Microcosm: Guns of Icarus meets Spacebuild in rp_downtown

Garry's Mod general
#1

Microcosm is a gamemode about flying tiny spaceships around rp_downtown with your friends.

It was made for the 2016 Gamemode Coding Competition. It didn’t win anything, but I still really want to see it succeed.

Media

Here’s a video. I couldn’t get my voice to record so I’m sorry it looks like Skylight here is talking to himself. I’ll get a better video when I test with more people.

In it’s current state it’s still pretty unbalanced, but I’m going to need to test with more people to see how things should change.

Servers

glua.tmp.bz – My server. Tell me if there’s an issue with it. Also used for occasional scheduled playtests. Down due to technical issues.

Development

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/paramicro
Github: https://github.com/birdbrainswagtrain/microcosm
Dev Chat: https://discord.gg/Gzg3Wjx

Currently just trying to improve the code and balance stuff.

If you want to contribute, feel free, but please talk to me before you add a million things. Find the dev discord above.

Credits

The core team:

  • My dumb ass.

  • Pdan4, who may or may not provide me with the updated map by the end of days.

  • Skylight, who may or may not have been working on it in my absence.

  • I know a lot of people are interested in the help, and I’m grateful, but you don’t want to touch this code yet.

Special thanks to:

  • The original creator of rp_downtown, The Pro(?).
  • The many, many people behind Spacebuild and SBEP.
  • Ghettobunneh, Raubana, Zerf, and anyone I forgot who helped me test this.
  • Organizers and sponsers of the 2016 Gamemode Contest.
#2

Fuck SUP. Tell me if any other server pops up.

#3

I’m loving the concept. Can’t wait to see where this goes.

#4

I may make a small scaled space map for this
Would be fun since map are now wayyyyy bigger

#5

is there a ship AI?
one of the ships that was idling around ever since I joined the (Superior Servers) server started flying around in a seemingly random manner, crashing into the skybox, but there’s nobody else on the server other than me and a friend in our own ship

#6

149.56.28.141:27025 :slight_smile:

#7

When the ship gets low enough health it’ll act randomly- including random movements and gun shots.

Also, my video of a dog fight.

#8

Refactoring is done, I’m just waiting on the updated map.

I added some server buttons to the thread but they don’t seem to work in any browser except the steam one. You should still be able to join the servers by copying the addresses in the links.

Planning on doing a larger test on Wednesday. I’ll post more information here and in the developer discord once I plan a time.

Will upload to the workshop and begin an active campaign to get the servers populated soonish.

#9

Playtest happening in ~12 hours, at 7PM MT time. Not sure what server, will edit this post and provide more information later.

I’m not sure if we’ll have the map or any other ship layouts ready, mapper has been having difficulties.

Update: Jank fix for server links not working. Fuck everything about how facepunch’s img tags work.

Update: [del]Mapper is riding the struggle bus, but he’s almost done with the updated map, so we’re going to delay for hopefully not more than 30 minutes. Sorry about this.[/del] Fucking hell.

Update: Playtest will running on the cogg.rocks dev server, hopefully it won’t lag balls.

Update: Playtest continuing on Orc’s server (Anathema Networks). Anyone joining the dev server will be automatically redirected.

FINAL UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who participated in the test. Normally I’d try to have some kind of discussion about what needs changed, but I think it’s pretty clear where the serious issues are:

  • Hooks are heavily abused, every battle tends to involve every ship hooking the artifact and eachother. Best case this turns into turn into a war of attrition, worse case it’s just three dead ships all hooked together and a forth one trying to tow them to its base. I’ll just make it so hooks break after some amount of damage. I’ll also probably increase hook ammo to account for this change.

  • It is very difficult for a ship to recover if it is broken, especially if another ship is attacking it. I’ll fix this by reducing the “broken” threshold for the hull, and making the ship respawn if it stays broken for more than some time limit – probably a minute.

  • Players who join have no idea what the hell to do. It’s obvious to most competent players know to press F1/F2, but most Gmod players are not competent. New map should help fix this, as it adds a lobby with team teleports. I’ll add a little blurb to the death screen as well.

  • Ship spawns are unbalanced. This will always be an issue, but the new map will move all the spawns back a little ways to mostly similar spots.

  • My friend requested I make the “refill ammo” thing cheaper. Reducing it to $25 seems reasonable.

  • Add link to steam group as F3/F4 bind?

Any other thoughts? [del]Most of this stuff will be easy, this one was a bit of a clusterfuck, and Friday seems like a better day anyway, so the next playtest will be in about 48 hours.[/del] Cancelled, not sure when the next will be.

A friend is making a steam page for people interested in the playtests, seems more accessible than the developer discord.

#10

Is this still being maintained?
Last update was 4 months ago.

#11

Thinking I might take a break from the javascript delusions to work on gmod trash again.

The Morph Mod and Ragdoll Combat are both dumpster fires, so I’m thinking this is the best thing for me to work on.

If I do work up the gumption, you can expect a playtest this weekend. There might even be some new content and an updated map. Not sure what server I’ll use yet.

I’ll try to unfuck the OP now.

#12

Playtest Over
It was a bit of a bust. There were only three of us, so not much got tested, balance wise. Regardless, I have a list of small bugs and improvements I can make, and next time I’ll make a better effort at running one of these.

There server (glua.tmp.bz) will remain up for the foreseeable future, in case anyone wants to try it out, but it’s best with friends!