be to let this new voting board run throughout March and April, during which time we can refine the voting board with small tweaks to ensure its a good representation of top ideas in 2017 and then the development of your top-voted idea will begin at the start of June. The healthy gap is also to accommodate some core work that I have already scheduled that may or may not have something to do with water, swimming, terrain and maximum control of FPS and TPP player logic

Also feel free to use this sticky thread to continue the discussion about the voting board and what you feel about the top ten as it emerges. I am sure many of you are eager to see if "Menu Editing" remains at the top now that we're throwing away votes that are potentially over a year old now. Exciting times!

Find the Community Voting Board Here: https://www.game-guru.com/feature-vote

I think that's a pretty comprehensive list.

My only comment on the list would be maybe it would be possible to group these a little more, so say, 3 or 4 features that make sense to develop as one large features, for example, player swimming, character swimming and improved water effects could be one feature. (Didn't actually see the last one on the list.).

Also, I could have missed it but I would very much like to see the return of being able to assign a character a weapon from the properties menu. I miss this alot from FPSC classic days and find the current method cumbersome and quite frankly, annoying.

Other than that, great list and good luck with it.

SC

please fix the ebe texture bug?!

Agreed on that!

Additionally, I missed "Dynamic lights casting shadows" - or is that included in another rendering task?

nice to see the more advanced torch in the list, but like ertlov, I think we need dynamic lights casting shadows also.

But a great list. Much more useful stuff on it than the old list.

[QUOTE]please fix the ebe texture bug?![/QUOTE]

Lee's already been given some videos showing the bugs and is working on it, also it depends on which bug you are talking about, it turns out one of the "bugs" isn't a bug at all, we were just doing it wrong, check the other posts about this, it's explained in there.

@Corrosion : Fixed for next build, now back to the thread subject ....

Hi Lee,

re (a) Is there an item missing you consider VERY IMPORTANT for your own game project? (your game in progress)

Would or could the 'Post Process' entry also include "LUA get/set pass though of user variables to all shaders (e.g post process, terrain, sky, entity, water, character)" (... like the fog variables), so that users could create advance scripted control of shader effects on the full game environment?

Also weapon swapping and ammo collection for TPP doesn't appear to be on the list (I might have missed it)

Cheers.

I was expecting a big avalanche of critique on the new voting board, but I guess I have got it mostly right (thanks to some great editing help from community members). I think I will press the big red button this evening so get ready for some new votes. The TPP weapon and ammo will be done as part of the externalizing of the FPS and TPP scripts which I am planning to do in the next few months irrespective of the voting. Doing this will REALLY open up the game mechanics as you will effectively have total control of what the player does and does not do, that includes the camera control and input control. Once we have the scripts out there, allowing weapon swapping will just be a matter of extending the script

Well, he only gone and done it The red button is pressed. All votes have now been reset! You have 6 weeks from now to make your choices and argue to get supporters for your ideas - whatever item is at the top of the board at the start of May gets coded. Over to you, my fine game making community

[double-post] - forums still retains previously posted data and displays it after you have sent your post. Will this get fixed?

This could be done by implementing what the EBE uses. Currently there is no draw mode for entities. Yet it was introduced for the EBE...

Whereas you can click and hold the mouse button down to draw entities while in grid mode. Having this feature would solve many items on our list.

Important Item:
Also I noticed when selecting entities in the editor, they still dont remain green or red when selected to indicated that they are selected. I struggle with figuring out what entity I have selected among a familiar clutter of similar entities in a clustered layer. Its impossible to know what is selected and most often results in frustration for me.

Seems to work fine only in F9 mode.

Smaller items can be done as part of the regular cadence of tweaks rather than specific features if you are part of the internal beta group you can ensure this report gets repeated and dealt with in the next big test phase for the march update. I will send out beta emails shortly after the 20th to trial some new features being added, and the entity highlighting issue can be part of that no worries.

Why are platforms and elevators on there?

I think because although it can be done already, it is kinda wonky (although I have to admit I only tried somebody's script quite some time back and that's how I'd describe it. There have probably been improvements since).

Anyway, I like that Lua commands are finally at the top! The Lua manual would be a nice addition to that (and as yet, it's in 2nd), for us folks who are kinda familiar with programming, but blown away by many of the scripts we see here!


EDIT: As I see the top 4 at the time of this post, they are just as I would have them! Lua Commands, Lua manual, terrain textures, and particle effects.

EDIT #2: LOL, just after my last edit, the manual dropped bigtime! I can live with that, lol.

There are heaps of Lua manuals out there online so that's something else we don't need (in fact support the author and buy his book!). I put my ezplatform script on here for free months ago and I think there is a twitch broadcast on simple lifts.

We're back to the same problem we had before, in order to do some of the things on the list 'simply' we need other things fixing first, i.e. if you want to give simple lifts and platforms we need the physics fixing at the moments without some 'wonky-ness' in the script the player simply slides off the platform as there is no friction between the player and 'platform' entity.

I suppose some of the items on the list would have similiar effect like others, right?

I was looking in the toggled details for something that states "dynamic lights cast shadows" (what I have always seen as must-have, honestly, as every 3D engine after 2005 supported that, no matter if indie, hobby or pro level), and find this would be met by the descriptions in both the Global Illumination feature or the advanced flashlight feature. (and perhaps in a possible Rendering Engine overhaul).

Same overlaps seem to be in the scripts / LUA section.

Did I get that right?

I would think the platforms would be an in editor solution rather than a script based solution, i.e. move the platform the desired route in the editor and it will remember and save that for the real game, if not then I agree, no need for it.

Maybe what we need is an extension to the floor zone concept, i.e. place a 'zone' which interacts with a movement script more generically, from the zone properties specify a zone 'type' (and whatever other parameters need to be passed to the script(s)) then 'attach' platform/lift/whatever entities to the 'zone' and the script does the rest. The scripts would be attached to the entities so modellers can produce anything from a simple platform to a fully enclosed lift with doors and the user simply places the entity within the zone. For lifts the zone would have a vertical component and the parameters would include floor height and number of floors for example, for a linear platform the zone would define the path of the platform and parameters would define whether the platform is 'one-shot' or cyclic, another parameter defines the speed of the platform etc.

The same concept can be used for in game cut-scene production, instead of attaching an entity to the zone have a camera object that can be attached, a trigger zone activates the camera in game and the cut-scene plays out under script control then when finished passes control, back to the player (pretty much how my cut-scene script works now but I had to hard-wire the movement commands in the script for each cut-scene).

That would knock two items off the list for very little effort.

I missed it! Will have to look around for it, thanks!

EDIT: Found it easy enough, lol. Thanks again!

Having a full complete AI system, TP camera control as FP has, some AIs full animate to take profit of the new LUA commands, so they can move using anims instead of speed (moveforward()), I would like all than has to do with weather control and particles.

Of course all LUA control as possible.
New LUA system is nice, all is modular and easiest to deal with, basically you just has to load the modules you want to use in your code, so you can call their functions, IE:

If you wan to know PlayerDist, this way help to Lee to add some more extras to those modules.

I miss some LUA command than allow me to clone/extract entities in game/test mode.
This command is so important than allow me to place just one tree on the map, and have a buch of them where/when I need them.
Currently I'm doing something similar with AIS, just placing markers where I want them, so just has to place 4 or 5 soldiers on the map, and play all my level with the same 5 soldiers, saving a lot of polys, since marker are just 60 polys and soldiers 17k, so if I need 50 soldiers, well just do the maths.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217642#msg2574593

3com

So I've looked at the list.. and I think there are some things on there that some of us could help with:

With some LUA scripting the following would be possible:

Doors and Switches
Quests
Crafting / Trading
Sniper Enemies
Climbing Ladders
Lean Left and Right
XP Levels

I'm actually not that good at LUA, but I have made a functioning XP Leveling system. Though a bit too crud to really share, it surely is one of the easiest items of the list to do. One thing I think I might consider tackling, is the "Bullet and Projectile Trails". I've been working on some new types of projectiles and weapons and I'm getting a better understanding of how the system works. Though this would require that I create 3D model bullets for every type of gun , I think the result could be quite nice. Having an actual bullet fly out of a gun would be a bit more realistic and in the future bring new possibilities. Things like attaching a camera to the bullet to see the kill shots. I'll see if i can put together a prototype for visible bullets.

@Teabone.

Some interesting ideas. Doors and Switches could easily be scripted, in fact I'm sure I've got some scripts and converted legacy media around that do just that. I'll hunt them down.

I personally think the other items would be better hard coded, with the possible exception of snipers, which could work well via scripting. That's just my thoughts though and I'm sure someone will find an effective script solution.

SC

I just found out projectiles are hard coded

I'm depressed. Just spent quite a lot of time working on new 3D bullet models and also new magic effects. Once I swapped to custom they do not work. This is unfortunate and a usual situation i find myself in with GG. I stayed up till 5:30AM last night trying to figure out why the custom projectiles were not working, as expected.

Time to take out some frustration

Great videos,I like the first one best.you could build a rocket pistol,I might try to model one myselfe.

Dave

I suggest to make 100% functional GG, and after adding new features.

Nearly all the things listed are possible here.

Doors and Switches - Done in scripts I have an item on the store that does this automatically. I'm surprised it hasn't sold better but many have probably missed it altogether.
https://www.tgcstore.net/product/26196
Quests - I've done this before as well. It's just a matter of knowing how to code. Pretty easy at it's basics but depends on the quest entirely. Two quests in this video, both are related and affect each other depending on the order taken. These two quests were quite complicated to get working and so to make a full RPG game you would need a more automated way of making quests. As you can see though, they are more complex than simply killing 5 boars or finding some gold.

Crafting / Trading - Done in my RPG scripts and others.
Sniper Enemies - Again, if you really wanted this you could fake it in code.
Climbing Ladders - Possible already with coding. This should be as standard though here, considering the Easy Game Maker ethos of GG.
Lean Left and Right - Pff, not really ever used that feature in games. Not a priority for me. As far as I know there's no real easy way to add this at present.
XP Levels - I did something ages ago before GG even existed, a farming script that covered this sort of thing. Many people have worked on similar things as well. Really easy one this overall. Once we get more access to player control and such the XP can even do something in the future to affect your players speed etc.

I can see some benefits from some of these features being included by default though as many people would not be able to code their own and even for us coders who can, some things would be much easier with an internal system in place. An inventory for instance would be far easier with a built in system already. It's quite possible to do your own, just means a lot more work overall. You would need to know you have picked an item up or dropped used/it. That means editing the default scripts to add that info into your own array or creating your own altogether. If that info was saved by GG already into a default array, you would only have to grab data out of the existing one, making things far easier to do.

Progress has been back at a decent speed again so far, let's hope it continues.

So the projectile situation with them being hardcoded. Are they simply locked from allowing a gunspec to assign a new custom projectile? What is preventing me from being able to make projectiles? Because if I was limited hear I could knock off an item on the list by doing the visible bullets, paths and ect.

Why is it that when I swapped the .X mesh of the rocket to a one I made myself and even referenced it within the projectile txt file it still loads the old rocket mesh some how. How hardcoded is the stuff there? Seems there is no room for customization or flexibility here... only way to replace the mesh is by calling it rpg grenade, hand grenade or fireball in X format.

I also noticed there are some properties in the projectile files that seem hardcoded. For instance I'm trying to make custom bullets for guns to knock off one item off the list as a test... but they explode on death even if ive told it not to in properties.

This is the closest you can come to having a gun with bullets :/

Yeah, I was kinda hoping the big red button would actually destroy the whole voting panel - not just reset it.


Reliquia....

The idea is a fresh vote for every feature .... That way nothing Lingers at the top if someone leaves or forgets ...
Its more accurate to what users want right now

Yh, just some extra panels on the properties to allow user input for scripts without the need to manually edit scripts and we can make much friendlier scripts for quests and such.

I think this could be right after ai implementation,looking at some of the posts about crashes and other problems stoping people from working on there projects.

Dave

@ teabone first vid m8 choked on my drink watching that pmsl personally my view on the most important thing to be worked on is......
Player, Player, Player did I say Player soooo needs addressing, multi numbered single player markers, how tall, how small, inertia for 3rd player ships, cars, camera control etc etc. Every game starts and ends with the "Player" but ive ranted on about this before so i'll shut up lol Lee's doing a great job atm and really getting stuck in (thanks Lee) but can we please see some more player options especially multi numbered single player markers as using transportinzone just isn't enough to get the right effect when using non linier maps whereas numbered single player markers would

Edit : @ smallg yes m8 your right sry that bit was in the wrong section :/

My opinion is that the voting board should be on the sideline for a while to give preference to the instability, texture issues and light mapping issues.
It should be alarming when people quit because they are unable to finish a level or even lose their work due to problems within Game Guru.

@honkeyboy that can be done via scripting so perhaps it would be an idea to post in the scripting thread, not really needed for Lee to do it just for 1 person but I'm sure if ever GG becomes aimed at huge open world, nonlinear games then it would be added as core

@earthling the good news is that that is the current plan, Lee will be doing some work off board while the votes come in, also bug fixing is always a high priority but unless the bugs are well explained and reproducible Lee would spend forever just finding them before even starting to fix them so its not a quick job (and of course more bugs arrive daily).

Teabone
Change the settings in \gamecore\projectiletypes\fireball.txt
You can remove the explosion on impact there, and some other stuff. Worked ok for me before if they have not changed that. Only problem i got was that certain characters w\ragdolls freezed when they died.

Edit: I read that you already know this. But it worked for me when i tried it.

The flash on the ground was all i got when the bullets impacted, no explosion.

Huge Hello, to all active members ! I apologize if not the right time...
But on the voting board, in very similar positions like: "Day & Night system " + "Sun settings" + "Skybox Control" = all together have more than 1800 votes...
But this is a useful thing: full Skybox control, imho.

it doesnt quite work like that, if they were put together the votes would be a lot less than the combined total with them seperate

Lee has actually added switches and doors ready for the next update, it's mentioned in the March update.

SC

Hi ,
is it just me or IS the A.I. now almost totally non-functional
even compared to before it was worked on.
I cant see to get hardly any of the creatures or characters to attack in a
meaningful way at all ?
Am I alone in this as i didn't SEE any choices for that on the new voting board.
are we considering it now functioning and workable ?

Thx

UNIRD12B

Why there are no IDE improvements on the list?
Like:
Sortable entities/Weapons/characters for you own needs
EBE Build Pictures are not shown correctly(BUG?)
Weapon choose at playermarker should be sorted for weapon classes
Search in entitybank(I miss this so much )

Or did I miss something?

There is a section at the end of the voting board where you can suggest features, not on the list. We collected all from 2016 (over a thousand) and whittled them down to rejig the board for 2017. If the feature is small enough, it may also be added to an update as a small addition. At the end of the year, all the big hitting features suggested from 2017 will go into the pot for 2018, and we will make a lot of forum noise during the process so you can get your top ideas in there.

Hi Lee

Back in 2015 we were talking about a system that would give the user the ability to modify all user modifiable values of a script, from a new entity’s properties panel that would be created once a script had been assigned to an entity. Which would be linked to a special / optional function from within the script. ie: function ai_soldier_advanced_config(e), but you needed to open up all the lua commands first, for this to go ahead.

So you would have a basic form with checkboxs, option buttons, text windows, etc that the user could adjust to select/set different options within the script, without having to edit any scripts.

I was calling it a lua gui, but i cannot remember the term you decided to call it.
i cannot see it on the voting board and i would like to suggest it so it could be voted on.
I just need to know what to call it.

Cheers
perelect

Yes, I also adopted the name LUA GUI but it did not get many votes and did not repeat in the additional feature requests. I think this is something I would probably do outside of the voting board as it would be very useful for me to be able to quickly change logic and settings of scripts without having to drill down into code. Many of my videos from Twitch have me in Notepad coding LUA, which is not the most attractive advert for an easy game maker I suspect there are enough commands now to create this for in-game panels (not editor panels) with a combination of the image and sprite commands, and the greater control available for A.I and player mechanics (May update) so it might be something a community member would take on, as an experiment.