[XP] Advance Wars Engine

Started by KK20, November 20, 2012, 08:51:57 pm

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KK20

BETA VERSION IS NOW AVAILABLE!


Finally, after nearly a year and a half of free time, I have completed the beta version! Looking back at all the progress I made, it feels amazing to see it come this far. What started as a challenge/bet has turned into something I can call my own.

The beta version is equipped with 2 players in mind. There are a few maps to play around in and all the COs are available. Fog of War is a little rough and is not an intended feature (however, if you edit the project, you can turn this feature on, located under Game_Map as the variable @fow). Not everything is finalized yet and is subject to change.

I am releasing this mainly to gather insight, suggestions, and any potential bugs. A list of things to-do is already being made for the next release. I'll work on the credits soon too.

Download: Here

Thank you and Happy New Years~  :)

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Zexion

I am running VERY low on bandwidth for the month...I am literally about to hit 90%, so I am going to wait to download this on the 3rd of January. Glad to see the file is only 60mb (roughly) as engines tend to get on the big side..

G_G

Damn KK20. You did an amazing job on this. Seriously, this is pretty amazing! I hope you keep at it.

KK20

@G_G
I love how all your comments always make me smile :) I, too, hope that I finish it.

@Zexion
Alright, no rush. The audio makes up the majority of the file's size (~67 MB).

I'm currently planning on completing the rest of the base of the engine next (3-4 player, completed menu, animations, Fog of War, etc.), but I should also probably look into editting while I'm at it. I know a lot of my code is probably inefficient--there's so much going on that even I sometimes lose track of what does what. I kept an old copy of my project back in 2011 and it felt so much faster than what I have now. I dunno, maybe I should hold that off for later once I have everything pieced in (and when I take more classes in Computer Science... pre-requisites y r there so many of u?!)

Small steps at a time for now though.

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G_G

Haha, I do a great job at making people smile. Anyways, just got done playing around with it some more. A friend and I played through a match. You know what, I'll have to make a video recording of us playing. Though quite frankly, neither of us didn't really have much of an idea. New to Advance Wars. xD

KK20

Sounds like fun--already laughing at the idea of it xD
Thanks for being so awesome ~<3

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KK20

January 04, 2013, 08:23:44 pm #26 Last Edit: January 05, 2013, 02:56:39 am by KK20
All the little things that I changed/planning/have been plaguing my mind:

  • Noticed that the colors in the unit sprites were off. Went on a massive recoloring spree (no fun at all)

  • Started working on 3+ players. Biggest problem I'm facing is how to signify what constitutes as a 2,3, or 4 player map. Current idea is to make an event at (0, 0) on the map that stores something (comment lines or script code). Not sure if I should leave the event there or create a new variable to be saved in the Map file itself, deleting the event after. Requires a bit more testing before I make a definite choice.

  • Going to be changing the audio script I'm using to a different one. I need a way to play more than 1 BGS.

  • Found a bug where one of my units was not receiving repairs while standing on a city (all other units were able to be repaired, however). CO Powers still affected this unit i.e. a healing CO Power healed the unit. I think I wrote the conditions for receiving repairs wrong somewhere...

  • Seeing as this project is more of an engine than an actual game (has no characters or plot), what must I do to see this moved to the Projects/ Games thread?


Also, lots of work (by which I mean my part-time job) I must do this month. :<_<:

EDIT:
Hah, found the answer to the bug above (I was missing a return statement...fffffuuuu-) as well as another one that I already fixed. Only noticable if you have funds perfectly in between an Anti-Tank and a Medium Tank; the opacity levels are wrong. Was just a matter of forgetting to reset the opacity levels to 255 every time.

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Zexion

I am downloading this now :), so excited lol.
I might get advanced wars for the ds if I can just find someone to sell my damn runescape account to.. (but Idk if i get enough I might get mario kart 7).
Either way I will just download the rom eventually and play it on my pc to get an idea of graphics and what not.

mad.array

Well, you've managed what I've dreamed about. When I saw GuBiDs TBS I had thoughts about an AW style modification, I just never knuckled down to it. I'm downloading now to have a good look at the progress, but I'm already impressed. I anticipate regressing back to my college years where I was so hooked on this I forgot about the rest of my life...



that's a good thing by the way :)
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Blizzard

Quote from: KK20 on January 04, 2013, 08:23:44 pm
Seeing as this project is more of an engine than an actual game (has no characters or plot), what must I do to see this moved to the Projects/ Games thread?


Actually I think this would be most suited in the script database since it is a script after all. A whole engine, but still a script.
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KK20

@Zexion
Yeah, it's definitely a good game to get. It's sad how not many people have played, or even heard, of it when I think it's one of Nintendo's best franchises. I look forward to your thoughts ;)

@mad.array
Haha thanks! I know Advance Wars took a good chunk of my life away (I got hooked since 7th or 8th grade and have been playing it ever since, which translates to roughly 7~8 years). I hope I was able to relive your past~

@Blizzard
Hm, I guess I could reformat the first post. I'll get started on that then.

I love you guys and your support! So many awkward hugs that must be given out :D

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KK20

January 17, 2013, 06:47:48 pm #31 Last Edit: January 18, 2013, 07:16:31 am by KK20
Wow...finally a day off from work to actually work on this post.
Formatted the first post so that it follows the script database template. Requesting for this topic to be moved there. Thanks G_G~

Been thinking of the message system. I'm not sure if I should use some script for that or come up with something on my own. If you played Advance Wars before, you should know how the dialogue windows look. I'm just not sure if something like Ccoa's script would best suit it or not.

Anyways, it has been a while since I released the demo. Any findings or suggestions? What should I really work on next? Favorite Commanding Officers? Anyone OP'd or weak? How about units? It's tricky trying to balance things out correctly while giving each character a unique play style.

Zexion, have you spent enough time to understand what's going on yet? Just wondering since you haven't said anything since "I'm downloading it." :P I also understand how your project takes priority over mine so no rush/problem.

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Zexion

I've messed around with it, but really I don't know how to play :P I finally managed to open a window last time I played lol. I need to like watch a tutorial or something. Graphically though I'd say I'd rate it about 6/10, only because I am kinda anal about things lining up, the titlescreen is a little bland, and the water is not animated (which I have no idea if it is supposed to be lmbo) but I mean from what I can see it looks solid it hasn't crashed or anything on me like 90% of rmxp games (and some demos). I have some time right now so I'll check it out again.

KK20

For an engine that is about 25% done, I'll take what I can get. Alright, let's break down your post.
Quote...really I don't know how to play...

Yeah, you're better off playing one of the actual games first before jumping straight into this. Even after studying the game before playing it (like knowing the exact statistics of units and commanding officers), I still wasn't all that great the first time. The first Advance Wars on the GBA goes into much greater detail than the others. I guess my PDF didn't do a whole lot of good?
QuoteI finally managed to open a window

lolwut :O.o:
Quote6/10

Considering that 90% of the graphics are ripped from the game itself, I can't really talk about that. I can talk about windows and such.
Quotethings lining up

What do you mean by that?
Quotetitlescreen is a little bland

Go ahead and say it's dreadful. I whipped that up in like 10 minutes. We all know graphics are not my specialty. I just needed something to have as a title screen before releasing the demo.
Quotewater is not animated

Indeed. The water tiles are a bit strange in Advance Wars. I'm going to need to use a rewrite of the Tilemap class and make some edits. From what I have been seeing, and planning, it's much harder than it seems. That's why I moved it down further on the checklist. There are a number of other things as well: property lights are supposed to flash, beaches/shoals have different shapes, etc. And all of that while still needing to keep tile_id's to represent certain tiles (Plains, Sea, Woods, etc.) is tricky.
Quoteit looks solid

I made sure to playtest it a lot before releasing the demo. Although I have reported a couple bugs, I'm glad I didn't leave any serious errors (so far).

Planning for next release to include

  • 3-4 player maps

  • Improved map selection screen

  • Finish off the battle menu commands

  • Get all the controls working

  • Full mouse support

  • Fog of War and finish off the info window on the bottom corner

  • Clean up the Scene (or rewrite it all)

  • Tilemap issue


unless this increases in popularity, then I'll have to cut the list short. It's a significant amount of work.

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swan101


Zexion

I was just playing right now :P It's naice. I finally learned how to play haha.

KK20

Simple right? :V: I'll post some graphic requests soon. Just need to find them and group them up together.

I considered writing up all the changes I made for the Advance Wars regulars. If I had more of them around here to test this out and give me balance issues, I would have done it no questions asked.

As for actual updates, I've been doing a lot of sprite ripping and getting started with implementing the inventions. Also been thinking of ways in how to make the map files a bit more...unique? Maps are the heart of Advance Wars; I need an easy way to read them in while still allowing users to share them with each other and such. I need to experiment with it more.

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Zexion

Honestly when i first opened it i was expecting blue to be a computer :P So i waited for a while until I realised that it is 2p.. yeah.. but now I kinda get it and I'm kinda excited to get started on graphics :P

Spoiler: ShowHide
Btw were you going to want me to do the title screen sequence, or did you wanna have fun with that lol

KK20

xD I thought I said that there was no AI built-in yet. I'm not THAT good.

Hmm...I haven't really given the title all that much thought yet. For sure I'm going to need some kind of "official" title screen though and not something that looks like it was done with copy-paste in Paint. As this is more of an engine and not a game, I don't think I need anything super fancy (full-blown animated intro sequence, etc.), just nice and presentable. If and when I make an actual game from this, I would definitely appreciate that.

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PhoenixFire

Alright, well, I know it's been a while since your last post, and I'm not sure if you stopped/paused work on this, however, I like it quite a bit. Basic graphics, but playable. Not -too- hard to figure out, yanno, once you realize you have to install a font to get it to work properly =p I would say you can probably do some basic AI using common events, at least, that's what I would do.
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