Cave Raiders (Rebuild of Rock Raiders)

[Antillies]

@Lego420: What was the exact question you asked? The response seems to indicate you asked something like "Will you bring LRR back?" but was it about the source code?

Unfortunately that game has been obsolete to make room for new games and there is no way of getting that game back in any way.

I lol'ed at that. What bad sentence construction. "...that game has been [made] obsolete...." And what the heck does "there is no way of getting that game back in any way" mean? Jeez.

[Lego420]

Basically asked for source code told them we are a non profit org and what not.

[Lego420]

New Reply from LEGO!

Thank you for contacting us on 04/05/11 and for your interest in LEGO® brand products.

The LEGO Group is committed to providing our consumers with the finest possible products and service, so whenever a consumer's expectations are not met in any way, we want to know about it. Even though our original efforts "fell a little short of the mark," we're pleased that you gave us another chance to assist a valued friend.

I know that you are hoping we can re-release the Rock Raiders game. Honestly, I can't say whether or not it will ever be re-released or not. It is VERY rare, if ever that we bring a game back after being "retired". There are many decisions that go into actually retiring games. A big one is that the sets for that theme have also been discontinued for awhile.

While I realize that may or may not affect you playing the game, by having a video game out that used to have sets, it causes another group of issues. Many children see the game and really want the sets. This causes parents to search high and low for sets that were available far too long ago to be purchased now. This also causes frustration.

I will let you know, I have passed your comments onto our games team so that they may see your comments. This is the way we can make change within LEGO.

Good news or bad, comments from LEGO consumers help us continually evaluate our current service methods and if necessary, to change them to meet your needs.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

If we can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service at 1-800-835-4386 (from within the US or Canada) or 1-860-763-4011 (from outside the US or Canada), between 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. EST Monday - Friday and 10:00a.m. - 6:00 p.m. EST Saturday and Sunday and one of our representatives will be happy to assist you.

Susan

LEGO Direct Consumer Services

[RR Rocks]

Well, LEGO seems to actually care a lot for a huge company. a LOT more than EA dose but then again it sounds more like: "You want the source code? No, you don't! You really want us to re-release the game, don't you?" But it's a start... (interesting is the reference of the old sets. I would love a re-release of those and maybe even some new things... that would be cool)

[Packer]

Hey guys I'm back(For how long...), currently working on a small/large update. Small because there's only really a small amount of difference, large because I've updated the engine to a newer version which has helped me quite a bit in areas.

Current change log (from memory):

• Fixed head animation, the rock raiders head now faces forward instead of being slightly to the side.
  
• Added a Glow to the Rock Monsters Eyes, looks cooler.
  
• Fixed vehicles, some have dust trails behind the wheels and to exit a vehicle is now "F".
  
• You'll now hear and see drilling when you're not directly looking at the drill.
  
• Cleaned up some errors in the console
  
• All content made for the game to date
  

Also for those who get DLL missing errors download and install this:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/C/4/3C46A69A-CB0F-4CCA-B1E8-248D43270D5F/directx_mar2009_redist.exe (92MB's)

Once downloaded run the exe then it'll ask you to extract it somewhere, put it on your desktop in a new folder, once its extraced goto the folder then look for DXSETUP and run it. The rest is straight forward. I don't want to package this with the game mainly due to it being larger file size then the game itself. If I was to just use the DLL in the folder I'd need to use a licence and its something I rather not play around with until I get the time. Its the DLL's for direct X (old school stuff really) that don't come with the newer versions of Direct X, despite what you may think Direct X gets monthly updates and they stop packaging all of the updates due to size.

---

Separate from the news update:

I haven't worked on Rock Raiders (Not LEGO Rock Raiders, Its what I'm calling it until I really decide on a fitting name) in yonks, recently Torque 3D which is the engine that RR uses got a major update. I've ported RR to the best of my abilities over to the new version, however there's no doubt gonna be a problem I missed and its not telling me. Anyway I haven't touch RR mainly due to lack of enthusiasm and time constraints, lucky when I first designed this its dead easy to continue to work on. As for future updates I wouldn't exactly count on it, I'm definitely not promising anything at this point. In about 6 weeks I start a major project for my 3D course which lasts up to 22 weeks which I'll have no spare time for outside school work projects. My aim is to patch up Rock Raiders for the next couple of hours that I'm awake and then release what I've gotten done in that time. I hope to get it to a decent standard that people can work off from, if done correctly I hope to integrate a community system thats easy for people to install mods etc seeing as I won't be a major source of development. I would really like to have a board dedicated to this project on this site (due to it having a present community as well as a admin system already in place) though I haven't really contacted/organised anything its just an idea for the future.

[Addictgamer]

Alright then. I'll be waiting for any updates you'll be releasing.

Good luck with school!

[Packer]

Alpha 0.2

Features:

Added in an objective based level, reach the crystal at the end of level one. The game should now work on majority of people computers, I've added in the required DLL's or at least the ones I know about.

Download:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mtisfv9785nfpbb

Controls:

WASD - movement

Spacebar - Exit Vehicle

1 - Drill

0 - Unmount Tool/Weapon

Left Click - Drill

Right Click - Toggle Drill

Tab - Change camera view

V - Rotate camera in third person view

H - Ingame Help Window (use it, though its not up to date)

F - Dismount vehicle

If you're hosting you may need to port forward if no one can find your server.

28000 - 28030 TCP and UDP

Or if you know the host get their IP and press ~ in the main menu and type:

connect("123.456.789:28000", "password", "name");

Replace name with your name, make password " " if there is no password and change the numbers to the hosts IP.

P.S. I've yet to find a glitch that causes the engine to crash with 2 or more weapons, I was going to add in TNT.

[Minifig9292]

AWESOME!

[PWNZOR]

This is awesome. Except when I tried to use the Chrome Crusher it wouldn't drill, then it flipped halfway into the ground, facing upward.

[Packer]

This is awesome. Except when I tried to use the Chrome Crusher it wouldn't drill, then it flipped halfway into the ground, facing upward.

Its not scripted to do anything as of yet unfortunately. I did miss a few things when setting this up which I noticed after I had released.

[Packer]

Serveral years later.

 

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Acutally functions the same as the old caves, I might be working on this again... no promises.

[Ben24x7]

To you plan to create a Mac version (if possible)?

[Fluffy Cupcake]

I might be working on this again... no promises.

I kinda hope you are. =P

 

It's looking great!

[Packer]

To you plan to create a Mac version (if possible)?

Short answer: Nope.

Long Answer: I don't have access to a Mac machine to compile a mac version, even then I wouldn't be quite sure if had the technical knowledge to do so. If I gain access to a mac, I will give it a try.

 

 

Big news blab below, I wrote this at 3am so it might not be the most professional post I've done. Some of the information is distributed weirdly.

So I've started from scratch in terms of coding, I'm leaps and bounds better at it than when I was working on it before. I've coded the cave system almost completely, works almost the exact same as the original game only with improvements! With that said I still need to code ground pieces such as paths and lava/water. However that will be A LOT easier than the cave walls which took me a solid week of coding.

 

What I'm aiming for:

I'd like to create a similar but different experience to the original game, similar as in the same everything minus the RTS element and bots. What the hell does that even mean?

So the idea from the get go was to more or less recreate the first person experience from RR into a fleshed out game, that is still the goal. The gameplay will be adjusted from the originals to better suit a team player driven experience than a RTS mindless bots running around eating sandwiches while being attacked. The game is and will be Online Multiplayer and I'm aiming for a individual player progression as well as team work to build structures and gather resources to be used to create vehicles.

 

Talking about the individual player progression, so far I've been designing it and haven't implemented anything as of yet. RR each of the raiders could hold 2 items (from memory), the same applies to this games players though the more tasks a player completes such as mining walls, shoveling rubble, they gain XP or a type of currency, with this they can choose from a small list of things of upgrades that allows them to do more. Examples would be allowing the player to use light/heavy vehicles or increase their inventory capacity.

 

What about the single player experience?

I am keeping it in mind. I haven't worked with RTS bots before, let alone ones that path find around a ever changing cave system. I've thought of having "guards" that the player can spawn in to help protect the base but bots mining is a whole new level of programming and time.

 

Risks and challenges:

My number one risk is that I don't get the time to work on this or I loose interest altogether, I'm a full time student learning programming for the next 2 years and constantly looking for games industry work. As always, work comes before these things, but in my case my work will be developing games in one way or another and coming home to do more of it is taxing to say the least.

The cave system was one of the biggest challenges of restarting development on this game, I can safely say 80% of it is done, I just hope I don't run into code breaking problems with paths.

Next challenge will be implementing buildings, so rather than just having an entire base, you'll get to choose locations for your buildings or even paths, I'll be allowing all players to do this. The risk being players might waste resources on doing unnecessary things so a bit more thought needs to go into it, I'm likely going to set limits so you may only have 1 Power Station, this would need some balancing.

I plan to have an interactive system where you press a 'use' button on the structure and you'd gain access a menu that would let you change your inventory or purchase vehicles etc. While I've done similar things before I haven't quite hit this scale.

Updating the art, I did everything originally for Blockland and I was trying very hard to keep everything low poly (Which was a good thing!). However circles are horrible with only 6 sides. I need to update everything which takes roughly 1-2 hours per building/vehicle and there is a lot. This is a low priority but I want to do it.

I am considering a "leader" role, where by the players vote a leader into power and they control the placement of buildings and use of the global resources. This is a huge undertaking, its almost a game within itself in the large scale of everything. This is why I'm aiming for individual progression so each person can do what they want rather than be dictated on what to build or do next. But it would be nice to have.

Vehicle testing so far has ended in vehicles clipping through the cave and falling off the 'world', I hope I can fix this...

My next to-do is to make a to-do list, I've just been working on random things thus far so I might need to get onto a task list.

 

Additional:

I've ported over the Power Station and updated components on it so it looks more like the actual thing. I've also ported and redid a heap of the tool store, I had to keep it thicker than the original games just so the collision would make sense to players. Still a fair bit I'd still like to update on these.

 

 

So I hope this have given you guys a bit of insight to what goes through my brain direction I'm taking this project in. I used to be very hush hush about features and goal but with these hobby projects I'm now becoming very open with them. I may even open my game design document to the public but don't hold your breath.

 

I will not be adding land slides to this game.

[Antillies]

Packer, I have to say, it's a pleasure to see you grow in this area.  Keep it up, man!

[Jimbob]

Pascal, I have to say, it's a pleasure to see you grow in this area.  Keep it up, man!

Please excuse me, but isn't this Packer, not Pascal, or did Pascal switch accounts?

 

Regardless, this is incredible. Having programmed my fair share of games (although I've only completed a small few!) I've gained a greater appreciation for the work that goes into these projects, especially when tackled single-handedly. You have my full support, great work so far!

[Ben24x7]

Right, now that I've seen the game for myself, I can say that I think your game is on a good path, all in all. The only thing I would recommend currently (not including the Mac part, since that is impossible for now) adding to your game is an option to control vehicle handling with 'A' and 'D' whilst in the vehicle, just for some people who find steering with the mouse a bit icky.

 

I look forward to the recoded version and wish you the best of luck that should last you further down the line.

[Packer]

Pascal, I have to say, it's a pleasure to see you grow in this area.  Keep it up, man!

I am not Pascal.

 

Right, now that I've seen the game for myself, I can say that I think your game is on a good path, all in all. The only thing I would recommend currently (not including the Mac part, since that is impossible for now) adding to your game is an option to control vehicle handling with 'A' and 'D' whilst in the vehicle, just for some people who find steering with the mouse a bit icky.

 

I look forward to the recoded version and wish you the best of luck that should last you further down the line.

 

For sure, in fact I'll do it right now.

 

[Packer]

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New cave pieces, I've updated them to be more round and showing off some of the lighting plus updated buildings.

[aidenpons]

I will not be adding land slides to this game.

 

 

B... b... but that's the whole fun of LRR...

 

Anyway, this is certainly looking good!

 

 

... and yes, 90% of the point of this post was to rant about landslides

[le717]

I will not be adding land slides to this game.

B... b... but that's the whole fun of LRR...

Anyway, this is certainly looking good!

... and yes, 90% of the point of this post was to rant about landslides

Don't worry, I have your landslide fix for you.

http://le717.github.io/landslides

[Antillies]

Pascal, I have to say, it's a pleasure to see you grow in this area.  Keep it up, man!

I am not Pascal.

 Way late to correct this, but my apologies.  I thought Pascal made something FPS RR related so I just assumed he had changed his name. 

[Packer]

I started work on updating the visual on some of the content and I wanted to show off the before and after:

As you can see the right is way more defined and the models are higher quality, though the majority of the 3D mesh is still the same. I'm also doing Ambient Occlusion where ever possible, the effect can be best seen on the Chainsaws (The shadowing effect).

[Ben24x7]

Do you plan to add Low poly studs to vehicles and buildings that have studs visible? Or is that too much for the game to render?

[Packer]

Do you plan to add Low poly studs to vehicles and buildings that have studs visible? Or is that too much for the game to render?

I may add them myself, I've actually been looking into alternatives like parallax mapping but at the moment it isn't worth that level of extra effort. As for the "Too much for the game to render", I could set it up to be a High setting only type thing but it would definitely tax on rendering and I rather keep everything at a stable level and have the game run on older machines. Again, its a time thing and would a few bumps be worth detracting from the time I could spend on Gameplay. Maybe one day.