Scenarios + Maps = Campaigns

Just finishing updating the Scenario and Map editors to Brad's comments last week. Almost done. I should be done by the end of the week. Here are some screens of the newest functionality:

Here you can enter various information about the scenario. These texts will be used when the scenario is loaded and during victory/defeat dialogs.

On the Rules page, I added the starting funds option as well as the allowable victory conditions. The victory conditions are nice because they'll make your play a little varied.

The Tech page was one of the hardest pages to code up. I spent most of Friday trying to extract tech parser stuff from GalCiv. It would have been nice to use the GalCiv parser to parse the tech file and get all this information for free. That didn't end up working though. The GalCiv stuff is too deeply integrated. I had to write my own parser. The good news is that once I decided that a new parser was needed, it only took about an hour. Anyways, here you can setup your starting techs as well as the restricted techs. This can be expanded with logic that automatically restricts any technology dependant on a restricted technology.

This shot shows most of the cosmetic changes to the map editor. Even though you could edit the planet quality in the list control, Brad wanted and extra control to make it more visible to the users. To that end, I added the Quality edit box under the planet list. You can edit multiple planets by selecting more than one planet in the control. There's also a right-click menu for the objects now. Most of them just have "Delete". Their options might expand in the future. Who knows.

Big Brother IS watching you.

After I finish the map editor, then it's on to a campaign editor that ties all this stuff together. After that, it looks like we'll be full time on the expansion pack for a couple of months. GalCiv2 is on the backburner until we get this out. That doesn't mean I'm not going to do any 3d work. I'll still be doing it in my spare time. My home time has been taken up by games and family so I haven't gotten a lot of work done at home. Game playing is restricted here so that's the only place I can get some time on them.

I also registered for the "ATI - RenderMonkey NetSeminar" on 11/19. I'd like to use RenderMonkey for developing our shaders in GalCiv2. You should check it out if you're interested in DX9, HLSL, or RenderMonkey.

On the game front, there's another turn based strategy game coming out real soon. It was actually released in Europe a couple of days ago. The US date isn't till 2004. Go figure. It's Nival's "Silent Storm".  A real turn-based game with a WWII feel (what's with the glut of WWII stuff nowadays?). I played the demo and I'm looking forward to the release. It's the closest I've found so far to X-Com style turn based.

Morale has a direct effect on Productivity.

Also on the game front, I've made it to Russian campaign in Call of Duty. I think I'm about halfway through the Russian third. There's only one picture on the box that I haven't seen yet. All in all, I'd have to say that the opening missions of the Russian campaign really make this game for me. I haven't felt so immersed in an FPS in a long time (except for HALO PC :)) They were also some of the hardest. I must have spent at least 3 hours straight trying to get through the mission where you have to retake the 4 story building and then hold it until help arrives.