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[MechPlasma]

http://cityofhammers.tumblr.com/post/12854685583/10x10-maps-are-a-thing-of-the-past-this-is-a
So I decided to go for a 256 x 256 x 64 sized map. The original 256x256x32 plan was just a basic requirement, and I did intend on making it bigger than that, but when I actually made it this size I realised that 256 is bloody huge! Just for reference, that pic above is just 45 blocks across the bottom!

[Thief^]

I like it, nice!

[Max White]

*Sigh*
Another sets out to make a 3d DF game. I'm going to tell you what I tell them all, don't try to mimic DF, try to reproduce the feeling and experience that DF gives you. Feel free to take inspiration from DF, but make your own design choices.

Give your game it's own heart and soul.

[Criptfeind]

the lack of ability to see what you are doing and the lack of ability to see what you are doing it too can be frustrating

Umm... what?

I plan on having a Settings option for how transparent that blackness is.

Yeah, pretty much that and some UI options you have already talked about.

[MechPlasma]

*Sigh*
Another sets out to make a 3d DF game. I'm going to tell you what I tell them all, don't try to mimic DF, try to reproduce the feeling and experience that DF gives you. Feel free to take inspiration from DF, but make your own design choices.

Give your game it's own heart and soul.

That's the plan! I just... don't exactly know how to do that. I want the same basic system, but can't think of a way to innovate on it.

[burningpet]

Regardless of what you will make of it at the end, you have a very promising project here sir.

[MechPlasma]

[Interface] - [Pause menu] - [Settings menu]

Version 3 is now finished! (37kb,  temporarily hosted on Google Docs)

• Worlds are now proper-sized
• Added an interface
• Added time freezing
• Added a pause menu
• Added a settings menu
• Added saving/loading
• Game window is now resizeable

Basically: worlds are now proper-sized, saving is in, a proper interface is finally in, and I added lodsa options too (which took up most of the week). The only things that probably aren't clear are: default resolution refers to the Windowed Mode resolution when you launch the game, and AI Distance refers to how many blocks away the AI will move to get to an order (it won't be in the final game, but for now it's necessary). Fullscreen mode uses the monitor's current resolution, and all savedata can be found in MyDocuments/SavedGames.

The interface... it's not graphically finished (the most obvious one is the pixelated font), but the overall design is. At least, a first draft of it is. I'll be working on it again, but not for another few weeks. ...oh, except that there's one more menu missing from here - the menu that lets you choose what to build. That'll come soon enough.

Same goes for the saving stuff. Currently, the map saves in XML format and ends up being 10MB big, and I don't like it saving in a different directory to the game. If you want a non-basic colour, you can edit the RGBA values in the Settings.sav file with a text editor.

This is kinda an important update in terms of seeing how well it runs. So I really need some feedback for this one.

Oh, and there's a lot of obvious bugs in this one though, that I just haven't gotten around to fixing yet. They're really beginning to pile up now.

----

Next week... I don't know. The next two-and-a-half weeks are going to be really busy for me, so I honestly can't say what I'll be able to have. I plan on changing my timeplan afterwards.

Expect more graphical stuff though.

[Criptfeind]

When told to build something that it could not get to, NPC picked up a resource, then the block it was suppose to build immediately appeared. After the one magic placement it ignored the rest of the orders it could not get to.


Huh. Well I was writing this they placed some blocks in seemingly random places without orders. I am not sure what caused it, because I was not watching.

[MechPlasma]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Version 4 is finished! (39kb, temporarily hosted on Google Docs again)

• Proper rock block graphics.
• Not-proper loose rock graphics.
• NPC dwarf model added, without textures.
• .....aaand that's about it.
• Oh, and I made spacebar freeze/unfreeze time.

Seriously, between a whole bunch of last-week assignments suddenly due, getting sick for a few days, and my computer having major problems, I really didn't get much done. At least I did give warning!

In the very least, this should show off the NPC model though! Oh, and that shine there? That's not intentional - the default lighting effect does look really odd, but it's still a great placeholder!

When told to build something that it could not get to, NPC picked up a resource, then the block it was suppose to build immediately appeared. After the one magic placement it ignored the rest of the orders it could not get to.


Huh. Well I was writing this they placed some blocks in seemingly random places without orders. I am not sure what caused it, because I was not watching.

I dunno, I've been getting the same problem now and again though.
It's not a conern yet, because I'm only now starting work on the AI proper, but it's still something to watch out for.

[Criptfeind]

Huh. I gave them orders to go finish the roof of my mine shaft, and since that was going to take a bit I switched over to this window to browse the forms for a bit. When I came back there were a bunch of orders scattered around the sky.

Edit: And now after I took a longer break but left it open I came back to see they had taken apart part of my outer wall.

Edit two: Yes. It seems the mouse movement and clicking still effects the game, even when the game is not the window that is open. When I minimized the window I got this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: BackBufferWidth and BackBufferHeight must be greater than zero.
Parameter name: value
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GraphicsDeviceManager.set_PreferredBackBufferWidth(Int32 value)
   at CityOfHammers.Game1.WindowSizeChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.EventHandler`1.Invoke(Object sender, TEventArgs e)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GameWindow.OnClientSizeChanged()
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameWindow.mainForm_UserResized(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameForm.OnUserResized(Boolean forceEvent)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameForm.Form_Resize(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnResize(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnResize(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnSizeChanged(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.UpdateBounds(Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 width, Int32 height, Int32 clientWidth, Int32 clientHeight)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.UpdateBounds()
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.WindowsGameForm.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.239 (RTMGDR.030319-2300)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
CityOfHammers
    Assembly Version: 0.1.0.0
    Win32 Version: 0.1.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Bloom/Documents/My%20Games/CityOfHammersVersion4/CityOfHammers.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.20823.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_32/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game/v4.0_4.0.0.0__842cf8be1de50553/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.Xna.Framework
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.20823.0 built by: xnabldr
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_32/Microsoft.Xna.Framework/v4.0_4.0.0.0__842cf8be1de50553/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.20823.0 built by: xnabldr
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_32/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics/v4.0_4.0.0.0__842cf8be1de50553/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Touch
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.20823.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Touch/v4.0_4.0.0.0__842cf8be1de50553/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input.Touch.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.236 built by: RTMGDR
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.235 built by: RTMGDR
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.20823.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage/v4.0_4.0.0.0__842cf8be1de50553/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.233 built by: RTMGDR
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices
    Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
    Win32 Version: 4.0.20823.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices/v4.0_4.0.0.0__842cf8be1de50553/Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.




Ignoring it seems to have no ill effect.

[MechPlasma]

No new version this week. I have been, and am, waaaay too busy!

Edit two: Yes. It seems the mouse movement and clicking still effects the game, even when the game is not the window that is open.

Yeeeeah, I still have to fix this.

When I minimized the window I got this

I... am amazed I never minimised the game before. Thanks for pointing that out!

[MechPlasma]

Behold! Version 6! (43kb, temporarily on Google Docs)

• Bugfixes
• NPCs now take the closest resource

Again, not much to it, because I just finished exams a few days ago. And I was looking into more stuff that... just wasn't finished in time. Namely, taking the closest job and taking multiple stones at once.


Also, can someone check out that minimising doesn't give an error for Windows XP? Turns out it works differently to W7, but it should be fixed now.

[Sirus]

Watching this with great interest. Do I need some sort of supercomputer to run this?

[MechPlasma]

Watching this with great interest. Do I need some sort of supercomputer to run this?

I certainly hope not! Even with this Intel Chipset*, it runs (mostly) fine!


*Nvidia Hybrid, if you're wondering why I would have such a horrible graphics card.

[MechPlasma]

Aaaand Version 7 is here! (45kb, Google Docs again)

• NPCs now choose to follow the closest order to them. If it's a building order, they will still follow that order rather than the closest one to the resources. That's intentional.
• Game now longer lags from having lots of inaccessible orders.
• Game no longer lags from having multiple Build orders if there's no resources available.
• Bug: Game now lags when an NPC digs or builds.

Considering how bloody hard it was to actually implement, I'm quite proud of what I've got done this week! That bug there is because there's one more thing that I have to do for this. Buuut it's also extremely annoying, so this version is probably less playable than the last one.



For an explanation: basically, before I just had Item variables and Job variables put into a list, and have the AI cycle through the lists when looking for an item/job. Now, it creates virtual areas to keep track of where NPCs can get to, what resources are accessible for that area (increasing searching performance dramatically, because it stops having to re-search everything and everytime), and resources and jobs are now put in a matrix rather than a simple list (allowing NPCs to find the closest resources and jobs first).

The reason I didn't have that in to begin with was because I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't know how much RAM this would take up. Turns out, it's a lot less than I expected (and will be even less later on). And of course, being a star genius of a programmer, I... wasn't careful enough about making sure I could change the AI easily. Fun fact: making unplanned changes in the middle of development takes waay longer than adding things that were planned from the beginning!

Next week, I'll finish off this so that digging or building doesn't give a lag spike.


Oh yeah, and if you want, F10 shows what areas the NPCs can currently access. It's just a debug mode thing.