It's interesting to go back through the old images and videos and see how things have progressed. Luckily for me, things are progressing in the right direction - improvement is being made.
This is something I've posted about with the intend of not only giving a snippet of the game, but also to receive feedback - which always is an inevitability with viewership. In terms of showcasing the game, fortunately, the vast majority of the feedback I've seen so far has been very positive. Fortunately as well, there have been a number of individuals who have had personal experience with Hellfires as UAV operators and air controllers, send their thoughts which ultimately led me to the final result (semi-final, I should say).
Here is the progression (first compared to last is quite different):
There really have been (3) main changes:
- Initial rocket trajectory: After talking with the experts and doing a bit more research, I discovered that the rocket goes on an upward trajectory in the direction of the target (at least X and Y direction...) while the rocket burns its fuel for about 3 seconds, then the rocket cuts out and begins to drop on top of the target.
- Explosion: A lot of individuals complained about the fact that the explosion had "too much fire" and was too large for a Hellfire. In viewing videos of impacts, this certainly is true and so this was dialed back substantially. The speed of the actual explosion as well, was increased to be more fitting.
- Smoke/Dust Separation: The sprite that I use for the explosion begins as fire and turns into smoke over time (as you'd suspect). I used this single sprite to achieve both the explosion and smoke effect, but realized this limited the visual quality of the effect. Essentially, I needed the smoke to last longer, but the longer I kept the sprite around, the slower the explosion looked. In the initial iteration, I thought I achieve a reasonable balance, but many did not agree. Luckily, I figure out a way to separate the two, so now I can keep the explosion quick and allow the smoke to hang out for awhile.
Nonetheless, I've been pretty overwhelmed with the positive and excited reactions from people as it has completely validated the project for me. I can't thank everyone enough and am excited to get this released to everyone. Thank you for your continued support and I'll see you next update!
