Game Development Status 1/14/05

2004: December total 35 hours 50 minutes; yearly total 379 hours 13 minutes.

January '05 month to date around 12 hours.

Hi y'all. It's been a while since I updated this blog. I've been busy in the new year working on things at the office, and busy working on the game. Today I am taking a vacation day. I'll probably put in 3-4 hours on the game.

I completed a new version of the collision avoidance code last night. This code is much better than what was available previously. In tests on the Assault of VII Corps (unopposed test version), all units consistently moved towards Anklappen. I added extra code to the regroup plotting to allow artillery units to kedge properly; they had not been regrouping.

There are still problems with the regroup plotting. Right now I have the units move in a straight line towards the leader. When there are multiple regrouping units starting close to one another, they all tend to use similar paths, so they collide a lot. I need to spread out the regrouping units, perhaps using an artificial regroup phase line perpendicular to this line of advance, centered on the leader. I also need to reduce the leader's movement when a certain number of its units are out of command.

I am also working on other bugs and enhancements:

• The A* movement plotter is plotting units too far, exceeding the number of movement points available to units. This in turn causes unnecessary collisions when the units pull up short.
  
• There is a problem with stacking restrictions. As far as I can tell, both the AI and the game exec are ignoring them!
  
• Infantry is firing to the rear.
  
• Reinforcements moves are not fully implemented. Right now I am moving reinforcing units onto the board directly towards their objective for one turn.
• Road movement is not used by the AI. I need to implement a heuristic estimate function for road-following paths for use with A*. This will be used by the reinforcement moves.
• Cavalry declare charges in one turn and appear to execute them in another. Sometimes charges are never executed at all.
  
• Cavalry and infantry sometimes stack together.
  

Vive l'E.