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Frader

Hell Commander - RTS - Beta 1 - Download and video!

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Hell Commander is a real-time strategy game based on the Doom Universe. The game is part of the final project I'm doing to get my computer engineering degree.

Changes since Alpha3: Fog of war added. Unit balance modified.

Game overview:
Players will play the role of an Evil Commander with the objective to possess all human infrastructures. They will win the game whenever they manage to control all UAC buildings. These buildings will be of different kinds and will be distributed across the map. They will also be defended by UAC forces that will fight against all players that try to possess them. That possession will be done using lost souls. That action will take a few seconds and the unit will have to survive in order for it to succeed.

Every player will start with an Icon of Sin placed in a different spot in the map, and some little cash in the form of energy. All units of that player will be summoned in the Icon of Sin. Also, the Icon of Sin won't be destructible by other players and will keep providing energy.

Apart from being a mere objective to win the game, UAC buildings will provide advantatges to the ones controlling them. To start with, there will be power plants that will provide extra energy to summon more units. The rest of the buildings will be required in order to summon specific types of units. For example, a player may need to control a barracks in order to make shotgun soldiers. In the same fashion, a spaceport and a laboratory may be required to summon mancubus demons.

To keep things balanced, some buildings will have stronger UAC forces defending them. Also, a minimum time controlling some types of buildings will be required to make the most powerful units (such as the cyberdemon). Finally, there won't be enough buildings in the map to allow all players to make all types of units. So once the UAC forces are defeated players will still need to fight each other for their control.

TO-DO list:
- Adding objects to the map (barrels, torches, pilars, etc).
- Victory screen.
- Setup options (setting a player's name and other game options).
- Merging both server and client into one single executable. The option "Host game" would then be added.
- Sound?

Limitations:
There's just one map available althought everything's prepared to allow more of them. I don't have any plans on making them for now as i find it a very time consuming task.

Things you may want to take a look at:
All unit properties are defined in a text file called unittypes.xml (movement speed, attack damage and range, etc). That file can be found at the path you installed the game. You may also take a look at map1.xml and gamevalues.xml. It would take a while for me to go over all the properties you can change there, but everything's pretty much self-explanatory. Don't be afraid to ask anyway.

How to start a game:
Everything's packed into a nice installer so you shouldn't have any issues regarding this. Make sure to let DirectX update, otherwise your're likely to see missing dll errors. Links to the executables will be created on the start menu. Once the game is installed you can start the config dialog to set the graphics settings to your liking.

1) Start the server. Don't close the console window.
2) Start a client (either locally or on some other computer).
3) Select "Join game" and enter the IP address of the server machine. If both server and client are on the same machine, you can leave the default IP (which is the localhost address).
4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add more players. Press ready on all the players to make the game start.
5) Play!
6) You can close the server's console window once the game has ended.

Note: the included map is for just 2 players.

Some ingame keybindings:
All keybindings are inspired by Blizzard's RTS games. So if you played those you'll feel at home.

Ctrl + <num> - create group
Shift + <num> - add units to group
Hold alt - show unit healthbars
A - attack (select a ground position to do an aggressive movement)
D - show debug stats
Enter - chat message
Esc - cancel action
F10 - leave game

About this version:
I've bumped the version name to Beta instead of Alpha as I feel all the basic functionality is already working. Even this said, there are still things that need to be added. Others may require to be polished out. As always, feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Video:
Watch on youtube at 720p for the best experience.



DOWNLOAD LINK
Version: Beta 1
Size: 23.5 MB

System requirements:
Graphics card with support for Shader Model 2.0 (ATI Radeon 9600, nVidia GeForce FX 5 series, or newer)

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Wow! This looks like less of a test and more of a working game! This looks great! I'm sure you probably have this in mind but you're going to need a way to identify which monsters are on which team by color coding them. I think the UAC Buildings would look cooler if they were made of doom textures too.

Also what do you think of using UAC buildings as a means of summoning zombies instead of summoning them from the Icon of Sin? The Icon of Sin in doom 2 never spawned zombies and I feel UAC buildings would be fit for that. It could also serve more benefits for the player as controlling more of them provides the ability to spawn more units at a faster rate from each building. Also at a shorter distance from the areas they are trying to explore, so you don't have to wait for your units to crawl all the way across the map.

ANOTHER idea to speed up gameplay would be an ability to buy teleporters to get your monsters to where you need them quicker. Maybe you could have different types of teleporters too each costing a different amount of mana. The most basic would be the two-way red pentagram squares that opponents can destroy kinda like zerg's Nydas Canal, you could also have teleports that work one-way and can only be destroyed from the entrance, and maybe another type that is silent (creates a very subtle sound to be fair) and doesn't create a green fuzzy flash which makes them harder for enemy players to locate.

And of course telefragging to keep players from sending hordes and hordes of monsters through teleporters in a short amount of time.

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Great to see something like this in the works! I think the most important thing to focus on is the tech tree and how you will implement it. Perhaps the Icon of Sin could be some kind of unlockable building later to summon in the stronger demons or summon monsters faster. Starting the player with a simple teleporter or one corrupted UAC factory with only a limited number of monsters to choose from would be a good step.

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