Genus Prime - 8bit compo WIP

[therevills]

GUI looks fantastic!

[Steve Elliott]

Cool GUI, and yes the n is much better now.   

[iWasAdam]

Looking good Derron  

[Derron]

Updated todo

- [optional] diplomacy + diplomacy visuals/GUI
- missions (only a dozen or so)
- game profile (so storing missions you played/won already) (not needed, just use savegames)
- music/sfx
- screens/windows: settings screen (audio, gfx, ...)
- screens/windows: help screen ("instructions / controls")
- screens/windows: loading/saving screen (or just provide 3 slots, might be more "c64 like")
- screens/windows: missions select screen
- screens/windows: skirmish setup screen



Normally I would need some more fancy-caption-text-effects but as I wont be able to compete with IWasAdams fancy gfx (only game I saw "live" for now - so excuse if there are other wonders awaiting my attention) I might leave them as they are...


bye
Ron

[Derron]

Basic mission data structure is done. Basic campaigns (= multiple sequential maps) get defined via XML files (so it is up to you to cheat ;-)).
Sounds like overhead? Nah, now I can create new maps on the fly without having to recompile or restart the application.

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<campaigns>
<campaign id="campaign_01">
<title>
<en>A Beginners Guide to rule</en>
</title>
<description>
<en>Your first campaign will give a paced start into becoming the Genus Prime of all galaxies.</en>
</description>


<map id="map_01">
<title>
<en>The Ran'thu War</en>
</title>

<messages>
<message game_time="0">
<title>
<en>Introduction</en>
</title>
<text>
<en>You are holding the reigns of your race in this sector of the never-ending space. To conquer this sector you need to |b|send ships|/b| from planets you own. Just select one or more planets with your mouse by holding the |b|ctrl key|/b| or use a mouse-based selection rectangle by |b|holding down left mouse button|/b|. After selecting just send out |b|half of the planet's population|/b| to the planet you click on. Once population counter goes |b|below 0|/b| you will conquer the planet. Conquer all planets occupied by other players to win the mission.</en>
</text>
</message>
</messages>

<!-- random_seed defines position of the random planets -->
<config win_condition="survive" time="300" width_relative="100" height_relative="100" galaxy_name="Ran'xil Galaxy" random_seed="11515"/>
<players>
<player id="1" race="1" control="human" />
<player id="2" race="3" control="AI"    difficulty="50" />
</players>
<planets>
<planet  x="15"   y="20"  owner="1" population="10" missiles="0"  missilesLimit="2"  name="Ran'thu" />
<planet  x="45"   y="19"  owner="1" population="3"  missiles="0"  missilesLimit="2" />
<planet  x="20"   y="50"  owner="1" population="5"  missiles="0"  missilesLimit="2" />
<planet x2="10"  y2="20"  owner="2" population="7"  missiles="0"  missilesLimit="2" />

<!-- RANDOM after fixed ones - so algorithm finds correct spots -->
<planet owner="0" />
<planet owner="0" />
<planet owner="0" />
<planet owner="0" />
<planet owner="0" />
<planet owner="0" />
</planets>
</map>
</campaign>
</campaigns>


Of course it now needs a campaign-overview screen + map selection (if you return to the campaign view you should be able to run maps you already won previously).


Means this evening I will try to finish the campaign screen and already create the first maps for it (with some help texts).


Featurewise I still want to include (once above is working):
- solar support (timed ship arrival to support you - or the enemies)
- rebels (passive planets unite after X minutes of game time)

As I think it would allow for some more variation.

bye
Ron

[Derron]

Fixed some bugs. Added "rebels" (for certain maps this might be a cool addition).
Campaign is fully working now.
Added (for now simple) Loose/Win-screens with their buttons to retry, next mission, ...
Reorganized the GUI-Panels to contain a better looking "caption"
Reorganized "difficulty" (for now it has not much impact than population and thinking-speed)
Created and included some basic sfx (annoying! ;-)).

Hunted a savegame bug for almost 90 minutes (regarding map "game time") - should not serialize certain variables :-)



So TODO:
- more than just 3 missions (= introduction campaign)
- write some texts
- add "campaign finished" stuff


But night will end in ... 5hrs and then day is planned for a friends birthday. Will have to do some stuff in the last hours of the competition ;-).
Regardless of some missing bells and whistles the game is fully playable (random game, skirmish mode - and some basic missions). Would of course feel cooler with a simple "story-campaign" or so.


bye
Ron

[Qube]

Final push to get it finished, you can do it, go go go

5hrs and then day is planned for a friends birthday.

Typical, someone else wanting to make it all about them - They have a birthday every year!. Here is a whole community waiting for your game and your "friend" wants to dominate the final hours in such a crucial time - Give them the stare, point to the door and get on with coding

[Derron]

I could point to the door - but it isn't mine :-)

Time to leave _my_ door and go to the brunch - with the luck I have they decide to do some other stuff this afternoon too. Hmpf.

bye
Ron

[3DzForMe]

. wants to dominate the final hours in such a crucial time - Give them the stare, point to the door and get on with coding  

Luckily, the wife s still en route back from a gig at Manchester arena, ( it's her birthday and Mother's day today, seems like a glitch in the Matrix there, deadline day on my first Speccy project in decades as well!) to the trailer then, I mean, man cave...


Derron your UI is simply awesome..

[Derron]

Phew... kids in bed, women followed as the younger one did not find into sleep well.

Booze of the handful of beers is gone so ... concentrate for a whopping ~3 hours and hope it compiles well then.
Internet connection was down for a while the last 2 hours, hope they finished doing whatever they did ;-)


back to designing some missions.

bye
Ron

[Qube]

Good luck on the final push - Grab some more beers, it allows you to code quicker

[Derron]

Mppff .... some days ago my windows build compiled and run fine - now I get a segfault. Have to track that down within the next minutes. Compiling the debug modules for 5 minutes now...


bye
Ron

[Qube]

If pushed for time just publish the linux version before midnight. You can add other OS's afterwards.

[Derron]

Yeah will do that if required ... 23min to go.

edit: ah... maxmod2.mod/rtaudio leaded to a crash with NG. Will have to try to make it vanilla BlitzMax compatible for now.

bye
Ron

[Steve Elliott]

Plus upload time.  Do it now and go to extra time (bug fix time) for other systems.