Logging Empire, resource gathering RTS

Community Showcases
1

I’m building a logging game where your job is to build a logging company, like a RTS game except with no combat and just resource gathering. The gameplay consist of harvesting logs from the forest using various machines and vehicles, such as log harvesters to cut down trees, skidders and forwarders to bring them back to the loading area, and loaders to load the logs onto the trucks.

All of the vehicles will cost money and maintenance, but that should be offset by the amount your making from the forestry. Later on there might be more stuff included such as logging trains or timber rafting.

current webplayer, read below on how to play

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31947388/webplayer.html

controls
controls follow basic RTS controls.

left mouse button - selects unit, if clicked
right mouse button - tells a unit to go to that location, if selected
w,a,s,d keys - moves the camera
mouse wheel - move camera up and down
middle mouse - rotates camera

The goal of the game right now is to just harvest wood and get a logging operation going. there is a window at the left hand side of the screen that is a purchase menu where you can buy more vehicles. it’s hard to see, but the amount of money you have is at the top left corner of the screen.

harvester
Once selected, click on a tree to tell it to harvest it. After that the harvester will automatically begin harvesting surrounding trees.

skidder
These bring the logs that the harvesters made from the trees back to the stockpile area where they are loaded onto trucks. Select the skidder then click on a pile that a harvester left behind to tell it to bring that pile back to a stockpile. You can create a new stockpile by clicking on a green sphere that gets highlighted once a skidder is selected.

truck
plain and simple, these get loaded with logs and then leave the map temporally to deposit their load then come back to get more wood. Click on a truck and then click on a wood stockpile to tell it to get in position for loading.

loader
these load the wood from the stockpiles onto the trucks, click on a stockpile to tell it to get in position to load. both loader and truck are required to begin loading.

the wood stockpile is a big pile of wood stacked together. there is one at the beginning of the game.

2

Love it! Great idea!

3

Wow, that looks really cool man. Nice!

I’d like to know how you did the tree’s “timbering” effect when they fall over. Keep up the good work.

4

thanks everyone. For the trees I’m using terrain tree instances, but I spawn a box collider around them so it can detect when it hits the cutter object on the harvester. Then it destroys the instance and replaces it with a tree prefab that is pre cut.

5

Nice work :smile:

Reminds me of Farming Simulator, which I had fun with initially. But it was lacking a good story or objective besides plant, grow, and harvest. That’s what makes it a simulator, I suppose.

Your game seems like one I would look forward to trying :smile:. I’ll be following.

6

What I’ve been doing recently is alot of programming and getting the game to actually work. There’s not much else to show visually but there’s been alot of bug fixes, gameplay and interface added to the game. You know how it is.

added a pause menu
created a build menu to purchase vehicles
added money to the game to buy things
got the harvesters to actually work without bugs
transitioned from unities navigation to A* pathfinding
created a selection box system so you can select multiple units
made it so the single selection system works with the multi selection system
created camera constraints and camera controls
made it so the camera cannot go through the terrain as easily
made it so the trucks leave the map once they are full of wood, and come back and look for more
when a skidder is told to go to a pile and bring it to a stockpile, the pile will flash and highlight for a second

7

This looks really cool and unique! Do you have any plans for pricing?

8

Maybe 7.00 - 10.00 dollars. Its not a very big game.

9

I’m looking for some input on the first phase of the game. Let you know what you think gameplay wise, and if you see any bugs.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hbkzckrpgoblkb8/woodgame_Data.zip

controls
w,a,s,d keys - moves the camera
right mouse button - rotates camera and look around
mouse wheel - move camera up and down

The goal of the game right now is to just harvest wood and get a logging operation going. there is a window at the left hand side of the screen that is a purchase menu where you can buy more vehicles. it’s hard to see, but the amount of money you have is at the top left corner of the screen.

harvester
Once selected, click on a tree to tell it to harvest it. After that the harvester will automatically begin harvesting surrounding trees.

skidder
These bring the logs that the harvesters made from the trees back to the stockpile area where they are loaded onto trucks. Select the skidder then click on a pile that a harvester left behind to tell it to bring that pile back to a stockpile. You can create a new stockpile by clicking on a green sphere that gets highlighted once a skidder is selected.

truck
plain and simple, these get loaded with logs and then leave the map temporally to deposit their load then come back to get more wood. Click on a truck and then click on a wood stockpile to tell it to get in position for loading.

loader
these load the wood from the stockpiles onto the trucks, click on a stockpile to tell it to get in position to load. both loader and truck are required to begin loading.

the wood stockpile is a big pile of wood stacked together. there is one at the beginning of the game.

known issues
pressing the escape key pauses the game but makes everything uncontrollable, dont do it!

10

Looks good!

I tried out your demo and here are some points of feedback:

Gameplay:

  • Right now the gameplay is not too exciting. This is understandable for such an early alpha demo, but you could add a lot more gameplay by introducing staff management, maybe fuel for your vehicles, make appointment to contractors for extra earnings etc. Maybe even let you create your own lumbermill to process your logs yourself. Right now it isn’t really more than waiting for your harvesters and driving skidders around.

Pathfinding:

  • Local avoidance doesn’t seem to work really well between vehicles. they often get stuck which happens a lot for the skidders at the stockpile.
  • I can’t get the skidders to work correctly. They just don’t seem to want to drop off their logs at the stockpile (maybe because again, they get stuck quite often)

Camera:

  • When scrolling the mousewheel the camera moves straight up or down. It would be better if it moved along the forward axis, the direction it is facing.
  • When zoomed out a lot and moving across the map, Unity’s awfull tree billboards start to kick in and bend the trees in a ridiculous way
  • I would suggest to add a speed modifier for the camera movement. For example, while holder shift make de camera move twice as fast. Also let the camera move faster if it is higher up in the air.
  • You should constrain the movement and zooming of the camera to the map boundaries. Right now you can go whereever you want until you are lost.
  • When holding the right mouse button to move your camera, while you have a vehicle selected, you accidently tell the vehicle to move to a certain position. I suggest changing the control to rotate the camera to the middle mouse button (this is quite common for RTS games I think).

Graphics:

11

thanks for playing! I will take note of your remarks. Some of the stuff I knew like the pathfinding and camera issues. I am using the free version of A* pathfinding and was planning on purchasing the pro version which has dynamic avoidance.

I agree the gameplay is kind of boring right now. I would love to add more like more vehicles and competing companies, but I would like to get it done by the beginning of next year. Maybe in logging empire 2 I can expand the game.

12

no problem :wink:

You should make sure that you have a solid base to build upon before adding more features. But when that’s done this could have quite some potential :slight_smile:

13

Anyone else want to test it? I am looking for more feedback and ideas.

14

I’m now adding a bunch of sounds to the game and creating code for it to work. In a couple weeks the game should look and feel like an actual game. I’m looking forward to getting all of the essential stuff complete so I can add more content to it. But that wont be for awhile. I still need to do stuff like saving/loading levels, options menu, main menu, boring stuff.

15

could you maybe add a webplayer? :slight_smile:

16

Yeah, I just put it on the first post.

17

No webplayer, just a link to a zip file?

18

Well, yeah. Its not a webplayer but a build of the game. I’ll try to make a webplayer soon.

19

Ahh, ok. But the link is broken, looks like you did copy/paste from the wrong place : p

20

Sorry about that, once I get the next build up I will make sure it’s working.

I’m still working on the mechanics and essentials of the game. Soon I will implement a save feature by using a premade asset. It’s amazing to discover the immense amount of small details and code that has to get done in a game. One does not simply write a code that tells a unit to move from point A to B, but must write a hundred more lines of code that tell it to move from point A to B in many different situations. Such as if the game is paused, or if its a speical kind of unit that moves differently, or must play a certain animation while moving.