X@COM

Finally fired the first rifle shot today! Not at anything in particular, and not that it matters much since projectiles simply die after impact rather than having any kind of effect...

Been working mostly on the internal firing mechanics lately, thus despite a fair amount of progress there still isn't a whole lot to see. Copy of the latest changelog:

• Fixed misdirection in flying movement handling around obstacles
• Fixed FOV to improve accuracy of obstruction by prop objects
• Added Faction LOS check between their members and those of other factions, to record visible entities
• Added kneeling/standing
• Changed unit icon size; now larger while standing and smaller while kneeling to reflect smaller profile
• Added Race data class, which holds data common to all Entities of a given race
• Added prop height value, determines how they block FOV of entities of various heights (e.g., when kneeling) and LOF
• Added targeting/firing mode to battlescape interface
• Added accuracy calculations
• Added volume parameters to props and entities to define their profile for projectile collision detection
• Added ray shooting class for calculating projectile trajectories (subdivides map cells to properly detect collisions by object volume)
• Added LOF calculations in two varieties (option to switch between them): STRICT traces a direct line to the target and considers anything it passes through to be an obstruction; LENIENT will trace multiple lines to target corners/extremeties and try to hit any part it can when the primary LOF is blocked (enables you to hit the sides of large targets that are hiding around corners). So each map cell actually represents a cube of space, and LOF travels through different parts and segments of different cells as in a normal 3D map; visually, LOF is shaded based on its length through a given cell.
• Fixed visual oddities on side view display when based on high-angle LOS
• Added Projectile class with collision calculations and simple bullet animation

The shot below shows a Line of Fire. LOF is shaded depending on exactly how much of a cell it traverses. Each cell on the map represents a 3D cube of space, and some objects may not entirely fill their space, e.g., props and entities. Thus in some cases even when your LOF passes through a cell, it may not hit objects within that cell (unless of course you're aiming at the object). As in X-COM, LOF is more restrictive than FOV, meaning you can sometimes see targets you may not be able to shoot at.
If something is blocking your LOF, the obstruction(s) will be highlighted in red and the LOF will also be shaded red.


Here is a soldier standing behind a short fence aiming at a target (currently lower case letters and single walls are used to depict shorter objects, while upper case letters and double walls are used for fully-obstructing objects).
But when that same soldier kneels down (currently represented with a smaller triangle), he can no longer hit the target because he's hiding behind the short fence.

Not enough time tonight to post how the side view works while aiming at targets. I'll put that up this weekend.

Here are some screenshots , as promised. Not much in the way of a complete map, but putting just this together was already slow going without an editor (I'll make one eventually, so long as this game starts to look promising).

There's an Avenger dropship in the SE corner, some streetlights along a road, a two-story house, and beyond that a raised grassy area topped with trees. A small UFO lies in the NW corner. These shots show the map entirely revealed.

This is the bottom level:

Here is the map viewed from the second level. Areas below the current view height have a very slight blue tint to them, and appear a little darker. (This will be adjusted later as necessary.) You can now see the Avenger's hull, the house's second floor, the raised area in the NE corner, the UFO roof, and tree branches for the bottom level trees:

This is the third level, which only has the tops of the streetlights (from where their light is emitted), Avenger and house roofs, and NE trees branches:

No reason to show the empty fourth level, instead here's the same map at midnight (bottom level):
These brave (stupid?) soldiers have now split up--one's searching the house while the other heads for the UFO alone...

...Hopefully not to be followed by baby steps.

I'm starting development with the battlescape, primarily because its design is potentially problematic so it's the best place to start in order to determine the feasibility of this project. (By comparison, the geoscape should be relatively easy to represent in ASCII.)

Progress during the first week of development:

• Expanded personal game library (which has only been used for basic 2D applications in the past) to include 3D LOS/FOV functions, a 3D pathfinding class, more 3D matrix methods, a handle manager template, and a generic logging system.
• Defined all major game flow handling classes/modules
• Defined all major data classes (Cell/Prop/Entity/Item)
• All data objects loaded from files
• Can load a rudimentary static battlescape map, with objects, from a text file
• Map props can be static light sources; entities/items can be dynamic light sources
• Visibility, and map shading, dependent on time of day setting
• Can control members of a test faction, walking or flying around the map, which is revealed as per FOV rules
• Can activate side-view map to see a vertical cross section of a unit's LOS
• Implemented randomized unit stats, and TU costs of moving/changing facing 
• Moving units will correctly climb/descend sloped terrain/stairs (fortunately they no longer leap off buildings unless capable of flying) and open doors
• The entire game state can be saved/loaded at any time

Next up: Firing your gun at stuff. This could take a while longer, because I'll be trying out some new methods I haven't used before...

Screenshots will come soon, after I make the tiny test level a bit prettier--right now it's pretty random...

I just recently began work on a new project, an X-COM-based Roguelike, and decided to create a blog to post updates and seek comments/advice.

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