S.A.D. (Seek and Destroy)

[hotdog1234]

Here it is, the first S.A.D. animation, and the first unit: the Scouter. Sorry about the bends, these are due to WabbitEmu.

[attachment=2786:Scouter.gif]


As you can see, you can rotate the arms while moving.

Sure enough, just what I was hoping for: the animation and keyboard reactions were so fast, I had to slow the program down with an NOP timer. In game, the Scouter may move twice as fast, but this is about the speed the legs will move.

So, this means that the Sprite-Display and Turret Rotation parts of the S.A.D. game engine are in top shape, I just need to add clipping. My next step is to start designs for two units: the Raptor and the Tank. I have sketches and designs for the other units so far, but no idea yet as to what the Tank and the Raptor are going to look like.

In addition, I'll begin working on the tile-map part of the engine when Metagross has finished designing the tiles I need to test it.

[JoeYoung]

cool. i think the tiles will be done monday or tuesday.

[JoeYoung]

here are a couple examples of what i had in mind for 8x8. i find 8x8 pretty a hard to make tiles with, so these might need touching up. i also put in a mall demonstrative map.

[hotdog1234]

BEAUTIFUL! Boy, if this is the kind of work you can do with 8 x 8 tiles, I can't wait to see what your 16 x 16 tiles look like! I appreciate the work you put into it!

By the way, I'll give you two months of advanced notice on when I'll need the explosion sprites, since I won't be needing them for a while. So when you're finished with the 16 x 16 tiles, feel free to spend most of your time on your other projects. Like I said, most of your work will come when I'm finished with the game engine. :biggrin:

EDIT: Nothing much in terms of updates, except I redid the Transformation Gateway and Mine to fit the style of S.A.D. more. The Gateway is on the left, the Mine on the right.

[attachment=2794:Transfor...and_Mine.GIF]

[hotdog1234]

In planning the tilemap engine, I decided to divide both the maps and the map tiles into several application variables (about 4 tile variables and 4 map variables). There are two reasons for this:

1. The biggest reason is that S.A.D. is going to be a big game, maybe 3-4 application pages. This is mostly due to the unit data, since many units have big sprites, with their masks, and weapon data. Anyways, putting maps and tiles into several application variables will allow one without a "Silver Edition" calculator to decide whether or not one wants to include all the maps, or just a limited set of maps.
2. Putting maps and tilemap data into application variables makes it easier to incorporate custom-made tiles, and allows users to distribute maps/custom tiles to other people

So now, I am now working on a map compiler for DOS...it will be text-based, and therefore will probably not require DOS-Box to run. When the time comes for map designing, this will be one of the "official" tools available for those who like to make maps on the computer. Note that it will me a map COMPILER, not a designer...there is a program called tmedit that will be destributed for map designing. Also, Metagross and I are planning on an on-calc map designer/compiler combined.

[JoeYoung]

umm, yeah! planning.......... is what we were doing!

[Mapar007]

[hotdog1234]

[Mapar007]

[ztrumpet]

This is looking cool.
I like the Scouter...

[JoeYoung]

Hot Dog, how soon you need those map sprites for programming purposes? I'm still having a little trouble, I'm trying to make them look natural.

Could you blow up the 8x8 to 4x and use those temporarily?

[hotdog1234]

[hotdog1234]

It's both my pleasure and my honor to welcome and announce the newest member to our development team, Buckeye Dude. With his knowledge in assembly language, he will be helping with the programming of S.A.D.

I also want to take the time to thank Eeems for helping with structure designing. I really appreciate your help, Eeems, because I was completely out of ideas.

[Eeems]

np, which reminds me...I should get back to helping.....

[hotdog1234]

Metagross, do you have a gmail account? We set up a project website on Google Code.


More progress. Although most of my time is spent planning, I managed to squeeze in time to work on an additional two buildings:

[attachment=2929:Quantum_Facility.GIF]

[attachment=2930:Automati..._Complex.GIF]


The first is a Quantum Facility. A Quantum Facility is not a prerequisite for being able to select a Balkstone, but a Quantum Facility does all the research for a Balkstone.

The second building is an ACC, short for Automatic-Construction Complex. Since a Scouter can't be everywhere at once, an ACC will build anything a Scouter can build, but only within a certain radius. A note on construction...the gameplay of S.A.D. requires/allows buildings, even Operation Centers, to be constructed in 5 seconds. Because of this, and to improve performance, only one structure can be built at a time, whether via Scouter or ACC.

[JoeYoung]

ehh, i'm not sure i have one. i'll just give yu the tiles here when I finish them.

[hotdog1234]

Work on S.A.D. continues to progress, slowly but surely. A hugh amount of thanks goes to Buckeye Dude for his help...since I've just started getting used to ASM, he's given me a lot of aid in making my instructions more efficient.

I did what I should have done in the first place and created a draft of the entire program layout, save AI players and the campaign (which will be added if all goes well). Now that this is taken care of, I've started work on the Main Menu. Here's the official splash screen for the game:

[attachment=2819:Main_Splash_Screen.GIF]

[Eeems]

wow! that looks awesome!
kind of reminds me a little bid of starwars, but just slightly

[dxfan101010]

[ztrumpet]

That's cool!