Hi everyone,

Lately I have put this Minituare Warfare project on hold because I have been working on developing a CRPG (computer role-playing game) instead. If you want to learn more about that game, you can at http://www.kevinowens.org/games/theforgottenstar.

Here's what I got done today:

1. The Point Defense System special equipment has been implemented;
2. The Hand-to-Hand Weapon special equipment has been implemented;
3. Artillery can no longer make artillery attacks if they are in base contact with an enemy;
4. I've gotten a lot of the foundation done for formations. Right now, figures of type infantry or vehicle can join or leave a formation, and new formations can be created. What I still have to do is make it so that when one member of a formation moves, the rest of them move, too.

I think that the interface is starting to get sloppy. (I mean, it was never very pretty or organized.) It would probably be advisable to go through and clean it up a little, make it a little better organized, simpler, and better looking.

I've implemented break away rolls. So, if you start movement adjacent to an enemy figure, you will have to make a roll to see if you can move.

I have also put in some code so that, when you're choosing a destination tile as part of a move order, destination tiles which would be illegal are dimmed.

I have also started programming artillery attacks. I'm not sure how they work exactly, though, as the rulebook doesn't seem to be quite clear. Although I would prefer not to, I think I will have to abandon this task for now and pick it up later when I understand better. The thing I'm confused about is the numbers to use on artillery tokens--are they different for each artillery? If so, which tokens should go with which artillery?

I've figured out how to change cursors in Visual C++. So, now, when you choose "Attack" and then it is waiting for you to target someone, an animated target cursor will appear. We'll be able to make as many cursors as we want, static or animated, and set them whenever or wherever we want. It could get pretty cool when we get into the "polishing" phase of the project!

Jared startd a rudimentary mini-map, and I implemented a few more special abilities. The game is coming along nicely. I would like to do some research on how to change cursors, and how to draw a real 3D polygon. I think that, when we do buildings and other terrain objects, it would be a good idea to draw them in 3D instead of just blitting a bitmap.

I've improved the interface some in the Battleforce Selection screen.

Here is what it used to look like:


Big: battleforcescreen2005_02_07.png

Here is what it looks like now:


Big: battleforcescreen2005_02_08.png

Since my last post, I have completed some more items. I've done the AGILITY, HEAVY ARMOR, and HARDENED ARMOR special abilities. I've also done special DEATH FROM ABOVE attacks and cleaned up the source code a little.

These are the features I've programmed today and yesterday:

1. Our first special ability, decoy.
2. Critical hits and critical misses.
3. Functionality for deploying battleforces onto the map.
4. Image scaling. (You can now display pictures at, like, a scale of 0.5, or 2.0, or 1.333, or whatever you like.) It would be easy to do some kind of ZOOM feature with this down the road, if we are interested in letting players zoom in and out.
5. I added a couple of figures.
   
6. I have also made a few little improvements to the interface here and there.

Some things I've been thinking would be good to include in some later version (2.0 or later):

1. Rotation of figures. (So, they can be facing different directions.) This would be much easier to do with 3D models than with 2D sprites.
2. With figure rotation, we could include front arc and rear arc functionality.
3. The ability for infantry to move in formation.
4. A choice between square maps (like HeroClix), or hexagonal maps (like Classic BattleTech), or free-form (like MechWarrior and MageKnight.)

The source code is starting to get a little sloppy and complex. Soon, I think I'll have to go back and simplify some of the more complicated parts of the program, to make it easier to read and maintain.

I've updated the Design Document and the To-Do list today. To the design document I've added a bit about order tokens, pushing, and heating, as well as all the figure special abilities. I have also added the special abilities to the to-do list, and adjusted it a little.

I've made some changes to the source code recently, and I intend to upload that tonight. The project seems to be coming along nicely.

Also, it looks like someone has done something similar to the project, but for HeroClix, and in Flash. It's at http://www.geocities.com/mad_clixer. It doesn't look like it is as cool as this project will be when it's done.

I worked out some more of the combat, including restricting figures' ranges for speed and attack range. There's also support for Primary and Secondary weapons, there's a rudimentary close-up of figure statistics when he's clicked, there's a leaderboard to show statistics, and a figure can't move into a square already occupied by another figure. There's also a leaderboard that shows current VC1 points for both players.

I also smoothed out a few of the rough edges from features I'd programmed already, like now when you click on a tile as a destination as part of a move order, it's much more accurate.

For a more detailed list of what got done this weekend, you can always read today's version of the To-Do list.

These probably can't be done in this release (1.0), but I think they would really add to the gameplay experience. Maybe we can put them in 2.0.

• The figures should be 3D, and animated. It wouldn't be practical to do this now, because it would take a lot of manhours doing the art, which we should rather spend on programming. We'd have to get some kind of 3D artist and animator on the team to make this practical.
• Sound. Have some cool background music, weapon sounds, sounds for when a figure is moving, and even have the figures themselves say stuff. Like, when you select them, they'd say "What are your orders, Captain?" or when they get hit, they'd say "You'll be sorry."
• The option to do free-form movement (MageKnight and MechWarrior style) or block movement (HeroClix style.)
• Network play.
• A single-player campaign mode, with computer A.I.
• Cool effects like lighting, and explosions and stuff.

Like I said, it certainly wouldn't be practical to put all these kinds of features into our 1.0 release. But, I think they could really add to the game, especially if we intend to sell it.

Here's what the main gameplay looks like:



For the big (actual size) version: screen_2005_01_13.jpg

I did a bunch of programming on the project this morning. It's starting to resemble a real game. The main updates are:

• The game shows graphics now (terrain and figures and some interface.);
• Battleforces can be selected;
• You can give orders to figures;
• There are turns between Player 1 and Player 2;
• You can scroll around the map;
• You can move figures around;
• Figures take tokens when they get orders.

It's amazing how much can get done with just a few hours of good work.

Hopefully we can get it to compile on my laptop tonight.

I've made a preliminary CFigure class. I wasn't sure what to put in it (as the design document didn't mention it), and I'm not all that clear on the MechWarrior rules, so I've just put in a few things that I'm pretty sure we'll use. I avoided some of the other stuff from MechWarrior, because I am not sure how much of that advanced functionality we will be programming. However, we can always add to the class when we need to for a particular feature.

Here's how the class looks:

• int m_AttackValue[16];
• char *m_FullName;
• int m_Damage[16];
• int m_DefenseValue[16];
• bool m_Flying;
• int m_ImageID
• int m_MaxClicks;
• int m_PointValue;
• int m_Range;
• int m_SpecialAbilities[16];
• int m_Speed[16];

I've completed the second to-do item, which is to get the main structure done. I have also made some other slight changes to the to-do document. The Files section of this website has been updated accordingly.

Also, what do you think about a good name for the project, once it's finished? Alas, it's probably too early to be important, but one wonders.

I have written up a rough draft of a to-do list, based on the design document. I've completed the first item, which is to get the program to display a graphic. You should probably download the source code and make sure you can get it to compile on your computer at home. I can help you with this, if you have problems, which you probably will. Then, you should pick a task from the list and start working on it.