S.A.D. (Seek and Destroy)

[ztrumpet]

Cool! I can't wait to see!

[hotdog1234]

Here is my early Christmas gift to you guys...the screenshot.

[attachment=2982:Splash_S...ain_Menu.gif]

Features Not in the Screenshot:

* Multiplayer access
* If one player hosts, the other player's calculator will make sure that he can only join. Similarily, if the player joins, the other player must host.

Features Left To Add:

* Detecting a cable disconnection
* Credits, Load Game and Campaign Sub-Menus
* Getting the program to exit properly
* Having something happen during the loading, rather than just the animations
* A minor graphics bug on one of the Reclauda loading frames

Next Step:

We're almost finished with the backbone of S.A.D. (the tilemap and sprite routines), which will allow us to build everything else on top of it. In the meantime, I will spend my time doing all the updates to the units section, since I am somewhat behind on it.

[Eeems]

W00t!! Looks great!

[ztrumpet]

Nice!! Looks awesome!

[Mapar007]

Sweet, and even more sweet considering the fact that this is your first asm project... /me bows to Hot Dog

EDIT: one thing: the animation seems to be lacking a frame...
EDIT2: Never mind, it was in the post.

[hotdog1234]

As sad (no pun intended) as I feel about it, I'm going to cut the size of the ships in half. The amount of detail with these large ships would have been nice, but many ships would then take about a quarter of the screen size, making ranged attacks difficult. In addition, smaller ships will require less processing power in dealing with small chokepoints.

Buildings, however, will remain the same size.

[hotdog1234]

I'm no longer upset about cutting down the sprite sizes. I discovered while working on in-game menu options that even though much detail is lost shrinking sprites, they can still look good.

For instance, this menu that pops up when you want to choose a different vessel:

[attachment=2997:Submenu1.gif]

Incidentally, in these kinds of menus, you select an option using

2nd Mod DEL
Alpha XTThetaN STAT
MATH APPS PGRM

In this menu, for example, you press 2nd to choose a Scouter, STAT to choose a Reclauda, and APPS to choose a Balkstone.

This gives you a sample of what I'm currently working on. (No, I'm not lying, we're still doing the tilemap, it's just that another team member is currently working on it) I'm working on both the graphics and the code required to incorporate this into the game.

[Mapar007]

How will you be handling keypresses? (direct input/getCSC?)

[hotdog1234]

We're using direct input. This gives us a fast method, and makes it easier fo us to let the player perform multiple actions at the same time (such as moving while firing)

[hotdog1234]

I have decided I should stop posting what I decide to work on next. I will not stop posting progress updates and random facts, but after I post a progress update, I won't say something like "This is what I'm working on next." This is because I switch between goals too much depending on where S.A.D. is going.

For instance, I mentioned last week that I was working on code to display in-game icons. But a more important task came up...I have to convert to 8x8 tiles in the tile map and come up with a format for maps and tilesets.

I apologize to those of you who enjoyed seeing what was coming up next. Like I said, I will still be displaying progress updates.

[hotdog1234]

We've added automatic attacking to S.A.D. If you need to focus on base construction, you can let the program take over the firing of your vessel as long as you direct where it attacks. This is exactly the method other RTS games use.

However, you gain an advantage if you use manual attack at some points of the game and your opponent uses automatic attack the whole time. Needless to say, the key to winning is using automatic and manual attack at the right times

[skwerlman]

Which pathing algorithm are you using?

[hotdog1234]

[idiot0000]

WOW! this project is awesome. I am glad someone finally makes a proper RTS! I had the idea myself for a while but I found it too hard. I was too unexperienced with ASM (and still am) to get it all to work...keep it up!

I might be of help in building Visual Basic (exe) programs that would speed up some parts of this fascinating project like the level design and so. So if i can help just give me some specific details. I am not very active on UTI so please contact me via matthiascalis@hotmail.com if you want of course....

:P