Progress

I've made progress. I spent the greater amount of the past few days finishing up the base structure of the game and just today, I got everything on-screen. I even made a virtual camera that moves around, zooms, and rotates. When I first ran it, I kept getting null reference errors (if you're a programmer), one after the other. The code made sense when I wrote it, but I had it all wrong. Then the second problem was that people were passing the people in front of them, and cutting in line is unacceptable.

Anyway, I fixed all of the above errors, and I've allowed the user to build a chain of nodes that the route will travel through. I'm still wondering how the heck I'll implement the AI. Another challenge in the near future is the graphics. I've worked with bitmaps and I can get the game looking decent enough will just that, but I could make it look loads more awesome with some pixel-shading and some other stuff. At the moment, however, I'm stuck with placeholder bitmaps.

Right now, after I finish this post, I'm going to finish the user-interaction stuff, then add the ability to have multiple players on the map. Of course, every player besides the human player will just "exist". Nevertheless, it will be a step forward. I'll also probably add xbox controller capability, just for fun. Eventually, I'll need to develop custom maps to play on. At the moment, the map is an open playing field with no obstacles or anything.

Ultimately, if everything works out and I can get some kind of AI going, I'd like to create a campaign with a story. First I'll have to come up with a premise. I already have some ideas, but I'll be bouncing them around until I get there. The more thinking time, the better.

clevceo