Pathfinding Demo for Drone War, FPS Game in Second Life

Drone War is a multiplayer FPS game in Second Life, and as you might have guessed, it involves shooting, well, robot drones. Developed by Serigo Delacruz, it's going to be a direct beneficiary of the upcoming pathfinding tools Linden Lab will release soon. "I hope to implement these tools in my game 'Drone War'," Sergio tells me, "to create a complex combat system. Enemies will try to attack or hide if their health status is critical" So if it works as promised, the pathfinding system will make the Drones in Drone Wars more drone-like. Another upcoming application of pathfinding: A driving game. If you know of other upcoming projects that use the new pathfinding tools, please post links Comments!

Comments

[foneco zuzu]

You must be kidding!
right now what any can feels about path finder is:
Lag, bugs, lag more bugs, spam, bugs even more lag, even more spam!
Really, i wonder if any that makes this articles really uses SL at All!

[Sergio Delacruz]

@foneco zuzu: you speak bad about pathfinding...but..it's too early!!!! bugs and lag are normal!
i think that pathfinding will change Second Life.
I've tested some characters at my sim, and i'm satisfied by results!

[Sergio Delacruz]

@Wagner James .. "Drone War is a multiplayer FPS game in Facebook"... arghhhh ... game in Second life, not fb!!!:))))

[Gaga]

Pathfinding looks cool at first glace but, seriously, do you expect people to abandon the video games that already play on line else where for the lame efforts individuals can make in Second Life with these tools and the lag we still suffer?

Online gaming is a multi-million dollar business backed by teams of prefessionals. Their games are far more sophisticated and polished then anything that can be achieved here.

Second Life's gaming power is in the area of social interaction and role playing. It had all it needed years ago and Pathfinding may please a few little lads that always did delight in blowing the hell out of everything. But it wont add anything to role play because role plays use words and description. Gadgets are just props for the stage and they don't have to be that sophisticated. Some role players wont even work with combat meters and weapons preferring instead to keep everything in words. But still, Second Life has a lot of role players that manage just fine with the system the way it was. They hate lag and bugs and those are the real problems that need fixing. Shinny new video gaming stuff is just more load for a system never designed to handle it. And that load is killing the enjoyment for the role players.

[Gaga]

Pathfinding looks cool at first glace but, seriously, do you expect people to abandon the video games that already play on line else where for the lame efforts individuals can make in Second Life with these tools and the lag we still suffer?

Online gaming is a multi-million dollar business backed by teams of prefessionals. Their games are far more sophisticated and polished then anything that can be achieved here.

Second Life's gaming power is in the area of social interaction and role playing. It had all it needed years ago and Pathfinding may please a few little lads that always did delight in blowing the hell out of everything. But it wont add anything to role play because role plays use words and description. Gadgets are just props for the stage and they don't have to be that sophisticated. Some role players wont even work with combat meters and weapons preferring instead to keep everything in words. But still, Second Life has a lot of role players that manage just fine with the system the way it was. They hate lag and bugs and those are the real problems that need fixing. Shinny new video gaming stuff is just more load for a system never designed to handle it. And that load is killing the enjoyment for the role players.

[foneco zuzu]

I know and i still have faith that path finder bugs will be sorted!
That's why i still pay for being on SL!
But 2 many are not as Me, and they are leaving!

[Hamlet Au]

"arghhhh ... game in Second life, not fb!!!:))))"

Ack, sorry, fixed!

[zarkinfrood miami]

This is going to be fantastic in existing SL games like MCM, where up until now your only options to fight were either other players or fairly unintelligent drones. I would love to see a field of the pathfinding bots hunting players...

@ Fonceco: Yes - there are people who prefer to play games like this in SL. After I blow through some rounds and spend about 20 minutes on the field, I like to be able to go to the lounge and hang out with the people I've been shooting at and interact with them on a level other than shooting...it's one of the wonders of SL.

[Sergio Delacruz]

@Gaga You are right...if i want to play an action game, i use my pc, or my xbox, or playstation..

Anyway, sometimes residents of Second Life prefer do different things, rather then chat, explore or dance..
My game is designed for this group of residents, and i have to say that i have a lot of players everyday.
So i want that every feature of my game is realistic, and if bugs will be fixed, pathfinding could be a great tool!:)

[foneco zuzu]

I know that all it is asked is to have faith and patience!
But on this times of rush and insanity, to ask that is like to ask for lower tiers.
We all know they should go down and yet!
And i really believe that path finder should ahve been rolled out disabled and enabled as any wished, not the other way around and the lack of communication and info about its tools for the majority of Sl users make it launch pretty useless and a cause for many bugs and items that stopped working!
And i can't stop wondering if the new Havoc will in effect break all the vehicles build till now, and i doubt many will be fixed, so pat finder roll out is only a way of telling us, get ready cause a lot more will get worse before it gets better!
And i fear that, as im watching lately, many will not have that patience, when there is already viable, much less expensive alternatives!
If one stays cause we have to much to loose, be inventory or friends, what will be of us, if suddenly we found all of that useless, even if for only a few days?

[roblem hogarth]

@Gaga "...do you expect people to abandon the video games that already play on line else where for the lame efforts individuals can make in Second Life" (nice job at proofreading your double post BTW)

Um, Angry birds? Farmville? Plants vs. Zombies? Minecraft? Words with friends? If people find a game fun, they will play it. It doesn't have to be the next Skyrim or Mass Effect 3. It doesn't matter how advanced the tech, or how big the corporation is behind it, they will play it in spite of any of that.

I'm sure the efforts of individuals are "less lame" over on open/reaction grids.

[Gaga]

@problem

Did you miss the point?

The point was that SL is home to a whole load of role players who have spent a fortune for the privilege and put up with all the disruption and lag for the sake of LL's U-turn down the road of video gaming. It's like they are saying "Thanks for all the money you guys spent and thanks for all the content you made, We own it now and we got other plans. Hard luck, sorry and all but we are off in a a new direction. You guys are broken anyway and we just can't seem to find enough of you to keep paying up."

So, SL is bug ridden and has been for years and despite the complaints and requests very little gets fixed. The opposite the case in fact, more bugs get added for the sake of the "New Direction." I've closed 4 regions to date and the last 2 I have are touch and go but for the fact we still have quite a lot of role players using them and, unlike Linden Labs, we do care about our people. They are not just money.

[Gaga]

Whoops! my spell checker changed @roblem to @problem. How lame is that?

*laughs*