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[pluckyporcupine]

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.

[pluckyporcupine]

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?

[DustyDrake]

So the subs will kinda be shimmering and shifting over the tiles?
I hope that ends up looking okay...

[pluckyporcupine]

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.

[DustyDrake]

Well, the ships are what I'm really worried about, since you're going to be staring at them for the entire time you play

[dukope]

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

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

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

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

class BestClassEver
{
  public static var bestVarEver:Bool = false;
}

... anywhere ...
BestClassEver.bestVarEver = true;

[pluckyporcupine]

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

[pluckyporcupine]

So this is coming back in its original form now that I've got permission to redistribute the Banshee Engine executable.

Going to start a focus testing group that'll be on devsofa to try and get some feedback on the game and shape the core systems before releasing a public demo.

For now, looking at it again, right off the bat I want to make these changes:

- Delayed start for torpedoes, turning, diving and surfacing, so that it's not an instantaneous change, mimicking a real submarine a bit more.
- Make AI smarter by giving them a randomized skill level and having them dodge based on that skill level.

Updates to this will probably be sparse, as most of my dev time is going back towards WizFight, but if you want to give the game a shot and possibly give helpful feedback, let me know and I'll send you a devsofa key for the focus testing group.

[jcstranger]

hey there,

I was working on SHO for the last couple of years (www.silenthunteronline.com). If you feel like getting some feedback or want to discuss anything U-boat or subsim related with someone who is familiar with the topic, feel free to contact me.

[pluckyporcupine]

Hey, jcstranger. Awesome, thanks! I'll keep that in mind. If you want to help test the game starting from now, let me know and I'll send you a devsofa link. It's pretty basic right now because it is currently a two-week prototype I built in an engine I had never used before at the time. Hoping to change that slowly, however.