Single-Player Frontend WIP

[Slamoid]

I'm working on a quick and shoddy front-end for Spring Single-player.

The first version will be all 2-d, with a 'Dynaverse' (Think offline PW), and eventually random mission scripting with RPG elements. Eventually, I want to include suppourt for AA and FF at once, AA for ground combat, and FF for space combat, intercepting fleets en rute to planets and the such, even building orbital defenses and GG jammers.

But first, I'm just trying to get the d**n thing to work right.

I'll post pics when it's working. So far it's intellegently creating the start script files and linking them to the AI DLLs I want it to. Next up is the graphical interface (WIP as I type) and then the map loading. If anyone has any questions/suggestions, feel free to post them.

BTW, is there any easy way to know if the local player won the last game, so I don't have to have it search teh entire game log? TY.

[CrowJuice]

YAY!! YAY!!! YAY!!!!!

[Min3mat]

i really wanted OTA missions first oh well gl :)

[AF]

Aha, I can add to the NTAI dll itnerface any bits you need. I've bene thinking I might add a bti that returns a html formatted string with NTAI the version number and a description. I could also rig it to log to a second file wether it won or not. Another possibility would be looking at the demo recording.

This all seems similair to my Spring: Total War diea, but that thread got hijacked so i gave up.

[Decimator]

Perhaps it would better to use Caydr's GEM for the space combat instead?

[Slamoid]

Aha, I can add to the NTAI dll itnerface any bits you need.

Actually, I could use a little help. Could you add a little bit that if the player wins, it creates a text file called PlayerWin.flg, and if player looses it creates one called PlayerLoose.flg? That would be most helpful, as I can't think of any other way than loading the whole game log and looking for what word is near the player's name.

Progress so far:

• It is dynamically creating scripts
  It is loading Spring
  It has different planet sprites for different maps
  It is randomly loading different planets
  It can load different mods
  It is compiling to ONE small file
  
  It is/will not load Spring's data files
  It is/will not detect new maps
  It is not making it's own missions yet
  It is does not have any strategic/RPG elements yet
  It is not randomly naming the different planets yet (damn string variables)

As promised, a worthless screenshot. (Can somone give me a new cursor JPEG? I'm lazy. )



[edit]Oh yeah, 2 things: I'd DEFINATELY use Caydr's mod when he gets it done; and the maps I've imported so far: (Feel free to suggest more)

• Small Devide
  Castles
  Blue Planet
  The Cold Place
  Core Prime Industrial Area
  Comet Catcher

[jcnossen]

Maybe it's better to build a SP starter with the new gui components, so it's integrated into spring,
but it's nice to see someone working on this anyway

EDIT: Nice, I see that it's going to be more than just a Singleplayer AI launcher, so maybe a seperate app is better :)

[Aun]

• Small Devide
  Castles
  Blue Planet
  The Cold Place
  Core Prime Industrial Area
  Comet Catcher

Mountain Siege! It's very hilly and can be won with unusual tactics :)

[Min3mat]

Painted Desert remake
Comet Catcher
Greenhaven
Mars
River Dale and its parts
Flooded Desert
Sands of War
Plains and Passes
Cliffdown
Volcano Island
to name a few

[Caydr]

Not sure how well g/e/m will work for this sort of thing. The units have nothing to do with the TA universe and, at least in the initial release, there will probably only be one side.

[AF]

Actualyl nwo i see that adn what zaphodsaid It wouldnt be that hard to make ti start a new game using the player with a globalAI helper that showed an itnerface. That way you could sue all the graphcis the game has and have big real 3D planets rotating etc, adn stars etc.

The necessary tools to get a GUI working on the map are there, I cna only think that there'd be need for an exit command in the AI interface toher than NTAI's fabled ".Crash" command.

I'll make the next version of NTAI write a crash.flg, then if it ends it'll write a second file either playerwin.flg or playerlost.flg.

If you do decide to go for Ingame GUI or you use 3D planets, there are hundreds of 3rd party free textures for ST:Armada 2 planets that can just be applied to a sphere ro ellipse for a decent planet affect.

[PauloMorfeo]

... (Can somone give me a new cursor JPEG? I'm lazy. )
...

Try posting a request in the Art forum!? (even though you shouldn't keep high expectations)

[Slamoid]

Well, progress is coming along fairly well. NTAI will be the only one suppourted for now, and I will release the source code.

The good/bad news: It's not C++. It's not even a dedicated programming language. It's built in Game Maker 4, a free hobbyist programming suite. Honestly, I'm amazed it got so far! It's almost a whole dynaverse already. There's alot to be implamented, and it's EASY to program, so I'll just release a beta + source code soon. I hope everyone enjoys it!!

Beta 0.01 to be released soon. It chooses a map for you and launches spring. Framework is there for *FAR* more, but I'm loosing interest, so I'd better let somone else take it from here before I delete it. I hope somone looks into the builder, as it reads/writes text files easily, so you can also dynamically create LUA missions (as was my intention), but I don't know how to launch Spring's LUA missions from prompt.

Good luck.

PS: You can download the 4.3b version I'm using free from here. I reccomend trying it first.

[Maelstrom]

Well once you get a basic version working, I will be happy to port it to VB. More people will probably know that language. Unless someone wants to port it to C++ or something.

Anyways, once you get it working ill try and clone it into VB, if you dont feel like working on it anymore.

[AF]

hmmm, I think i know a way you can get along without any NTAI support.

The game saves all the console emssages to InfoLog.txt. This includes messages saying a player has bene killed and which player that is. You can just search for ti and hey presto you knwo wetehr a player has won or lost. You could fidn ti useful to know what the player had left at the very end though if nubmers of untis matters affectign the dynaverse thing....

[Comp1337]

if we put our 1337 skills to this one, we could get a boneyards-style interface, that would seriously rock :). it could change mods depending on where the battle takes place, and what mods are available, etc (AA, FF, XTA).