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[Aubrius]

This looks fantastic! I can't wait to see more.

[koiwai]

Very nice graphics, and really good progress, indeed!

The yellow blocks make the base look like a cheese fortress

[Voltz.Supreme]

The yellow blocks make the base look like a cheese fortress

Hahaha!

Looks promising!

[ANtY]

looks awesome, *tracking*

[clockwrk_routine]

cool

[Impossible]

Raycasting is a way to render essentially 2d data in pseudo-3d. Raytracing is what you're doing.

  What a noob, sorry this is only the second game I've ever attempted to make, thanks for the clarification 

Countering pedantry with more pedantry.  The first usage is actually correct.  What he's doing is ray casting not ray tracing.  Ray tracing specifically involves casting more rays at the intersection point to calculate reflection, refraction, shadows, ambient occlusion, etc. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_casting.  Ray casting can be used to render 2D data in psuedo 3D, and this version of it has been popularized with the use 2.5D ray cast engines from the 90s, but with the power of modern GPUs it's made somewhat of a comeback for rendering 3D data like sparse voxel octrees and signed distance fields.

[ShinnyMetal]

I want to make all da musecks with this! I love westerns haha

here is something I whipped up awhile ago haha https://soundcloud.com/shinnymetal/requiescatinpacebastardo

[Alec S.]

What's the pacing going to be like?  Will it be a long-term base-building/army-building sort of thing, or will it be more streamlined quick battles?

It's going to be ... em, think Arcade meets RTS! So battles are frantic and quick, but you will need to make sure your defences are ready. In real life one bullet could / would kill, so the cowboys deliver a lot of damage with a hit accuracy stat given to each of them. Depending on their class, they may miss more than hit. Other's may not have a weapon and 'rush' your cowboys using fists rather than guns.

Ooh, I'm really glad to hear that.  Love the idea of an arcadey RTS.

[electrolyte]

The yellow blocks make the base look like a cheese fortress

hee 

[Lemmily]

Thanks, not as yet as it's still quite early days, only a few weeks into dev, and there's no real UI yet.

This looks really awesome for only a few weeks dev. Well done 

and as a second project! impressed!

[electrolyte]

I'm been bogged down with 'day work' over the last couple of weeks but have managed to eek out some time for more dev. Been tweaking a lot of code and shifting the game play slightly.

I came to the conclusion that by just digging into a clearing that have other cowboys in didn't really provide much of a challenge as once you had cleared out the offending parties you were free to sit back.

So I've replaced these clearings with spawn points that produce a constant wave of enemies. This means that you have to make sure your defences can cope and deal with what's throw at it every step of the way.

I've additionally now added the ability to mark dig-able rocks outside your war of fog sight, which added a lot to the overall game play and tactics. This took a lot of time. Been working on different defences adding a dynamite booby trap which is quite funny! Also added some scene furniture.



Oh I'm also giving out a load of free Desura Keys for Reprisal over on it's Facebook page if anyone's interested. There will be another 2 batches of keys released before midnight today (GMT) http://www.facebook.com/ReprisalUniverse 

[electrolyte]

Managed to get some more done and it's moving along nicely. I've really thought long and hard about the game play. Currently the only item you will be able to control directly is ... yourself.

A cowboy who represents you will be selectable and you can then set way points for it to move to. If it dies, it's game over, so you need to move them wisely and defend them. They can defend themselves. This cowboy will be able to capture landmarks which will be used later in the game.

Other cowboys you hire now remain confined to the borders of their sleeping zone. They will then travel out of this to moonshine labs (to increase your research levels) or workshops (to build items).



A sleeping zone without a cowboy assigned to it. Clicking on the zone will bring up the 'Saloon' from which you can hire different classes of cowboys.



Once hired cowboys remain patrolling within the bedroom zones unless they are travelling to and from workshops or moonshine labs.

You can still issue digging commands to prospectors to dig rock and clear paths.

[editmode]

Very cool, reminds me of Cannon Fodder!

[electrolyte]

Still chipping away at this, it's very much my pet project but making sure it doesn't get left behind.

So now instead of building rooms straight away, you lay foundations and the prospectors have to head over and build them. Instructions for prospectors are weighted so they build rooms first, then dig out walls and finally claim floor tiles. I've also gone back to a 2 X 2 pixel rez.

The UI stuff is all holding graphics ... actually a lot of it is!

[Quarry]

Cowboy Fortress

[electrolyte]

Ha yeah ... its all kinds of ideas mashed together 

[electrolyte]

Progress has been slow but it's still going. Really pulling apart what makes a game an RTS which is an interesting journey but I fear I don't have enough knowledge in the area. Zoning areas of maps helps push progress in game giving very clear objectives.



Introducing this and only allowing players to build rooms within captured zones makes a lot of sense. Below is a work in progress of zone boundaries being shown in the game view also.

[electrolyte]

Added a new 'Zone' type that allows you to recruit cowboys that can be directly controlled much like a normal RTS game with squads. The game is now split into 3 distinct classes:

Prospectors- these dig and build zones
Workers - need a camp and work in the workshops to build defences and recruit
Cowboys - these can be directly controlled and positioned for defence and assaults

Zones are working well now, you have to 'capture' areas in order to build in them. If you loose a zone then you loose all the zones you've built!



- - - - - - - - - - - - -

As a side note, I finally put Reprisal up onto Green Light, I doubt is will get anywhere as it appears you need some 30,000 votes to get it into the top 100. If you fancy a flutter with a vote then it would be GREATLY appreciated  

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=141030686

[electrolyte]

Full screen is in, 40fps maintained. Also changed game play to allow prospectors to be shot which has completely changed the drive of the game. It’s a lot more frantic … which is good! I’ll add the feature to hire new prospectors through your base camp at a price. Protecting prospectors is now a game play drive.

[electrolyte]

Made a quick screen video to help show where things are at ... it's still very early days and have a long list for the long weekend coming up!