This one is on hold until I can afford better hardware on which to develop. The game has exceeded the scope of what I can do on my little laptop. But it is not abandoned! Just on hold.
I will keep it available in the meantime, for anyone interested.
sgibber2018
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A member registered Jan 28, 2019 · View creator page →
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Sector 34 is a 4x-lite, which I would describe as a mix between Risk and Master of Orion. Early days yet!
Strategy
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0.0.6 Changelist
(Feature) Scrolling Console: The bottom console can now be scrolled up and down with the “j” and “k” keys.
(Feature) Battle Graphs: Clicking on the results of a battle in the console log will now display a simple graph of the losses per side by round. Press ESCAPE to exit the graph mode. Note: The graphs work best on large-scale battles.
(Feature) Stats Graphs: Ctrl + Shift + S now displays a “stats graph” which shows the number of controlled systems, number of decimated systems, and number of deployed fleets, over time (in a line graph). Ctrl + Shift + F shows a similar fleet graph showing the number of player ships, the number of total enemy ships, and the number of veteran player ships. The graphs are divided by a vertical white line separating the “stages” of the game. There will be many more graphs to come!
Tuning: Stage 3 (Invader Stage) is now tuned to my satisfaction. Stage 2 (Coalition/Resistance) threshold is now slightly fuzzed, to begin when the player has between 50-55% of the map controlled. Will begin designing stage 4 shortly!
Also: A number of minor bug fixes and improvements.
The next update is going to be a big one! I’m going to shoot for a full-screen, zooming map (which will require redesigning the HUD a bit, but I’m going to keep it on the right and the scrolling console on the bottom), the inclusion of a Skirmish mode (with a variety of settings for the map and AI opponent, and other variables such as starting ships, reenforcement asymmetries, etc.), and I’ll begin laying the groundwork for the next level in the campaign. One reason for a minor GUI redesign is that I ran out of HUD space awhile ago, and much of the game is now played with hotkeys for important overlays. I like the hotkeys so I’ll leave them as an option, but ideally I want every overlay and mode to be accessible via the mouse. I’ll probably also take this opportunity to implement some tooltips. I may break this up in to smaller updates, but that’s the general plan for the next few updates.
0.0.5 Changelist
(Feature) Scaling Fleet Widths: Fleet widths (the base amount of dice rolled per side per round) now increases a bit based on the total number of all engaged ships. This gives diminishing returns to the outnumber bonus die at very large scales, and also makes bigger battles more eventful. It will usually be 3, but can scale up to 6 in the late-game.
(Feature) Veterancy Mechanic: +1/+2 rolls for fleets with 50%/90% veteran ships. All ships which participate in a battle are flagged as veteran ships.
(Feature) Controls: When multiple fleets occupy the same spot, and you have clicked on a stack of them, you can now press TAB to toggle through them in the side HUD. The selected one will be shown on top, and the others will be hidden. Their flight paths will still be visible, however.
(Feature) Controls: ctrl + shift + R to show all current routes / waypoints, with the currently selected fleet shown in a different color, drawn last. I’ll add a GUI toggle for this one soon.
(Feature) Controls: Hold ctrl and click on locations within range of the last waypoint on the currently selected fleet’s route to add waypoints to their path. These are interrupted during combat, but any number of them can be added. Loops and “waiting periods” can be added by selecting the same location more than once. The AI will use this kind of thing more to its advantage, in the near future. You don’t need to be in waypoint mode to use this control, but it’s recommended since that will show the overlay.
(Feature) Controls: Hold shift and click on a location to delete the first instance of that location in the currently selected fleet’s waypoint list. It will try to auto-reconnect the route, if the next location is in range, otherwise it will snip the route at the last viable waypoint. This does not require having the routing mode overlay activated, but that’s recommended.
(Feature) Waypoints: Using the above controls, the player can now set waypoints for their fleets. Note that waypoint routes will be interrupted by combats, and should be used flexibly, as the situation changes.
(Feature) Phase II AI: The AI is much smarter now, and comes in a few flavors. In general it is more aggressive now, but not by much. Mostly the same strategies apply, and a good human player should be a bit better.
(Feature) Improved Animations: There are now “missiles” in the animations, and they do different things in different phases of the battle. Lasers have been improved a little, and there are now “gatling lasers” on the front line (which is seen to its most awesome effect only in very large battles where both sides form a strong line for a long period).
Hello, fellow gamers and game-makers! I have decided to make an after-action-review of my latest 0.0.5 test run, which also serves as a basic strategy and tips guide for any aspiring players. 0.0.5 is a bit harder and more dynamic than 0.0.4, but most of the same tips apply. I’ll likely be pushing 0.0.5 some time this week.
0.0.4 Changelist
Controls: 'd' by itself, without shift + ctrl, will activate deploy mode for the currently selected systems.
Optimization: Sprites for the battles are generated more efficiently now, allowing for larger battles.
Feature: Tactical Mode now displays under-the-hood information for the player. This should make it easier for a player to determine good strategy even if they haven't read my tips. Note that in the future, there will be many, many more events and modifiers which can influence tactical rolls, and the GUI there is a work in progress.
Feature: When all but one AI Empire factions have been eliminated, if the remaining faction has less worlds and ships than the player, they get a boost to reenforcement chance on all of their systems until they have the same amount of ships or the same amount of planets, at which point they go back to their assigned reenforcement chance. This ensures that there is often a "good fight" at the end of the game, but it won't always ensure that. Lore-wise, this is because they are making a desperate attempt to resist the player's domination of the sector, and it's reflected in a news blurb in the console log when it occurs. Like the invasion scenario below, this has been tuned to be effectively impossible to lose with competent play: when it triggers then you can always still win, but it may require you adjust your strategy depending on how cozy the remaining faction is.
Feature: Once the player has "won" the game, they are greeted with a console log blurb stating that an alien invasion of the sector is imminent. They will be alerted a short time in advance which side of the map they are headed for, to give them time to prepare a little. This war is different from the previous phase of the game in several ways: The aliens can't reenforce. When they conquer a system it is decimated: it is reduced to only 5% reenforcement chance and its visuals are changed. This reflects the fact that player and AI fleets do not bombard planets (lore-wise this is taboo), while the alien invaders have other ideas. They invade a given side of the map all at once, along a wide front, with numbers that are greater than however many ships the player has in total at the time (plus the number of ships remaining in non-FTL systems) -- but that's all the ships they have! The player will have to use the advance warning to set up an elastic defense, and then eliminate them from the sector. In the future, I'll add a "final level" where the player invades the alien home sector and very different rules apply regarding reenforcements for the player. But for now, this alien invasion is the "last boss" of the scenario. I have tuned the scale of this invasion to be effectively impossible to lose with competent play, but it is entirely possible to lose with bad strategy. Basically: don't put all your fleets on the front line, and don't put all your fleets in the very back -- try to mix it up a little and you'll be alright. Note also that off-map Pirate raids cease once this phase of the game begins, as losing a single large fleet to them could cause it to be unwinnable for the player under the right circumstances. Lore-wise, I suppose Pirates just know better than to come a-knocking when a sector is being overrun by invaders who are decimating every planet they come across. (note that if all Pirates have been eliminated from the map then when they do invade from off-map in the first phase of the then game then they will always have the "Charge!" bonus for that attack, making them very dangerous, as that is the only situation in the game where the attacker can get that bonus without being outnumbered)
Bug Fix: Incoming Fleet Overlay no longer showing fleets which were outside fog of war.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug with watch_mode toggle only partially un-toggling. Now works as intended.
0.0.3 Change Log:
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* Slightly improved amount of bonus ship production AI empires get in hard mode
* AI Empires are now much more likely to attack if they think they can win instead of waiting. It's important they don't attack every time they think they can win, or they'd be too predictable and miss out on some flexibility.
* AI Empires now have reserve-keeping considerations in their logic. They will now form sensible front lines and mass forces in an effective way. This can result in large masses of ships on static front lines, but when one side finds a weak spot and breaks through they will exploit it very quickly and thoroughly. Note that this logic considers the entire "local area" around a system. The AI may choose not to attack a nearby world with 1 ship defending it (even if they have 1000s with which to do so) if there are lots of local defenders who could arrive soon enough to make a difference.
* Player AI in watch_mode is now more judicious with its reenforcement pool. Still not as competent as a good player would be at using that mechanic, however.
* AI improved in general. Players will find it to be much more challenging now.
* Slightly increased the frequency of off-map pirate raids.
* New toggle to watch only "close" battles: Ctrl + Shift + C. For now, this is battles where there is less than a 50% difference in ships, or where the difference in ships is less than 10. You'll still see some lopsided ones but mostly it's there. This makes watch_mode more interesting, in particular.
* Any fleet which has nowhere to retreat to gets the "charge!" bonus, slightly improving their rolls in battle. Any fleet defending their last world gets the "last stand" bonus, which is similar.
* More star colors
* Toned down the fog of war colors a little bit
* Planets now have some deserts and mountains. Still somewhat prone to being pangeas. In the near future I want to play with the idea of some of them being on the "night side" or "day side", with the ones on the "night side" having lit up urban spots when they are close-in.
* Experimenting with polygonal ship "sprites" on a transparent base. They aren't perfect yet, but they add some more variety and flavor. Shrunk their size back down to give the bigger battles a sense of scale. A small percentage of ships in a fleet are upscaled, to give the impression of a number of ship classes. This is probably the final form of the ship "sprites" until I get my hands on a pixel artist to make genuine sprite sheets for them.
* AI Empire factions will no longer start within immediate attack range of the player, giving both at least a little breathing room. In practice, this means that almost all games should be "winnable" for a human player. Note that this makes many starts deceptively peaceful.
* A "political map" can now be toggled by pressing P. Most space 4x games use "influence bubbles" for the political map, but I've gone with a different approach here. The map is equally divided into grid squares, with each square being assured of having only one local system within it. In political map mode the square is colored by the owner of that system. In a future update I'll include separate side HUD information for political map mode (to accompany the diplomacy system in a soon-ish update).
* A bit of optimization. The strategic AI routines are pretty involved at this point, especially when multiple large factions exist in the late game.
* The phonetic alphabet used for naming fleets is now based on moons, planets, stellar objects, astronomy or physics terms, etc. instead of the standard NATO phonetic alphabet I was using as a placeholder.
* Bug Fix: Fleets will no longer hang at 0 turns ETA. Since the AI relies on accurate ETAs as much as the player, a byproduct of this is even better AI. Note that a fleet can be very close to its destination and still have 1 turn to go. I am still considering more legible ways of representing fleets on the map. In the meantime, clicking on a fleet will show its ETA in the side HUD.
* Reenforcement Pool: The player no longer automatically places all of their reenforcements in the reenforcement pool, which was an overwhelming advantage that left the AI basically no chance. Now, there is a small percentage chance for reenforcements to be placed in the pool while the remainder will spawn in place, requiring more judicious fleet management to win. A good player will still outplay the AI, most of the time.
* It is now possible to drag-select multiple locations and deploy all of their fleets at once. Currently it will always send all ships available from the chosen planets within range of the selected target, but in the future I'll include a +/- pop-up on each selected world to allow for finer tuning. In the meantime, I felt this feature was essential for good flow now that the reenforcement pool mechanic is less prominent.
0.0.2 Change Log:
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* AI is vastly improved. Will now counter attack, patrol, mass for coordinated assaults, re-enforce and defend intelligently, and trade space for time in an unwinnable situation, among other things. It still struggles against a competent player, who should be able to win most games within 300 turns by taking advantage of the reenforcement pool mechanic. The reenforcement pool mechanical advantage for the player is very powerful; so much so that even when the AI is playing for the player in auto-play/watch mode, it will win most of the time just because of that, even though it uses the pool sub-optimally relative to a competent player. I'm open to suggestions on whether to give the AI the reenforcement pool mechanic, as I haven't made up my mind yet. In the meantime, the starting number of pirate systems and the starting fleets for non-FTL systems have been tuned to allow AI empires to expand early, as best they can (which benefits the player as much as the AI).
* AI now has zero mechanical advantages over the player. In fact, the player has some over the AI.
* Adjusted the amount of starting ships. Player still gets more than AI. AI Empires get more than Pirates and non-FTL systems. Non-FTL systems get an amount within a semi-random range.
* Non-FTL worlds now receive a production penalty to their shipyards after a certain point, to make them less of an end-game slog while still being an early game terrain obstacle.
* Pirate behavior is a little more intelligent.
* Victory splash now displays some stats, although it's rudimentary and in an early stage.
* Much improved art. The ships now use sprite-like objects generated prior to a battle. Still in an early state, and I intend to use actual sprite sheets for them at some point (or at least to generate more interesting sprite-like surfaces for them). Systems now include planets and stars generated at the initial load of the game, which are persistent, so that each system is recognizable throughout the run.
* Adjusted the lore a little, since I have given each system an Earth-like planet.
* Pirate raids can now come from off-map. Any system within fuel range of the map's edge is at risk. Pirate raids from off-map are rare, but in the late game can be very dangerous because their size is dependent on the number of ships at the targeted planet.
* Auto-play system. The player can now press Ctrl+Shift+W to set the game in motion on its own. The AI won't handle reenforcements as well as a competent player would, and it doesn't scout yet, but it still enjoys the mechanical advantage of reenforcement banking over the AI Empires, and is capable of winning the game most of the time. I highly recommend just sitting back and watching a playthrough at least once or twice, because it's pretty neat. This can be toggled on/off, so that if the player wants they can treat the game somewhat like a real-time-pausable strategy game instead of a turn based one.
* Ctrl+Shift+B to toggle automatic skipping of tactical battles
* Ctrl+Shift+D to toggle debug mode. This removes the fog of war, and allows the player to select planets and fleets anywhere on the map. For players who just want to watch the AI play the game, this is a good one.
* Ctrl+Shift+H for hard mode. Gives a flat bonus to AI Empire fleet production. Use this for an extra challenge if you like.
(I ran out of GUI space, which is why those are hot-keys. I'll add some menus down the road for more GUI space)
* Battles are much improved. There is now more variation, with a chance for either side to receive special bonuses at the beginning of the battle if they are outnumbered and a small chance each round to get a bonus for that round. This makes them less predictable, although in general ensuring you outnumber the opponent is still the key to victory.
* Massive performance gains. CPU use in strategy mode is cut down to almost nothing, while CPU use in tactical battle mode is much reduced.
* Hit boxes are now ideal in the strategy mode. They were a bit off before.
0.0.2 is ready! I'll publish it tonight or tomorrow. Not all of my planned improvements made it in to this update (and will be saved for the next), while some I didn't plan on did make it in to this one.
0.0.2 Change Log:
----------------
* AI is vastly improved. Will now counter attack, patrol, mass for coordinated assaults, re-enforce and defend intelligently, and trade space for time in an unwinnable situation, among other things. It still struggles against a competent player, who should be able to win most games within 300 turns by taking advantage of the reenforcement pool mechanic. I am toying with the idea of giving that mechanic to the AI as well, which would make the game much more challenging for a competent player. Another option is to give them a higher reenforcement rate than the player, to offset the fact that they can't place reenforcements at will like the player does. I will probably include a "hard mode" toggle before I publish this update, for those who want an extra challenge, which does just that. With default settings a competent player won't notice most of what the AI is doing, unless they just watch them play themselves. The reenforcement pool mechanical advantage for the player is very powerful; so much so that even when the AI is playing for the player in auto-play/watch mode, it will win most of the time just because of that, even though it uses the pool sub-optimally relative to a competent player. I'm open to suggestions on this, as I haven't made up my mind yet. In the meantime, the starting number of pirate systems and the starting fleets for non-FTL systems have been tuned to allow AI empires to expand early, as best they can (which benefits the player as much as the AI).
* AI now has zero mechanical advantages over the player. In fact, the player has some over the AI.
* Adjusted the amount of starting ships. Player still gets more than AI. AI Empires get more than Pirates and non-FTL systems. Non-FTL systems get an amount within a semi-random range.
* Non-FTL worlds now receive a production penalty to their shipyards after a certain point, to make them less of an end-game slog while still being an early game terrain obstacle.
* Pirate behavior is a little more intelligent.
* Victory splash now displays some stats, although it's rudimentary and in an early stage.
* Much improved art. The ships now use sprite-like objects generated prior to a battle. Still in an early state, and I intend to use actual sprite sheets for them at some point (or at least to generate more interesting sprite-like surfaces for them). Systems now include planets and stars generated at the initial load of the game, which are persistent, so that each system is recognizable throughout the run.
* Adjusted the lore a little, since I have given each system an Earth-like planet.
* Pirate raids can now come from off-map. Any system within fuel range of the map's edge is at risk. Pirate raids from off-map are rare, but in the late game can be very dangerous because their size is dependent on the number of ships at the targeted planet.
* Auto-play system. The player can now press Ctrl+Shift+W to set the game in motion on its own. The AI won't handle reenforcements as well as a competent player would, and it doesn't scout yet, but it still enjoys the mechanical advantage of reenforcement banking over the AI Empires, and is capable of winning the game most of the time. I highly recommend just sitting back and watching a playthrough at least once or twice, because it's pretty neat. This can be toggled on/off, so that if the player wants they can treat the game somewhat like a real-time-pausable strategy game instead of a turn based one.
* Ctrl+Shift+B to toggle automatic skipping of tactical battles
* Ctrl+Shift+D to toggle debug mode. This removes the fog of war, and allows the player to select planets and fleets anywhere on the map. For players who just want to watch the AI play the game, this is a good one.
(I ran out of GUI space, which is why those are hot-keys. I'll add some menus down the road for more GUI space)
* Battles are much improved. There is now more variation, with a chance for either side to receive special bonuses at the beginning of the battle if they are outnumbered and a small chance each round to get a bonus for that round. This makes them less predictable, although in general ensuring you outnumber the opponent is still the key to victory.
* Massive performance gains. CPU use in strategy mode is cut down to almost nothing, while CPU use in tactical battle mode is much reduced.
* Hit boxes are now ideal in the strategy mode. They were a bit off before.
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Some of the stuff I wanted to do for 0.0.2 is going to be delayed until 0.0.3, owing to the sheer size of 0.0.2's improvements already. I don't want to delay this update any longer, because it's so much better than 0.0.1. But, the following will make it in to the next update for sure:
* AI Personalities. Each AI will have a distinct play style.
* Promotion of non-FTL worlds. If there are less than the starting number of AI Empires left alive, then non-FTL systems which have achieved a certain level of strength might promote to an empire.
* Diplomacy by action: AI Empires will remember who attacked them, and who attacked who attacked them, and maybe a few other things, so that the player can influence their behavior by acting like a friend or foe. In conjunction with AI personalities, some of them may be loyal allies while others may be back-stabbers.
* End-game boss. Some kind of end-game boss. The empire returns from off-map, the surviving AI Empires form a coalition, a pirate empire forms, etc. Haven't decided yet.
Update: Pretty much complete with 0.0.2. The AI stuff is almost complete, and the off-world threats are shortly to be implemented. Taking a little time to do some optimization and also ensure accuracy in the comments (constants have changed a lot in testing over the last few weeks). 0.0.2 is so much better than 0.0.1 that I will encourage anyone who tried 0,0.1 to try 0.0.2 without too many preconceptions. There are a lot of new features and the AI is much better now.
Progress Update: Most of the improvements to the AI are complete. It is infinitely more capable now, although it is still only making decisions on a turn-by-turn basis. Over the next few days, I'll include Strategic Objectives, Personality Types, a rudimentary diplomacy system, non-FTL promotions, off-map threats, and stats. It is tempting to release the update early with only the AI improvements, and if anyone playing the game so far wishes me to do so then I will do so, and save the other additions for 0.0.3.
The following are what I hope to include for the next update. For anyone playing it already who finds the game too easy, fear not! Complexity is inbound! One of my main goals with this project is to create a very good AI opponent, who can surprise the player without cheating against them. The next update will be a big step in that direction. Without further ado, here is the plan:
AI Updates:
* Make sure the AI players aren't viewing non-spacefaring systems as threats. That's
probably holding them back.
* Maybe buff the amount of ships the AI Empires get at the start, but also give them
a cool-down which prevents them from attacking the player for the first 10-ish turns.
That would give them a buff without the player feeling cheated. They will get no more
than the player either way, who currently gets 3+ times as many to start.
* Joint Attacks: There is no reason not to have the AI consider the strength of multiple
worlds in an attack. Especially given that they can't bank reenforcements like the player,
this is the only real way to make them compete on the offensive. It will also prevent
the exploit of tying up forces that outnumber you in aggregate but are spread thin across
multiple nearby systems.
* During fleet shuffling, have the AI look for nearby worlds that are under threat from
incoming fleets, and prioritize those worlds for destinations.
^ Some of these require making the AI logic a little higher level. It is going to have to
make decisions by empire faction for most things instead of by planet, using a big picture
approach. Which will be intensive, but will allow for not only the above but also the following:
* Strategic objectives. The AI can have "objectives" it will be trying to meet from turn to turn,
allowing for deliberate conquests of parts of the map based on the situation, just like the player.
* AI personalities. Each faction, when spawned, can have a personality. Based on this, they will
prefer different objectives at different times, and approach them differently.
* Diplomacy. The AI Factions can remember who attacked them, and who attacked who attacked them,
and fuzz their logic probabilistically based on that (ideally in a way that can't be easily gamed;
for example, a flat point system would be easily gamed and exploited). Prior to the implementation
of any obvious diplomacy mechanic for the player, they can "make friends and enemies" organically,
just by behaving like an enemy or friend. I can add a more obvious layer down the road.
Non-FTL Promotions:
* At some point in the late game (perhaps when all pirates are destroyed? perhaps randomly based on ship strength?) allow for some worlds to promote to Pirate systems.
* Additionally, some could promote to AI Empires (certainly when there are less than 6 active, but the exact threshold I'll have to think about).
Off-Map Threats:
* Pirate raids... no reason small pirate raids can't come from off-map. Nothing huge, but
enough for the player to not feel safe leaving 1 ship on all worlds.
* An end-game boss or two. The Empire returns in force with a big fleet. Aliens invade.
All the unaligned worlds form a new empire. Something like that. Maybe all of them.
Will think about it.
Stats, baby!
* Track a bunch of arbitrary stats and display them at the end-game, and perhaps
also when a key or button is pressed.
Sector 34 lives! Version 0.0.1 is out. I would call this something between a prototype and a pre-alpha build, but it is entirely playable. If anyone deigns to play my game, I would appreciate any and all suggestions and feedback. The next update will be a pretty small one that focuses mostly on making the AI a little more strategically competent.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for playing!
7DRL Challenge 2019 community » Submissions / Work in Progress · Created a new topic Dungeon Under Grindstone
I did not finish my 2019 7DRL project in time. In fact, it took closer to 40 days to finish and even longer to test and bug-fix. It's still in what I would consider a prototype phase. For those who are using a GNU/Linux system and aren't afraid of a little compiling then I have made the game as it stands available. I have released it under the Unlicense and anyone who wants to use it or contribute to it is welcome to do so. Sorry for being so late to the party. I deleted the original thread and wasn't sure if I would ever post the prototype, but today I decided to take the plunge.
7DRL Challenge 2019 community » Submissions / Work in Progress · Replied to TheBroomInstitute in Scrapper C# SDL - failed
7DRL Challenge 2019 community » Submissions / Work in Progress · Posted in Mad Wizard's Maze (Working Title, Text-based RL)
7DRL Challenge 2019 community » Submissions / Work in Progress · Replied to ArcaneRoboBrain in Scrapper C# SDL - failed
7DRL Challenge 2019 community » General Discussion · Replied to Slashie in Can I attend with a game I've already worked on for a few days?
I'm planning on participating in this event for the first time and I want to make sure I understand the rules before we get started. How exactly do I "start the clock" when the event begins? I read over on Rogue Basin that it has something to do with this website:
http://7drl.roguetemple.com/
But I'd like someone to break it down for me as if I were a five year old before hand. I'm very excited to be trying my hand this year and I really don't want to screw it up. Thanks in advance!