Here in the States it’s almost Thanksgiving, a time you traditionally “give thanks” (bet you couldn’t figure that out from the holiday’s name) for the things in your life that you appreciate. Being a gamer I thought it would be good to give thanks for the things in gaming I appreciate. ‘Ere we go!

As a gamer I give thanks for…

…Nazism, Communism, terrorism, and the forces of Hell, without which we would have no one to fight in our games.

…polyhedral dice, without which our RPGs would all end up being GURPS.

…Charles S. Roberts, Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, James Ward, Redmond A. Simonsen, James Dunnigan, Ken St. Andre, all pioneers of gaming.

…Amarillo Design Bureau, for creating Federation Commander, so people who don’t have a fetish for advanced mathematics and read the tax code for pleasure can command the Enterprise.

…Havok physics, for finally making crates cool again.

…Half Life and Half Life 2, although maybe for Half Life 3 Valve could actually come up with an ending that doesn’t blow chunks.

…chicks in chainmail.

…Derek Smart, for providing us with years and years of grade-A comedy.

…Castles and Crusades, for making the game the most important part of the game again, as opposed to the rules.

…John Kovalic, for creating funny gaming comics that use *gasp* real art and jokes, as opposed to Photoshop and four-letter words.

…all the indie gaming sites, a place where indie games are on the forefront instead of the ghetto.

…Diet Pepsi and Skittles, for all those late night game sessions.

…the fact that you can have food delivered, thus saving you precious time at the game table.

…mail order.

…the ability to fight six years of the Second World War in six hours.

…4X games for allowing my pent-up God complex to finally have an escape.

…Seinfeld, for inspiring my next C&C/3.5 mash-up urban campaign. Wait until they encounter the Fusilia Figurene of Wonderous Power, or the +5 Bro. Giddy-up!

…and of course Shrapnel Games, for best damn indie strategy games you’ll find online.

-Scott

Recently on the turntable: Sepultura – Chaos AD, Megadeth – Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, Sinister – Diabolical Summonings

Major changes are being done to Galley Battles in order to fix some problems and get a better realism and playability to the game. Basically hexes will disappear, and ships will be able to move where they want and with the orientation desired for them, without having constraints due to hexes facing.

And these improvements are due to Newton! I want to explain why we have decided to trash the movement system on an hexed-based pattern and the benefits of this decision.

Basically we were aware from the beginning of the project of the potential lacks of the hexed system. It is fine for boardgames, because a “point per point” system is quite complicated to design without adding too much complexity. Moreover players already knows them and I think this is the main reason that computer games often uses hexes. BUT computers have the ability to do all the calculations needed for a “continuous” system without terrain limitations, and definitely this system is far more realistic than hexes, just because reality is not made by hexes.

Anyway, we decided for an hexed system because it seemed easier to design (to create battle formations, stablish attacks, etc.) and the map editor would be complicated on a system without hexes.

When we started programming the AI, we realized that the hexes were a problem, because some formations and movements were almost impossible (like the hedgehog formation called kyklos). Anyway the alternatives were more complicated so we decided to continue with them

But some days ago things changed radically. I found an article about a special technique called “Steering Behavior” that, following simple newtonian rules (forces, inertia, coordinates sytems), lets you implement formation movements and topics like pursuit of enemy, avoidance of threats, etc. on an elegant manner.
In case you are interested on the technical concept, the paper can be found here:
http://www.red3d.com/cwr/steer/
and was designed by Craig Reynolds (great job mr. Reynolds! ).

Talking with Ruben (the responsible for the artwork of the game) about the possibilities, he said that it was wonderful for him, because squared tiles are easier to design than hexed tiles (mainly due to the number of combinations of the tiles in the editor), so finally we have decided to trash the hexed system and go for a continuous movement system, with squared tiles for the terrain.

Moreover the order system is being changed. Past implementations just let you turn 1 facing per turn, and this is nor realistic neither fun. So we have decided for an order system where you specify the location and orientation of the ships you are moving. This is possible due to this major change on the movement system (we tried with hexes and it was quite impossible to do on a reasonable way, I assure you!).

So, as you can see, we are working hard to create a good game, and we are confident that these major changes will improve on a radical way the realism and, specially, the playability of the game.

We will post some shots of the game when these changes get finished, and I’m sure you will notice the improvements!