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[Craig Stern]

All right, bugs squashed! That didn't take long, but uploading this latest video to Youtube did. Behold, an exhibition match between two CPU-controlled players with randomized armies.

[Craig Stern]

Watching that, I realized that the computer AI was ignoring frozen characters and moving with them anyway. Not good! I just fixed it, though.

[Craig Stern]

I just fixed another odd bug: charges blowing up all surrounding bridge tiles, but leaving the one they're sitting on untouched. No more of that!

Next, I'm going to fix the weird bug from the last video where Feedback deals more damage than it heals. It doesn't happen in normal matches--it seems the computer AI is ignoring some sort of rule. I should have that fixed in a jiffy.

[Craig Stern]

Fixed!

[happymonster]

I may have just figured out a way to do direct computer-to-computer multiplayer over the internet

I'd be interested in hearing more if you get this to work.

[Craig Stern]

I've been tinkering with the game's AI--it now takes into the account the type of space a flying character is above when deciding whether to use a Heavy-inducing attack like Gravity Spike on it. (Characters flying over lava are especially likely to be targets due to the crazy amount of damage falling into lava does.)

I've just written knockback into the game as a formal attack attribute, and am going to rewrite the code handling Shove/Pull/Throw/etc. so it's no longer hard-coded into the game. This will allow me to write AI behavior for pushing other characters around much more easily (to say nothing of giving players even more flexibility to create new attacks).

[Craig Stern]

Confirmed: CPU-controlled Mentalists will now drop your flying characters into lava without mercy or hesitation.

[Craig Stern]

I've been making lots of little bug fixes today, as well as rewriting various parts of the engine that rely on hard-coded attack names so they refer to attributes changeable in the external Attacks.xml file.

For a change of pace, I decided to create a new map with tons of destructible terrain. It looked weird having so many bridge tiles without any shadows, though, so I went ahead and added in shadow graphics for bridges. Here's a screenie:

[Franklins Ghost]

Interesting map design, can see that would be all out war like the bridge shadows also

[Craig Stern]

I've updated the CPU AI again--it now correctly judges whether it can push/pull/throw a character into water or lava, then decides whether to do so by taking into account how much environmental damage the target is likely to take in the process. I played a match late last night where the AI was pushing and throwing my characters into lava with wild abandon; it was pretty awesome.

Interesting map design, can see that would be all out war like the bridge shadows also

Thanks, man!

[Craig Stern]

I just reworked the graphics for fog of war so you can still see the map's terrain in areas outside your field of view--just not the characters and objects actually on it. I started with a classic dithered style, but it flickered really obnoxiously when panning around the battlefield. I was able to get rid of the flicker effect by reducing the opacity of the tiles to 53% (which partly defeats the purpose, seeing as I was hoping to avoid using transparency for performance reasons, but oh well).

[Craig Stern]

Inane has just gotten me complete drafts of each unit facing in four directions! I'm especially fond of the Bronze Golem and the Lizardman:





Once we get final drafts of all the units facing in all directions, it will be time to start animating them. I'm really excited about that; I cannot wait to see all these guys in motion!

[Christian Knudsen]

The Lizardman left and right kinda look like he's facing up and down but looking over his shoulder. Very nice, otherwise!

[Franklins Ghost]

Can't wait to see them all animated

[Craig Stern]

Another small update: I've figured out a dithering pattern for the fog of war that works without me needing to drop the opacity below 100. That's now in the game, along with destructible wall, door and fence shadows. Behold!