Sentience

To calculate the affects another players troop placement will have on diplomacy score.

The current player will be known as the good player
The other player being compared against will be known as the evil player

Cycle through evil players units
If unit dist from good HQ < than bad HQ dist from good HQ then
Unit scary value = ((distbetween HQs - distfrom Good HQ) *unit might) * evil diplomacy benefit
Loop
Get total evil player scary value

Reverse roles and get good players total scary value

Good diplomacy value mod = (goodtotalscaryval/badtotalscaryval) * good players diplomacy rating

Divide good players diplomacy value by mod value
Evil players diplomacy value is unaffected

Comments?

Faction Might will consist of:

Total of all unit mights
Total of all research points spent + 10% bonus per tech complete
Total might of all components in stores
Total of all resources in stores (including energy)
Total of all diplomacy values + total of enemies values with regards to you
Previous combat results

All these figures will be viewable seperately along with rolling trends for the past 100 years



Previous combat results will be calculated as:

Destruction of enemy unit +75% of units might
Loss of own unit -50% of units might

This will provide a constantly increasing yet not ludicrously so figure.

I'll try to define the algorithms for calculating these later. They can (will) be tweaked when we can see how the affect the score. If one's ludicrously unbalanced we can rewrite it. We'll have no idea until we see them in the game.

You online and simply not talking?

Busy? In a huff with me and being childish? Dead?

You know, I fancy more beer tonight. I debating whether it's worthwhile going to asda and getting some more bottles of stuff. Chilled, they were really nice.

Looks like I'll be on my own as you can't get lifts on Wednesdays. I really need an early night, but I'm not going to get one for one reason or another. I might as well let beer play a part in it.

morning pal. Dead tired m'sel. Boss was prowling a little earlier so i wasn't posting much.

ok, let me get this straight...
To calculate the affects another players troop placement will have on diplomacy score.

The current player will be known as the good player
The other player being compared against will be known as the evil player

Cycle through evil players units
If unit dist from good HQ < than bad HQ dist from good HQ then
so if the "evil" player has any units between us and him - even RMVs and scouts?

Unit scary value = ((distbetween HQs - distfrom Good HQ) *unit might) * evil diplomacy benefit
unitscaryvalue is how intimidating such a mech is? perhaps then include a reference to the mechs primary task.

Perhaps divide by diplomacy benefit so a faction with a high diplomacy will lower their intimidation value. (a smiley happy diplomat mech bristling with guns isnt as scary as one foaming at the mouth...

Loop
Get total evil player scary value

Reverse roles and get good players total scary value

Good diplomacy value mod = (goodtotalscaryval/badtotalscaryval) * good players diplomacy rating

Divide good players diplomacy value by mod value
Evil players diplomacy value is unaffected
if a player starts simpering (their diplomacy value is low but their might is low too, so they wont declare vendetta) would really p**s off a warlike faction

Yay!

Points in order...

Any units count. RMV's are stealing 'his' minerals, scout are spying on him

The 'good' player will not know the other units primary task (besides RMV/warlike).

Correct, that * evil dip value should be /. My mistake.

Don't understand. If a players diplomacy score with regards to another player is low, it means they're likely to kick off. If it hits 200 (or whatever) they'll start a war.

This is decided after all the diplomacy has been taken into account (so if they're sh*t they'll be scared by the other player, raising the dip score - yet if they're worried by all the troops, this will lower their dip score). The two will partially cancel each other out, but one will probably dominate.

You can provoke even the smallest faction to war if you try hard enough. We just need to get the values in the calculations right so as not to have wimps kicking off every five mins and mighty factions just chilling out.

Crap, we still haven't allocated a weighting to the resources.

Or did we?

Doesn't the RMV slurp use one?

Damn, can't remember - we need them to calculate the might, 'cos a mountain of base metals isn't worth as much as a handful of gems.

i am busy today, will be difficult to talk much:

im at rachels tonight anyway, so no can do.

also take geographical might into account - probably the amount of map discovered, and active territory - %age view of amount discovered - a faction may have seen the whole map, but if they only have 2 mechs and can only SEE 5% of the map, they're poo!

Code:

---


' Calculates ScaryVal

Function cmScaryVal(goodplayer As Byte, evilplayer As Byte) As Single
    Dim Hd As Single, Ed As Single
    Dim x As Integer
   
    Hd = calcdistance(player(goodplayer).building(1).xc, player(goodplayer).building(1).yc, player(evilplayer).building(1).xc, player(evilplayer).building(1).yc)
   
    For x = 1 To UBound(player(evilplayer).unit)
        Ed = calcdistance(player(evilplayer).unit(x).xc, player(evilplayer).unit(x).yc, player(goodplayer).building(1).xc, player(goodplayer).building(1).yc)
        If Ed < Hd Then
            cmScaryVal = cmScaryVal + (((Hd - Ed) * player(evilplayer).unit(x).might) / player(evilplayer).admin.dipben)
        End If
    Next x

End Function

---

No probs.

I'll drink all the beer myself!!!

MWUHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

also for the sake of the graphs, diplomatic might (but this won't be used to calculate diplomacy, DUH!) - the average of all diplomacies, in and out for that player. highest faction is most diplomatic.

:rolleyes:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Arbiter
No probs.

I'll drink all the beer myself!!!

MWUHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

---

surely you mean MWUHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! TM

Code:

---


' Updates players diplomacy values based on troop positions

Sub CalcDipBasedOnTroopPlacements()
    Dim x As Byte, md As Single
    Dim GoodPlayerScaryVal As Single, EvilPlayerScaryVal As Single
   
    For x = 1 To 7
   
        GoodPlayerScaryVal = cmScaryVal(currplayer, x)
        EvilPlayerScaryVal = cmScaryVal(x, currplayer)
       
        md = (GoodPlayerScaryVal / EvilPlayerScaryVal) * player(currplayer).admin.dipben
       
        player(currplayer).admin.dip(x) = player(currplayer).admin.dip(x) / md
       
    Next x

End Sub

---

Thanks for your text.

Can't remember what it said now like, but hey, thanks anyway!

We might be going out in Oldham tonight, 'cos although we were supposed to be staying at Sacko's, Saul himself had decided this and had forgot to tell Saxon. :rolleyes:

I can't afford a £12billion taxi to Manchester and back and we haven't been able to get old of him anyway. Ergo: Me, Saul, Gav (if he's still alive), Sacko (if we can get hold of him) and maybe Rob (if we invite him) might be going out in Oldham tonight and you're more than welcome to join us for a couple.

boo. I wanted to dance the night away, get roaringly drunk and black out in picadilly gardens! no fair!

yeah, ill come for some beers.

the jist of my message was...hang on, ill quote it:

Quote:

---

time would play a part in diplomacy. eventually all factions moods would revert back to neutral. if u gave me a pressie 20 years ago, would i still be chuffed?

---

basically, every turn the diplomacy scores should all move 1 point closer to the middle (was it 5,000?) to ensure that factions are constantly interacting to ensure good diplomacy. Contrary to the example in my SMS, a faction that's been at war with the same enemy for ages may eventually mellow out about the whole thing.

yeah?

Yep, makes sense.

Hold that thought....

So beers, in Owdham.

COME ON!!!!

Hey, im back :p

Should have posted these errors eariler

When selecting a weapong for slot 3/4 on a mech the option box is out of the screen :(

Also them question mark thingys that are by the players at the beggining name selection, the bottom 1/2 are also out of the screen :(

I thought I'd fixed that!

Grrrr.....

Hey guys!

I thought I posted to this and it didnt get thru :(

Well a few things that I noticed which I should have posted ealier


When selecting a weapon for slot 3/4 on the mech design screen part of the menu that pops up appears off the screen, its the same at the name selection screen with them question mark thingys.


Also is there anyway you can turn on infinate moves liek using "-debug" or somit like other games usally have, its a bit tedious else.

Damn, the page didnt refresh correctly :(

Morning Beermoth!

I think I need to get some more of that french lager - it goes down a treat doesn't it. Yumm...

Oh well.

I think tonight, I'm definately going to get some work done. Definately. Absolutely.

Unless you come round for more beer. :D

You know on Plends RentaBoy site, there was someone wanting to put an access database on the web.

Isn't that your forté? Maybe you should check it out...

morning matey.

nope, Im not coming for beers. Im going to quit drinking (well for a week anyway - we'll see how that ges :D) also it gives me chance to get on with some work. mmm. That'll be nice.

No, I've not seen the Rentaghost site yet, I'll have a look. Where's the link?

www.rentacoder.com

Yeah, a beer free diet would be a good idea. Oh, well!

I might have a nice relaxing night tonight. Just can't think what to do to relax.

I don't even want to turn my computer on - I spend far too much time in front of them!!

I might chill out with books, a hot bath.

What do you do to relax?

i tend to drink beer...no wait...DAMN!

ok then... to relax, I spend a couple of hours in front of my PC...
bugger!

err...

I used to draw and write and play my guitar and meditate and other stuff. Nowadays its beer, TV and sleep. Not a great way of life. I'm gonna try to do other stuff I think.

I suppose there's always the playstation

*ouch* stop hitting me...

Well, when my back's better I'll be starting martial arts again.

Failing that I think I'll do some work on Sentience. Algorithms always need creating and I find that quite relaxing.

I also found my leavers book from Bluecoat. Come on!!!

When I read through that again I sorta realised just how much of tw*t people thought I was. My, how the tables have turned.

I still think you should come round this evening. I want to do some proper work on the diplomacy, pen and paper stuff you know.

Nowhere near a computer.

There's also that french beer we need to finish off in order to empty the fridge. *damn*

tw*t? you? never! ;)

no, I'm not coming tonight. I've got my own stuff to do (sorry), and I AM NOT DRINKING BEER FOR AT LEAST A WEEK!
(well, I can certainly try :D)

I need a bath and an early night (ha ha ha!) I just *know* I'm going to end up in front of my machine at 12:30am though, :(

Not coming?

Shame - that means I get all the beer to myself! MWUHAHAHAHA!!!!

happy birthday pal. nothing else interesting to say. heh heh, managed to stay off MSN though ;)

Morning big guy!

How are you feeling this morning? We must have trebled Guinness' profits last night!

Christ, I'm pissing tar this morning!

Anyhoo,

If you're able to think and communicate then we need to bash some ideas around for the pods.

To recap, the four pod types are:

*Industry
*Data
*Resource
*Colony

So all our ideas are going to fall into these sections. I'll post shortly with some rough ideas.

I dont feel well...

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

Industry: (rare)
*Bonus processed resources (common)
*Bonus components (not so common)
*Free factory (v. rare)

Colony: (v. rare)
*Free unit (common)
*Free building (not so common)

Resource: (common)
*Bonus raw resources (common)
*Bonus energy (common)
*Bonus processed resources (rare)

Data: (not so common)
*Bonus research points (rare)
*Bonus tech (v. rare)
*Phone number for other faction (rare)
*Randomly explore piece of land (common)

Toying with the idea of having the pod explode when found (v. rare)

Comments/questions?

(PS - feeling better?)

yeah, snapped out of it about 11:00 ;)

its been a "funny" morning...Fire alarm went off when I was on the loo (could only happen to me :rolleyes: ), and theres no alarm in the loo, so I could just about hear a faint commotion outside. pah!

I quite like the ideas - I dont have a lot of time today to go into them in detail - the only thing that occured to me was: I send scouts out the four corners of the globe, and one finds a pod with a factory in it. Its going to take AGES to bring it home, by which time it'll be riddled with bullet holes.

heres an idea... When a player collects a pod, it simply transfers control of the pod/unit to that player who must then bring it home to the admin centre to crack it open - this then gives the opportunity for other players to steal it, or even leav booby-trapped ones around to try to blow the admin centre up with....

whaddaya think?

data: bonus project? (really really rare)
data: diplomacy bonus (not so common) - would represent insider knowledge

Not keen on the idea of taking them back to HQ, for a technical reason as much as anything.

Those pods are buildings belonging to player 9. Buildings can't move.

Hang about, if I simply transfer control of the building, then you should be able to right click and turn it to a mobile building. No wait, that would be gay. Then they'd look like a mobile building.

No, lets leave them where they are. If it turns into a building then they have to move it. If it gets shot - tough!

A bonus project would be well OTT. It would give far too big a bonus too infrequently, probably offsetting the power balance.

We've still not worked out how we're going to make the infiltration work. Are you going to manufacture viruses (maybe using processor points) and then they 'attack' the opponents anti-virus stuff? If they win, they get through? Anti-virus thingies would be manufactured in the same way as virusesesus.

Might I suggest something.

Pods are of different colours. They could have a ring around the top part of them or something.
Anyway, one would know if it contains a building or not etc.

One could then send out a pod retreival buggy to take the pod back to base, or, they can open the pod there and then.

If they open the pod there and then, they're stuck with a building in the middle of nowhere. Then you could use the command&conquer approach. Have the building pack itself up into a vehicle, and slowly go back home.
On the other hand, if they take the pod home and open it, then it could contain explosives, which could blow half the base away.

Anyway, just an idea ;)

ARRRGHGHGHGHHH!!

Who let him in? *whack* *whack* ROUSE, ROUSE!!!!

*ahem*

The pods are of different colours denoting their type. Well, they have different coloured flashing lights anyway. ;)

Only two flaws with the suggestion.

1) We don't have pod retrieval buggies.

2) We don't have pod retrieval buggies.

Now, I realise that that's technically only one flaw, but it's such a biggy I thought I'd mention it twice.

The Sentience approach is for buildings to turn into cool drivey things and drive off.

And also, one doesn't know what is in the pod until you open it. That's part of the fun!

Got any ideas as to what other bonus' you could?

No supergiant mutated dinosaurs though...!

Triple breasted *****s from eroticon six for morale ?

:rolleyes:

With the bonus project, make it so that if you get it, it will add an item to the tech tree not normally adviable. Then, give the player who found it the tech for free. Also, make it so it is both good and bad. So, like the tech may reduce your attack, but increase science.

And 2 new ideas:
1) Colony:Heal all near by units to 100% hp (not so common).
2) Hurt:Create random mech not above players level for a evil player (vs all) (semi-rare)

And increas the Randomly explore piece of land (common) to V.common. Although it would be nice, it would not be great.

By the way, Behemoth have you seen the map editor yet?

How the editor saves the map is the following:
red = tile (0=water,255=grass)
green = road (0=off, 255=on)
blue = explored (0=none,1=player1, 2=player2,4=player3,8=player4,16=player5,32=player6,64=player7,128=player8,255=all)

For the explored, the map editor has a function to convert into the bit format, and one to convert out of it. It also has a function to convert a long color to rgb. And it has all been home made.:)

For more info, e-mail me and I will send you the source. My e-mail is: [email protected]

The exe is attached. You need the 1000 and 1777 bitmaps from sentince in the same folder to run it. You must also have DirectX 8.

Cool, you're already in here.

Right, points:

We have that kind of thing on our projects already. Some give benefits and deficits.

1) Ok, I like the pod which heals
2) Not too sure about that. A random mech belonging to no-one would be impossible, it would have to be a native life form. Unfortunately SMAC beat us to that idea.

Map Editor:

Thats sounds good gaming. Dont want to upset you but....

If you look, the map in Sentience is cunningly formatted. Mountain ranges have beginning, end and middle peices and coastlines surround the islands.

I imagine I could get Sentience to format the map when it's loaded, but it means it will look pants in the map editor.

Aww.... don't be so mean to PlenderJ. He's been a great help from the beginning of the project - he's my hero.

Let's go with one large multicoloured bitmap. That'd look cool if anyone opened it.

Anyway, you're making the map editor. Save it how you wish, just remember to let me know how you've done it.

phew! busy in here!

Hi Gaming, nice to have you on board.

OK...firstly, I cant get the map editor to work, i assume Im running the wrong version of DX, so I'll check it out later.

Im glad we're going with the bitmap idea, itll give us opportunity to specifically design maps in a graphics editor too. plenty of flexibility.

I've dabbled with graphics recently, but i could do with getting really stuck in soon. I'll finish the walls and work on more wandering monsters.

I don't see a problem with you showing up this afternoon. Give me a bell just before you leave to let me know.

I went for a meal with Rachel last night (at the pub) and drank lemonade all night :) you proud of me?

Good man on the lemonade!

I'll call you before I come round then.

What errors did you get on the map editor?

You need to make sure the pictures are available to load or it says unable to init DX.

You got any clue as to how I might add in a grid? I tryed drawing line, using a picture with transperancy, shapes, and the line control. None of them worked correctly.

By the way, I'm gonna have to crash soon. Its nearing 3 AM here. Incase you didn't read all of the post when I offered to make the editor, I will be gone from Saturday @ 4AM to sometime Sunday or Saturday (11th to 18th or 19th)

Rightyho.

BTW, I did read the post.

And for a grid, merely draw lines using the line command. Easiest way.

Tryed that. If I place it before the MainLoop, they disapper, and during the mainloop it displays half editor/half grid, and makes it look really ugly. Like I said, I had tryed that.

You place it at the end of main loop.

Once you've drawn the screen, you then draw the grid over the top. If you haven't cracked it by the time I get home tonight I'll knock up an example for you.

FAO: Jotaf

Pods: They should sometimes affect the nearby units, like healing them, making them invisible, giving them free components, abilities and anything a mech can have . They should also do stuff like exploring terrain, increasing the resources in the surrounding terrain or change it somehow - like planting trees. They could also contain creatures (remember it's a planet which is being terraformed). And there could also be a very rare pod with a mech which uses only the most expensive components

Comments are...

Healing them is ok, invisible isn't, free components is too much effort. The game isn't designed for amending units on the fly and I'd have to put loads of checks in for all sorts of things.

Exploring terrain we have already decided on, increasing resoursces on the ground is a good idea, as is planting trees.

Not sure on containing creatures yet, it's too SMAClike. You can get free units and buildings within the pods as well.

Check the list above where we've penned some rough ideas for each of the terraform pod types.

Like I said, placing it in the mainloop makes it look ugly. What it does if I place it right after the blting is to make 1/3 of the screen as it is now, 1/3 with a faded mix, and 1/3 with gray & the grid.

I haven't the foggiest what your on about I'm afraid.

If you post the code, I can have a look.

OK, look at the version posted here. It is drawing the grid right after blting the tiles. So it looks like this:

Code:

---

  Blt
  For X = 0 To frmEdit.picDraw.Width Step 40
  frmEdit.picDraw.Line (X, 0)-(X, frmEdit.picDraw.Height), RGB(255, 0, 0)
  Next X
  For X = 0 To frmEdit.picDraw.Height Step 40
  frmEdit.picDraw.Line (0, X)-(frmEdit.picDraw.Width, X), RGB(255, 0, 0)
  Next X
  DoEvents

---

Just thought I would mention that the scalemode is Pixels.

See ya in a week Arbiter. My flight leaves in appox 1 hour.

Ciaó for now!

Hey, I finally discovered this thread :p

Ok my ideas for the pods weren't THAT good, but anyway... I think you have all the ideas that you need :)

I have another idea if you want... for the mech design screen: Each part is simply a 3D model, already in place. So you just use DX to show each part in the mech disign screen. Then, have a small pic of it facing up, left, down and right, and save them along with that mech's properties. So if your mech has a nuke launcher it won't appear with a tiny minigun :p

Listen lads, its a pain in the ass to read thru all this bollox.
So arb, could you stick a .txt file up on the btinternet site that just contains the pertinent information from all this drivel ?

Jotaf,

I think it would be too time consuming to knock up 3D models of all the components and then write stuff to put them all together. We'll stick with the current otherwise we'll never finish the game! :)

Also, Ian has draw a couple of rough drafts of hydrogen trees which he sent me last night. With a couple of amendments they'll look pretty cool. You may even see them in the next version!

Plend,

No

I take notes in my black book of power and eMail bits home if I need to. It would take me forever to trawl through this. It's a discussion forum where we thrash out ideas - whilst reading through the dross it may trigger some long dormant memory of when you were back in 'Nam and you might come up with a really good idea.

Maybe.

Your supergiant mutated dinosaurs have become the stuff of legend...

I dont remember much from my previous life.
I'm listening to the bongo song real loud in work right now.
I've gotten ****all sleep over the past few days.

I feel hyper and full of coffee and great ;)

You're nuts!