Game Development Status

I wrapped up the year this afternoon with a good session, just over 3 hours. Total for the month was 20 hours 34 minutes. Total time since 1 June is 161 hours and 48 minutes (give or take).

I am working on code to elaborate the AI's selected plan with location and direction information. In recent conversations Chris mentioned that he has an integrated build now with both the high level and low level AI in operation.

Tasks for this month include further integration of the two parts of the AI, tuning the AI, and fit & finish fixes and enhancements. We are going beta this month, dammit!

Other "News"

Back on Subway. My most recent run was a long run of 7 miles. I'm getting over a cold that has kept me from running the past week. Still on track for a "gate" run of 10+ miles distance before the half marathon in January, but it's getting close. Love life is on hold...too much to do now with the game, plus I intend to get below 250# before I become active again. (That darned golden rule thang.)

I've resume spinning up on Visual Studio .Net. I anticipate an involuntary separation event at work sometime in the next 3-12 months; there's been talk of outsourcing software development to a firm in the UK. Even though a recent presentation by the new head of global IT was reassuring, I'd rather be ready to move. So, time to get fit, update my professional wardrobe, update my skill set to .Net, and maintain my savings account balance.

Guess I have my list of new year's resolutions already. Cool. Kewl. Coo-elllll.

I saw Return of the King today. I came, I saw, I came again. Yeah, baby!

Running total for the week is 9 miles: 5 Monday and 4 Tuesday. The new 24 Hour Fitness on Bay Area Blvd. east of I-45 just opened. Cuts 20 minutes off the round trip. I have hopes to transition to morning runs.

Game Development Status

14 hours as of last night.

I implemented code to provide footprints for parallel lines and parallel columns. Did some nice refactoring to this code to make it common to both routines; I'll have to go back and apply that refactoring across the board soon.

Back to high level AI tuning tonight or the next night. I'm working on permitting a single command to "cover" two victory locations. I am also hammering out the details of integration with the low level AI, to include adding a mission to the assignment...currently the plans generated by the high level AI assign commands to victory locations without explicitly indicating whether the command should attack, defend, delay, screen, etc. Finally, I want to update the plan ranking code to take into account the scenario's victory conditions when sorting plans. Current ranking is only based on total victory location ownership at end of game.

Game Development Status

November topped out at 31 hours 52 minutes.

I have 9 hours 22 minutes so far in December.

Latest work included debugging an AV in the extended line code. I refactored the code, eliminated the AVs, then enhanced the UI -- now the code disables the extend line button if the unit is not able to enter extended line formation. Compare this with other formation buttons that allow the user to press the button, only to display an error message describing the reason(s) why that function is not allowed.

I am tuning the high level AI. I am working through modifications to allow a single command to cover more than one victory location at a time. Doing some heavy thinking on game play and strategy. Working with Chris to integrate the high level and low level AI functions.

Personal Life Status

Oh, gee...I have one? News to me. I've pretty much put things on hold until after the first of the year, due to the amount of free time the game is using. Ramping up my running miles. Ramping down my food intake, plus trying to eat a more balanced diet.

Of course, that's not to say that I would turn down an opportunity to date. I'm just not actively pursuing that now. I still have profiles out there on match.com and Yahoo dating, I still have entries in my favorites lists, and I still browse the listings (as infrequently as I can stand). I'm gonna make like that buzzard in the cartoon ("Patience, hell! ...") after the first of the year.