Pre-Build 2 Checklist

Woah, already! Yes. Build 2, time to get underway. Lets get this game as fun as we can, as quick as we can.

BUILD 2 CHECKLIST

Items colored Green are done, Items colored Red have yet to be done. Notice how much shorter this is than the first checklist – that’s because the basic engine’s all done (for battles, at least!).

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Calvary – Calvary are the concepts of special units that can be mounted and unmounted. The unit that mounts them will be able to move using the AP of the mount, but attack using its own AP.

Spells and Skills - After some deliberation, we have decided that spells and skills will use variable setting instead of custom code (except for some special spells, like summoning and mauran sword-fighting and weapon enchanting, etc), however there will be optional custom code that can be run instead (but getting it to do anything you imagine will be pretty hard considering it’s just one line and getting it to loop properly in game would involve using event creation functions, which are very annoying). These will be things like chucking a fireball at someone, striking them with lightening, doing a power chop, etc. Magical weapons will be able to add and subtract skills from the player.

New HUD and control scheme – Instead of that giant clunky bar on the left side of your screen, the new HUD will be a small window that pops up when you select a unit. No more clicking Move or Attack to do what they indicate, now just click an empty piece of land to move the selected guy there. Attacking will work the same way – this makes less work for the player. The new HUD will give the stats of the selected unit and allow the player to select spells.

MiniMap – By popular demand, we’re adding in a little minimap to a corner of the screen. It’ll be adjustable, so you can click and drag it to make a minimap size of your choice!

Adjustable Resolution - People with 30″ monitors want to play in crazy imax mode without it getting choppy going to fullscreen? We’ll have a custom resolution option in the settings that lets you see the screen at the size you want. Widescreen included!

Re-Done Collision - The only major glitch of the first build, we’ll be trying to re-do the collision system so people don’t get stuck on stuff/eachother.

AI improvements – One of the larger undertakings of this build, we’re making the ai better. Ai will be modular in the respect that units from any team can be set to AI, and units from your team can be easily grouped into formations and be given orders as a whole such as attacks on the side of an enemy formation, holding a position, etc.

General Battle System Revamping – There will be multiple teams available and we’ll make the AI compatible -  so now we should be able to do 3v3 and 4v4, 1v2 etc. battles. Not to mention that any of them can be set to players or AI, so you can make a cool screensaver with the AI fighting people or play your friends in hotseat!

Speed Bonuses – Like the angle bonus seen in build 1, units that moved the most towards their enemy since the last turn will do more damage. Now cavalry charges can kick some serious butt – speed bonuses from the huge 800 AP (estimate) move of the horse go into the attack from the rider as he flies past.

Ranged Weapon Revamp - Mainly for the mod community, ranged weapons files will be able to specify multiple shots at once, rapid-fire shots, effect generation (shell casings, muzzle flashes, etc).

GFX Revamp – Even though the online community was split between the game looking good and looking bad, I personally agree with the “looking bad” people. It is partly because I’m sort of a perfectionist on the look of my games (but I don’t usually end up doing much about the look, I always just know it could look better) – We’re going to standardize and fix the graphics. Right now, soldiers and items are pixelled, where the landscape is done in photoshop. We’re going to make everything pixelled so the game looks better in a stylistic approach, even though it will take way longer to pixel everything (especially those trees, oh no!)

-and that’s it for now. If we come up with something, we’ll add more. Feel free to suggest! Remember, build 2 is only going to be the COMPLETED battle system – no world map and inventory stuff yet.

• Natalie Imbruglia