Project archive
Development posts collected in one place. English translations are added after review; each entry links to its Facebook source.
Despite the public silence, work is progressing. Screenshots from the star-system navigation screen. You'll have no trouble working out which one is old and which two are new.
Read post ↗Here's a little challenge: come up with a device and describe it, and I'll classify it. If someone comes up with something that doesn't fit any of the types described in the previous post, I'll think through a new type and add it. You'll get at least a line in the credits, and perhaps something more ;)
Read post ↗An update. Summer is over. The boats will soon come ashore, which means I'm returning to development. The break gave me time to think through some implementation mechanics. In particular, I've found a solution for making ship combat, and ship interactions in general, more dynamic and visually appealing. The financial and economic system has also received some refinement. Overall, it's alarming how many new ideas have emerged, but reassuring that the paths and mechanisms for implementing them in software are clear. The immediate plan is the colony side: population, economics, politics, buildings, and resources. After that will come the simulation of ship systems, consumables, life support, and related elements, followed by a simulated combat encounter.
Read post ↗An update: I had to switch from Python to C#. Over the past week, I managed to build and launch several absolutely key elements. First, flexible, dynamic database access. Working with data models makes manipulating the data very convenient. The web interface for working with databases is almost finished, too. The connection is there, and changes and additions work. Second, I established a socket-based client-server connection from the game engine to the future server database, without using the engine's built-in tools and all their limitations. There is still a huge amount of work to do, but the bytes are already moving )))))
Read post ↗Right. There has been significant progress. The planetary system has begun to rotate. And it isn't simply moving according to a script: it follows Newton's laws. The mechanism works both on the client and on the server, because the calculations use standard three-axis coordinates scaled for the client. The planets move in their proper elliptical orbits, inclined to the ecliptic, with the expected changes in speed at apogee and perigee. The accuracy is quite close to scientific calculations.
Read post ↗I can't stop watching it. Half the solar system has come to life: everything rotates and shines. The rotation isn't quite right yet; I need to correct and add some formulas. But it's reliable and simple. Everything runs on mathematics rather than animations. And it rotates in a way that doesn't require bothering the server every second. The client takes the current information and handles the rotation itself from there.
Read post ↗During a day of intense work, I cracked a lot of tough problems. Some buttons now work! Including one button with a very important function: quitting the game )))) The interface has also become scalable: it will try to look the same at any monitor resolution.
Read post ↗I moved the project to the new Unity 5 and straightened out the parts that broke. I'm learning my way around it. I added buttons to the interface. They move, feel alive, and respond, although they don't do anything yet. Shaders are calculated better now. I changed the ship that flies past on the start screen, took a look, and changed it back. Better is the enemy of good.
Read post ↗A question of tolerance. Should we introduce a category for people of non-traditional sexual orientation into the birth-rate calculations and demographics in general? They are removed from the total of those who produce offspring. What effect might that have on the game as a whole? I don't mean mathematically, but publicly. Mathematically, this is already accounted for through a basic fertility factor that includes the adjustment. Should we calculate and remove that adjustment and make it a separate factor, or would it be better not to mention it at all? What are your ideas?
Read post ↗By the way, if anyone knows their way around Python or C++, you could help write a temporary, rough network connection between client and server. Something simple and basic, with direct access to MS SQL. That would make it much quicker to get individual components into very early testing and bring them to life. Incidentally, the basic environment in Unity, with music and animation, is already done. Any menu and any number of subsequent windows can be attached to it. In the near future, I'd like to put the demographics module into testing, so the actions of a dozen or two players can bring it to life. Then the basic economy, then the more complex economy... we'll keep expanding it.
Read post ↗A question: what factors do you think could affect birth rates? At present, we account for a fertility rating that includes cultural characteristics, medical standards, and modifiers from colony policy; a small random element; an uneven sex ratio; and the total number of people of childbearing age. We also subtract infant mortality, which depends on medical care.
Read post ↗It took a long time to get going, but the project has finally moved beyond design on paper, in our heads, and in spreadsheets. Friends, the first lines of code have been written, not as a test but for the project itself. So far, I've managed to get a SQL database working together with an external control module written in Python. This is a big step. A set of programs like this forms the server that the game client asks for information so it knows what to display and where. The next stage is writing the server and the game's logic. Right now I'm working on the demographics module, which will handle colony populations. More on that later.
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