Sentience

Rick, you do know that none of the following links work on your site:
KOTG Diary
KOTG 3D stuff
KOTG web stuff
KOTG About

Yeah, the site's very tatty. I'll get round to sorting out someday.

rather phallic, isn't it? :D

Whats your opinion generally? (without genitalia references)

I generally like it. I'm not sure about the red parts on the sides, but hey- everyone's a critic ;)

It really does look phallic though - perhaps its some kind of fertility symbol :p

I have new images on the site.. usual address.

Comments would be helpful.

Ian, what is the maximum number of pixels I have to work with?

40x40 is the maximum tile size.

Changing this would involve rewriting the entire graphics engine and redrawing all the graphics ever done.

So you'll have 100*100 supported by next week?

Only joking.

However if you need any input for the remaining coding, I'd like to get involved.

I'm pretty good in vb (I'll be a microsoft approved developer in a couple of months when I do my exams).

What do you think of the models?

Thanks for the offer of help with the coding, but I'm doing this all myself. :)

The models look good so far. I'll hold further comment until I see a 30 frame bitmap at 40x40. As I keep saying to Behemoth, that's what I'm really interesting as that's what makes it to the game.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
Ian,

Re your comment in the G&GP thread.

Yeah, we could do with sitting down and having a chat - I've not spoke to you in ages. Do you not check your voicemail, or simply ignore it?

Anyhow, sitting down (sans beer) may be fruity.

---

please, just explain "fruity" to me. Is this good or bad?

BTW I haven't recieved any voicemails.

Questions for Ben:

1) Regarding the view of the object:

What angle should the camera normal intersect the Y-axis?

2) Must the animation contain 30 frames, or can it be less?

3) Give me a list of building type and functionality

4) Need I render damaged buildings?

Cheers fella

Quote:

---

Originally posted by extrinsicRick
Questions for Ben: (does that mean I can't answer then?)

1) Regarding the view of the object:

What angle should the camera normal intersect the Y-axis? (uh? Its generally isometric projection - the angle doesnt really matter as long as its consistent throughout the buildings. an isometric projection probably gives the best and most realistic view though)

2) Must the animation contain 30 frames, or can it be less? (if you want a 15 frame animation to cycle, render it through twice. If you want breaks, use un-animated space. You'll have to ask Ben about the engine though)

3) Give me a list of building type and functionality (they haven't all been decided yet. We can start to compose a list though. Ben - your input on this?)

4) Need I render damaged buildings? (oooh...cool idea. Again - Ben?)

Cheers fella

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Behemoth
please, just explain "fruity" to me. Is this good or bad?

BTW I haven't recieved any voicemails.

---

Depends on whether you like fruit or not...

I do.

And you also may consider changing your phone provider as I'm regularly getting put through to random peoples voicemail boxes. Sometimes I have to phone two or three times before I get "Hi, this is Ian". However, I do only leave messages when I know it's you. And I did leave messages. Only 2, I don't chase anyone more than 2 phonecalls. So I assumed you didn't want to speak to me and that you'd call me when you wished.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by extrinsicRick
Questions for Ben:

1) Regarding the view of the object:

What angle should the camera normal intersect the Y-axis?

Haven't got a scoobies. Ask Behemoth.

2) Must the animation contain 30 frames, or can it be less?
As per Behemoths response. The engine must have a 30frame bitmap, if you want gaps in animation, leave several frames the same. For an idea of timing, the animation cycles at 5 frames per second for six seconds.

3) Give me a list of building type and functionality

Not yet agreed. For the time being, make anything you like and we'll invent a building around it. :D

4) Need I render damaged buildings?

I'll need to discuss this with Behemoth. I can amend the engine to include damaged buildings 'reasonably' easily. And it would look nice. I'm happy to go with that, but I don't make the decisions on my own.

Cheers fella

---

Thanks for the work you're doing here Rick, it's appreciated. I'll wait until I see your work in the game until I buy you flowers though... ;)

PS Behemoth - When you messaged last night I was in the land of nod. My PC had restarted itself and was downloading porn, but as it restarted it loaded MSN and pretended I was online. I had a herd of messages this morning from all sorts of people who thought I was just ignoring them.

oh. ok.

I've been playing about with my MSN recently anyway. I had a security wakeup call, so I try not to have MSN running constantly (its being stupid signing me in and out constantly anyway)

college tonight? also, you didn't update me from a fortnight ago when i was on holiday...:)

OINK!!!

College! ****! I have a hairdressers appointment at 17:45. Rats. On a bike.

I'll join you at 1900 in the room then and you can go through what was lectured with me. Oh poo. Are we in exam season yet? **** **** ****.

Bollocks.

As for when you were on holiday - I forgot to go. I had nothing to remind me as you weren't here.

AARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Just done a quick ask around the office and no-one appears to be going. I think everyone's sacked this course off! Like hell I am though - I've paid for it!

PS - what was your security wakeup call?

I got a "message undeliverable" from somewhere I wouldn't have bothered mailing, with a mail I wouldn't have bothered sending.

I've since checked and double checked my system and I'm clean, so I can only assume its another virus message, as "hi, please open this file" doesn;t work anymore...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
OINK!!!

College! ****! I have a hairdressers appointment at 17:45. Rats. On a bike.

I'll join you at 1900 in the room then and you can go through what was lectured with me. Oh poo. Are we in exam season yet? **** **** ****.

Bollocks.

As for when you were on holiday - I forgot to go. I had nothing to remind me as you weren't here.

AARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Just done a quick ask around the office and no-one appears to be going. I think everyone's sacked this course off! Like hell I am though - I've paid for it!

PS - what was your security wakeup call?

---

cancel the hairdressers appointment then. If you told me you wanted me to teach you HTML, you could have given me your money :p

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Behemoth
cancel the hairdressers appointment then. If you told me you wanted me to teach you HTML, you could have given me your money :p

---

I don't really need teaching, but it's another certificate - which you couldn't have provided. Otherwise I would have gladly signed up with Behemoth University.

I'll choose 30 degrees then.

what does your course cover?

Nothing - it's bollocks.

Whats the concensous? Do I build damaged models.

I could do with knowing early on, since it will influence the build methods I employ.

As stated, I'm for it.

I don't yet have Behemoths input.

We should slap the boy like the wookie he is.

I'll assume that he'll agree and start on the next model.

Any buildings in game that I should start with?

I'll send you a 30 frame anim of the original building on monday.

I'm off home this weekend...

You may work on anything you like.

I'll look forward to the final bmp. Has Behemoth told you how to set it out?

1) damaged buildings would be cool

2) no, I havent shown him.

Rick - the final file will be a .bmp with the dimensions 1200x40 (widthxheight). The constituent images of the animation running consecutively from left to right. ok?

Ian,

Empty your PM box....

done...

sorry, it was sent items that caught me out...Theres only about half a dozen messages in my inbox...

Cool as.

I basically said that I'd look at your CV at some point. There's no need to rush as I never see you any more anyway.... :p

And also, have you ever considered doing an MCSE?

if you wouldnt mind...I sent it to you a fortnight ago :p

err...an MCSE?...I've got no foundation on which to base it...

What foundation? What are you on about?

Stop dribbling man!

What do I need to start an MCSE. What skills would be useful? How full should my wallet be?

You need your brain and some hair.

You should have most of the skills - if not, I do and you'll learn them doing the course or from me.

Costs are...

Take a course (2 weeks, £2500)

or

Selfstudy
£85 for the required books
£70 for each exam (between 5 and 7 depending on your chosen modules).

The exams can be staggered so the costs aren't all at once.

Here's the eMail I sent to my boss

-----Original Message-----
From: Stappleton, Ben
Sent: 23 May 2002 13:34
To: Asher, Rob
Cc: Rogers, Gareth; Quantrell, Ruth
Subject: MCSE Requirements


Rob,

We figure the best way to do this is study for the MCSE in work, either during the day (workload permitting) or in the evening. This means we're taking no time off/out on training courses and saving the cost of the course (prices start at about £850 and zoom rapidly out of sight).

So, by hunting around, we've found a collection of books which we could share - a snip at £150!!

Windows 2000 MCSE Training Kit (official MS pack)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...147345-6441267

MCSE Exam Notes
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...147345-6441267

The exams for certification are about £70 each and there are seven to do.

We'll also need 2 pcs not connected to the network for us to work on (those replaced by the Pentium 4's will suffice, although if you have any P3's around that would be nice... :D ) No software is required as Windows 2000 Pro (eval edition) comes with the training pack.

And that's about the lot really. All the work would be done here, so you can always see where we're up to and anyone else interested can also see what's going on.

How's that sound? :)

Ben Stappleton
Business Analyst

Tel: 01618323030 x37131
Mob: 07712761170

"The man who asks questions may be deemed as an idiot for a minute. The man who doesn't ask remains an idiot indefinately..."

right! enough of the obscure tangents. I've got another game concept (been a while eh?)

WASTE DISPOSAL: a number of techniques put into place to improve the efficiency of factories and power stations. Factories gain a +5% bonus to industry points. Power stations gain a +10% energy bonus. Nuclear power stations gain a +20% bonus due to fuel recycling.

What background colour should I use for the buildings?

Rick,

White, so the transparency engine can cope. If you haven't already, download the game and you can look through the graphics folders to see what they look like. Do this before you run it as the game appends masks to the end of the graphics.

Behemoth,

Sounds good, but I can't narrow it down as far a nuclear stations. Sound concept though. Done any graphics for me yet?

no. I've had a lot on my plate recently. I'l come and see you soon and we'll discuss it.

What time will you get in from work today?

I'm picking my car up from the vets today, so I should be back for maybe 1730 - 1800.

£200 for a 24k service and MOT. MOT!!! Me! MOT'ing a car!

What is the world coming to?

I hope that isn't the sound of you taking the piss...? I take it you found your VT55 JCB Fireball XL5 form. I might pop round later. we'll see.

Taking the piss about what? What are you on about now?

I did find my form V5 form. It was in my file. I also threw away a ream of archaic documents that were in there.

Oh, and I might be in later. We'll see.

got the model ingame.

Need to sort out problem with anti-aliased edges... should be able to do this with the renderer.

Looka Ok though.

Good man!

Can you zip the bmp and post it up when it's done?

Ta!

Yup. I'll start on the power plant tonight.


For the landscape:

How about generating height within the map.
You gould do this by generating a txt file, giving each 40*40 pixel block a height value ie:

0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 0
0 1 2 1 0
0 1 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0

would define a peak constructed from 25 blocks.

You could use fractals to generate the matrix, where a seed value would define the landscapes structure.

Just a thought. The maths for creating the txt file is easy enough.

This is the basis for the landscape generater I'm developing for my 3d engine.

Rick

We knocked that on the head at the beginning as we could get it to work in a feasible manner. Also, the graphics engine would have to be much more complex in order to support it.

We decided it was out of scope for this project, but we may consider it for Sentience II... ;)

attached - should fit width 640px comfortably. No-one can complain now.

Looks a bit turdy compared to the old one, but oh well...

I'll upload it when I get chance.

Or.... you could simply link to attachment above. ;)

Right then hairball.

I'm infused with energy about Sentience now. I'm going to dig out the code this evening and familiarise myself with it and I think we should really start to do some more work on the scripts.

For the time being can you focus on buildings and component graphics?

As per my eMail I'd like to pop round this evening and see your current dev files so I can give you some kind of constructive comments and some direction to work in.

'lo :)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
Events:

Each of these events would have an indicator determining if it should trigger if the player themself satisfy the rule, or some other player satisfies the rule.

Acquire X energy
Acquire X amount of resource Y
Build X component
Build X building
Research X tech
Complete X project
Find X players unit
Find monster X house
Find monster X maturity Y
Grow monster X
Win first battle
Lose first unit

---

Oink!

What are you doing in here Plend? Didn't see you sneak in - do you wish to resume your position of chief Sentience tester?

I've just been reading some of this thread (starting at about page 32 or summat) and realised just how full of ideas and drive we really are.

I wanna get this game finished now, 'cos it's going to be the mutts nuts. :)

Yeah go on I'll have a crack at it :)

Ok then, triggers.

If we get some of these bad boys in it'll make the game seem a little more interactive.

**** like the interlude from planet bollocks.

Some kind of plot events would be nice I reckon, to walk people through the game and provide some depth to the experience.

Trigger dets:

Players it affects (current/all/allies/enemies), Players who can trigger it (current/all/allies/enemies), event number, event detail, effect number, effect detail

eg

Allies, Enemies, 1, 25, 2, E:50 BM:20

Evenst:

1: Build building - buildingid e.g. 20 (building 20 in the script)

Effects:

1: Give resources - resource id: value e.g. E:100 BM:R20-30 (100 energy, random Biomass between 20 and 30)

2: Take resources - resource id: value e.g. E:100 BM:R20-30 (100 energy, random Biomass between 20 and 30)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by plenderj
Yeah go on I'll have a crack at it :)

---

Super duper!

Like a paratrooper on a pooper scooper!

*ahem*

If you wish to download the version that's already up and provide comments on that for us that would be a brilliant start.

All comments to be posted in the G&GP thread please.

You're a hero!

Regarding your events system, yeah its a great idea.
The only problems i would forsee are how to code (effectively) what happens to which objects, and also how often to check if events have been triggered.

Also, you'd want to check if an event should have been triggered but you missed it because it just happend out of sync with your main game/animation loop.

Another thing that you'll need to code for, is what happens if those objects no longer exist when the trigger is fired

Thanks for the comments Plend. :)

As you know coding anything effectively isn't my strong point, but I'm sure I'll muddle through... ;)


As this is a turn based strategy then things are unlikely to happen out of sync. There may be a few issues where a building is created in one players turn and it's annihilated in the next but it shouldn't have that much effect.

I have two options. Either agressively check all the triggers at the beginning of everyone's turn and make a queueing system of occured triggers to activate at a certain players turn, or simply sack the queue off.

e.g.

Player 1 builds a building which triggers an event which will impact player 3
Player 2 destroys said building

When it's player 3's go at the start of the turn a trigger run will happen where it scans to see if the bad guys have built a building which has an event attached.

With the queue, even though the building has been killed the event will still be recorded and will action.

Without the queue the event will not trigger as according to the trigger system the building isn't there.

The queue is going to be a load of extra programming, variables and potential bugs for very little gain. Is it worth it?

Hmm.
What you could do right, is at the beginning of the $current$ user's turn, re-evaluate all triggers (or at least those that could effect the $current$ player).

If the required properties of the trigger are still present, then thats grand, fire the event.
If not, then, if the trigger is no longer valid, delete it, otherwise, do nothing

That's exactly what I've stated above. Or that's what I meant to state anyway.

A trigger run will occur at the start of each players turn to fire events. The only this is, as you pointed out, what if the event is no longer in existence for that player, but the effect would still be valid.

e.g. if they launched a satellite that was destroyed before my turn, I'd still like to know they launched a satellite. Of course, instances like this are so small as to be insignificant really, but I do like to do jobs properly.

Righto.

tbh I hadn't bothered reading your post. it was too long ;)