Patrolling Tanks

The first thing to note is that you can see the current state here: http://bigdicegames.com/BZone/bzone.html

Stuff I've got done since the last update:

• build, deploy script tinkering - I had thought that my build script didn't work with WebGL stuff. Maybe I fixed some problem I was having. Maybe there never was a problem. It seems to work, so, cool.
• new tank class - makes things like position and heading be easier to deal with.
• updated the model - not that you can tell. The old model was facing down the Y axis, which made the heading 90 degrees off from what made sense to me. So, the new rule is that models face along the positive X axis, with up in the positive Z direction. Y is, of course, left, because we're using a right handed coordinate system.
• updated the model conversion script - again, not visible. The new script is Closure-friendly, using "goog.provide" and having a namespace. Also, it avoids breaking IE8, who freaks out if you put a comma at the end of your list: [1, 2, 3,]
• rudimentary tank AI - riffing off last month's guard patrol route code, I've given the tanks some simple patrol routes. The tanks turn to face their next patrol waypoint, then move at full speed until they reach it. They can sometimes overshoot, but I've only seen that a few times. The waypoints right now are just points on a big circle, nothing smart.

Next up:

• player control - the player ought to be able to move around.
• projectiles - pew, pew!
• skycube - I've been thinking about using a texture, but maybe flat shaded polygons would be OK. I'll probably need to set up a special view matrix for the skycube.
• obstacles - stuff for the player to hide behind, stuff for the tanks to avoid
• pathfinding - once I've got static obstacles, I'll need simple pathfinding
• collision - tanks should not be able to drive through each other, nor should they drive through obstacles. Projectiles should not shoot through tanks or obstacles.
• mission system - as I'm getting the simple mechanics knocked off, I've been thinking about what the bigger gameplay design is going to be. I think the player will be assigned some number (4) of patrol waypoints, to which they'll have to navigate (pretty easy, and there'll be an autopilot). Along the way, they'll encounter some enemy tanks, which they'll have to shoot. At the end of the patrol route, the player can return to base. The end. Not a new game design, not super compelling, but a little better than "there are tanks, shoot them". If I were feeling really ambitious, I might have an escort mission or bigger enemy tanks (think "capital ships"). Or enemy bases. Bases might not be too hard, except making something that feels like a living base might be more work than I have time for.
• buddy AI - I've thought about adding a friendly tank that will help you in your patrols. Maybe you can give him orders, like "shoot my target", "hold your fire", "engage at will", "form up next to me". This doesn't seem too hard, we'll see.
• HUD - I'll need a radar display. Maybe a damage readout.
• damage model - moving a little bit away from the simplest arcade "one hit, one kill" model, to a model where different sides of the vehicle have different levels of defense, which can be degraded.
• animation smoothness - for some reason, the movement of the tanks is visibly jerky; every so often, I'll see a hitch in the update. I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, maybe I'm measuring incremental time progress incorrectly. I'd like to fix this, but it's in the "important but not urgent" bucket for now.