Sentience: VB Game (comments please)

the AI wont need to cheat.

We'll lobotomise our users first.

Then they wont notice...

Correct, our AI will not cheat, though I think lobotomising the user is a little excessive.

In fact, it'll be using the same automation routines that the player can use to automate their units, with a broad, governing AI based on the factions preferences.

Animations are on their way, it's just a case of Behemoth finding time to produce them.

He tells me he's going as fast as he can...

PS - Thanks for looking Harry.

If you have any suggestions on what to do to improve it then we're all ears!

Harry - you ever played SMAC? you can automate great chunks of the game - entire cities can have their AI governer turned on and left to their own devices. We're planning to use a similar, stripped down version, particularly for movement and pathfinding (now thats the current sticking point. A*? bah humbug!). The only real problem is going to be automating industry, research and construction, but it's certainly possible.

I think the AI would be extremely easy actually :)
Just put in a few pre-written scripts that determine what courses of action should be taken under what conditions etc.

- jamie

The problem with that is the depth and scope of the game. Its fine having a certain number of scripts to cover generic instances of movement, combat etc, but there are literally thousands of possible combinations of terrain, mech components, attack, resources etc. even down to what has been discovered thus far. for example. would a sensible AI player consider it worthwhile to self-destruct one of his units? what if he were surrounded by a number of enemy units? what if those enemy units were quite weak, and the single unit could handle them without self-destruct.

In theory it is very simple, but in practice it's going to take months of theorising, coding and testing before its going to be anywhere near finished!

Thanks for you comments though. keep them coming. :)

Well,

If each unit has a certain number of attacks possible, and each attack has a certain strength depending on distance etc, then the computer would just check at each move which move would cause the most damage.

Code:

---

Public Sub CheckAIGeneral(MechUnit As GameUnit)
    If (MechUnit.IsPassive) Then
        CheckAIGetResources MechUnit
    Else
        CheckAICombat MechUnit
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub CheckAIResources(MechUnit As GameUnit)
    'Check the land around the unit for any resources or whatever
End Sub

Private Sub CheckAICombat(MechUnit As GameUnit)
    'Iterate through possible attacks   
    For i = 0 To Ubound(MechUnit.Attacks)
        'Check the strength of each attack at the closest enemy mech's distance
    Next i
End Sub

---

I dont think the above approach would take months.
If a couple of people were to spend a few days at each part of it, it'd take no time.

- jamie

plenderj - I wouldn't advise you take up time budgeting as a career :rolleyes: Nothing is ever simple, even if it embodies simpleness and comes in a box marked "Attention: this is very simple", you can guarantee it won't be simple. Just because life is a bastard.

sometimes harry, (just sometimes) your cynicism is just what I need to face the day.


:D

Nah I still stand by my opinion.
Just think about how we as humans would make decisions.
The first time we come across a particular type of situation we weigh up all possible combinations of what might happen given certain circumstances.
Then, we usually record the outcome of that particular situation to make future estimations quicker.

A computer doesnt need the speed element, so all you would have to do is iterate through each possibility of what that unit can do.

- jamie

Thanks for you input anyway. Arbiter will implement everything relevant at the first available opportunity. in the meantime, anyone else wants a go, they're more than welcome.

Hey Behemoth! I think that the first graphics you do are for the interface in the game, and arbiter make sure no labels say their native name, IE: Label37. You should aim for transparency in the GUI so it has a good look, similar to Starcraft's interface.

If you want I can help, as I have no projects going on now.

Sorry Sastraxi, its Friday afternoon and I'm tired. I don't think I understand your post properly.
:confused:
What do you mean?

Like the interface while ingame, the one that displays the properties of the units and "the like." If you've ever played starcraft, it has an irregular-shaped interface, the stats screen if you will, and it makes the game look pretty cool. Like I said, if you want I can help you with it

I will check this out over the weekend...

Sastraxi,

Have Behemoth and I ever played Starcraft? It's part of a way of life for us - the number of beer fuelled Starcraft evening we've had are legendary.

I know what you mean regarding the transparant/translucent interface. We've looked at that and dribbled many times. The problem is me writing the code to duplicate it - I'm not sure I can get it to work fast like they do. I'm far from being a good programmer!

AmesJustin,

Thanks, let us know what you think...

Then this should send you on your way....
dribbling, hehe :)

Code:

---

'Lesson: How to use the ALPHABLEND function provided by Microsoft, code by someone else :)
Private Declare Function AlphaBlend Lib "msimg32.dll" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal lInt As Long, ByVal BLENDFUNCT As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub RtlMoveMemory Lib "kernel32.dll" (Destination As Any, Source As Any, ByVal Length As Long)

Sub Blend(Source As PictureBox, Dest As PictureBox, Alpha As Integer)
Dim BF As BLENDFUNCTION, lBF As Long
    With BF
        .BlendOp = 0
        .BlendFlags = 0
        .SourceConstantAlpha = Alpha * 2.55
        .AlphaFormat = 0
    End With
    RtlMoveMemory lBF, BF, 4
    AlphaBlend Dest.hdc, 0, 0, Dest.ScaleWidth, Dest.ScaleHeight, Source.hdc, 0, 0, Source.ScaleWidth, Source.ScaleHeight, lBF
    Source.Refresh
    Dest .Refresh
End Sub

---

Simply call Blend(picture1,picture2, 50), this would do 50%, 50% blending. You can modify it if you arent using picboxes and whatever. For transparent thats easy, but of course u know that, or are you using DDRAW?

(if u are u can still use the above code with makesurefacefromdc)

Every time I run the game it gives me this message box


***************************

Run time error '429':

ActiveX component can't create object

________
| |
| OK |
|______ |

******************************

Can anyone help me fix this?

Darkvelius,

You get that error if you don't have DirectX7 installed. You can download it free from www.microsoft.com

Thanks for looking...

From looking at the game .. perhaps you don't need to use DirectX... I mean, the game could execute as fast by just using normal blitting. My game is a testament to that.

- jamie

Plenderj,

The game currently uses normal blitting, DirectX is used only for the sound.

I couldn't get multiple sounds and background music working all at once without using DirectX. I know, I know, I'm crap - but DirectX was the only way I could do it properly.

I want to start looking at all the aspects of DirectX for the next game (but I'm going to concentrate on finishing this one first)

I've finally managed to have a look at that Craft you put together.

Why did you stop working on it, it looks as if the bulk of the work has been done, it's just little plug on bits that need to be added. You have your screen updates, movement, firing and collision detection - maybe you should finish it...

Well between college and working on a number of commercial programming projects I don't really have the time anymore.

But hey, for your next game, feel free to pick up where I stopped working on craft.

- jamie.

Hmm i like the graphics, looks like another civilisation clone :) There's a lot of stuff missing though, i want to be able to move units around and build my own resource facilities etc.. Don't even think about Artificial Intelligence before you've got most concepts functional.

Thanks for your input Kedaman- nice to know you like the graphics. We plan to make it more than a Civ clone. There is still a lot of work to be done - full research functionality will come next. most of the basic concepts should slip into place quite quickly because the internal structure of the game is modular.

Kedaman,

There is quite a lot there, it's just not immediately obvious.

You can run your units around and you can even attack other peoples units. Research is available, you can research up to four techs at a time. The techs don't do anything yet, but they can still be researched.

AI is going to be last thing implemented. The next thing I'm going to work on is construction of mechs. This one's a bit of a biggy and I can't do anything on it at the moment as I'm away from home on business.

If you can think of anything we should add to it to stand it out from all the other 'CIV clones' then let us know, and comments gratefully received...

NAKED WOMEN!

:D

apart from naked women ;) I'd suggest some animation. Turn based RTS can be a bit boring without something moving and flashing. I love all kinds of complex resource management and every other way than military force that leads you to victory in a RTS, so that would be my second suggestion (or third actually hehe nm).

If you have problems with anything, i'm always (almost) available with professional (hehe) suggestions ;)

Sas, if you read this, can you edit your post with that 5000 km line and put a _ in there intead?

Kedaman,

Animations are on there way, Behemoth is responsible for all the graphics. There is a fair amount of resource management involved (check the warehouse screen for a list of resources - and their pretty pictures).

There are also other things that need to be managed, such as CPU time and power.

Thanks for the offer of assistance, if I get to some really hard parts I may take you up on the offer.

Behemoth,

GIT YO ASS IN GEAH *****!

Still waiting for unit/building graphics off you...

PS - Kedaman,

I don't know if it was just a mistype, but a RTS is Real Time Strategy such as Starcraft, Age of Empires as opposed to a TBS (Turn Based Strategy) like CIV.

Just FYI

Behemoth's doing the gfx ?
I can see this being an adults-only game ;)

Also, I dont think it should be turn based...
Make it rolling like C&C etc.

- jamie

damn, got me there, I was going to type RTS when i noticed it was turnbased, then i typed turn based RTS instead, argh ;)

TBS's are good if you don't want to keep track on performance problems, as the civilisation series has prooved, you can concentrate more on complex game concepts rather than trying to keep a low framerate.

Turn based is easier to start with, and can be just as playable if not more so because it allows more depth. Stick with turn based, I always preferred Civ to C&C :) (although Starcraft is much better than C&C, needless to say ;))

If you get that error with the blend function you may have to download/register msimg32.dll (or whatever it's called)

Thanks guys,

We'll be sticking with Turn Based for Sentience, but after that - who knows?

I've not had chance to look at the blending wotsit yet ('cos I'm away at the moment) but when I get to Manchester I will!

Yup, the mighty Behemoth is doing the graphics. All of them in fact. The only image in the game I did is the turn complete button on the main game screen. That's testament to my skill....

Well just do something about that "fog of war".
Its got to be the tackiest looking thing ever :)

- jamie

OK, I will.

Care to be a 'little' more specific as to what I should do with it? ;)

Well, perhaps you should alphablend it with a pure black bitmap ?

- jamie

That doesnt seem to work for me anyway ...
Well if you could somehow mix black with the underlying landscape. Perhaps you could have behemoth make the bitmaps first. Have a differenent level of fog pertaining to the distance.
The distance from the fog would be proportional to the amount of black in the bitmap, so you would choose one accordingly.

- jamie

Are you joking? Do you realise how many bitmaos I have already made for the map squares? I'm not about to redo every one with a slightly different brightness for fog of war. Arbiter's just going to have to get his li'l ass in gear.

PS Arbiter - I thought you wanted research techs next. I'm nearly 3/4 through. If you're after units buildings, just say so...!