Two hugely full days working on Taskforce. I hardly slept last night with stomach pain and excitement for the game, the sheer amount of work and ideas can be overwhelming, but it's, broadly, a good anxiety; a joy for working that few experience. Does anyone? It feels like a childhood Christmas Eve at times. I do have a tight deadline though and a still big mountain of work on this game.
So, yesterday I started work on reworking the sixteen training missions. These are a big part of the game, but they used to be on a somewhat small and uninspiring map, and, importantly, one that is almost always the same. This map was also very closed, and perhaps that was at least in part because the graphics on my 2004 computer could not keep up.
My new, key word for the game is 'options'. I want the player to have as many options as possible. One of the rooms in the old map was to the side and had just one entry point. My goal now is to make interesting combat environments, something like the maze in the finalé of The Man with the Golden Gun. After all, these are supposed to be custom-made military training areas; an obstacle course, an assault course. Every one should be designed with the training task in mind.
So it's been a very busy two days redesigning the missions. The training area is now in two levels most of the time, although some missions are only on one level; these ideally suit some of the clumsier walking enemies, and, naturally, the missions will become bigger and more sophisticated as the game progresses. Here is a look at one of the new, unlit rooms:
Each mission needs to be different. There were in the first game, but I wanted to aim higher, and so even for the relatively normal combat ones (the Taskforce equivalent of a free-for-all deathmatch) I've used different arenas, and generally different troop numbers or equipment; this time I can specify if the enemy have heavy weapons or not, unlike the 2004 Taskforce.
I've also played with the lighting more, and will revisit this. There are several night missions, which I originally lit in 'night vision green', but blue seems to look prettier. So many films just use a blue filter for night. I can always chop and change.
There are several type of mission, these are like personal mini-challenges that are easily customised and enjoyed by players. In one you must take a small team to blow something up but there are so many enemies that avoiding combat is necessary. In the finalé you must retake the base which has been captured, in another you must defend civilians. Well, I've had little time for playing. Most of the past two days has been spent mapping (blessed be my Cornutopia Mapper! - this is, incidentally, a free download on my website).
Another screenshot that includes some of the lighting in the new Night Raid mission:
One last thing I've done is actually a significant programming challenge; allowing healing by bandages and medikits on other people. This was actually in Arcangel, and is important I think because Taskforce is a team game. It's faster in Action Points to heal others (40% vs. 75%) so having a specific medic or buddy will be beneficial.
The programing for this is not trivial because the gameplay engine is very sophisticated. When healing someone, for example, you might well have to rotate (which uses Action Points) and the rotation will reveal terrain and maybe an enemy; you might even be Opportunity-Fired upon (which is a bit mean, but, yes, it happens). Trying to heal yourself when healthy will not work, but as things now stand, trying to heal someone else (or an empty square) will at least cost the Action Points. You can heal enemies or civilians too, incidentally, which may impact the gameplay. Wounded hostages can now be healed. This is good because it's realistic. It's silly that you can't heal injured others when you can heal yourself. Realism is the ultimate test of what is good and what should be included in a game like this. Realism should drive everything.
