Hi everyone!
So, it’s been 2 months since I have made a newspost and most of you probably thought that in the meantime, I died. Well, truth is, I haven’t been all that active due to a host of reasons, but suffice it to say, I have been working on getting Shard AI ready for inclusion on Windows and Linux.
v1.9 won’t be adding a lot to the game. I’ve stamped out all the bugs I can find. I am working on some new features but I am not sure when they will be ready. Also, I am experimenting with different gametypes and the best way to properly implement them. One of the gametypes I am currently messing with is a DOW2/Battlefield style of point capture. Those of you who have been around since the dawn of time will remember that a long time ago I tried to implement such a feature to mixed success as a modoption. As I am not advocating the use of nothing but autohosts for hosting games, modoptions are not easy to change for newbies on an autohost, so I’m thinking that when this comes about, I will segment the game into another branch. This branch will rely on the regular version but just have point captures on by default.
I don’t know if any of you have been paying attention to my games with shard:
Shard is an AI made by AF (developer over at Darkstars) and has been around for some time. These games have been about testing various measures and in general, making sure that Shard performs correctly in Evolution RTS. I haven’t even been able to test the linux side of it yet, but I’m getting there. Shard puts up one hell of a fight, and is great for singleplayer games or even multiplayer games. I have been involved in many compstomp games (many of which the comp usually wasn’t the one getting stomped). One other interesting method you can use, is to have an FFA game with as many human and shard players as you like and put in a survival spawner. So not only are you having to fight one another, you are also having to fight the horde!
I do not know when 1.9 will be released. I would say within a week, hopefully.
Now, in another interesting turn of events, I will be hosting a public Google+ Hangout where any of you are welcome to join and ask/talk about anything Evolution RTS related. This can range from technical development questions, or “How do I?”, or “When is …”, etc. All is fair game. In order to see the invite easily, simply follow me on Google+, or you can click on “Add Ben to your circles” on the sidebar. Hopefully, Koshi will be able to be there as well, so he can help with any Lobby/SASI related questions as well as Evolution RTS on Linux and so on. I hope this will be a fun event and I’m looking forward to meeting you guys!
Hangout time will be at:
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 12:00:00 Noon (Pacific Standard Time) (UTC-7 hours)
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 19:00:00 (GMT)
I haven’t forgotten about the Tournament. It is still being planned, but I wanted to wait till the lobby system is a bit more newbie friendly.
