[XP] Advance Wars Engine

[KK20]

OMG YUSSSS TRAFFIC xD
It's great to actually see some actual Advance Wars players here! Thank you all for your continued support

On the tournament style, i´m not even sure being first in turn gives an advantage, as most maps i played on the gameboy-ds were all even and symmetrical.

Hoho, you are missing the amazing community out there. First Turn Advantage (FTA) is a serious thing. There are many articles written about it that you can easily find with Google. Think about it...if there's a missile silo in the middle of the map, who's going to get to it first?

- Joining 2 units when FOW is on crashes the game.

Yep, already been aware of that one. I'm reworking the whole "determine when to remove unit from army's units" thing right now.

- When using a vision-increasing power, the FOW isn't updated until after you move or attack. I simply added a call to $spriteset.update_fow to the use_(s)cop methods to fix it.

Yeah, that's the current fix to this right now. I'll probably add some kind of check somewhere later. FOW is on the backburner for now. I only worked on it just to see if my idea of using two tilemaps was possible (which turns out it is). I'm pretty sure I also mentioned it on my release post that FOW is highly experimental right now, so it's advised to not use it for serious use yet.

And those CO additions are sweet You also seem very knowledgeable with Ruby, so if you think you can implement something new, by all means, share it with me.

1. You have said that in the original game there can be 4 teams. Is this possible to do so in the engine?

As Gears has pointed out, yep, it will be possible. Just not with the current beta version. It's also a bit tricky to setup since I have to be able to tell the map that there are 4 players, not 2 nor 3, playing on this map. I've resolved this by creating an event that takes in the map's properties through a Comment command. When I get around to making a Map-Builder, it'll be much easier to do this (not on the list of priorities though).

3. I do not really understand how those special CO powers work.

After dealing a certain number of damage (or receiving a lot of damage), your CO Power Bar will fill up the stars at the top of the screen. These are the CO's "buff" so to speak that gives them an enhanced advantage for the day (or more if you code it that way). It's what I thought made the traditional Advance Wars much more fun--it gave each character a different play-style that was unique. They also add a level of strategy: do you want to use your power first or after the opponent? Should you use it to get rid of that powerhouse unit blocking your way or save it for when you can destroy half of your opponent's troops?

4. Is it possible to create more buildings in engine? Different nations could have different troops?

Yeah, it should be possible, albeit, you will need to code that in yourself. I'll see if I can make that easier. The current way of determining what units you can build is kind of unconventional.

[Laytruce]

I'm pretty sure I also mentioned it on my release post that FOW is highly experimental right now, so it's advised to not use it for serious use yet.

Actually, aside from those few bugs, it seems to work really well.

And those CO additions are sweet You also seem very knowledgeable with Ruby, so if you think you can implement something new, by all means, share it with me.

Oh no, I've only been learning the basics of Ruby while creating these CO's. I am a programmer, but mostly in .NET, which is very different from Ruby. Still, I could look at the existing code and figure out how to do a lot of the things I wanted to do. The AWDS CO's provided some great examples.

[Gears]

@Laytruce: Thanks! That selection code should help me a lot. I'll simply wait untill the next release to fix my "ranged direct attack" commander. KK20 promised to rewrite the code using the Indirect unit type, which will make this as easy as "buff range"

I got some other things though. I've been running some playtests, and since my "stuff" is all based around a little community of wiki-people we've got going, i got some feedback on general things. Most people would like to see the name of the (selected) CO in the CO select screen if possible, it would clear things up greatly. Personally i've been wondering if it's somehow possible to edit the CO biography to include the daily income, like most games used to have. I've tried, but so far failed to define the correct subclass to get it referencing the Army class.

[ShadeHunter]

Thank you for the answers! I apreciate your help! 

Yet I forgot a one very important matter.
Is there possible to fight against computer or it is just human versus human?

[KK20]

It's only human right now. The next release will also be that as well. AI for this game is a bit tricky since it's a bit more unconventional compared to other tactical games. I also need to make it so that any changes the user makes will be adapted to the AI as well--in other words, I can't write AI that uses specific condition checks like "if CO == Sami, then build more infantry". It'll have to be like "if CO is good with infantry, then build more infantry". This, of course, means more calculations and slower AI in general.

If I can't seem to find a reasonable way around it, I'll most likely have to have the user add AI conditions to the Unit and CO classes.

[Gears]

I think it would be best to have a general code that requires you to make specific alterations for each modified CO. it would allow us some freedom in how our CO AI's react, and could allow for alternate things. (for example, i have a CO that can use recons to capture things. in a "overall" AI, the AI would not be able to do that). It might be best to have the CO take a middle path, and determine it's unit usage/favorites by looking at the boons, and then having modifiable multipliers for unit usage and  extra add-ons in the CO's page.

[KK20]

for example, i have a CO that can use recons to capture things. in a "overall" AI, the AI would not be able to do that.

In that case, the code will just be

if unit.can_capture
  # if capturing, finish capture
  # else, look for property to capture
  # if no property to capture, consider attacking
end

But from some of the unique things you guys are coming up with, I'll still consider putting in an AI configuration for COs and Units.

[Gears]

That might have been a bad example yeah.


I noticed this some weeks ago, but forgot about it again; Where's Sturm?

Obviously Sturm's campaign version and his Black hole rising version are severely OP, but his VS version from the original is a very decent balanced CO, so i kinda wonder why he's not in here? We ought to give him a chance to kick VonBolt's arse, as that is as it should be. Palpatine VS Vader.

Sturm's stats: Advance wars: Units 80/120 and not affected by terrain, Meteor Strike deals 4 damage and makes his units 90/155

I'm certainly going to fix this over here, but i thought i'd mention it.

[Laytruce]

I noticed this some weeks ago, but forgot about it again; Where's Sturm?

Obviously Sturm's campaign version and his Black hole rising version are severely OP, but his VS version from the original is a very decent balanced CO, so i kinda wonder why he's not in here? We ought to give him a chance to kick VonBolt's arse, as that is as it should be. Palpatine VS Vader.

Sturm's stats: Advance wars: Units 80/120 and not affected by terrain, Meteor Strike deals 4 damage and makes his units 90/155

I'm certainly going to fix this over here, but i thought i'd mention it.

Funny you should mention that...

Spoiler: ShowHide

This is the AW2 version, though, complete with 8 damage meteor and amazing stats.

How many stars will your Sturm's power meter have? With 4 damage, 10 seems way too much, especially since KK20 bumped Ex Machina's damage up to 5.

[Gears]

I think i'll simply bump meteor strike's damage up a bit to either 5 or 6 to compensate, personally going for 6, as this version of Sturm focuses on his low offense but amazing strike/shock potential.

I guess Kanbei's 1.1 cost modifier instead of 1.2 can also be accounted to executive meddling?

[KK20]

No CO nor unit was safe from my goal to balance things to hell. >=)

[Gears]

Funnily enough, it might have accidentally balanced them against my CO's, though my balance is sketchy at best.

Then again, if you make  everything OP it works out in the end.

Edit: I managed to fill most faction tabs with CO's. Anyone know how to make those buggers scroll?

[KK20]

At the moment, it's not coded in. I'll be sure to work on that too. Unless I decide to make a new CO selection screen. If anyone has suggestions or is willing to graphic me some windows, chime in.

I mainly copied the style from Custom Wars

[Zexion]

Hmm you could just use the whole bust of the CO and scroll them horizontally (looping once at the end) which would allow you to have an unlimited amount o-o
Unless you want it to look super fancy with your teams and what not :b

Edit: I gimped you up something real quick to show what I mean. I decided against the bust just for the sake of not making you have to redo some old snips of code xD

Spoiler: ShowHide

You could even leave the tabs in at the top if you want and use L/R to switch teams/colors and have the graphics note that aswell.

[KK20]

I can still throw the full body portrait in there. The thing is how would this look if I had multiple players? This would be good for single player, but awkward for more.

[Zexion]

Simple just put a p1 on top of the face pic when p1 is choosing and then same for p2 you would just have to choose one at a time

[Gears]

Wonder if we could implement CO specific pre - COP one-liners.

[KK20]

As in "Pass me my wrench!" and "Time to roll up my sleeves."
Yeah, those are in the works. Once I have solidified how I'm going to handle the message system, that will be implemented. Basically I need text areas sliding in from top or bottom of the screen, one character at a time (pressing button displays full message), ability to select an item, and CO portraits with various expressions (which can be extracted from the CO picture files) to follow the traditional AW system. I'm not sure if anyone wants more than that.

Would editing Ccoa's UMS to fit my needs while still having other options that aren't exactly needed (but someone else may use them) be the best solution?

[Gears]

Honestly no idea, but additional options is ALWAYS a plus. i think the text enters letter by letter though. not sure on it, but that's how i remember it.

On that subject, how are we going to handle differently colored armies and the CO-power Letters on the flyover?

[KK20]

Thing is I'm not sure what other extras could possibly be used. I will work on a very basic window right now. I'll see later if I can use Ccoa UMS. I'll add the basic fundamentals that all AW games have.

Is there anything you would like, personally, to see in the message system?

EDIT: Actually, after looking at it, Ccoa does some pretty weird things that would just shoot compatibility out the window. Looks like I have to write my own.