Echoes of the Imperium (4X Strategy Game)

[Lap]

Honored by the offer, but I have a feeling that at this point it would be quite a lonely place. Until an actual demo release I doubt there will be enough discussion to warrant one. Maybe later.

How would you make your ideal 4X game? Anything you loved or hated in previous grand strategy games?

[Lap]

I'm releasing a tech demo.

http://eoi.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

This is currently the largest thing I've ever seen made in LOVE, but also the messiest. A shamble of global name space pollution, nested if statements, nonuniform capitalization and other poor coding practices, but there will be time to tidy up later. Just be warned that looking at the code may burn out your eyes.

For now, my main concern is that a lot of people seem to be having problems with the engine itself. These all seem to be on Windows OS's. Within hours of release I've had:

2 people say they've had immediate crashes without the program ever opening.
1 person who loaded in, but with multiple graphical glitches and inability to display images (Win 7 64-bit). Using an older laptop with Vista and a more outdated graphics card worked fine.
1 person who loaded in, but quickly received a DEP crash.

That's all the information I have so far. I''m trying to gather more info on their system hardware.

Purpose of this release:

Give testers a feel for most basic game elements.

What is in the release:

-Majority of the units
-Basic untested economy
-Combat
-Combat sandbox
-Working unit movement and transporting.
-Two very basic test planets.
-Multiplayer (still not recommended as there's no real competition and the interface needs a better overhaul)

Notable Omissions:

-Research
-Diplomacy/Politics
-Sound
-Espionage
-Many interface elements (things like save/loading do work, but the interfaces for them are not completed.
-Morale/retreating
-Experience
-Creation of Armies (not units)
-Orbital bombardment
-Recruitment Queuing (no free slots, no building)
-Movement of resources/resource depots
-Terrain affecting combat.
-Militia defenses

Installation and Walkthrough

1. After extracting the .zip file somewhere run EoI.bat
2. Singleplayer->Quickstart
3. You are now in game so look around. To the top left should be the dedicated server window. Although this is singleplayer I've left this up so you can try changing from one side to the other.
4. Click on "Holy Terra." A box will appear indicating that a single friendly army is orbiting the planet. We can right click this box to see what is inside of it. If we LMB this box and then RMB on the nearby "Test World" an arrow will form indicating the armies current order.
5. Let's check out "Holy Terra" Double click the planet.
6. Move around the map by dragging with LMB. Double clicking a friendly province like "North America" will bring up a production screen. We already have a unit producing.
7. Screw around, maybe try to take a nearby province. Get a feel for organizing units between armies. It's mostly drag and drop. If you'd like to go back to the Galaxy Map hit the button in the top right or zoom far out using the mousewheel.
8. End the turn by clicking the button in the top right.
9. You'll notice that nothing seems to have changed. This is because the server is waiting for the other two players to be done. You can either take control of the other two players by clicking their team names and entering a password. Remember this password or you will be unable to join this team ever again! The password for Team #1 "Super Jerks" is SINGLEPLAYER
10. Either switch between to the other two players and end their turns, or just hit the "Force End Turn" button. The server will then process the new turn.
11. When you get bored, restart the program and try playing around in the Combat Sandbox. The number on the bottom middle indicates how many times you want the battle run in a row. You can see the round for round combat report in the console window.

Controls

[Controls are very Dominions-esque so if you've never played it be in for a rough ride as there is no tutorial at the moment]

LMB + drag moves the map

L.CTRL + MMB warps to cursor.

Double LMB on a place will usually bring up more information or order production.

MMB will bring up a menu of options (unfinished)

RMB is primarily used for ordering units about the map.

L.CTRL will allow selection of multiple units in the army screen.

MWHEEL will allow scrolling through lists and zooming of the map.

Questions

Why aren't my buildings producing anything?

Each production building requires 10 energy as well as 10 of each of the other required materials to be available before it will produce. A basic tree is available here: download/file.php?mode=view&id=22467

How do I load units?

When in the army inspection screen you can drag units onto transport units. Unfortunately, there is currently no clear indication as to whether units are loaded or not.

Known Bugs

There's a bunch of these, but I'll just throw out the big ones:

-Clicking on the "Show Cache" button causes an immediate crash
-Launching units into outer space does not immediately update the armies order.
-Disbanding units does not immediately refund anything.

[nevon]

Clicking "Quickstart" crashes the game with the following output.

Code: Select all

Error: [string "LUBE.lua"]:464: calling 'accept' on bad self (tcp{server} expected, got userdata)
stack traceback:
	[C]: in function 'accept'
	[string "LUBE.lua"]:464: in function 'acceptAll'
	[string "main.lua"]:125: in function 'update'
	[string "boot.lua"]:314: in function <[string "boot.lua"]:302>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'

[Lap]

Packaged an old build when I just made the Love version for you guys. Reuploaded the correct version.

EDIT-killed. use the SVN

[nevon]

Tried running that now. Clicking on Quickstart no longer crashed the game, however, the only thing that showed up was a window that said "Lap's Super Test Game(Turn #0)". If I click on one of the factions, the game crashes with the following output:

Code: Select all

Error: [string "client.lua"]:516: attempt to index field 'Factions' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
	[string "client.lua"]:516: in function 'PasswordWindow'
	[string "server.lua"]:471: in function 'onClick'
	[string "goo/goo.lua"]:145: in function 'mousepressed'
	[string "goo/goo.lua"]:447: in function 'mousepressed'
	[string "main.lua"]:234: in function 'mousepressed'
	[string "boot.lua"]:162: in function '?'
	[string "boot.lua"]:331: in function <[string "boot.lua"]:302>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'

[Lap]

Quickstart hosts a server on port 777 and immediately joins it with a lube.client object. If something causes the server to fail to send the match info (or the client fails to receive it) then that error will happen.

I cannot replicate this error myself so I only have theories as to why. I'm guessing it's something related to the port being blocked or some other problem with opening a socket.

Maybe if I close my eyes and say "bartbes" three times he'll appear....

bartbes...bartbes...bartbes!

[bartbes]

Ports under 1024 are reserved and require root/admin rights (name depends on platform, this should be true for windows as well). As such port 777 can't be opened (for hosting), the client can't connect, etc, etc.

[Lap]

Sounds like I choose a poor choice for a default port. I'll have to fix that.

[Lap]

Pour in a few hundred more hours of testing, coding, and theorizing and the project keeps trudging forth.

Rd5sxl.jpg (57.6 KiB) Viewed 283 times

It's interesting to see how much of a community project this is, despite it not appearing that way at first glance. Many community members are already being credited with code contributions:

bartbes-
LUBE
ANAL

ljdp:
goo

Kikito:

memoize
table.inspect
Middleclass

Taehl:
TLPath, TESound and some compression algorithm afaik

I'm pretty sure I'm also using a few code snippets from:
vrld, nevon

There's also plenty of people who haven't contributed libraries, but who have regularly helped troubleshoot questions I've had (Robin, thelinx). Thanks to everyone so far.

If anyone wants to join in me in improving the project I'd be glad to have the help.

[BlackBulletIV]

Wow mate, that's looking impressive! Good luck with it!