BGMC 13 | Tank builder.



Sadly I couldn’t make the real time strategy element of the game because there’s just not enough time this week. However I did get the tank builder finished.

You can use different components to make a tank. Choose the size by clicking chassis or turret at the top.
The blue highlighted area is the turret, some components can only be placed in the turret, while others can only be placed outside of it. You can’t place something half in and half out of the turret. Guns placed in the turret calculate their firepower as 120% or normal.

One day I’d like to carry on with the project and make the real time strategy element of the game, showcasing tank and infantry combat asn well as research and development and resource management all rolled in to one game. But for now you can just play around with the tank builder. It’s kind of fun I think.
Try to get the status bars at the bottom to go green. Feel free to post screenshots of the tanks you’ve made.

tips:

  • A tank needs an engine and suspension in order to go. Suspension can compensate for a certain amount of weight. Unsupported weight will greatly reduce your speed.
  • Bigger guns have much more firepower.
  • Diesel engines are more reliable but slower.
  • Empty chairs will add crew, so will every gun you add and also repair tools and radio (each includes an operator in the weight/mass calculation, radios don’t really weigh a ton).
  • Lots of items don’t have a direct effect on status but they can add to the “special rating”.
  • The bigger the tank the more armor it needs. You don’t have to fill up the whole tank, feel free to leave some parts empty.
  • Larger tanks need bigger guns. Fire power is related to the weight of your tank as well as the power of your guns.
  • Right click on a part to remove it from the tank.

You can see a video here which should give you some help understanding how to build a tank:

EDIT:
I added a score function so you can compare how good your tank is with others. I also cleaned up a few bugs. You can download the finished version here.

If you have any trouble figuring out how to use it:

  • left click to select a component from the list.
  • Use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down the components list.
  • Right click to remove thinks from the chassis.
  • Left click on the chassis/turret buttons to change size.

Man, this is really complex!
There are so many parts, most of which are critical but also lower my score.

In the end, managed to get 388 points. For the most part everything was maxed out, except for armor and speed (which was non-existent)

Would’ve been cool to see how the tank builder would have been implemented in the RTS. It’d be funny seeing an abomination of a tank driving around, the top part covered with nothing but folding chairs and fire extinguishers.

Cool! :slight_smile: That tank wouldn’t move at all but it would certainly pack a punch.

I think I need to add an extra box giving some of the stats of items on screen when you select them, so you can tell which items are better than others.

You need an engine and some suspension for a tank to move. Some are better than others (from bad to best):
wheeled suspension, half track, coiled spring, leaf spring, horizontal spring (Christie suspension), and torsion bar.

Torsion bar will give you the best off road performance and support the most weight, but it takes up 3 tons so it’s not useful for small tanks.
Sloped armor needs a special layout, so it’s not easy to fit in to smaller tanks. However, it’s by far the strongest armor.

When it comes to armor the following is the order of effectiveness:
soft steel, riveted plate, welded plate, cast armor, sloped armor.

The armor you’ve added isspaced side skirts. These are not very effective as traditional armor but they add the special flag “spaced_armor” to the tank which gives excellent protection against bazookas and other shaped charge weapons.
Many German tanks at the end of WWII used them. they are made of wire mesh and serve only to detonate RPG rockets before they reach the side of the tank. Also the extra thick tracks only need to be added once to get the flag “wide_tracks” which will give a movement bonus on very difficult terrain.

I think I will make at least part of the RTS, I’d like to see how it turns out too. Many of the element sf the tank builder only really make sense in the RTS.

Anyway, thanks for trying it. I hope you got a bit of entertainment out of it. :slight_smile:

facepalm
How embarrassing, how could I forget an engine?!? xD

My tank (assuming it’d turn on) could be a stationary turret!

That game would be a great RtS, I hope you get to that point eventually, unfortunately my only problem is I am using an apple magic mouse and I can only use the top most items

ah. I should include a keyboard option. Ive only used a mac once and I couldnt get on with it. Well anyway, thanks for trying it. :slight_smile:

Great fun, even without an attached RTS.
One bug I found: one of the rockets has a vertical icon, but when you place it, tries to be horizontal.

I’m sitting on 285 points for a 3x4 tank.

@randompickle, you should try the game robocraft. It’s less scientific than this, but a lot of fun. And yes, there are abomonations of tanks, admittedly without the chairs and fire-extinguishers.

Thanks for trying it. I did try to take a scientific approach, though I hope it’s going to be not too complex to be fun.
For the RTS part of the fun should be trying different variations of parts and different tank layouts to find what is useful and what is not. That’s what tank designers did in real life, it took years and lots of experimentation to get tanks that were effective on the battlefield and lots of really useless tanks were built in the meantime. For calculations I used many sources, but the most useful was this one from wikipedia comparing many of the tanks of the early war.

That game would be a great RtS, I hope you get to that point eventually, unfortunately my only problem is I am using an apple magic mouse and I can only use the top most items

Although the competition is finished, here’s a version with arrow keys for controlling the components list for anyone who doesn’t have a mouse wheel.

Finally got around to it, pretty neat game.
Can’t manage to join an online game, but making abominations and playing in practice mode is a lot of fun!

fun idea!:smiley: