Sentience

so whaddaya think?

BTW even Norton Disk Doctor couldn't find my disk...bastard!

Awww poor Ian's disk...

Sorry, didn't see that other post of yours.

Weelllll, I've got the scout model up and running (needs some error traps, but the principle's sound) and it does the job admirably.

With a couple of scouts you'll be uncovering the map in no time. Super!

I don't think we need any others to be honest. Maybe a coastline follower, but that's not a pressing issue. This scout AI is the biz!

We could do a 'scout out enemy' as well, but it's not that important at the moment.

A general 'move battle lines towards enemy' model would be quite useful, but we have three out the four main ones (attack, defend, slurp, scout)

Explore, Discover, Build.... D'OH!

so your not interested in a number of AI models to improve flexibilty? Whilst a simple recon scout is gonna be the most used, it may be to blunt for some tasks...

Maybe.

Well, I went into work today. Tremendously interesting. :rolleyes:

Rob had some good stuff to say about MBS. Permanent positions coming up etc. Seems to want me to move into a development role however, which I'm not sure of.

I'm more than willing to help out in a development role, but I really enjoy doing analysis and that's where'd I'd like to be.

Of course, it depends exactly what's part of the development role, it may be exactly what I'm looking for... :)

Right, how are you getting on with those graphics? I hope you're getting somewhere now, 'cos I want to get the next version uploaded soon.

I'll do some more tidying work on the AI and then we might have kick ass computer players in there as well. I also want to see if I can speed it up some - it slows down when the faction builds 100 units. :rolleyes:

I've not reinstalled VB yet. will do that when I get back, then finish the buildings. I'm gonna have to get more beer in too. Its gonna be a long night. I've lost 2-3 days of productivity now.
*****! :(

Why, what were you up to all last night?

You should have been working....

Well, I'm only a phone call away and I never sleep, so if you're up late and need a bit of inspiration then give me a call.

If you need anything sending to you, then shout me and I'll mail it.

cheers pal ;)

Awight matey!

How's it hangin?

I take it you got home ok and weren't gangraped in Middleton?

So, watcha up to?

oooh...
*ouch!*
...sore...

*owwww....*

can't sit down...

jus' kidding.

pulled some ideas together for funky looking walls. will do some more on it tonite.

got any interview tomorrow...woooh!

Cool as!

Good luck with the interview.

Remember to clean behind your ears and put on a fresh shirt and....

etc

heya pal-

jus't thought I'd rescue this thread from the depths, how's it going?

Not so bad.

In work at the mo. It's like I'd never left.

I want some beer - I'm going to the pub in a minute.

Rob was plastered last night wasn't he? :rolleyes:

What a monkey!

well, the dumb schmuck will drink "on medication" :D :rolleyes:
serves him right...

On medication my arse!

The man's a fool, plain and simple. Harmless enough though.

We need to fix him up with some ridiculous walrus type creature.

Well, back to business - how are you getting on with those buttons? Probably the same as I am with Plender's fixes.

I think I'll make a start on those tonight and get some of them out of the way.

We could do with creating a comprehensive list of things you need to draw.

There's allsorts - for starters:

Buttons
Hydrogen Trees
Supergiant etc etc
Wall segments
Road segments
Cake segments
Sensor buildings
Turrets
Advanced Research Building
Satellite image (representative)

Waargh!

You're right on 2 counts.

1) Robert needs a walrus.

2) I keep opening the buttons up in photoshop, looking at them and closing them again :rolleyes:

However:
<good news>I have build some wall pieces in Illustrator</good news>
<bad news>I'm having trouble bringing them into Photoshop, and we're gonna have to think some more about the wall generation engine</bad news>

By supergiant, are we refering to wandering monsters? and therefore, they'll be 40 x 40?

Yes. They will be 40*40. Not animated.

What do we need to think about the wall display engine?

When should we do this?

I'll use a quick example, but since I dont have pen and paper :D, you may not grasp quite what I mean...

any wall piece that goes from one square down into a square below will cover up anything beneath it. This is going to be apparent unless you ensure that wall pieces are placed with the lowermost ones "on top" in the Z-order. This is going to have to be dynamically updated, for example if a player closes a hole in their wall half way up...

You didn't understand a word of that did you?

No.

I don't understand.

due to the perspective (not quite top down) then walls at the lower half of the square are closest to the top.

Hey dude,

If you fancy coming round for bevvies then I'll come and pick you up but (obviously) won't be able to give you a lift back.

Gissa bell later - I'm off home now...

:)

Morning blokey:

You get those buttons? Like em? plugged em in yet?

never mind then, eh.

What's happening today then? anything good?

:D

Nothing good is happening today - I'm dying of boredom.

I haven't yet plugged the buttons in, I'll do it soon though.

You up to anything good?

Have we come up with a way of measuring the might of a unit yet?

*ahem*

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
Have we come up with a way of measuring the might of a faction yet?

---

In a roundabout way, I'm sure we have. I think I'll do some searches in here today for the words faction and might posted by either of us.

We can't calculate a factions might until we can calculate a units might can we?

:rolleyes:

allocate a value to each component and add all of these together for the mech, add additional point for any special dibs it's got (rust warheads, superduper tracking) addtional points for number of kills and number of turns since its birth (experienced mechs are cooler) perhaps it might be wise to multiply this figure by the amount of armour the mech has remaining also.

Yeeesss, this much is obvious.

WHAT number do we allocate to each component?

Also, we have no current way of recording number of kills per mech and number of turns it's been alive. If we need to record this then I'll need to amend the variables. Also, it's a little excessive if we're only using them to calculate its might. Will they have any other uses?

Sarcasm is of no value to us here :mad: :p

perhaps an experienced mech is a more efficient killing machine? apply bonuses to mechs with high kill rates and long lifespan?

ok: points allocation ( :rolleyes: )

mini laser, spud gun (+1)
medium laser, donkey shaver (+2)
big biffy autocannon, dog dryer (+3)

blah blah, yackety schmackety don't have the list to hand...

all chips would be valued according to their grade:

bottom end EMC (+1)
bottom end battle chip (+1)
advanced sensor chip (+2)

etc

in theory, all chassis would be valued equally (we tried to make them fair) if this proves not to be the case, we'll have to balance them dynamically.

is it worth varying the values for torso/weapon mount? whilst a 4 point mount would be more valuable than a 2 slot, this would be obvious in the number of guns...
:D

Making longer living mechs more efficient means rewriting core components.

Please don't make me.

Can we create a formulae that calculates the might for each weapon on load (such as resource cost * damage or something)?

PS - did you check out Plends RentaBoy site

www.rentacoder.com

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
Making longer living mechs more efficient means rewriting core components.

Please don't make me.

Can we create a formulae that calculates the might for each weapon on load (such as resource cost * damage or something)?

---

ok, lets not include a mechs longevity - it was only an idea and probably wouldnt be very fair.

yeah, we can have a formula do the calculating onload, but why would it be easier? ... oh, for the dynamic aspect - I've got ya. I assume damage is base damage cause by the weapon and not the damage done by the mech (which would vary depending on loads of different factors...)

Oh.

I guess it would be base damage caused by weapon times the benefit of the faction.

Armour would be cost * armour value * faction benefit

etc

yeh...

*nods sagely*

yeeeaaahhh...

Fancy coming round for a couple of bevvies this evening?

I suppose I do. We'll see. I depends on whether or not I can get a lift i think...

I can give you a lift from your house or Rochdale, but not home (obviously).

If I pick you up in R'dale then we can start earlier and finish earlier (meaning buses will still be running).

Let me know either way.

nope, im not getting a bus. I'll go home first and see if my dad's prepared to bring me home. It's Tuesday, isn't it? pub night :)

Bettys BOOBIES!!!

:rolleyes:

I'm still tired. I'm working on an algorithm for determining how irritated a player is which where the other players units are.

I'm going to split it into two sections.

1) How upset the player is with the might of the other players.

2) How upset the player is with where the other players units are.

I'm working on number 2 at the moment.

It's proving hard to get my head around (maybe because I'm struggling to concentrate).