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Thats the benefit of XNA. Makes the graphics parts much simpler to code than in say C++ with OpenGL/DirectX. C# is such a nice language to code in. I am also very far from a complete game so you dont have to worry there Slocket. It will be a personal accomplishment and mean a lot to me if I get it to a playable stage though. My problem is that on top of my 20 hours a week at Uni, I just got 2 jobs which take up around 30 hours per week. So my free time has dwindled to zero. I try and get on and do a chunk a couple of times a week though. I havent actually updated the code on the codeplex website since I upgraded to XNA4, so I should do that soon.

Completed a few of the GUI's I need such as Main Build, Production Dialog, and Production Popups. Need to complete these few thousand more: - Battle - Message/MessageManager - Mission - Fleets - Characters - System/Character/Fleet overviews - Probably missed a few in there. Currently taking a break from production of GUI's and concentrating in creating a workable QuadTree for rendering and collision detection to increase frame-rates and make it far more scalable. GUI work is generally unfun and involves many numbers so its good to get out and work on actual algorithms for a while.

Latest update: XNA4 upgrade complete. Working on some performance enhancements because its not the fastest design out however can't really do a full performance test till everything is in. To Timoteo, Ive sent you a PM . And thanks for the support murph. Depending on my increasingly busy schedule, I hope to have at least some form of game out by years end.

Hey guys, Been a slow slog these last two weeks. The upgrade to XNA4 is NOT going as planned and certainly wasn't an easy process. Created quite a few problems and additional bugs that I have to fix as I go along. Ive been told that XNA4 adds in quite a few useful things and makes things much simpler for those trying to play the game so for that reason, I went ahead and upgraded. Hopefully in the next week or so, I will be back on track and making additions/upgrades to the program.

Programming is best learnt from doing it yourself. Books are a fantastic help and online tutorials as well. When you start learning programming, I found that most languages are basically very similar but use different syntax. There are lots of technical differences behind them but that doesnt usually matter too much. When I first started it was a language called Pascal, from there moved into working in Java, C, C++ and finally I'm working in C#. Personally, Java/C is a good place to start though I have heard people say they can be hard languages to learn. The best thing about these two however is that the available knowledge on both will be incredible(both in written form and on the net) and you will most likely find people willing to help you learn. So, I'd say pick one, hire a book from your local library and do the basic easy problems. Its all about experience and time put in as I learnt far more coding my own Rebellion 2 attempt than I ever did at University.

Currently upgrading to XNA4/.NET4. Its not an easy process but Im pretty close to finishing the upgrade. Have it compiling and running, but now I have to fix out all the bugs that were introduced with the upgrade. And then retest everything. Joy its been a slow fortnight as I have been incredibly busy with university. I had some help from a couple of guys recently and I would like to thank Pranay for helping with the units he gave me, Callahan for his help in creating a playable universe and Ben for giving me some ideas and help in using shaders. So I have a week off from university coming up so hopefully I will get a fair chunk of Rebwork done then. There is CivV coming out though

I moved into C# with no formal training from C++. Its all much simpler without having to deal with pointer functions/passing etc etc. I agree its a bit of a shortfall being Windows only, however there is a simple way for me to look at this. Something like 90% of people use Windows. I would say any of those who are into gaming of any form its most likely much higher. Coding a game in C#/XNA removes 90% of the low level stuff you have to code in and out, as well protects you from things like memory leaks. Making my game in C#/XNA will require at worst, a third of the time to take to code up a C++ version using OpenGL. That is with OpenGL training compared to none from XNA. Anyway, the code for the project is http://reb2.codeplex.com/ and I dont have a compiled binary up on that site to give you however if you want a quick squizz at the engine in action either compile it yourself, or shoot me an email at aaron.mijatovic@gmaill.com and ill package one up and send it to you.

Seeing as your using XNA, why not simply jump on mine. Im more than willing to walk you through the code and get you up to speed on how to get things done. Moving along pretty quickly and close to a decent 2D simulation. Im in need of someone to help keep the motivation up.

Check the character finder. Will usually give you a hint to his last known location.

Rather than maintenance points, upkeep will be taken directly from your credit bank. Income from "refineries" will go straight into that bank as well. At the moment only the planets number of refinerys will change upkeep, though I could easily add modifiers that change that should it become neccessary. Or even additional income based on those attributes you mentioned.

Ive removed the build GUI and integrated it with the unit GUI. Fleet Icons have been moved to the upper left as I find the 3 buttons to be more aesthetically pleasing at top right vs top left. They do not represent fleets but they represent a quicker way to view what is being built, or not built. Hence the talk about highlighted icons a few posts back. For the sake of simplicity, I am going with a simple money/credit system AT this stage. I do not see a bigger benefit towards using resources/mines however If there is cause to change it, I am not adverse to the idea.

The icon will be dulled if active, lit up if not active, and not there if the production building doesnt exist Energy and Facility bars havent been implemented partially because im unsure whether to include or not. The only one way i can think of implementing them is rather expensive draw wise though I havent put any serious thought into it. Conditional hovering isnt hard to implement depending on the conditions. The white lines are a change from the original rebellion. No longer is there a jump anywhere approach. Each system has neighbors and you will have to travel through them to reach destinations. I might consider removing this approach if it doesnt work well but I would like to try the idea first. As to Callahans idea, the overview will be tabulated much like Civ4's city overview. You will see all the important details in the table and be able to access the build screen from there, perhaps a jump to button to move the camera and anything else that comes to mind

Ive also quickly put together another idea with g-mans ideas put in practice. its not complete but i just wanted to get a little feedback as well. http://yfrog.com/nganotherpreviewattemptp The build and unit dialogs are now combined. I have finished updating the build dialog but both facilitiy and troop will be in place obviously when it is done. There will be 4 buttons at the top. I just quickly put those together that will bring up a fullscreen overview of the different parts(planets, universe, characters, fleets). Those 3 icons on the top right of planets will either highlight if not active or be dull if producing. Hover over that icon, and it will bring up a popup build dialog which I havent re-made yet. Thoughts and ideas please?

What about a design style similar to the game, Sword of the Stars? http://yfrog.com/jpdesignideap Instead of having windows for planets you have a sidebar associated with a currently selected planet. This can show the current important aspects such as fleets in orbit and characters as well current builds and important information. The only problem I could see would select missions against other units? Anyone else see a problem with it?

Considering your options, I can easily implement the production icons. Hotkeys for the different types aren't feasible as the game is based around being able to edit all the different units. The code isn't locked in so someone who wanted to add in the e-wing, would have no hotkey and then just be forced to resume the old way of doing things. I will look at replacing alot of the useless information that is replicated throughout the system and create a Rebcyclopedia style rather than displaying the unit costs/upkeep in each window. Perhaps adding a small popup on hover of these mini-icons of the different build facilities will show what is being built,progress and destination? Double clicking will obviously open the production dialog If your interested, since your close to the only person who has given helpful ideas on how to implement the UI, would you be interested in testing out the UI after I have made the changes? If so, email at aaron.mijatovic@gmail.com at Ill get a build out to you once its been coded up.

Yep Im going to merge the two as well. Mission I might keep seperate im not sure just yet. There are a few ideas in the other thread which I am looking into as well... Finally I just picked up Sword of the Stars and checking out their UI see if that gives an idea on what to implement.

Okay. I have been investigating other 4X titles to see how they do it and see if I can use some ideas or some similar things to incorporate and make it all a bit easier on the user. First of all, I plan to have the GUI add an additional 4 buttons along the top bar which will also be hot-keyable. These 4 buttons will be System Overview and Management, Fleet Overview and Management, Character Overview and Management, and the Map Overview. Map overview will show a map similar to the original Rebellion where you can see all systems on the map with the varying stars. I will try and add the overlays so you can check where concentrations of units and buildings are, diplomacy, etc etc System Overview and Management will give a tabled list of the systems you control with a a brief overview of the planet( facilities used/max, whats being built, other relevant information) Ill make it so you can open the planet dialog from this overview window or even just the production dialog. Fleet overviews will be similar. Ill make it so you can open the Fleet windows for fleets from here Character overviews will be similar. Ill make it so you can open the planet windows for the characters chosen. I will also make you able to cancel missions or set adm/gen/comm from the screen. I will do away with the two windows for Build and Unit dialog and convert them into a single window where you get your planet overview and buildables, as well as show the different units. In reply to goryani, you certainly gave me some ideas to think about. Doing away with the second production dialog will allow me to move the fleet icon to the top left. Then I can add 3 mini-icons for each planet in a semi-circle from top to the right. These mini icons would be displayed if a planet has those particular facilities and was idle. Will also be easy enough to implement opening the production window from there as well. I think you will have to click on/off these icons as there will be so many that you will forever be accidently opening and closing them though. I will experiment with making all my UI smaller and more appropriate as well. I didn't see it before but I do now. On a more personal note, your post is full of arrogance and I find it slightly inappropriate. I greatly appreciate being given direction when it comes to improvements and I cannot wait to see it come to fruition and see people playing my game. However, I have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of learning, practicing, testing, coding, and re-coding. The majority of it solo. I am not a coder by profession nor in any form of game development so it hasn't been an easy slog. yThere are some pure impossibilities you what ou suggest (11 interactions to 2-3 is just impossible, shrinking my GUI down to 15% of size) and it doesn't help me to give unrealistic design goals. Its not an easy process to just draw what I need. The Build Dialog alone is around 940 lines of code and it requires lots of work to get going. Thoughts and Comments are welcome however I need to make a decision in the next day or two so I can resume the project? I cant really just sit around waiting for brilliant and/or perfect ideas to show up to implement.

Brilliant. I agree with your thoughts. Its time to remove the individuality of each unit and simply group them up.

The project has a fairly solid base. I could certainly add more simple information in the form of idle facilities and what not. I think I could implement something along the lines of Civ4's city builder. It probably wouldnt be that hard and would give you a quick overview of your owned starsystems. I actually really like that idea and will try and add an overview of systems soonish so people can have a look. I will have to have a think about how to go about changing up production. With regards to the implementing yuuzhan Vong idea, I do have an editor which would allow you to create your own team as such. Then its simply a matter of getting together the required models and textures that would be part of that.

Sorry about the incoherent last post. Was all over the place. Anyway I could try having a drop down system which has a list of all your planets, from there if it has shipyards or facilities I could add another menuwindow allows you to open the production dialog for either ships, facilities or troops. Only if the system had production capabilities would it be shown and then only the relevant subsystem that has a production type and isnt currently producing. eg Kuat - Ship Building - Troop Training Coruscant - Facility Construction Hoth - Troop Training Yavin - Facility Construction - Troop Training - Ship Building This would hopefully reduce the need to find individual planets and open up their production windows. Thought on that process?

Im always open to constructive advice however I have yet to be given a viable alternative to implement. With regards to window management what do you mean? I had all those windows open more to show their creation rather than have them used. If you mean to have them minimise like in Rebellion I will certainly look into implementing that. With no ideas to change the interface, I have to stick with what I know. I think people talk up Rebellions interface problems anyway, as I never once thought it was a struggle and didnt even realise it was a problem till I saw some people here. I could consider merging in some windows and removing others to make it less annoying. Any other ideas? In reply to budious, unfortunately coding the game in OpenGL is not an option. I used XNA which is Windows-Only and to convert to OpenGL would take far too long. The game source however, is opensource and I have no problem with letting someone take a shot at converting it all You've given me some ideas as well to the interface and I will go back and try and design something. The more ideas the merrier, because I want to make it a better game for all.

Well last time I left an update here, I just explained what I had done. I am prepared to show a little more now. Here is a preview picture of what has been completed in game so far. http://yfrog.com/f/mxlatestpreviewj/ In about a month, I believe my 2D portion should almost be completed. From there I will test the game on multiple systems, fixing any errors that pop up. Ill also check performance and so long as its respectable then I will move on to the 3D portion. Initially, it will be released as MP only however I will be looking into adding AI. I have a couple of coders I can consult with so hopefully I can convince one of these guys to do some AI while I do the 3D Specifically for testers, I will be looking for someone who has different resolutions. 1024x768 , 1280x1024 and 1920x1080 ill need to check. Those with onboard video cards may as well not bother as I highly doubt they will run the game(uses Shader Model 2) and I wont be adding code to do it.

Very sexy mate. Check your pm's please

Here is a fix created by Slocket: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=27843 Im also told you can delete ALBRIEF.DLL adn EMBRIEF.DLL and that should remove it. Try slockets way first.

That is the big thing Slocket. Converting to the way where you dont have individual control over units, will lower your visibility of these units. Not hard to keep track of their stats just without being able to view them. I dont think tossing out squadrons is the idea. For now, I will stick with just showing a general view of the units, but keeping individual stats behind the scenes.