04-04-2002 15:35									#31
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quote: Originally posted by Miznia Dexter, what do you see as the role of "condemning" a war declaration? It's a brilliant idea...

currently it only affects attitudes between the user and the countries involved. i'm considering adding more effects in the future, like changes in emmigration and such. the whole condemning thing came to me while i was writing the diplomacy routines, so i just kind of threw it in there.

quote: Based on your last screenshot, I'd like to suggest that you not have "The" anything. Even if you're set on using country names (e.g. "Canada") instead of the adjective/people ("Canadian/s"), it would still look better to omit "the." "Assyria declares war on The Hittites" - that looks awful to me. I'd prefer "...declares war on Hittites."

i agree with you on the whole "The" thing. the ones with "The" in front are just the ones that have country names i couldn't quickly figure out. for example, the norse. "Canada declares war on Norse" sounds pretty bad, perhaps i should go the civ3 route and put 'land' at the end? Like, "Canada declares war on Norseland". i don't know, what do u think?

quote: Couple of spelling probs, too; "glorious" and "Scotland" at least...

Thanks for pointing those out.

quote: I also have an attention-getting name for your conflict-centered game. The small number of civs on the board always makes it look like the players are really "civs" and not countries, so why not call such a game... "RACE WAR: Cleanse The Earth!" Miznia (just a joke, by the way)

uhh, no comment

	05-04-2002 02:53									#32
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quote: i agree with you on the whole "The" thing. the ones with "The" in front are just the ones that have country names i couldn't quickly figure out. for example, the norse. "Canada declares war on Norse" sounds pretty bad, perhaps i should go the civ3 route and put 'land' at the end? Like, "Canada declares war on Norseland". i don't know, what do u think?

I don't think you should make up fake country names. Here's what I would do... Whenever countries are *listed*, never use "the," just use "Hittites," or whatever. Then, if you don't like a sentence like "...declares wars on Hittites" (which is, I guess, ugly, but it's better than having a capitalized "The" in there), you should make a flag that says whether "the" is necessary for a given civ, in order to be grammatical.

...Seems petty of me to write so much about it...

I like the city label graphic ("London 13"). It looks slightly cartoonish, or, in the spirit of Civ1. Civ3 city names look like they were screen capped from MS Word.

Miznia

	05-04-2002 03:00									#33
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Oh, I have an idea. Maybe you'll think this is implement-able, especially if your diplomacy isn't too complicated yet:

People complain a lot about the inability (in Civ3, e.g.) to demand that a civ cease war with another civ. It sometimes happens that two of your friends get in a war with each other, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it, except beat the hell out of one side, or "creatively" assist one or the other...

There should be a unilateral, "I guarantee the independence of this civ" statement. I think EU has this. It's Monroe Doctrine-ish.

Your two friends would have to consider your guarantee. They might approach you with $$$ to convince you to rescind your guarantee...

This is a pretty slick solution, don't you think?

	27-05-2002 06:50									#34
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i know i was going on about being here to stay and everything, but i'm not really happy with the current state of the civiliza engine. it's got a lot of great features now, but there are some inconsistencies that are really annoying, mainly the crash-to-desktop bug that happens near the end of every long game. also, i'm constantly debugging and rewritting routines because the game is so unorganized. i have learned A LOT since i first started writing civiliza, and my efforts would be better put to use on something that isn't bound to the limits of this old code.

i like civiliza. i still enjoy playing it, and it's pretty good for being my first actual game, but i think it's time to move on.

	27-05-2002 07:02									#35
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Hey Dex, sorry to hear that!

Keeping up the organization and compartmentalization of the code is a real necessity indeed, one that I'm not so good at as I should be!

If you can't be convinced to reorganize and take another stab at civiliza, then please consider joining one of the C++ oriented alt-civs projects. They can all use coders who will really work, and I think you'd make a Very solid addition to either MD or GGS if either appeals to you.

One other alternative is to try writing AI for civ-evo. I think their AI API will let people write AI in C++.

Wish you the best in your future endeavors regardless

Cya,

Mark

	29-05-2002 08:51									#36
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maybe if civ3 didn't bore me to death so quickly (i think it lasted less than a month) i would be more excited to revive civiliza or join another project, but right now the interest level for this type of game is at zero.

maybe someday i will return, and if i do i will strongly consider joining an existing project team.

as for what i'm up to right now, i'm remaking another ol' favorite of mine. once again it is a strategy game, but this time it will for sure be real-time.

Attachment: shot_01.jpg
This has been downloaded 69 time(s).

	30-05-2002 10:59									#37
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dex, if you do decide to resurrect your project, I would suggest going to the archives and looking over the Civ3 List rather than starting with Civ3 and looking at some of the Civ4 wish lists.

Go back to the Civ that isn't broken.

	30-05-2002 20:27									#38
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sorry to see the project die, altho the c&c one will be cool
civ3 kinda ruined this forum for people like you

	30-05-2002 20:47									#39
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Hey Dex, good luck with the new project! I'd have thought civ 3 would have made you even more motivated to do civiliza . The fact that Civ 2 wasn't the huge advance of civ1 that I was expecting was part of what drove me to starting Clash of Civs. But in any case, if the motivation is gone, its best to give it up. This stuff is Waaay too much like work without a strong desire to push it that one step forward and achieve something really different and fun.

Again, may fortune smile upon you...

	31-05-2002 04:25									#40
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quote: Originally posted by Mark_Everson But in any case, if the motivation is gone, its best to give it up. This stuff is Waaay too much like work without a strong desire to push it that one step forward and achieve something really different and fun. Again, may fortune smile upon you...

so true, so true. and thanks for the encouragement mark. i wish you the best of luck as well. i'll stop by someday and see how things are going and maybe show off what i've got so far (although c&c has almost no place at apolyton , which reminds me, anyone know of a more fitting forum where i can find people to help guide me along this project and test demo's etc?)

	31-05-2002 16:23									#41
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quote: Originally posted by dexter4dxm i'll stop by someday and see how things are going and maybe show off what i've got so far (although c&c has almost no place at apolyton , which reminds me, anyone know of a more fitting forum where i can find people to help guide me along this project and test demo's etc?)

My guess would be either:
ask on OT, I'm sure there are some C&C mavens that'll be there
or do a web search and see which sites are the biggest.

Cya,

Mark

	31-05-2002 18:55									#42
	Inflate your Upload Space

i suppose i can find some people at a big c&c forum like at planetcnc, but i don't really like the kids at those kinds of forums and i might get more hassle than what it's worth.

that 's what i'll miss about apolyton. great community and it's nice that they have a whole section for non-commercial developers

	08-06-2002 06:29									#43
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just a little side note here:
i ended up moving to the house where the win98 computer is located at, and i decided to do some testing of my new game on it. well well well, pink stuff, just like people said about civiliza on win98 computers.
at first i thought the problem might be video memory, but that doesn't make any sense, because not enough video memory means slower drawing, not less functionality.
it turns out that for some reason, the new directx/win98 doesn't like the color key i've chosen. if i change the code and art to use black, it works fine.
at some point i am going to go back through civiliza and make some changes for a final version, including this color key (transparency) code update. i don't think i ever released the latest version, the one with support for higher resolutions and 31 ai players, so i just makes sense. well, i guess i'm not doing it so much for the 2 people that might download it and play it, but more for my records - just so the game is more polished.

and btw, so far i am REALLY glad i started this 2nd project instead of continuing civiliza. i'm learning a lot, and i'm getting really far, and i even finally got A* pathfinding to work

	08-06-2002 07:22									#44
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sry just had to post again. it's about this color-key transparency thing. in my c&c game, i have to take all the gdi colors out of the image and replace them with the colors of whatever player owns that unit or structure. i have to constantly change the color-key and the color are definitally not (0,0,0) (black), which means the colors wont be converted on win98 machines, which means it will look like gdi owns the whole map, which means the game is unplayable.

ironically, command and conquer doesn't work for windows xp, and my command and conquer only works for windows xp.

	08-06-2002 07:28									#45
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Hi Dex

That's why you should code in Java, so you don't have to worry about crap like that

Best of Luck,

Mark

	09-06-2002 11:32									#46
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DirectX is dropping color key support in favour of alpha blending, which is why you are having problems. It will still support black transparency (as you have seen) but has problems with other colors.

If you want to use color keying, just use black (0,0,0), or alternately, you can set up an alpha channel(s) on your bitmaps (though to be honest, I've found this is a royal pain in ass to do in practice. Not many paint programs allow you to directly work with alpha channels).

I don't see the problem with player colors. This doesn't require non-black color keys. To do this, you need one master image (the building) with black for all tranparent bits, as well as black for where the player colors will go. Then, you need one bitmap for the player color which, if you are clever and know what you are doing, can be black and white. The white part is where the player color will be draw, the black is transparent.

The steps you'd take, then, are to draw the player color bitmap, passing the player color as an argument to replace the white bits. Then draw over it the building bitmap. If you need specifics on how to set that up (Render states and texture stage states), let me know, we do something pretty similar.

Ron

	09-06-2002 15:41									#47
	Remove this text

the problem is that there are more than 10 colors that i need to swap. i can't just use black for all the colors unless i make more than 10 images of each structure
but that will take way too long (not to mention eat precious memory). right now i'm just ripping the art out of the game and using their color codes (it is pretty obvious what they are because the same colors are used all throughout the game for color coding).

also, about newer DirectX versions having this transparency problem, aren't all DirectX versions supposed to be backwards compatible? and also, why does it work on XP and not Win98?

	09-06-2002 22:01									#48
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quote: Originally posted by dexter4dxm the problem is that there are more than 10 colors that i need to swap. i can't just use black for all the colors unless i make more than 10 images of each structure but that will take way too long

Maybe I'm not understanding what your needs are. The way I understand what you are trying to do, you need to show a building (such as a Barracks). This building will be the same for every player, except that it will have trimmings in each particular palyer's color. Is that right?

If that's the case, you don't need 10 images of the same building. You need 2, and that will create all 10 different variations of the same building. You simply need to pass, as a drawing parameter, the player color to use for the trimming.

quote: also, about newer DirectX versions having this transparency problem, aren't all DirectX versions supposed to be backwards compatible? and also, why does it work on XP and not Win98?

They're backward compatable in the sense that if you program your game using DX8, and the end user gets DX9 sometime in the future, your game will still run just fine. That's why you request interfaces to COM objects during DX initialization. Every DX has every interface from the previous version. You could even, if you wanted to, request an earlier interface than the DX you're using (though there's generally no reason to do this). This does *not* mean that every interface version has to support every feature the previous version supported. It's perfectly legal, in COM world, to do this. Consider, if a programmer uses feature Foo in DX7, and the new DX8 interface doesn't support it, it's okay, because the DX7 interface is still available in DX8, which is the interface the programmer requested, and the feature will still work.

It is *not* legal, in COM terms, to change an old interface. Once they're released, they're set in stone. DX8 can not change the DX7 or earlier interfaces, because that could break games written with those interfaces, which is against the rules. (Note that's not to say they can't change the *implementation* of a function, as long as it provides the same functionality as before, but they have the leave the calling interface alone).

So, yes, DX8 doesn't neccessarily need to support color keying just because DX7- did. I expect (though I don't know for sure) that DX9+ won't have any functionality for color keying at all, and it'll be all about alpha channels.

This was your quick introduction to COM interface rules

Ron

	11-06-2002 04:46									#49
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I wouldn't mind seeing something between Civ and CnC. To be truly strategic in scope you need to discard the tactical elements: all buildings and units require only 1 tile of space, some kind of ZOC, nor ranged attacks except for air units, and units can be stacked on units or structures (but not structures on structures).

Looking at RON, BR has gone halfway there. Still uses tactical substitution instead of true strategic scaling. I don't know that any kind of ZOC is implemented, and I suspect that ranged attacks are there but limited.

	11-06-2002 04:57									#50
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quote: Originally posted by Straybow I wouldn't mind seeing something between Civ and CnC. To be truly strategic in scope you need to discard the tactical elements: all buildings and units require only 1 tile of space, some kind of ZOC, nor ranged attacks except for air units, and units can be stacked on units or structures (but not structures on structures).

Um, you've just described MD almost perfectly (though we do have ranged attacks in the form of both air units and strategic missles, and, late in the game, satellite to ground weaponry). MD is a very strategic scoped game (it's a true world conquering game, even the map is an actual sphere). We show tactical battles, but their "out of player control". They're only there to show the effectiveness of the units you've designed versus the units the enemy players have designed.

I think Clash has most of those same characteristics you're looking for as well (Mark, correct me if I'm wrong ).

Ron

	11-06-2002 14:31									#51
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quote: Originally posted by RonHiler Maybe I'm not understanding what your needs are. The way I understand what you are trying to do, you need to show a building (such as a Barracks). This building will be the same for every player, except that it will have trimmings in each particular palyer's color. Is that right?

Not just the trimmings. In some cases only a flag will have the player's color, and in some cases nearly the whole building will have the player's color. but the thing is that it's not just one color, it's a whole set of similar colors that make up the image. in other words player red's power plant will have about 10 different shades of red in it after the entire image is done blitting, but if i stored all of those areas as black, it wouldnt be able to tell them apart.

	12-06-2002 19:32									#52
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Ah, I see.

Probably your best bet, then, is to use a single player color, as I suggested. Then use, on the master image, partial transparency (you'll need an actual alpha channel for this) to add in the shadings.

Alternately, you could use greyscale on the player color image, where whiter = brighter player color and darker = dimmer player color. That's probably a better solution, come to think of it. It's the same idea as before, only instead of your player color image being black/white, it's now shades of grey. This *might* not even require alpha blending, but I'm not sure about that. You'll probably have to modify your RenderStates to get the shading to work right. Look at the TFactor render state flag, in particular.

	12-06-2002 22:23									#53
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I see what you are saying now. I suppose it would't take too long to change the images, but I'm afraid I haven't gotten far enough in alpha-blending to understand how to do this technique.

alpha-blending is definitally on my list of things i need to finish learning though (along with directplay, directsound and directinput. i'm saving direct3d for my 3rd game )

if u have any good links on alpha-blending or directplay i'm always up for those reads