Turn-Based Tactics Archrebel: Tactics - A reincarnation of the classic Rebelstar.

[Ularis Badler]

Just a brief video showing a female Gargantule spitting acid, an indigenous species to the planet where the campaign will unfold. These creatures are really nasty and should be avoided when without proper force and weaponry.



And here are the same species at different stages in life. Males are bigger, tougher, and deadlier at close range. Females are capable of spitting acid and more agile, making them somewhat more dangerous than males.

 

[Matador]

 

[Ularis Badler]

Just sharing a video I did for Twitter's #TurnBasedThursday event. I usually do parodies revolving around the game's new features. The video shows alien CPU-controlled units already implemented, even though the AI algorithm is still under development. Cheers!

 

[Rincewind]

Hey, this looks great, I've just wishlisted it! Pretty excited about it!
The gfx is great, I really like the music, and it looks you've given a lot of attention to details and everything seems to be going in the right general direction. Congrats!

However, *please* drop that awful linear interpolation scaler/shader! That's one of the absolute worst ways to upscale low-res pixel art, I cannot stand it. Either do:

• integer scaling (user selectable, x3 is a good default),
• "sharp bilinear" scaling (so the "interpolation band" is always 1 native pixel wide max in the horiz and vert directions per emulated pixel -- DOSBox Staging does that with an OpenGL shader, and ScummVM using the CPU, you can always inspect their source files),
• or some kind of CRT emulation.

But linear interpolation must go, in my opinion; that would seriously ruin the whole thing for me, and I think I'm not alone.

I've done some mockups using your screenshots (the text got a bit messed up at places because I had to downscale it to x1 res first, ignore that.)
I like the x3 integer scaled version a lot better already (at the very least provide an option for this), but a CRT shader could elevate the art to another level (that should be an option, though, because some people are allergic to it...) I like it how the CRT shader applies "natural antialiasing" to the jagged edges of the pixel font, it improves readability a bit.

In any case, if you had integer scaling support, I could just apply CRT shaders via ReShade, but native is always better. I think I saw some bloom effects on some screenshots, so maybe you've already started thinking along these lines.

You'll need to download these images and view them in an image viewer with 1:1 pixel mapping because the forum displays them stretched.

Anyway, keep up the good work.


3x integer scaling

3x integer scaling + CRT emulation (in WinUAE )

 

[Ularis Badler]

Hey,

Hey, this looks great, I've just wishlisted it! Pretty excited about it!
The gfx is great, I really like the music, and it looks you've given a lot of attention to details and everything seems to be going in the right general direction. Congrats!

However, *please* drop that awful linear interpolation scaler/shader! That's one of the absolute worst ways to upscale low-res pixel art, I cannot stand it. Either do:

• integer scaling (user selectable, x3 is a good default),
• "sharp bilinear" scaling (so the "interpolation band" is always 1 native pixel wide max in the horiz and vert directions per emulated pixel -- DOSBox Staging does that with an OpenGL shader, and ScummVM using the CPU, you can always inspect their source files),
• or some kind of CRT emulation.

But linear interpolation must go, in my opinion; that would seriously ruin the whole thing for me, and I think I'm not alone.

I've done some mockups using your screenshots (the text got a bit messed up at places because I had to downscale it to x1 res first, ignore that.)
I like the x3 integer scaled version a lot better already (at the very least provide an option for this), but a CRT shader could elevate the art to another level (that should be an option, though, because some people are allergic to it...) I like it how the CRT shader applies "natural antialiasing" to the jagged edges of the pixel font, it improves readability a bit.

In any case, if you had integer scaling support, I could just apply CRT shaders via ReShade, but native is always better. I think I saw some bloom effects on some screenshots, so maybe you've already started thinking along these lines.

You'll need to download these images and view them in an image viewer with 1:1 pixel mapping because the forum displays them stretched.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

Hey, thanks for the praise and the time you took to make such a thorough response. I really appreciate it!

Some things to consider regarding this issue:

I'm not using any shader to perform any particular scaling method. I'm just telling Unity's main camera to have a specific FOV with subpixel morphological AA. This means that players, regardless of their screen resolutions, will always see the same map area.

I do have a script (currently disabled) to turn it into pixel precision x3 (or any other multiplier) scale integer precision, which preserves the pixel's size ratio at different screen resolutions. The image becomes crispy with the correct pixel aspect ratio, however, this also means that the visible map area will change accordingly to the screen resolution; then, it triggers some problems with the mini-map and HUD, which is the reason why it is currently disabled.

I'll look further into this issue in the future to make sure the pixel ratio remains consistent taking care of the negative side effects that come with it. Thanks for reaching out.

Cheers!

 

[Rincewind]

I do have a script (currently disabled) to turn it into pixel precision x3 (or any other multiplier) scale integer precision, which makes everything crispy, however, this also means that the visible map area will change accordingly to the screen resolution, apart from triggering some problems with the mini-map and HUD.

Yeah I get what you're saying. What you've described is that you have a single fixed layout that never changes, it assumes 16:9 screen/window aspect ratio, then you just let it fill the screen, in simple terms.

What I'm saying is to implement a basic dynamic layout mechanism, like it is common in general purpose UIs.

I've never used Unity, but just think about it in pure 2D graphics / GUI programming terms. For your side panel you would assume a fixed width, but the height is dynamic, depending on window/screen size. Same for the bottom panel; the height is fixed, but the width is dynamically adjustable. Then the map area just fills whatever free area is left after drawing the two panels, and that's it.

That way you can keep your "virtual pixel size" fixed at 3x3 or whatever, and you can support any window size or screen res, doesn't even have to be 16:9. I think this is a better and much more flexible approach (but more work).

Of course, you'd need to implement scrolling for the side/top panels for the rare cases when the available draw area is smaller than their content.

EDIT: Okay, I've read again what you wrote and watched the video one more time, and realised probably it would be too hard to do what I described. I've been staring at 100% sharp integer scaled pixels for the last few days so probably I'm a bit more sensitive to blurriness than normal people In any case, maybe I worded my opinion a bit strongly, I don't think what you have now looks bad, and I would still play it if you don't change the looks. But maybe try adding that sharp option if it's not too much work.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Yeah, I get what you're saying. What you've described is that you have a single fixed layout that never changes, it assumes 16:9 screen/window aspect ratio, then you just let it fill the screen, in simple terms.

Pretty much, however, it will scale vertically to fit any aspect ratio. But the problem I mentioned is more about a flickering that happens in the UI when the Pixel Precision script is active.

I've never used Unity, but just think about it in pure 2D graphics / GUI programming terms. For your side panel you would assume a fixed width, but the height is dynamic, depending on window/screen size. Same for the bottom panel; the height is fixed, but the width is dynamically adjustable. Then the map area just fills whatever free area is left after drawing the two panels, and that's it.

I could make the horizontal unit selection sizable with the available screen size, but this would result in units sitting at the edges being partially displayed, unless I would change the space between them ending up with non-aligned pixels. Taking care of the vertical scaling mitigates this problem altogether.

EDIT: Okay, I've read again what you wrote and watched the video one more time, and realised probably it would be too hard to do what I described. I've been staring at 100% sharp integer scaled pixels for the last few days so probably I'm a bit more sensitive to blurriness than normal people In any case, maybe I worded my opinion a bit strongly, I don't think what you have now looks bad, and I would still play it if you don't change the looks. But maybe try adding that sharp option if it's not too much work.

Haha! It's fine. After the demo gets released, I will hear a myriad of criticism, which will come in a wide variety of flavors. For as long as the criticism is packed with constructive feedback, I will appreciate it.

Here is a crispy demo pic I just took without the AA filter.
You will have to show it in another browser tab to see the picture in its pristine size.

I prefer it with AA filter as it gets easier on my eyes, considering the high contrast GFX style Archrebel comes with. But this will definitely be optional.

 

[Ularis Badler]

This video shows an AI-controlled unit shooting and taking cover. When leaving cover to shoot, the AI checks for the best position possible for a clear shot within the unit's limited AP movement cost. Other things it consider is going into the CPU unit's inventory to select the best weapon with enough range to shoot the target.

 

[mediocrepoet]

This video shows an AI-controlled unit shooting and taking cover. When leaving cover to shoot, the AI checks for the best position possible for a clear shot within the unit's limited AP movement cost. Other things it consider is going into the CPU unit's inventory to select the best weapon with enough range to shoot the target.

This seems almost like turn based Robotron 2084 with the way the shots, explosions, and numbers look. :D

 

[Ularis Badler]

This seems almost like turn based Robotron 2084 with the way the shots, explosions, and numbers look. :D

It does resemble Robotron but check 1986's Rebelstar for ZX-Spectrum.

Cheers.

 

[mediocrepoet]

This seems almost like turn based Robotron 2084 with the way the shots, explosions, and numbers look. :D

It does resemble Robotron but check 1986's Rebelstar for ZX-Spectrum.

Cheers.

I get that, but I never played that or had a ZX-Spectrum. I played a ton of Robotron though.

 

[Ularis Badler]

This seems almost like turn based Robotron 2084 with the way the shots, explosions, and numbers look. :D

It does resemble Robotron but check 1986's Rebelstar for ZX-Spectrum.

Cheers.

I get that, but I never played that or had a ZX-Spectrum. I played a ton of Robotron though.

Yeah, I imagined it as so. Even today, sometimes I think: if I didn't get the ZX-Spectrum back then I would have missed Rebelstar altogether. But then again, I would have played other games too. In other words, there wouldn't be an Archrebel game in the works now or at least it would be quite different with some other name.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Took a small break from Archrebel's AI Algorithm which is now nearly complete; two months of developing it at this point.

Here is Archrebel's 3rd soundtrack:

 

[Rincewind]

Took a small break from Archrebel's AI Algorithm which is now nearly complete; two months of developing it at this point.

Here is Archrebel's 3rd soundtrack:

Mate, the soundtrack is dope, I really like your style, retro and modern at the same time! I love the C64 style arpeggios and PWM-leads and the mix is really well done, everything has its place in the spectrum and it breathes nicely, it's not overcompressed at all.

Don't call yourself a "novice composer", I wrote some of my best pieces 20-25 years ago when I didn't really know what I was doing...

 

[Ularis Badler]

Took a small break from Archrebel's AI Algorithm which is now nearly complete; two months of developing it at this point.

Here is Archrebel's 3rd soundtrack:

Mate, the soundtrack is dope, I really like your style, retro and modern at the same time! I love the C64 style arpeggios and PWM-leads and the mix is really well done, everything has its place in the spectrum and it breathes nicely, it's not overcompressed at all.

Don't call yourself a "novice composer", I wrote some of my best pieces 20-25 years ago when I didn't really know what I was doing...

Hey! Thank you for the praise. Today, I was really needing some morale boost, and what you do you know, you provided one. I always get uneasy whenever I compose these tunes; always worried they won't fit the overall vibe, mostly because I'm a noob composer. Perhaps it is time to level up with the novice-composer-skill tag! Cheers mate!

 

[Rincewind]

I always get uneasy whenever I compose these tunes; always worried they won't fit the overall vibe, mostly because I'm a noob composer.

My opinion is that they fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly, and I can hear that hard to define quality in your music that's missing from the works of many "learned" composers. Most likely because you're just going by instinct and are not afraid of experimenting with things that "should not be done". Sometimes I wish I could unlearn all the music theory I know and just be "free" like I was in my early teenager years...

In any case, well done, and keep up the good work!

 

[Ularis Badler]

I always get uneasy whenever I compose these tunes; always worried they won't fit the overall vibe, mostly because I'm a noob composer.

My opinion is that they fit the atmosphere of the game perfectly, and I can hear that hard to define quality in your music that's missing from the works of many "learned" composers. Most likely because you're just going by instinct and are not afraid of experimenting with things that "should not be done". Sometimes I wish I could unlearn all the music theory I know and just be "free" like I was in my early teenager years...

In any case, well done, and keep up the good work!

Thanks again. You pretty much say it all. I'm going with instinct reflecting all my favorite music bits over a wide variety of music genres. Then there is the 80's/retro influence taking its toll, mostly because I believe it syncs well with #Archrebel's look. My problem is that I don't know exactly how it sounds for the younger generation of players, but then again, if they are into retro, it might work just fine.

I'm going to start track 4 today, which will be more tense/military-styled. Did you happen to listen to any of the previous tracks? Now I'm curious what you think of those too.

Track one:
https://youtu.be/4JkhQWcUCyE

Track two:
https://youtu.be/vsQq_hO6pPA

Thanks.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Here is Archrebel's soundtrack number 4. It just came out of the oven. I hope you enjoy it.

 

[agris]

Just sharing a video I did for Twitter's #TurnBasedThursday event. I usually do parodies revolving around the game's new features. The video shows alien CPU-controlled units already implemented, even though the AI algorithm is still under development. Cheers!

I have no specific affinity for the computing community you arise from, but it looks very odd for a boat load of aggressors to land behind these units (to their left) and afterwards they all still look to the right.

You may want to consider sprite mirroring in the direction of the closest realized threat.

 

[udm]

Music is great and I have to add, it's pretty sweet how the tile sprites (like water) are animated. Super pumped for this game and can't wait for the first playable demo!

 

[Rincewind]

I'm going to start track 4 today, which will be more tense/military-styled. Did you happen to listen to any of the previous tracks? Now I'm curious what you think of those too.

This 4th track is killer, you're getting better! Tracks 3 & 4 are my favourites, but I liked the first two as well, I've listened to all of them several times now.

My problem is that I don't know exactly how it sounds for the younger generation of players, but then again, if they are into retro, it might work just fine.

Yeah exactly, and you can't make everybody happy anyway. People who are interested in this type of game will definitely like the music, like myself. If I were you, I wouldn't change anything, just keep doing what pleases you.

it looks very odd for a boat load of aggressors to land behind these units (to their left) and afterwards they all still look to the right.

That's how it worked in Rebelstar too But yeah, implementing facing like in the Gold Box games would be an improvement and quite easy to do.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Music is great and I have to add, it's pretty sweet how the tile sprites (like water) are animated. Super pumped for this game and can't wait for the first playable demo!

Thanks man! I'll keep you guys posted with the development of the game and its demo.

 

[Ularis Badler]

This 4th track is killer, you're getting better! Tracks 3 & 4 are my favourites, but I liked the first two as well, I've listened to all of them several times now.

Yeah exactly, and you can't make everybody happy anyway. People who are interested in this type of game will definitely like the music, like myself. If I were you, I wouldn't change anything, just keep doing what pleases you.

Thanks! That's the best thing a creator can hear; knowing that people listen/plays his craft. Thanks for your additional feedback.

 

[Ularis Badler]

I have no specific affinity for the computing community you arise from, but it looks very odd for a boat load of aggressors to land behind these units (to their left) and afterwards they all still look to the right.

You may want to consider sprite mirroring in the direction of the closest realized threat.

That's true, but flipping sprites horizontally would also invert the light source direction they are colored with. You could even argue that weapons would change from right-handed to left-handed. Expanding on this subject, one could also point out that units, trees, and rocks are mostly displayed sideways in a map that displaces terrain in a top-down view perspective. Archrebel's visual representation is not about being realistic but providing a clear picture of what is happening on the battlefield. It's the same principle as playing chess in a top-down view with 2D flat pieces having knights (horses) facing always the same direction, regardless of where the enemy pieces are located.

 

[Alienman]

Music is damn good. Last track posted has a nice futuristic war vibe to it.