OK, it seems like we have a good few people interested in doing this. The proposal is a HexMap based gaming system that can easily be extended to support classics such as FASA's BattleTech or StarTrek tabletop games. A high level design beaten out here by the group will be implemented in languages of the contributor's choosing. Work as a team or work on a solo port, the code is up to you. Other assets such as sound and art can be shared around all the projects.

Thoughts?

_________________
10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Gotta admit that the BattleTech vein interests me more than that of Star Trek. If it were more like something else... say, I dunno... BattleStations, then I'd be all over that. But I'll stick with the BattleTech idea until I have a good reason to do otherwise.

That said, I'm interested in some theme concepts for now. What style of giant robots do you guys prefer -- steampunk, hulking tank-like robots (a la BattleTech), more streamlined, humanoid robots (a la Gundam), modular robots (Voltron)? What about human characters, the guys who pilot these things?

I've been rattling some ideas in my head on a story line (yeah, I know, premature... I just can't help myself ). I was thinking something a bit dark and serious... the pain of war and destruction, that kind of thing (but with a positive twist toward the end). I also have to ask what character style people like as far as looks (anime, American, or something else). My manga-drawing skills are nil, I tend to lean toward a more Americanized style (again, I just can't help myself!).

Discussing this to begin with might get the ball rolling on the rest of the game's/games' design, so I'll leave you guys to decide whether to start with this or talk more about the development end.

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Funny you should make this thread, as last weekend I started making a hex based game (read: experiment/prototype) in an effort to improve my opengl skills.

However, the gameplay would be expansion/territorial based, so unlike what is being planned here. (As far as I can tell, because I don't really know what battle tech involves)

_________________
I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Yeah. BattleTech is mainly about blowing up other guys' robots as opposed to taking territory... although I suppose an option would be (if we get that far) to add missions that involve territorial aspects. But yeah, it's not the main focus.

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

I'm hoping that one of the things that will come out of this project is a robust hex map system base that can be extended in different ways. However, it's early days, we haven't even begun to lock down the targets.

_________________
10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

TwoBitCoder mentioned sticking with a 2D map to reduce complexity and allow better focus on other aspects of the project.
I'm all for this, but one of the main gameplay mechanics of BattleTech is the height of the hexes which make up the map. These provide cover and affect ranged attack calculations. In 3D it is very easy to show the height of a hex, but I'm not sure how this could be conveyed on a 2D map. The original paper maps have the level(height) written at the bottom of each hex but I always found this a bit clunky.

_________________
10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Shading maybe? (Make lower tiles darker; higher tiles lighter... that sort of thing.) Could also reinforce it by also adding height markings.

Another possibility is to have different tiles represent different terrain height. For example, a shallow shore might be height 1; shore, height 2; flatlands, height 3... and so on.

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

While looking for a hexmap example for the above post I stumbled across this: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums ... 523.0.html

_________________
10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Something I knocked up in the past hour...

_________________
I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Very cool.

Look at all the colors... so pretty...

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

That's pretty awesome, but I think sticking with 2D is a better bet, even if that were publicly available, which I didn't notice.

_________________
Bored? Head on over to my blog and see what I'm up to.

Microsoft XNA MVP

Nice. 2000 posts too.

I take it those hexes are coloured rather than textured?

[Edit] I'm with Machaira on the 2D approach. However, if we design things properly, the visualisation of the map could be bolted on/tweaked afterwards. Then you'd be able to do 2D, Isometric or 3D.

_________________
10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

What language is that using?

_________________
Bored? Head on over to my blog and see what I'm up to.

Microsoft XNA MVP

MechForce, an old 2D mech game used contour lines to show the edge of higher or lower groups of hexes. However, it wasn't always apparent which way the level change was. Maybe a combination of edging and shading would work?

_________________
10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Yes. Textures would have taken me more than one hour.

But I like the colourful flat shaded untextured look. It's a style we don't see anymore.


Opengl in the language I always use.

_________________
I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

OpenGL is an API, not a language.

I'm assuming C++ then?

_________________
Bored? Head on over to my blog and see what I'm up to.

Microsoft XNA MVP

"Opengl in"

So I'm guessing Visual Basic 6.


That looks frikken cool, Jasmine. It would probably take me a month to get the same thing up and running

_________________
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve

heh, I figured that was just a typo.

_________________
Bored? Head on over to my blog and see what I'm up to.

Microsoft XNA MVP

Can I have a custom title now?

I think all long term members should have the option of custom titles.

_________________
I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

I'd like to make a game with you some time Igthorn, because we both know vb6, and I think it would be fun.

_________________
I ain't pushing no moon buttons.