[00/03] Chopper Duel playable demo

So I decided to throw here a demo version of our (Star Group's) toy.
It contains 1 of 50 levels, but everything else is present. So try it, test it!!! We will take your wishes into account in the full version.

With respect,
Roman.

At 20:14, Saturday March 22, 1997 there was such a thing that
Roman Petrov wrote a letter All:

RP> So I decided to throw here a demo version of our (Star Group's)
RP> toy. It has 1 of 50 levels, but everything else is present. So
RP> try it, test it!!! We will take your wishes into account in the full version.
I don’t understand, Subj didn’t reach anyone or no one liked it???
Answer PLS!!!

With respect, Roman.

Hello Roman!

09 Apr 97 17:19, Roman Petrov wrote to All:
RP> I don’t understand, Subj didn’t reach anyone or no one liked it???
RP> Answer PLS!!!
I answer: I got there! But everyone is so lazy that until you shout, no one will answer. ;))
On the essence of the question:
Gama is normal. The flying shells are especially cool! It’s a pity that only one level
A is apparently made according to the type of IBM’s “UGH”, where two ancient men dissected
in helicopters made of bamboo. At least the controls are one-on-one.
Throw in a couple more levels! ;)))

Bye , Vladimir :)

... ...Hey, if you're in Taganrog, come in!...

VK>
VK> I answer: I’ve arrived! But everyone is so lazy that until you shout,
VK> no one will answer. ;)) To the point: Gama is normal. Especially
VK> the shells are flying cool! It’s a pity that only one level A was apparently made according to the type of IBM’s “UGH”, where two ancient men were cutting through helicopters made of bamboo in
VK>. At least one-to-one control. Throw
VK> a couple more levels! ;)))

Imho you are confused - on IBM it was also called CHOPDUEL and was made
by Finnish hackers from Addict...

2RP: Cool game. We enjoyed it. :)
Will there be a level editor?

VK> Bye , Vladimir :)

Leon []) /WArEz PArASitE

At 02:50, Friday April 11 1997, it was such a thing that
Vyacheslav Mednonogov scribbled a letter from Roman Petrov:

VM> It was packed crookedly. And so - a nice toy - helicopters
Crooked??? I don’t know, everything was unpacked and running.
VM> smoothly accelerate/decelerate. They just crash often :)
They probably have a bad habit, or they need to drink less :-)

VM> Well, as usual - there is no fight with the computer :(
I would look at how you would write the logic for them, so that the single-frame
preservation...

VM> Threat\ It’s interesting that at other levels there are intricate labyrinths,
VM> additional monsters?
Exactly the first... In general, here MAV decided to write a continuation And with battle
with the computer!

With respect, Roman.

RP> I would look at how you would write the logic for them, and so that
RP> the single-frame nature is preserved...

What's the problem? Is 70,000 clock cycles not enough for the logic of a shooter? Strange...
Always enough...

RP> Best regards, Roman.

Regards, Dmitry (OLDMAN).

DG> What's the problem? 70,000 clock cycles are not enough for the logic of a shooting game?
DG> Strange... It was always enough...

That was their excuse :))

With warm greetings, Slava.

You are a joker, Dmitry! It's a shooter where they kill hundreds of bastards, and where the logic is something like this: We fly to where the player is. And here you also need to take into account the landscape (so as not to crash into or shoot at the player through the wall) and dodge
shells and look at the fuel. In short, there is a lot to consider. Most likely
what will happen is this: either the computer wins all the time, or it loses all the time. Neither one nor the other is interesting :"-(

2All: Well, if you have ideas on logic, go ahead on Origin!

With respect, Roman.

RP> You are a joker, Dmitry! It's a shooter where they kill hundreds of bastards, and where the logic
RP> is something like this: We fly to where the player is. And here you also need to take into account the landscape
RP> (so as not to crash into or shoot at the player through the wall) and

Are you saying that you haven’t seen many games where several enemies rush after you through a
labyrinth? :-)) I won’t remember the Western ones... You first turned to Slava
Mednonogov - look at UFO1, there are a lot of enemies chasing the unfortunate ranger, skirting all obstacles and taking into account a bunch of other parameters. And the landscape there, however,
will be much more difficult...

RP> dodging shells and looking at the fuel. In short, there is a lot to
RP> to take into account. Most likely it will turn out like this: either the computer
RP> wins all the time

Having created artificial intelligence, it is not difficult to “dull” it. I'm not even talking about the mandatory introduction of an element of randomness in such games, so that the enemy's helicopter
doesn't fly along the same trajectory every time.

RP> or loses all the time.

By the way, it's better to make sure that the helicopter dies only after several hits.

RP> Neither one nor the other is interesting :"-(

Even less interesting is the game that consists of moving two sprites with the keys
screen...

RP> 2All: Well, if you have ideas on logic - soap on Origin!

Will you share your earnings ;-)) But seriously, take a look.several
essentially labyrinth games, the names of which are known to everyone.

DG> Hello, Roman!

DG> Are you saying that you haven’t seen many games where several enemies are chasing
DG> you through a labyrinth? :-)) I won’t remember the Western ones... You at the beginning
Well, I wrote how “cool” the logic is usually there.
DG> turned to Slava Mednonogov - look at UFO1, there are a lot of enemies
DG> chasing the unfortunate ranger, avoiding all obstacles and taking into account
DG> a bunch of other parameters. And the landscape there, however, will be much more complicated
DG>...
I believe. But in UFO, after a dozen battles, you can learn to freely beat
both sectoids and flotters with ephemerals... Although I should probably
look at UFO, and maybe Slava himself will share some of his work on
Artificial Intelligence. IMHO it will be useful not only for me.

DG> By the way, it is better to make the helicopter die only after several
DG> hits.
This is possible and will definitely be in the second part.

In general, in the second part it will be something like this:
1. Fight with the computer.
2. DeathMatch mode (timed battle)
3. All sorts of standing still firing guns
4. Level editor
5. Fuel will run out faster
6. And the refueling will be better visible :-)

Points 5 and 6 are in the second release of the first part.

DG> Even less interesting is the game that consists of moving two
DG> sprites around the screen with the keys...
Well, this is a moot point...It all depends on the game...

DG> Sincerely, Dmitry (OLDMAN).

With respect, Roman.

Get msg, Roman!

20 Apr 97 18:57 -- Roman Petrov told Dmitry Grigoryev about Chopper Duel
playable demo:

DG>> look at UFO1, there are a lot of enemies chasing the unfortunate ranger,
DG>> going around all the obstacles and taking into account a bunch of other parameters. And the landscape
DG>> there, however, will be much more difficult...

RP> I believe. But in UFO, after a dozen battles, you can learn to freely beat
RP> both sectoids and flotters with ephemera...

H-yes, I felt sorry for the user :))

RP> Although I should probably look at UFO, and maybe Slava himself
RP> will share some of his work on Artificial Intelligence.

If I share “work on AI”, then they will simply stop me respect -
they are so trivial :))
And about “avoiding obstacles” - in UFO1 it was absolutely nothing - the hero
was stuck at every pillar. And the aliens simply constantly moved in
semi-random directions - of course, they ended up somewhere :) [effect of
Brownian motion]
A large article in ZXF6 is devoted to the calculation of marut in UFO2 (with an example in
BASIC :) The wave tracing method is used there.
Calculation of the route in CV - I can only use my fingers. The hero walks towards the
goal. When he encounters an obstacle, he examines it from the right and left along the contour
(perimeter? I don’t know the exact term),finds the point on the contour that is the least
distant from the target and decides how to get to it faster - bypassing the obstacle
to the right or to the left. Avoids the obstacle and continues moving directly towards the goal. And
he bypasses all obstacles until he reaches the goal.
Ideally, it would be good to memorize the route in advance so that it could
be optimized (smoothed out), but Spec has too little memory. Therefore, I
memorize only the direction of bypassing the current obstacle and the length of the bypass, for which
one byte is enough.
In practice, other moving objects are a _big_ obstacle. However
more or less works (see demo :)

RP> In general, in the second part it will be something like this:
RP> 1. Fight with the computer.

For 70,000 cycles? :)

Warm greetings, Slava.

VM> A large article in ZXF6 is devoted to the calculation of marut in UFO2 (with an example
VM> in BASIC :) The wave tracing method is used there.
And it (ZF-6) is coming soon as always (in 2 weeks) :-))))
VM> Calculating the route in CV - I can only do it on my fingers. The hero walks in the
VM> direction of the target. When he encounters an obstacle, he examines it from the right
VM> and from the left along the contour (perimeter? I don’t know the exact term), finds the point
VM> on the contour that is least distant from the goal and decides how to get to it faster
VM> - bypassing the obstacle to the right or left. Avoids the obstacle and
VM> continues moving directly towards the target. And so he bypasses all the obstacles
VM> until he reaches the goal.
Actually, this is approximately how I wanted to do ChopDuel-2

RP> will share some of his work on Artificial Intelligence. IMHO, not
RP> only it will be useful for me.

The most useful thing is to familiarize yourself with the algorithm for choosing the rangers' route in UFO 2.
I'll try to guess about it and apply it to your game ;) So, the purpose of the helicopter is
the enemy's transport, or rather its vertical coordinate... That's where I
have nothing to say ;( If you had to catch up with the enemy and crush him with your
weight... Calculate the route (more precisely, one of the possible ones) and move along it,
correcting depending on the movement of the enemy... And if you take into account shooting,
then the number of options increases significantly :( I can’t even figure out
how to teach a computer to set up an ambush...

Monday April 21, 1997 02:14, Vyacheslav Mednonogov wrote to Roman Petrov:

[missed...]

VM> And about “avoiding obstacles” - in UFO1 it was out of the ordinary
VM> - the hero got stuck at every pillar. And the aliens just constantly
VM> moved in semi-random directions - of course, they ended up somewhere
VM> :) [Effect of Brownian motion]

8-0 I haven’t played it for a long time;) Indeed, random movements... But they shoot
accurately :)
2RP - what if you do this in Chopper Duel? Let the computer's helicopter move in a
random direction, and when it is on the same line as yours, it shoots :)
And so as not to get stuck, carefully think through the labyrinths.

/skip/

RP> Actually, this is roughly how I wanted to do ChopDuel-2

Progressive method :) At least an order of magnitude faster than the wave method, but
as a result, the route found is not the most optimal :(

With warm regards, Glory.

Get msg, Dmitry!

24 Apr 97 16:29 -- Dmitry Grigoryev told Vyacheslav Mednonogov about Chopper
Duel playable demo:

VM>> And about “avoiding obstacles” - in UFO1 it was out of the ordinary
DG> 8-0 I haven’t played it for a long time ;) Indeed, random movements... But
DG> they shoot accurately :)

Semi-random :) The sectoids, upon reaching a certain distance between you and them
tried to run away, the mutons tried to keep this distance, the flotters tried to get closer to
you. Well, etc.

DG> 2RP - what if you do this in Chopper Duel? Let the computer's helicopter
DG> move in a random direction, and when it finds itself on the
DG> line with yours, it shoots :) And to avoid getting stuck, carefully
DG> think through the labyrinths.

You can do it differently. Movements in UFO2 and CV look more intelligent, because no matter what the labyrinth is, the heroes honestly search for the optimal path and follow it. It is possible to do the same in C-Duel - the target point
for the enemy helicopter is selected randomly by the computer, but it flies there along
the shortest path, competently avoiding obstacles - this makes an impression
on an inexperienced user :) Remember, at least, the balls from Color Lines or
the red monster from Miss Pacman.

Get msg, Dmitry!

24 Apr 97 14:58 -- Dmitry Grigoryev told Roman Petrov about Chopper Duel
playable demo:

DG> I can judge that the algorithm for the behavior of aliens in a UFO is simple: “Stumbled -
DG> turn.”

Mathematically it sounds exactly like this:

1) go
2) come across - turn and go
3) go into a corner or into a dead end - stop and wait until the random number generator
calls you in the other direction
4) go to step 4

DG> But it works!

So, mathematics! ABOUT! (thumbs up :)

Warm greetings, Slava.

Thursday April 24, 1997 01:23, Vyacheslav Mednonogov wrote to Dmitry Grigoryev:

VM> Semi-random :) Sectoids, upon reaching a certain distance between you and
VM> they tried to run away, mutons - to keep this distance, flotters -
VM> come closer to you. Well, etc.

Yeah! So I didn’t dream about them chasing me :-))

[missing...]

VM> looking for the optimal path and following it. It is possible to do this in C-Duel
VM> - the target point for the enemy helicopter is selected by the computer
VM> randomly, but it flies there along the shortest path, competently avoiding
VM> obstacles - this makes an impression on the inexperienced
VM> user :)

A good impression will be made by a helicopter stubbornly moving in some
randomly chosen direction, completely oblivious to your
maneuvers ;)) This means that the route constantly needs to be adjusted, which is not difficult, but
probably you won’t be able to make it in time for the interruption. But even here the game turns into elementary tags. In my opinion, it’s worth introducing a fair amount of illogical behavior into the algorithm.
How about you: a helicopter is flying to the right, you catch up with it from behind, take aim... then
it turns sharply 180 degrees... That’s what will make an impression ;)

VM> At least remember the balls from Color Lines or the red monster from
VM> Miss Pacman.

But after all,subject is not a logic game, I hope ;)

Let me answer yld Thursday, the 24 of April 1997:

VM> Mathematically it sounds exactly like this:

VM> 1) go
VM> 2) came across - turn and go
VM> 3) went into a corner or into a dead end - stop and wait until the random
VM> number generator calls you in the other direction

VM> 4) go to step 4

And we hang... =)

PS: Is this how the CV is done? =))

Hasta la vista, Vyacheslav.
With God's blessing, Novikov Sergei