I suppose it's about time I update this thing.

My current project is an RTS set in cyberspace. Virus are attacking some program and you have to fight them. Sort of like Firewall, but set in a software environment.

Screenshot time so you know what the hell I'm talking about:



When the map starts out each player us given one colour tile( of their colour ) and the most basic unit. The rest of the map tiles are grey( unclaimed ). I've coloured them in the screenshot so you can see what a full map would look like.

The map format is a plain text file using the number 0 - 2. 0 is "nullified", 1 is just a plain tile and 2 is a solid tile. "Nullified" tiles can only be crossed by certain units, can't be built on they can also not be owned( "coloured" ). Solid tiles are like the null one, but can not be crossed by anything.

Heres the map from the screenshot:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 11 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

There are two resources, power and control. Power is gained simply by taking control of more memory. Ever few seconds the program looks at the area you control and adds it to the total power. Control is gained by building more buildings(duh). You can have more units than control, but then your units become all buggy.

I don't have much on units or buildings yet because I'm still trying to figure a style for them. I was thinking of vector based type drawings, but at 32x32 I might as well just draw it in paint.

The main part of the game though really isn't the building, it's managing the AI. Units will be fully automated. You can order them around if you want but they should be able to perform on their own. You can change their tactics though which will change the way they bahave. I don't want something like Warcraft where the units just stand around picking their butt.

Anyway with luck I'll have some sort of units in a few days. This stupid college strike is giving plenty of time to work on stuff, but at the same time I'm losing a lot of money. See since it takes so long for me to get to school I can only work in the summer( mmm 12 hour factory shifts ), so if they extend the semester I'm fucked. Hopefully the government will step in and we'll be back to school next week.