Dumping Legumes

Posted by omicron1 on Jan. 10, 2008, 7:34 p.m.

AKA Spilling Beans.

NVidia's 2004 drivers do not run OpenGL well… at all. If X3d games don't work well for you, make sure you have the current drivers.

I didn't even get a mention in the YYG contest - makes me wonder what happened. Not that I think it was unfair or anything, it would just be nice to know the judges' thoughts on my work. Congrats to 2DCube, anyway - here's hoping the next contest is a strategy-themed one. If I get a chance to enter War in a YYG contest, I will win. End of discussion.

After messing with my random generators a bit, I have obtained a setup with which I am happy. It generates an island archipelago of sorts, similar to what you might find in Classic Empire. (Except that islands tend to be larger; I'm not sure if this is a problem or not) The only real problem it has is the tendency to generate "lone mountains" - single peaks which pop up above the surrounding terrain. This is not good, and will be fixed…. anyway. It also features a "realistic" climate generator, with areas of ice, desert, and temperate zones.

I have tested the engine at 32x32, 64x64 and 128x128 terrain map sizes; loading and exiting time increase significantly at 128x128, but all three play at full speed. And since GM/X3d's speed is independent of graphics card power, this means you all shouldn't have any performance trouble, as long as your graphics card drivers are properly updated. Yay.

I have gotten the random city name generator and a significant portion of the interface working. There are 231 possible unique city names which may pop out of this thing.

I'm planning to use a simplified tactical terrain model for War:

Grassland and similar has no movement penalty

Forests have movement + offense penalties, and a defense bonus

Mountains have movement penalties, and an offense bonus

Deserts and ice have slight movement penalties.

The presence of a city gives units within a defense and offense bonus.

The Damaged/Destroyed attribute applies a movement/defense/offense penalty to units within that square. It occurs as a natural result of heavy combat, esp. bombardments/bombings.

In the planned multiplayer mode of War, it is possible to transmit an entire map - down to the city types and names - in a single integer. That's procedural generation for you…

SCREENSHOTS!!!

http://64digits.com/users/omicron1/Empires2.PNG

http://64digits.com/users/omicron1/Empires3.png

My Christmas vacation ends tomorrow at noon, when I fly back to Chicago. I didn't get a single game-related present - but I think my roommate got a Wii + games, so that could be fun. I did purchase myself a couple of BioWare RPGs, though - KOTOR and Jade Empire.

I made more friends during my first semester at Wheaton than during my entire life before, I think. One of them is a pretty female computer science student who's been in at least three of my classes so far - but whom I cannot work up the nerve to do more than say hello to…

Comments

RetroX 16 years, 10 months ago

Spherical screenshots. Pretty. Kind looks like ACWW only with an "Empire" feel to it.

Castypher 16 years, 10 months ago

But I DO have current drivers. D=

bendodge 16 years, 10 months ago

Nice screenshots!

stampede 16 years, 10 months ago

Are those glass-like hexagons water? Otherwise, looks nice!

Scott_AW 16 years, 10 months ago

Looks rather cool, could you make the hex walls of water tiles that are adjacent translucent or water colored? That would look better.

omicron1 16 years, 10 months ago

The game's 3d look-and-feel is meant to represent a "board game" wargame, with "plastic" playing pieces, "wooden" terrain tiles, and "glass" water pieces.

I don't plan to remove the wooden water-tile hex walls; although I will probably darken them. They help to maintain a board-game feel.

RoyalSmacketh 16 years, 10 months ago

Don't separate the water with hexagonal lines. I think it makes it look funny.

abacus 16 years, 10 months ago

I think the entire thing looks like a honey comb- that is to say, tasty.

Anyway, i had a dream that the next contest would be some sort of skating/sport contest, but my dream ended with the thought of "Hmmm, a skateboarding game? What could i do that isn't like tony hawk…"

Yeah but it might mean nothing. Maybe. But I'll refer to this comment if it does end up being a skating game, because i will be a prophet! of doom! (at least for you, omni, because if it is a skating game you will go DOWN)