This sprint started with some visual improvements, most noticeably the rendering of weapons, but also some minor tweaks regarding terrain and water rendering. Although there are more things I want work on regarding rendering (commands are still placeholders, animations would be nice, and 3D models, etc…), I think that the current state is good enough for launching EA, so I will not work on that until the game is more complete, probably towards the latter half of EA.
I have tweaked the camera gestures and, apart from some corner case issues, I’m now pleased it is working more or less as intended. There are no settings yet, the keys are:
WASD = move camera
QE = orbit camera
RF = tilt camera
ZX = zoom camera
C + mouse = orbit/tilt camera
mouse click/drag = move camera
Finally, I worked on movement and melee mechanics, and added some basic collision and casualty calculations. The Battle Match engine is much more sophisticated than the old Samurai Wars engine. It will model physical properties such as mass, momentum and energy. The rock-paper-scissor mechanics is not explicitly coded. Instead the relationship between units (who beats who) relies on the emergent behavior that is the result of the lower-level physical and psychological properties.
The above example illustrates how the size and space of individuals affect movement, and that the behavior is very different depending on who is moving and who is standing still.
Here, we can see how the length of shaft and blade of different weapons affect melee. The advantage of spears is the larger kill zone in front of the unit, making it possible to stop dead even a charge of cavalry. The disadvantage is that the kill zone only extends in the frontal direction, making the unit vulnerable to attacks to the flank or rear.
That said, the simulation engine is still in a very rudimentary form. Movement doesn’t consider mass or momentum, and weapons instantly kill upon the slightest touch by the blade. But although calculations are currently few and simple, I find it’s quite fascinating to see the complex interplay that arises when pitching units against each other on the battle field.
Next up: Networking! The unique selling point of Samurai Wars was its seamless online multiplayer features. I intend to take this to the next level with the Battle Match engine. So the for the next couple of sprints I plan on implementing networking. This means most of the work will be on the server back end, and if that goes well, I will be able to add two very important buttons to the user interface: Host Match and Join Match.