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[Hima]

Just finished the first tutorial stage. The text was too hard for me to read, so I confessed I couldn't read the whole tutorial. I think I could pick up the gameplay, but I'm still confused as how the turn work and how each unit/block will help me.

Still, the theme is what got me interested and try this in the first place. Love how the tone of the game is kinda super serious when the theme is totally opposite. I'll play more after I got my work done and come back with more feedbacks.

[Average Software]

Just finished the first tutorial stage. The text was too hard for me to read, so I confessed I couldn't read the whole tutorial. I think I could pick up the gameplay, but I'm still confused as how the turn work and how each unit/block will help me.

Which OS build were you using?  I've been having some problems with the font rendering, particularaly on OS X.  Making the window larger should help.  I plan to completely overhaul my text rendering engine soon, it needs some serious work.

Still, the theme is what got me interested and try this in the first place. Love how the tone of the game is kinda super serious when the theme is totally opposite. I'll play more after I got my work done and come back with more feedbacks.

Yeah, that's kinda what I was going for.  I love things that take ridiculous subject matter and treat it with the utmost seriousness.

Anyway, demo release for this week:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

Notable changes:

Mission complete/failure labels.
Full victory/defeat checking in all game modes.
Existing campaign maps have been enhanced with completed event scripts and minor tweaking.
Visual feedback for all relevant executive orders and unit actions (mostly text pop-ups right now).
Added missions 4 and 5 to the O'Donnelly's campaign.
Fixed some game-crashing AI bugs (AI still sucks, next week is dedicated to AI work).
Confirmation dialog when clicking the restart mission button.
Internet games now have a separate chat from the main lobby.
Various fixes to the network code.

[Average Software]

This week I've been working almost exclusively on AI and single player missions.  This week's demo includes the new AI work, and three new missions on the first single player campaign, for a total of eight.

Some screenshots from the new missions, for what it's worth:







The usual download links:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[Average Software]

For this week's release, the biggest news is that the 3D model loading and drawing code has been mostly worked out.  I have a couple of placeholder models in there right now, as evidenced by this screenshot:



I've also added some interface enhacements, like the ability to directly attack a unit without moving by doubleclicking the target, and a handy information window that can be displayed with the tab key.  This window shows you details on everything you are allowed to produce on the current map, as well as your current units in storage.

The downloads also now include the campaign editor (with full source code) and the stand-alone server.  The server is rather useless right now, since the game is hardcoded to my server, and the custom server option has not yet been implemented.

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[Average Software]

I had intended to finish the first single player campaign this week, but the one map I got done exposed a huge number of bugs, so I never got past the one map.

Other than the one new map and a slew of AI improvements, this week's build features:

OpenGL version checking at startup.
I'm experimenting with a new font, not all of the dialogs have been resized yet.
I've implemented zooming using the mouse wheel.  There are six different zoom levels, so you can get some very high-level views of the battle.



Some of the elements need to be adjusted for this feature, particularly the unit health bars.

The package now includes the GPLd source for the config program.
The Mac build of the game now has all of its resources embedded in the bundle.
The game and config program now have crappy icons.

Here are the usual links:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[Average Software]

Most of this week's changes are invisible, under the hood type things.  The exception is that the minimap now shows unit positions:



I've also finished making the first single player campaign, and will probably start into the second one next week.

The usual download links:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[Average Software]

This week the game has reached "feature complete" status, in the sense that every originally planned feature has been implemented.

The two big missing items were custom server and custom campaign support, both of which are now present and functional.

I've also implemented a mouse cursor subsystem, and added a special attack cursor that is used when pointing at a valid target.

Of course, the usual helping of bug fixes as well.

The usual download links:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[Average Software]

This week is mostly cosmetic improvements.

- The map display when configuring battle games now shows unit positions to aid in player assignments.
- Fixed some drawing bugs related to the territory borders.
- Made a completely new campaign selection screen.
- Added autosaves.
- Some minor AI improvements and bug fixing.
- Added textures to the windows, buttons, and scrollboxes:



The window texture is very subtle, and you might not be able to pick it out from that screenshot, but I think it looks nice.

The usual download links:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[Mikademus]

Franchise is a tactics game that I've been kicking around for a while.  It is set in a dismal future world in which nations have collapsed and four powerful fast food chains struggle for dominance in a world spanning war.

Totally unnecessary. We already know that Taco Bell will win.

[Average Software]

Franchise is a tactics game that I've been kicking around for a while.  It is set in a dismal future world in which nations have collapsed and four powerful fast food chains struggle for dominance in a world spanning war.

Totally unnecessary. We already know that Taco Bell will win.

I've never actually seen that movie, but I'm aware of the reference, and I have to admit that it did a play a part in the original idea.

The original game was about 10 years ago though, and was very different.  I never actually finished it, but I wrote a sequel, which also never got finished.  Back then, the game was a strategy game in the vein of Nobunaga's Ambition, an idea I'd like to revisit at some point.

[Mikademus]

Back then, the game was a strategy game in the vein of Nobunaga's Ambition, an idea I'd like to revisit at some point.

Aaaah! Koei, when they were still good! Oh, I miss those times!

[Average Software]

Back then, the game was a strategy game in the vein of Nobunaga's Ambition, an idea I'd like to revisit at some point.

Aaaah! Koei, when they were still good! Oh, I miss those times!

Yeah, I wasted so much time playing that damn thing.

I would really like to take that style of game and use it for a World War I game, because there aren't enough WWI games out there.

[Average Software]

I wasn't too terribly productive this week, but I did get a few things done.

The biggest is thing is that the combat equations were completely rewritten.  All unit hitpoint totals have been multiplied by 10 to allow for greater damage granularity, and unit stats have been further tweaked.  The new equations provide a much better damage spread and make the effects of terrain defensive bonus and executive orders pertaining to combat strength much greater.

I've also added the ability to deploy vehicles with pilots already in them, provided you have pilots in storage.  This simplifies deployment greatly, since deploying vehicle/pilot combinations was just too slow before.

Units may now be put to sleep, which causes them to automatically pass their turn until they are awakened.  This is especially nice if you have a marketer holding down a resource, or if you just have some units that have no further purpose.  Sleeping units can be awakened by clicking on them, and there are also a number of scenarios that cause them to awaken on their own, such as being attacked.

There were bugs in the autosave system that were causing problems with non-campaign games, and these have been fixed.  Unfortunately the fixes required changes to the save file structure, so pre-existing saved games are now broken.  At the moment, network client players cannot create saves, since they don't have enough information to do so.  I'm not sure if I'm going to leave this as is or not.

I'm hoping to have a much better week next week, and get a lot more done.

The usual download links:

Linux x86
Mac OS X (Intel only)
Windows

[ChamberDigital]

Downloading now!

I LOL'd when I read your game description. And you have a Linux build yay!
I'll let you know what I think when the download is done and I've had a go ...

EDIT1:
Oops! I downloaded the wrong one  
I'll download the new version ... takes ages on my crap connection  

EDIT2:
Played it very briefly ... despite the hideous placeholder graphics, this is awesome!! I didn't really know what I was doing though! 
I'm really tired right now so I'm going to sleep, but me and my other indie game dev friend will figure everything out and play this maybe tomorrow after work if I can get him away from super crate box.  It reminds me of playing battle isle as a kid ...

[Average Software]

Glad to hear that somebody is playing the Linux build.  The Linux version is actually the primary one, I do all of the initial work on Linux and bring the Win/Mac builds up to match when necessary.

Out of curiosity, what distro are you running?  I'm interested to see which platforms it actually runs on.