Times of War Reopening - for those interested.

[Sastraxi]

I'm reopening Times of War because of Jorj, he contacted me a few days ago pertaining to the topic.

We are looking for a group, Warmaster and Dax you were interested, and also Mage33, you seemed to want to be a part of the group. Parksie, you left the group but we would be grateful if you came back on the team.

Once we have 3-5 people together (THAT WONT QUIT ) We can start. As it stands, we have no VB code, a whopping huge Access database, and a general idea of the graphics.

Our game allows for female/male peasants, but only male attack units because of discrimination in those times, we want to make it as realistic as possible. All ground units will be able to mount a horse, and in the fantasy campaign a horse, gryphon, dragon, or lizard. Here is the unit list, note that all unit names are the respective names in the FANTASY CAMPAIGN. In parentheses are the names in the REAL-WORLD CAMPAIGN:

Dwellings (House, Hut, Cottage, Manor)
    [-----Peasant (Villein)

Peasant -> Barracks [List]
    [-----Swordsman (Fyrdsman)
    [-----Warrior (Light Infantry)
    [-----Swordsmaster (Heavy Infantry)
    [-----Warrior of the Blade (Knight of the Sword)
    [-----Kamakaze Soldier (Bandit)
    [-----Kamakaze Cavalry (Raider)

Peasant -> Archery Range [Butts]
    [-----Bowman (Bowman)
    [-----Archer (Archer)
    [-----Marksman (Longbowman)
    [-----Crossbowman (Halague)

Peasant -> Chapel [Chapel]
    [-----Monk (Monk)
    [-----Bishop (Bishop)
 
Peasant -> Temple [does not exist in real-world]
    [-----Acolyte (see temple realname)
    [-----Priest (see temple realname)
    [-----High Priest (see temple realname)
    [-----Paladin (Crusader)
    [-----Paladin of the Blade (Knight Templar)

Stables
    [-----Horse (Draught Horse)   
    [-----War Horse (Destrier)
    [-----Heavy War Horse (Heavy Warhorse)

Peasant + Horse = Scout (Scout)

Swordsman + Horse = Horseman (Rider)
Warrior + Horse = Cavalry (Lancegay)
Swordsmaster + Knight = (Heavy Cavalry)
Warrior of the Blade + Horse = Knight of the Blade (Knight of the Dragon)

Bowman + Horse = Mounted Bowman (Mounted Bowman)
Archer + Horse = Horse Archer (Mounted Archer)
Marksman + Horse = Mounted Marksman (Parthian Rider)
Crossbowman + Horse = Horse Crossbowman (Mounted Halague)

[Zaei]

What type of game are you planning? 2D? Iso? 2D/3D, 3D? I offer my help, in whatever ways I can, although my own project comes first =). Any help needed, Im always here.

Z.

[Arbiter]

Sastraxi,

I'd love to help, but with my current commitments to Sentience I can only offer to help in a testing role or by reading your thread and offering comments.

If you have any more information I could have a squizz through (a website, your design specs etc) I'll comment on those as well for you.

Sorry I can't offer more...

[Sastraxi]

Phew... thanks a lot Arbiter and Zaei!

Zaei - If I didn't mention it before it's an RTS (real time strategy) and it's based in medieval europe and the fantasy campaign is in some other lands. It's a 2d engine, with a 2d square or 2d diamond engine (not sure which, need to find out which one would be better for an RTS).

Arbiter - I will have a site going at http://vbden.tripod.com soon enough, and I will post design specs there. Only people that I email will be able to get to the site (password protected!)

I can also email you guys the database, and will explain some things.

[Zaei]

my home(fast) email is [email protected]. Im also working on a (sorta) RTS, so we can share ideas. I can most definatly help out with unit/gameplay balance, which is something that Im usually pretty good at =). Anyway, Im here, just ask, and send the Database.

Z.

[Vuen]

Well, I could certainly contribute to your RTS by making a unit or two if you want, but I'm not gonna join as a team member because I'm currently making my own RTS. But if you want any code from my RTS to use it yours, I will gladly trade absolutely ANY CODE AT ALL for your small chunk of code which handles the changing of the units' colors to their controller's color, once it gets written. You know which code I'm talkin about, right? GIVE ME IT PLEASE!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! That or teach me how to use BltFx to blit from an 8-bit surface to a other-bit surface, and I'll give you anything you want. BLA! It would be really cool though to make a unit other than a giant robot, thats what all the units in my game are, its all just giant robots. That sucks...

[Zaei]

Giant Robots rule =).

Z.

[Sastraxi]

Okay, now that I've got a few people, it's time to get down to work. I need someone to make a C Dll to draw the menus, GUI, and the like, we will be doing the actual ddraw blitting in VB. The game will be run in 640x480x16 colours, enabling us to have actual good-looking graphics. When the teams are set, this is what we will do, as there has been lots of contraversy in the forums as to how to draw sprites different colours:

--Set Game (Single/Multi)
|__Set Teams
|______Make Sprites (using ddBltColorFill, 1 pixel at a time is blitted)
|________Run Game

If we do it that way there is no performance hit, only a short (maybe 5 second) waiting time at the start of the game. There will also be different Video Modes (800x600, 1024x768) along with the defualt (640x480) Note that both the game and the menu screens will run in 16 bit colour.

My role in this project will be mainly graphics, the GUI, and coding the menu screens and such. Jorj is going to be making the units and buildings.

What we need is:
A coder that will do the main DDraw loop into the game (when game is running)
A coder that can use C and will create the DLL specified above.
I also need someone that can make the spells for the game. These will only be used in the fantasy campaign.

[Sastraxi]

Here you go, Vuen!

I suggest you do what I am going to do with my RTS for the colour changing. Since there are about 50 units and 30 buildings (there will be) in total, there are probably going to be around 3500 pixels to blit. And since a 486 can blit about 50 000 pixels a second (or so WarMaster199 tells me), any normal Pentium 300 can do the job.

You should use a colour that you'll never be using, but by your DEV. pics I see that you've already figured that out.

Happy Coding!

[PsyVision]

What API are you using, are you going down the routes of Open Gl, Direct X or slooooooooooow GDI Stuff ?

[PsyVision]

Ah i see

"A coder that will do the main DDraw loop into the game (when game is running) "

[Sastraxi]

So... does that mean you're on the team?

(hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping...)

[Zaei]

You dont seem to be very concerned about AI, and Gameplay for now, but I'll join up in those areas if you want.

Z.

[Sastraxi]

Actually those are two of my biggest concerns, my biggest concerns arent for the graphics (like I am showing), I'd love to have you on in those areas.

[CyberCarsten]

Sounds very interesting! Will the game be something like Heroes 3??? If you need more "crew" I'd love to join!

[Sastraxi]

Heroes III is a Turn-Based Strategy game (TBS), while Warcraft, Age of Kings, and Times of War (mine) are Real-Time Strategy games (RTS). It won't be much like Heroes III, expect it to be a bit better than Warcraft II. That's all I can say at the moment.

Since we have a team (email me if you still want to join), we'll be heading over to the discussion area.

[Sastraxi]

Yes, Cybercarsten we'd love to have you on "the crew" See you in the discussion area!

[CyberCarsten]

Sure do!

[Sastraxi]

You are in. Click at the bottom of my sig. to get to the thread where we'll discuss. I'll sign you up for the C part. Thank you.

[CyberCarsten]

Am I in to??? I hope so!

[Sastraxi]

Yes you are. Just respond in the discussion area and tell me what programming/developing you wish to do.

[wazup guys]

dudes i might not be the best vb programer but im learning opengl as we speak and im getting good at it. oh and if u want parskie new email address i have it.

[Behemoth]

Similar to Arbiter, I can offer a little help with testing (well, breaking) it. I also recommend using diamond/isometric or hex based tiles. We regretted not being able to with Sentience in the early days (we're happy with it now, but the tile graphics may look a bit blocky otherwise (again, see Sentience)

Good luck.

PS. Feel free to mail me if necessary.