VECTORZ.IO

Copyright © 2021 Michael Allen C. Isaac. Tel: +1 (971) 208-7901.

Work in Progress

• Lobbies (3 - 4 max players)
  • We should instantiate a server.js process and load balance it somehow, https://vectorz.io/9100 would to an instance (or some other silly magic)
  • Probably with Node clustering.
• Modify size and position of mobile controls to improve egonomics

Next up…

• When a Rock is broken the fragments should continue the same general direction, +/- the force of the bullet.
  • If we shoot it from behind, fragments will be faster.
  • If we shoot it from the front, fragments will be slower and perhaps with a wider angle of divergence.
• Tilt phone to steer ship?
• Prevent the screen from rotating on mobile, so mobile users can play natively in Portrait mode.
• Landing page with quick explainer about controls, name input, and play button (ala slither.io & hexar.io)
• Accounts/Reserved display names
  • A prototype of this has been implemented but development of this is paused, for now we use an arcade style leaderboard with the top 10 scores
  • Reserve the name associated with your score
  • Ability to track statistics, shots fired/hit, score, etc

DESIGN NOTES (FUTURE STATE)

General/Arcade Features:

• Better graphics
  • Better color, visual effects, etc. think Radiant by Hexage
  • PixiJS for rendering
• When Rocks break, chance they generate a power-up tokens:
  • Shields
  • Laser (instant, no travel time. Maybe a continuous mode)
  • Spread Fire
  • Extra re-spawn/life (will there be limit of re-spawns?)
  • Speed boost
  • Hyperspace/FTL (Battlestar Galactica style, jump randomly to a safe place)
  • Missiles (heat seeking, target is selectable (press T to rotate or something)
  • Ammo clip size
  • Fly over to retrieve, or shoot to retrieve?
• PvP Scores
• PvE Scores
  • Smaller/Faster Rocks are worth more
  • Difficulty: the highest scoring player will affect the speed of newly spawned Rocks
  • If you completely breakdown a Rock with 100% accuracy, it’s worth 52 points

RPG Features (what we’ll call Freespace Mode):

• Map is enormous and ships fly unrestricted throughout space
• When the ship reaches the edge of the screen, the viewable area will be pushed the direction of flight
• Mini-map will show the player’s relative position on the greater playing/space grid
  • Show other players, concentration of Rocks, events, etc.
• Popup event-mode
  • Rewards for completion
  • Incentivizes PvP interaction by encouraging players to come in contact with each other
• Battle Royal event mode
• Player Statistics
  • Accuracy
  • Kills to Death ratio
• Inventory of Power-ups. May be un/equipped as needed
• Credit system to buy power-up. Earn credit by mining Rocks?

CHANGE LOG

Note: Changes prior to 2021 have been truncated from display. Not a ton of value there.

20210426

• First attempt at clustering complete, and seems to be functional. However, I am not 100% commited to it’s reliability 😂

20210421

• Following the some examples from the @socket.io/sticky module, we have a base level of clustering.

20210420

• Improved generateShipExplosion() by passing a copy of a ship to it, this is how generateRockExplosion() works.
• Decreased the number of explosion particles for Rocks.
• Cleaned up particle generation on the client side when the window is not in focus, this prevents a mass of explosions when the window focus returns.
• Changed markdown rendering library from markedjs to markdown-it.
• Removed warning message when navigating away, or reloading the page.
• Revised on-screen logo and header text, moved name/help menu to settings icon.
• Added new text on the settings pop-up, and a link to the README.
• Renamed several internal variables to provide continuity.
• Cleaned up directory structure and moved files to more appropriate locations. Very clean.

20210417

• Limited the number of loose bullets per player to 3. Added visual indicator to bullets available to shoot.
• Updated ship renderShips() to use Path2D() objects with stroke().
• Created new 8 new Ship designs, you may cycle through them with the comma and period keys.
• Fixed and issue with placement of Name badges under the ships.
• Dramatically improved ping reporting.
• Added a message to rotate the phone when it is in Portirate mode (however this broke iOS, so idk what to do. Make it an app?).
• Moved toast notifications for death to the bottom of the screen.

20210414

• Pivoting on the mobile controls. I have restored the client that uses HTML for controls rather than the touchscreen/canvas method.

20201221

• Implemented a new imageResource object which contains base64 encoded images, which are loaded in to Image() objects and then drawn directly on the Canvas
• New Glyph() class, which basically just wraps Image() with an x, y, properties: usage: let sprite = new Glyph(); sprite.image.src = imageResource['attack-white'];
• Removed all HTML objects from the client.html, the only thing contained in the body is now the Canvas. All other UX is created programmatically