Friday, August 8, 2014

Off track, or am I?

Just a really quick update.


  • I wouldn't plan on the Alpha Strike Utility being done, even in Alpha, before Gencon (which is next week!).  Just been too busy, and too side tracked.  Sorry.
  • I have too many miniatures... seriously, I think something is wrong with me.
  • I created a Cyberboard module for the Reunification war, specifically the invasion of the Taurian Concordat.  Each hex is 5 LY, and I have all systems on it.  I will probably post it once I get a bit more done.  My biggest goal ever with BT had been a game that lets you model things like the Reunification War, Succession Wars, Age of War, etc.  I want to model at least down to company level (meaning a company has a counter) though most units will be regimental and sometimes brigades.  This was so I could start working on the prototype rules I did up a while back.  Expect more at some point in the future.
  • I've also always had an idea for a real time, top down (megamek graphics) battletech game, that is online, allowing hundreds if not thousands of players at once.  I've tinkered with this in the past on and off, but never really had anything to show for it.  I kinda wanna just use GDI (what draws the windows on your screen) but DirectX (what 3D games use) has a lot of potential too.  Anyway, over the last 2 days I used GDI to create a real time system to draw mechs running around shooting at each other:

The warhammer has the Marauder targeted, and has fired a couple weapons (the grey # is the 10 second countdown to fire them again).  Damage on the right is the target.  Still little bugs here and there to work out, but 1 more day's worth of work I should have them done, and criticals implemented.  At that point I'll make it a bit easier for users to edit and will release it for folks to play with.  The neat thing is it requires no 3D hardware to run (though I think it may help).  I can even play it on a remote desktop window!  Once I release the single player version hopefully with some rudimentary AI, I'll create a network version.  It is really only 3025 now, but most other tech could be easily implemented.  This is just a concept I guess though.  I'll go farther as its not fully fleshed out as a concept, and will work on it lots of interest is there, but it may fall by the wayside to something else more interesting if interest isn't overwhelming.  Oh, and I'm trying to keep it 100% as faithful to the board game as possible, with 10 second "turns", turning slowing you down, using piloting skill rolls, etc, etc, though some things will have to be tweaked to work in real time.

Oh, and finally, since I'll be prepping for GenCon and going/recovering over the next 2-3 weeks, I doubt I'll have an update or much progress for a while.  Anybody who wants to meet up at GenCon feel free to email me (Bad_Syntax at yahoo.com).

1 comment:

  1. hey you know that game "Slay" from Sean O'Connor? I was mucking around with it on my phone and it just occurred to me how cool it would be to have a BT-themed game that has an interface like this one. No dice, just territories and troop movements. Simple to play, difficult to master. But it would also be cool to have the troops stack up like Risk.

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