steel

So life takes me away, I forget, but I come back crawling anyway. I may have time to take this up again if I had a partner in crime. Let me know Slocket.

I sent you an email antilles but I never recieved a reply. I am interested in some help if your willing. Let me know and we will see what we can work out.

Its been a rough month for my uni, my units arent quite as easy as I expected. Things are coming along however its still going to take a while. I do keep an eye on things on this site though. Will give a proper update by the end of next month. We will see

Found what I needed. Thanks guys

Been a while since I worked with the Rebellion resources but can you tell me how to extract or send me a copy of the bitmaps that contain the stars used to display systems on the main galaxy map Slocket? I did have a folder full of it all but god knows where it is or how i got it. RebEd only seems to work on strategy.dll and not the others.

Yes. Very bad. Major setback but as I posted in the other thread, it has given me a chance to go back and fully clean it all. Nothing I can do about it but move on. I do have access to off-site back up even other hard drive back up but it was just a combination of failure in my process that lead to the loss. Wont happen again

Getting somewhere again. The 2D interface is very quick to put together. While its not pretty and its all just filler at the moment, Ill chuck up a quick screenshot for those interested. So things I lost (or are changing) and need to redo: Networking Universe Generation Some of the GUI stuff needs to be rejigged to work with my new engine. Sooner or later, Ill chuck together an editor again as Ill need to get someone to recreate the Universe. http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3766/74190727.png

Would love to implement something more sophisticated however Ill stick with basics for now. Since I have chosen to go 2D things are progressing smoothly and all my lost data(well it cant be replaced) is not so much of a problem now. It gave me a massive chance to go back and fix all the problems in the orgiinal code and the basis for the engine is much stronger now.

I will be working on the game rather than content. I was helped by someone previously on content so there is a basic amount in the game ready to go. I will get to work on an editor soon enough which I will ask someone to spend some time with for me.

The more I think about it the more I think I will just go back to the 2D style for now. It just seems the best idea for my first real go.

Perhaps I could try a more traditional approach first up? I'm still not 100% sure if my way is a good way and creating the traditional style would be far easier for me. I will look into it anyway.

Like Sullistan regiments of space? Could be done and I think I will try and work something out. Maybe a class of smaller ships designed for such a purpose? There are more ships that aren't aligned to either the Alliance or Empire in this game due to the new factions I added, and its easy enough to add more.Worth investigating at least For reasons of gameplay, I wouldnt restrict facility movements. If you got your production facilities separated it would ruin your game way too easily I think.

I could have it so only the fleets are specifically tied to the lanes. Missions/Facilities you can argue are small enough to not be noticed when passing systems that they would be prevented from doing that. 4:3 is a dying format. None of my friends nor I have used 4:3 since about 2000. 16:9 and 16:10 will be 90%+ of people probably. 3D Galaxy like I said is an interesting one. I spose it cant hurt to try.

Wont be doing multiple monitors. Its just not implemented in XNA and I dont have time to dig deep into pure DirectX to do it.

Combination of a bit of SE and a bit of Sins that made me do it this way. Im not going to do it exactly like either one as its more an inspiration than anything. [*]I would like to add an overall minimap in the bottom right corner that can give a 'at a quick glance' infromation [*]I would like to have a fullscreen look at the whole map similar to what I showed just before at the touch of a button. Say pressing tab brings up the whole universe allowing you to quickly move from one part to another or simply see in greater detail [*]There will be the planet list as well so that should be useful. Also Fleet list, character list.

I only partially implemented what is called Instances in my previous attempt. This was obviously a mistake and I need to fully flesh this out for the program to work. Essentially this is a massive memory saving feature where your units are all stored in your encyclopedia but there are specific variables attributed to each unit and stored in an instance. Things like hp, experience, damage etc are instanced while total attack damage and bombardment will be stored in the encyclopedia. I will simply add a number of battles participated and IsVeteran Boolean to these things and add certain bonuses because of that. What bonuses they are well, I will have to look into. I will most likely make you able to choose what two or three attributes you want the veteran ship to have in the editor. My original time period will be the same as Rebellion. Though the editor will allow you to do it as you want. I was hoping some of the community would work on new scenarios and time periods. Implementing a second screen would be interesting. I will give it a shot see if I can. Then I will have to learn about RenderTargets a little better as I essentially will have two

I also forgot to add that I wanted to add mini-teams. Essentially smaller versions of the Alliance and the Empire that will kind of get in your way or help you. The imagined teams I had were the Smugglers Alliance and the Hutt Confederacy(or whatever they are called). Not 100% sure on that however I thought it might have added a bit of a different thing. I considered having multiple players but battles then become auto-battles, I also considered having real time battles so you could have multiple battles at once however it sort of messes with lore timing issues.

I'm using this as an opportunity to amalgamate some changes to the base engine. I will also be properly incorporating the GUI from the start(instead of tacking it on. It was getting to the stage was the tack was coming apart ), as well as making sure the network code is incorporated from the beginning. I separated engine code and game play code as all good programmers are taught however some of my engine code(such as Networking) needed to know things such as the size of information it was sending so I had to pull the unit information out into its own project and needless to say, was getting frustrating. It is now all one big project so no more issues there. There were other small issues to do with unfamiliar code that I tried to plug into my program and I was struggling to understand how it all worked. I simply removed it now as well as some of the threading I was doing. The threads were causing loading issues. All in all its been a bit of a step backwards however most of the code is still relevant (with minor changes) and I have made my life a metric tonne easier

The editor will be in a windows based program. To add new models/change models you simply need to select the right name and add the "compiled" model(XNA must compile models for use within XNA programs) to the Content/Models folder. Ridiculously simple. Same with next characters. You add all the details in the program then simple add the compiled texture to the Content/Textures/ folder. I had about 15 different start conditions that generated my universe when I was creating it before. This altered many of the planet variables, starting number of planets. I didnt have fleet strength but I will now that I think of it. Totally forgot about that one. Researching needs to be looked at because when someone adds new ships they need to be able to specify when and how it is research. I could add simple field for the date after which you can research but IM not too sure. With regards to missions, I wanted to people to be able to edit their likelyhood of success. I also wanted to make missions be user-creatable in my editor. For instance. You say Target = Own Team, Enemy Team, Neutral, TargetType = Facility/Troop/Character, Outcome = Destruction/Disable/DiplomacyChange etc etc. Could be too complicated though and will probably be much easier to just hard code standard missions and allow likelyhood editing. Will need feed back on if we want any more missions though. Events I haven't looked into yet but I will be doing random universe events. I develop in Widescreen so it will offer every available resolution from 800x600 to 1920x1200. Since I am no professional coder, the game will work best in a 16:9 ratio but I will try and work the game so its fine in 16:10 or even 4:3 Ill add some screenshots so its easier to see what I mean. Its more 2.5D than true 3D anyway. Currently you have multiple lanes per system(sometimes only one). Have a look and feedback. Noted. Will make it a game option. The problem with your idea is that currently each planet tells me that I have say 3 mon calamari cruisers. Now all my stats are simply just checked against my encyclopedia and used from there rather than storing each one in a planet instance. The next problem is transferring that data to the opposing player(networking is in and currently functional) and its complexity rises. The system will most likely be an after thought rather than integral piece of release. Here are two screenshots from ingame about the 3D system. This first one shows a fully zoomed out of the galaxy. As you can see while there are choke points they arent everywhere and there is several ways around. This is editable and changable to be more or less pathways int he editor. http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/6624/broadscaleback.png This next one is there to show a closer look at some of the central planets. http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/6371/closerin.png

My setback has really given me some time to think through the direction I want to go with and some of the design decisions that I really should have set in stone from the very beginning that I have sort of been making up along the way. I noted a lot of my guesses and what not from the original Ideas list but some of the ideas where frankly not realistic with time/effort, not realistic with tools available at our disposal or just not useful. While I have been deciding to add or change a few things, Slocket has gone with a more traditional recreation. In some ways I like that as then I dont have to worry about design issues. We all know the caveats of the original design and while maybe not perfect, it was certainly workable especially for those of us who revere and love our Star Wars. The one thing that we have both attempted to give in our games is a bit more depth. We wanted the easy ability to add more ships, systems, and the ability for the player to add their own. What I would like to see is what everyone actually wants from a sequel/recreation. Have I been too ambitious with certain features? Feel free to list any problems with what I have created and I will try to answer my reasons. I would love feedbakc and I know this is almost a dead community but the ones left are those who know what they want most and Slocket and myself put in our effort for you guys. So here goes: The few things that I decided to add or change about the original are listed here: The ability to add, remove and alter your universe, units, and possibly missions/research tree The ability to play in resolutions designed for newer generation monitors/PC's 3D Galaxy Map with the removal of the jump anywhere approach. New Interface Additions such as Planet List, Unit List etc etc. Defectable Characters The big problem I am having at the moment is to do with the 3D Galaxy Map. Sure it looks cool but I think compared to the original, usability is down. I have tried to make up for this with the ability of zoom in and out removing some information so you don't get crowded at max zoom but its probably still not ideal. The addition of the new interface screens are meant to help that as a quick reference for your planets and what they are building but still once again, not ideal. I would like feedback on what people think aobut the 3D without jump anywhere. It looks a bit like a cross between Sins and Rebellion in its play but the problem is Star Wars is designed to play over many more planets, and the sectors dont really feel definable anymore. The next big thing is monetary systems. Some people want more complex, some want more simple. I want a fully fleshed out idea that is easy to implement. At the moment I am simply using a system like Rebellions where you have a cost with building and a cost with upkeep. No maintenance points its all based off the almighty dollar(or credit if you prefer) concept. I havent really come across anything else that I wanted to add. I considered having experience for units however it would have expanded memory usage for no real benefit for me. Thats all I can think of for now but hit me up guys

A serious oversight on my part has lead to my game being formatted from my hard drive. This is mildly angering due to the shitload of effort I put into this project. The only offsite backup I had is 6 months old. This is more than mildly frustrating and all my work over the summer is lost. Ill keep looking but it is a sad day for me if I have lost my work.

Soonish, I will need people to test my game so Ill be sure to send you a copy Xan 20th July. So only 4 months left of freedom

Well its been a stupendously busy summer for me and my degree(electrical engineering) is not getting any easier. With the time I have between work and study combined with my first child on the way time is slowly running out. I have to decide between knuckling down and knocking this out enough for someone to be convinced that all the hard works done or abandon entirely. Ive chosen to knuckle down. Over the next few weeks, hopefully Ill have a major release out. Congrats to Slocket on his output and remake. Starting to look the goods. More information to come later.

Investigation of getting a QuadTree going. Managed to get it working and working good. Raised FPS heaps. The only problem was that I struggled to get a way to draw 2 of the quads when the camera intersected them without too many calculations to make it not worthwhile. I went back to my old approach and will continue to work using that unless the FPS becomes unbearable. I fixed a fair few input issues I had and now mouse scrolling and edge scrolling work fine. May add variables so the user can control it however its not really neccessary. Might be time to jump back in to GUI work. Shudder

6 weeks and almost no work done on my engine. Unfortunately it was semesters end as well as the combination of starting two new jobs. However, 3/4 uni exams done and my work load is cutting back to standard full time hours I should be able to fit in more coding and work on game time. Been a good break from the coding side of things and ready to dive back in and finish up.