SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

GUI looks fantastic!

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

Looking good 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

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.


<?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

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

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

Quote5hrs 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

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

Quote. 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..

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

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

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

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

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

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