Sentience

Icheb I dont have the money to buy windows XP sorry :( So I am struck with ME.

Ian,

I'm just composing a quick list of graphics you may need to begin working on.

Animated faction logos
Monster houses
Monsters
Air chassis
Sea chassis
Coloured weapons
Weather effects (let me know how you think this may be done)
Splash sceen with integrated logo
Main menu background with integrated logo (lower left with space below for version number)
Animated sensor buildings (couple of)
Animated reactor buildings (couple of)
Animated gun turrets (couple of)
Weapon effects (ranged weapons - let me know about how to do this)
Little mine pictures (for land and sea - varying amounts to denote how heavily mined things are)
Mine pictures for the components screen
Ammo pictures (mostly kinetic, but some laser types for representative purposes)
More buildings (we ain't got many)
Naked women (keep Plend happy)
Missiles for the component screen (big nukes etc)
Some end of game screens (win/lose etc)
Interim screens for other players (faction eradicated)
Backdrop screen for each faction (to display the next player screen on top of)
Maybe think about some custom borders for each faction (around minimap etc - think of the protoss/terran/zerg game interfaces...)

That's it for the time being, but it should give you plenty to work with. No more slobbing around and doing bugger all for you any more matey - you've had your break from Sentience!

I'll expect it all done by Close Of Play Friday.

:D

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question466.htm

check the links at the bottom of the article - it might help us with the little problem...

Cool. Ta.

You off work today? Or can you use the net sporadically at work?

Weather effects:

Lightening/thunderstorm - can burn down trees, hazardous to units
Rain - excessive rain can turn marsh to lakes, dirt to grass, grass to forest, increases rust
Hurricane - can turn trees to tree rubble, hazardous to units
Forest fire - does exactly what it says on the tin, hazardous to units
Earthquake - umm, rearranges mountains, pretty hazardous to units
Tidal waves - can turn coastline squares to sea, hazardous to units
Seabedquake - can raise islands, hazardous to units
Whirlpool - hazardous to units

Weather effects could be categorised via severity and triggered according to global damage. A planet destroyed by nuclear war and pollution is going to be wracked by storms and hurricanes.

Footnote:

Ian, we need graphics for destroyed trees (gradually fading to grass. Maybe 5 frames, lots of fallen trees, many fallen trees, some fallen trees, tree carcasses, faded tree carcasses)

We also need animated burning trees. (Same frame count as the buildings)

Okay then, Diplomacy!

Right, for positive diplomacy changes then the following applies:

ChangeInBaddyDiplomacy = ((DipChangeOfEffect * GoodyDipBen) * BaddyDipBen)

ergo for a gift of 3 hamsters the diplomacy benefit is 5 points on the enemy's table (meaning they like you more - higher is better)

The goody is Mr. Smarm who has a diplomacy benefit of 1.2
The baddy (other player) is Mr. Sleaze, also with a dipben of 1.2

so ((5*1.2)*1.2) = 7.2

The diplomacy benefit means everyone's happy (because they're both smarmy gets)

If we change the recipient to an obnoxious oik then the outcome would be different as follows:

3 hamsters is still 5 points
Good is Smarm = 1.2
Baddy is Oik = .8

so ((5*1.2)*.8) = 4.8

A quick table to summarise positive transactions

Smarm Oik
Smarm 7.2 4.8
Oik 4.8 3.2

This might need some work...

I can help with graphic #18 :D

Just kidding. But after all, you ARE gonna need special effects, and a particle system, even if it's jsut for the rain :)

Busy busy busy busy busy...
I'd forgotten I was still logged in with a window open...Will probably cost me my job...oh well.:rolleyes:
My phone battery is flat today, so I cannae ring you. post anything you wanted to say in here & ill pick it up later.

tata then ;)

I want to know what you're doing you spaz!

Are you coming straight to mine, or from your home? Are you eating at mine? Are you bringing any beer? Are you going to bring some clothes you can work in? What kind of times are we looking at?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
I want to know what you're doing you spaz!
listening to your narrow minded, childish insults
Are you coming straight to mine, or from your home?
from home, my sisters coming up for a bit and my dad might give me a lift
Are you eating at mine?
I'll probably have a bit of tea at mine, but we're guaranteed to be snacking all night ;)
Are you bringing any beer?
does that mean "Ian, bring some beer"?
Are you going to bring some clothes you can work in?
why? I'm not working tomorrow
What kind of times are we looking at?
about teatime...maybe just after :p ;)

---

Right, I'll fix myself some tea when I get in then.

Bring some beer.

Bring some clothes you can get dirty (i.e. dusty)

Can you give me any specific time at all please?

Arb: (Sorry to interrupt your conversation :D ) It's an an array of UDTs which contain each rain drop's X and Y positions, each frame you loop trough all of them, move them a bit to the bottom of the screen and if they reach it you move them back up, and draw them. Simple, heh? :) You'll also have to make them start with randome values. With complex particle systems I've managed to make effects like snow, rain, fire, explosions, you name it ;)

Jotaf, can you show me the code for the particle engines you made? As soon as I can get some graphics, I plan on attempting to write a game.

Jotaf : can i have to code (for review only) too ?

Icheb

Hum, the only experience in coding particles engines I have is this (so don't expect much VB code ok? :) ) :

*A particle engine to simulate rain, in the scripting language of a game called Graal
*Two more that simulate snow and fire (very reallistic actually :) ) - there's a picture attached to this post, but remember that they look 1000 times better when animated ;)
*A very simple particle engine in VB... it can simulate sparks and a small wave, but with no big special effects (all I used was PSet :) ). It's also a bit old (it was coded 1 year ago) so if I had done it today it would be a lot better :p

If you find some more people interested in an article on particle engines (how I did these effects), I might write it... it would be a lot better than coding them for you :)

And if you want, I can post the old project here so you can get an idea of how it's done ;)

I wouldn't mind seeing the old project.

I'd say, post the url of the code... ;)
Want to see it too !!

Icheb

bollox **** ****

Com'on, it isn't that good :p

Jotaf,

I'll have a look at that when I get home and post some comments shortly.

Well if you're interested in a better particles engine... you can download it here (and the full article shortly ;) ):

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=114517

Jotaf98 the screenshot you have put in the last 4-5 posts is very cool, do you have the exe of it I want to play it :)

Thanks :) You can now download it in that thread, but you'll have to compile it to an EXE yourself, sorry :p

as requested, a post in the comms forum.

from our discussion last night:

transferring / stealing map data.

transferring:

select central point and size of radius (might be nice to have a drag type effect (a bit like drawing circles in an art package), but i realise thats cosmetic ;) ) max radius is proportional to tech score

stealing:

central point is randomly selected, radius is proportional to infiltration score

graded comments: insults / compliments.

insults -dipl score, compliments +dipl score
messages can be queued: take average over turn

- is there a point in having insults? perhaps insulting faction A gives you a dipl benefit from faction A's enemies, factions B & C.

Email-type messaging system using Sentiences message boxes as warnings...


blah blah yackety schmackety...

Yep.

Insults would increase your score with their enemies at the cost of you dip score with the insulted faction.

I've still not come up with anything good for diplomacy yet. I'll speak to Claire and see if she can give me an algorithm or something.

When are you coming round for a couple of quick biftas and a chat about Sentience?

Oi! Monkey boy!

Reply to the above post please as I know you're online....

You done any graphics for me you can attach up here. What would be nice would be an 'ok' button similar to that accept button you sent me.

Ta.

blah blah yackerty schmackerty!

:D ;)

I don't know when's best for drinkies. I'll get back to you on it in the next few days.

I'll also give diplomacy a bit of thought too...

I might be able to show up soon for a bit of a chat, but I can't guarantee the drinkies if I'm driving.

Hey Behemoth, I think that your other avatar was better than this one :) (It was from Diablo2, right?)

Actually, I think it was from HoMaM 3.

Hum yeah whatever :)

Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Jotaf... :rolleyes:

Oh, I have that game too (Heroes I, II, III and ALL expansion packs :D ) but when I wanna shorten the name, I just call it Heroes (like everyone does :rolleyes: )

Btw Heroes I was one of my favourite games when I was younger (right after Tyrian and Doom ;) )

Ok, hairy guy, no probs. Just give me a bell anytime to make sure I'm in...

...woolly mammoth...

Yeah that diplomacy's been cabbaging my head, it's making me whimper.

...half a pike right through the jelly...

If you want to come round for a chat this evening then that's cool. I shan't be drinking as I got completely trollied last night.

I got my job btw....

Jotaf - I made this one...It's better cos its mine ;)

We'll see about tonight, perhaps since I've not settled down with a can yet.

Congrats on the job - you did already tell me but well done again.

Quote:

---

Thanks You can now download it in that thread, but you'll have to compile it to an EXE yourself, sorry

---

I do not see where ?

Behemoth: :eek: Why don't you draw an avatar like the graphics you're making for Sentience? No offense, but it looks like it was drawn using Paintbrush and then resized :D

DaoK: This thread - http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...766#post639766 :)
That's where I'm writing my article on particles systems. If any of you could help by giving some ideas for effects, or maybe even help coding them... ;)

So you don't like my graphics then...It is hand drawn, but why is that so bad?

I'll give it some work when I get time.

BTW, I use Adobe Photoshop 6.0

Ian,

Stop messing around and work on that bloody great big list I gave you.

Get a move on!!!