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However, I have always thought it would be a good idea for each league to... I hope I'm not dreaming, but, encourage a specific type of gameplay. A comparison can be made to the swordfighting schools of feudal Japan: each had its own particular style it taught.
I think it would give online play some more flavour, because there's no sense of pride if you're in a league in which the members have nothing in common. You'd be fighting for the name only. Just my thoughts.
I like that one, Jorj. Maybe when two members of different leagues play, each player can use only certain units, based on the league. It would really give a different style of play to multiplayer.
Z.
And if we make enough things customisable, leagues can be truly unique (I hope this isn't a redundancy). I like this!
I combined temperature data with precipitation data and got... climate zones! I also have lists of what plants, soils, weather, and animals go in each zone. However, the most important aspect of this is the impact of the surroundings of a civilisation on that civilisation. Here's the map:
Heres another idea: The Arena Game.
Basically, each player selects n heros, then the game starts. Buildings will pre exist on the map, no building allowed. I got the idea, again, from MechCommander (one of the best RTS games out there). That game works on the same premise. In multiplayer, you get from 4 to 12 units to command, and thats it. When they are destroyed, youre out.
Z.
looks nice, boyez
:D
Everything's looking fine! ;)
Igor, how far have you gotten on your latest theme?
I have more information on the climate types (adapted from www.tesarta.com, a wonderful resource site for designing a game, by the way):
RAINFOREST
Precipitation: 2-2.3 meters or more per year; usually one or more dry periods. Every month at least 6 cm.
Temperature: The average in the coldest month is at least 18 degrees.
Soils: Reddish soil. High in iron, low in stone.
Plants: Tall trees w/vines, epiphytes. Broadleaf evergreens.
Animals: Arboreal climbers, creepers, rodents.
EVERGREEN RAINFOREST
Precipitation: 2-2.3 meters or more per year; usually one or more dry periods. Usually at least 6 cm each month.
Temperature: The average in the coldest month is at least 18 degrees.
Climate: Short dry season.
Soils: Reddish soil. High in iron, low in stone.
Plants: Live oaks, magnolias, bays, hollies, figs, palms, vines, epiphytes.
Animals: Arboreal climbers, creepers, rodents.
SAVANNAH
Precipitation: 1-1.5 meters per year; pronounced dry season with frequent fires. Usually at least 6 cm per month.
Temperature: The average in the coldest month is at least 18 degrees.
Climate: Well-defined winter season.
Soils 1: Reddish soil. High in iron, low in stone.
2: Good soil for agriculture.
Plants: Scattered trees such as acacia, baobab, euphorbia, palm, grasses.
Animals: Giraffe, antelope, wildebeest, zebra, lion, hyena, general ungulates & carnivores.
TROPICAL DECIDUOUS OR SHRUB
Climate: Well-defined winter dry season.
Soils 1: Good soil for agriculture.
2: Dry soil.
Animals: Broadleaf forest (not as dense), shrubs, dwarf forest, dwarf woodland.
Plants: Ground level vertebrates (similar to selva), ground-dwellers.
DESERT
Precipitation: Potential evaporation exceeds precipitation. Under 25 cm.
Temperature: Average is at least 18 degrees.
Soils: Dry soil.
Plants: Sparse xerophytes: grasses, cacti, shrubs. Annuals dormant during driest season, succulents (cactus, euphorbia), shrubs; creosote bush, sagebrush, *****ly pear, saguaro, palo verde; mosses, lichens, blue-green algae dormant in soil but active during rain.
Animals: Small reptiles, mammals.
GRASSLAND
Precipitation: 25-75 cm per year.
Temperature: Average in the coldest month is -3 to 18 degrees. The average in the warmest month is over 22 degrees. At least 4 months over 10 degrees.
Plants: Short grasses. Some grasses have roots to 6 feet in soil to get to water; grow at different times of spring, summer, autumn. Spring growth/summer seed: needlegrass, wheatgrass, bluegrass; become semidormant in hot weather, resume growth in autumn. Summer growth: bluestems, buffalo grass, grama grass. True indicators: thistle, tumbleweed, sunflower.
Animals: Burrowing rodents. Ungulates. Buffalo, antelope, ground squirrel, prairie dog, gopher, prairie chicken, meadowlark, horned lark, rodent-eating hawk.
DECIDUOUS FOREST
Precipitation: Abundant, evenly-distributed rainfall.
Temperature: Average in the coldest month is -3 to 18 degrees. The average in the warmest month is over 22 degrees. At least 4 months over 10 degrees.
Climate: Warm summers, cold winters.
Soils 1: Good soil for agriculture.
2: Soil which is high in stone.
Plants: Broad leaf deciduous forest/woodland. Mixed conifers/broadleaf deciduous forest in higher (polarward) latitudes. Because leaves fall, understory of deciduous forest has complex flora that flowers and fruits in spring. Beech-Basswood north-central of biome. Oak-hickory central and southern
Animals: Very diverse. Deer, bear, squirrel, fox, bobcat, many birds such as vireo, wood thrush, tufted titmouse, ovenbird, woodpecker, warbler.
MEDITERRANEAN
Precipitation: At least 3 times as much precipitation in a winter month as in the driest summer month; precipitation in driest summer month less than 4 cm.
Temperature: Average in coldest month -3 to 18. Average in warmest month is over 22 degrees. At least 4 months over 10 degrees.
Soils: Good soil for agriculture.
Plants: Sclerophyllic plants-grasses, woodland, woody shrubs.
Animals: All similar to adjacent biomes.
MARINE
Precipitation: 16-24 inches of rain. Lots of fog.
Temperature: Average of coldest month -3. Average of warmest month over 10 degrees.
Water Table: Lakes and bogs abundant.
Soils : Soil with little stone, gold, or iron. Mildly suitable for agriculture.
Plants: Needle leaf evergreen conifers. Conifers w/deciduous needle leaf tamarack. Evergreens; spruces, firs, pines, tamarack, hemlock; after fires, progression is: grasses, bracken fern, blueberry, stands of aspen and birch; high proliferation, abundant growth w/sufficient sunlight. The growing season lasts 50-100 days.
Animals: Fur mammals. A few ungulates. Migrating birds. Moose, deer, bear, snowshoe hare, lynx, bobcat, squirrel, chipmunk, mole, shrew, grouse, chickadee, siskin, crossbill, woodpecker, warbler, migratory birds; some eat broad-leaved shrubs and herbs, others eat conifer seeds.
ICE CAP
Temperature: Average of warmest month below freezing.
Plants: None.
Animals: Penguins
TUNDRA
Temperature: Average of warmest month 0 to 10 degrees.
Climate: Enormous seasonal and daily variations in microclimate, frost in soil. Short growing season, summer light continuous. Total snowfall low, surface is snow-covered most of winter.
Soils: Soil with little stone, gold, or iron. Unsuitable for agriculture.
Plants: Lichens, mosses, grasses, a few dwarf trees. Low, dwarfed, matlike. Large proportion of grasses and sedges. Vegetation surface a mosaic of polygonal patterns due to massive vertical ice wedges in the ground. Low number of species.
Animals: Migrating birds, a few mammals. Caribou/reindeer, musk ox, arctic hare, arctic fox, arctic owl, lemming, ptarmigan; low number of species; high number of summer migratory birds.
STEPPE
Precipitation: Potential evaporation exceeds precipitation.
Temperature: At least 18 degrees.
Soils 1: Black. Good soil for agriculture.
2: Dry soil.
Plants: Short grasses.
Animals: Burrowing rodents. Ungulates. Mule deer, wood rat, chipmunk, lizards, wrentit, towhee
im still following this, my net is still bust, i can view the site from another pc but i cant do much work / downloading so i havent tried the demo. it looks as if its coming on well and ur all working hard. my new pc has been ordered and will be here around the 14th of january, the specs are:
1.8 Ghz AMD
512 DDR Ram
60GB HD
GeForce 3
19" Monitor
CD Re-Writer
DVD Reader
Decent Sound Card + Surround Sound (Forgot what it is)
Modem
Mouse
Keyboard
+ All the other turd it needs to work with WinXP Pro
for about £12,000 from Mesh
Nice computer!!!
If you don't mind I'd like it if we can test ToW on your computer, it would be interesting how fast it is on a gamer's rig...
Once you get it, could you tell me how fast the GUIDemo goes?
I remembered why the demo runs so slow =). I have it set to software vertex processing, so there is no T&L, at all =). It will be addressed =).
Z.
I was going to blame it on my celeron ;)
Hehe
I thought it had to be something.
Sorry, I havent done much work this christmas :( My apologies. I know its hard to work with me doing nothing at all :(
Sas, just to be interrested. The BitBlt API that everybody talks about. What does it actually do?
BitBlt is fairly simple. You have your image, or image fraction, starting at x, y, and a width, cx, cy. So:
The reason it is so fast, is because GDI can skip that getpixel and setpixel stuff, and use the bitmap data in memory directly.Code:for each pixel from x .. x+cx
for each pixel from y .. y+cy
sp = GetPixel(src, x+currX, y+currY)
dp = GetPixel(dest, destX+currX, destY+currY);
Combine sp and dp according to the raster operation...
SetPixel(dest, destX+currX, destY+currY, rp);
next
next
Z.
so it basicly moves an image using pixels??
Yupper =).
Z.
ok...how nice :P
then...whats exactly so great about it?
Another thing. When creating nice 2D animations I have a tendency to be disturbed by flickering when the picture changes. Is there a nice API call to fix that?
AND, a third thing. How can I detect and use a comport in VB??
To stop the flicker use a backbuffer (the same as in DirectDraw) but instead of getting an attached surface, just blit to an invisible picturebox and do everything there, then blit the contents of that box onto a visible picturebox. To make BitBlt work with invisible PicBoxes, use AutoRedraw (the property).
I thought up a Crystal Rain logo, I'm going to draw it on the computer now. And Jorj tells me he just got Empire Earth so we can see what things he likes and doesn't like about it ;)
Alright. Im at a lan party right now, so I probably wont get much work done... Ill get working tomorrow though =)>
Z.
Sounds good ;)
One thing, is it possible to have maybe 2 or 3 locked camera points? It is because the boats will be nearly to scale so we must have the camera zoomed out for naval combat.
This has to be the hardest undergroung gaming group of programers I have ever seen, I bet I know all your resolutions;)
I can do that Sas =).
Z.
What was that?
Oh, I see new year resolutions :)
I thought you meant underground as in hacker and you knew all of our screen resolutions :eek:!
Yeah I bet you do too :)
lol Sas(screen resolutions)
Igor when are you going to get your new piece ready? I'd like to port it to Mp3 ASAP. :)
2000 posts! You guys are insane, I'm suprised VB-forums's server hasn't died by now :P
I must say, the last GUI-demo I tried was nice, you're making good progress.
Thanks ;)
Our pc is fixed and so atm im re-installing the software, should be able to run the demo this week sometime :D:D
Yeah right me a hacker.... C'mon Sas you know me better than that.....
It even took me a while to know what "vb" stood for:rolleyes:
I dont have DirectX 8.1, so if some one would take some time and upload d3d8.dll, and post it so I could play your game, I would really appreciate it, thanks
-Andrew
You need the whole API, and that's about 10mb (I think). So no :)
DirectX is a system component. You need the whole thing.
Z.
50% downloading direct x 8.1, will be done tomorrow probably.
'Tis great! Is this your new computer?
Nope, 2 weeks plus til lthat comes, 65% atm.
I feel sorry for you... 15% in over 3 hours!
it wasnt downloading all that time, hehe it took bout 1 n a half hours. i got it and tried to install it but it did **** all, the screen flickered and then nothing, the dxdiag thing still says 8.0 and so i will try playing with it till it works 2 nite
the demo kicks ass ! funs ok on my comp, i get bout 11-12 fps with my comp of specs:
350 mhz amd k6-2
192 RAM
GeForce2 MX
Win 98
Ok. I have been "evaluating" =) Battle Realms. Just a few notes to make:
The only real problem with the game is the massive amount of micro managment (collecting water, for example, watering the rice...). Here are some of my ideas for TOW:Code:Idle Peasant button: Selects next idle peasant. Good idea.
Mouse Interface: Right click means action, left means select. I dont like this much. Left click should mean selected action, select, while right is a default action.
Fog of War: Theirs looks nice, and I know how to do it.
Unit Alchemy: Ability to train units at more then one facility (ie, barracks AND archery range, etc). Interesting idea.
Z.Code:Select Trained Warriors: Selects any non peasant units that are within x meters of a training facility.
Select Peasants: Same as above, except with peasants and Town Squares
Infinite group size: Allows the user to separate individuals into units, and control those units (a la Shogun).
Agreed, everything but the mouse. We should let the user decide in a control mapping way (eg. left click = ???).
Also, we should have something that, eg. lets all units from this house trained to workers (rally point = worker train), and all units trained into something from this building have rally points (eg. be assigned to groups, go to a location, start mining gold, etc. a normal person simply uses up space; a worker/educated civilian can research things, and work.
Also, for each building there must be a work force inside (eg. up to 5 peasants). This controls the production of the facility.