Wow... I haven't been on avaraline in years. Time to poke around. ^_^

@croc, on Sep 19 2008, 01:38 PM, said in Avara 2:

A programmer?

Sorry to be cynical, and don't get me wrong, holys### am I excited, but I'm pretty sure I speak for the remaining 'Avara community' (if you can even call 8-10 people that are split up into little groups a community) when I say that we've definitely heard promises of Avara II accompanied with screenshots before.

I actually carry around a thumbdrive, and on this thumbdrive, besides obvious stuff like IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS, there also resides a 68k mac emulator loaded with an Avara hd image. If you still need more concept art and/or examples from the original game, I'm your man! ( andy dot halstead at gmail dot com )

Also: Avara using the q3 engine would be interesting , perhaps even playable , but you may need to look into something less restrictive if possible

again also: this will be the third Avara II "developer" I've given my email to, to personally offer my help...

First of all,

Two meters? Wow, the scale I had set in my mind was way off. I believe that's about the height of a human, which will make original Avara-type levels much more possible(I had the large mech-scale in my mind), although, it will make me have to re-plan a short animation(read: trailer).

Besides all that, email sent.

two metres is about 7 feet.

@lnsu, on Sep 19 2008, 05:06 PM, said in Avara 2:

two metres is about 7 feet.

Yep, of course, I was thinking about my tall friends, hehe.

I think You'd be able to fit a small-medium sized sitting human inside the hector. Or are they remote control?

@lnsu, on Sep 20 2008, 11:52 AM, said in Avara 2:

I think You'd be able to fit a small-medium sized sitting human inside the hector. Or are they remote control?

Well it's an "operations remote unit" so it could be remote control.
But then again the name was only made so it would be called "HECTOR" so you can't say that it's too reliable.

Whilst the Unity engine is very good, and comes highly recommended, a combination of Ogre3D, OpenAL, Bullet and eNet would do the job just as well.

@prophile, on Sep 28 2008, 06:43 AM, said in Avara 2:

a combination of Ogre3D, OpenAL, Bullet and eNet would do the job just as well.

Good call. The graphics and physics engines are probably overkill, but I would rather the game have room to grow than be hamstrung from the start.

This post has been edited by bobski : 29 September 2008 - 04:23 PM

Bullet is a good idea for physics, but ogre has one already OgreNewt (Ogre Newton). While they may be a bit much for what the basis of Avara calls for, there can be some handy special features with more powerfull engines. If one is skilled enough particle effects and destructable enviroments can be made quite realistic (I say realistic, but I mean more like believable). But then again, that is feature creep for now.

Best bet, start a GDD (Game Design Document), I have a template of one or I can give you one that I have written for further examples. It will make designing the and developing the game much easier.

Also, on a side note, I have a working knowledge base in Ogre, I had to use it in school and I have also made a few small games within it. (including the libraries OgreNewt and also OpenAL).

Thing is about OpenAL for sound, last time I checked, 2d sound supprt is free, but 3d sound support requires a license. I am not sure if they have changed it in the last 2 years. Main reason I haven't used it since school was because of the need to pay incase a project goes commercial.

As for the style / recreation of Avara for A2, I suggest augmented Cell Shading. Keep to the original style but allow for more artistic / modern touch.

@bobski, on Sep 29 2008, 10:23 PM, said in Avara 2:

Good call. The graphics and physics engines are probably overkill, but I would rather the game have room to grow than be hamstrung from the start.

Nothing like leaving room for improvement, is there?

@nitro, on Sep 29 2008, 10:35 PM, said in Avara 2:

Bullet is a good idea for physics, but ogre has one already OgreNewt (Ogre Newton). While they may be a bit much for what the basis of Avara calls for, there can be some handy special features with more powerfull engines. If one is skilled enough particle effects and destructable enviroments can be made quite realistic (I say realistic, but I mean more like believable). But then again, that is feature creep for now.

Yeah, it also has OgreBullet

@nitro, on Sep 29 2008, 10:35 PM, said in Avara 2:

Best bet, start a GDD (Game Design Document), I have a template of one or I can give you one that I have written for further examples. It will make designing the and developing the game much easier.

That sounds very EA, but yes, speaking from experience, it's always best to plan everything out in advance.

@nitro, on Sep 29 2008, 10:35 PM, said in Avara 2:

Also, on a side note, I have a working knowledge base in Ogre, I had to use it in school and I have also made a few small games within it. (including the libraries OgreNewt and also OpenAL).

Thing is about OpenAL for sound, last time I checked, 2d sound supprt is free, but 3d sound support requires a license. I am not sure if they have changed it in the last 2 years. Main reason I haven't used it since school was because of the need to pay incase a project goes commercial.

You are quite wrong, OpenAL is an open standard.

@nitro, on Sep 29 2008, 10:35 PM, said in Avara 2:

As for the style / recreation of Avara for A2, I suggest augmented Cell Shading. Keep to the original style but allow for more artistic / modern touch.

Easily rendered as a postprocessing effect.

You know what I really hate? I hate it that for some reason, the instant notification of a thread update was turned off without my knowledge. Secondly, I had to reset my account password just to log in.

In regards to cell shading, I believe I will have to ask the community on that one, as it does seem like a prospective plan, in that, currently, UV mapping the back of the cockpit is really, really annoying. Not matter what I do, it will not give me a perfectly straight line.

This in fact may be due to bad geometry, so first I am going to try to patch model it, covert to polyies, and reduce, or, I shall simply re-make it from scratch, using the first as a vague reference(meaning I won't make the same mistake twice concerning geometry.

For future reference concerning the HECTOR, the main game page has a nice full length pic of it:

(I like your feet better, though from this pic I guess they could be moved a little rearward maybe)

Considering that I never really got into Avara as it was mostly multiplayer, I spent more time blasting ice boxes, throwing balls, and shooting my scout than one would think.

And now I will never own a computer capable of playing it again. Makes me sad.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to find another mech game that could be modded to play like Avara... the closest candidate I've noticed is Dark Horizons Lore (or the upcoming sequel Lore: Aftermath) but it would be limited by being attached to a closed-source commercial engine which can't be modified to, say, make the jumping feel right. Avara had the most organic jumping that I think I've ever played with.

ooooh man, I wish I could finally buy it and boot it up right now. v.v

Forgive my general nostalgia trip. Good luck to you.

This post has been edited by Phyvo : 04 October 2008 - 02:02 AM

@phyvo, on Oct 3 2008, 11:58 PM, said in Avara 2:

For future reference concerning the HECTOR, the main game page has a nice full length pic of it:

(I like your feet better, though from this pic I guess they could be moved a little rearward maybe)

Considering that I never really got into Avara as it was mostly multiplayer, I spent more time blasting ice boxes, throwing balls, and shooting my scout than one would think.

And now I will never own a computer capable of playing it again. Makes me sad.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to find another mech game that could be modded to play like Avara... the closest candidate I've noticed is Dark Horizons Lore (or the upcoming sequel Lore: Aftermath) but it would be limited by being attached to a closed-source commercial engine which can't be modified to, say, make the jumping feel right. Avara had the most organic jumping that I think I've ever played with.
ooooh man, I wish I could finally buy it and boot it up right now. v.v

Forgive my general nostalgia trip. Good luck to you.

Actually, the Hector pictured above differs from the original flash artwork by Joe Ralla, which pictured 3 toed feet with one in the back.

Hm. Don't know if you've seen it, but someone made this joke picture a while back:

I don't think this can help you much, I just thought might like to view it.

@two-jacks, on Oct 4 2008, 12:24 PM, said in Avara 2:

Hm. Don't know if you've seen it, but someone made this joke picture a while back:

I don't think this can help you much, I just thought might like to view it.

That was actually posted awhile back, and it isn't a 'joke', in the sense that it is a real game. A real game which has a complicated control scheme.

What do you mean? If by a game with a very complicated control scheme, yo umean a 3d modelling app, then you're right.

@lnsu, on Oct 4 2008, 05:36 PM, said in Avara 2:

What do you mean? If by a game with a very complicated control scheme, yo umean a 3d modelling app, then you're right.

Well, I was going off of what someone else said in regards to that game.

But besides that, which 3D program are you referring to?

I think that is Dark Horizons.

Good luck on the project. 'The basic gameplay, in my opinion, more than anything else, needs to be preserved exactly.' I share this sentiment. If anyone here wants to take a few moments and send an e-mail of appreciation to Juri Munkki (and maybe seek some advice), I'm sure he wouldn't mind hearing from you; here's his address.

This post has been edited by Evol : 18 October 2008 - 02:04 AM

I'm glad to see someone continuing work on this project. I wish I had more time (the code for my Javara is still sitting in my Eclipse workspace staring me down every morning).

I e-mailed Juri a couple years ago asking for advice and his thoughts. He said "I'm willing to advise on gameplay and help figure out algorithms for specific problems. There was a group working on new Avara a year or two ago, but it fell apart, like so many others. It takes time and commitment to finish a game."

-Ian