| Total Entries: 39 |
nebula
Entry: 39
12/13/2004
12:48 AM
| Actually working on the ai now. Or at least I heard it was ai since ai requires your system to actually learn by mistakes.
Well. I am spending more time from the computer to work on designing ai features. Not all features I think up get implemented. I designed these functions to return if the enemy is north, east, south or west. This based on a standard distance. I have no use for it yet though.
The last release went a little wrong. I changed the ai level to a insane high setting instead of setting it to a very low level. I uploaded a new version.
At the moment I am creating a different path system that specifically will be used for a new ai mode. The new ai mode will either be a standing ai field army or defensive scripts.
I am not sure which will be more fun to play against. At the moment when playing the game I build a large field army. It would be nice to campaign against a other large army.
The defensive scripts would reinforce battered cities and put units in defensive locations.
Both features would be nice to play against.
Bugs :
There are a couple of bugs that I saw last time I played. The evil bug I already tried to fix maybe has got something to do with the original ai. Then again it might be the turn button that is giving problems. The weird bug itself actually lets the ai skip so your cities builds huge armies fast with the new autoqueue checkbox.
The other bugs are minor.
The next release will already see new road graphics. The map routines have been changed to handle the new graphics. Roads are now much more visible. |
nebula
Entry: 38
03/16/2004
04:11 AM
| Working on the ai library.
Initially the main part of the ai that got attention was the way it expands on a map. Each ai player still respects the territory of the other.
I have just begun to implement a new data structure which should allow cities to have more indepth and faster communication with each other. I have activated the A* library and will be generating a road network linking cities to neighbour cities once they get created. Next after that is warfare simulations and tactics. |
nebula
Entry: 37
03/13/2004
01:17 PM
| Another ai module is being created for the turn based arena. Currently 700 lines have been written for it. They are mostly made up of tool functions. Several minor ai effects are already working. The lib will probably replace the old ai that I started making in 2002.
Atm the ailib2 contains 45 functions that can be used to operate and manipulate the new ai.
I still need to plug in the pathfinding library. When thats done, I will also write a better database and controlling functions to operate it.
The final ailib should be flexible enough to also be usable in the rts arena. |
nebula
Entry: 36
03/12/2004
07:16 AM
| The rts warfare part if getting underway. Once two armies meet in combat a request will be made if the battle should be decided by dice or by rts.
The last few weeks I have been thinking about how to build the rts part. Having thousands of units on the map is something I was not sure I could pull off. Previous tests using A* to control each unit proved a big cpu drain but I actually wrote a set of functions that makes it workable.
Atm 300 units are moving on the screen while changes in formation take almost zero processor time.
I hope I can get a isometric battlefield engine going that can display and update thousands of units.
The method I used is that of having units assigned to a grid. Then instead of moving each unit I only have to move the grid and keep pace with the spacing offsets.
Atm I am writing functions that control each aspect of the grid. For rotating the grid I have got several methods but I still need to decide which one to use.
For the actual confrontations of individual units a grid collision check is probably best. Having units bypas other units is something I still have to look into. Catapults and arrows that wipe out sections of the troops is already taken care of.
Drawing the graphics is going to be a major pain. I might even just decide to only use a mini view so that part gets managable.
|
nebula
Entry: 35
02/07/2004
11:15 PM
| Media production for Kings and Knights has increased. Quality orchestral music can be expected as so ok/good looking art.
The code development is on a low burner atm. The scripting system has been further developed and has changed a lot. Skeleton code already exists including a error checker. Visuals, story and media will have priority for the time being.
A new webhost with 2GB webspace will allow Kings and Knights to grow in size. I have started listening to the current ingame music and am evaluating in what orchestral style they will be remixed.
|
nebula
Entry: 34
11/15/2003
09:39 PM
| Currently designing a script system for programming the actual game events. I am using a global vs local aproach. When a script is run a configuration will have to be set. Which player, where on the map, conditions ect.. Using this input a local enviroment is filled with which the actual script execution will be handled.
I am planning a ID-tag system with which template scripts can be called. This way custom gameplay events can be assigned quickly.
Here is a concept script :
;Script Code test
; Defensive script
scriptmode = realism
turn = 15
setorigin = player2
warstate= humanplayer
setenemy = humanplayer
notahumanplayer = true
locallandpresence = true
localcitypresence = true
localfieldarmy = 10 ; this would be the lowest amount required
setgamecursor = player1capital
temp_createstandarddefense
setgamecursor = localnearestcity
temp_createstandardoffense
setnewunitsdestination = localcurrentcity
temp_createstandardoffense
setnewunitsdestination = localrandomnearestcity
setgamecursor = localnextnearestcity
temp_createstandardoffense
endscript
At the moment I am still thinking on how I can implement it as open as possible so modifications will be simple. A lot of internal modification will also have to be done before the actual script coding can be done.
Also in the next update several custom development tools will be included. .Net and Visual Basic runtimes will be required to run these!!
|
nebula
Entry: 33
11/13/2003
12:06 AM
| I spend 12 hours programming today. Not much visual progress however. A lot of internal stuff has been added and re-arranged.
I added custom alphablending functions and rotation functions. I just finished transforming the minimap to diamond shape and there is a ini file for configuring the game. Also tooltips now are delayed for a couple of seconds before they show. |
nebula
Entry: 32
11/13/2003
01:59 PM
| I think I lost a few or one update(s). I thought I modified the game to use a canvas and the event loop but I noticed this was not present in my workdir. Maybe I was mistaken. I hope I have not lost bugfixes.
I decided to Clean up the main loop by placing everything in functions(main code file is almost 4000 rows again). Then inserted my b+ loop template and put the loop in the timer tick. The game loop now also stops when the program is not active.
I also added a initial configuration file system and fully implemented all the config settings.
I hope that when it gets dark (6 hours) I will have done more. |
nebula
Entry: 31
09/04/2003
08:55 AM
| back. I kind of got sidetracked.
I have discovered I find it easy to draw. Being someone who likes to make games this has its advantages.
I have slowly started to create concept art for this game. I am mixing this in with actually learning how to draw better so the results currently might not be ace.
Below are 4 concept drawings.
http://hardcorecoder.com/images/ca1.jpg
Characters :
Some character sketches. I am looking into how to best create faces that look good enough small while having a base to have good higher resolution versions.
http://hardcorecoder.com/images/ca2.jpg
Female character :
My first attempt at drawing a female character. I used a reference. I have no idea what part in the game she will play.
http://hardcorecoder.com/images/ca3.jpg
Landscape :
One of my first attempts at drawing a landscape. I spend some time adding detail but I am not happy with it.
http://hardcorecoder.com/images/ca4.jpg
Landscape :
A quicky. Looks rather bright and pleasant compared to the picture above. I wanted to add a castle into the background but I might as well use it scaled down. |
nebula
Entry: 30
06/03/2003
07:59 AM
| Savegame Compression :
I have been looking on the code archives of www.blitzbasic.com for some usefull code. I noticed a huffman compression algorithm and decided to test it. I took a savegame and compressed it. The result was kind of dissapointing. It took 17 seconds which is much to long for a save game feature(autosave ect.) My eye then saw a RLE compression algorithm and this seems to be fast enough. It takes a few seconds to decrease a savedgame from 1.8 mb to 340 kilobytes. RLE simply removes large identical data (000) and restores them with the decompression. The code was made by Zenith.
Project visibility :
I submitted the project development page to a number of search engines. It will takes weeks for the site to be listed though.
Interface :
Yesterday I tried the new BuiGui which was released not long ago. I started modifying and testing it. After testing the listbox I concluded it would be better to modify my own gui if I want to improve the games interface.
Project Forum :
I created a forum on my site. If you are interested in Turn Based Strategy development then come and take a look. |
nebula
Entry: 29
06/01/2003
10:09 AM
| The last B+ update was kind of a bummer. The command line part was broken. Also I used the new command setting for faster graphics but there still is a speed decrease compared with b2d. The game does not run dead slow but the difference is noticable. After having read about it I asume it is caused by the code and not B+. Weird stuff. I have the same problem with my platform game.
Anyway I have created a executable of the game in B+ and I will release it today.
I was planning on adding a graphic expansion pack but I got some feedback from someone who has played the game. There are a couple a things I need to concentrate on first before I can add the comic graphics.
|
nebula
Entry: 28
05/12/2003
10:03 AM
| Minor update :
- Scrolling can now also be done by pressing the right ctrl with the cursor keys.
- Another way to scroll is to use the middle mouse button and holding it on the screen.
- A Bat file has been added with which the game will be run in fullscreen. The parameter is -fullscreen
I have playtested the game for 2 hours up to the point where the ai player had about 400 units. The battles became a bit hard to fight at that point since the enemy would stack units to 50. It took a long while to beat that. This prompted me to begin work on a stacked attack feature that will resolve battles more quickly.
Also I think I will have to take a closer look at the ai functions. This since one ai-player would just sit back and take a beating unless I broke defensive lines.
|
nebula
Entry: 27
04/13/2003
04:04 PM
| Minor Update :
I have added more music to the game. Not my own music but some old Amiga songs. The intro tune is the song from the old amiga game Powermonger.
Further other songs are accessible from the Diplomacy screen. I forgot which key was for this screen but it is between F2 and F4.
I also have started composing some new music as I have some new interest in composing.
I have begun working on some experimental music. I have rewritten a song from the old Amiga game Rings of medusa and I am perfecting it. It will be added to K&K at a later point.
Other updates are :
New texture for the gui and dice images for stacked units have been replaced with numbers. |
nebula
Entry: 26
03/28/2003
12:20 AM
| Another round of improvements and bug fixes.
It is really anoying that every time I add something it requires a intense debugging session for the things that break. But more features are being added and they work (mostly)
A real anoying bug was one that caused a crash. Fixed it though :D
New :
Stack movement
One nice thing I added is the possibility to move units in stack. Just hold the shift key while moving and every unit active in the stack will move.
One older improvement that I spend debugging just yet is that new units that are build are activated. When they are finished they will appear in the movement queue.
Another addition is that I improved the queue wait. When you press wait 'w' the program is smarter in selecting next units. No more switching between two units while all other units are ignored.
Oh and I made an autosave. Every turn a savegame is written as 'autosave.sav'
Update :
I played the game for about two hours. I made bugfixes between playing and the game is fairly playable now.
A bug where the ai could move his units over water has been fixed.
|
nebula
Entry: 25
03/28/2003
02:58 PM
| Ouch. It seemed the ai did not work anymore. It made units when the enemy was near but somehow they would not move. I started looking and it appeared that the generated map somehow had faulty units on the map. I have placed a break for the ai when they are directly next to a enemy unit and this caused it.
I erased all the units on the map and the ai worked again. It seems there is something wrong with either the ai building of units or the generation code. I will do some tests later on to find the problem.
The units.txt configuration file has been partly implemented. The first block of units setup is being read by the program. Only the build requirements has to be added to the code. Also there is still a constriction of 17 units that can be used in the configuration file. No more, no less.
Update --
I added the additional units configuration. I forgot the unit cost needed to be loaded since I had erased it from the sourcecode. Also the other requirements loading is implemented to. It is possible to assign multiple goods requirements for each unit. Though the game does not use the information yet.
I also spend some time testing the game. The game engine was a little malfunctioning with the new additions. I fixed the most direct bugs. Also some graphical problems are solved. The map now displays cities realistic on the map. No more city fortresses on top of trees ect. Cities are behind trees and so are fortresses.
I also spend some time adjusting the ai. Some bugs have been fixed here to.
|
nebula
Entry: 24
03/27/2003
06:22 PM
| I am working on the configuration files. There will be a lot of them and later on maybe I will write a external/internal editor for them.
Currently I am writing a config file for the units. (Units.txt) When I have implemented it then it can be used to add new graphics and their gameplay data. Currently there are 9 different modifiers for a single unit.
Things like the a/d/m/h/multiple requirements can be set here.
|
nebula
Entry: 23
03/25/2003
03:05 PM
| Economy
I am working on the economy. For this I have first updated a listbox function for displaying all kinds of information. Then I started creating a configuration file (.txt) and filled that with goods and production informations. (civ 2 style)
The configuration allows for up to 199 different goods and 100 production facilities. Each good has a production origin (The facility). And each production origin has its own optional terrain requirement. (Mine needs nearby mountains ect.) A production facility can produce a configurable number of products. Each product can also be configured to require a certain amount of goods for production.
For instance. You create a mine, the mine requires mountains in the direct area. If present the production can be set to produce iron. With this iron you can then set another production facility to produce weapons using the iron mined by the mine.
These produced goods will then be used to maintain a city or make profit/build armies.
The nice thing is you can add any type of product/facility you like and the game will use them.
At the moment I have written a reader that reads the config file and places everything in arrays ready for use.
The next step will be to create a interface for displaying all this.
|
nebula
Entry: 22
03/24/2003
02:15 AM
| The Diplomacy interface is in the game (F3). Not every button works but most do. I also created a personality for each player. Currently existing from 3 different parameters per player. Those being Friendly/Trust and Fear. These settings change and have influence in/thru the diplomacy window. Assistance, removal of units and Alliance is not implemented yet.
I also created a external textfile for city names. They will be assigned to cities when a map is generated. Also a name from this list will be assigned when no name is given thru the editors create city option (Ctrl+C).
Another addition is a creation of a tribes file. Here 8 names can be assigned for the players in the game. There can be a description with each of them. These descriptions will currently be shown using a tooltip in the diplomacy window.
Further additions are some bug fixes and minor work. |
nebula
Entry: 21
03/22/2003
10:27 PM
| Another round of bug fixes.
I encountered a really old bug I thought was gone. The bugs effect was that ai units would appear on map location 0,0. They would stack up there. The bug was random so I could not easily reproduce it thus track it down. But I am getting more experienced so I had some new insights and I hope it is fixed now. One problem was the fact the pathfinding destination would be
0,0 when no destination was assigned. A simple assignement of negative values to the destination coordinates in the top of the function should fix this.
Also the AI movement would not check when it was near player units (only near your cities). This ment you would not see enemy units move when they were near you. This has been fixed now.
Future Additions :
I am working on a diplomacy interface. Still looking for ideas on this.
Current Ideas for options are :
- Request Assistance
- Request Alliance
- Declare War
- End Hostilities
- Offer/Request Gold
- Offer/Request Unit
- Offer/Request City
- Offer/Request Trade
- Offer/Request Remove Unit (from your area)
Well thats it |
nebula
Entry: 20
03/20/2003
02:04 AM
| Ok I updated the showcase.
I have been bug/balance testing the game. It seemed the ai could not handle the new continental maps - big suprise :P. Also the loading of troops on ships was still buggy. I bet I will find more bugs. All new bugs encountered so far have been hopefully fixed.
Anyway the ai will attack you if you get on his continent. I have no idea how strong his resistance will be to forces that aproach his cities.
|
nebula
Entry: 19
03/20/2003
08:35 PM
| Floodfill for isolating Continents and Islands
I was thinking of making some code for generating ai countries. Basically I needed to write and invent some new code.
First I decided to try and make some code that isolates continents/islands on generated maps. It took some time but I managed to get it working. At the moment each continent/island on the map has its own integer value.
I basically use the following steps :
- Convert all the land to one color
- floodfill each colored position except positions that have already been handled.
- Remove all islands from the map that are to small. (They are not removed from the actual map)
- Sort the continents
This new feature has some value. It can be used to assign ai to their own continent. Or notify when the player lands his invasion force on a continent. Also the player could decide to generate the map with a X amount of continents. However there could never be more then a handfull since I have no clue on how to generate only islands.
[Edit]
I have added the new code to the game. This did not go without problems. The game got stuck in a loop and I had to track down what caused it. It did take to long to fix but it works now.
Currently when a new map is generated each continent will be filled with cities depending on the mass. Each continent will have its own player. Each city also has a defending force inside them.
I made it so only the edges of the continent are settled with cities. The code that makes this do that is quite flexible. It might also be usefull for letting the ai expand its cities.
note - I am curious how the ai will adjust to the new map implementation but I have no time to test it. This since I want to add more features first. What I do now is the ai will not be sending out ships to attack you.
|
nebula
Entry: 18
03/19/2003
12:12 AM
| The random map generator has been implemented. The result is better then I would have thought.
I had some problems with the auto coast lines creation routine but this is fixed.
Now with these new maps I will probably have to add sea units :D
Sea units are added. 3 ships. Can only be build by cities next to water.
Hours are lost while looking for some fractal based island generation examples. I found some math examples but that is chinese to me. Instead I tweaked the current code to sometimes generate some islands. The result is not very good but at least there are usually 2 islands when that code is called.
Still some bugs left to fix ( Graphics engine and units selection )
Fixed a graphical display error with the beaches. All perfect now.
Also I tried to add more graphics like deap oceans but this did not work out.
[Edited] |
nebula
Entry: 17
03/16/2003
12:51 AM
| I have created a map generator. I found some code on the internet for creating height maps and these are fine for creating land masses.
Currently the maps generated have seas, land, trees, hills and mountains. The maps can be generated with a variable landmass.
The trees/hills and mountains are not very realistic however. They appear to look a little random.
The map generator basically works like this.
It creates a height map which is converted to water,land, hills and mountains. A few random looking mountains and hills are also placed using the height map. Then a second heigh map is created and this is converted into a two color heightmap thru a simple method. Then the white areas of the new heightmap are copied on the map. Only the grass tiles are replaced. This way a set of trees is copied on top of the map.
I am hoping to include the map generator in k&k. |
nebula
Entry: 16
03/14/2003
09:36 AM
| Interfaces
I was not completely happy with the new interfaces. I was thinking if I should redesign the new interfaces. However this proccess was a little slow. When a interface is added into the game it has passed thru 2 different programs. One for designing the layout and one for converting the coordinates. Since I got b+ as a present some time ago I had a descent tool to create external editors. Within 1 day I had 1700 lines of code for the editor. I think this is a record for me :D
Currently the editor can already be used to design interfaces and generate code. I am about to start producing experimental interfaces and creating loadable output libraries for the editor. I expect to be generating code for new interfaces for K&K soon. |
nebula
Entry: 15
02/27/2003
07:06 AM
| Game depth is being worked on. I have created 3 user interfaces that will bring some extra features in to the game.
Note : The following additions are a test and certainly not final.
New additions will be :
City Production Window :
- Build a undetermined number of 5 different facilities. Each facility will produce goods, they can be sold to the local market or used to build armies or caravans.
- View amount of facilities and their production and city use of goods per turn.
- City shortages are shown here and these will influence the happyness of the citizens in the city.
City Market Window :
- Shortages in other cities are shown. They can be ignored or acted upon by sending a caravan. Caravans will initially be invisible.
- Buy goods from the market or sell goods to the market. If the market has no goods citizens will feel less happy.
City Status Window :
- Shows level, tax income and citizens status
- Cities can be expanded from this window if the requirements are met.
- and more coming ...
I will use .txt files where needed so a number of things can be manipulated without editing the source.
To be continued.
|
nebula
Entry: 14
02/24/2003
10:26 PM
| I spend another working day on KK. I started working on the GUI system. I used psp to draw some buttons and arrows and then modified the gui functions to use those. The new gui elements look a little better now and have several new options.
After working on the gui I decided to work on a tutorial mode. I wrote about 16 tutorial entries and copied and modified the text reader from my gui. I then created a couple of lines of tutorial activation code and started linking those to events in the game. For instance the first time you click on a city the city tutorial is activated. After this tutorial is shown a flag in a array is set to true and it will not be shown again. Also a number of entrees are time based and they will pop up after a few minutes time. This with the tooltips system should make everything easy to understand (If I ever finish it :D )
I asked my brother to test the new tutorial and he found it effective enough. However he told me the ai speed of movement was very anoying. I chose for 100*100 maps with hundreds of units so it simply takes to long. The ai can be regulated but the display of movement is the bottleneck. I coded a speed up that is activated by holding the right mouse button while the AI is moving his units but on my P133 is gives only twice the speed. I thus started to work on speeding it up.
I started looking and after a lot of disabling of code I isolated the code in the minimap generation code. I placed it in a loop to see the FPS and the function itself ran at 10 FPS. Real slow. It was solved by creating a new imagebuffer that stores the terrain map and this is only updated on a time based method while editing or at logical points. Last but not least I removed a delay(100) entree in the mouse to map function. Now several features have increased 5 fold in speed. This means faster moving AI (RMB) and faster editing (Still some anoyance there though).
Well I am off to figure out a way to create some depth in the game. |
nebula
Entry: 13
02/19/2003
04:03 PM
| Been a while since the last entry. The KK project is not dead yet :D
I posted KK on a dutch game developers forum and got some usefull feedback. The overal response was positive but I discovered that some people have trouble getting into the game. One person hinted a tutorial would be usefull. So I have been thinking of how it should work.
Getting feedback on projects is hard so I take it serious when I get hints. One hint was the ability to build walls around your country, hmmm dunno about that though :D
Next :
Tutorial, Gui change, Citizens and More factors seems to be the request and not smart ai. So I know what to do.
Also - Tada. Blitz.com was offline and when it came back B2D was replaced by B+. Curious and happy as I was I downloaded it. After some sample testing and bad crashes followed by a bug report and new demo I am ready to try it out. But I still have to time the aquisition of the full version to the expiration of the demo.
Does this mean a port of KK to B+? Well, I do not know yet.
Well, I hope to have informed those interested on the progress. No new version but at least you know what to expect next.
See ya
|
nebula
Entry: 12
12/10/2002
01:59 AM
| Ok, I updated the game.
The game now features a minimap that shows the terrain. I fixed at a later point so it would also work with the fog of war.
Another nice but still only slightly tested feature is your ai general. This is simply a slighly adjusted function copy of the CPU's ai. But it has a fast forward button and a Exit button. Hold the Right mouse button to Speed it up (CPU dependant) or hold down the left mouse button to exit this feature. You can enable your general by pressing F-12. It will return control when it is ready or stopped.
Another major game change is the new city building queue rule. When you city has 110 income it can build 1 unit extra per turn. At 150 you can build a complete queue list per turn. This means 5 units per turn as long as your money will last. This new feature means the ai has one less cheat as it could already build multiple units per turn.
Overview :
Each city has a maximum tax income of 150. The knight unit costs 100. This means one city can only build 1 knight per turn. You can however upgrade cities at the front so you do not have to move them all across the screen. (See goto feature in the help btw) Using gold mines to add to the income you can increase the number of units your empire can build per turn. The ai does not have goldmine exploiting ai but can be assigned goldmines using the editor and switching to playing as that player.
There are now 7 screnario's and several small save games I use. The various saves are testbeds. The screnario's were created over a two year period. Some may be obsolete.
I have compiled a list of tribes that can be used as the names of the cpu and human player.
These tribes are :
Franks
Holy Roman
Visigoths
Vandals
Angles
magyars
saxons
Teutons
They have not yet been hardcoded into the game.
Future versions :
Testing and expanding the ai general most likely. I am wondering if just small management is a nice game mode. I will try and see what options I can expand it with. New CPU/General ai is not really likely until I get a faster computer. My 450 is not that fast for doing more stuff in CPU loop. certainly not in debug mode. The current ai though has suprised me a couple of times. One time by routing and decimating my 20 division flanking army. This was a nice experience. My goal was to trap and cut off the ai at a mountain pass. They kicked my arse :-)
Strategies :
I have noticed that the extra attack strength of the ballista has come to good use in defending against overwhelming forces. (Screnario#6)
Exploit : Overwhelming aproaching forces can be easily stopped. Reason : They will not pour units into a recently captured square. Will be fixed ofcourse but just avoid that strategy for now.
Stay tuned. |
nebula
Entry: 11
10/17/2002
11:58 PM
| I have added water to the game. Screnario#5 now has some bodies of water.
You place water by going into edit mode 'e' and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+W.
The goto feature was giving some errors so I had to disallow that units can automove across non road connected distances.
|
nebula
Entry: 10
10/17/2002
07:22 AM
| I cleaned up the resources a bit. Most graphics are now located in the graphics folder.
Zip file is updated.
|
nebula
Entry: 9
10/11/2002
10:17 PM
| Ok, I got some work done on Kings and Knights. The goto feature is working but not for stacked units yet. Also the presence of enemy in the path is not taken care of.
Use it like this :
When a unit is active press 'g' and select a destination. The unit will instantly pop up at that location if it is within reach. When it is out of reach it will be moved automatically at the beginning of each turn until it gets there and control over the unit will be returned.
|
nebula
Entry: 8
10/05/2002
05:32 PM
| Its been a longer time since a update. I am on a other PC right now for my other one is kind of messed up. The processor heats up to much, I have been having this problem for a while now and I got tired of the pc crashing every 1 to 2 hours. The new fan is not helping. I also am working on a entry to the 8 bit competition. I will do the programming and the music. Vertigo will do the graphics.
Kings and Knights :
The last thing I did on Kings and Knights was to add a Goto feature for units. It is 30% completed. I only have to code the auto unit(s) movement.
The goto feature will allow you to move single or stacked unit to a destination. The destination will have to be on a road.
The Future of Kings and Knights (Kings and Pirates?)
I have started developing a Isometric engine in Delphi using DelphiX. I have created a 4 layer engine with some basic editing. The framerate is very good indeed. I hope to expand the engine so it will become playable.
Download a preview here :
http://nebula.woppy.net/delphix/isoautocomplete.zip
Kings and Pirates will be developed alongside Kings and knights.
Future versions of Kings and Knights will contain more graphical screnario features. I am planning on adding water/ships/transports/vikings the the game.
Until next time. |
nebula
Entry: 7
09/16/2002
03:43 PM
| v1.29 is uploaded. The screnario has changed. Now all players are a war with eachother. You can build mines wich add to your income. (The computer has no code for the mines - not yet)
The ai has been tested to play against each other and this seems to be working correctly now.
The difficulty level is linked to the amount of units you have in your possesion. If you have a small army (<20) then the difficulty level will be very easy. If you have over 150 units then the difficulty level will be at maximum.
A bug was hopefully fixed that caused units to be created at map position 0,0.
Screnario #5 has been tested up to turn 40 with the new adjusted ai. The other screnario's have not been tested with the new ai settings.
I need testers btw so email me if you have some time
|
nebula
Entry: 6
09/13/2002
01:00 PM
| It seemed I did not examine the bug enough to see where it was caused. I think I got it this time. The movement/stack engine should be ok. However a little bug is remaining that causes some enemy units to go invisible.
I am thinking of new features. Maybe I will use some of the civ 2 screnario graphics and expand the gameplay engine. Maybe I will use some rts features and see how that goes.
|
nebula
Entry: 5
09/07/2002
07:34 PM
| Wow, I spend hours tracking a single bug. In the end I decided to clean up the movement code and this seemed to fix it.
I also added fog of war.
Now at version 1.2 |
nebula
Entry: 4
09/06/2002
05:39 PM
| Uploaded a new version with several bug fixes. I hope I got a stable version now but I need to test more to be sure. Also I notice the game plays differently then it had used to. I might have to adjust it if it is to hard. The ai player does cheat a bit so there might be some problems repelling a equeal or larger enemy empire. |
nebula
Entry: 3
09/06/2002
11:39 AM
| Time for another update :
I have worked on the ai attack-mission generator. The ai will now in certain states check the destination area and decide if it is save to send its army. If there are to many enemy units there then the ai will send cavalry instead. If there are a lot of enemies in the area then it will attack them instead.
Also I have made several other changes.
- Stacked units do not get destroyed.
- Keypad can be used to move units
- Changed the battle outcome code
- Starting level is screnario#2
* New key
- Shift delete = disband unit
Future updates :
- Ai attack code is currently being refined and exanded
- Playing with the idea of adding unit upkeep
- Investigating unit damage
|
nebula
Entry: 2
08/25/2002
02:20 PM
| I have been playing the ai for quite some time now and I have been able to beat the enemy with ease. This mainly for there is no defensive ai yet. Currently I am playing defensive and seing what I can do to make it fun. I am quite enjoying myself but I have a lot to do to make the game challenging.
As for the current version
New additions are :
- Added a button to the game screen to skip the game turn with.
- Fixed a bug so units can wait inside cities
- Added a button to the city screen which allows the player to fortify all newly created units
- Minor cosmetic changes to the city screen.
- Increased the flickering rate of the end of turn indicator
- Added code which prevents units from being moved accidently
- I have been spending a lot of time on the ai. The enemy has now 5 different methods of aproaching your cities. This triggered by various modifiers and gameplay tactics of the player.
More to come |
nebula
Entry: 1
08/23/2002
08:24 AM
| These past days I have gotten energy to work on my civilization style strategy game. The last time I worked on it was 4 months ago. Shame to say I dont take it more seriously.
I have been playing and changing things quite a bit to get the game just right. I want it to be something I enjoy playing. I have tried defensive play and offensive play and it seems to work now.
I have created a screnario for this and I just made it even bigger then it was at the initial version. There are about 7 kingdoms on the map and 2 of them are set to attack your cities. Now they will be able to do actual harm. The battle outcome decider is changed and so is the difficulty. I linked it to the amount of cities to the map.
Future versions ?
I dont know what I will work on next, I have a few a4's with points/ideas and I will take a closer look at them as I progress.
Maybe I will loose interest again but currently this game is on my mind. I have got about 200 kilobytes of sourcecode on this project and it would be a waste to just leave it occupying my precious harddisk space.
Anyway I am withdrawing the newest game version from public domain. All newer versions will be copyrighted by me. Maybe I can sell this puppy one day ;)
Feedback
nebula_rve@hotmail.com |
