Tower defense on Msx

Paragon (1236)

15-05-2010, 16:54

hi ,

i see there a lot of games based on the tower defense system :

you build towers anlong a path and then enemies goes through & get shot,
you win moey to improve your towers for next wave , you should have some
lives conut that decrease each time an enemy find his path through your hell
of fire.

and i think this games are a bit entertaining and suit msx limitations on full
animated/scrolling since the scene does not move, just enemies a lot of them
but with 32x of them might be enough to create a war scene.

By Yukio

Paragon (1540)

15-05-2010, 17:06

Is this something like Herzog !?
Except that Herzog is attack/defense ...

By Vampier

Prophet (2415)

15-05-2010, 18:15

I have played an msx2 prototype of a tower defense game. And I already started to work on graphics which are never used

www.vampier.net/18.png

By SLotman

Paragon (1242)

15-05-2010, 20:30

I tought about making one - but just the ammount of moving stuff on screen (lots of enemies and bullets on advanced stages) makes me wonder if MSX would be able to handle it...

By Yukio

Paragon (1540)

15-05-2010, 20:54

Maybe someone would need to make a clone using a Graphics9000 cartridge ...

By Leo

Paragon (1236)

15-05-2010, 23:24

yes herzog is close
screen2 for animation ?

By boomlinde

Resident (54)

16-05-2010, 02:25

Maybe tile-wise movement is good enough for some things.

By SLotman

Paragon (1242)

16-05-2010, 06:42

I don't think just screen2/tiles will do - usually on advanced levels you can easily have 50+ enemies walking on the screen, 10 or more towers shooting (sometimes several projectiles at once) so you can get up to 80-100 moving objects on screen at once.

img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/SLotman/MSX/bloons-tower-defense-300.jpg
(This is just an example of what I'm talking about)

Of course, one can scale down the numbers, but that is just what makes tower defense games fun :(

By Leo

Paragon (1236)

16-05-2010, 08:43

i think towers can be tiles.
enemies can be tiles as well.
sprite can be used for mouse/cursor and bullets.
i think limiting tower number can be interesting you need to sell/buy during game and deal with upgrades .
so 4 or 6 towerscan be enough.
16 enemies at once can be enough .
so 20 tiles and 20 bullets are acting at max .
on each interrupt @50 hz you move 2-3 objects you can hace 10fps , nice.

By ARTRAG

Enlighted (6977)

16-05-2010, 09:43

The AI for all that stuff simply wouln't fit on the poor z80 even at 10fps

By Leo

Paragon (1236)

16-05-2010, 11:11

what ai ?
there could be : lets say 40 paths for enemies stored in ram tables.
when a monster birth one path is taken randomly and then followed all along the live of the moster.
the path depend on the stage.

the path generation it self could be programmed it could take 20secs to calculate in between stages.
for instance during casuality and scoring counts. so no need to put lot of file of precaculated path on disk, maybe just two precaculated path so the stage can start quickly and these can be used as 'seeds' for random path.

the random generation can use these seeds in genetic algorithm , like :
"to generate a third path take one number randomly X and then take all the segment from
position #0 to #x from path 1 and from x to pos #1500 from path2 and then stich
between position #x-10 to #x+10 a linear path "

there could be a slow/pepilined generation of few more path after some waves of monsters that could avoid
to go near towers. or ever simpler store in ram for each path the kill ratio and then regenerate randomly
the too deadly one every 4 or 5 waves .

if we use mapper or vram to strore them we can easily find 64kb, which makes 1500 points per path.
the most intensive part would be proximity detection of tower , but it would be tile based.
it would be a task of the monster if fact too see each time he moves if he is not near a tower.

screen1 and basic could be enough ....