Jurassic v2.0

[TheDog]

@GREGOREK

I declare you sane, I get this

[GREGOREK]

I'm still hunting down the Observer-Null error, but higher forces need to get involved on this one.

Turning wrapX and wrapY off, the cell boundary display error is gone.

Turning wrapX on, the cells display properly but the small map drops the right edge.

Turning wrapY on, the cells get truncated and the small image drops the bottom edge.

The game provides 'island groups' in the polygons.txt display but was never tested for map border-crossings, wherein a territory can exist on opposite sides of the map and a single territory can exist at all four corners. It looks like a bounding-box oversight. For complete wrapXandY this needs to be addressed on the engine side.

[wc_sumpton]

@GREGOREK

Check the baseTiles 7-17.png is bad. This is causing your problems.

Cheers...

[GREGOREK]

@wc_sumpton THANK YOU. Checked for that vary thing, but stepped through using the Linux ImageViewer and it skips bad files. Strange it existed because the imageTiler was run a few times after first encounter with the error. I'll check the rest.

Observer error be gone. Uploaded a new neanderthal.zip. Wrapping display conflict still exists. Each loop in a polygons.txt territory definition should get its own display bounding box to determine if it is in the view.

I'm going to concentrate on the game development. Once done, I'll clean up the scripts for public consumption.

[GREGOREK]

Starting on the game. Finding artwork is slow. Planning triggers.

canBeCapturedOnEnteringBy
whenCapturedChangesInto

I need something similar to: whenKilledChangesInto
Does anything like that exist?

whenHitPointsDamagedChangesInto
values: allows this unit to change into another unit if it takes a certain amount of damage in combat, primarily used for having weaker versions of a unit
examples: <option name="whenHitPointsDamagedChangesInto" value="damage:transferAttributes:unitType"/>
damage - specifies how many points of damage, transferAttributes - if new unit keeps damage amount, unitType - new unit

This might work for the purpose of a killed Mammoth becoming a source of Meat, for example. If the Mammoth is twoHit, then one hit will trigger its change into a non-combatant resource/item that another trigger can pick up and convert to PUs.

Right?

[GREGOREK]

Took a detour on game development and added a dungeon module to the automated scripts with dirt, rubble, water, and of course lava.

Ya'll have made TripleA diverse and feature rich. A cave system brings up some questions. Please educate me if these adaptations already exist. Otherwise, please consider their addition/discussion. Remember, you are making a toolbox, not a game; that's for the map makers. And they need more tools.

A dungeon crawler could be played by standard tripleA territorial battles. However, it would be more open to RPG style with specialized units and item distribution. Not trivial upgrades but some form of menu system is required to add and remove found items to units. Tech/triggers affect all units of a type. I dont expect DOOM style gaming, but some form of treasure hunt would be nice. Currently, a single hero-unit could satisfy the RPG side of the game, absorbing all found items.

The Production Menu is a sore spot. It needs greater control by the map. The engine provides a default, but let the map override it with col/row size and access (add/replace cells by col/row). Treat it like the table it is with Rules and Notes. A specialized Rule could allow item distribution but would wreak havoc on the battle calculator and battle menu to have so many unique units.

Relief Tiles remain as the default display, but consider a territory tile with x,y alignment offset. It might ease the burden of border/corner overlaps on fully wrapped XY maps. It would also usher in territory animations and unleash the FOG OF WAR.

Current script status is close to release. They will generate random terrain and cave maps along with a generic game.xml to hog out the bulk of the work. Finished speeding up the territory carver that works like a bubble machine. It tracks terrain changes reasonably well. The tricky bit remains narrow edges and corner horns/spear like structures. Mostly cleaned up. Dungeon module running slow. It be nice to integrate both surface and subterranean maps together for a 3Dish stacked hive affect but access points would require a lot of scrolling.

[TheDog]

@GREGOREK
You are bonkers trying to shoehorn a RPG style into TripleA.

However I will join you in the Bonkers club, for I have thought of trying to do similar.

For your consideration look at
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3264/arena-of-death-official-thread
for multi wound heroes and different classes.

For the levelling of the heroes a Tech tree could be used, see, each tree could be a hero?
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/4056/1888a-steam-steel-official-thread

For random distribution of monsters and treasures, see
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/3666/shogun-advanced-official-thread
and look for Kami, Japanese spirits. The Kami start out with lots of dots in their unit name, this so the player cannot count them, when found/revealed they change into stuff

Ebbe and I are working on an Heroic FFA island map with Fates, using the ./dot principles above.

[GREGOREK]

@TheDog Thank you for the document references.

Here's the scripts to automate map making, at least the bulk of it. My way of giving back to this incredible group.

http://john.gregorek.com/Games/Generic.zip

The README will walk you through the scripts and provide a PERL primer for those that dont know.

These will generate terrain, cave and hive maps, and rough out a playable game XML. The HIVE is a blend of PLAT and CAVE to create layers; above and below ground. Connection territories are marked with glyphs that show better when not owned by Neutral.

One issue: are PLACE.txt coordinates the unit-image's top-left corner or center? They appear to be functioning as top-left. Image shows smallest territory size and dinosaur clearly out of bounds. The scripts generate center locations. Easy to fix, just want confirmation.

[GREGOREK]

FYI, at end of README, important PERL scripting note:

You may encounter errors/warnings:

GD.pm not a standard module. Must be installed.

User defined modules wont be found by perl. Several ways to fix that. Easiest method was inserting [use lib] at top of some [.pl] files. Change them to your local folder path, in these scripts: border.pl, brand.pl, cave.pl, generic.pl, glyph.pl, hive.pl, plat.pl

On Linux there is a GD package image file access error that can be ignored.

Good Luck

[GREGOREK]

UPDATED: http://john.gregorek.com/Games/Generic.zip

Added caveER_png to help identify territories for removal/addition.

Shifted place_txt values to represent top-left corner of unit images.

Corrected polygons_txt fragments for defining territories across map borders.

Not happy with glyph branding. It's optional.

Still have an issue with border fragments that requires your inspection. The reliefTiles hide the map border edge well, but note the dinosaur has been beheaded.