Well, I have been working on my project on and for quite some time and it is starting to add up to big heap of code. However, I do not have anything to show for it (yet). So my promise is that I will have a tech demo/proof of concept to show of my game at the end of October.
Awesome, Emblis! I can't wait to play around with it! Maybe you can drop in and post some screenshots of your progress from time to time too!
So, since (as far as I know) I am the only one doing the competition this month, I may as well get started.
What I got so far is a fully functional ship designer, not the prettiest thing but it looks something like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/90d0965rm8zog54/splurf1.png?dl=0
Currently I am working on introduction some actual gameplay and functionality since the ship and its crew can not really do much. If you complete the ship you can select the Clone bay and make a clone who will head straight for the cockpit and stay there since it is the only room/facility currently offering a job.
By the end of this week I aim to:
Most of us are doing the competition next month. At least that was the preliminary plan. Nothing had been finalized yet. But you're ready to dive in now, so don't let that stop you!
Your ship designer looks pretty sweet! I'm looking forward to see how far you can get over the next week! This feels like a pretty ambitious plan. Good luck!
So, big surprise, I was a bit too ambitious and optimistic of what I would get done. So far I have mostly been working in the item handler so that they may be moved, stored and retrieved in a not too stupid way. Turns out it required allot more thought and work than I initially planed.
As it is now, anything that needs an item puts in a "request" to the item handler class. The handler is then responsible for creating the actual task and make it available for crew to accept. When the task is picked up, the crew needs to find one, or multiple and determine the closest. Once the crew has found its way and picket up the item, the crew asks the handler "what do you want me to do with it?". This will return the first object in the request queue for that item. (Or, in case no one are currently requesting that item, put it into a store room). The crew now needs to find a path there and deliver the item for the task to be completed.
However, life on a spaceship can be rather hectic. The task may be dropped at any time, in witch case, it needs to be recreated. The item you are trying to pick up may already have been picked up by another crew member. Or the store you want to put in might have filled up for the time it took you to get the item.
peewww…. Yha, allot more work than I initially though :P
I think it's human nature to underestimate how much time things are going to take, and software development is especially bad. With software development, everything you do has never been done before, at least, not by you. (Otherwise, you could just reuse the code.) So we come up with these big dreams and plans, but we're really taking a guess as to how long things will take.
But at any rate, it sounds like you've still made good progress, and you should be excited and proud about that!
So, the item handling is now mostly working as intended. The crew goes bonkers if they try to find a dropoff location for an item but none are available. When that happen they gain powerful abilities, able to fold the space-time continuum, they can move instantly from one location to another, Retrieve and drop items at location they are not currently at.
Still, I am questioning if I should rewrite the entirety of it. While it is nicely encapsulated, it is a very complex piece of code that I barely understand myself. problem is, I do not know how to rewrite it to be more readable. For now I think I will just leave it as it is once I have fixed the previously mentioned bug.
I know I have not done a whole lot but here is an update at least.
-Item handling is now fully operational.
-Items that are needed are delivered straight from manufacturing to the consumer.
-Items that are not readily available can be retrieved from a storage (If there are any in storage).
-Items that are produced and not needed straight away is put in an available storage area.
Mining is currently under development and initial tests have been successful. When a space rock is right clicked on by a ship with a mining facility the facility will commence mining, extracting the mineral contained within while consuming Power Cells. However, no visual indication is given to the player that the ship is actually mining, nor is there currently any way to abort started mining operation. Started mining operation will continue until the end of time program.
In other words, I have not done very much.
On the contrary. It sounds like you've gotten quite a bit done! Keep it up, even if it feels like it's taking a long time to make progress.
I'd still love to see a playable demo, whenever it gets done! (End of the month, right? Heh heh heh…)
I got tired of having to press every single tile when building a ship so I added functionality for area selection, now you can just drag a box to add/remove tiles.
Thats about it, I have not had much time for this the past few weeks :P
