In other news,
TetrisClone cancelled - sorry people! (cos I'm sure so many of you were looking forward to me going on about how good it was :P) All the graphical stuff was done and movement etc, so it wasnt a total loss. 2D graphics sh!t me though - just because theyre so finicky; "pixel this" "pixel that" la-di-da!!
I've started using the Irrlicht engine to make an RPG . . or a 3D RTS . . I havent decided yet. . maybe both. The 3D RTS will probably come first as it seems a lot simpler to me.
It will be heavily influenced by StarCraft (dont even talk to me about anything else, StarCraft was and still is "the sh!t" when it comes to RTS's.)
It will feature 3 races -
Humans - Obvious what they are. . . their infantry will be very lightly armed/armoured, lowtech sorta stuff - theyve only been exploring space for a couple years.
Robots - these were created by humans to colonise uninhabitable worlds and mine them etc etc, but their artificial intelligence was too good, leading to them turning on the humans and trying to achieve their goal "survive & multiply"
Do-Gooder Alien Types - I guess theyre similar to protoss, but theyre more like weedy sort of "typical" aliens, but not with big black eyes. They will have advanced technology of some sort, I'm not sure what yet. These guys come to save the day from the robots who threaten to take over the universe and punish the earthlings for creating the robots in the first place. . .
well something like that. . im not sure exactly.
I'll try and make it a little better out of the norm as far as resource management and base building etc, goes - I was reading a thread about such things in the game design forum (I think?) and had a few thoughts on that. .
Anyway I'm just at a point where I need to decide whether to use tilebased maps or just one custom made mesh for each map . . I dont really want to do all the wacky programming (tile edges and such) for a tilebased editor but my modelling skills are nonexistant so I may have to.
I really dont want to go getting other people to do anything because theyll most certainly try to take over my project and ruin everything ;) (call me paranoid...)
I think my ideas for the RPG have been blown way out of proportion. . . It started as a humble idea, but more and more new features kept building onto it, then it became MMO . . .so ill probably have to scrap the whole idea since its most likely infeasible!
On the topic of RPGs i picked up a magazine today and saw some pictures of the morrowind sequel. . . :O
Its about time i started saving up for a new computer... . FINALLY!!!! (currently on 750mhz Duron, 312mb SD ram, 64mb ddr GF4)
Anyway I'll shutup now.
If you have any ideas for my projects (or against) id be more than happy to hear them!
That said, working with Irrlicht is a smart idea and it should teach you a whole bunch of stuff. I'd say code up a small shooter or something and learn how to design a game system that lets you add in new features without rewriting everything. We're talking modular design here, it's a skill worth learning and if you pin it down now, you won't waste countless hours correcting 'bad' projects later down the line.
Good luck, fella.