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[GalenEvil]

There are a lot of nifty articles about influence maps that could be of use, I just don't have the links available to me at the moment >.> heh. Most of them are applied primarily to RTS AI design, but the graph implementation itself can be applied to just about any tactical need. Graphs are nifty Influence maps, in RTS games, can be used to determine where strategic points of interest (chokepoints, safe resources, etc) are located so they can be defended, as well as prioritizing the building of defenses or forces in areas of contention (influence boundaries).
One fun graph to build is a danger heatmap built by aggregating the locations where entities have died (recently [t-n to t] or aggregated from start to current in a game [0 to t]).

[Mephansteras]

Huh, that could be interesting. I'll have to look at those when I get to the AI section.

[Skyrunner]

The danger heatmap sounds fun for AIs for monsters. o_O I guess if it's a continuous map, the 'scent' could degrade over time.

[Mephansteras]

Been working on this. All just back-end class stuff right now, so nothing new to really show off. But I'm hoping to have some of the UI actually up and working soon.

[Mephansteras]

Still working on back-end stuff. Had to do a bit of refactoring to get things to work properly. But progress is progress, and eventually I'll have something worthwhile to show you guys.

[lemmily]

Still working on back-end stuff. Had to do a bit of refactoring to get things to work properly. But progress is progress, and eventually I'll have something worthwhile to show you guys.

Glad to hear it I worry when these threads go quiet! There's several awesome projects going on at the moment

[Mephansteras]

Haven't gotten a chance to do too much more programming on this, although I did get past a fairly major roadblock last week. I'm hoping I'll get to do some solid coding tonight, but we'll see how it goes.

In any case, I added in a new section to the Notes dealing with some ideas I have to allow the player to make Plans with the AIs. Needs more design, and it's a long way off code-wise, but it's an idea that I think has huge potential for making the game interesting.

[Mephansteras]

A real update for once! Finally got some decent time to code and finished a bunch of the background work and refactoring I was doing.

I now have a basic UI layout done. Tons more to do, but now at least the work I'm doing has a visible effect.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My plan is to put your Faction overview information up at the top. The Right section will have most of the details of whatever you're doing (Army info, Tile info, City info, whatever). The Left side will be used for things like Faction lists, Cities you own, Armies you own, stuff like that. Mostly lists that the Right side will then give detailed info on.

Suggestions are, of course, welcome.

[Skyrunner]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I don't know if you'd agree, but I find that having menus not be on all sides looks better. It feels a bit ... constrained, and maybe stuffy.
 In my (kinda lost in development) game thingy, I have menus on two sides only, and a thin bar on the bottom:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Maybe you could consolidate the left and right tests, or at least have them side by side, and put the map in the corner...? Or make some of the menus "slide out".

*throws my 200 won and runs away*

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, I considered that. Only issue is that the map just isn't that big right now, and it's the main thing you'll be interacting with so I don't want to shove it down and out of the way.

I may implement some sort of map zoom at some point, but that's a bit in the future.

[lemmily]

I have to say I also feel weird about the map being squashed in the middle, I'd prefer it being aligned to the left side. a small info bar on the left might not be so bad however!

But, good progress on the ui!

[Mephansteras]

After far too long, some progress is made!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I can now move the cursor around and look at squares. Which is handy. And hopefully I can really get back into programming this.

[Mephansteras]

Ok, forcing myself to get back to this project.

I need to get this to the point where it's a game. Not necessarily a good game yet, but a game.

What do I need to do next to get something that is basically playable?

Well...Factions need to be able to build units first of all. Then, they need to be able to order them around. Obviously they need to actually be able to fight at that point. Once that is in place I can allow locations to be conquered.

That, along with a basic AI that sends out armies to the closest enemy/neutral city, is enough to have something to play.

So...immediate goal: Get factions to be able to build units.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

   Huh, still alive here. Anyway yes, something playable is a must if you want to be able to continue. Even if it sucks once the game is playable you will probably work it along enough to make it decent. Its like with letters, you can write one and not send it but once you put a stamp on the envelope very few people don't end up sending it off.
   As for your goal of getting them to build units. if you can get them all to make a single type of unit then you can get them to make any unit so don't fall into the trap of trying to design a few units for them. Make a basic soldier unit and get them to produce them then thats enough. Once you get them to fight you will naturally end up making more unit types because you won't be able to help yourself. Sorry if you already where planning this or don't want the advice but I think this could be interesting so I figured I would invest my 2 cents worth of advice.

[GalenEvil]

yaaaaay not dead ^_^ Looking forward to testing this once it's playable