A hacked-together prototype for me to try out saving using JSONs (painful...probably never doing it again), HaxePunk-gui (still trying to figure out how to get rid of the "swatch" in the carousel), and, once everything else is functional, probably to learn sockets, finally.





EDIT: One more before the day is over.

I'm still a bit iffy on the idea of sniping because it just feels like that doesn't quite go with the job description BUT you have implemented it in a really clever way so I'm sure it'll start to feel natural over time.

EDIT: Also, to add to the conversation earlier, for me, by far, the hardest part about learning how to play was realizing that you could highlight entries in the rulebook to check for discrepancies. Due to the way the bulletins read, I started highlighting every discrepancy pretty much from the beginning, despite not being "required" to, as they mentioned earlier and that had taught me that it reveals things that you can't catch just by looking at it. But I'm pretty sure I didn't figure out the rulebook functionality on my own and that I had thought it was just a reference.

There's an OSX version of LICECap. Works great.

Awesome, looks like I'll be using that then.

Non-hex movement with hex graphics sounds kinda weird. I'm interested to see it in motion.

As am I, ultimately. Once I have a full map implemented, I'll put a GIF up. The big thing, though, is that I really want to retain a full range of motion now that I have that option.

In Haxe, you can just add a public static var to any class to get a global variable:

-snip-

I wondered about that, considering that's the way it works in ActionScript, but when searching how to construct global variables, I mostly got people saying that in Haxe, there "aren't really" global variables so I hadn't bothered trying. Good to know though. :D

It should. The water itself is all a solid color. We won't know for sure until I put land and shallow water tiles in but I'll figure out an alternative method if it ends up looking too bad. The reasons I outlined above just worry me a bit. The subs/ships themselves aren't small and/or hexagonal so navigation in a rigid, 6-direction movement system is not going to feel all that great.

I think I'm going to go with free movement. Despite having hex-based graphics, I don't see much of a reason to go with hex-based movement in this specific situation, due to the implications. I have a feeling that, if I were to go with hex-based movement, it would involve extremely rigid turning that would involve a ton of counter-measures to keep entities from getting stuck on each other which would then make navigation extremely painful, especially in situations where you're cornered by enemy units.

Side-note: I know people use LICECap for GIF recording on PCs. What's a good Mac program for GIF recording?

Still plan to start playtests by the end of april.

Awesome. Getting close to the end of April so we'll be playing soon with any luck.

Got started on actually coding this today by mocking up a cruddy-looking title sequence to kind of map out what I wanted to do with it.



There's more to it than that and obviously I'm not keeping that text or that background but I'm not sure I'm going to keep the sequence in general. It's a soldier in a trench getting blown up and a skeleton being left behind right before the title scrolls down and the "Press Any Key To Start" text scrolls up. Not 100% sure it matches the mood I want to go for, despite matching the art style a bit.

Oh and on another note, I'm officially calling the game Ceannasaí, which is the Irish word for "commander".

Spent today reacquainting myself with the *punk library and learning the quirks of Haxe/Haxepunk. Made a simple little shooter in the process. Haxe not seeming to have global variables is by far the most difficult part of the move from ActionScript.

Facing a tough decision...hex-based movement or free movement? >.> I feel like the hex-based movement would feel awkward in real-time and that people won't notice it for the most part, anyways, due to the background . I also feel like it's unnecessarily limiting motion. My biggest issue, by far, however, is that I feel like hex-based movement is going to automatically mean rigid turning, mostly snapping into place to avoid the loss of the grid-based movement. But...they're made out of hexes so at the same time, it feels like it would feel natural. Guess I'll prototype both and see.

Work is also finally starting on the project I'm supposed to be working on with a friend of mine and a few others so progress here might be slow.

Ah, yeah. LOVE provides very little, and much of the culture around it seems to be "just roll your own ___!", which isn't very conducive to getting started with it. I'll admit I'm guilty of it myself.

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned - tools exist that give me the means to work comfortably. I'd rather use those tools.

I'm curious, what was it about LOVE that you weren't fond of? Most of the problems I've had when developing with LOVE were actually at the language level (small Lua issues).

Honestly, I've been spoiled by game engines with Entity systems and I found it tiring to work without a semblance of one. That was the big thing there.

Probably not the best reason, but it's just a bit further out of my comfort zone than I expected.

Nice! Congrats on the Kickstarter success! I wish I could contribute, myself, as I really want to try multiplayer out, but I don't have the cash. Any chance there'll be a Paypal option after the KS?

Will the screen be THAT gigantic?

Probably not. I exported it from Hexels at high res just because I could.

After not quite being fond of LÖVE2D, I experimented with a few other systems. I think I've settled on Haxe/HaxePunk. Using HaxePunk feels incredibly natural after working with Flashpunk quite a bit, only with the added bonus of being able to compile natively for Windows, Mac and Linux all in one place. I've heard there are a few shortcomings but I haven't heard the exact nature of these shortcomings so, with any luck, I won't ever be affected by them.

Awesome! Really getting the hang of the starting party now. I beat the short journey and the Challenge of the Dead on my first try for each. :D

I saw this on Greenlight. Looks pretty awesome. Any chance a demo is coming soon?

I really like this concept. I'd be especially interested to see the interpersonal angle played up as much as possible so you could get a sense of how the wranglings (and perhaps feuds?) of a small group of commanders can affect the course of the whole war. I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this.

Thanks! Yeah, the goal is to play out how you influence the war as a person actively making decisions without actually being a strategist. I want it to be more about the careful management of the politics of war and how they affect the people involved than about the strategies that win a war. That being the goal, I do want to work in a lot of interpersonal details, possibly expanding to fighting other commanders for allotted supplies during desperate times and such.

A point I forgot to mention, and this plays into the draft option, is that there will be a strong emphasis on the fact that you are commanding a single battle in a larger war. You may lose your battle but that doesn't mean the nation will lose the war. There are other commanders out there doing the same thing you're doing on other fronts. Bearing that in mind, you can't just ask for a draft and expect it to happen. It takes deliberation.

That opens up a lot of possibilities in a larger campaign setting if I decide to add one, including reluctance to assign you to new battles when you lose yours, more/less influence over other commanders, and/or morale effects based on your level of success as a commander. For now, I think it'll just be scenarios.

Only real progress to show is that I got all six directions for the two basic units done. I spent most of the day working on learning the LÖVE API and adjusting to Hexels.

A.k.a. The game I am going to work on when I am slacking on Not So ANSI Sub Game but still feel like coding.

I decided to work on this to keep wargaming out of Not So ANSI Sub Game, directing that energy here instead. I also like the idea of indirectly controlling a warfront, which I first really experienced through STAVKA-OKH. I also really wanted to use Hexels' trixels for something.

Anyways, it's going to be a strategy game where you're a commander in charge of a single front of a war. Your goal is to manage the front and somehow win the war. Turns will be one month at a time. It's not going to be historical in any way, shape, or form.

Not really 100% on all of the details yet, but here is what I mocked up today.



This will be the screen you see the most. You've got five options from here:

1. Check campaign status. This will be a menu where you get to see all of the details of the campaign displayed in one place. You get to see the supplies, morale, and headcount for each front, as well as an overall estimate of how things are going.

2. Speak with the admiral. You'll get to go to a screen like the one below that you use to convince the admiral that measures need to be taken to increase morale (not sure how this will be handled yet), that your monthly supply limit isn't enough, or that a draft needs to be instituted because you're essentially bleeding soldiers.



3. Choose next month's plan. You get to lay out the basic details for next month. Basically, which front to send supplies/reinforcements to and how each front should proceed.

4. Go to the break room. The pause menu. It'll look something like a break room.

5. Check the campaign map (clicking on the table under the options). That will bring up a screen like the one below that will give you an overall look at the current campaign and an the way that your current plan should be executed.



Plans won't be cut and dry though. How well a plan is carried out will depend on morale. If morale is low, then bad things that are undecided will start happening.

And...that's the gist of it that's been planned out so far. Probably going to be worked on at a slower rate than Not So ANSI Sub Game but I needed an outlet for the want to make a wargame.

The screenshots are looking really good!

I kind of like the more stylized look of the second one. Based on Cinders, and the fact that it's the shot used for the logo, I'd guess that's the title screen?

The third one looks almost like it belongs in a different part of the world. Interested in seeing how the two settings blend together.

Is the fourth one animated, per chance? There seem to be a lot of little lighting details in it.

Man, that split-screen solution is awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PF7nPQ889U

Awesome!

Not going to lie, though. As nice as the tiles look on their own, seeing them all together like that made my eyes bug out a bit. Just a bit too repetitive. Ah. Reread the above post. Good to hear that there are other kinds of tiles.

I also agree that the far ends of the elevated platforms are a bit hard to distinguish from the tiles under them.