Terra Reconstructed

[Moribundus]

Let me bring you some good news. My project (Terra Reconstructed) just got approved on SourceForge.net

 

Allow me to explain a bit.

 

Everyone knows about the current situation. There's no Rebellion 2 and there probably never will be any. The only things we have (apart from great community ) are Total Conversions, which cannot overcome the hardcoded limitations of old Rebellion, and various mods for other games, that are limited by the game's modability (you can usually just change units and user interface). This is where Terra kicks in. For the past month I've been working in my spare time on a design document for a space strategy game with elements very similar to those in Rebellion, that could provide a suitable modable platform for creating a Rebellion2 TC.

 

The basic part of the design doc is now finished and the project has officially started (the date of birth is 2007-03-30, 17:05).

 

A little FAQ first...

 

Why new project?

Because I'm not George Lucas and besides I'd like to create a little dream myself.

 

Why did I choose SourceForge and open software?

Since the program will be licenced under GNU GPL. This licence allows for additional modification of the software (under the condition that the modification is released under the same licence). This basically means, that the Rebellion 2 TC can also make additional changes to the program core making it more to the modders liking without the need for any hacking or reverse engineering. System used at SourceForge.net also allows others to continue this project in the case I would find myself without spare time or get killed by bus or something like that. And of course SourceForge.net makes it easier to find a bunch of additional developers. GNU GPL licence also allows me to use other already made GPL libraries/engines. So basically it means that the project has much bigger chance of completion that other hobby/solo projects.

 

What language will be used? What platform will it run on?

The main engine will be made in C++, game logic will be scripted in Lua (or Python). This will allow even the strategic part to be customizable. It will use SDL library and OpenGL, beacause of great portability. Terra is therefore supposed to run on every major platform (WinXX/Linux/xxBSD/Mac OS X). Maybe I'll write windows specific part, so that SDL won't be used and DirectX (for input and sound) will be used instead. No DirectX10 though.

 

What are those silly unpronounceable words in the english design document?

Those are czech words The design document isn't fully translated yet.

 

Eh, maybe I should upload this into the official documentation too...

 

Project's webpage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/terrastrategy/

Design document is located in the documentation section (http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=48706&group_id=192796)

 

The website for the project is also planned it's address will be terrastrategy.sourceforge.net

 

Well, read through the design document and tell me what you think. If you think something is unbalanced, too complex, too simple, missing feature, etc. don't keep it to ourselves If you want to give me a helping hand, you're welcome (and correction of the dd is welcome too).

 

I hope this makes you day brighter

[budious]

Haha... sneaky... trying to get an April's Fools joke in a day early. Sly guy

[Moribundus]

It's half past eleven in my timezone, I didn't expect anyone to read this topic so soon

 

No, seriously, it's not a joke I completely forgot the about the fool's day though.

[Defender_16]

It's still 8:30PM here on the 31st. I didn't really take it for an April fools Joke budious.

 

Anyways I'll be sure keep an eye on this and cheer you on as mush as I did Eleven Thirty One's project.

Um... here's hoping your's goes smoother?

*Shrug*

[budious]

It's still 8:30PM here on the 31st. I didn't really take it for an April fools Joke budious.

 

What, I can't yank around the newbie site members? Initiating the fresh meat... testing his or her resolve. Welcome to the club Moribundus

[Evaders99]

While I personally hate SF for some of its slow resources, I wish this project all the best. Looks like a good start and I hope we can provide some help here to this project

[Moribundus]

Thanks for the support I hope I'll translate the rest of the design doc soon, so that you guys will have at least something to look at I have to admit it's more exhausting than I've thought.

 

I have also uploaded two pictures on the web space...

http://terrastrategy.sourceforge.net/virtualstarmap.jpg - this a screenshot of VirtualStarMap, my older project displaying stars around Sol in range of 50 light years. This will probably be the dataset for the game.

 

http://terrastrategy.sourceforge.net/heavy-fighter.jpg - and this is render of my school project. It's not finished yet though (cocpit needs to be finished and it also needs better textures and more details). It's some king of a heavy-fighter. I call him bobcat for no reason This will probably be my first in game model.

 

I'm also working on a game editor (another school project - maybe I'll even get my degree for this game )

 

While I personally hate SF for some of its slow resources, I wish this project all the best. Looks like a good start and I hope we can provide some help here to this project

 

What slow resources do you have in mind? So far it seems fine. Although I'd rather have it on my own server, it's probably the best thing I can get now.

 

Edit: I have removed the links and the files, since they are no longer relevant (and present on the web.)

Edited August 23, 2007 by Moribundus

[Evaders99]

What slow resources do you have in mind?

 

I remember some of their coding repositories were awefully slow. But maybe they've upgraded since I've used SF

[Moribundus]

I remember some of their coding repositories were awefully slow. But maybe they've upgraded since I've used SF

 

Hmm, I didn't try to upload any code yet, but you can at least choose between CVS and Subversion now.

[nordwindranger]

best of luck! Please keep us informed, I like reading about game development.

 

After getting used to this sites' black background, the sourceforge page blinded me. Aah too bright!

[Moribundus]

Maybe you looked too much to the dark side, hehe?

 

Btw. I can confirm now that SF's SVN services are still terribly slow :-/

[Moribundus]

Ok, the design document is finally translated. It turned out to be quite a monster

 

If you have any ideas, comments, suggestions, questions or special wishes, feel free to post them here. I already dug through most of the older topics, but I could have forgotten to include something.

[nordwindranger]

Moribundus

 

After reading your design document, my first reaction is that your project is extremely complicated.

 

Do you have much previous game development experience? I am not trying to discourage you (and its certainly possible that you will be much better at it than I am), but this will take you an infinite amount of time to complete.

 

Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to look into using a free game engine (or are you already planning on doing this?). One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the development of my own game was getting the engine in shape to a point where I could render anything at all. I still don't have any sound support, and my interface is so ugly it kills babies.

 

On one hand it is great that you have all of your goals written down, but on the other hand, have you thought about how they are all going to be implemented? Figuring out even the (seemingly) simplest of things, like putting fleets of ships into formations has so far proved to be rather time consuming to figure out. It generally takes me a day of researching and trying different ideas every time I add even a small feature. My game concept is rather simple, yet already I have written staggering amounts of code ( I don't remember the last time i counted, but there are at least 15 classes, each with pages and pages of code).

 

I really don't mean to discourage you, and I'm sorry that this has taken such a negative turn, but it seems to me that it might be best to try something that is a little less complicated. Perhaps first work on 3d space combat, and then add in the economy, and factions, and all of the really complicated (but non-graphical) elements.

 

If you are interested in a free 3d engine, http://www.thezbuffer.com is a good site for managed code. I'm sure there is some vanilla c/c++ stuff out there to.

 

A good book is also a must. I've got a library of about 5 c# game programming books that I refer to occasionally, and I'm sure you could find some good ones on amazon.

 

If you have any questions, http://www.gamedev.net is pretty much the best game development website in existence. They've helped me out a lot.

 

In fact don't listen to me, this had started out as encouragement. Your plan is very interesting, and I especially liked the idea of a disease that is carried by survivors from Earth. best of luck and all that.

[Moribundus]

Well, all I've been doing for last few years is basically reading about game development and doing my own experiments. I checked my school's library and they have the whole graphics and game programming gems series (it's bloody expensive, but excellent source of information) and they let me borrow it home And I already have some code snippets I made some time ago (like math library and other support classes) so I'm not starting this from scratch.

 

Basically what needs to be done for the first pre-alpha release is to build basic UI libs and implement lua support for the game logic and interface scripting. That won't be too hard I hope. And yes, I think I have some idea how to implement some things, but on the other hand there are certain aspects (like AI, audio or networking), with which I have no experience.

 

With the third-party 3D engine...maybe I'll use it for space battles, the strateg view has some special requirements on the rendering engine.

 

I'm glad you like the idea with the disease I'd like to make some deeper, complex story, but it's not of the highest importance now.

[nordwindranger]

well it sounds like your doing pretty good then. sorry about the knee jerk reaction (do they have that phrase where your from? I think you mentioned that the design doc was written in czech).

 

Although my own experience has been limited to c#, I will be glad to help you if you have any questions regarding.. well anything. I think you might run into a lot of the same logical problems that I've gone through with my game so far (like organization of units/hyperspace jumps).

[Moribundus]

well it sounds like your doing pretty good then. sorry about the knee jerk reaction (do they have that phrase where your from? I think you mentioned that the design doc was written in czech).

 

If that's what you do when doctor hits you in the knee (at least that's what the dictionary told me)..I suppose we call it "reflex" in czech

 

Well, our projects will overlap partially when I'll be making the engine for 3D battles (which unfortunately is the last thing on my to-do list - strategy parts and reinventing the wheel first). I'm sure I'll have a lot to ask you by then.

 

So far it looks like Terra will turn out into modders heaven...in-game editors for almost anything and so on. I want more free time, damn

[nordwindranger]

heh yeah thats my problem to, not enough time.

 

"knee jerk reaction" is american slang. it means a automatic response that wasn't really thought out. It comes from the idea that when you tap your knee your leg automatically jerks out, you didn't really think about doing it.

 

good luck on the game. I've got a feeling that I'm going to be without internet all summer, but I'll be back in september

[Moribundus]

Well, here are some news about my current progress and other stuff.

 

First, there probably won't be any interactive demo by the end of August, maybe September (but stay with me, don't hang up...)

 

Second, website of Terra Reconstructed is up (yay!) so check it out The address is terrastrategy.sourceforge.net. It contains short summary of my current progress and one nice screenshot.

 

Third, if anyone tried to check out Terra's SVN repository, he (or she) probably found out, that it's very outdated and incomplete. That's right, as I mentioned on the web, changes in the code are so frequent and drastic that it is useless to commit anything now.

 

And finally...that little screenshot. All I have so far is bunch of loaders and one code to bind them all (ehh). So I managed to render my spaceship model and put some texture/normal map on it to show what the engne is capable of

 

Ok, that's all (I hope). It's almost 5am here, I should finally go to bed

 

I almost forgot I wrote some info about the storyline and game factions. It's on the website now and I will put it to the design doc. tomorrow.

 

Edit: Typos, typos...

Edited August 24, 2007 by Moribundus

[DarthTex]

Second, website of Terra Reconstructed is up (yay!) so check it out The address is terrastrategy.sourceforge.net. It contains short summary of my current prograss and one nice screenshot.

Unfortunately, you're link is corrupt (a typo), use this http://terrastrategy.sourceforge.net

[nordwindranger]

looking good so far.

[Moribundus]

Here's the latest news. I've rebuilt the Terra's website using Drupal as a CMS framework. So now it features also RSS feeds if anyone is interested. So check it out

 

Btw. the address remains the same http://terrastrategy.sourceforge.net

[JanDeis]

When will the forums be up? All I have been able to do there is comment on one of your announcements...

[Exedore_Neo]

I would love to see this project succeed. I love Rebellion, but really wish it could be updated (especially the tactical environment). Best wishes to the project.

[JanDeis]

Any modeling you need done? I now know how to convert into DirectX using Blender. Just holler and I will get working on a model(s).

[Moribundus]

When will the forums be up? All I have been able to do there is comment on one of your announcements...

 

Oh my, I forgot to turn them on It should be fixed now. However if you discover any errors like being able to edit someone else's post or not being able to post at all, please let me know.

 

Any modeling you need done? I now know how to convert into DirectX using Blender. Just holler and I will get working on a model(s).

 

I'll let you know