About ad infinitum

[BrodieBrodie]

ad infinitum it is a free ware game in alpha developmentthe game can be found with a working download athttp://sourceforge.net/projects/ad-infinitum/Images:space vieworbital planet view:planet view:A galactic 4x with a difference?the idea is like other 4x's but with the focus on the planets. Accordingly the planets have been made as hexagonal landscapes. These worlds surfaces will be generated randomly every new game. Most of the action and decisions will happen and be made on the worlds. Space combat will take place mostly in the orbits of worlds and will be viewed and controlled from the world map. The game is to be real time but with delayed time and organized into hexes. Influences for the game include Civ, EFS, dune (the book), and the early history of the Byzantine empire and christian medieval church. Another important difference to the usual 4x is that there will be no tech tree. Society has collapsed, techs must be "rediscovered" by finding and occupying the old empires labs that are scattered across the galaxy (and holding these if you want to keep the tech).Plot:The setting is a future dark age, the galactic empire has just collapsed (the last emperor has been assassinated and there are no heirs), planets are left for themselves, many colonies have died off, a powerful trading guilds plies the trade roots, the galactic church holds sway on the populace (but is itself divided into sects) and proscribes powerful techs as evil, the imperial offices (the Imperial Fleet [navy], The Terror Legions [army], and The Guild of Assassins [intelligence agency]) still hold the remnants of imperial power but need a leader. The galaxy is being raided by a nightmare force of aliens (the church is trying to crusade against them but is too weak to act alone), neutral planets are secretly plotting with the guild to create the Third Republic. The players play each a greater noble house and are after the ultimate prize, to be declared emperor. To do this is by no means easy in such a chaotic environment with so many parties and conflicting interest (did I also mention the rebels, the space pirates, the neutrals, the minor houses...), the tasks will include capturing the city planet and imperial throne world of capital and forcing the galactic pope to crown you as the divine immortal absolute imperial ruler, the ad infinitum of the galaxy.technical:It is programmed by myself in C, for windows using Directx libraries. It is designed to run on even early computers, it does not need a graphics card, and if your computer has a graphics card it has instructions not to use it, in technical terms it uses the HEL and not the HAL of direct draw, the advantage here is that it is uber portable and can run on nearly all version of windows, even NT or UNIX Winne emulators.

[BrodieBrodie]

More Screen shots:Town icon selectionLunar ScapeLava world

[CaptainKal]

It reminds me of the "Emperor of the Fading Suns" game.

[sscadmin]

First off Brodie you have definitely have a large in scope type of game. Reading over some of your posts I don't know how you keep track of it all I have stickied this post so it will always be at the top now.
BrodieBrodie wrote:
Society has collapsed, techs must be "rediscovered" by finding and occupying the old empires labs that are scattered across the galaxy (and holding these if you want to keep the tech).
Like this a lot. I know you may not have figures on this yet, but can you give a guess on how much time a campaign/scenario would take to play? From the in-depth descriptions in some of these posts I would guess around 10-15hrs?

[LadynightShade]

looks a bit like Populous II anybody tryed it yet, i don't have the time

[Pinback]

like the future dark age as a setting wish there were more games that used it.

[voxel]

BrodieBrodie wrote:
It is designed to run on even early computers, it does not need a graphics card, and if your computer has a graphics card it has instructions not to use it,
Good to see people writing games for computers without graphics. Will we interact with the game via serial interface, some kind of audio sonar positioning, or perhaps a form of electric shock peripheral?

[BrodieBrodie]

CaptainKal wrote:
It reminds me of the "Emperor of the Fading Suns" game.
Aye, that's the one. Listed it as "EFS" in my inspiration list. A game I felt held the idea for the next great 4x after Master of Orion II, but with a shoddy production and not properly implementing its ideas, missed the mark. Hence ad infinitum hopes to go where EFS showed the way but didn't dare proceed.
DarkOne wrote:
how much time a campaign/scenario would take to play? From the in-depth descriptions in some of these posts I would guess around 10-15hrs?
No idea. Your guess however seems a reasonable estimate. It will depend on the size of the galaxy. Currently the game can handle 249 world no problem, only i dont want to make the universe so big that it is unplayable, so I have to get the balance just right (probably 40-100 worlds). this balance will be worked out once the game is properly playable.
DarkOne wrote:
Reading over some of your posts I don't know how you keep track of it all.
Aye, that's because the project has been homeless, I have gathered my things, arrived, and dumped the stuff into the first available spaces; some of it is still in its old cardboard boxes and will need to be properly sorted through later. Thanks DarkOne for the space, think my project needs a place to lay its hat.
LadynightShade wrote:
looks a bit like Populous II
The graphics are basic as they are mostly quickly done by myself with the gimp and inkscape (I am no artist). the units will hopefully be much more detailed and of many different types: e.g. from basic infantry all the way to mechanized bonded power steel cyber robotic infantry legions with pulse fusion guns ect, and include vehicles e.g. spider tanks, hover artillery, transparent tank killers, mobile fortress's, surface to space fusion missile canons, etc etc
voxel wrote:
Good to see people writing games for computers without graphics.
lets not get carried away, when I say no graphics card, I'm referring to the 3D thing. I will use the 2D to max effect (bliting, shrinking, stretching, colour keying, and mirror imaging of bitmaps.). Bitmaps are nothing more that data files and dont need a 3d grafix card. They are actually handled better by the CPU through system memory. The world has gone 3d mad and there are even a great deal of programmers who seem to have forgotten just how simple 2d is.

[Swaag]

Wow, ambitious project here, I love it already. Anyone who would attempt a make-over/re-make of EFS has my attention. You haven't posted in a couple of months, so I'm hoping you haven't gotten distracted. Will be watching this.Cheers,Swaag

[BrodieBrodie]

I am still about. I had to rewrite several times the routines for combat in the code (game was crashing with my new code and I just could not find where the problem lay, so I had to start from scratch and this several times), I have now achieved a basic version that effects the moral bar of units, and works out attack strengh, gives clearer locations to attack and defend, works out number attacking a hex, and locks units in combat, also indicates when combat has ended; not 100% stable however, I hate posting unstable code. Need to debug befor posting an update. Will update soon.I sent you an email Swag, giving you a run down how to compile the code (this is a vital first step if you want to help programming) and how the direct draw graphics works (basicaly what the program revolves around).Yours ever,BB

[ollobrain]

do u need any help on the programming front or is this now vapour ware as well ?

[BrodieBrodie]

Yes, I need help on all fronts.

[Arrakkh]

I downloaded it but I don't understand how to play. Where can i find a game manual?

[Wereboar]

Nice game idea. The story reminds me on Megatraveller (Pen & Paper) and the assasination of Emperor Strephon and the downfall of the Third Empire with all those waring factions. And of course the "Hard Times" - Sourcebook. Alone for this I will try out the game.