Saturday, February 4, 2012

Progress Report (02/04/2012)


This week I finished up the token system (at least until the combat system is functional) and I updated an old MHFramework utility, SpriteTester 2. Not bad for a week that was overwhelmingly monopolized by a tremendous volume of schoolwork.

No, that's not a TLC image. It's a frame in the loading animation from Chaotus' Archery Range.
Accomplishments:
  • Updated SpriteTester 2 to work with the latest MHFramework build. 
    • This utility will be necessary when I begin working on animations for this game.
  • Each team is given a few free tokens at the start of each round.
  • AI players can now draw tokens on their turn.
  • The Draw Token action now deducts an action point in accordance with the game rules.


Known Issues:
  • Something is keeping the human players' characters from performing two Move actions in a row. 
    • The workaround of just trying again still works. It alternates -- works the first time, fails the second, works the third...and then you're out of action points.
    • The bug does not manifest in the Draw Token action. It's specific to Move only.
  • The game gets stuck in the lobby if the host is a spectator rather than a player.
  • Several bugs specific to Join LAN mode:
    • Network latency causes character upgrades to not show up right away.  The client needs to wait for the updated character to return from the server before returning to the team screen.
    • The lobby doesn't turn control over to the player until the host has signaled ready. (I believe this is the exact same bug mentioned above that traps players in the lobby.)
    • Chat messages get lost when switching between the lobby and the team/character configuration screens.
    • When a player drops off, their team data is orphaned.  The server needs to recognize this and place the orphaned team under AI control.

Next Steps:
High Priority:
  • Make the inventory screen customizable for attacking and defending.
  • Fix the actions menu bugs mentioned above.
  • Create the HUD's event log display.
Medium Priority:
  • Implement the Attack action. 
  • Implement destructible containers.
  • Investigate ways to dynamically color the team uniforms.  Experiment on the placeholders.
    • If this works, add the ability to dynamically color MHFont objects too.
  • Add hazards and bonus spaces to the game board.
  • Create the in-game chat component.
    • But first, fix the issue with the lost messages by making the data structure static.
  • Finish the level design guide.
  • Finish asset lists for current set of level designs.
Low Priority:
  • Model the characters.
  • Animate the characters using Shaun Hager's animations.
  • Add sound effects to the actions menu buttons.
  • Add validation to the actions menu so that unavailable actions have a different appearance.
  • Implement the Heal action.
  • Finish the "whose turn" display.
  • Finish voice scripts for narration.
  • Finish the team creation screen.
    • Put in the floor image for the captains to stand on.
    • Replace plain gray buttons with captain character images.
  • Let's see if we can allow the player to change video modes dynamically from the options screen so they don't have to close the program and rerun it to change resolutions.
  • Design the web site.
  • Get coin display graphics from the former art team.
    • Add it to the team configuration screen.the character configuration screen and the recruitment screen.
  • Replace the temporary column header graphic on the character equip screen.
  • Test and troubleshoot the multiplayer modes.

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