Supernova 2: unit balacing

Ok now that the battle is working completely, I have to start doing a simple process, but long: assigning all the units statistics, weapons, armor, devices and so on. Simple because I’m only editing a spreadsheet, not writing complex C/C++ code (I’ll then import the values inside the game at runtime). Long, because even if I plan everything “on paper”, of course when I test the data inside the game itself I always find that one side is more powerful than the other 🙂

I’m going to put emphasys on the fact that the Red Legion is more aggressive, has more damaging weapon and stronger armor, while on the other side, the Blue Army has more range of view / fire, faster and maneuvrable ships.

Some games solve the problem by having almost identical units from each side, but I think that while this ensure balancing, since in my game there isn’t going to be multiplayer, is better to have 2 very different playing styles based on which faction you choose 😉

Here I go, more time on my game spreadsheet…

Supernova 2: computer AI

Ok just finished to program a big milestone in Supernova 2 development… computer AI during the battles ! 🙂

While not perfect, it offers a good challenge from what I could try on the game. In the last few days I was about to cancel this project or switch to a different battle mode (maybe similar to magic stones, with cards instead of real ships in a battlefield) but in the end I kept trying and I found a decent solution.

Now is all about balancing the game, finishing several custom ships for each faction, and testing everything. I thought I would have been able to finish it by end of february but of course I was wrong 😀 so this time won’t make any statement but I really think that, if I can work as the last week, I’d be able to release it in mid-April, just in time for my birthday… 🙂

Supernova 2: firing arc

firing arc

What you can see in the image above is the firing arc in action 🙂 I’m very proud of this last addiction I’ve done in the Supernova 2 battle, because really opens lot of new strategic possibilities for the aspiring star-generals. What is firing arc? each weapon has several statistics, and beside the usual damage, range, etc, there’s also firing arc: in practice determines if the weapon can hit an enemy, using his angle value. In the example above, we’re shooting from the green ship on the left, aiming at the other ship below (the one with the cross-air over it). In the panel on the top-right you can see a list of the weapons installed on our ship, followed by a number and a color: green means the target is in range and weapon can fire, orange means the target is in range, but the weapon firing range is too narrow to hit it, and finally red means that the target is outside the weapon’s range.

I also changed the way you move the ship: rather than a unique straight movement, you can move as long as you have movement points: this lets you use the most maneuvrable ships like the scout to exploit holes in the enemy fleet, moving them in good positions, to strike them from the side or from behind.

I really think there should be very good variety in battles for Supernova 2. Stay tuned for more news!

Supernova 2: the battlefield

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It’s been a while since I updated my dev diary of Supernova 2: I went through a relocation and a temporary connectivity problem (well, lasted 2 months…). Now I’m back with a stable connection so I thought to give an update.

In last 2 months worked on the battlefield – everything else is basically done. Building the fleet, researching technologies, and so on, works (unless of some very well hidden bug). Now comes the most interesting part, the fight itself 🙂

The ship placement phase is done, now I’m experimenting with the ships movements and actions (attack, conquer a planet, etc). My goal is to have lot of options available, and consequently various methods of winning a game, but of course this will take a lot of time and experiments.

However I’m optimistic enough to say that I could have this game ready before the next 2 months… I’ll see if I can release it before march 🙂 now excuse me, getting back to work!

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 bugs

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It’s a while I’m not talking about other games, so today took a break from working to write a post about PES 2008. Unfortunately isn’t really a positive post… despite being overall a good soccer game, with the usual realism, it has one BIG problem… no, not the graphics everyone seems to complain about, but the crashing bugs it has!

As of today I started already 3 master league and wasn’t able to finish one season with any of them!!! it’s incredible. All season stops after several matches (seems random, appearing after 9-10 matches, about in the middle of season).

You play a match and after the first half ends, once you click to start the 2nd half the game crashes and quits on the desktop! (I’m playing the Pc version of course).

It’s really incredible that Konami has released such a bugged game. I’ve tried with 2 different pc with all different components (an Intel with ATI card, an AMD Sempron with Nvidia card). On both configurations, same result: that crash after first half.

If I reload the savegame and try again, nothing – the crash remains on that particular match.

Of course, I have the original game – but I’m quite pissed about this and probably next year won’t buy the game, if they keep releasing it without a proper testing…!!! 🙁

EDIT: ok so I found the problem… if you play in another language (at least that was my case, playing in italian language) you won’t be able to play in master league mode! I solved it switching back to english, not a problem for me, but this doesn’t mean that the game was properly tested anyway 🙂