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Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:49 am
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Quote: (The_Real_Chris @ 23 Jul. 2009, 23:59 )
I wouldn't hard code movement. Stuff like transporting units, counter charges, infiltrate etc etc is too much hassle surely. Precisely. I just intend to show the distance moved constantly to both players. While it would look great to have a circle of possible movement around each selected unit, it'd be a huge amount more work, and as you say wouldn't work for varient move distances. You must have a 2d or close as possible way of taking snapshots for batreps  It must be able to run on a netbook
Hmmm. 2D may be a bit of a challenge. I can certainly have a fixed camera above the "table" to be used for taking screenshots, but it'd be a perspective rather than orthogonal view. I could reduce the perspective effect a lot by having the camera a long way up and zooming in I think.
I'll keep the computer requirements as low as possible, but a 3d graphics card of some description will be required. Most notebooks should run it fine I believe.
As an aside it'll come with versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Units
Base them. I think it makes things a lot easier. Use warmaster multiples of bases for vehicles (1 for preds, 2 for bigger stuff like land raiders etc). To avoid problems with orientation I would suggest making infantry bases round. If you want other shapes as well you will have to have some way of turning them that doesn't give someone an extra cm of movement. Allow bases to be different colours by formation to allow different formations to be easily identified. If possible have some sort of unit notes that open in a separate window for people to type whatever in. Have a system for people sticking their own sprite in if they so desire if possible.
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Yes, initially at least I'll be including a range of set base sizes with the module, for 20mm square, 25mm square, 40x10mm, 25mm round etc etc. Initially these will be flat boxes with a sprite picture on top, but it'd be easy to add models to them if I could be bothered (though of course the IP risks are much higher with models).
Models will measure all move distances and rotations from their centres. This could mean gaining or losing a CM or so of movement, but that has to be something for the players to sort out, as dealing with it ingame is a lot of work.
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Board
Have 'clumps' of terrain available, so its a simply matter of plonking 12 down on a 6x4 and also if possible have a few 'balanced' pre generated boards.
Terrain-wise I was planning on having a "terrain box" containing 3 or 4 different buildings, a couple of hills, a couple of woods etc. Obviously it'd be no problem to place multiples of the same terrain into a map.
Saving and loading of terrain layouts isn't something I'd planned, but it's not a lot of work, so it could certainly be added, along with some preset table layouts.
Please please mark out deployment zones, 15cm radius around objectives and the half way line. Obviously there are 3 possible configs depending on playing which corner or side.
Hmm. This is of course something epic specific, which I'm looking to avoid as much as possible for IP reasons. It could be possible to include a different "table level" in the Epic module which would have the possible deployment zones marked on it.
As for objective radii, again this is pretty Epic specific. I won't be having objective counters per se, but I could certainly have one of the unnamed counters in the "counters box" be a counter with a 15cm radius ring around it, to be used for whatever the players decide...
Have some way of marking points on the board for the purpose of plotting drop points and bombardments, preferably without the other player knowing!
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Pretty tricky, as it's very Epic specific. Hmm. I suppose it could be possible to have a "secret counter" which only displays on your own screen, and can't be moved once placed. There could be a button to press to reveal it to your opponent.
This is possible to do, but it's not an immediate priority.
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Game
Have a 'tape measure' that can be used by either player at any time to check distances. This should hopefully persist until cancelled, no matter what else is used.
Yep, a tape measure will definately be included and can certainly be made persistent. I'll probably make it consist of 2 ingame objects with a line between them, where each end can be picked up by either player. Obviously it'll display the current distance all the time to both players.
Units
Allow them to be taken off the board at any time and put back on as appropriate, to allow air extractions and insertions, transport etc.
Not a problem. The interface will feel like flying over a large table in a room, and it'll be easy to add a side-table or two in the room for placing offboard miniatures.
It would be fantastic if they could project their ZOC's, this would also help maintain coherency. I know scouts have 10cm ones and WE have different coherency, but as a starting point the 5cm ZOC should extend from every base.
Very Epic specific, and so unlikely to be included.
Should be a move tracker. That is you pick up a unit and shift it forward with a counter saying how far it has gone. Should persist until the next unit is moved. If the unit is placed down the line and tally should persist, so if say you were marching you could measure out 3 15cm moves and they would be shown to the other side for the purposes of transparency, overwatch etc. With an undu function
Definately having a move tracker and an undo function (though it'll most likely only be able to undo one or two moves). I'm still thinking on the design of the move tracker, I want it to be as clear and intuitive as possible.
Should be base to base. Hopefully based on clicking a unit and dragging a line out to the target with range counted off as the mouse moves.
I wasn't really planning on having any specific ingame firing rules; I was planning for this to be a function of the ingame multi-use tape measure. It's effectively the same thing.
Barrages
At most basic allow to be placed anywhere. If you are all advanced you can set up a system for saying whether or not a unit it caught based on the percentage of base covered - say 15-20%?
Again this is very Epic specific so a cause of IP issues. There will of course be a selection of apropriately sized, partially transparent counters in the counter box of course.
Dice roller
Need one of these
Yes, I'm thinking of having 10 buttons in the dice panel, numbers 1-10, and clicking on one of them will display that number of randomly determined dice results below the buttons in the panel. As for a physics-based, actual dice roller; certainly not intially. I do have apropriate code available however, so it may be added for a laugh at some point.
Markers
Need objectives that project their 15cm control range. Need blastmarkers.
Again, non-epic-specific 15cm radius rings and orange tokens will be available in the counters panel.
Reporting function
Go wild. Base is a 2d screenshot of battlefield, but if you can add arrows and stuff to show moves or maybe have the whole game recorded and played back at high speed that would be great
This is an area where the engine does struggle. It's possible to record the whole game from the player's point of view for sped-up playback, but not from the camera position above the table (unless you spent the whole game playing from that position). The reporting mode in general is an area where I've been struggling, planning-wise.
Anything else
Off hand all I can think of is being able to see the whole battlefield on the screen if the player so desires and terrain not blocking the players view (they had units go to silouets in some games when obscured). Need an off table area for storing units in play but not dead. Should be savable to return to later. Chat function isn't nessecery as we could use messenger thingies, but would I guess be nice. Need a log of what has been touched and what hasn't.
I can certainly add a mode which makes all terrain semi-transparent, or draws the obscured models on top but differently. Obviously it's not an initial priority, but it can certainly be done.
Off-table area I've covered, no problem there.
There will be a primitive chat function, but I'd obviously recommend an external chat program (or preferably Skype).
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