Rebellion Remake Release Demos!

[Slocket]

Thank you. Today I release a new version. It has a lot of stuff added. See the change log. I updated the new demo in first post for all to try.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?ai5aswydel9krza RebRel0001

 

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7986/rebstrat0001.th.jpg

 

Next I am adding in characters and missions, plus new planet side artwork, and a basic AI to play against using your characters only.

 

Please test if all is working. thanks! Its working for me, but I wonder how it does on other computers.

Edited March 4, 2011 by Slocket

[RoflCopter4]

Its working perfectly from what I tried. Well done.

[MrPhildevil]

First thing: you should add .com to the adress of the download. Only way to get-it to work.

 

Then, I tried rebel side. Looking in the Fakir sector, it seems to me that the loyalty system is not working properly.

 

This one is working properly: Ando/Rebel Alignment/Strong Rebel Loyalty/Big Red Star

 

These aren't

Berchest/Imperial Alignment/Strong Imperial Loyalty/Big Green Star

 

Now in rebellion, when the ennemy had strong loyalty to the planet, you would get a small star from that planet.

 

Halowan/Neutral Alignment/Loyalty Mostly Rebel/Very small star

 

Halowan is okay, if it is neutral. However, the H does not display properly...

 

Mrisst/Imperial Alignment/Strong rebel Loyalty/Very small star

 

Star should be bigger.

 

Hope any of this helps...

[Slocket]

Thanks for the replies, I did mean to say I have a new unified system to display Ownership and Loyalty to simplify the display.

 

Oh good point, MrPhildevil, I forgot to mention, the loyalty bars and star size are not the same as was in vanilla game. I put the two sides together into one unified logical system. You did notice that. It is NOT quite the same as in original.

 

What I use is the same Display method for both Alliance and Empire Screen sides. (of course in the real game you do not know the real display for your side unless you do recon mission and espionage.)

The Color of the Star (and Planet Name text) is who owns that system no matter what. So if it is Red, it is Alliance. If it is Green color in the planet name and star, it is owned by the Empire.

 

Now the Size of the Star is how much loyalty it has towards that faction who owns it. This is somewhat different than from the original game. I made it so it is the same for both sides and it makes sense to me.

 

If you see a planet that is solid green loyalty bar underneath the planet but has the name of the planet in Red letters, that means the planets supports the Empire 100% but is owned by the Alliance and would have six rebel troops on the ground to maintain order and control. It would have a Red Star on the map but it would be a Tiny red star showing it is owned by the alliance, but it does not support the alliance very much.

 

I really want just one device to display ownership and loyalty for both sides to save a lot of extra coding and confusion. Whether view from Alliance or Empire screen it is the same display.

 

Notice some planets that are neutral are in blue and should be between 40 to 60 green/red. Some will be 50/50 but still can be owned by the Empire or the Alliance, as it is in vanilla game.

 

Mrisst in the picture above (Image shack it gets distorted view for some reason with red letters, the actual game picture the text is fine?) is owned by the Empire so it's Star is going to be Green no matter what, and Mrisst will be in planet name text green color also. Now the loyalty bar show that the planet supports the Rebels strongly so the Star size of the Empire Green Star is going to be small. Indicating it is owned by the Empire but the planet does not support the Empire very much, so it gets a smaller green star.

 

That is different somewhat form the original game. Halowan is Neutral, it gets one size only Blue Star as the owner. The Loyalty Bar should be between 40 to 60 percent between Green and Red. ALL Neutral planets have only one size blue star, and the planet text will be in blue also. Maybe I should make the blue star bigger to see...I want peeps to guess somewhat when the planet is about to flip allegiance.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the .com missing.

 

MrPhilDevil are you using another random map from the one posted above? If the letter H in Halowan is not displaying correctly, if you are using the game demo in window mode it is 1024*768, what screen resolution are you using? I think on some of the new LCD monitors they have some other native resolutions that may cause text not to display correctly? I assume you are not seeing the name text clear, it is distorted?

 

Berchest/Imperial Alignment/Strong Imperial Loyalty/Big Green Star that should be correct? Berchest supports the Empire strongly and is Owned by the Empire so it should have a Big Green Star.

[Master_Xan]

You do not need to add .com to the link. It works just fine as is in Firefox.

 

I like the changed method for displaying loyalty. I never liked the vanilla version; this is better.

 

Downloaded the zip; I'll test it later when I'm not supposed to be doing my homework.

 

Image shack it gets distorted view for some reason with red letters, the actual game picture the text is fine?

Image shack shrank the image. If you open it up, they let you zoom. The zoomed picture is better. They may also lower the quality; one method for doing that is to reduce the number of colors, which can make things look fuzzy.

[MrPhildevil]

Okay, then the loyalty system is working fine as it is. Will take time to get used to though.

 

My resolution is 1366x768 and as it is, it is my maximum resolution. This is unfortunate, because I can't seem to fit the whole thing in my sceen without the taskbar gattin' in the way. Fortunately, my other computer handle's it pretty well.

 

By the way, master xan, the reason it is working is he fixed the link. I'm using firefox too, just FYI.

 

Slocket, did you tought of using the models from X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project? They've got quite a few model released and it might be useful in the future.

 

Also, one thing I think seriously lacked from the vanilla game is 2 ship class. The freighter class furiously lacked in ability. It should have had more manoeuvrability (just think of the YT-1300 model they did, which was hell to rebalance with RebEd to get-it to be decently able against fighters and comparatively weak against ship, with the IA building armies of them.).

 

The other class that should have a more proper attention is the station class. This one needs some attention and some thinking. Should they be movable from system to system? I think not. The IA used to attack me with fleet of them. However, there is the matter of deploying them. Here's my idea: if there are stations, they should be movable from allied system to allied system. Very slowly that is, so as to discourage big movement of these. However, the first deployment, from its place of construction to its place of deployment should be somehow shorter, to allow a better balance.

[Master_Xan]

Ah, didn't know he had fixed the link.

 

To expand on what MrPhildevil said, I think the ship classes should be changed. In vanilla, it was fighters and capital ships. I'd think it should be small vessels and capital ships. This allows more diversity without the complication of a system like Homeworld's (fighters, bombers, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, etc).

 

Sweet ideas, but not the most important for this point in your project. Heck, being able to have more than eight total fighters would make me happy. TIE advanced, gunboats, Ewings, Scimitars, upgraded versions of the Xwing (like the XJ series)... and without replacing the originals... oh the possibilities...

 

One thing you should implement eventually, however, is some sense of "obsolete." For instance, in vanilla, you researched and obtained the ability to make Gen2 planetary shield arrays. But the Gen1 was still listed in your build menu, even though there is no reason why you would want to build it again (the Gen2 even takes fewer maintenance points!). It would be nice to remove old designs, or even better, allow the player to toggle a design as obsolete. That way the player can remove designs they will never use, making it easier to find what they want.

[Fyda_Ledrev]

This may not be the right topic for this, if it isn't I apologize...but I have some ideas, just wanted to throw them out there.

 

1. Day/Turn Skip and Automanagement

What if there was a way to skip through days/turns? Maybe in increments of 1 or 5 or 10...and so on. This would only be good though if there was some kinds of automanagment for the things you didn't want to miss. This would be useful for those long waits on various constructions.

 

2. AI Setting for the Empire

I don't know if in the original rebellion, the empire ever spread out to take control of planets in the unexplored sectors. If they didn't, or even if they did...maybe there could be a setting to determine how fast they begin their advance to other plannets and sectors (their conquering of the whole galaxy, both explored sectors and not) This could be a way to make it more difficult for rebel players.

 

3. Ratings In Fleet Stats

When right clicking on a fleet in the fleet window, and looking at the fleet stats, what about a total score of your bombardment rating for all your ships together? Or maybe an offensive rating of all your troops for planetary assults. There would have to be other ratings elsewhere for it to all go together. (Whether your defending a planet or assaulting one)

 

4. Research Missions

Maybe a progress bar for research missions, showing how close you are to researching your next thing

 

5. ETAs Instead of Progress Bars

Instead of having to right click on the current project to see the eta of what facility, troop, or ship is being built...what about an eta displayed instead of the yellow progress bar? Or maybe both.

 

6. A sorting window for things being built

A window that can be moved or minimized, and can quickly/easily see what is being built...and the player can sort it through various options, such as by planet, sector and so on

[Markus_Ramikin]

Tested the new version. Everything that you want to work seems to work.

 

Sectors are flippable - although not when there are two sectors up, are you going to implement that too?

 

Hm, in the Rebel view, it seems to start with an Abrion sector saved/minimised in the minimised sectors panel (whatever you call that), even though there isn't an Abrion sector on the actual map, and the contents are a jumble of planets all in one place (I think). Intended?

In the Empire view I can't seem to find the minimised sectors panel.

 

I don't have much time today so I only skimmed the thread, but I saw some ideas that I felt are a bit dangerous, like changing ship classes to something other than capital ships and fighters. My own hope is that the game is as much like the original as possible, and that you will forever keep in mind that you're making a remake, not a new game with original cool ideas. Ultimately, we're here because we want to play SW:Rebellion.

 

Pretty sure I've said that before. Ignore me.

[Slocket]

Tested the new version. Everything that you want to work seems to work.

 

Sectors are flippable - although not when there are two sectors up, are you going to implement that too?

 

Hm, in the Rebel view, it seems to start with an Abrion sector saved/minimised in the minimised sectors panel (whatever you call that), even though there isn't an Abrion sector on the actual map, and the contents are a jumble of planets all in one place (I think). Intended?

In the Empire view I can't seem to find the minimised sectors panel.

 

I don't have much time today so I only skimmed the thread, but I saw some ideas that I felt are a bit dangerous, like changing ship classes to something other than capital ships and fighters. My own hope is that the game is as much like the original as possible, and that you will forever keep in mind that you're making a remake, not a new game with original cool ideas. Ultimately, we're here because we want to play SW:Rebellion.

 

Pretty sure I've said that before. Ignore me.

 

When two sectors are up and showing, they are not flippable. that is working as intended. A small difference from the original.

 

You may notice up in the upper left hand corner graphic jumble, though it should be very small. That is where I am temporarily forming and grabbing images to display. I need to move that off the display memory area. Abrion Sector and the outer rim sectors have not been finished, they are essentially setting at XY 0,0 and you can see them up in the left top corner somewhat. If it is really bad, can I see a picture? It should not be very noticeable or in the way.

 

There is no minimize off to the side panel as was in the vanilla game. I never used that feature so I left it out. So everything is working as intended Thanks for this feedback and more if you have time.

 

Try out the hot key letter "O" (this stuff is n the Log file text.) it returns you to the Cockpit to start a new game. Check out also the functioning Quick Save and Quick Load hot keys "S" and "L" plus you will hear speech of the computer talk back to you for confirmation. I like audio message in addition to just messages from the agent missions and real spoken grammar is cool.

 

I do not understand what is meant by second ship class, unless that is to replace fighters. The original game is built around the Naval battle group idea like WWII with Bombers and Aircraft carriers so to speak, I am keeping it that way. Of course a person can just Mod in whatever they want , after all what is a fighter? A small and fast moving model in 3D that can be made to fly and do whatever a person wants it to do -even change into a small patrol craft from XWA (convert the OPT models to .X format or .3ds and there you go). For 32-bit systems we can go up to two gigabytes of memory (mesh and textures), Dark Basic engine will render up to 10,000 low poly objects before it starts to choke, I torture tested it back in another thread about two years ago to maker sure it is going to handle it.

 

Again, thanks for testing people, I am going to make the characters and agent missions plus a basic AI to play against. Also my better version of the planet side character, Build, Factory , Defense display and function. I am making it much simpler to use than vanilla (I Hope!). I am using a combo of pop ups, better feedback, rollover hoover feedback, and well you will see soon enough. Plus pictures will show up next the Droid on the "TV monitor" for your targets and agents reporting in.

[Markus_Ramikin]

If it is really bad

I didn't mean that as a complaint, I was just reporting what's happening. I see, so that wasn't the minimised panel.

 

I have to say that unlike you, I used the minimise feature a lot in the original game, it was convenient for a number of purposes, so I'm sad to see it gone. Likewise flipping two sector screens.

[Slocket]

I did not know if it was showing all over the GUI, but I do see what it is doing now. It is OK . I had to sacrifice the minimize area for now because I need every bit of horizontal real estate area to display the sector screens in true proportion and they are wide like a square. In vanilla, the sectors are distorted vertically and makes it inaccurate. Maybe later down the road I can add back in a side slider out panel with the minimized sectors. I do not know how many people use them . You are one (+1) vote, I never used them (-1) one vote, I hope there are more people out there still interested in the game to chime in their opinion. If I made this for wide screen monitors only, then I would have plenty of space to display. 9:16

 

Nothing is impossible, just time. I thought the basic game can be played without it for now. We really need more Alpha testers, maybe a lot of peeps thought the website was down for good. I should advertise somewhat on other websites once I get more demo to show.

 

Hopefully improved interface at the planet level will take off some of the edge of Agent-->Mission-->Target. Plus there is going to be somewhat of a decent interactive 2D ground battle to watch during an invasion or bombardment, something that was not in the original game. I want to add in more fighter and ship types, characters, and I need to take this complex level of detail and display it in a meaningful "FUN" way. I did not want to just show a boring list of things on the planet ( I call that a flying windows program list which is boring -MOO3 anyone?) I like artistic pictures and 'objective' representation to make it look fun and realistic in a representative way.

 

If you hoover over the planet facility or defense on the sector screen in the next iteration, it will display the most relevant data such as, is the planet double shielded, laser batteries, facilities such as a Construction Yard or Ship Yard or Training Yard without having to do a sorting click fest looking around for one. One roll over and major Macro info about the planet will display down at the bottom of the screen without having to actually click down into the Micro specifics.

[MrPhildevil]

God, I used the side pannel all the time!!!!

 

But unlike Mister Ramikin, who seems to want every mod as vanilla as possible, I think the Rebellion concept could definetly be improved. Unfortunately, I lack the knowledge of implanting such things as a "new class". I know a fighter is supposedly a 3d model, but back in rebellion, they are but a moving ".gif". What I'd like is for said patrol ship to be about as agile, but not be moving images nor stiff capital ships. It would render them more dynamic. A little like Empire at War, but without the boring limits and restrictions that made this game so inferior to Rebellion.

[Master_Xan]

I used the side panels, but I also hated them. There were times when Rebellion would reorganize my panels willy-nilly, messing up my methods. I also didn't like putting a planet info into the side, only to forget next time I pulled it up and subsequently lost it. And I hated having, say, the defense for a planet in the side, but then needing the fleet view or manufacturing view.

 

The side panel was an attempt by the designers to overcome the shortcomings inherent in Rebellion's GUI, which was clunky, with many repeated steps. The side panel could be used effectively to reduce steps, but only marginally. As it has come up, let me share my views of what the side panel could become, making it a truly useful feature.

 

1) Make the side panel correspond to numbers. Like a taskgroup of ships in battle, hitting 1 could automatically bring up whatever planet view was in slot one (say, Coruscant).

2) Make it possible to access any of the planet information view screens from any of the others. For example, if you put a planet defense view into the sidebar, make a button in that view to access the mission, fleet, and manufacturing views. This way I don't need four "tabs" for a single planet's information.

3) After a battle or after loading a save game, the panel needs to remain unchanged, unlike vanilla where it would be rearranged. I'd assume this would be a standard idea, but I mentioned it anyway.

4) If screen real estate is an issue, who says it has to be along the side? Make the list along the top or bottom. Or make it a floating window that can be moved wherever the player wants, or make it an option which can be disabled for players who don't want it. There are lots of options here.

5) When you have one view open, and want to see the view from a planet in the panel, opening the panel screen should automatically place that view NEXT to the currently active view, rather than vanilla where the position of the view was remembered (which often resulted in opening the view over the top of the view you were using, forcing the player to move one of them before doing anything else).

6) Make the assignment to a side panel slot more permanent. It only looses this status when the player removes it or assigns another view in its stead, rather than just when the player doesn't put that view back over to the side again. I can't tell you how often I forgot to put a view back over to the side again and had to open it back up the long way.

 

Doing these things would dramatically improve the usefulness of those side panels. In vanilla, I used them as reminders- Uvena's window is up, that must mean something is about to arrive, or finish, or something needs my attention there. But with some improvements, the side panels could be actually useful.

 

Just an idea, while I'm thinking about it, the galaxy view could use a toggle. Like the mouse wheel- scrolling could change from active personnel to inactive, and cycle through all the other options (like fleets, support, energy, etc). Or a keyboard alternative, if you already have plans for the mouse scroll wheel. Just a thought, but one that would further help the GUI be easier to manipulate quickly.

[MrPhildevil]

Just an idea, while I'm thinking about it, the galaxy view could use a toggle. Like the mouse wheel- scrolling could change from active personnel to inactive, and cycle through all the other options (like fleets, support, energy, etc). Or a keyboard alternative, if you already have plans for the mouse scroll wheel. Just a thought, but one that would further help the GUI be easier to manipulate quickly.

 

I agree with this. Maybe it could be a button that you double click, for example, where the Legend used to be...

[Slocket]

It would seem then that a lot of people use the GID to find stuff such as Shipyards, Training, etc full or empty. Using feedback from above.

 

1) To make it faster, I could hot key those into keyboard/gui numerals 1-(10) along the top of the key board to display on the galaxy star map quickly. In addition, if the sector map is open, it will display a symbol such as a small to big S where the factory symbol usually is to show where that shipyard is and if it is empty or full. This can be shown (and switched view) even if the sector is open to save having to go back up the tree to the main GUI star Map galaxy display. So only need one click to find an empty shipyard (or whatever) then one click again upon that symbol to open up the screen dialog for build at that facility, two clicks, third click is how much to build and then select a destination 4 clicks total. Would that be cool?

 

2) main planets will show more info such as if the planet is double shielded at a glance (my favorite). I am making the most relevant information to show in a roll over too of the planet so not having to go click down into it. It can show up along the bottom, such as shields, lasers, troop levels numbers. Less digging for that information. Plus changing the way ETA and Fubars are shown to display production quotas.

 

I am going to make a collage of the proposal to see what people think if it makes the game GUI much easier to handle. I need testers to try it out, the constructs of objects I use in the next demo will be for demonstration only. So you can look at the troop levels on planets, ship yards and such. They will magically be there. Sort of like at the start of the new game. Planets about to revolt will have high troop level, etc.

 

I will have a look into those cantankerous side bar holders more once I try to create the above additions first. Maybe if things are working well, they will not be needed so much, else they can be added later once I can get more functionality to the game.

 

ot-

I've been suffering from daily bouts of nasty vertigo suddenly lately (unknown cause), in case it turns into serious stuff (need MRI scan) or just an ear infection - I am going to include source code from now on in case I am not around anymore. I am not looking for sympathy or crying, I just need to give a heads up on my unfortunate odd health, since I would like to get this one thing finished in my life time. But lucky so far, I keep bouncing back like an annoying bug -so I do not go in the night that fast. I have hope. one benefit, I get to sit home and program or play game all day when I am up to it, so that is fun. Live every day to the fullest, sadly a person never knows when the ride comes to an end.

[Markus_Ramikin]

I need to remember that story, next time I want to get out of a project a lot of people are hoping for

 

Just kidding. Hope it's all nothing threatening. But good foresight with the source code.

[Master_Xan]

No dying on us Slocket. Nor anything permanently damaging. That's an order from a superior officer.

 

I'm not sure I caught the vision of what you described in #1. Do you mean there will be an 'S' in place of the factory symbol? What happens when a construction yard is idle? Or both? Will there be a row of icons? I agree, going back to the main galaxy display is annoying, so this should help. Making a keyboard or mouse shortcut for changing the display would help somewhat, but if I understand what you are trying to do, that should help as well.

 

I really like the roll over info idea. A "planet at a glance" feature is badly needed.

 

Got the newer release, did some testing. Not much I can do yet, but things look good so far. I know how much work it takes to get any noticeable results, and I bet you spent a lot of time on it before that first demo was ready. Fortunately, at the point you are, there are visible results to many things you do from here on out. That always helped encourage me on coding projects.

[hosh636]

Just found this thread last night so sorry if any of my inputs are duplicates.

Playing the games at default resolution on Windows7 64bit.

 

*Sector Abrion is in the top left corner of the game screen and is made up of a bunch of overlapping planets.

*When moving the sector window everything gets cleared from the old side except the loyalty bar which takes an additional 1/2 second to clear.

*You may want to consider increasing the click box for the sectors to encompass all of its planets. A few times I clicked on a sector and thought the game ignored the click but then realized I wasn't clicking close enough to the center of the sector.

 

All the movies and sounds work well and I'm very impressed with what you have so far

 

If you're looking for volunteer programmers I would be interested in helping out.

[Slocket]

*When moving the sector window everything gets cleared from the old side except the loyalty bar which takes an additional 1/2 second to clear.

 

Confirmed and Fixed.

 

Thanks Hosh636, I wondered about that too, I fixed it. I forgot to delete the sprite fully from back buffer and was letting the default window clean up. It was a bit annoying- but that buglet is squished! Thanks everyone.

 

I also increased the sweet spot for opening the sectors.

 

I may change the resolution from 1024*768 to 1280*1024 to fit with the more normal common wide screen and would give me 25% bigger pictures and real estate to work with. It would make thing much nicer looking. The planets would would even better, plus I can place those Ship yard, Training yard , Construction icons on the sector view next to the planet (select using a hot key, or click, for fast look and straight to the build menu).

 

It could still be played on older monitor by adjusting the window size but it would be distorted some. I am going for the 9:16 art work before it is too late.

 

I think I had a middle ear infection, doing better now. *My heart goes out for those poor people in Japan that got hit by that nasty earth quake.

[Master_Xan]

*My heart goes out for those poor people in Japan that got hit by that nasty earth quake.

Ditto. Bad stuff, that 'quake.

[Jachra]

Have you ever considered doing this again, using the new Essential Atlas? Of course, I think a game using that would need to be coded very differently - Hutts, Corporate Sector, using Hyperspace Routes versus not...

[Slocket]

Yes. I am trying out C-lite and the GameStudio A8 engine. More engine but Pure GDK is pretty good too. Makes fast machine "C" compiler language with the nice BASIC (but slow) interpreted language. Trying to decide between these two.

 

DB pro was not quite up to speed, and I think has no more been updated. No more support for now.

 

This is going to have to be easy to modify....the other had it in hex edit language hard for laymen to understand. I need the speed of a compiled language. Or a "pre"-compiled language such as Pure GDK.

 

Most peeps do want the Essential Atlas, but yet want to modify the galaxy too. Almost a contradiction.

 

Making the game HD monitors only. 9:16 1080*. changing code.,,,,

[MrPhildevil]

+1 for essential atlas lol. If I ever get to finish my TC, maybe taking a peek at what is done may help you figure out what you want to do

[Slocket]

Indeed, I want quality over quantity for planets and ships. Capital ships in this next demo do have over the original rebellion:

 

Real four way firing arcs with each turbo attachment to the model. Forward, Starboard, Port side, Aft. ISD do not retreat, so no aft on this first model. One 360 degree Ion cannon. The ships have detailed items and systems that can break during a battle, and must have a crew. Think "Star Fleet Battles". http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=5501&Category_Code=SCR. I have the Captain's Edition. Maybe we can put Photon Torpedoes...just kidding.

 

So no 1000 silly little one hit ships that fire constant then die. Each ships has a meaning and tough purpose. They need repairs and are more complicated, no spam fest. For this reason also, your agents and missions are more detailed and involved and crucial for success. Expanded RPG elements and detail ground combat. Your agents do mean something with abilities and experience.

 

Dream up a galaxy to do, not every planet, but lets say 200-300 grouped in logical good game play layout. May have to sacrifice real lore for good planet layout, of course you can modify anything so kind of a moot point...