On the topic of AI

Hi everybody!

The last few days have been very stressful, as I have to study quite a lot at the moment. Since I don't find the time to (really) work at the Project currently, I try to at least plan as much as I can and figure out how to solve some issues.

One of them being the AI of the Units. Some of the questions I came up with:

• Should the player have a possibility to set what the unit(s) should do? ie.:
• Patrol - Attack bypassing units
• Defend - Attack if you get attacked
• Run - Run away if attacked
• Hide - Run away if enemy comes close

• If not, should the Unit have a way to decide? ie.
• Attack bypassing units if you are stronger
• Defend, but don't attack if you are a bit weaker
• Run if you are attacked and the enemy is way stronger

• Or should they all just react the same way everytime? ie.
• Just freaking attack enemies if you see them!

• Furthermore: What if I'm currently going somewhere? ie.
• Player sends Unit to some point. On the way there it encounters enemies. What now?
• March on
• Attack them immediatly
• Attack them if they attack me

• What if you have friendly units nearby? Should they help you attack?

And these are not even all the things that come to my mind. Do you have any suggestions?

My idea would be something like this:

• If you are send somewhere, don't attack units you encounter on your way. Just keep going, even if they attack you.
• If you are in idle-mode, do not attack enemy units unless they attack you, or they attack friendly units or buildings nearby.
• If you are attacked:
• Enemy is weaker: Attack
• Enemy is the same: Attack
• Enemy is a bit stronger: Attack
• Enemy is way stronger AND you are alone: Run
• Enemy is way stronger AND there are friendly units in idle-mode nearby: Attack
• If nearby friendly units are attacked:
• Attack!

I'm not quite sure yet if this will be the way it turns out, but we will see about that. Currently, all units that are able to fight (Warrior, Archer, Hero) behave like this:

• Idle: Attack enemy on sight
• Going somewhere: Go there first, if you switch to idle, well, the above.

Which is a bit too less in my eyes.

Please, if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments below, I'd highly appreciate them!

This is fucking hilarious =D

For once, nothing new about the game. Just thought I'd share a video by FaptainObvious, which not only gave me a good laugh, but also features a great indie game with beautifull graphics and some awesome gameplay.











That's already it, thanks for reading.

The campaign menu

Good evening!

As I'm writing this lines it's after midnight here in Austria, and it could be that I already had a few beers, so if you find any spelling mistakes, you can keep them.

Now, what I'm really here for: As I stated in my plan earlier this week, today (or yesterday, by a few minutes) should be the day where I finish the campaign menu. And.... I did. In fact, I completely redesigned the whole menu, since I thought it's a bit overloaded for a game mainly designed for mobile devices.

I will show you all it's beauty in the next video, which will come either this weekend or some time during the next week. But for now, enjoy some screenshots:

The main menu - It features an orc which just runs around.

The Race selection. As said earlier, you can play the campaign from either side.

The map selection! I think this one really looks nice. As you can see, only
the first map is enabled at the moment, as you have
to finish this before moving to the next one.

Now, I will head for the bed, as tomorrow will be a very busy day, where (hopefully) I will find the time to finish the hero.

Thanks for reading, Good night!

Predictions - I'm not good at them

Hi everyone!

On the 25th of January I showed you my plan, which was, with hindsight, as wrong as it could be. It looked like this:

27.01. InGame-Setup (Starting the level/map - setting of players, buildings, mines, etc.)

29.01. BASIC Interaction (sending them around) with RTSUnits (Workers, Warriors etc.) 

19.02. Complex interaction with Workers - Building things

22.02. Running Inventory-System

26.02. Menu

14.03. Complex interaction with Warriors - Attacking
20.03. Complex interaction with Heros - Casting spells
23.03. GameOver/Won - conditions

28.03. Multiplayer Setup


Well, I sticked to the plan for the first 5 points or so, then, I slowly noticed there is now way to keep up with it. The reason is simple. A day only has 24 hours - screw you earth, rotate slower - and I would need some more. A typical day for me looks, on average, like this:

6 h of sleep
1 h to get the day started (coffee, shower, newspaper, walking the dog etc.)
5 h of work for my company
3 h of studying at the university
1 h of studying at home (ie. preparing for tests)
3 h of working for this game
1 h of working for different projects
4 h with my girlfriend                                                                                        
24 h

As you can see, I'm on a pretty tight schedule, I barely find the time to do something other than work, and it's pretty exhausting. And still, I'm only a month behind my plan. (Compare that to the 19 centuries that Jesus is behind his plan ^^ ) Now, even though my plans are bad, I somehow need them, so that I don't fall in a hole of procrastination.

So, I propose a new timeline to finish this project, this time a more realistic one:

• The Hero System
• Walking                          ✓
• Attacking                        ✓
• Special attack                 31.04.2014
• The Fighting System
• Position Players               ✓            
• Differentiate them            ✓
• Fight between them         ✓
• Winning conditions          03.05.2014
• Campaign
• The forest                        ✓
• The Ridge                       18.05.2014
• The Burning Mountain     ✓
• The Glacier                     12.05.2014

• Copy the above two to the        10.05.2014
  Human side

• Update main menu
• Campaign menu               29.04.2014
• Multiplayer menu             16.05.2014
• Config menu                    02.05.2014
• Shop menu                      20.05.2014
• Award menu                   25.05.2014  
• Multiplayer
• Serverside                       15.05.2014
• Clientside                        16.05.2014
• Ingame                            20.05.2014
• Finish the game
• Sounds                           10.06.2014
• Effects                            14.06.2014
• Testing                            07.07.2014

Alright, that sounds like a plan, hopefully I can stick to it this time.

What are your thoughts on timelines. Do you just work on what comes to your mind, or do you have a full plan of everything you're gonna do before you actually do anything?

Thanks for reading!

• Write a post in bed      ✓

Just some screenshots for the Campaign, and some updates!

Hi everyone!

Easter is over, so it's time for some quick updates!

1.) The hero! He walks, he crushes bones, and he destroys everything that comes in his path. So what's left? The special ability! I hope I'll finish this tomorrow, let's see.

2.) The Multi-Selector! I don't know if I have ever written about this or not, nevermind. One big challenge when creating a RTS for mobile (and therefore touchscreen) devices, is the simple task: Select several units. How are you gonna do that? Well, I for one, tried to solve it with a little button that you can move over all units you want to select. And it WORKS! I'll show you how and why in the next video (hopefully also featuring the hero)

3.) The campaign! As you have seen in my previous posts, 2 maps are already (or nearly) finished. The game will have a single player campaign that stretches over 4 maps, and can be played with both sides. So, the last 2 days were spent making a campaign overview map, which will guide you through your process and provide some background story. Here some screenshots:

The burning mountain - As seen in my previous posts

Some snowy ice map

The forest map - As seen in previous posts

Just some details

The human capitol

The Ridge - Haven't even begun working on this, but that map is gonna be awesome!

The whole map!

So, that's it for today. Questions, comments, suggestions? Leave them below!

As always, thanks for reading!

A new map, a hero, Screenshots...

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen!

I'm currently working on the first orc Hero as well as on a second map, "The Burning Mountain".

I think this is gonna be a productive week, as I do not have to attend university for the next three weeks. (I have to work though). If everything works out as I hope, you'll get severall updates this week.

Back to the game! Slowly, but notably, this project is getting closer to being finished. But, it still misses something important.... the story!
Since a game completely without story won't work, I'm trying to make something up, but I guess that is not something I'm particularly good at, so if someone has an idea, PLEASE contact me!


Now, to the screenshots!

I like the combination of orcs and lava, what do you think?

As you can see the main theme is Lava. Although the design isn't completely finished, I think it's ok for now.

Another view, from a different angle.

And for the last screenshot, the first hero! If you look closely you will find that it is just a modification of the warrior model, but it works quite well this way. All heros will have some special ability, this one will get some sort of "earthquake" attack. So that if he hits the ground with his axe, it ripples and breaks hurting all around him.

Thats it for today, hope you have a nice and productive week.

Thanks for reading!

Better late than never! Warriors and Archers - The movie ;)

Just kidding, there's no movie! But at least a two minute demo of them. Tell me what you think, comment and request changes in the comments please!

I'm currently working on the first hero for the orcs, which will be some kind of freaking huge warrior. The second one is gonna be some kind of Shaman. More information about that this weekend.

As always, thanks for reading/watching.