Startegy Game... Idea Stage (command & conquer)

[BioHazardousWaste]

% Background Info
Hey all, I've been coding in VBasic for a few years, and last year I signed up for a programming course at school. (gr. 11) ; but due to my VBasic experience I found TURING quite easy, and am almost done the course. (yes, I know the semester just started). So I decided to make a strategy command & conquer type game for my final project. (Due at the end of the semester, June or w/e) Now i've only been doing TURING for a month or w/e, so you could still call me a nub, but I am very familiar with programming, and learn exceptionally quick.

% Stuff I need to learn
Sprites, and file access (save, load etc.) (thats all i can think of so far). Um, the map and scrolling would problably be required too.

% Body
Right now, I am just in the Idea/Planning stage. I am posting this ecause it would be nice to get some more ideas then just from me and a couple friends. All ideas are welcome, but won't necessarily be used - and YES, if I use your idea you will get ur name in the credits! 8)

% Ideas
*NOTE* I want an advanced gameplay game, I've never found one advanced enough for me .

*Opening vid... (pre-recorded, just need to play)start of war blahblah
*Every mission needs to be based off the last (technologies, troop placements etc.) developing a more realistic campaign type feeling.
*Start of game - large stockpile of money in case of war, low income.
*Game will have normal playing, research, vehicle development & creation, population of cities, immigration, emmigration
* Money is made by tax from people, who react to tax rates and propoganda.

% Conclusion - finally lol
Nothing is final ATM, just throwing out a bunch of ideas, all others would be appreciated. Also, I would greatly appreciate if anyone has a good formula for damage, needs modifiers, attack, armour etc... although I will more then likely be doing my own. ***I would like this game to be based in this time period, give or take 10 years or so.***

Steve

_________________
*Now, how do u adjust map height?* Oh, use slider height *CHECK* "OK, Time to stop being a dumbass!"

[BioHazardousWaste]

% Help Cry
I know this is a huge thing to ask, but if anyone would do some graphics for me, I would forever be in debt. I couldn't draw to save my life. Otherwise I will attempt to find and edit pics myself.

% Details
If you will do some graphics for me, even one, send me an email: biohazardouswaste@hotmaill.com

I'm going to need the following (for starters):

BUILDINGS:
- Command Center/Con Yard/HQ
- Factory
- Research Labs
- Barracks
- Radar (would be nice, but hard to code?)
- War HQ (sort of like the Battle Lab in RA2)
- Power Stations
- Cloak/Radar Jammer (possibly, gonna be hard to code)
- Walls
- Guard Tower

UNITS:
- Heavy Tank
- Light Tank
- Scout (hummvee type vehicle)
- Infantry
- Air/Hover (would be nice, but special code.. shouldn't be too hard)

%Conclusion
** It would be nice to have about 5 of each, for customization... or if possible, have a sprite for propulsion, chasis, armour, and weapon; so that the gamer could completly customize unit. (if possible wit sprites... but this is a little over my head ATM).

*goes off to find some info on sprites*

Steve

_________________
*Now, how do u adjust map height?* Oh, use slider height *CHECK* "OK, Time to stop being a dumbass!"

[shorthair]

Id like to let you no before you start this , that you ( my opinion ) will not be able to complete this in turing , the turing engine , is software based ,you cannot harness the video power of your hardware in turing , and also you can barely bet one moving graphic to go nicely on hte screen in turing , let alone a command and conquer , and the processing time it would take becusaeyour players would have to be in processes ( i would assume ) would be hurendoud , it would feel ike you were running at 1 fame per minute , this would be a very hard task and im not sure it can physically be done , but it would be great to see if you are confident , and PS i dont belive sprites fully work in turing , there just there for show

[BioHazardousWaste]

Thanx for the Hedads Up dude, hopefully it won't be THAT bad (1 fps ouch). If it is, it looks like i'd have to go turnbased ... that could have its benifits though (online based game).

I may have to drop some of the fancier stuff... e.g vehicle design grafx. But I will do this... with some help

Also, does anyone know how to have a graphic act like a button?
E.X. You click on a pic (unit) and it displays results (brings up info display)

[shorthair]

oh and turing cant play videos , the only way to get round that is to launch it from turing , but youwould have to assumethat the user had an app that could launch it and that it was the default launching program for hte movie

[.hack]

I'll help u with GFX.

Don't use population,tax, immigration etc. this is a war game, not a build a city, name it some cool game and wait 10 years for battle, Stick with classic C&C. Build a barracks, send crap to kill crap with crap.

[BioHazardousWaste]

Yea, I figured that... a lot of old games have a seperate .exe for playing their videos... blinkplayer I think. Not sure though, I was thinking of something like that, but that is extra, like one of the last things to do. Right now I need to focus on the core coding and that, so I need to get some good ideas.

So assuming that we go turn-based, do you see anymore problems with the idea?

If not I will start some of the "paper-work" in the next couple of days (what effect research will have, price, income, etc.)

[Tony]

with a good planning at the beginning (core code layout) this should be quite achievable (as long as you dont do any semi-intence graphics... just the basics).

And shorthair - NO PROCESSES (unless you're playing background music... which might not be a good idea for this type of project. Though you can always just load a soundtrack into their default media player )

Just have something like

code:

for i:1..numOfUnits unit(i).Act end for

[Catalyst]

this can be done
turing has the speed for a basic rts (i made a prototype of one a while ago)

[AsianSensation]

an RTS made without processes could actually go pretty fast, depends on your programming method and stuff like that. Notice you are going for efficiency, so you might want to cut off on some of the more detailed version of your graphics.

I have seen an RTS made with processes, it was in my gr. 11 turing class last year, and boy was it slow. So it basicly all depends on your programming techniques.

[BioHazardousWaste]

Quote:

Don't use population,tax, immigration etc. this is a war game, not a build a city, name it some cool game and wait 10 years for battle, Stick with classic C&C. Build a barracks, send crap to kill crap with crap.

The population part of the game won't be very in-depth, and it will be one of the last things done. But as I said, I don't want a classic old - skool C & C type game, I want it to be a little more advanced... also there will be no "ore" or "tiberium" or anything, so we will need more form of income.

The most part of the game, will be the war by far... but we need some resources.. if any one has some better ideas - feel free to post.

Quote:

And shorthair - NO PROCESSES

I was planning on using procedures, for all of this... should be able to do that, unless somebody has something against that.

[Tony]

well actually OOP might be your best bet. Creating a unit as an object and having an array of pointers could work out well

As for resourses - you defenatly need to mine some natural reserves. I dont see how population taxation will work out in a military game since your town is your military base. But I suppose you could capture trade ports and what not for additional income

[Andy]

yea it wouldnt lag that bad... and who said turing cant play videos?

[Tony]

You can run short videos in a form of .jpg slide show

[recneps]

who says its needs to be a full video? do something like the Zero Wing starting, display a pic, then text, and maybe some voice over, and repeat until your story is done, and maybe some funky text effect that makes it seem like someone is typing as it is being read.

(All Your base are belong to me.)