Sentience

Quote:

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Originally posted by Arbiter
Right, waffle format for the advisors will be as follows:

Waffle Name, Title, Desc, Sound

i.e.

TUT1, "This is the Admin", "It does stuff", "tutadmin.wav"

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is there a "sound" parameter to SenMsg? is this what you mean?

Updated:

Monsters Progress is apparently being made
Animated sensor buildings (couple of)
Animated reactor buildings (couple of)
Animated gun turrets (couple of)
Animated faction logos
Missiles for the component screen (big nukes etc)
Ammo pictures (mostly kinetic, but some laser types for representative purposes)
More buildings (we ain't got many)
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...)
Generic shield effect for buildings (animated if poss)
Air chassis
Sea chassis
Weather effects (let me know how you think this may be done)
Weapon effects (ranged weapons - let me know about how to do this) - we'll have a look at your particle engine re: these.

Cool as - I'll reply in a sec...

Quote:

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Originally posted by Behemoth
is there a "sound" parameter to SenMsg? is this what you mean?

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No, the sound would start (milliseconds) before the senmsg would be displayed. The two are different engines but they could be made to look like they were running simultaneously...

Like your additional triggers except for the complete project.

The complete project screen would surely cover this?

Quote:

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Originally posted by Behemoth
Updated:

Air chassis
Sea chassis
Animated sensor buildings (couple of)
Animated reactor buildings (couple of)
Animated gun turrets (couple of)
Animated faction logos
Missiles for the component screen (big nukes etc)
Ammo pictures (mostly kinetic, but some laser types for representative purposes)
Monsters - Progress is apparently being made
More buildings (we ain't got many)
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...)
Generic shield effect for buildings (animated if poss)
Weather effects (let me know how you think this may be done)
Weapon effects (ranged weapons - let me know about how to do this)- we'll have a look at your particle engine re: these. - I'm covering this now

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I'll need some more buttons for the screens I've been whacking up but I'll request these later as they don't take long.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Arbiter
Like your additional triggers except for the complete project.

The complete project screen would surely cover this?

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oh yeah :rolleyes:

any comments on the updated might?

Torso: 10 * no of slots
Armour: Armour value per ton
Chassis: (.5 * Max weight) + max speed
Shields: Shield points+ (.5 * recharge rate)
Reactor: Power generated + Max energy drain
Chips: 0.3 * (proc ben + ben1 + ben2)
Weapons: 1 * might of all associated ammo types
Ammo: armour damage + shield damage per ton

Chassis has been amended to reduce the additional bonus
Weapons can stay as it is, as there may be different beams for energy weapons depending on what effect you are trying to achieve

And I've reposted your to do list in order

Quote:

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Originally posted by Behemoth
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
pledge allegiance to faction X
declare war upon faction X
declare truce with faction X
Win first battle
Lose first unit
Build First Unit
Lose First Battle
Kill X units
Build X of Y type unit
Win X battles
Build X of Y building

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Thanks for those Gaming. :)

Acquire X energy
Acquire X amount of resource Y
Build X component
Build X building
Research X tech
Find X players unit
Find monster X house
Find monster X maturity Y
Grow monster X
pledge allegiance to faction X
declare war upon faction X
declare truce with faction X
Win first battle
Lose First Battle
Lose first unit
Build First Unit
Kill X units
Win X battles
Build X of Y building

This is where it stands so far.

Right then hairy pal, it's time to get you organised.

I'm going to make you a to do list, split down into the individual graphics you'll need to create.

You can actually work at speed when you're organised, but at the moment you seem to be floundering.

I'll compile a lovely list of things to do for you and I'll be keeping tabs on its progress - otherwise we're never going to finish Sentience!

Be prepared to up the pace on your workload, I'll be wanting you to spend more time working on Sentience in the near future as you appear to just be doing little bits every now and again - we need to get this moving.

I don't want this to just be another of the projects we give up on half way through.

I've just compiled a list of the graphics required for the monsters alone and it's big. But at least you'll know exactly where you're up to...

Also, due to the modular construction of the game, you can send me graphics peicemeal. No saving them up and giving them in a big chunk, if you draw a single picture then I want it so I can plug it straight in.

Right, attached to this puppy is the new components.xls (named .txt obviously).

This not only contains the latest scripts, but the last worksheet is titled Ian and it contains all the graphics I want from you in the near future. One these are added the game will look kick ass!

Forget anything else not on this list.

Ben,

My hotmail inbox will only hold 2mb of stuff. This rougly equates to 3 and a half code drops. Can I request that you send fewer of them, as hotmail locks my account if I go over the limit (thus preventing me from ever downloading them anyway.)

I'll keep the latest one you send every time. The rest I'll bin. Is this ok by you or do you have an alternative suggestion?

Ian,

I've already told you to only keep the last one I send you - you can nuke the rest.

PS - done any graphics yet?

Quote:

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Originally posted by Arbiter
Ian,

I've already told you to only keep the last one I send you - you can nuke the rest.

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You never told me which you wanted me to keep and which you didn't need...Thanks, I'll sort that now.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Arbiter
PS - done any graphics yet?

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I've done plenty of prep work :D

I've spent most of today preparing and filling in an application form I recieved through the post. I have dabbled a little bit however, and have designed a helicopter chassis that needs a little bit more work.

I've also made dozens of sketches for the buildings you require, and i completed one of the reactors I had dev files for. It looks crap though :(

Still, I'll keep at it.

Good man.

If poss, and you're not too busy tomorrow night - I'll pop round on my way home from work and have a look at your sketches...

my email's down and I need access to this at work tomorrow. I'll bin it afterwards. Thanks.

[edit]Oooh. sorted now. I managed to email it to myself.[/edit]

*God forbid this site's down in the morning*

[edit]Thanks, God. Fixed it now :D [/edit]

Savour the chance?

If this thing I'm looking into works then we may be having alphablending!

Woooo!

Resolved the problem with being unable to build buildings. The script didn't contain any buildings with the build buildings option (f).

Silly me.

Random post to alter post count from 1337 :rolleyes:

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Nice, good work on those! :)

Only one comment (as you knew there must be). The battery seems to have the black support struts for the baubles on top going right up the side of the image. This may not translate well if it's put straight into a 160*160 with a black background.

They'll get plugged straight in when I go home.

Now all I need are the fill bars from you and we're ready to upload the latest version. Cool as!

The battery needs work anyway. At some point in the not-too-distant future I'll totally redo it. For now, we've got a sufficient stop-gap.

I'd forgotten about the fillbars. I played with them last night, and dark green is still difficult to read, HOWEVER, I found quite a cool effect using the dark green that is quite readable ;)

Cool. You can send me those later on this evening then please.

Are you at work today btw?

I'm working on a help screen at the moment which should fill all the requirements that people have been asking for.

We'll need to pad it with serious amounts of text though.

The help screen is ultra cool in the fact that you can specify different help for each advisor (i.e. the conquest advisor would have lots of info on war and little on colony management etc).

Playing the game as a different faction would give you access to different help screens.

Cool as!

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G'day Skip.

Errrm.... yeah, anyway.

I've made the necessary framework changes to support biomass (I think), but I'm expecting long term repurcussions from changing something so fundamental at this stage. I'll iron problems out as and when I think of them.

Also, in a rare moment of genius, I fixed the bug stopping the AI working, so now the computer factions work. For now, of course... :rolleyes:

Ok, I've been busy this morning.. :)

I've amended the code so it should work now by transparenterising the torso/chassis images on top of each other. It seems to do this ok so far.

This was a bigger job than I thought as I had to amend 2 code modules, the mech design screen and some other stuff.

The scripts also needed changing and the internal bits for updating the core files (as the torso/chassis graphics need to be done as well now).

When I get the final air chassis' off you, the scripts will need changing again, but apart from that they should plug straight in. Mint!

PS, I've also amended the existing torso and chassis graphics to fit the 400x400 format (as they were all 400x200).

They're good enough for now, but doing it in paint was a bit of a bind and I might be a pixel or 2 out. You can send me the 400x400's when you get round to converting yours, but there's not rush - my bodge job works so far. :)

Also, I was thinking about the balance between mechs and organic units and I was thinking. Most organic units are going to be weak compared to a mech and they're hand to hand, so I was thinking about having them rapid little bleeders.

Anyway, I'll discuss it with you when you pop round this evening....

I'm looking forward to coming round this evening, but i don't want to stay over. I've got stuff to do at home, (and those air chassis are finished so I've got to send them over to you too).

I'll get onto the land torso/chassis' soon. It might give me the opportunity to make em better now we've got the 400x400 flexibility.

Morning dude.

I've got some ideas mulling around in my head for things, so expect me to be posting random tripe throughout the day... :)

Observability rating:

Each component will have an observability rating affecting how obvious a mech is. This will be added the view range of the thing looking for it.

e.g. something with an observability rating of 57 will be visible a full square further than an objects view range.

some components will have a negative observability rating, and if you go all out picking these then a unit will eventually be able to sneak within the opponents view radius unseen. This, however, should not be easy to achieve - units able to do this cannot be too powerful.

If a unit shoots at something then that something will able to shoot back as though it can see it - whether it could normally or not.

Shooting:

Units set to guard will automatically open fire on enemy units that they can see as they come within range *.

If a unit is fired upon outside of its turn and it's set to retaliate then it will give the aggressor the good news in return.

Static defense buildings fire once per unit per turn, units have no such limitation - they'll fire until they're out of power.


-additional-

At the moment, combat is biased toward the ammo based as they don't have a power drain. An energy weapon will run out of power during a turn of combat much fast than an ammo based gun will run out of ammo. We need to limit the number of shots an ammo based gun will have during a turn. I'll add that in at some point.


* Do we think a range limit should be able to be set on the static defense buildings so they fire if a unit comes withing x% of their max range?