I am just learning to use Unity and following some basic tutorials. I will eventually have a skill system, character classes, levels/experience etc… it will be mostly standard. I am just wondering how I should be building my game. It probably wont ever be a massive thing, maybe just a handful of people, but better safe than sorry.
I have never implemented an online game before, so what I’d like to know is what order I should work on things. I don’t want to put something into my game that will not work later on.
I would like to know about save systems for recording levels, equipment, location etc… I’d also like to know how I should build my characters. For example, should they be segmented into a torso, head, arms, legs and weapon separately and swapped out? (Pieces will be replaced like armor/weapons) Is there a way to host a multi-player game on my PC just for a few people to test with? Is there a solid way to make an inventory style system that can’t be exploited with duping or have the problem with disappearing items?
Basically I just want to be learning the methods to making the game the proper way. I don’t want to make something that in the end can’t be put online smoothly.
I know it is a noobish move to try to make an MMO without a team/experience, but hey, I’m a noob, so I’ll do it.
In my game I was hoping to have a movement/targeting/combat system that is different than most I’ve played. It will be a bit hack and slash + rpg elements. I am unskilled at coding in Unity, although it seems much easier than other engines, so I was wondering if the following example is possible -and- if it is a possible choice for MMO style games.
→ Movement with WASD, like WoW. (I hate WoW, but it seems to be how most people think.) Third person. Fantasy type… swords shields and magic… all that stuff. I tried before in another engine to make a melee combat system that was a bit different. Most games just determines if the target is within range and then apply damage, but I was hoping to somehow make a trace from the start of the blade and end at the tip of the blade and apply damage to enemy targets it hits. At first I was considering having it do damage during the attack animation every .1 seconds or something, so it would be a practice thing to get a really good hit. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I get the feeling that could be difficult for online play. Having a sword swing and trace along the blade and applying damage to each enemy target it hits with just 1 amount of damage per target seems more possible. Will this type of thing be possible? I get kind of bored with the standard MMO with point to click + target system + hotkey = autoattack until the monster is dead. Also my game will be a bit action-ish with swarms of stuff, so the targeting system has to be able to handle it.
Any suggestions, help, tutorials or anything would be much appreciated. I’m a newb here but I know what I want and I will spend my free time trying to make it happen. I know an MMO isn’t a smart choice, but I’m not on any deadline or anything. I believe it will be a great deal of experience and practice making elements of the game I want create.
I can’t do much in return for anyone that helps me, but I will put a thread somewhere posting my progress and some tutorials of things I’ve picked up to maybe help people in situations like mine.
Trying to make an MMO as your first game is like trying to learn how to ride a motorcycle before you can ride a bike.
Personally, I think you’re suicidal for trying to attempt making an MMO alone, regardless of how skilled you are/aren’t. Try making some arcade style shooters first.
You’re considering the equivalent of building a 3-stage liquid fuel rocket complete with fancy fuel pumps and laser refraction gyroscopic flight control.
Maybe you should consider starting out with model rocket with a C sized estes motor.
Well, it is more like… I want to have a character at first and then figure out how to make attacks for it… then some blob enemies… the basics. It’s not like my first goal is omg MMO ftw! I’d just like to know what mindset I should be in if I’m trying to make something that has the potential to be online someday. Right now I’d be flipping happy to just be killing blobs. I did the worminator thing from the TornadoTwins on youtube, at least part of it so far. I’m partly concerned because I use Blender and I don’t know how to get the animations from a .fbx file, because it has an Action Editor and the Animation editor thing, I don’t know which works for Unity. Maybe an MMO was the wrong topic for it. For now, a prototype is what I’m going for.
I thought it would be good practice to make an MMO style game because it covers almost all aspects of things. I was thinking about making a healer class that can hurt undead, yes I know it’s a bit typical, but it would mean having a health system, attacks/skills, damage/healing… and just build from there.
I also considered making my game with that sort of “toon shading” effect, but I read some shading effects totally ruin performance, so on a large scale like an MMO, I don’t know which to go with.
I’ll probably just end up making a terrain and place a bunch of cube enemies until I get the things fixed, I’m thinking long down the line… probably years until I have something functional to show off.
To summarize… simple rpg for now, MMO hypothetical someday, but I’d hate to make something and then have to fully remake it when I do have the skills to put something online in the future. I just want to know how I should be handling things.
You should be starting with the various tutorials and examples in the resources section of the Unity website. For instance there are character customization and third person example projects which directly bear on questions you raised in your OP.
As far as blender importing, search around in the External Tools forum. Blender is a very popular app for Unity content and I’m sure any problem you are having has been asked before.
Maybe the best thing to do, would be to actually start working on it, but start simple. First, study all the physics and stuff inside the tutorials and figure what you would really actually like to be placed in your MORPG. Experiment with the way different things act, like Lerpz’s jetpack (Something from one of the tutorials; did I spell his name right?) The way it always follows the instance of the character. Look for the small stuff, tweak it, and implement it into your code.
So, in your game, you could take the jetpack idea, replace it with a sword, and instead of issuing fiery stuff that follows the jetpack, create a tracker object along the edge of the sword that follows the sword and initiates a script upon contact with so-and-so. You see where I’m getting at? The tutorials have a wealth of information; you just have to dig deep into them. Just start at the basic fundamentals you want, and keep building upwards. Trust me, it’s either the liquid fuel, or nothin’.
I downloaded the 3d platformer thing with Lerpz or whatever his name is. The movement system I want is a little tricky, as far as targeting will go… so I don’t exactly know how that will work yet. I so far have a character that stands like a statue and shoots a white sphere from its hand… The movement is like a car though or something… from the worminator project thing. I can’t seem to find anything about the tracing thing that calls a script on contact. That would be a large part of my game though, so I have to figure that one out.
I do like Unity, it seems much simpler than the game engine I used before. My biggest problem right now is animations. I can animate in Blender and I get the result in Unity, sort of… I import my character and place it in the map, but when I start the map… the character does 1 walk cycle and then stops, regardless of what I press. I can’t seem to get the animations, but I think maybe I exported them wrong in the .fbx file. It makes a “Default Take” file with my animations in it, but I don’t know how to access them. A game without animations is… like… Minesweeper… a fun game, but not what I’m going for.
I’m a newb at scripting, so does anyone know a tutorial that explains the process of calling animations/looping them during certain actions? All help is much appreciated~
@^post I don’t think it should be here as this forum is for multiplayer stuff
Its good that you have a big goal.
Even I have the same goal as you but after trying hard I finally have put it has my longterm goal.
It would be best if you try to do the tutorials first and you will learn how to script whatever you want.
Doing the tutorials first will put you on the right track in your learning process.
Other than the tutorials available on the site there are many available on the internet too.
The best you would find is TornadoTwins tutorial on a worm shooter game.
it is available in their channel at http://youtube.com/user/tornadotwins
Yeah, I’ve been using their tutorials. It isn’t a multiplayer thing right now exactly, but in this forum thing it says MMO is one of the topics. I will be concerned about the online part later, that’s why I’m asking how I should be making it now, because I don’t want to make something that wouldn’t work well online in the future.
Like the others said, an mmo is a huge step for your first project. What i did is followed the TornadoTwins tutorials to learn the basics of unity, then from there made a character model in Blender (Years of exp in blender here). Rigged the model, made a simple walk animation. then i started actually making a terrain in unity placing a few things around and getting my character player to work within unity. From there if your new to programming i suggest you either go through some java or C# tutorials theres tuns on youtube and in the unity forums. Ultimately the best resource i have found is the Unity3d community, they are amazing. After about 3 months of using unity this is what i have as a start.
watch the rest of my vids on my youtube channel for updates ive made to the project in the last couple weeks.
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