Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Discontinued => Major Community Projects => S.A.D. (Seek and Destroy) => Topic started by: Hot_Dog on December 31, 2009, 05:48:03 pm
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I finished drawing them, now I need to start coding them! These are the remaining icons you select using Hotkeys to accomplish your goals and build your empire in a galaxy far far away...actually, let's not get into that, the game takes place in the Milky Way ;)
The first picture is all ability icons for researching. If an ability has been researched or cannot be researched, the tile is left blank.
From left to right, top to bottom, by group:
Argo Plasma Torpedoes, Researched at an Argo Laboratory
Tank Extended Range, Researched at a Factory
Degruser Mines, Degruser Photon Torpedoes, and Raptor Deflector Shield, Researched at an Armory
Reclauda Detector, Reclauda Mine Detector, Reclauda Seismic Charge, Scouter Jet Pack, Balkstone Booster Engines and Camoza Booster Engines, Researched at a Starbase
Camoza ITNT, and Raptor Teleport, Researched at a Manhatton Station
Scouter Cloak, Camoza Cloak, and Balkstone Cloak, Researched at a Quantum Facility
Splitron Plasma Torpedoes, Researched at a Command Center
The second picture is options you can select at an Operation Center or a Transfomation Gateway. From left to right, top to bottom: Exchange, Repair, Refuel, Restock, Refuel on Fuel, Refuel on Sephrane Gas
The third picture is the structures you can build. The first group is basic structures. Pressing PGRM will take you to research facilities and Operation Centers, and pressing PGRM again will take you back to the basic buildings. Defense, Transformation Gateways, Detectors, ACCs, Watchtowers and Refineries are all basic structures.
For those of you wondering where the option for "Teleport" is, that will come when I have a better idea of what the process of teleporting will look like.
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wow these are great ^^
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Nice graphics!!! Even without the description, I can understand what they stand for...
I <3 S.A.D. !!
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Amazing Graphics! SAD is looking great!
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Here's a treat for you guys: the pre-pre-pre-pre alpha manual for S.A.D. This is a draft manual I made when I was looking for help with S.A.D. (I was not going to start S.A.D. unless I was not the only person working on it, so this "manual" was to get people interested)
Of course, the final copy of the manual will be much more detailed and informative, and have pictures
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Cool, I never seen a manual before, or at least, never used one. And what are these things called readmes? I keep hearing people telling others to read them, but I don't know what they are. When I download games I just load everything on the calc then if it doesn't work I go reporting the bug to the author and file the innapropriate file form on ticalc.org.
j/k :P
I am gonna read further now, but so far it seems to look very nice, very detailled informations and instructions. I assume you are gonna add a lot of screenshots and the unit/building pics when done, right?
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I am gonna read further now, but so far it seems to look very nice, very detailled informations and instructions. I assume you are gonna add a lot of screenshots and the unit/building pics when done, right?
Definitely. I'm most likely going to add game universe information as well
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wow!!! I think when the game finishes, it should be sold in GameStop along with the strategy guide ;D
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From BuckeyeDude:
"Just a quick demo of the tilemap. Still in its very early stages, but it should give you a rough idea of the map and how scrolling will work. It can scroll by an arbitray number of pixels so scroll speed will be customizable (default is 2, i also do smooth scrolling and by 8 in the demo).
Remember to view in Firefox/Opera for real speed of the gif"
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darn it looks so smooth, nice job so far ^^
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I don't usually play these kinds of games, but I felt compelled to post. The team working on this game is really doing a nice job, the graphics are really sharp! Is BuckeyeDude handling all the coding?
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Great job! I like the speed!
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I don't usually play these kinds of games, but I felt compelled to post. The team working on this game is really doing a nice job, the graphics are really sharp! Is BuckeyeDude handling all the coding?
Buckeye Dude and I both are, and we might have a third from time to time (long story). But because I'm not fluent in ASM, I'm lack the skill at optimizing graphics, so he's doing all the coding for the tilemap and sprite routines. He's also editing anything I write that could be optimized more.
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That's cool ^^, also you will most likely learn a lot of stuff from him when coding for future games.
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That's a pretty nice system. You're new and it's always good to learn from an established programmed. It's a good ldea that makes SAD look great! :)
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Actually he has been around the community for quite a while. 6 months if I remember. However, the project used to be in TI-BASIC with xLIB/Celtic III and then he recently moved to ASM for a better framerate
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True, although let me point out the first SAD topic ever...
http://www.unitedti.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=8916&hl=
I wonder who posted second... ;D
(It's okay DJ, I know you don't keep tabs on people...) :)
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Lol I know
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And there you'll probably find that I said my programming is not very good. That has left some people wondering why I decided to attempt this in ASM...the thing is, ASM has so few commands that can do almost anything, you only need know the hardware you're working with to use the langauge. But that's why Buckeye Dude is doing several of the graphics routines, I know all the hardware except for those pertaining to sound and display.
And yes, I have learned a lot from him. No, S.A.D. is not going to have sound.
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I think each languages depends of people preferences really. I myself don't understand anything about how hardware work, even if you explained it to me I would still not get it (people tried before). I kind of prefer TI-BASIC easefullness, but it is not very suitable for games that needs a lot of speed or AI.
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I have made some more progress on the GUI for the on calc campaign designer, just more subroutines though, mainly the menu ones...
I'll post some screenies when I am able to sneak my calc to the comp
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Nice, can't wait to see it ^^
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I don't usually play these kinds of games, but I felt compelled to post. The team working on this game is really doing a nice job, the graphics are really sharp! Is BuckeyeDude handling all the coding?
Buckeye Dude and I both are, and we might have a third from time to time (long story). But because I'm not fluent in ASM, I'm lack the skill at optimizing graphics, so he's doing all the coding for the tilemap and sprite routines. He's also editing anything I write that could be optimized more.
Ah ok, that seems it'll work out pretty good.
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This keeps getting better and better! I love the manual too :)
Is the game pretty much completely planned out now, or is there still more to do?
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There's still more we have to plan out. It's mostly the AI and data formats
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I redid some of the sprites to make everything smaller. The bigger sprites that are going to be used for the manual took too much calculator screen space.
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YAY!!! More progress! I love how smaller sprites still look very nice and recognizable!
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I love how smaller sprites still look very nice and recognizable!
Thanks! I will say my biggest fear when making these smaller was lack of detail
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Looks pretty nice :)
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Looks great! I like them. They are nice and recognisable.
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Yeah, good sprite art :D
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The system for building construction has been changed dramatically. Each building now has a building time. A Scouter starts a building and lets it construct on its own; this means that a Scouter can start construction of another structure as soon as it starts construction of the first one. (For you Starcraft people, this is like a protoss probe opening up warp gates) An ACC, however, can only construct one building at a time.
For right now, there is now only one restriction on the ACC, in that it cannot repair buildings when an enemy is near.
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Cool, I like the warp gate idea. In Starcraft with Terrans I often ended up not being able to keep up with all these SCVs around when the base grew bigger and eventually some got lost in the mess x.x
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No new screenshots, because I'm waiting for some better sprite routines from Buckeye. However, I successfully started implementing objects. Right now, when moving the tilemap around, pressing 2nd will select a random building and place it at the top right corner of the map position. I am now currently working on making the building selection user-selectable, which I will probably have a screenshot for since I can use my current sprite routines.
In S.A.D., each player can build up to 5 Operation Centers and up to 45 of any mixture of the other buildings. Speaking of which, here's some information I put on UnitedTi about defensive structures and balance issues...this is very important:
In a normal RTS game, defensive buildings can be built next to each other, far away from each other, any positions you desire, and the defense will neither be overpowering nor a waste of money. But if this approach of defensive-buildings next to each other is used in S.A.D. (like it used to be), this causes problems for three reasons:
1. The range of defenses is square, not circular.
2. You can only control one unit. The issue is when defense is stacked together, the amount of damage increases expotentially rather than by a set amount. The thing that's important is that by your enemy being able to control just one unit, two defensive buildings placed next to each other could be a waste of money, but three placed next to each other would be just the right amount, and four placed next to each other would be way too cheap. I can't explain this better without a diagram, but the point is, one unit at a time is not a cost-effective way to take out defense this way.
3. You control your unit manually, and can move/fire in only 8 directions. This means although there are places you could move to avoid being hit by more than one defensive structure (like in a standard RTS game) it can be tedious and, in some cases, impossible.
So the idea is to try to work out defense so that the only way a unit can be hit by multiple defense is by not scouting the area first and, therefore, making a careless move. Then it will be much easier to design defense so that it is not too cheap and not too expensive.
The method used to help with balancing defense (for a cautious player) is preventing defensives buildings from being built so close together.
The first image is a diagram of the area around a typical Point Defense Structure. The range is 3 vertically, horizontally, diagonally, etc. away from the point defense. (Black color wherever possible) The red is each 16x16 area where you cannot put a second Point Defense, because there is some area where a player could be hit by dual fire even with extreme caution. The yellow indicates where Universal Defense cannot be built (but you CAN put standard point defense in that area)...if Universal Defense covers 4 yellow squares (as opposed to 1, 2 or 3 yellow squares), there would be some area where a player would be hit by dual fire even with extreme caution. Any black or white squares means defense can be placed in that area. In addition, Universal Defense can be placed on a 32 x 32 area if it isn't on top of 4 yellow squares. There are some red squares where Universal Defense cannot be built, but I have to work on that
The second image is a diagram of the area around a typical Anti-Air Structure. The concept is the same, but the blue represents where you cannot put a second AA defense. There are some blue squares where Universal Defense cannot be built, but I have to work on that
With this in mind, AA Defense and Point Defense can be built right next to each other without any issues.
The last diagram is the area around a typical Universal Defense Structure. The range is 4 vertically, horizontally, diagonally, etc. away from the Universal Defense. (Black Color wherever possible). The green represents a 16 x 16 tile where you cannot put Point Defense or AA Defense. The yellow indicates where Universal Defense cannot be built (but you CAN put standard point defense in that area)...if Universal Defense covers 4 yellow squares (as opposed to 1, 2 or 3), there would be some area where a player would be hit by dual fire even with extreme caution. The purple squares are additional Universal Defense no-nos, as well as areas where you cannot put AA Defense or Point Defense.
So if a player is careful, this system prevents overpowering of defense...if defense gives you more than your money's worth, it's the enemy player's fault, not yours.
By the way, this might be the best time to say that the cost of ships and buildings is subject to change when we find out how fast money comes in from refineries. If money comes in quickly, units will be more expensive. If it comes in slowly, units will be cheaper.
This also might be the best time to say that Universal Defense cannot be harmed by a Degruser's Photon Torpedoes.
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mhmm nice concept, I think this should help balance the game more.
In Starcraft, there are newer players who will just fill their entire base with cannons. In this case, it can get near impossible to get through if the enemy isn't that great (for example if he forgets that he can just use long-range units)
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Wow, that's cool! Sounds great! :)
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In Starcraft, there are newer players who will just fill their entire base with cannons. In this case, it can get near impossible to get through if the enemy isn't that great (for example if he forgets that he can just use long-range units)
Or mass hydra. Hydralisk is a photo cannon killer :D
Anyways, nice job, Hot Dog! This really must be a back-breaking hard work!
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Well it depends, because if the base only has a tiny entrance and it has about 90 cannons, I wish good luck for the hydras. The only real way to get past that many cannons is using guardians, siege tanks or reavers while keeping a few anti air units behind. Nukes also works but it's not as reliable
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Very nice work. I like how your group project goes on so sweetly 0.0
respect++ for you.
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I have a progress update, but I want to start by answering ztrumpet's question:
Is it possible to have an option that would show up on calcs with xRam to "Use Ram or xRam"?
We're probably going to have two versions of S.A.D.--one for regular ti-83+, and one for Ti-83+ SE and Ti-84+. The latter will use the extra ram, as well as 15 MHz mode unless playing against a regular ti-83+.
Now for the update: In the process of adding objects, I did some work on the icon menu system. My goal was to create menu code that would make it very, very easy to add the other menus, and it seems to be working so far. Here's the work I did on adding structures.
In future versions, I'll add hotkey support, and the menu / description text will be displayed over the game, rather than on a blank screen.
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Nice! It really looks great, and I love the building graphics as well! Nice job!
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Excellent!! I like the building graphics. You all have done a really nice job with them!
I have a progress update, but I want to start by answering ztrumpet's question:
Is it possible to have an option that would show up on calcs with xRam to "Use Ram or xRam"?
We're probably going to have two versions of S.A.D.--one for regular ti-83+, and one for Ti-83+ SE and Ti-84+. The latter will use the extra ram, as well as 15 MHz mode unless playing against a regular ti-83+.
Sounds great. What will you do about newer 84s that don't have the full xRam? Are you only using a small portion of it? If so, then it will work on the new calcs, but you already knew this ;D
Thanks!
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What will you do about newer 84s that don't have the full xRam? Are you only using a small portion of it? If so, then it will work on the new calcs, but you already knew this
Well, I thought that the newer ones had the same ram structure as the ti-83+ SE. You're not talking about the n-sprire 84 emulator, are you? If that's the case, one would probably want to use the 83+ version, which will switch to 15 Mhz if it can.
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Apparently, the NSpire has the extra RAM available, as the Omnicalc RestoreMem() and Virtual Calc functions seem to work correctly. The only problem is that the NSpire is very slow with asm code, so I dunno how you could speed this up.
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hotkeys will be cool because they really speed things up in SC. Menu icons looks nice so far btw
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Nice, I havn't really been keeping tabs( :-X ) on this but it seems it has been moving along nicely!
hotkeys will be cool because they really speed things up in SC. Menu icons looks nice so far btw
hotkeys ;)
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Why do you quote just to reply with one word? I don't even notice a spelling mistake or anything in there. Plus grammar-nazism isn't allowed anyway
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I wasn't being grammer nazi, I was just emphasizing the word because I liked the idea ;D
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ah ok
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Good news: my finals are done, so I'll be continuing work on displaying buildings on the tilemap, and it should be done by next week.
Ztrumpet and Prophets, this will be the first pre-alpha build I'll give to you guys because of helping me with the turn-based S.A.D. Of course, this implies that you don't share it with anyone.
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Nice to hear! Will you have screenies too?
And I wonder if there will be another alpha eventually (or beta) in the future that will be avaliable for everyone? :D
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Umm, hot_Dog, once you give me the appvar format, do you think i can have a copy too, to make sure the saved appvars work? :P
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Nice to hear! Will you have screenies too?
Definitely
And I wonder if there will be another alpha eventually (or beta) in the future that will be avaliable for everyone?
Somewhat...there will be a beta for volunteers, before a demo for everybody is released--anyone can volunteer for the beta if they're willing to put in the 10 hours a week, more on that later
Umm, hot_Dog, once you give me the appvar format, do you think i can have a copy too, to make sure the saved appvars work?
Deal. :) But we're not working on that part for a while. In the meantime, cooliojazz, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we consider you part of the team for working on the computer application(s)...if you want the builds that ztrumpet and Prophets are recieving, that's certainly fine by me :D
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Aaah ok, well the way you are talking I hope you aren't planning to make the final version only for volunteers either x.x, but again I would understand having demos only to reward people helping on the project.
Personally I won't help, though, because I tend to prefer working solo on stuff except if someone wants to optimize my game once completed, plus because of my unstable myself, my motivation hits up and downs and I would hate hitting a long down in the middle of the project and end up doing nothing (which happened to me with a Final Fantasy project in 2005, the last time I ever worked on a team project) x.x
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Aaah ok, well the way you are talking I hope you aren't planning to make the final version only for volunteers either x.x, but again I would understand having demos only to reward people helping on the project.
The demo will be for everyone, including on ticalc.org. The testing is to take care of potential balance issues, because I want to make sure that those playing the demo have a well-balanced game. I honestly did not mean to sound like the game had a lot of restrictions as to who could play what, and I apologize for the tone that may have been felt. Those who know me know that attitude is just not like me.
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Oh wait i misread, I totally missed the "before a demo" x.x part. I should prbly have read the post a few more times x.x I have reading comprehension issues, so my apologies for that. I understand about the testing part. You don't want to do like Texas Instruments with their OSes after all (or Jester Interactive with their softwares, altough the MTVMG is still awesome)
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Oh wait i misread, I totally missed the "before a demo" x.x part. I should prbly have read the post a few more times x.x I have reading comprehension issues, so my apologies for that. I understand about the testing part. You don't want to do like Texas Instruments with their OSes after all (or Jester Interactive with their softwares, altough the MTVMG is still awesome)
No, you read it right the first time. I saw that some voted -1 for me, so I edited the post, realizing that what I said came out wrong
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oh ok I see x.x, thanks for the clarification.
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I hope that this new update has been worth the wait. But I'll let the screenshot speak for itself. Special thanks to Buckeye for the sprite routine.
For ztrumpet, Prophets, and cooliojazz:
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The build is available using the password I PMed to you guys. Just open Objects.rar. Please don't share/distribute the file, and feel free to send me any bugs you find. I think I found all the bugs, but I recommend you run the program on an emulator just the same.
To use the program, press plus to add a building, and enter to put it on the map; it will build at the upper-left corner of the current screen location. Press the soft keys to change the speed, and press CLEAR to exit.
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WOW! Friggin awesome looking! I was skeptical about the menu being too big for this game before, but now I see it inside the game and it just fits pretty well. As for the text, I would suggest having something to surround it, though, if there are ever map designs with dark tiles, else it might not look too great. Great job so far!
Questions:
-Will game options be changeable both in game and between games? I didn't like how in SC you had to play a game to change them. In some other games, I didn't like not being able to change options in game either.
-Will we be able to adjust scrolling/cursor speed and turn ON/OFF quick key repeat? (when holding down an arrow key, cursor moves, then wait half a second, then moves continuously instead of starting moving continuously immediately.) Some people may prefer slower movement so it's easier to select stuff, but some other people may prefer faster movement if they become good enough.
-Where did ProphetsDementia go?
-Are hotkeys still planned?
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Wow hot_dog SAD looks great. Keep it up I am thoroughly impressed.
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The pure awesomeness is here. I love how all this is progressing.
Finally, the first RTS for the calc!
Good job, and keep up the good work, the whole S.A.D. crew!
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-Will game options be changeable both in game and between games? I didn't like how in SC you had to play a game to change them. In some other games, I didn't like not being able to change options in game either.
That depends on what options we have.
-Will we be able to adjust scrolling/cursor speed and turn ON/OFF quick key repeat? (when holding down an arrow key, cursor moves, then wait half a second, then moves continuously instead of starting moving continuously immediately.) Some people may prefer slower movement so it's easier to select stuff, but some other people may prefer faster movement if they become good enough.
You will be able to adjust the speed at which the map scrolls, but the cursor speed will be fixed and without quick key repeat. This is because the cursor moves at 16 pixel intervals rather than one pixel at a time.
-Where did ProphetsDementia go?
Your guess is as good as mine. But I won't be worried unless I don't hear from him in, say, 2 weeks from now
-Are hotkeys still planned?
Absolutely!
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OOoh I see about the cursor. I guess that should be fine then. Can it move diagonally?
Maybe you could PM Prophets in case he might have forgot?
And glad hotkeys are still planned ^^
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Will you be able to point where to build the buildings? or will it always be upper left corner?
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Will you be able to point where to build the buildings? or will it always be upper left corner?
You'll definitely be able to point where the buildings are placed. That, and the cursor, are the next part I'm programming. Like most RTS games, you'll see an image of the building so you know exactly where you're putting it, and it will be inversed if you can't build it in a certain area.
As for the cursor moving diagonally, I'm not sure. :(
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RAWR.
:3
So.
How about that PW that someone PM'ed me on?
It didn't show... Not to mention I couldn't find the build.
:(
EDIT: LOL. Found the build. Now for the password...
EDIT 2: Found. Never mind.
EDIT 3: I find this intriguing. You said this is in BASIC [xLib-enhanced], correct?
Did you use BasicBuilder to compile an APP?
EDIT 4: Never mind; you moved to ASM. Oi.
How am I supposed to help you then...?
I am a TI-BASIC programmer, not ASM.
:(
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EDIT 4: Never mind; you moved to ASM. Oi.
How am I supposed to help you then...?
I am a TI-BASIC programmer, not ASM.
There's two different versions of S.A.D. The main one, a real-time version, is in ASM. There's also a turn-based one, THIS is the one being written in Ti-Basic and Xlib, and THIS is the one I need you volunteered for :)
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If you give me some assets, I can fiddle around with them.
I finished my competition (GOT A GOLD MEDAL!) so, I'm free.
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If you give me some assets, I can fiddle around with them.
I finished my competition (GOT A GOLD MEDAL!) so, I'm free.
http://ourl.ca/4275 Please read the WHOLE topic, including replies. This will explain what's happening.
Congrats on your medal!
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Read.
I still need assets to work on the engine.
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Congrats on the competition. Did you actually post about it before? I totally forgot. What was the competition about?
That said, glad to see you back, though ^^
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Yes, it was a competition called ACT-SO. It's basically the African-American Science Olympiad.
LEMONADE TYCOON BEAT A ROBOT FOR GOLD! :D :D
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Wow nice :O
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Now that things are settled in terms of extra routines I need, I'll start posting progress updates of S.A.D. in my signature, as well as letting everyone know what I'm working on next.
The rest of this week is going to be spent preparing for the Ti-Basic turn-based version of S.A.D., since I have a goal to finish it by the end of summer of this year. Next week I'm going to start working on the cursor aspect of the real-time version of S.A.D.
From now on, I will sometimes refer to the real-time version of S.A.D. as the "original."
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Understood.
OH!
What does the GUI look like?
Because my idea is radically different...
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Understood.
OH!
What does the GUI look like?
Because my idea is radically different...
"Patience, Iago, Patience" ;) Anyways, I'll give you everything you need to know and everything you need by this Saturday, if not sooner. But I'm completely dedicated in putting things together for next week, so it makes it easier for me if I explain everything on "Doomsday" rather than a little at a time
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As long as the Doomsday you are talking about is not December 21st 2012 or 2037 :P
That said, though, try to not put too much pressure on yourself with releases dates, though. I generally don't have close ones, because I always fear I will not be able to meet them and disappoint people x.x
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Here's the next screenshot and build of S.A.D. I've implemented a limited cursor...you press 2nd to display the cursor, and 2nd to go back to moving the map around. Right now the cursor will not move to other parts of the map.
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That looks awesome! Great job, and is the App for Prophets and I, or not? ;D
I'm about to finally be able to work on the stuff you emailed me (DJ, that's how we talked a few days ago. :) ) on!. I get to help with SAD! Yay! ;D
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That looks awesome! Great job, and is the App for Prophets and I, or not?
It's for everyone this time
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Nice one
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I'll be taking a short break--probably one week--from the project for a little while. I got addicted to Microsoft's Puzzle Pack, which took the free time I had for this week.
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I hope you don't give up on SAD, though :( I will be waiting for progress afterward :)
Is the MS Puzzle Pack kinda similar to the calc one or is it a totally different one?
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I hope you don't give up on SAD, though :( I will be waiting for progress afterward :)
Nope, haven't given up on it
Is the MS Puzzle Pack kinda similar to the calc one or is it a totally different one?
No idea. Here's the website: http://www.microsoft.com/games/puzzle/
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I've just tried sending the last version to my calc, but it failed. TI Connect said something about a signature problem...
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That happened a lot for me when I tried transferring Celtic III to the calc.
I think Hot_Dog screwed up when he was compiling.
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Mhmm that sucks, I wonder how Iambian fixed it... you may want to ask him directly. I know I didn't have issues sending the latest Celtic apps so maybe he managed to fix it.
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Yeah, that issue got fixed only very lately on CelticIII, like the last 3 versions or so. Before, it only worked on an emu.
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Yes, I forgot to sign the build. However, it was an April Fool's day joke anyways.
As for future builds, I need to get you the password so you can open them, Silver Shadow. I'll do my best to remember to sign them, although I highly recommend you don't risk running them on your calculator if you can avoid it.
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Look for a progress update this weekend. In the meantime, I have some good news...all builds for S.A.D. will now be public. You can thank people on this site I've grown to admire (especially DJ_Omnimaga) for this
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YAY!! I get to try S.A.D.!! Thanks Hot_Dog
And more progress^^
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YAY!! I get to try S.A.D.!! Thanks Hot_Dog
:) You're another person I was thinking of when I decided to make builds public.
Don't feel sad, people, there are several people I was thinking of. I just don't have the time nor the memory to list them all
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Yay can,t wait to see SAD update and to try it ^^
Glad this project is still alive too. Also thanks ^^
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Wooo wow a demo release? That sounds awesome :) glad you are releasing this to the public, cant wait to try it out! ^^
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Alrighty, a new build available to all! PLEASE RUN THIS ON AN EMULATOR, I will not be held responsible if you run this program on your actual calculator and it crashes.
Controls: (This is not final; doubtless there were be changes to make the key interface easier to use to play the game.)
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Soft Keys: Change the speed at which the map scrolls
DEL: Toggle Cursor On/Off. You can use the cursor to move off the edge of the screen to see more of the map.
+ : Bring up the structure menu (For right now, you CANNOT add a building to the map when the cursor is turned on.)
ENTER: Select a building to add (then use the arrow keys to choose where you want to put the building. You can scroll off the edge of the screen like you can with the cursor)
2nd: Place your building on the map. Afterwards, you return to moving the map without the cursor
Next Up:
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Using the cursor to view information about the structures
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I will not be held responsible if you run this program on your actual calculator and it crashes.
oops I should have read this carefully when I saw your post. Disregard my lawsuit then.
j/k seriously this looks friggin awesome! I'm trying this as soon as I analyzed the instructions carefully!
I think this goes on front page soon, along with a few other game demos that recently came out.
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Ok just tried this now, awesome looking!
I like the menu and stuff so far. Suggestion, though: would it be possible to change the building selection to 2nd instead of ENTER? I always end up pressing 2nd by reflex when in the menu x.x. For cancelling Alpha would be good. It would also be nice to be able to build while the cursor is enabled too
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Sure, and all those things will be done in due time :) The goal in the future is to add multiple key support (especially for those who's 2nd key is wearing away, like Buckeye's 2nd key), which means most actions will have two or more keys you can use to do certain actions. The only thing is, Alpha is used for "hotkeys" in the build menu, so that would be strictly reserved for that. Instead, we'll use Mode, Del, and Clear for canceling menus.
In the mean time, we're working on the big stuff before we get to the little fine-tuning details. So I do highly recommend that you don't use the builds to "train yourself" for when the demo version of S.A.D. is released...in other words, don't train yourself to do "speed runs" with the keys since they will be changed to be easier in due course
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options to change keys/controls would rule ^^, or at least two keys for most stuff. And don't worry about speedruns, I'll wait until final version (or a demo that has a lot of stuff you can do including destroying the enemy) before trying to do a tool-assis... err... speedrun ;D
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The option to change keys has been suggested by several people. However, if for some reaseon we can't get it to work out, there will be several "key configurations" available...say 3-4.
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Aaah ok cool that should work too ^^
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Sweet demo! I noticed when I ran it, however, that I was able to place buildings in the middle of the air. Probably not the best thing.
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Aaah I wasn't sure if it was possible, I expected it but I only tried stacking them :P, most likely no buildings collision detection implemented yet :P
A suggestion I would have when placing buildings is having a rectangle border around them until we place them, because it's hard to tell otherwise if the building is placed or not, especially since we cannot place buildings when the cursor is enabled
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Cool! Hot Dog, I like the decision to let everyone try this. :) I agree with this move. ;D (Of course, my opinion doesn't matter, but I still like your decision. :D )
I will not be held responsible if you run this program on your actual calculator and it crashes.
oops I should have read this carefully when I saw your post. Disregard my lawsuit then.
lol!
I've actually had the very first think Hot Dog gave out on my calc for about a month, and it seems extremely stable. ;D
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Lucky D:
Oh well now we got it public :D
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Collision Detection still has to be implemented, yes. And I agree about the rectangle border.
Also, if a building can't be placed in a particular spot, you will see inverse colors...aka a black filled rectangle with a white outline of the building. To save space and processing power, I'm not going to do something like Starcraft where you see "red" squares for the particular tiles getting in the way of the building...rather if even a single tile is in the way of the building the whole building will change color.
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Yeah inverted colors sounds like a good deal :) even if the entire building turns inverted despite being on some tiles you can build on. Another idea could be a huge X appearing on the building when it's over places you can't build on.
Also, for the rectangle, are you planning to have extremly dark terrain tiles for some maps? if it's the case, I would recommend having a black rectangle (not filled of course :P), surrounded by a white one. It would make it easier to see the rectangle on dark maps.
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I'm not adding any extremely dark terrain tiles. Maybe dark sky, but that's it. Dark terrain tiles will prevent some of the graphics from being seen well.
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aaah ok then I guess just one border should be enough.
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The ideas for the rectangle and how to tell if its setable or not are good. Another idea would be to make the line dotted when you can't place it or something, just a thought.
I haven't tested this yet but it looks amazing :)
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Btw, I noticed some slowdowns sometimes when map is scrolling. The scrolling speed appear to not be consistent. Is it because of the real time nature of the game? Also it slows down a bit with buildings on the screen, but I had like 12 at once I think
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I have no idea why the scrolling speed isn't consistent (I did notice that), but we're optimizing--or going to be optimizing--the drawing for the buildings, since we hope to have 24 on screen at greatest.
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aaaah ok. The scrolling was fast, though, I just noticed this at one point where I decided somehow to set the emu at 5% speed :P
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Here's a new update! This will be my last one for a while, but not because of homework; it's because my next goal on this project requires a lot of time:
1. Make this into two app pages (For those of you who want to risk putting this on the calculator without filing any lawsuits, this is important: Future builds, not including this one, will take TWICE AS MUCH SPACE on your calculator, as well as a decent amount of RAM. The RAM will be emptied when the program exits, but it will take somewhere around 10-15 kbs of ram until futher progress. Please don't complain, rather run further builds on an emulator unless you're willing to spare the space.)
2. Optimize
3. Add the ships!
The "Friendly" at the bottom of the info bar means the structure belongs to you or your teammate. If you see the word "enemy", that means it's an enemy structure. We're doing it this way to save space required for colored buildings.
Special thanks to Joe Pemberton for his routine that converts binary to text, I needed that to display the HP values
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/me drools
A w E s O m E
Absolutely! This game will be the first calc game I played in years. (I pretty much stopped playing them when I started coding myself)
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* Builderboy closes mpar007's mouth *
* Builderboy accidentally lets his hang as well *
:O the amount that this screenie rocks my socks cannot be expressed in mere text. Or rather i would need several pages and several hundred exclamation marks in order to express myself. For some reason i keep finding myself in this situation more and more, so i have decided to substitute with a:
You did and awesomely pwnsome job :)
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wow awesome! I like the part where you see the building info at the bottom. Question, is building time/delay gonna be implemented soon? (for example if it takes a few seconds to build a factory)
Also I don't mind the space it takes, even if it takes 10 pages of app and all RAM (unless it's like Gemini where you need to delete everything else from archive to clear the VAT x.x)
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wow awesome! I like the part where you see the building info at the bottom. Question, is building time/delay gonna be implemented soon? (for example if it takes a few seconds to build a factory)
Also I don't mind the space it takes, even if it takes 10 pages of app and all RAM (unless it's like Gemini where you need to delete everything else from archive to clear the VAT x.x)
Yes, we'll have building delay for construction...and you will be able to see the building progress when you highlight it. It won't be a bar, but you will see the HP increasing little by little.
In this case, when a building is constructing, the graphic will appear as a foundation with a wrench on it. Since we need to conserve space, we're not going to be able to do what Starcraft does and display parts of the building that have been made.
As for RAM, we're going to make the amount reasonable so users don't have to worry about the VAT. Plus, we're going to make a version where ti-84+ users (or Ti-83+ silver edition users) will have the data stored in the extra 96 KB ram. The reason we're using so much ram is for processing power...in the case of a multi-page application, it's faster to access data from ram than it is to access data from another page.
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Nice, I like the alternate building sprite idea. I doN,t think showing it gradually being built is necessary, just have it look like it's still being built.
I disagree with the 84+ extra RAM idea, though. It will single out everyone who got a TI-84+ made after March 2007. Those new 84+ lacks the extra 96 KB of RAM and only actually have 16 of it (which is accessed differently, IIRC). Remember the whole issues about people no longer being able to run TI-Boy SE, RealSound, Msd8x, Omnicalc RestoreMem(), etc.
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I disagree with the 84+ extra RAM idea, though. It will single out everyone who got a TI-84+ made after March 2007. Those new 84+ lacks the extra 96 KB of RAM and only actually have 16 of it (which is accessed differently, IIRC). Remember the whole issues about people no longer being able to run TI-Boy SE, RealSound, Msd8x, Omnicalc RestoreMem(), etc.
I actually did not know that...we'll probably make an option instead, and have user ram available as default.
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I wonder if the guy who made the program that checks if your calc has the extra RAM could let you use the code to detect this extra RAM so your game store the info in an alternative way when ran on a calc lacking the extra RAM? I forgot who it is but the program was located in a topic named "Extra RAM pages trouble" on UTI forums.
Also the TI-83+ Silver Edition has the entire 96 KB hidden RAM.
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I wonder if the guy who made the program that checks if your calc has the extra RAM could let you use the code to detect this extra RAM so your game store the info in an alternative way when ran on a calc lacking the extra RAM? I forgot who it is but the program was located in a topic named "Extra RAM pages trouble" on UTI forums.
Ah, okay...I'll look into that sometime
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It would really be terrible if you had to use the extra ram... I personally have a calc that was made just right after they changed the hardware, so I can't run TI-Boy, etc. Although playing pokemon was solved using my TI-89, if I can't play S.A.D., I would probably cry, and rickroll myself to death
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It would really be terrible if you had to use the extra ram... I personally have a calc that was made just right after they changed the hardware, so I can't run TI-Boy, etc. Although playing pokemon was solved using my TI-89, if I can't play S.A.D., I would probably cry, and rickroll myself to death
Don't worry, it won't be required. It's just that some people would rather use the extra ram then use the 24 KB of user ram.
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That reminds me, I still need to try this. Last week was pretty rough x.x
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For those of you who noticed that I'm hammering away at these "ASM Tutorials", but not touching S.A.D., I felt you should know that these weeks are leaving me only 15-min breaks instead of 6-hour breaks. Meaning, I lack the time to just sit down and program. When I'm working with ASM on a large project, I need that time that I can just sit down and do it, where as I can work on tutorials in 15-1 hour increments.
Thanks for understanding, and remember that S.A.D. is not dead.
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I understand very well, coding sometimes takes a lot of concentration and it doesn't work when you have to stop after 15 mins, since getting into it takes a while.
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Speaking of SAD, the turn based version isn't dead either, I'm just don't have much free time either.
I hope eventually both will get some work done on them. :)
I understand very well, coding sometimes takes a lot of concentration and it doesn't work when you have to stop after 15 mins, since getting into it takes a while.
Me too. Remember we all want SAD, so no progress is better than it being dead. ;D
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Speaking of SAD, the turn based version isn't dead either, I'm just don't have much free time either.
You must not have heard, I have the turn-based version on hold, Ztrumpet. I'd recommend you focus more on your other projects until we find out if it's an indefinite hold or not :)
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Speaking of SAD, the turn based version isn't dead either, I'm just don't have much free time either.
You must not have heard, I have the turn-based version on hold, Ztrumpet. I'd recommend you focus more on your other projects until we find out if it's an indefinite hold or not :)
Oh, okay, then I'm not going to work on it more for now. Let me know if you want me to keep working, though. ;D
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I hope it won't die, though x.x (same for Elmgon and the rest)
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I hope it won't die, though x.x (same for Elmgon and the rest)
Let me reassure you, nothing's dead. ;D
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good to hear
/me tends to get worried when projects hardly see progress for a few months ;.;
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Quick progress update. The app now takes 4 pages, and uses approximately 20000 KB of user RAM, although the finished program will use much less RAM. As I said before, if you want to run alpha versions on a hard calculator rather than an emulator, be prepared to spare the space. I am now optimizing, and then the next screenshot/download will incorporate ships!
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Check Brandon Wilson website and his calcstuff folder. He has there a extra ram page test routine.
Quick progress update. The app now takes 4 pages, and uses approximately 20000 KB of user RAM, although the finished program will use much less RAM. As I said before, if you want to run alpha versions on a hard calculator rather than an emulator, be prepared to spare the space. I am now optimizing, and then the next screenshot/download will incorporate ships!
I hope it is 20 KB or 20000 bytes. hehehe ;D
Can't wait to see some real action in the screenies. (epic ships battle, please)
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I hope it is 20 KB or 20000 bytes. hehehe
Agh, thanks for correcting me.
Can't wait to see some real action in the screenies. (epic ships battle, please)
Sure thing. But...sigh...that won't happen for a while
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New progress! Glad to see this is worked on again. I don't mind the size, btw. As long as it won't take more than 23900 ish bytes of RAM at once (so I have enough space for the VAT for other archived files) I don't really care how huge it is in terms of archive memory if the game is gonna be good.
can't wait to see more progress!
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Just so y'all know I'm not being lazy this summer 8)
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Nice, those look epic :)
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Nice! Those look both excellent and epic! ;D
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Excellent sprite work, Hot_dog! :)
Can't wait for more... (Other S.A.D. progress, that is)
Epic!
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WOW amazing!
Good job with those. That makes me want the game even more!
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I decided to post the S.A.D. map here, rather than in the "Story Setting" area, although this will be the story setting post for the week.
A couple of notes. First of all, the dashed line is a wormhole from one galaxy to the other, which will be described. I have to edit the storyline, so you might find a "timeline" with years eariler than where I'm currently at.
Second, Balkos is there on the map. It's tiny in scale, but it's a little purple moon if you look closely enough.
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wow nice :D and it reminds me a bit Star Fox for some reason. Very nice :D
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wow nice :D and it reminds me a bit Star Fox for some reason. Very nice :D
You know, now that you mention it, it does look like star fox :)
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Nice Hot Dog! That's really cool. ;D
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I plan on releasing an actual development build to the public this summer, but in the meantime, I realized I should post more screenies to keep interest up ;D
Since I'm redoing the engine so that buildings are part of the tilemap, I've had to move to 16 x 16 tiles. I took the time to redo the map to our new perspective.
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awesome, can't wait to see this completed :) good luck
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wow nice, and you managed to still have the tiles look pretty nice even with the perspective change. Good job!
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Yeah, I thought it was a bad idea when I first saw it, but I like it!
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That's still awesome! SAD'll be great. ;D
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Btw are you planning to integrate some sort of smaller version of your space map inside the game, like, a 192x128 version where you can scroll around?
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Btw are you planning to integrate some sort of smaller version of your space map inside the game, like, a 192x128 version where you can scroll around?
Something like that. At the very least, there will be a mini-map which one cannot scroll around in. I have to test the game and see if it's worth having something that a person can scroll. Starcraft and other RTS games would not have been popular if the minimap showed so much detail that people had to scroll to execute commands on the minimap--and not be able to see the whole map at once
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Cool to hear ^^, and yeah I agree about SC. I'm glad the minimal is rather small. of course on the calc the major issue would be that there are no color, though, so that's something to think about when designing the mini-map.
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Cool to hear ^^, and yeah I agree about SC. I'm glad the minimal is rather small. of course on the calc the major issue would be that there are no color, though, so that's something to think about when designing the mini-map.
Collidable tiles will be a black pixel, and normal tiles will be a white pixel. Buildings will appear as black pixels as well. I was thinking about grayscale minimaps, but I don't think there will be enough memory for that. Besides, I figure that people playing this game will be able to use context to discover what the buildings and/or collidable tiles are.
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Aaah ok I see. I was more concerned about color difference between you and your opponent. Grayascale shouldn't be a priority I think, as it can make the game more difficult to program, due to speed. You would have to reduce framerate when scrolling so the GS doesn't look ugly.
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Aaah ok I see. I was more concerned about color difference between you and your opponent. Grayascale shouldn't be a priority I think, as it can make the game more difficult to program, due to speed. You would have to reduce framerate when scrolling so the GS doesn't look ugly.
The color differences between opponents does make sense. Unfortunately, we can't make a typical RTS game for a non-typical device.
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yeah I agree, it would be rather hard.
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Here's the new screenie! I hope to have another one very soon, but I didn't know if I would finish by tonight. By the way, I haven't forgotten my promise to release builds to the public, but I want the next build I release to have ships and hotkeys--we're looking at about 2-4 weeks.
This screenshot shows an updated engine, as well as incorporating build time. But, I still have to work on the build time aspect so that some of these stuctures won't complete so quickly :)
Here's what I modified in the engine, making the time I spent worth it:
1. Buildings are part of the tilemap. This makes everything much faster. Also, collision will be much easier to program, and I can leave wreckage on the tilemap to represent a destroyed building. (Note that you can build on wreckage)
2. I made the mistake of having a seperate key-pressing routine for menus. Now, all key routines are combined into one.
3. In the previous build, all buildings were scanned on a consistent basis for collision. With the new building-as-part-of-tilemap policy, there's no need for that. So, as for right now, only buildings being built are scanned, and that's only for timing and adding HP.
The next screenie will allow you to see the HP rising as the building is constructing. The HP is technically rising in this build, but because I updated the engine, I need to update the text that displays when you highlight a building.
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Cool! BUt this also means that teh greater the amount of buildings the slower it will run right? I mean it is inevitable to have slowdowns but seemingly by this new approach you ahve reduced them to a minimum. How much buildings will it take until it is unplayable? And how much memory is used currently?
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Each player can have up to 50 buildings. Unless by per chance there is 100 buildings constructing at once (Starcraft you could do this, but it's much harder to do in S.A.D.), I don't think there's a chance of becoming slow enough to be unplayable. Currently, about 18300 bytes of RAM is being used. My goal is to have at least 2 KB for the user (and the memory will be available when the game exits), but it is a big game.
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Impressive...I always like seeing the updates on this. It gets better and better. Keep it up Hot_Dog
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Looks nice, raising HP barswill definitively be a must, though, else if you build a lot of buildings besides each others it will be hard to make the difference between each others since they all have the same icon while building.
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wow, this is really nice. Good Job!
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wow, this is really nice. Good Job!
That was a reaction on a post I just deleted because it was in the wrong topic. Sorry for the incovenience.
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New screenshot! This is to give you a general idea of the increasing HP you'll see when you highlight a building.
However, I decided just today to change the way this routine acts. I'm going to create a new font. The reason for doing this is I use interrupts for syncing games between two calculators. The Ti B_CALL font routine requires that I disable interrupts--and of the course, the Ti font routine can be really slow. So if a player is highlighting a building, the other player has to wait even a teeny-tiny fraction of a second for the other player, causing frame jumps if nothing worse. Creating my own font will solve this problem.
The advantage is, I can create a really-neat futuristic font. The disadvantage is, it will probably put me about 4 days behind schedule. Thanks for understanding that I'm doing this to create the best gaming experience possible.
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Nice! Altough honestly said I expected that there would be a bar filling up. well never mind though this is just as good.
Besides that, I never knew the TI-os font disabled interrupts...what is that good for? Also: won't it take up to much memory to make your own font? Or is this one of those speed versus size balances?
How much actually does the engine (the engine only) take up now? has it become bigger or smaller? I am just curious of technical details like size differences....
if you have the time I'd (and many more SAD followers I guess) like to see a small (bmp/gif) picture of your font!
aargh why are all the cool projects unfinished :P have you seen digitan's robo wars! that's just like this one, one of the best games ever developed (or in development).../me gets off topic
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aargh why are all the cool projects unfinished have you seen digitan's robo wars! that's just like this one, one of the best games ever developed (or in development)...
I think that one is still going
Nice! Altough honestly said I expected that there would be a bar filling up. well never mind though this is just as good.
I might be able to do that, we'll have to see
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I just redesigned BigFoot and Hydron of the Xaos. Bigfoot is now isometric compatible and I have uploaded a animated gif here:http://ourl.ca/6234/100569 (http://ourl.ca/6234/100569)
on page 2 of that same topic is the new version of the hydron.
I don't want to give stats yet but currently consider the Bigfoot to be the equal of the Raptor and consider hydron to be like the splitron.
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I don't want to give stats yet but currently consider the Bigfoot to be the equal of the Raptor and consider hydron to be like the splitron.
Gotcha. I hope that this is the same thing as saying "Consider the zergling like the Zealot" instead of saying "the zergling is exactly like the zealot" :)
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Besides that, I never knew the TI-os font disabled interrupts...what is that good for? Also: won't it take up to much memory to make your own font? Or is this one of those speed versus size balances?
It doesn't. But the interrupt routines I have lie in ROM, not in RAM, so I had to disable them manually to get the text routines to work
The font will only have 42 characters, so I'd say it takes about 200 bytes. This is about speed versus size. Something I forgot to mention is that when the interrupt routines are disabled, buildings take longer to construct.
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I like the building progress. A progress bar could be a plus. I would also like custom fonts, since TI font routines are indeed slow. Nice job so far!
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Hey, that looks neat! Could it display parts of the building being built instead of the wrench, or would that be too slow? :D
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Hey, that looks neat! Could it display parts of the building being built instead of the wrench, or would that be too slow? :D
Actually, speed isn't the issue. But it requires a lot of memory to do something like that. If it turns out that I will only be able to do one race due to constraints, I could probably show parts of buildings.
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Here's the new font routine.
I'm not going to display the total HP a building could have, so per requst, I'll place a health bar / progress bar into the game. However, before I do that, I need to fix some bugs occuring in displaying the HP. The bugs don't appear in the screenshot, but basically, sometimes the incorrect HP displays.
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What if you drew the sprites line by line for how far they are done? Like:
Finished:
O O
v
\__/
0%:
33%:
\__/
66%:
v
\__/
100%:
O O
v
\__/
Would that work?
That screenie looks awesome too! Excellent job! ;D
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What if you drew the sprites line by line for how far they are done?
Good idea. Problem is, the buildings are part of the tilemap, not individual sprites themselves. However, you have given me a way to fix this. It's just not going to happen until after the next public alpha build release
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Okay. ;D I'm glad something will happen. :D
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Okay. ;D I'm glad something will happen. :D
Well I have you to thank, I couldn't think of a way to do this without using extra sprites. I should probably say that my method will be fooling the player into thinking the building isn't a full sprite. I'll be using a bunch of wrench tiles as a sprite, and overlaying it over the building, and shaving the wrench sprite little by little so it appears the building is getting bigger and bigger (although in reality, the whole building is already there) If this is confusing, you'll see what it means eventually.
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I like Ztrumpet ideas, and Hot Dog, keep up the good work and good luck on having multiple races. Also, very nice font routine. They fit quite well in game.
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I'll be using a bunch of wrench tiles as a sprite, and overlaying it over the building, and shaving the wrench sprite little by little so it appears the building is getting bigger and bigger (although in reality, the whole building is already there) If this is confusing, you'll see what it means eventually.
That makes sense and it sounds really cool! Good luck on it! ;D
Thanks for the props on the ideas. :)
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So, I'm going to take a short break--about a week or so--from S.A.D. to continue work on the ASM Tutorials. But not before displaying a screenshot that leaves you guys something to look forward to. Consider it a "teaser" screenshot! (Watch in Firefox for full speed)
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Wow awesome! Nice job. Sorry to hear about the progress halting, tho, I hope you don't lose motivation on this :(
Nice to see the tutorials will progress more, though.
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Wow awesome! Nice job. Sorry to hear about the progress halting, tho, I hope you don't lose motivation on this :(
Nice to see the tutorials will progress more, though.
Halting? Nah, I'm just taking a week break :)
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Ok phew :P
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Nice! I'll leave for a week knowing that SAD has had progress! ;D
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Nice! I'll leave for a week knowing that SAD has had progress! ;D
/me will miss you ;.;
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Progress bar, anyone? (Remember, full speed in firefox :) )
The progress bar doubles as a health bar in the case of structures, and is quite accurate (as you can see from the screenshots). However, this means that buildings in S.A.D. cannot have more than 2047 health points. As if anyone will make a building that powerful, though 8)
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nice! I don't think the maximum health points won't ever be a problem, unless somebody is in a strange mood and wants to create stupid/incredible things :P
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cool!! me wants! As for the Xaos..i haven't worked on it really but i will so soon :P
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Progress bar, anyone? (Remember, full speed in firefox :) )
The progress bar doubles as a health bar in the case of structures, and is quite accurate (as you can see from the screenshots). However, this means that buildings in S.A.D. cannot have more than 2047 health points. As if anyone will make a building that powerful, though 8)
Aww it's not OVER 9000 :(
j/k I LOVE this so far. Nice looking and great job so far :)
I hope this gets finished :) good luck!
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The engine now supports ships that have 1 sprite for each direction. This is the Balkstone.
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Cool stuff! ^^
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Nice :D
I think you should add a shadow under it, though, even if just a round one. The only issue I could see is when the ship goes above certain tiles, would it be hard to make sure the shadow only show up on certain tiles?
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Whether difficult or not, shadows would slow down the engine.
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Aaaah ok D:
It's up to you, though, anyway.
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Aaaah ok D:
It's up to you, though, anyway.
Let's put it this way: I'll certainly think about it. We still have to take weapons, fog of war and other player's ships into account, plus the fact that a shadow going straight over/through a tree or a rock is totally ridiculous. So I'll think about it, but I don't want you to cry if we can't do it
/me hands DJ a tissue
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/me cries (http://yaronet.com/v31/gfx/s2/ouin.gif) (http://yaronet.com/v31/gfx/s2/ouin.gif) (http://yaronet.com/v31/gfx/s2/ouin.gif) (http://yaronet.com/v31/gfx/s2/ouin.gif) (http://yaronet.com/v31/gfx/s2/ouin.gif)
(I really need to figure out how to add new emoticons to SMF one day...)
j/k Don't worry ;D regardless, The Game will still be awesome anyway. :)
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Wow, those screenies look great! I like the Balkstone moving around. * ZTrumpet cries with DJ over the fact the there will never be any shadow.
[semi-offtopic]I was watching South Park last night, and there was a reference to alien lifeforms called Toosians. Care to comment Hot Dog? :)[/semi-offtopic]
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Wow, those screenies look great! I like the Balkstone moving around. * ZTrumpet cries with DJ over the fact the there will never be any shadow.
[semi-offtopic]I was watching South Park last night, and there was a reference to alien lifeforms called Toosians. Care to comment Hot Dog? :)[/semi-offtopic]
Remember, I didn't say anything about NO shadows. I only said it's not a huge possiblity, I have to see how things go. I really want to make the game the best it can be, but not have to worry about hangups in the game. Who knows, it might be a lot easier than I think ;D
About South Park...I never watch it. The name "Tosonians" was completely thought up, and any reference was accidental. Either that, or South Park realized that I had picked the name "Tosonians" and didn't want to copy ME 8)
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About South Park...I never watch it. The name "Tosonians" was completely thought up, and any reference was accidental. Either that, or South Park realized that I had picked the name "Tosonians" and didn't want to copy ME 8)
lol, okay. :)
Remember, I didn't say anything about NO shadows. I only said it's not a huge possibility, I have to see how things go.
Cool! * ZTrumpet hopes for the best... ^-^
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Cool! * ZTrumpet hopes for the best...
/me feels peer pressure
;D
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Sorry for the double post.
The ultimate WMD of all WMDs: The Splitron
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I think It kinda depends on how serious you are taking shadows. If you just add them but not really care about them it should be quite easy, just add another 8x8 sprite that is drawn on the units current position with 'and' logic. If you really care about shadwos being accurate on the terrain you will need to add heightmaps which will take up more precious space. Altough I like the idea of shadows (and I am currently tinkering about a fast asm routine to do it) I think AI, pathfinding etc should have priority.
On a side note, I can't really work on SADce atm but I am quite curious about the AI in this game (is it it being developed already?)
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On a side note, I can't really work on SADce atm but I am quite curious about the AI routines...are there any already?
Even though I know what I want to do with the AI, I don't have any routines done yet.
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Shadows would be awesome, but i can see how they would be terrible draining D: Dont worry too much about them! The game has enough awesome as it is ^^
EDIT: Ninja'd by 3 shadow unrelated posts, just pretend mine was up there ^ ;D
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Whether you'll implent shadows or not I'd surely make them optional so they can be turned on or off.
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Whether you'll implent shadows or not I'd surely make them optional so they can be turned on or off.
Good idea...
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I guess that could maybe be a good idea. That said, if it's too much hassle, I guess it may be best to not add them.
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The mighty Degruser
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Great! Btw I love how your game has the sprites facing 8 directions and still looking great diagonally. I never got able to achieve this myself, because diagonally they would always end up too large or too small, and in the later case, would miss a lot of details.
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These sprites look awesome! :D
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Ohai chrisf1337, nice to see you are still around (as well as Cemetech) :D
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haha, I'm mostly around on SC, playing around with some code. but keep up the good work Hot Dog!
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Aaah ok ^^
And yeah I agree this project is amazing. Many elements in it reminds me my favorite strategy game.
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Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle, shadows were actually easy to implement. And here they are! /me hopes to be awarded with some respect points for the screenie
Every ship sprite requires a mask. So I wrote code to take the mask, invert it, and OR it to the screen. But I might need to adjust the shadows for ground vessels. In addition, shadows appear in space, quite unrealistic ;D
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Nice. ANd ya the issue would be to have to remove the shadow from space, even if it just means it instantly dissapears when going off the ground. I wonder if that would be too slow (or cause inconsistent scrolling speed x.x)
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Nice. ANd ya the issue would be to have to remove the shadow from space, even if it just means it instantly dissapears when going off the ground. I wonder if that would be too slow (or cause inconsistent scrolling speed x.x)
Well, space is really a tileset. Most tilesets occur completely on terrain, with no "space." So I would be writing a whole bunch of code to adjust shadows for just one tileset. While I was more than happy to add shadows once I discovered the ease, I'm afraid I'm too stubborn to take "space" into account when dealing with shadows.
What I might do instead is remake the tileset and make space black with white stars and planets.
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Ooh ok, I thought space was part of the main tilemap. I thought it would be a matter of checking for collision detection and when over certain tiles of a certain ID, it would just not display the shadow. Unless I am understanding wrong?
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Ooh ok, I thought space was part of the main tilemap. I thought it would be a matter of checking for collision detection and when over certain tiles of a certain ID, it would just not display the shadow. Unless I am understanding wrong?
If it were all just one tileset, yes, that's the way it would work. (SAD will have probably 4-8 tilesets) In fact, I'll be using the method you described for collision detection of buildings and collidable tiles.
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Aah ok ^^
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cool I love the shadows and find the way you implemented it in existing code quite astonishing!
In the meantime I have been tinkering ALOT about AI and here is what I've come up with so far. it doesn't give any code or pseudo code nor does it describe the "regular" Ai stuff like checking whether or not a construction site is valid and whether or not the unit can move here or there. It more or less (attempts to) describe(s) the thinking process involved in making the next decision. It just a basic draft so don't expect too much of it!
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Excellent! Wonderful job! The shadows look awesome! To me, even if they show up in space it doesn't look bad. Wow. Amazing work! I wish I could go higher than +1. ;D
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In the meantime I have been tinkering ALOT about AI and here is what I've come up with so far. it doesn't give any code or pseudo code nor does it describe the "regular" Ai stuff like checking whether or not a construction site is valid and whether or not the unit can move here or there. It more or less (attempts to) describe(s) the thinking process involved in making the next decision. It just a basic draft so don't expect too much of it!
Great minds think alike, don't they? That's almost exactly the plan of attack I had. However, if I can make a suggestion, don't let enthusiasm kill your priorities. The AI is not going to be implemented for a while, and it's very important that you work on the ce. I estimate if you take it at a relaxing pace--which I recommend--it will take maybe a year. If you can't access a computer, you should do what I do and write code on paper :)
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Looks great! Keep up the good work! :D
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Yea I'll have to damp my enthusiasm sometimes...:P
Altough I did think SADce wasn't that important atm because it is going to take somewhile before the first release. Well actually,whilst I am typing this I can see a good reason to have SADce completed soon, to make all the campaigns of course. Unfortunately I'll have to hand copy all the information I have so far so i'll surely take a look at it today.
1. Sadce
2. Xaos
3. Everything else (=42)
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Not as dangerous as Velociraptor, but it gets pretty close. The Raptor.
By the way, shadows are still included. But we're adjusting sprite routines, and I need to adjust shadows for ground vessels so that they don't look like they're "flying." So they are temporarily turned off.
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That looks neat. How many units are flying, and how many are ground? :)
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That looks neat. How many units are flying, and how many are ground? :)
For the human race, it's 5 ground, 4 flying.
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That is a *very* shiny screenie if i do say so myself, excellent work on this HotDog, and i cant wait to see what else you bring to the table :)
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Good work. The rotated sprites look good.
Next step is commanding a group of units, right? That would be epic. ;)
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I am afraid not galandros...SAD is about having one unit at the time and switching between them at the right moment to win the battle. There is only one race that has swarming...
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Nice design on the new unit. =)
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I am afraid not galandros...SAD is about having one unit at the time and switching between them at the right moment to win the battle. There is only one race that has swarming...
And even with swarming, you're still fighting technically one unit. But I think Galandros was being sarcastic
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I apologize that the public release of SAD Alpha 2 might be delayed until next week.
In the meantime, the engine now supports animated ships. Here's the Scouter. All ships except for the tank are done. (I'll work on the tank when I add weapons)
So next I'll add the menu for selecting a particular ship. For right now, you will be able to select the ship anywhere you want.
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Here's a major screenshot. You can select a ship from the menu, as well as each ship has its own speed. Thus, a Raptor will move fastor than a Scouter, a Reclauda moves the fastest, a Splitron moves the slowest, etc.
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Nice, will it always be able to go through things?
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Nice, will it always be able to go through things?
lol, there will be collision detection. Flying units, of course, will always go "through"--or rather, over--things. Collision detection is my first item on the list after next week
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Cool, it looks great! Can't wait to see combat!
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Cool, it looks great! Can't wait to see combat!
Agreed. nice job so far.
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I know I've said before that Real time strategy really isn't my thing, but this is looking really awesome. I'm actually looking forward to playing this when it comes out. Great job guys! =)
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When you highlight a menu option, you will now know how much your item costs, in Belthium Crystals. Later on, when I incorporate the Tosonian race, I'll add an icon for oxygen cost.
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Here's the last screenshot before the alpha release. Now I'm going to spend my time correcting some bugs.
Hot keys have been implemented. In this menu, I have not pressed Enter, not once.
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WOW awesome again, just saw those screenshots now. I like the interface in the last screenshot and how the ship moves in the other screenies. Nice work, can't wait for Alpha :)
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Nice job Hot Dog.
When I was on vacation I saw this and thought of SAD. ;D It's a WWI British plane. ^-^
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When I was on vacation I saw this and thought of SAD. It's a WWI British plane.
LOL! Not to go off topic, but I hope you enjoyed your vacation...did you?
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I hope you enjoyed your vacation...did you?
I did. It was a lot of fun, but it's also great to be back home. ;D
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I'm glad you enjoyed them :D
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Buildings can no longer be built on top of each other. In addition, they cannot be built on top of solid objects or "space."
There are a couple of things to fix, however. First of all, there are some tiles that I mistakenly marked as "collidable," as well as some tiles I didn't mark as "collidable." In addition, I need to write code to allow a refinery to be built on top of only belthium crystals. I will write that code when I implement recieving income.
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Nice, I like the inverting when trying to put buildings at the wrong place.
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Here's the menu allowing you to buy ships in groups, although it doesn't do anything yet. The hotkeys for this menu are the soft keys. This menu will NOT display if you are buying a Scouter.
The dollar sign allows you to buy a single ship. The plus sign allows you to add a ship to your group. So if I was currently using 2 Degrusers, pressing + would allow me to use 3. The minus sign button takes away a ship from the group. The dollar sign / arrow allows you to buy the maximum amount of the type of ship possible. The check mark is the "done" button.
Difficulties have arisen that make it impossible for me to include shadows in S.A.D. Alpha 3. To make up for this, I will add money-making capability to S.A.D. One can make money, lose money, buy refineries, upgrade refineries, etc.
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I'm finished temporarily with the groups of ships menu, but unfortunately, no screenshots. I'm working now on everything money: Building refineries, adding processing units, even purchasing items.
After that, it won't be long before a release.
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Nice! I look forward to it, Hot_Dog!
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darn, cool! I can't wait to try those features out.
Also you got post ID 55555 :P
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Question,
I'm not sure if this was addressed already, but I was wondering if you planned to add rich expansions to the game? I mean mineral patches where you get minerals at a higher rate (not faster) than regular ones. In Starcraft 2, you get 5 minerals with blue minerals and 8 with yellow ones (I don't remember if gas gave more). Those expansions are generally blocked by a rock you must destroy prior being able to put a base there, but some aren't. In the later case, they are generally hard to protect, too.
Example, you have a map in lobster (:P) form where each base are located on one end of the claw and there's an expansion nearby below. However, in the tail, there's a rich mineral expansion.
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That really wouldn't be too hard to add, I'll certainly consider it.
Incidentally, in Starcraft II, they do have rich gas, but it doesn't show up differently
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Aaah ok, I never paid attention to how much gas I got on rich expansions really x.x
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Here's the menu allowing you to buy ships in groups, although it doesn't do anything yet. The hotkeys for this menu are the soft keys. This menu will NOT display if you are buying a Scouter.
The dollar sign allows you to buy a single ship. The plus sign allows you to add a ship to your group. So if I was currently using 2 Degrusers, pressing + would allow me to use 3. The minus sign button takes away a ship from the group. The dollar sign / arrow allows you to buy the maximum amount of the type of ship possible. The check mark is the "done" button.
Difficulties have arisen that make it impossible for me to include shadows in S.A.D. Alpha 3. To make up for this, I will add money-making capability to S.A.D. One can make money, lose money, buy refineries, upgrade refineries, etc.
I am kind of curious as to why shadows are impossible to implent, these were just filled up spritemasks right? I don't know how your engine works but I wonder what causes it to be impossible to implent...
I like the sound Idea you mentioned somewhere else. It sure is do-able, I think benryves made a 4 or even 8 channel sound program, I forgot what it was called though but anyways you could handwrite some music in a on-computer editor and then let it convert to a format that the on-calc player recognises. If you want the sound be sure to contac him, he's at maxcoderz.
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I am kind of curious as to why shadows are impossible to implent, these were just filled up spritemasks right? I don't know how your engine works but I wonder what causes it to be impossible to implent...
It's because I am terrible at clipping, so the program has bugs whenever the shadow is off-screen. Buckeye is doing the clipping part, but it's not like it's a walk-in-the-park.
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I am kind of curious as to why shadows are impossible to implent, these were just filled up spritemasks right? I don't know how your engine works but I wonder what causes it to be impossible to implent...
It's because I am terrible at clipping, so the program has bugs whenever the shadow is off-screen. Buckeye is doing the clipping part, but it's not like it's a walk-in-the-park.
I can understand itś far from easy...
it wasn't criticism of any sort but rather just curiosity and perhaps a slight detachment from the word "impossible". Good work so far Hot_Dog, my respects. I wish I could say the same of myself but I am quite busy atm with [offtopic]developing a RISC softcore processor for a FPGA[/offtopic]
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I am kind of curious as to why shadows are impossible to implent, these were just filled up spritemasks right? I don't know how your engine works but I wonder what causes it to be impossible to implent...
It's because I am terrible at clipping, so the program has bugs whenever the shadow is off-screen. Buckeye is doing the clipping part, but it's not like it's a walk-in-the-park.
I can understand itś far from easy...
it wasn't criticism of any sort but rather just curiosity and perhaps a slight detachment from the word "impossible". Good work so far Hot_Dog, my respects. I wish I could say the same of myself but I am quite busy atm with [offtopic]developing a RISC softcore processor for a FPGA[/offtopic]
Don't worry, it wasn't taken as criticism.
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Looks awesome so far. I also read the "pre-pre-pre-alpha" manual and it looks great. I hope all those features make it to the final game. Good luck!
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Looks awesome so far. I also read the "pre-pre-pre-alpha" manual and it looks great. I hope all those features make it to the final game. Good luck!
Thanks! By the way, welcome to the forum!
Like all early game manuals, some wonderful features have been added since then, and some have been removed.
For instance, Extension Coils, Zinyar Railgun and Radar have all been removed. Also, the graphics for a selected building have been removed. However, the manual was mainly written to encourage people to join the project, and it worked!
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It is my goal to have S.A.D. Alpha Release 3 available in September. Currently, I'm working on allowing a person to do everything they want with money. This means that a player can, at the least,
1. Build Refineries
2. Add Processing Units so that more Belthium Crystals can be mined per second
3. Purchase Items
4. See how much money he currently has
5. Recieve a notice if not enough money is available
I'll keep everyone posted, but as of yet, there's no decent screenshots. I will say I've finished with getting the "Add Processing Menu," so I'm working on construction of processing units.
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Cool, can't wait to try it out on September 1st 12 AM ;D
I'm happy to see ressource management coming it. Although it doesn't involve attacking much sometimes, I enjoy the building of a base in a strategy game, because there is some sort of creativity in there, in some ways, when you do it :P. When you are happy with your base layout and what you got so far but did not get attacked too much yet, you're telling yourself "wow, I'm so gonna pwn him if he's not ready!" :P
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Cool, can't wait to try it out on September 1st 12 AM ;D
Or September 30th 11:59 PM :P
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D:
/me eats Hot Dog
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Here's a quick update...quick, so be sure that there will be more screenshots as bugs are fixed.
This screenshot shows the addition of ONE processing unit to a refinery.
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Nice and I assume we will know how much processing unit each refinery have, right?
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Nice and I assume we will know how much processing unit each refinery have, right?
That's right. Currently, I'm working on purchasing processing units in advance as well
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Cool. I assume you mean queuing units being produced?
/me wonders if one of the race or building upgrades lets you produce some units in batches of two or three
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Cool. I assume you mean queuing units being produced?
Yeah, meaning if you ask for 5 processing units and one isn't finished being built, the other 4 will be built one at a time only after the first one is finished. The screenshot below demonstrates that--I just finished the programming for it. (However, there is a bug in the screenshot where the menu will leave after the one processing unit has been qued. I have to fix that.)
/me wonders if one of the race or building upgrades lets you produce some units in batches of two or three
Well, because you are a great Omnimaga leader who enjoys the zerg, I'll let the Ptaloids do that, except for their Creepers. I hate copying Starcraft, but I do like the idea of the Ptaloids swarming and coming out with units quickly. I think I'll even have Pauks, Protar and Galbonians coming two for each que.
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Great! ;D
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A little preview of what happens when you try to buy something you can't afford. (I tried twice to purchase a processing unit) Although I'm really upset that there wasn't enough room for "You've not enough belthium"
I also finally fixed the bug where pressing "CLEAR" would exit the game no matter what
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Nice looking :)
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Here's a MAJOR update--major because now I might be able to release S.A.D. Alpha 3 next week or sooner.
You can see the number of money you have by pressing "+", and you can toggle it off again by pressing "+". You can toggle your viewing of the number of food by pressing "-" (Minus). (All hail the lobsters!) You can view the number of processing units you built for each refinery, and when a processing unit is being built, you can see how many you've qued after leaving the menu. Finally, when you have refineries and processing units, you are actually making money.
When you have a refinery with 0-8 processing units, it will mine two crystals per second per processing unit, even when it has none. When you reach the ninth, every processing unit you build will only add one crystal per second. A refinery cannot have more than 20 processing units.
Left to do for the Alpha Release:
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Take away money when buildings are constructed
Bug fixes
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This looks and sounds really cool! :) Great work :D Can't wait ;D
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I like how you can turn ON/OFF the food/money stuff. Would it be possible to have both layed out horizontally and make them move a bit up when the text box at the bottom appears? I personally would like to keep them turned ON but doing so would hide some of the text otherwise.
Nice job!
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Would it be possible to have both layed out horizontally and make them move a bit up when the text box at the bottom appears?
DJ, you're a genius (I did not think about that), and that's not a hard fix, either. In that case, it will be just the "Plus" key to turn them both on. However, I'll still will let people toggle it. First of all, it does cover the screen, so people might miss buildings with it on. Secondly, even though the speed of construction and moving units will remain constant, having the text on does make the scrolling of the map slower.
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Will it be possible to set the game through options to automattically turn them ON at game start or vice-versa?
And yeah I guess the text might slow things down quite a bit.
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If we have an options menu, that will be one of the options available. Otherwise, they will automatically be turned ON at the beginning of the game. That way a player knows how many minerals he has, and all it takes is one press of the "+" key to turn them off. Unfortunately, with the terrible resolution of the Ti-83+, an expert Korean player will choose to toggle the minerals off from time to time.
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Haha yeah true XD. Also even other players, when used to the game building orders a lot, will probably turn them off at specific points in the game too, since they'll know approximately how much money they have left.
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Haha yeah true XD. Also even other players, when used to the game building orders a lot, will probably turn them off at specific points in the game too, since they'll know approximately how much money they have left.
And I know for a fact that when I'm scouting, I'll have the money/food count turned off so that I can see as much as there is to see.
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Yeah true.
Talking about scouting, will we be able to hotkey specific stuff in the game for quicker access, even the ship/unit group? It might come handy for experienced players. It speeds things up a lot sometimes. I don't remember if you were adding that
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Talking about scouting, will we be able to hotkey specific stuff in the game for quicker access, even the ship/unit group? It might come handy for experienced players. It speeds things up a lot sometimes. I don't remember if you were adding that
Most stuff in the game has hotkeys. Which hotkey-aided stuff were you wondering about in particular?
As to the ship/unit group, you literally "run into" an Operation Center / Transformation Gateway when you want to do something, saving you from having to press a key. There will also be a hotkey for if you want to add/take away from your current type of ship, saving you from having to go to the ship menu.
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Ok cool. Yeah group unit/building were the keys I was wondering about. Thanks :)
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Ok cool. Yeah group unit/building were the keys I was wondering about. Thanks :)
:D That's what I'm here for!
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Well, back to the "Terrible screen resolution" problem. In normal circumstances, the money/food amount will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. When the cursor is over a building or when a horizontal menu is displayed, the money/food amount will be displayed above the menu or information box. When a user is displaying a 3x3 menu, only the money (and oxygen for the Tosonians) will be displayed, and that will be at the bottom of the screen. This is because there is no 3x3 menu where a knowledge of food count is necessary.
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Sounds good to me. :)
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DJ, I made this screenshot with you in mind. :D
Now, I have to write the program to adjust the map in cursor mode so that the cursor won't be hidden under the bar.
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Nice! I wonder if the white bar height could be reduced a bit, though, where the food icon ends? Maybe the money/food count could be moved one pixel up as well, since there is a lot of white empty space above compared to below.
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Nice! I wonder if the white bar height could be reduced a bit, though, where the food icon ends? Maybe the money/food count could be moved one pixel up as well, since there is a lot of white empty space above compared to below.
That's due to the lobster. I'm pretty sure that I can shave one pixel off of the top. But everything else requires rewritting the user interface for everything (including menus), and I'm not ready to do that. The only other option is replacing the lobster with something else.
EDIT: I shaved off one white pixel. Any more than that, and either the text will be hard to read, or it's "Cook the lobster and replace it with another icon."
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"Cook the lobster and replace it with another icon."
I lol'ed at this sentence ;D
They taste very good ;D
J/k I understand. Better make sure the text remains easy to read. :)
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You can now download S.A.D. Alpha 3 to test with the Nspire 84+ emulator. I have set the speed to 15 MHz because of the Nspire slow emulation speed.
Please report any bugs you find with incompatability in the subforum meant for bug reports. Above all, try very hard to tell me what exactly caused the bug. For instance, the program could crash every time you place a building, so please tell me that.
Finally, a bag of Rick Astley peanuts goes to the first person who tells me the following:
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1. Press Y=, and start at the upper-right hand corner of the map. On your Nspire 84+ emulator, time yourself: how long does it take to reach the other side of the map by scrolling only to the right?
2. Build a refinery, and time yourself. How long does it take for the refinery to build?
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I got a TI-Nspire OS 2.0.1 atm. I'll try later I think.
Btw it would be good if people tried in 1.1, 1.7 and 2.1 too, the 3 most used OSes besides 2.0.1, because I think on older OSes the speed is different.
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True. I'm using 2.0.1 and I think the speed is identical, although I am using a computer emulator, nspire_emu_026
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I think the emu isn't accurate speed, but from what I could notice, Supersonic Ball runs at the exact same speed on 2.0.1 as on a real 83+. However, if I go in 15 MHz mode, I barely see any speed difference, while on an actual 84+, it runs more than twice faster.
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Gotcha. And that's good, because then the 15 Mhz won't be way-too-fast for people testing it. I'm going to leave the OS testing for people running the calcs, and use the emulator just to test compatibility.
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New progress! I still have some work to do on the ship-building code, but the screenshot below shows some of the basics by building Raptors from a Factory.
The first two times that the menu displays in this screenshot, I que a single Raptor. The third time, I que up three Raptors, which are built one at a time. Note that for eye-candy purposes, the Raptors build faster than they would in game. A player can que up to 3 units for the building in particular to remember. The unit icons can only be 5x5, but the manual will tell the player what the 5x5 icon for a particular unit is so that he can know what is being produced by a particular building.
So, definitely some more work and cleanup to do, but the game is progressing.
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Woohoo progress again! Glad it is still being worked on regularly :D
Nice additions to the game :D
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Yea, progress! :D
Looks great Hot Dog. :)
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I'm pretty sure I fixed the bug where sometimes, the mineral/food count would display in the middle of a 3x3 grid menu.
Also, whenever you buy a unit now, it will be placed on hold. In this screenshot, I build 5 Raptors, and then I tell the game that I want to use Raptors in my next attack. The game will show me that I indeed have 5 Raptors ready to use.
Next on the list
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Incorporate all ships except for the Scouter, and the buildings for them. (This will not take long)
Have a user actually chose how many of a ship he wants to use
Charge money for ships
When the user is ready to drive his fleet, have the game display a number telling how many ships he has in his group
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That looks nice! How close are you to actual gameplay? :)
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That looks nice! How close are you to actual gameplay? :)
Depends on what you call gameplay ;D
I hope to have basic multiplayer in Alpha 4, scheduled for this month.
Alpha 5 will have fog of war.
Alpha 6 will have firing of weapons and destruction of ships/buildings.
After that, I'd say you have a fair amount of gameplay, although there's definitely some more features to add such as explosions, teleportation and special abilities
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Hey I don't remember if this was answered before but how many units can be queued in total? Is it still like when you have 9 units of a kind but decide you need another, you buy 9 of another kind but lose the other 9?
Anyway nice progress and I can't wait for beta :D
Maybe I should try to meet Juju again and we play together then :P
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Good question. Once you buy a unit, you have it no matter what, until the enemy destroys it. For instance, let's say you buy 10 Raptors and you use them. While you are using the 10 raptors, you decide to build 5 Argos and 4 Tanks. Suddenly, your strategy calls for long-range artillery. So you decide you want to use 2 Tanks for a simple suicide mission, knowing that the enemy will take out your tanks no matter what. When you switch to tanks, you will still have 10 Raptors, 5 Argos, and the 2 other tanks waiting for you to use them when needed. And if you build 4 Reclaudas during your next attack, you will still have those 10 Raptors, 5 Argos and 4 tanks.
However, the food system works slightly different than it does in Starcraft. You can only have (as an example) 30 food worth of each type of unit you can build, up to, say, 200 food. A Raptor requires 1 "lobster," so you could have up to 30 Raptors either on the field, on hold, or both. A tank would require 2 "lobsters," so you can have up to 15. And if your 200 food is used up, you cannot add any more units. If you used all 200 food on Raptors, Tanks, Argos, Degrusers, Reclaudas and Balkstones, you cannot build any Splitrons or Camozas.
Construction units do not use the food system, you can use 1 and only 1 no matter how many or how few other units you have. Also, the game engine makes it hard to have "half" supplies, so the food system will be slightly different for Ptaloids.
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Ah ok nice. One thing: You give 10 raptors as an example. I thought the max amount of one type of unit was 9?
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Nope. That's the number of different units available.
Btw, congrats on 15000 posts!
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Ah ok, and thanks, although I had it for a bit ;D
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Hot Dog, from what I just read in that post above, SAD sounds like a lot of fun. I didn't realize it worked like that. :)
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Hot Dog, from what I just read in that post above, SAD sounds like a lot of fun. I didn't realize it worked like that. :)
Well, it has been changing a lot, so I don't blame you. Thanks, by the way! I just have to really make sure now that the game doesn't end up in a lockdown
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After two days of serious bug testing, you can now construct all eight ships (besides the Scouter). Once again, for eye-candy purposes, construction times are not realistic.
EDIT: I don't know yet what's causing the progress bar to jump back and forth. I haven't fixed it yet, but I think I've made it so it doesn't happen as frequently.
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Seeing all those buildinds together makes it look even more awesome ;D
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T o o a w e s o m e t o c o m p r e h e n d ! ^-^
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Wow...Awesome... RTS with ASM...
I hope StarCraft for TI-84+ comes out, too...
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You can now control multiple of the same kind of ship. If you feel like attacking a base with 10 balkstones at once, S.A.D. lets you do that now.
Next up is basic multiplayer support, and then fixing bugs for the Alpha 4 release, hopefully coming out this month.
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Wow looks great hot_dog...cant wait to get my hands on it again, especially with these new features!
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Wow that looks awesome! It fits pretty well too. I love the design :D
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Oops, I forgot to mention that you can also see how many ships your opponent is using, so you can decide whether you want to fight or retreat.
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Yeah it might be best like that x.x
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Looks great! Nice job. :)
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I always hate giving bad news without good news, so here you go:
The next version of S.A.D. will have shadows implemented once and for all! In addition, the game will not require as much user RAM. Keep your fingers crossed for 16 KB or less.
The bad news is the multiplayer is giving me a few issues, so Alpha 4 won't come out until at least November.
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Sorry to hear about multiplayer D:. Good luck!
Good to hear that you got shadows working, though :)
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Looks like I'll have to hold on the multiplayer for a bit. PindurTi have breakpoint issues in multiplayer testing, and Wabbitemu does not have working link support yet. I will come back to multiplayer, but in the meantime, I'll replace it in Alpha 4 with fog of war and the minimap.
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Sorry to hear :(
Now if only you had two calcs to test or something X.x. Good luck on the other stuff like the FoW and minimap.
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Now if only you had two calcs to test or something X.x.
That's not the issue. I can test two calculators, and find that there's something wrong. But without a proper debug mode, I don't know WHAT is wrong. Unlike last year, I don't have time to search the code inch by inch to find out what's wrong.
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Fog of War! Multiplayer is ok but honestly I'm not in school anymore. So unless my dog can run a calc I'm out for multiplayer.
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Now if only you had two calcs to test or something X.x.
That's not the issue. I can test two calculators, and find that there's something wrong. But without a proper debug mode, I don't know WHAT is wrong. Unlike last year, I don't have time to search the code inch by inch to find out what's wrong.
Oh right I see what you mean, sorry for not understanding right away.
Fog of War! Multiplayer is ok but honestly I'm not in school anymore. So unless my dog can run a calc I'm out for multiplayer.
Yeah I kinda have this issue right now. X.x But even at school barely anyone cared enough about calcs so I would still not have been able to play with anyone. :(
Maybe my bro wouldn't mind right now, though, since he kinda like strategy games. Or maybe Juju could come over here... :P
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Since it's not going to be hard to implement, I'm going to add "camera" controls so that when you manually drive a ship, it doesn't always have to be in the middle of the screen. The reason is simple: If you have a scouting vessel, such as a Reclauda or a Scouter, you sometimes want to see a much as you can. For instance, when you are going right, you might want to see to the right as much as the line of sight will allow you.
Also, some units with long weapon ranges require a player to be able to see what he is firing at.
For Alpha 4 (since I need to test the fog of war), only manual camera mode will be allowed. Later on I'll add hot keys to either center the ship or focus the camera view so that the ship is at one of eight corners--very useful especially in combat. Note that camera controls DO NOT affect the position of the ship. Rather it makes it so that the ship is not always centered in the screen.
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Nice. I like the camera idea :D
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Here's step 1 and 1.5 of the fog-of-war completed. The first part was getting the fog to work--the fog engine, including explored areas, is complete. The next step was to get the computations for buildings taken care of. While the building line of sight is halfway done, I still have to work on circular line of sight--not hard, but long.
Here's the basic line-of-sight that buildings allow. (Notice the area revealed by a watchtower) Over the weekend I'll work on circular line of sight, as well as ship line of sight and calculating the positions for explored fog.
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Ooooh... looks nice, Will areas that you have explored with units, but don't have any units buildings there, be black or simply obscured? (ie you can see the map but not any enemy units that may be hiding there)
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Ooooh... looks nice, Will areas that you have explored with units, but don't have any units buildings there, be black or simply obscured? (ie you can see the map but not any enemy units that may be hiding there)
The "explored" fog of war draws tiles that are inverse colors--you could call that obscured. You will be able to see terrain, and buildings that you spotted. You will not be able to see newly built structures or enemy ships.
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Wow looks promising, keep up the good work! :)
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Ooooh... looks nice, Will areas that you have explored with units, but don't have any units buildings there, be black or simply obscured? (ie you can see the map but not any enemy units that may be hiding there)
The "explored" fog of war draws tiles that are inverse colors--you could call that obscured. You will be able to see terrain, and buildings that you spotted. You will not be able to see newly built structures or enemy ships.
Wow, nice and elegant solution. I was wondering how it could be done w/o grayscale but that's an excellent alternative
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Thats a great solution, and the screenie is looking great :D
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Oh, and by the way, here's a quick example of "explored" fog of war. I also managed to get the game to require only 13000, maybe 14000, bytes of RAM. Sadly, that will be the definite minimum for regular Ti-83+ users.
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looks nice :D
I can't wait to see the fog of war in action while exploring with the ship :D
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Good news for everyone, but especially with ztrumpet in mind: As buildings are being constructed, there will now be a graphical effect (screenshots to come) -- unless I made a serious planning error, in which case I apologize for getting hopes up. You will see the building slowly being constructed one pixel row at a time.
Also, the "circular" fog of war is canceled in favor of graphical and (currently under testing) partial-cover fog. Here's what I mean: Fog will have a kind of cloudy graphic, even if only to a certain point, and the fog of war will be made to cover only part of a tile depending on a building and/or where a player's ship is.
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Oooh that sounds cool! It might be useful because in SC, the buildings gradually evolving, even if in 2 or 3 frames, gave us an idea of how far they were into completion without having to manually check by hovering on them or clicking on them.
As for partial cover fog, I am a bit curious what you mean. Do you mean it will no longer be tile-based? I wonder if it would take a lot of memory and render fast enough, since just the entire screen would be 768 bytes of fog.
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As for partial cover fog, I am a bit curious what you mean. Do you mean it will no longer be tile-based? I wonder if it would take a lot of memory and render fast enough, since just the entire screen would be 768 bytes of fog.
Partial fog means fog will sometimes cover only part of a tile. And there's a reason I'm doing this: sometimes I want line of sight to be as big as a unit's firing range--no more and no less. I can't do it if fog either covers an entire tile or doesn't cover it at all. To make matters worse, it's difficult to fire at a ship when the fog just happens to cover most of your firing range because of your position on the map.
This does require 1 byte per tile, so I had to increase S.A.D. memory needs to 16000. But thanks to ASM tricks and thanks to Jim E's marvelous tilemapper, the difference in rendering speed will be very, very small--I don't think it will be noticable.
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Yeah but I am more curious about how the fog is stored. Pictures/images might be better, because I'm a visual person. I also wonder how does actual patial fog looks like?
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Yeah but I am more curious about how the fog is stored. Pictures/images might be better, because I'm a visual person. I also wonder how does actual patial fog looks like?
Okay, a mock-up is attached below. The top image is fog as S.A.D. used to handle it, and the bottom is partial fog: Notice, for example, how the crystals are only half-covered with fog.
As for fog storing: There's already graphical data for the tiles, so fog is drawn by manipulating bits in the tile data every time a tile is drawn. So the way to handle the fog for each tile is stored as follows:
2 Bits each tile for the following: Can you see a tile, is it covered in fog, is it explored, or is it explored with a new building underneath that you can't see?
1 Byte each tile for the length of the fog and the direction it travels.
If that doesn't help, the rest is ASM and really can't be explained directly
Due to engine limitations, the partial fog of war only happens when a ship is being moved. Buildings do not generate partial fog-of-war.
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Ah ok I see, so it will kinda remain a square, right?
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Ah ok I see, so it will kinda remain a square, right?
Yeah. It's just manipulating a tile right before its drawn.
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Sorry for those of you who were looking forward to cloudy fog of war. I had some engine inconsistencies and had to remove the textures. But I have not yet had any trouble with partial fog.
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No problem. Some stuff just can't be done and run fast enough or it causes too much troubles. We also gotta remember it's a calculator, lol. :P
Hopefully partial fog works fine.
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Yeah, its already so epic for the calculator, don't exhaust yourself! :D
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When do you think is gonna be finished?
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When do you think is gonna be finished?
No idea ;D
I'm trying to be like Blizzard, making a game high-quality rather than rushing it out the door and/or setting a release date
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True, although in Blizzard case, they had a bad reputation with giving false hope to people with their release dates and it got annoying. Take Starcraft ghost, for example, which turned into a Duke Nukem Forever. In SC2 case, it got delayed like 5 or 6 times and people got worried it was turning into another DK4ever as well. They should maybe not have given release dates altogether. The first release date announced for SC2 was October 2008, later pushed back to Dec 08, then Oct 2009, then they announced that in Feb 2010 it would be in beta stages.
At least in your case there aren't release deadlines and stuff.
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True, although in Blizzard case, they had a bad reputation with giving false hope to people with their release dates and it got annoying. Take Starcraft ghost, for example, which turned into a Duke Nukem Forever. In SC2 case, it got delayed like 5 or 6 times and people got worried it was turning into another DK4ever as well. They should maybe not have given release dates altogether. The first release date announced for SC2 was October 2008, later pushed back to Dec 08, then Oct 2009, then they announced that in Feb 2010 it would be in beta stages.
Oh, okay. I never heard any release dates from them, so I thought they never provided any.
Anyways, that's the reason I don't give release dates. I'm already taking big chances giving release dates for Alpha versions of S.A.D. :(
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Yeah same here, I rarely ever gave any, because I knew I may not be able to meet them. Stuff can happen, you know?
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Let me guess: It still under development?
I agree with you it is better to do a very good game and take your time rather then just rush it and release a crappy game. I think I'm really gonna enjoy this game.
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Let me guess: It still under development?
It's still under development. But it's not a quiet project, meaning I haven't taken a 3-month break or anything :D
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Yeah it's currently progressing quite fast. Benryves stopped working on his 3D engine for 4 years on MaxCoderz I think before picking it up again. :P
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I'm having trouble figuring out the fog of war for ships, so I need time during Christmas Vacation to actually sit down and plan it. With that said, I'll be taking a break to fix some ASM lesson bugs, as well as to work on Correlation.
THIS IS NOT QUITTING THE PROJECT. I'm only taking a 4-week break.
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I'm having trouble figuring out the fog of war for ships, so I need time during Christmas Vacation to actually sit down and plan it. With that said, I'll be taking a break to fix some ASM lesson bugs, as well as to work on Correlation.
THIS IS NOT QUITTING THE PROJECT. I'm only taking a 4-week break.
Take all the time you need, I still need to make those buildings for the Cythid but I guess that has lower priority since you are fiddling with the game engine. If you want me to take a look at some parts of the engine just PM me, albeit I don't program alot in asm I do understand it fairly well and maybe in a switch in perspective could help you out?
Anyways I admire your persistence! Well done!
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SOrry to hear Hot Dog. I hope everything works out! :(
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This will be my last progress report for S.A.D. for 2010. Next will be [S.A.D.] Progress 2011! Happy New Year!
I finally figured out how I'm doing the partial fog of war with a moving ship. Correlation needs to be done as soon as possible, and then I will be able to work on S.A.D. again.
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Cool to hear :D
Can't wait for Correlation (I hope to have some time and motivation to try making a small game using it :)) and S.A.D updates :)
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Glad to hear of more progress :) And i can't wait to see what you've whipped up with fog of war ^^