2010 5th Gear FRC Match Simulator

[Chris is me]

Fixed privacy settings.

I too am wondering about Pac Man.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Fixed privacy settings.

I too am wondering about Pac Man.

That was well played - You might have gotten 18 if one of your shots on goal hadn't hit another ball.

I'm thinking that we might need to make it a little harder to grab the balls, and a little easier to lose control of them when you are turning.

Thoughts? We don't want to train players to expect benefits that won't exist in the real world.

Also - You mentioned a ball return glitch - Can you describe it for us?

Blake

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by gblake

That was well played - You might have gotten 18 if one of your shots on goal hadn't hit another ball.

I'm thinking that we might need to make it a little harder to grab the balls, and a little easier to lose control of them when you are turning.

Thoughts? We don't want to train players to expect benefits that won't exist in the real world.

I think different amounts of control between the different possessing robots (if one of them could hang it would be an interesting tradeoff) would be cool. Maybe a little less possessiveness, but those ball handlers are surprisingly good in real life if well designed.

Or let me hit 20 before you change it

You mentioned a ball return glitch - Can you describe it for us?

I can do one better. 18 point run - http://vimeo.com/9114707

Until it goes live, just rapidly hit Shift when 2 or more balls are in queue and watch what happens to the balls.

[fordchrist675]

I'm just totally stoked to actually get to play it.

[Chris is me]

I finally made 20 points: http://vimeo.com/9115291

Last video for now. I think this is sufficient proof I have no life.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I think this is sufficient proof I have no life.

LOL - Glad we could help

[ttldomination]

I'm sorry if this is an extremely easily answered question, but I honestly have no idea how to get this thing to work. When I open up fifth gear, I start my server, and then when I show up, I see no robots. I read the document on installation instructions and stuff, but it still doesn't say how to actually go about picking a robot/playing around...

[fordchrist675]

I also have that problem, also whats a server people are on?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

I'm sorry if this is an extremely easily answered question, but I honestly have no idea how to get this thing to work. When I open up fifth gear, I start my server, and then when I show up, I see no robots. I read the document on installation instructions and stuff, but it still doesn't say how to actually go about picking a robot/playing around...

You need to open 2 instances of 5th Gear to play 1v0. One server, one client.

Originally Posted by fordchrist675

I also have that problem, also whats a server people are on?

It's a LAN game, for now. Not online

[fordchrist675]

Alright thanks very much

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by gblake

Pacman Easter egg? - Maybe one of my colleagues slipped that in - I haven't found it yet. Give me a hint.

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I too am wondering about Pac Man.

When Pacman goes off the side of the level, he magically reappears at the opposite side of the screen.

When you drive your robot into one of your goals, you magically reappear at the opponents' end of the field.

The Pacman Effect or the Pacman Easter Egg seemed like logical names for this "feature".

[gblake]

Thanks Art - Reappearing on the opposite side of the field sounds like something to put on our bug list

ttld and ford - To amplify what Chris said - In a full-up 5th Gear set-up, right now, you would have 7 computers on a LAN, and pick one to be the server computer (the location where the sever instance of 5th Gear will run). The other 6 would be split 3 and 3 between the red and blue alliances. The red and blue folks would each pick robots and drive styles (with their bot's location on the field determined by when they each lock in their choices) and then someone would start the match on the server.

Right now we have not purposefully given the software the ability to tolerate the relatively long communication delays that would come with having a bank of public server computers sitting on the internet somewhere so that clients from all over the planet can link into those hypothetical public servers. So right now you get to supply your own server.

However, as Chris pointed out, you don't have to run the server software on its own computer (physically separated from the client software). We have purposefully kept the complexity of the game low enough so that typical school and home computers can handle running the server software and one client's software simultaneously on a single computer.

When you want to use 5th Gear solo, you can start it up twice on the same computer. Tell one instance to be the server. Tell other instance to be the client (if its not a server, then it is implicitly a client); and tell that client that the server's IP address is 127.0.0.1 (aka the Loopback Address of the computer they are sharing). The client will be where you pick a simulated robot and play, and the server can be ignored during each match after you use it to start that match.

Blake
PS: Sounds like we need to clarify this in our documentation and/or in our on-screen hints.

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by gblake

PS: Sounds like we need to clarify this in our documentation and/or in our on-screen hints.

Thanks for the help. I got it working, and it's pretty legit when it works. And yeah, probably somewhere it might help to add that.

I was also wondering if there was a way to change the controls on the keyboard layout. Right now the WASD layout is a bit awkward. Also, the program tells me to press the red button to send ball back into the field, but I don't know how that translates into the keyboard.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

I was also wondering if there was a way to change the controls on the keyboard layout. Right now the WASD layout is a bit awkward. Also, the program tells me to press the red button to send ball back into the field, but I don't know how that translates into the keyboard.

WASD is a pretty standard setup for a lot of FPSes and keeps drivebase motion on the left hand, traditional for most games. In short, I like it.

Enter grabs a ball, Space kicks it, and [Left?] Shift returns a ball.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

Thanks for the help. I got it working, and it's pretty legit when it works. And yeah, probably somewhere it might help to add that.

I was also wondering if there was a way to change the controls on the keyboard layout. Right now the WASD layout is a bit awkward. Also, the program tells me to press the red button to send ball back into the field, but I don't know how that translates into the keyboard.

If you have an Xbox 360 USB controller, you can plug it into your computer and use it to play 5th Gear. That's where the red, green, blue, etc buttons come from.