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D2TM Progress

stefanhendriks

By stefanhendriks
in Arrakis

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stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

Posted
Posted

A tiny overview that has been done for the next coming version (for now, numbered as 0.4.2):

FIXED:

- Instead, if I were to click on the Upgrade button again, the upgrade is completed INSTANTLY.

- Sandorm able to squish infantry when going under infantry.

- It is no longer possible to select airborn units with box-selecting.

- animation fixes for structures (WOR/Barracks stopped animating after building unit)

- animaiton fix for outpost

- box selecting problem (needed to cover entire unit). Now only the center is required to select a unit.

- placing units in skirmish mode in the boundaries of the map.

GAME BALANCING:

- Harvester has more HP (300->450)

- Troopers are made less effective

NEW ADDED:

- Dune 2 Seed map generator. Thanks to jpexs for completing the generator and making this possible!

- "game" switch to load own ini file (ie, use d2tm.exe -game myinifile.ini)

- A few skirmish maps to play with

CHANGED:

- skirmish maps do not need to be MAP##.ini anymore, they can be named anything

A lot is in progress:

- sidebar is being redone with all its gui aspects

- logging is being changed

- Rene is working on a tool to effectively read the new log formats

- Rene has made a skirmish map editor

(Instead of a "DEMO X" progress topic. This topic will be about all future versions.)

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stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I am busy with the new sidebars; along with that I also am adding the special units.

Here a screenshot of fremen (made by Nema Fakei, they are different from the original Dune 2).

They are a bit strong, I need to tweak them, but that is a minor issue.

Also; basically Saboteurs are also in, but they do not attack nor blow up.

post-64-1283323989745_thumb.png

post-64-12833239897924_thumb.png

The_Beast

The_Beast

Posted
Posted

really nice keep up with the good work stephan,

In the next version in skirmish mode, will you make emperor house avialable, and sandworm on/off feature?

other stuff can you make turret able to force attack?( ex:to blow up spice bloom)

Finally when will be able to sell or destroy our own structures?

thanks!

stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In the next version in skirmish mode, will you make emperor house avialable, and sandworm on/off feature?

I am not sure about the Emperor stuff. Because things are not that easy set up (my own mistake). Sandworm feature is more likely to make it in the next version.

stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

Posted
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Something new coming up; a newly rewritten sidebar. Not much different from the outside, but totally new on the inside!

Featuring, a building queue.

Still a lot to do, but the basics are there.

post-64-12833239928377_thumb.png

The_Beast

The_Beast

Posted
Posted

nice, buy the way, most of the time when you are bulding something, the sound of the credits dropping i almos never timed with the time remaning to build the item. we see and ear credits dropping but after 50% of the unit done then nothing and we just have to wait until it's done.

MrFlibble

MrFlibble

Posted
Posted

nice, buy the way, most of the time when you are bulding something, the sound of the credits dropping i almos never timed with the time remaning to build the item. we see and ear credits dropping but after 50% of the unit done then nothing and we just have to wait until it's done.

Yes, in Dune II, credits are drained as long as an item is produced - at first I even thought that the build time depended entirely on the cost, and the credits decreased at a regular speed; however, the contrary is true, as the credit drain is timed to match the build speed of each item.

stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

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Atm, d2tm has 2 seperate logic regarding decreasing/increasing money and the build speed of items.

This means, that an item can take X seconds to be built. But, the money drain can take twice as long. Or, the complete opposite, where the unit is still being built, but the money is already drawn.

Simply said, there is no tight-coupling between the 2.

I actually think that money should be decreased/increased as soon as possible so you have good impression on what your credits are.

I believe, C&C, and Dune 2, take off bits of money each time. D2TM will immidiately substract the total costs of the item.

This also explains, why you sometimes cannot build items while you *think* you have enough money; but simply due the slow 'drain' animation of money you cannot see your actual money is much lower.

In code, it is like this:

<code>

credits

credits_draw

</code>

Where *credits* is the actual credits the player has, and credits_draw is the credits amount being drawn on the screen.

I am not completely satisfied with this, but I am also unsure how to solve this.

I've seen several approaches to this; like C&C Generals (i believe) simply substracts the amount of the item as well, but the animation is so fast that it is obvious there is no link between the build speed and the credits drain.

Perhaps there are some suggestions? :)

Rene

Rene

Posted
Posted

Well, why not make it RA1-style (and RA2 style for that matter), where you don't need enough money to start building something. Once the player is out of money, the building will be paused.

MrFlibble

MrFlibble

Posted
Posted

Basically there are two approaches, the "Westwood" approach (as described above: credits are slowly drained, and you can start production even if you don't have enough money to complete it) and the "Blizzard" approach: you can only start production if you have the money to pay the full price, and the sum is deduced from you stockpile immediately after you start to produce an item.

It's your choice really, but the former one is sure closer to the original :)

stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

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I agree; the Westwood style is more appropiate. That would require me to rewrite parts regarding money drain. I won't be looking into that very soon, but i think this should be the way.

Come to think of it; I've tried this before, but I had trouble getting the exact amount withdrawn. Because, what you do is you split up the total costs into little pieces; ie:

Buildtime = 100 time units

Cost = 400 credits

Meaning, every 1 time unit a withdrawal of 0.25 credits.

This is a 'nice' conversion. But when you get 100 time units and an amount of 900, the precision gets lost and you end up paying 899 for instance.

I know, back then, I gave up and made it more easy ;)

MrFlibble

MrFlibble

Posted
Posted

Buildtime = 100 time units

Cost = 400 credits

Meaning, every 1 time unit a withdrawal of 0.25 credits.

This is a 'nice' conversion. But when you get 100 time units and an amount of 900, the precision gets lost and you end up paying 899 for instance.

This is actually what sometimes happens in Dune II as well. It is possible to pay less than the real price of an item and still get it complete. E.g. on numerous occasions I've been able to build a concrete slab when I only had 4 or 3 credits left.

stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

Posted
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Rofl!

Thats quite cool. So I had actually implemented it just like Dune 2 :)

Anyway, I'd rather see it working 100% perfectly. I have ideas about that, but that requires some rewrites. Does anyone know where I can buy some time? :S

nemafakei

nemafakei

Posted
Posted

When you build something, a debt is incurred which is paid off gradually (values: debt incurred and debt paid for each transaction). At the end of the buildtime, any discrepancy between debt incurred and debt paid is sorted.

You might want two 'general' counts: cash and balance, where cash is the amount drawn on screen and used to decide if you have enough money to buy and build, while balance is the amount of money you have including debts.

Then there's the issue of spice stocks...

  • 2 weeks later...
stefanhendriks

stefanhendriks

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Update:

I am struggling with memory issues now. Somehow in DEBUG mode the game crashes unexpectedly. I have been refactoring the INI files loading. This was needed because I wanted to be able to specify what unit should leave from what kind of structure. Ie, in the GAME.INI file you can specify what structure produces a Trike.

[uNIT: TRIKE]

... snip...

Producer=HEAVYFACTORY

Would result that the trike would be spawned (even though clickable from the Quad/Trike list in the sidebar) near a HEAVYFC instead of the LIGHTFC.

Anyway, that is the intention, but i am kinda stuck.

Also, my last year at college starts monday 31st(it is a dual study) so do not expect much frequent updates from then on. :(

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