On to a more lush subject than interfaces: foliage. (And cameras, and AI)

I've added some new types of trees to DoC recently - dead pine trees, lush deciduous trees, and palm trees. You can see all three types in the image below. (Image is on high detail)

In case any of you missed it in Demo 1, camera control in DoC is handled with the mouse as follows:

* Moving the mouse to the screen sides moves the view.

* The WASD controls also move the view (not in Demo 1, though)

* You can position the view by clicking on the minimap. (only in explored areas, however)

* Right-clicking and dragging the mouse turns and zooms the view. Near where you clicked, you can precisely position the view. Outside that area, the view rotates on its own.

* You cannot move the camera outside the explored region of the map.

* Moving the camera to the edge of the explored region and continuing to drag will cause the camera to temporarily pan out in the direction you are trying to move; after you move away, the camera will rotate back to neutral.

Thoughts on the camera system?

I've also been working on the AI for singleplayer.

This AI is quite a bit harder to develop than AIs for normal RTS games; in addition to building armies and gathering resources, it has to handle needs, building placement, and city development.

The plan I have so far is to make a multiple-part AI with some learning ability, but also with a relatively rigid build order.

* The simplest AI is the unit AI. This one handles individual unit movement - attacking; retreating; and warning nearby squads of danger.

* Next up is the formation AI. One unit in each group is designated the Formation Leader, and handles movement of the formation itself. There are three types of AI formations - offensive, defensive, and scouting. Offensive formations attack the enemy's city and home armies. They will attempt to join together in as large numbers as possible.

Defensive formations are charged with keeping the AI city safe. They attack nearby enemies, and are automatically regenerated by the city itself as needed.

Scouting formations, normally composed of cavalry, go around the map searching for the enemy. They report the makeup of the enemy's army (percentage of units, for countering) and city, and their positions, to the military AI.

* Handling military construction and grand tactics is the Military AI. This AI builds the armies in the game to counter the enemy's units, and assigns armies to their particular jobs.

* Handling construction and maintenance of the city itself is the City AI, the most complex of the various AIs. It follows build orders to create cities, choosing one at the start of each game and rating them based on how many times they win or lose, in order to tailor itself to the player's abilities over time. It can build its city, by shape, depending on the needs of the land; that is, it is not limited to a particular city shape, but can develop around obstacles. However, because of the unique needs of a DoC city, its first priority is not construction, but repair. If an attack destroys a building, the City AI will attempt to rebuild that building as soon as possible, so as to alleviate the effects of the loss.

Together, these AIs should create a very challenging opponent for singleplayer. Plus, I don't have to run the AI scripts too often (unit AI, thrice per unit per second; formation, once per formation per second; military, once per second; city, once per second) so it shouldn't be too slow.

I'm ~80% done with the unit AI; 0% done with military and formation AIs; and 10% done with the city AI. Expect a full singleplayer scenario to be the focus of demo 2.

I'm in the WiC closed beta; but I have an NDA so I can't tell you how very, extremely good it is yet. Heh.