Sentience

We just need a generalistic name for them - never mind what the individual ones are called.

We could have them in sub categories - i.e. resupply pod (power, raw resources), colony pod (building, units), industry pod (components, processsed resources), data pod (explored area, tech benefit)

* Substitue pod for whatever name we come up with.

If we have a different graphic style for each one then people would be able to see at a glance roughly what type it is. If these babies are scattered around everywhere there will be a huge race to expand meaning contact between factions will occur quicker. Sounds like a good idea....

If the separate graphics implied a different type of "pod", it would influence peoples actions. If all "pods" were generic, and then revealed themselves when dicovered it may add more excitement.

Or at least that's what Sid Meier thinks...

We know better than him.

I like the idea of having different pod types.

Ok, but the difference in graphics may be as simple as differently coloured pods/crates...

I was thinking something a little more obvious. A datapod is going to look different to a building crate.... Stop trying to shirk doing some work!!!

;)

I'm gonna kick your scaly ass into the middle of next month, ponce!

Speaking of which, when are you going to get me some more graphics. I've had nothing for ages...

PONCE!!!

I'm gonna rip your face off for that.

http://civilization.gamestats.com/smac/

>> game info >> government...

I'm quite busy today, but I made good progress with the boat last night, sticking with my 3/4 one. I reckon I'll have it finished by the time you show up on Wed.

Cool!

Fantastic.

I'm looking forward to it...

Awight dude!

Still up for this evening?

What time are you finishing work and when do you want to kick things off?

Sorry pal, no can do...





















































Ho ho ho... Jus' kiddin' ;)

Yeah, what time are you finishing? I think I'll be done for about 4, and it takes just under an hour to get home (I'm at work)... I've got to tidy up a bit as well tonight. Give me a ring when your planning to leave and I'll let you know if I'm at home or not.

BTW, I've got to get some more beer. I've only got 6 little bottles of Bavaria in.

Also, do you have SMAC with you or are you going to go home first? If you want to play SC, we'll need the laptop too...

I'm not going to be in the forums all day, but I can check back intermitently, so make sure you post a reply soon.

Cya later :D

I'll have to go home first to collect the laptop and SMAC.

If you want we can make a trip to get some beer. I'll be finishing about 4ish so I'll get everything sorted at my end and be round at yours for sixish?

How does that sound?

MONDAY 25TH JUNE 2001

Was up til an ungodly hour making good progress on a mobile building last night. Think SMACs colony pod, Emperor's MCV, SC's terran command centre in flight- well, maybe not, but its cool. I'm dog tired tho.

chin up. You'll be able to shower by the end of the week...

STARDATE 250601 (Just before dinner time)

Cool as! Well, bring it round when you get chance. It's gotta be better than my house on wheels....

I can have a shower tomorrow! Fantastic!

Struggling to get BW across. I tried using RAR and ARJ to chop it up, but they won't do more than 234 chops.

Looking for a file splitter now....

will RAR and ARJ only cut the file into 1.44mb chunks? If its possible to change the size, chop it into 4mb chunks.

I'm wondering if its because the version of RAR is as yet unregistered...

This is Ian Saunders, news at ten, stating the bleeding obvious.

If I could increase the chunk size, would I be looking for a file splitter? :rolleyes:

Ye gods!

"this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you..."

*dig to the kidneys*

Backchat me like that again, bwoy, and I'l tear your face of and **** all over your naked skull!

Ian,

If you're online - log onto MSN...

I don't have MSN at work... :( It really isn't worth my job...

Never mind.

Be sure to check the forums though...

So, when do I get your lovely Nebula graphics.

I've also been playing with Lightwave, but it's a bit complex. If you find any tutorials then post the links please...

I remember watching Rick using Lightwave, and he puts us all to shame. If i remember correctly, the trick is to use the shortcut keys - as far as I remember, most of the functionalities don't appear in the menus, but I can't remember what any of them are...

BOO!

Nebulae...I've not started (Haven't been home since we spoke yesterday), but like I said, it shouldn't take long at all.

PS - nice looking mech design screen. :)

Hey hey im back, And I see ive made it into the names list on the game :D cheers!!

A few pointers:

1.
On the name select screen, Them little logos (whatever they are for)....near the bottom ones, the scroll bar sits out of the bottom of the screen :)

2.
I forgot

3.
When in the game I didnt know how to exit, Also allowing us to have a window would be nice :)

Keep up the work!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by chenko
Hey hey im back, And I see ive made it into the names list on the game :D cheers!!

A few pointers:

1.
On the name select screen, Them little logos (whatever they are for)....near the bottom ones, the scroll bar sits out of the bottom of the screen :)

2.
I forgot

3.
When in the game I didnt know how to exit, Also allowing us to have a window would be nice :)

Keep up the work!

---

Hiya Simon me old bean, how's it hangin'?

Of course you made it into the names list, you've provided some (nearly) sensible comments towards the game. Now - your pointers....

1.
'Them little logos' are actually your faction ideals (i.e. warrior, intellectual, industrial etc) and aren't functioning yet. The bug with the menu falling off the bottom is the same one as in the mech design screen and has been fixed for the next version.

2.
I fixed it anyway - it was only minor.

3.
Clicking the exit button normally does it. If you're in a game, simply resign and you will be brought back to the main menu.

Oh, and we are keeping up the work. It's only recently I've been well enough to begin again, but Behemoth has been busy on the graphics and has tentatively promised me some in the next few days. Should coincide nicely with the next release...

Ian,

You left your mobile at my house, so don't panic. I've used up all your credit phoning Dutch Bondage Goat porn lines - hope you don't mind...

Hairy bloke,

I managed to drive down to the clinic all by myself this morning. Aren't I brave!!!

It wasn't that bad actually but I'm loathe to drive for any length of time 'cos it is painful.

Maybe I'll be able to drive to yours in the near future (but I will need copious cups of tea to prepare me for the journey home).

Well, I managed to get a lot done last night. I implemented your RMV torso and that seems to work. Fixed some bugs. And added in an explosion animation, christ was that difficult. It's a seperate thing to the background animation and I couldn't get it to run at a decent speed. Got it going now though and it looks pretty cool.

I can't find the explosion that you sent to me though - would you be able to resend it please?

Anyways, catch you later...

Grrr... Between the pair of us, we've probably lost Gigabytes of graphics... I'll have a look for it.

Glad to hear you're up and about - don't overdo it though.

Look after yoursel' :D

Thanks for the reactors matey!

I'm having a look at what else I can think of make the map screen look a little less flat. I was considering having random weather effects that occurred every now and again. Rain, whirlwind, whirlpool, etc.

May have some effect in the real world (rain causes rust, lightning shorts circuits, whirwinds blow the garden fence over etc)

Whaddya think?

happy with the reactors now?

freak weather conditions - would they be confined to one tile? The graphics definitely would look crap, and there'd be no way round it. I could try to make them as least crap as possible, but...

If we had them, they'd definitely need to have an effect in the world. otherwise they'd be poo ;)

Struggled with some more buildings last night too.

Did you give the OCT stuff to your mum?

Happyish with the reactors. For now.

The weather conditions don't have to be merely one tile is size. They don't necessessessarillilly have to have an effect in the world but we can if you wish (as outlined in my prev post).

Should have sent me a copy of what you've done so far. Then I could discuss them with you. Wouldn't want to see you wasting your time...

No.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Behemoth
Did you give the OCT stuff to your mum?

---

well please do...

I shall.

Also, when you send me the next set of buttons, could they not be 24bit please? Eats space.

never really thought about that, I think its the default. I shall have to look into it... :)

As we head towards the end of this project, it's going to be more apparent which screens need which buttons and suchlike. We can go through intermittently and I can design butons galore (probably unto my deathbed :rolleyes: )...

This morning I got stuck into a design for the battery. It's going to be similar to the old one, but much better. I'll send it to you when I (eventually) get home.

Good man.

Look, I think we're going to have to scrap the buttons that light up when you move over them because I can't seem to find a way that doesn't eat up more resources than the effect is worth...

*snif*

What we're doing in TOW is having the whole screen be rainy, and then when you get farther away from the source the screen is less rainy, etc. Until the rain finally disappears. Gives a good effect.

Oh yeah and Arbiter I gave you the pics, share 'em with Behemoth.

Sas,

I'm not too keen on the idea of the entire screen having a rain effect (ala Seven Kingdoms) as I thought it looked at bit poo.

Still, you might be able to pull it off.....

Behemoth,

Sorry. :(

Behemoth,

Got loads done on Sentience and I'm going to try and get more done today. You'll like!!

I'm going to use the lit up versions of the buttons you sent me in the game (After I've removed the white pixel in each corner :rolleyes: ) but if you could see your way to sending me the slightly brighter dull images of the unit/building/resource toggle buttons I'd be most obliged.

PS - are you coming round this evening?

mobile building.

======================

bollocks to it,

I've made some good progress, but still not got around to uploading. Hopefully, I'll be done with all those from the list by tonight / early tomorrow (ugh...I really need sleep...), and I'll mail em to you all at once...

I would send em to ya piecemeal, but I get distracted...

;) see you soon.

well look at Mr. Hoity-Toity there...

Comes a-waltzing in without a by-your-leave to argue with Mr. Plender about pizza-renting dinosaurs and can't be bothered to pop in here and say hi to his oldest pal... What's that all about?

Joint second oldest pal to be accurate. ;)

Well, I had nothing to say to you. Besides 'Hi'.


Hi.

Whoa - just read your other post.

You've nearly done you say? Excellent, well done!

Well, feel free to bring them round when they're done and we can celebrate with beer.

Cool as!


So, what do you think of Plend's "Supergiant mutated dinosaurs"?



(PS - if you have news, post a new post rather than amending a new one, cos then it flags that you've posted and catches my attention...)

I realised that after I'd done it. I simply wanted to remove the attachment...

PlenderJ (mad little irishman) + plenty of mind expanding drugs = mutated dinosaurs... :D

PS. who's your mate that's exactly the same age as me then?

Saul

nope, I'm definitely older than Saul...

The way you said it, it came across as being 'known for longest' pal.

If it's any consolation, I might not have known you the longest, but I certainly respect you the most.

So, are you coming over for bevvies later? I can't offer you a lift back but I can pick you up...




(PS - where 'respect', read 'fancy')

;)

Not sure about coming round or not yet. I'll speak to my dad & see if theres a lift on offer.

PS. I've found a way to do animations (a bit) quicker, but it means separating them into individual bitmaps. You mentioned you'd written something to plug 'em together. Is there anything special I should know or do to them first, or can you plug any number together? (yes, there's 30 of them and they're all the same size...)

...30 frames per animation...

Behemoth,

I've had a look at the graphics and they're quite nice, but as always I have some suggestions/comments. See screen shot attached.

Factory: The image was too dark, it's hard to make out what's going on. All greyscale too...

Pods: Christ they're big! They dwarf all the buildings! Maybe the scale needs altering. Apart from that, the animation is quite nice! :)

Mobile building: Nice, but all greyscale. Any chance of us having some colour somewhere? I know you say it's all metal - but it does look drab. Design's quite good though!

All: They seem to have some form of white border around them. Did you use a blur effect on the final product, 'cos the transparentariser isn't coping with it. You have been warned about the effects of blur....

Apart from that I'm well pleased. There's been quite a bit of work gone in there...

I suspect the white outlines come from shrinking the image down - I think it should be easy enought to remove them - I'll look into it.

I don't know why everything came out so dark. I suspect its the cartoony-effect I warned you of - the outlines may be thicker than I suspected - again, I'll look into it.

Sorry about the size of the pods. I was tired when I made them & didn't think about it. I can shrink them very easily - what sort of size do you want? I was thinking about a 1/4 of their current size (20 x 20) - comments/questions?

The factory isnt greyscale - theres red and yellow flashy lights, but you can't see them because everythings so goddamned dark! :mad:

Mobile building - NO! I'm happy. I like it grey. It looks chunky and industrially.(I might put a flashy light on it if you really want.) :D

I WANT COLOUR!!!

*ahem*

Does the copy of Sentience you have support the animations? If so, I could send you the rough shod animation creator and you can plug them in to see them working in front of you. Means we won't get probs like this 'cos you can identify them at your end.

20x20 is just what I was thinking for the pods. Great minds etc etc

Are you popping over this evening? I've done **** loads on Sentience and it's just kicking arse.

Course when you get over I'll find there's little enough to show - it's all behind the scenes - but I've tidied up the UI a bit though.


SCHPUNKY!!!

its getting to the point where you know better than I do what version of Sentience I have...:D I think mine supports animations, I 'll have a look.

I was thinking of coming down tonight. I'm still dog-tired - didn't get to bed until a stupid hour (and after I'd promised myself an early night :rolleyes: ). I'll see whether my dad'll give me a lift.

Did you give those designs to your mum or not? I'm waiting for some sort of feedback.

Did you get anything done with my CV? mail me with anything you came up with...

TTFN ;)

Well, you're more than welcome if you want to show up.

I can pick you up, but can't take you back....

Errr... designs..... errr..... I think I lost them. :( I'll have a look.

Done nothing with your CV, been working on Sentience all day.

I'm implementing a custom message box to inform of noteworthy events. Possibly use it display combat results as well?

grr...:mad:

Nope, I can't find them.

Could you bring them round again this evening please?

how do you manage to lose so much of my work? its incredible!

ok. I'll find it.

Heya matey.

Just a thought for when you get in in the morning.

Have a think about what's going to be contained within the pods, specific benefits etc.

Also I'm still working on some new screens. The 'special projects' screen and the grow critter screen.

I was thinking for those we would have three of four pictures donating their progression through the embryonic stage. Four pictures for all the creatures, not four each that is....

I'll attach screen shots later...

Cool!

Since when did I become a 'fanatic member'?

Whaddya reckon to this hombre?

(PS - did I ever tell you how much I hated creating screens?)

Right,

See attached spreadsheet (rename to .xls)

If you look at the projects tab, you'll see a sample list of projects along with their benefits and what tech they're derived from (should be obvious from the name in most cases).

You'll see that the benefits correlate with the benefits on the factions tab. What I was thinking was that when the project is complete, the benefit in the projects tab are added on to the benefits the faction receives (cumulative like).

e.g. If the Fission Amplificatoriser project is completed then the 10% (0.1 on the chart) benefit is added to the existing benefit/deficit provided by the faction.

See where I'm coming from here?

Of course, these are only broad benefits, but I'm not sure how else I could implement other benefits into the script. If you see the factions tab there is a column marked 'special'. This is for things that will require extra programming and can't be added to the script.

I was considering having something like that for the projects (i.e One free monkey every base - that sort of thing).

Comments/questions?