Equipment 35% Done

So finally got that settled over at bfunity.com and have began working on the equipment once again. I have finally written the classes for the equipment lights that the user sees. Thats pretty much what i have been working on for the last 4 hours, they take a while to implement the turning on and off. a big thank you to tapioca for finishing the graphics for the equipment bar. Enabling me to finally get that done. Next is the server/client communication of toggling equipment and then working on the actual logical implementation of the equipments. Keep you posted!

Discussion

So there havnt been any new updates because we are discussing an equipment replacement for missiles in the original game over at bfunity.com Hopefully we will have the replacement sorted out shortly so i can get back to work on equipment full time. So dont think ive given up! I'm just waiting for this to finally come to a conclusion.

Path Finding Problems

So as i finished up the client side information and server side database setup for equipment, I decided to go ahead and test the Ferries a bit more. I found a very serious problem with them and im not too sure how im going to get around it right now. Pretty much what happens is the path finding while on a ferry will consider land, but we add distance to each land tile to make it less "Preferrable" by the client. However once it finds the goal it stops going even if it did go through land. This gives me an incorrect path to the goal causing the user to dismount where he is at right now, or the closest location to land. I gatta think about how to fix this one. On the good side i believe i know exactly how Homing shots will be implemented, but equipment is on hold until this serious bug is fixed.

Equipment

So i was bored today and began writing the API for Equipment, so far i have all the client side objects for all of the equipments, most of them i needed to use a base class for a generalized bullet, and then each bullet type became a child of that general bullet. Each child was able to do different things like duels draw two bullets, missiles are able to go over mountains and friendlies and homings on the client side are an exact replica of missiles. I'm still pondering the best way to implement the homing missiles which will by far be the biggest problem i will face with equipment. So tonight while watching transformers ill be thinking about the best way to do that... Hopefully something comes to me.

On a side note, the new artist is recreating alot of the game objects in 3D such as the ferries, and fuel and equipment and tanks. The game will have a different, modernized feel to it when hes finished. Should look great!

Ferries are complete

Finally! After about 3 weeks of procrastination after the public release, i finally have bitten the bullet and finished the ferry implementation. I hit some hurtles along the way such as the tank trying to be "Amphibious" Moving its ferry across land AND water. I have fixed this by making the path finding logic "prefer" water over land. Its interesting to see this game come together, i must say weve made it a long way.

So whats next in my line of fire to finish? Equipment, it will be a big big code change, ill post my hiccups throughout the process, Ill start with the easiest equipments like duel shots, and extra radars and make my way up to the hardest which will more then likely be homing shots... im not sure how the hell to even implement those. My guess is to store the network request object in another list for further processing AFTER all processing of the turn is completed, then updating the shot and fuel amount accordingly.

Any changes youde like to see to the equipment side of the game? Post here!