cool ideas for a game

I've spent some time implementing fairly robust physics lately. I've got it so that in the engine correct impulses in 3D are generated, and all collisions take into account friction, and I've got perfect collision detection.

What would be some cool ideas for a hovertank game? That is the project I am trying to finish right now. The actual website is thedevelopersalliance.com, which I cannot access right now. There are only about 5 people that consistently visit that site right now anyway. I want it to be simple, but i want madly addicting gameplay. I cannot think of any real good ideas, and I am not motivated to start working on the actual gameplay.

These are ideas I've got on the drawing board:

-simple real time vertex lighting with OpenGL, and simple ('boolean') stencil shadows for good enough graphics
-deform gemetry so shooting stuff is fun
-produce 'torques' as well as linear impulses when stuff hits
-some sort of 'capture the flag' against either bots or people

does anybody else have any good ideas? As I've said, the engine is already done for this (im using something I started writing last year, that I haven't added much to for a few months).

how about simple missions where buildings (or large textured cubes if you dont have models) have to be found and destroyed. Having some sort of objective always keeps a game interesting.

thanks for replying per.

That sounds like an interesting idea, definitely something I'd think over. Do you mean like, each team guards some sort of base, and the objective is to destroy the other person's base, but at the same time guard your own?

Now, let me ask you (or anyone else who cares to view this) something: would it be cool to drive around in the hovertank, but instead of instantly losing the game when your hovertank is destroyed, you go into first person mode such that you still have a chance to win the game (but the enemy can still have a fully armed hovertank while you only have hand held fire arms).

Like I said, I'm just throwing ideas around. I really just want to key into something that will be addicting...the two best games (imo) on this site that have been posted were that defense game by red haze, and bieh's 2d helicopter game. I want it to have the same sort of appeal, but in 3D.

I don't think having a first person mode if your tank blows up is a good idea. It just seems kinda dumb to be running around with hand-held firearms when the enemy has a tank...I guess maybe a rocket launcher would work...

Also, you should add different weapons for the tank. You probably want the game to be somewhat original, but I was thinking of the game Battle Tanx for nintendo 64. That was a really fun game and there were quite a few weapons to pick up if I remember correctly. Also, there were different types of tanks (i.e. light, fast ones and huge, powerful ones)

Well Jawib, what if there were weapons available, such as rocket launchers, but also things like land mines, and little turrets that you could control (this is what I had in mind anyway for the first person mode...obviously an ak47 won't do crap against a hovertank).

I've got the functionality for picking up weapons and ammo, so yes you will be able to get upgrades for your tank. The various upgrades I'm going to include right now are all of the classic arcade ones, such as:

-Armor upgrades
-Weapon/ammo upgrades/replacements (still need to find a system for placing the new weapons on an arbitrary model, so that things 'snap' together, and so I know where in space the weapon is)
-Fuel replacement (on one hand this is arcade, but I'm doing physics based calculations for as much as I can, and I'm going to take fuel burnoff into account).

Also, I think I want the name of the game called 'Plenum chamber', named after the area of high pressure generated underneath the hovertank which actually generates its lift (there's a chapter on this in my physics books, which is where i learned the name).

Thanks for the reply jawib/per.

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Well Jawib, what if there were weapons available, such as rocket launchers, but also things like land mines, and little turrets that you could control (this is what I had in mind anyway for the first person mode...obviously an ak47 won't do crap against a hovertank).

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Hmm...It might be ok. Still, I'm thinking it would be pretty easy to blast a little guy running around with your tank (unless there's a lot of spots to find cover).

Maybe you could just make it an option, so you can have varied types of gameplay. For that matter, you might make it an option to have a certain number of spawns per game...I guess its just a matter of how much time you want to spend messing around with ideas...

Sounds like a cool idea for a game. It also sound like its gonna need some outdoor stuff. Im working on 3D environment stuff with OpenGL right now ( like terrains from cubic spline surfaces ). If you need any help with that just let me know.

Also, i really like the idea of FPS mode when your tank is gone. in fact, i think you should start in FPS mode and have to find your tank. (the tank then becomes an aquirable weapon) but if you do that you'll have to add other vehicles too (like airborne ones! ;)

Heh well that's kinda why I thought it wasn't a great idea...I mean if you want to go all-out and have fps weapons and a whole bunch of vehicles then it would be great...But if it's just sort of a side-note then it might not be so great :confused: