Mod Ideas/Rocket Jockey

Rocket Jockey

Summary

This is an idea that I have been bouncing around for a while, and I think would be quite feasible in the UT2003 engine.

For those not in the know, Rocket Jockey was a game released several years ago, in which players ride rockets around an arena. Each rocket has cables you can launch, which can be used for a variety of purposes, the main goal being to knock out your opponents. Anyone can be knocked off their rocket, which obviously inflicts quite a large amount of damage against the player. Once you are off the rocket, people can drag you around with cables, tie you to posts, and beat up the player with some rather satisfying crunches and screams.

Note that there's probably lots of stuff I've left out, feel free to search Google or ask for more information, or add stuff if you've played the game.

Gameplay

Every player starts on their rocket, an announcer counts off, and the game starts.

Mechanics

While off the rocket, you are totally defenseless, thus the need to find a rocket to get back on.

On the rocket, you have 2 cable launchers on each side at your disposal. Seeing as rockets go at a very high speed, the cables can be used to attach to a pole, which lets you spin around and change direction. You can also attach both cables together, so you can create trip wires, tie players/objects to posts, whatever you can think of. Once a player has been injured heavily enough, he is out of the game. The player with the most points at the end wins.

Game Types

Arena

Basically the maps are a large arena, with posts to swing off of, bombs and powerups to collect, and fences to navigate around. The goal of this is to knock out all your opponents using whatever means neccesary.

Racing

A circuit-style map, this should allow map-makers to have much more freedom in what to make. In this, players must pass through various goals in order, as they traverse around the course. Note that the original game only offered circuit maps, but once-through maps should be feasible as well.

Soccer

As the name implies, it's soccer, only on rockets. Two goals on each side, one ball in the center for the players to grab with cables.

Scoring

In arena, different amounts of points are given depending on the difficultly of the maneuver. Points are awarded for inflicting damage upon the player or his rocket.

Team

Planeguy - Programming/Modelling/Map Making

Naky - Designer

? - Sounds (Need a new sound d00d)

Naky - Modeller

Mr. P - Programming

AxeManiac - Texture Artist

Zap! - Mapper

? - Animator (only need a couple of very small animations done, this would be an incredibly easy job)

Also, if anyone's experienced in creating UV maps, we could really use your help. I'm doing them, but very slowly due to lack of time and skill ;-) Not a critical thing, I'll get them all done eventually, just a matter of when.

Timeline

Ok, obviously a lot of this is still up in the air, but here's what I think we should do based on what I've been hearing (feel free to make any changes)

This is the initial stage. The focus should be on getting the basic gameplay mechanics coded, such as:
1. Implementing a basic rocket
2. Arena gametype
3. Mechanics for players once off the rocket - nothing too complex, things like tripping and getting thrown around can be done later
4. Simple HUD
After we complete this stage, I'm thinking that the game should be more or less feature complete compared to the original game. Other things that should be done by now:
1. Grappling onto players/objects - Possibly with Karma physics assuming that it's not too much of a hassle, otherwise we can delay it to a later stage.
2. Soccer and Racing game types - If these don't delay things too much I think they could also be postponed, but I'd like to get them done.
3. Maps - We should have at least some basic arena maps, enough that we could release something and it'd be fun.
Focus on polishing, balancing, and fixing bugs. We should also start focusing on cosmetic stuff such as modeling/skinning and static meshes, but I think that the bulk of that could be delayed for future releases.
This is the "eye candy" stage. By now we should have some modelers/skinners/animators and mapmakers, and we can focus on transitioning into something that looks purty.

Modelling Tasks

The stuff us modellers gotta do for phase 1.

Map Objects

Basic Stub - Completed - Textured - DONE
Basic Pole - Completed - Textured - DONE
Net (long, low) - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing
Net (short, high) - Incomplete
Ball Ejection Port - Incomplete
Claw Stub - Incomplete
Power-up Ring - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing
Cable-Changing Spool - Incomplete
Billboard - Incomplete

Balls

Soccer Ball - Incomplete
Hover Tire - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing
Steel Ball - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing
Beach Ball - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing
Bomb - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing

Rockets & Rocket Related

2 rockets:

- Rucinsky's Radical Rocket - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing

- Helm's XR-1 "Conquerer" - Incomplete

- Fusellier - Completed - Ready for Texturing

- Unlockable Rocket - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing

1 cable mesh with 2 different skins - Completed - Not Ready for Texturing

Programming Tasks

Extend KVehicle into a rocket class, using KCar as a guide (only simpler, since there's no wheels) - Petri: The rocket itself is pretty much complete. Some things need to be changed but that shouldn't be very hard.
3rd person viewpoint for players - Petri: Complete for player controllers, incomplete for vehicles.
New Hud - Plane Guy: Complete. Things may be added in the future, but this has all the basics
New Gametype or Mutator that removes weapons - Petri: Complete.

Phase 2 has begun! We're not dead yet!

New PlayerPawn to account for vehicle hit damage and effects? - Incomplete
Grappling hooks and tow cable effect - Plane Guy: 86.7% Complete Now with 90% more KARMA
Attach grapple hooks shooters to rocket - Incomplete
Enable grappling rockets - Plane Guy: Complete Hehe, found out I can't aim down with P's behindview code, so I was just shooting over it
Reveal Plane Guy is a retard - Plane Guy: Complete See above.
Change gametype to spawn a rocket when a player logs in - Incomplete.

For now, we'll just drop a rocket or two in the level. Having a rocket spawn with the player only on his first spawn looks like a quite bit of work we don't want to get hung up on right now, especially when rockets are still in development.

Comments

Note that I have no experience whatsoever, I just thought that it's a shame that this game has not been done justice.

Highlander: OMG i loved this game i never could find a copy of the full version but i played the demo too much. I agree this could be quite interesting on the ut2k3 engine. A fair amount of coding i think. Depends to what extent you could use karma to your advantage (the ropes). Quite the idea.

Highlander, go to http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Rocket+Jockey

Highlander: Thank you for the link . Unfortunately... it doesnt seem to like win2k... so i will proceed to install win95 on my laptop.

I'd be willing to help code this. Let me know. – Spike ICQ 3797129.

Naky: So it looks like a formal team has taken up this project now (goons, you know who you are). We'll use this board to consolidate and talk about the project until we get our site up and running.

Plane Guy: Ok, so this is how I see it. We should get some rudimentary basics working soon, so that we can build on them at axemanic's afore-mentioned slow pace. I can see making working rockets and grapple hooks (sans tripwires) easily with placeholder models. The reason I want to get going is that people tend to sit around arguing about features and getting nothing done. No one can argue we don't need these features! Anyway, I'm off to have a closer look at that KVehicle....

Naky: Agreed. Some of the basic tasks for programming should be:

the adjustment of the camera: this'll be a third person view mod just like the original... maybe eventually we can set something up where mousewheelup zooms in and mousewheeldown zooms out but for now, just a basic behind-the-rocket camera view will do
tweaking of the kvehicle class: this function probably simulates a wheeled vehicle pretty well but I'm not sure if it'll "feel" right for flying a rocket
firing the cables: just firing them for the moment, we can worry about how they'll interact with the environment later on

Once we get those things settled, we can add to the list. Oh yeah, UT2K3 comes with 2 hover jetbike models. They're inside VehicleMeshes.usx I think. Both are a little under 900 polys and we can use those two as placeholder rockets for now. Anyway, for me, I have to sit down either tonight or tomorrow and play the game a bunch so I can make a list of all the map models I need to make. We might as well stay with the '20s theme for now too, even though it'll look weird with the default character models. Something we can't help until we find a character modeller, I suppose.

Highlander: You gents need any help lemme know... Currently pre-occupied with a few projects but if I can pitch in I will. Have experience /w gametypes custom pawns / controllers etc. I put a lot of thought into how to implement this a while ago. One problem I see is the cables, specificly making them look good at arbitary lengths (do we build em out of segments? or perhaps a single mesh scaled?) Other issues are if you plan on using karma you need to work out the replication for that stuff.

Camera adjustment: easy I can have something together in a few minutes if you want it.
I think kVehicle is the best thing to subclass if you plan on using karma.

I *think* karma objects can only be joined to karma objects, also not sure if a karma object can be anchored to the world (so it doesnt move) but that would make the interactions easy.. just restrict the pylons to be KActors that are anchored to the world.

Naky: Sure, I don't see why not. This isn't a Something Awful goon project only. What is your main thing? Programming, mapping, modelling, skinning? We have 2 programmers, 1 modeller, 1 texture artist, one sound designer and one designer who is the guy who started this thread on Wiki so far. Right now we're mostly in the planning and preparation stage but starting to get the basics down in certain areas. We're also keeping the scope small at first and expanding as we complete the tasks we outline so don't think bad of us as a result

Killmaster: Ok, I added Team section. I also added a basic Timeline, feel free to add things or modify it if you think anything needs to be changed.

Naky: Added in the modelling tasks and a section for the programmers. Mr. P, who has decided to be a full member now (yay!) and Plane Guy can work out what they need to do with each other and list it, I guess.

Petri: Hay guys, I'm Mr. P.

MythOpus: Yo Mistah P

Spike: Hey there...A few weeks ago someone contacted me about this project but I lost the info. Could you drop me a line again? I have a Web site with a bulletin board running, and I could create a mod dev team board for you (see http://amishrabbit.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=10), if you want to use something other than a Wiki to stay in touch (especially because someone could just delete the whole thing). Drop me an ICQ to 3797129 or AIM Spikescape.

Plane Guy We're not dead yet!

05-05-2003| Dodger_ *pokes the body with a stick* Enable grappling rockets - Incomplete. "Karma actors do not do collision" : If they don't do collision, then how does UT2k3 do the collision with the beams and stuff when you fall down the pit in that ball game?

Plane Guy: That's a karma actor (ragdoll) interacting with other karma actors (beams, etc.) Once an actor gets handed over to karma, it does not handle "game collision" events, at least not properly. Well, at least the grapple hook passes harmlessly through the rocket (karma controlled) when I take a pot-shot at it. Since it should grapple any actor, the only thing I can see different between the rocket any any other actor, is that I've handed control of it to Karma.

On a related note, it really pains me that I have to re-code th wheel on the towing physics. If I find something - have some sort of epiphany - I'd swicth over to Karma in a nanosecond. I don't trust the replication on it though. Karma seens to work on a differnt plane than the rest of the game, it's just that we get the priviledge to watch it's magic at work sometimes.

Foxpaw: This is partially true and partially not.. Karma does work independantly of the regular physics, however, it is possible to make it interact with other normal objects. Usually the beams and stuff that you hit are not "karma objects" per se. If you want an object to collide with Karma objects, you have to call KSetBlockkarma( true ) on that object. For "towing" you can use KAddImpulse, or even put a KBSJoint between the hook and the rocket. Then an impulse applied to the hook will cause a realistic "tug" on that point of the rocket.

Spike: Hey Plane Guy–let me know if you'd like my help with audio. Contact info is in my previous post—and the offer for a message board still stands, if you want it. (22 July 03)

MythOpus: Hey! Is this mod still in the construction phase? It seems to have stopped completely... or maybe someone hasn't had time to update progress?

Naky: We ain't dead, we just moved underground to focus on the two major ass problems we've been having with the Unreal engine. We've got one of them nailed and the other one somewhat so. www.rocketwars.com has been regged and we're about to move there soon, with our own forums. Spike, if you're still interested in helping with sound or additional programming, you're more than welcome. Sorry I haven't checked this page in such a long time, just been too busy with work, my stuff with the mod and in life in general My contact info is: MSN - nyquil_lover @ hotmail.com; ICQ - 216794516 or Email: naky @ rocketwars.com. The forums should be up this weekend - August 1 or 2nd.

Zap!: I'm not dead either! Ok, I just kinda got really busy towards the end of school and kinda forgot about this. I'm going to be working on my mapping skills (and texturing egad!). I'll see what I can get done. Since I'm a newbie with this stuff, I'll need to know what special parts we'll need for our maps, if any.

Plane Guy: Just verifying breathing status. We've done a lot, just not gone far. This is kind of a first for most of us. I know the rockets have been redone, and this is the another try at grappling hooks. I'm so happy Karma is involved now. It's so keen when it's not raping my houseplants.

Naky: Okay guys, www.rocketwars.com is all setup and ready to go. The forums are setup and completed and once we start making our site, we'll have much less use for this board. Even as it is, most of the info here is outdated See you guys over there.