Bugfixes 26/08/16

Just a quickie to say I have done some bugfixing and general refamilisrisation with the engine as my schedule will be freeing up significantly as of early September.

Still unsure of where to go with the project as a whole but I endeavour to find a good solution over the coming weeks while i plug away at the engine itself.

Streamline

Future of the Engine

Over the next fortnight I will be overhauling the blog to reflect the new direction and schedule of the engine development.

Watch this space for updates. ;)

SSME Modtools V0.4

Slightly early update - I still will post on Sunday and should hopefully have the 0.4 Alpha done, but here's a little something for now.

Here you can find the SSME Modtools V0.4 Alpha. This is a small tool I've whipped up that will allow for easy generation of Traits, Mutations and Beliefs and export them as engine-readable files. Eventually I intend this to be a regularly updated piece of software to go alongside the core SSME engine that facilitates easy creation of all mod-related files and the ability to inspect a mod's current configuration. For now, however, it's a bit rough and ready but will do the job.

So what even is a Trait, Mutation or Belief?

I realise I've not spoken much about the planned system for regiment creation - largely as I haven't had time to sit and transcribe my thoughts between work and programming this. Essentually, when creating a regiment you are alloted a certain number of points. These points can be used to purchase certain starting scripts that provide set structures of soldiers, they can be used to equip your Commander, and they can be used to purchase Traits, Mutations and Beliefs.

Traits are regiment-wide modifiers that apply changes to every soldier in your regiment. For example - your regiment might be better at fighting at night, or known for their prowess with a certain weapon, or notably faster than other regiments, etc.

Mutations are essentially racial traits, modifications that affect all members of your faction. In an effort to retain mod independence, rather than having races in the game there are instead mutations. These are similar to traits, except for all members of your faction - ie these will not apply to any mercenaries or allies you bring aboard, while Traits will. The Mutation system, whiel loosely planned, is going to be a resource management system within the game of safeguarding and maintaining your DNA against the forces of corruption. So gaining negative Mutations is also very possible.

Beliefs (name pending) are traits that affect only your Commander. These are additional modifiers on top of your Traits and Mutations that affect only your Commander. As such, these should be cheaper, and potentially more powerful. These are intended to truly make your Commander unique and special to you, and are passed on when one Commander dies and another takes their place.

So how do I use it?

Simply place the main executable tool in the main SSME folder alongside the core SSME.exe file. For now, you will also need to place all included text files within /Mods/CM/Text/ for the Chapter Master mod, however from Sunday's release onwards these will be automatically included to showcase how the tools work.

Once placed correctly, simply double-click the executable and it will run for you. Type out a name and description for your Trait, Mutations or Belief and start applying some modifications. Don't forget to set a cost before you generate the final file! Any Traits, Mutations or Beliefs e-mailled to me between now and Sunday's release, depending on quality, will be included in V0.4 Alpha of the Chapter Master mod to showcase what can be done.

Some Tips:

• Cost is capped between -100 and 100, current thinking is that a typical regiment has 200 points to spend.
• The 'Special' category is not yet implemented, but will include non-numeric options such as Vampirism, cheaper equipment, special event interactions and luck modifiers.
• Traits should typically be the most expensive, Mutations slightly less so, and Beliefs quite cheap. All values can be negative for sets of penalties. Though, obviously, make what you like!
• Try to avoid new lines (hitting the 'enter' key) in descriptions for now.
• Please e-mail all errors to cmggamedev@gmail.com

Download link at: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_0sZlHDudgnYnVrRzZxcTZ6NDg

That's all for now,
Peace out

Progress Update 15/05/16

Today's progress update is going to be short and to the point.

I've barely been able to put any time into SSME this week as I had to take on more freelance work than usual to cover bills, though I have planned out some of the next version updates and what I intend to do with them.

In addition I have spoken to a programmer friend of mine and he may be interested in helping out here and there with the core engine, so once I get him up to speed on the codebase that may accelerate things.

So in order, here are the versions I've got planned out so far:

Version 0.4 Alpha
This will see the completion of the regiment creation system, as well as traits/flaws, resources and some basic systems implemented that relate directly to regiment creation. ETA: 1 Week

Version 0.5 Alpha
This version will see the implementation of fleets and fleet movement. This will necessitate the implementation of loading and unload armies into ships and some additional node (star/island/etc) interface options to select and view fleets in orbit/docked/etc. ETA: 2-4 Weeks

Version 0.6 Alpha
At this point we can begin to see the core elements of a playable game coming together. This version will include recruitment, resource gathering and expenditure, equipment as a resource-dependent system that can be bought, sold and have limited supplies. This version will also include a basic combat systems for fleet engagements and army engagements. ETA: 5-6 Weeks

Version 0.7 Alpha
This is about as far as my planning goes, but it will involve a simple diplomacy system to interact with AI factions, as well as the core components of an AI system - events, different factions, generating factions on the map at game start and so forth. At this point I expect the game to be pretty much playable, albeit basic. ETA: 7-10 Weeks

These estimates are based on my current rate of progress, so are variable depending on workload, financial concerns and family related matters. Similarly if my friend helps me out on a lot of it, then it'll go faster, or if I hit a vein of inspiration and code for several days straight in my free time, it'll go faster too. But the estimates should hold roughly true.

That's all for now,
Peace out

Quick Note

Hey guys,

Just a quick note that I'll be away this weekend and will be taking a few days off from development, so next update will be Sunday 15th May.

I am hoping to have 0.4 out then with regiment creation and the tool to create regiment generation scripts, though content will vary depending on time, so stay tuned!

That's all for now,
Peace out

Progress Update 01/05/16

This week we have a new version, but not to the standard I am happy with. I was pretty close to not releasing this version, as it doesn't present a ful new feature like have been previously introduced.

As such, I am unwilling to call this new version 0.4 Alpha and am instead naming it 0.38 Alpha. This new version has come a long way since the last, and that's the only reason I'm willing to release it - despite the fact that I haven't had too much time to implement new features this week. My current to-do list is as long as my arm, and I'm really struggling to find enough time in the week to put all of the new ideas in before more get piled on and new art assets come rolling in. Definitely not the worst problem to have, but frustrating nonetheless.

Version 0.38 Alpha sees the first half of regiment creation implemented. In total there will be 4 stages of regiment creation (plus 1 stage of starting a new game): Regiment Selection, Regiment Colouring, Regiment Settings, Leader Setup and then Map Settings. Of these, only the first two stages have been fully implemented as of yet, though the remaining three screens exist to be clicked through.

This version, compared to the last, also includes the new scripting system for regiment setup (which will soon be implemented as a selection box in regiment settings), new regiment management interface features and support for pre-made regiments. Along with this there's a whole host of specifically CM mod updates - new art, sound and text.

Between work and life commitments it's becoming increasingly difficult to fit as much into a week as I would like, but I am hoping to get a guide up shortly (or more likely a standalone software tool) to create new regiment generation scripts so it's easier to handle than the current large blocks of plain text. Fingers crossed, I will also have the full 0.4 Alpha ready by next Sunday.

The newest file can be downloaded here.


*** PATCH NOTES V0.38 ***

Build Version: 0.38 Alpha
Development Name: First Genesis
Download Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_0sZlHDudgnUjl1VXdqQ0pxMlE

The rar archive contains all files for a Windows environment build of the core engine with Chapter Master sprites, sound and text in use to test.

Features

• Added support for new, individual in-game buttons
• Added support for recursive regiment scripts
• Added support for additional sounds
• Added support for regiment creation
• Regiment selection implemented and will pull pre-made regiments from the mod folder
• Regiment colouring implemented to allow for custom styling and colouring of the regiment as well as pulling from pre-made files
• Rearranged regiment management interface to allow for smooth traversal
• Ensured hard cap of 10 sub-units per unit, with the exception of the parent regiment unit which can contain up to 14 initial sub-units.
• Fixed issue involving multiple menus
• Fixed issue involving node popup and buttons disappearing
• Fixed issue relating to image transparency loading failures
• Fixed issue relating to catastrophic implosion of the known universes
• Streamlined regiment loading code
• Streamlined loading screen to reduce further flicker
• Optimized the doowidgets

As ever, you can get in touch with me by commenting here or by e-mailling at cmggamedev@gmail.com - I welcome any and all offers of help and support.

That's all for now,

Peace out

Progress Update 24/04/16

Hello one and all!

So the time has come again for a status update. This week has been pretty busy, but in a very frustrating way. I've spent the largest part of this week's coding time bugfixing and finessing a new system, so the tangible "look wot I did" progress isn't very high, though the modding potential is huge.

Previously I had pre-programmed into the engine for it to start you off with a full, generic set of 1000 soldiers distributed as you would expect. This was obviously not ideal to have as a fixed pattern and needed to be changed.

So now, we have what I'm calling Regiment Scripts. Regiment scripts are going to be selected at the time of regiment creation. These are plain text files formatted specifically to procedurally generate large numbers of soldiers in set formations. This is done by issuing block commands for a given list of stats - numbers pulled from the mod's equipment data files - and repeated until the proper formation is satisfied.

For instance, there could be a "1000 soldiers in 10 companies of 10 soldiers plus support staff" script - which is what I've been experimenting with - or a "recovering band of only 200 soldiers but a large fleet spread across the sector" script. The possibilities are ultimately endless.

The scripting isn't quite finished yet as there is no support for location, vehicles, fleet and some other unimplemented parts of the engine. But for everything that is currently implemented, it will allow for complete user control. I will produce a general document in the coming week to describe how to create these scripts simply and quickly, or I may just create a little tool to do it visually, I'm unsure yet.

There have also been some significant graphical update allows for a much nicer-looking regiment managerment interface, as shown below:

This is all generated from the current test script at runtime, and cna be changed to suit the specific game's needs. This is all part of the process of adding regiment creation to the engine.

By next week I hope to have implemented the full and proper regiment creation screen, and have worked through my backlog of additional art inclusions - we have new planets, a starmap rather than a solid black background, new system for buttons along the bottom, and some updated main menu buttons. All in all, next week should be a reasonably sized release and one step closer to a playable engine.

That's all for now,
Peace out