[BS403]

If its not too hard you might want add the option homeworld or all planets.

[Aardwolf]

I have compiled an installer and executable for the most recent version. I will upload it shortly and put a link to it here. There are lots of changes.

@BS403: I could do that, and I may, but for this release, it wasn't my highest priority.

Edit: http://rapidshare.de/files/36155135/TBSG0v94.exe

[Dark Hunter]

*claps*

Much improved, I say. The backgrounds really help.

Gripes:
Could there be a function that takes the minimap to the player's homeworld when his turn starts? I spent half of my game in Quatra.map jumping from system to system (since when are Gamma Draconis, Beta Aquilae, Alpha Centauri, and Delta Serpentis connected?) looking for the other player!


EDIT:

(since when are Gamma Draconis, Beta Aquilae, Alpha Centauri, and Delta Serpentis connected?)

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. I get it now!

[Aardwolf]

Roadmap for version 0.95 (not all of this will necessarily be included):

• Fix glitch with jumping
• Create 140x140 graphics for new items
• Check: is SJP saving and loading?
• New unit: Freighter, will be mostly copied from Colonizer at first
• New unit: Cargo
• New modifier (cities are the only modifier so far): Cargo
• Make cargo data save and load properly
• Add an Ending Condition menu to the Gameplay Options menu
• Move the Gameplay Options menu to the New Game Menu
• Move Load Saved Game menu item to the main menu
• Remove option to play minigame
• Work on the manual
• Create new action icons for freighters and cargo
• Give cities the ability to produce freighters
• Make cities be able to produce cargo containers (as modifiers)
• Give cities the ability to load and unload cargo containers with resources
• Give freighters the ability to take cargo from planets with their cities or no cities (but not with enemy cities)
• Let freighters deposit cargo on planets with (only) friendly cities
• Make freighters able to pick up loose cargo units
• Check: does nowarp actually work?
• : New unit: Science Vessel
• : New unit: Bomber Squadron
• : Force bomber squadrons to "rearm" after several anti-capship attacks
• Check: does the resource flow rate ever hit 1?

Replacement for Old Cargo System:

• Load freighters directly from cities
• New Unit: Supply Depot
• Create icon for supply depot
• Finish other stuff with supply depots

Bonus Features:

• Create an ending condition toggle in the Gameplay Options menu
• Save gameplay options between runs
• Other menu changes and option saves

Got a comment about my priorities? Tell me what you think, and I'll tell you how far I am into this. I have too much HW tonight to do much, though.

Edit: I need a way to make the player not just have their science vessels sitting around where they were built and granting upgrades... what do you peopel think I could do? The way a science vessel will work is like this: they research a technology, and then all ships built from then on have that technology. As for ships built before, they can be upgraded with it at a shipyard/installation (Ganymede). But, in FS, all of the great scientific breakthroughs and new technologies come from distant star systems. How can I do something like that? Suggestions would be appreciated.

Edit: Key to smilies:
  = Done
  = Not sure
  = Cancelled
 : = Postpwned
  = Possibly Postponed
  = Not sure if it's a good idea
  = Partly done

[Polpolion]

The installer (TBSG0v94.exe) doesn't like me, it says it is an illegal operation.

[Aardwolf]

Can you explain in more detail? (I sent you a PM.) What is the exact error? And why did a post appear briefly and then disappear, and then a shorter version of it appear later? Are you using Windows XP?

Edit: Is anyone else getting this problem? If so, please post here and I will consider re-uploading the file. In fact, just to be sure, I will spend the 3 minutes waiting to download my own file to test it.

Edit: Nope. This problem is not with the uploaded file. I can't wait till I can get hosted on game-warden. Then there'll be no more rapidshare!

[Aardwolf]

Razorskiss has offered to host this project, and the file (same as the rapidshare one, but in a zip instead of as a raw exe) is now online in another location:

http://razorskiss.net/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=4

@thesizzler: you're going to have to be more specific. Or try downloading it again. This new site doesn't make you wait first like rapidshare does.

[Polpolion]

I'm getting the zip right now. I'll see what happens then.


Holy crap. 13KBs. I was getting 200+ earlier today...


EDIT: works this time!!! whatever you did worked I suppose... Maybe rapid share and esnipes just didn't like me :/

[tonks950]

I downloaded the file from RazorsKiss and I don't know what's wrong but in the "New Game Menu" I only have 3 options: Select Map, Start and Cancel.

When I start it just has a map with a handful of planets on it. What am I doing wrong?

Also I'd love to hear more about this idea for a Battlefleet Gothic mod

[Aardwolf]

I will revise the manual shortly and try to get it uploaded somewhere, possibly in the same place. There are only supposed to be a handful of planets. Each star-system (in Quatra.map) has 5 planets, 1 star, and 3 warp holes (equivalent to jump nodes, if people remind me enough they will get renamed). Select a warp hole by dragging it to the box in the top right. "[V]iew" to see the other side, until you get somewhere where the minimap shows a hilighted planet. This is the current player's.

Edit: I have finished with version 0.94a of the manual. I plan to upload it shortly.

Edit: Razorskiss is putting it in the same place as the other file.

[Polpolion]

The manual is a bit... er... lacking. And you need to implement either complete keyboard shortcuts, or no drag mouse control. The draggy mouse is okay on the menus, but it gets tiring while playing long games. I heard something about no AI? Is that true?

[tonks950]

The manual link is down atm

EDIT: I also thought what if, when you change the name warp hole to jump node, you replace the swirly doohicky with a pic of an actual jump node

[Aardwolf]

yes i plan to do that sometime too

Edit: and I am about to modify the "features for v 0.95" post to show what has been done already. I plan to put smilies next to the ones that are completed, and I will also add a shorter list of bonus features (stuff I added that wasn't on the list). Maybe also frowny faces next to ones I plan not to do yet or ever.

Edit: done.

[BS403]

I think it is a good idea to make cities able to build and fill cargo

[Aardwolf]

Opinions, please: how should cargo and freighters work?

I have created the freighter class, but so far it is just like a colonizer except that it can't colonize. So its only use is getting in the way of stuff.

Should I make it so that when a freighter is built it gets a cargo container? Or should cargo containers (like BS403 is suggesting (I think)) be built separately, loaded by cities, and picked up by freighters.

Some things I plan to do but am not certain about (suggestions not only welcome but requested):

• Freighters will be able to drop off cargo any number of times per turn. Energy cost? 0 or 1. No special energy required.
• Freighters will be able to pick up cargo once per turn. This will probably be done through the use of a boolean variable. Picking up cargo from a planet counts the same as loose cargo. Thus, a freighter may drop off cargo twice in a turn, by dropping off cargo it is carrying, and then picking up a cargo container and dropping it off.
• Cargo has HP. Attacks to a freighter deal damage to the cargo some of the time, however this is random and usually less total damage than to the freighter, although the freighter has more HP
• A destroyed freighter releases any cargo that it is carrying on the tile where it was when it got destroyed, provided any extra damage doesn't hit it.
• Loose cargo can be attacked by any player, or picked up by any player.

By loose cargo, I mean "cargo containers that are acting as their own unit, and not as a modifier of another unit."

Question: how can I make it so that a player can't just  create a chain of freighters and transfer a cargo container along it in one turn?

Possible solution: Make it so that loose cargo containers come into play in a sort of "tapped" state, so that no action can be done on them until the turn they are created during ends (note that cargo containers are neutral and have no actions they can perform).

[Dark Hunter]

Question: how can I make it so that a player can't just  create a chain of freighters and transfer a cargo container along it in one turn?

How about this: Make it so that a freighter can only do one cargo-related action per turn. ie, once it picks up a cargo, it can't drop it off until next turn.

What I'm confused about: what is the purpose of a cargo container?

[Aardwolf]

What I'm confused about: what is the purpose of a cargo container?

Alright. The cargo container is basically just for similarity to the FS universe. In FS you have both freighters and cargo. In the FS-TBSG, I think it should be similar, although when a freighter is destroyed in my game, it's cargo may survive. Key points to this:

• Cargo has HP. Attacks to a freighter deal damage to the cargo some of the time, however this is random and usually less total damage than to the freighter, although the freighter has more HP
• A destroyed freighter releases any cargo that it is carrying on the tile where it was when it got destroyed, provided any extra damage doesn't hit it.
• Loose cargo can be attacked by any player, or picked up by any player.

Also note that this:

How about this: Make it so that a freighter can only do one cargo-related action per turn. ie, once it picks up a cargo, it can't drop it off until next turn.

does very little to solve this:

a player can't just  create a chain of freighters and transfer a cargo container along it in one turn

Thus even if I did your idea, which may still be valid, I would have to also create a limit on the number of actions that can be done on any one particular cargo container in a turn, probably 1 or 2.

Edit: I've got a new plan.

The new Plan:

Freighters can be given cargo by a planet. At first there will be only one type of cargo, resources. Later I will add a second cargo type: sentry guns. Sentry guns can be deployed by the freighter using an action something like "deploy sentry guns" or "start supply depot" or something like that. This creates an empty supply depot unit. Supply depots can be given cargo by freighters, or they can be reinforced with additional sentry guns by freighters whose cargo is... you guessed it... sentry guns, using the "reinforce supply depot" action. Anything that attacks the supply depot (assuming it has sentries) will be shot at during the attack action of the attacking ship. What is damaged by the attack (sentry or cargo, and which one) is determined by a sort of raffle, where the odds of any one object getting hit are even between all of the objects that make up the depot. A depot containing the right stuff can also perform actions to repair/resupply ships in neighboring tiles.

Cargo does not survive the destruction of a freighter carrying the cargo.

Cargo depots also have the ability to give their cargo to freighters on tiles immediately next to the depot.'

The cargo depot attacks first, then if the attacking ship survives, it attacks the depot.

[Polpolion]

How about this? Cargo is like a Crate from RTS Games (you pick up, get prize) except you can only pick it up with a freighter. And you only get the prize when you take it to a city, and only that city (or station I suppose). And you don't find cargoes, you make them. But you can't get the prize at the city or planet that made it. (prize being resources, a ship maybe, power-ups, etc).

[bizzybody]

[quote:Aardwolf]Edit: I have not yet uploaded the new version. It may take a while, because my computer isn't letting me edit this one folder while explorer.exe is running; I have to CTRL+ALT+DELETE and exit explorer.exe, open the dos prompt, manually delete the folder, run explorer, and recompile.[/quote]

The solution is Unlocker. It will pry Windows' handles off any file or folder, allowing you to move, delete etc. Be warned though that using Unlocker on files that really are open/in use could have dire consequences. 

Another use for Unlocker is removing some really nasty malware that protects itself by constantly replacing (or replacing the keys as the last action during shutdown/restart) the Registry keys that launch it. This class of Malware also runs in Safe Mode on 2000 and XP. (Which is flat out not possible in Win 9x due to its hard-coded environment!)

To kill this malware once you've found the file that writes to the Registry, rightclick, click Unlocker on the menu. Choose the options to Delete the file and Kill Process. the file will most likely have several explorer.exe handles. The process you'll be killing is Explorer. This will most likely cause a BSOD (STOP error).

The happy part of this is the 'lynchpin' file of the malware will have been deleted BEFORE Explorer gets killed. The nasty file is just gone, never making it to the Recycle bin. Now you can clean up the Registry and delete the rest of the malware's files.

A very useful tool to find what file(s) to nuke with Unlocker is "Hijack This!"

[Aardwolf]

Well, I managed to get around that problem a while ago, although I don't remember how I did it. What I said wasn't working. Anyway, I've made it so you can load freighters with resources, but you can't unload them yet, so doing so is rather pointless. It takes 50 resources to load a freighter, and by doing so you effectively are spending 5 of the 50 on the cargo container and launch.

How about this? Cargo is like a Crate from RTS Games (you pick up, get prize) except you can only pick it up with a freighter. And you only get the prize when you take it to a city, and only that city (or station I suppose). And you don't find cargoes, you make them. But you can't get the prize at the city or planet that made it. (prize being resources, a ship maybe, power-ups, etc).

Interesting idea, kind of similar to what I'm already doing, except that cargo containers will always be either in a freighter or in a supply depot, and you never have to pick them up. I plan to stick with my idea, though. I just left out some parts that were very similar to my last idea, because they weren't really changes.

Question: what can I use as the icon for a supply depot? I'm already using the TC-TRI as the cargo modifier icon, and sentry guns are going to be used for the "load freighter with sentry guns" icon, which is used to start building supply depots. Should I use like some picture of multiple objects, or what? TC-TRI + 4 Watchdogs doesn't look good because of the comparative scale of the things. Suggestions?