I won!

Damn it! I missed the date by 22 minutes before posting D:

I must be smarter than i give myself credit for now that i think of it, considering my skill in strategy games once i get the hang of them. In the past i remember playing some of command and conquer generals, well i was like 14 or 15. My father played it a lot too, he was a genius at it, he realized the perfect turtling strategy of using laser towers as defense, it could counter any foe (except for super weapons). Then after setting up defenses he'd rush super weapons. I did the same thing too, but faster than him, i learned by seeing him do it, i did it in my own way, and i beat him at his own game with his own strategy, because i was better at it. Later on i tried playing the game only to find that i could do it twice as fast now after playing other strategy games and becoming better at micro management and expanding my base size.

I was one of the very best players in Supreme Commander 2 (with No Rush on that is). I literally stopped playing the game because i won 98% of the time (and that's not an exaggeration, this was with more than 400 hours spent on the game)

I think i only met 2 or 3 players that could actually defeat me, but i didn't get this good out of the blue. Someone taught me how to start, it was simple really, the one with the best resources usually wins. So he had thought up a system for the ultimate resource system, and a strong base (not the strongest, but an unusual one since it takes a lot of resources to build)

After completely annihilating me in a match (<-it was literally funny how he did it) i added him to my friend list and asked him to show me how he did it, he took me for a 20 minute practice match and showed me how to start, which is basic (something everyone knows in supcom 1 and Planetary annihilation) the simplest deal really, just start by building mass a few energy buildings, build a factory to spam workers and then spam energy in the little zone you have to build in a circle around your base. Once you have enough build mass fabricators and then start building whatever you want (usually defenses + factories and units) this can be done in the 20 minute window and by the end have massive amounts of resources and a fully built turtle base with an army of units in supreme commander 2, or at least it was possible by the time i improved and perfected his methods. Another trick is building the base in a circle, that is having a layer of defenses literally around the entire base and inside of it, normal people would think that the guns around the base are built to ward off direct enemy attacks and thus try to hit us with air or rushing into the center of our base.

But the trick is that the defenses are MOST effective if you're in the center, if you want to defeat that base you need to eat through the defenses like pacman going around the entire base before you go into the center. The only thing that could ever defeat us was artillery and usually by the time anyone had that built we would have enough force to wreck their base. Whenever we played against each other 1v1, we had a gentlemens agreement to not use artillery at all. I always won him after he taught me how to start. But it was never easy (we were very evenly matched, but i was stronger in offense than he ever was, in other words i adapted better than he did)

We were so strong, and so sick of losing we started going 2v3, 1v2 or even sometimes 1v3.

In fact i went to a map designed for 1v3, but not designed for no rush (this meant that the player that was alone had 0% advantage over the other 3 players and i was highly disadvantaged because of the small build space) and won.

It was very rare that our opponents even had the strength to resist our "total annihilation" (no pun intended)

Also, for a funny coincidence i was once playing against a friend which i had tried to teach what me and my buddy knew, (and he wasn't the only one either, but none of the people i or my friend taught how to do this were able to catch on, i guess they just didn't realize how it worked or something, we always beat them with ease even if they knew how we did it.) and he watched the replay to see how exactly i had annihilated him so easily, and he noticed something funny. The shape of my base was that of a skull. Too bad i don't have the screenshot anymore, i didn't do that intentionally, but it really did look like a skull, it looked exactly like a skull if seen from a zoomed out view. I could recreate it maybe just to show it off.

We got Planetary Annihilation the other day, we've played a few matches 1v1 against each other without him teaching me anything, but he was still rather new to the game, he just had a good hang of it already. Eventually we went for team games, and i learned how to start (just like in Supreme Commander 2, except theres no "no rush" timer in this game) and then we went for a 1v1 against each other, i built a few bombers and hit his base with them, and then i saw his ACU (the command unit, if that unit is destroyed the owner of said unit will lose the game) just walking around all alone and couldn't resist slaying it (i was losing anyways)

He demanded a rematch (this was the first time i beat him without relying on pure luck in PA, i was almost proud if i hadn't used a dirty trick like that.)

So then, next game, i tried something new in my start and realized it didn't work out so well, i found out "Oh shit i'm at a disadvantage against that guy when it comes to resources, this means before long i will lose my base" so on the fly i thought up a plan to escape certain death "i'll run to another planet and start fresh there and do it right that time"

Just in the nick of time i managed to send my ACU to another planet, and build just the resource buildings i required to start over there before he wrecked all i had in my original base, then he asked "now where is your ACU so i can finish you off?" i replied "It is long gone!"

So now i had to race. Build something to defend myself and something to fight him with before he finds where i ran off to and kills me.

Teamspeak went silent as both of us were heavily focused on building stuff and micromanagement.

I queued up all the buildings i planned to build on this planet as fast as i could, and once done i realized i had workers left over on the original planet, and i thought of this genius idea to fight him while i was hiding. What could i lose? (a few workers i had no use for anymore is what)

So i built some artillery around his base (we had no gentlemans agreement about that in this game, or well, we did until we went interplanetary.)

So yes, i just built artillery in a circle around his base, and then once that circle was done i built another circle closer to him.

He had sent some workers to another planet and was building another base. I did not know where yet, but i realized since he hadn't fought back at my artillery that he must have. I also couldn't see his ACU anywhere anymore.

As soon as that was done i sent a worker to a small planet and built Delta-V Engines on it (that's planetary thrusters, to use the planet as a projectile and smash it into another)  These engines are so big that they can be seen from outer space, but somehow my friend never noticed them.

I saw a satellite on a distant planet and thought "he must be there" so i sent my own satellite to that planet to check and found to my horror that it was empty. "Where is he?! i must find him and hit him with this brick before it's too late and he does something of the same sort to me!"

After a good few minutes i saw an army of orbital fighters on a planet... A planet orbiting the planet that i had settled on, i thought "oh there he is, i'm fucked"

I sent a satellite to check the planet and certainly most of it was a base he had built, i was scared, i didn't find his ACU on it, but i just found the biggest chunk of base and smashed the planet with the thrusters on it into it. I looked at it smash into his planet, it left a huge crater and the shockwave was so powerful it wrecked everything else on the planet.

I thought "whew... he must be dead" but then to my horror, his acu was still alive, i thought "Oh fuck, he must have another base!" and now the silence finally broke, he said: "Fuck... you might defeat me" i realized that this might have been his only base apart from the one i had annihilated on our home planet. I asked "where is your ACU?" he replied "I actually lost it, i can select it but not focus on it, it must be in an interplanetary transport unit somewhere"

I knew i'd destroyed all his main bases, but i also knew that he's not an opponent to be taken lightly, he could rebuild and he could rebuild fast knowing him. All i had to give him was time and i thought "I'm not going to give him a moments rest from this war until i hunt down his ACU!"

I quickly decided to attach thrusters to another planet to be ready for the time when i'd finally find his ACU. I sent a worker to the nearest planet and as my transport got into orbit there it was... Flying around... All alone. His ACU was sitting in that transport all by itself and not a single other thing on the planet.

Adrenaline rush, i thought "wow, if i can kill that i've won! but i must do it before he finds it himself or he can escape" i decided to stay completely quiet, and i built an orbital fighter unit. I sent that one fighter to his planet and attacked... and as i was sure his unit was going down i said "Look what i found!" and not a moment later his transport crashed into the ground destroying his ACU earning my first real victory in the game. I felt like i'd acheived something.

Against most odds i had won, i had a bad start against one of the strongest strategy players i have ever fought in any game, i was sure to lose... But i managed to turn that all around by running and starting again on another planet, which again was against all odds for me to succeed, for it to work i had to be certain he would not find me. He didn't, he didn't even know i was right next to his alternative main base the entire time (neither did i know his alternative main base was right next to me the entire time either)

A game i'll never forget. I am so proud.

Well, that's actually the chunk of my day,t it was time consuming to say the least, i spent like 7 hours in that game when i really should've been coding my levleing system (blush) but it was well worth it i think. This one match made the game worth the 40$ i bought it for.

I want nothing more but to play more of that game right now, but instead i decided to grab a monster, watch an anime episode of Fate/Zero while i allow it to kick in then get back to work. The episode paid off, i learned something. I may have a D&D like alignment system, but that doesn't cut it if you do something as cruel as mass murdering innocents, like in that episode. Children, hundreds of dead children by one or two guys. No matter if you change your mind and regret it and become a good person after doing something like that, it will always follow you. And if i want to allow the player to do something so evil (which i do) i must have a system for that.

You will never be forgiven for mass-murdering children, and the only thing you can do if you decided to become a good guy all of a sudden (like Kenshin in rurouni kenshin...) would be to conceal your identity in public.

And what better than the already planned Reputation system, similar to X3's "rank" system, i could have a global reputation, and titles earned.

For example, Dragonslayer for defeating a dragon by yourself and living to tell the tale. Also being a cruel slave trainer that relies on the bondage/rape mix and stockholm syndrome to train (or practically beat) slaves into submission. There should also be a title of gentle slave trainer, someone who trains slaves without violence relying on reward rather than punishment to make them accept their enslavement. (Slaves trained that way would be the only slaves that can actually become loyal beyond slavery and thus being upgraded to "servants", meaning they will be willing slaves, they will have 0% chance to attempt escape if they get an opportunity to do so if the slave trainer + owner will treat them nicely, the only alternative way to do that is level 6 (god level) magic which most players wont even play long enough to get their hands on, all level 6 spells will be a pain to get your hands on, each with a difficult quest. Only the most powerful npcs(usually bosses) and the gods themselves will have magic that strong to use against you. Thanks to this the gods can actually have a level of their own rather than just being tagged as "essential NPCs" that can't die like in the elder scrolls 4 & 5)


This "global reputation" system (which is mostly based on player's titles earned) will surely be hard to implement, especially since i'll need to write different dialogues based on various player titles. For example, certain NPCs like the fighters guild would most certainly not talk to you like they would any guild newcomer if you're reputed as a dragon slayer, if you'd want to join that powerful surely they'd promote you to a high rank upon joining right from the start.

I feel like this was the last missing piece of the puzzle i needed before i'd start coding in the alignment and reputation system with full confidence.

I also had a hunch today, i think i should plan out (that is design) most of the entire game series before i even finish the first game. From the first to the last. My hope is that i'll have enough success with the project to go all out, hire a team and make a fully 3D "unchained 2"

That is, remake unchained 2 with all the features i crammed into it in 3D but with a new storyline (i.e. new quest, different place in the timeline)

But anyways, i think my best hope if i want to hire people to work for free with me on my first game and be capable of making game 2 with donations is to fully design most of the series before i show it all off. That way they can see how truly awesome what i'm making is, meaning more talented people might jump at the chance to put their name on the project. Wishful thinking? yes. Best shot? i think so (unless i can get government funded somehow, and with our economy.... doubtful. I don't do loans. But with my own wallet and savings i might hire a lawyer for a month to help me set up the legal side of things before i start up commercial projects.)

Thinking about this i realized i could very well do a text-only version of the game in raw python for advertising material, similar to Fenoxo's Corruption of Champions... Why don't i do that?

Why the fuck not? :I
I've already written a huge chunk of the code i would need for it. :O it could make for a good firstie.
That was actually how i originally got the idea (Worst case scenario: I'll have to make a text only game if i don't get any artist to work with me)

It would also mean that once i'd finish the project i could open up the source for it to help fresh game devs start out.

Anyways, it's time to start working.

Planned Today(tonight):
Skill Modifiers
Create the Reputation & Alignment systems (They're stats but technically don't have modifiers)

Actually Done:
Skill/Specialization Modifiers
Alignment System
Reputation System
Racial Defaults code (No perks)
Testing & Finalizing the already written code
Refresh "ALL" function (Goes through all the code i've written again and updates stats, skills, attributes, level, etc..)

To Do:
Implement Item,Buffs & Perks systems
Finalize Hit & Crit Chance system (add code for the use of enemy levels as modifiers. This is easy but has to wait till i can test it)
Create several perks for testing
Test the whole system to prevent crashes and review if i can shorten code or optimize anywhere.
Creating test scenarios with the finished system with player to npc and item interactions.
Making it work in Ren'Py

I realized that while i want dungeons to be procedurally generated, which i just figured out i could do pretty easily actually, i do not want monsters to randomly pop out depending on player movement like most dungeon crawlers of this type would. I want them to be placed. I want them to respawn over (game) time after a dungeon is exited though, but yes like i said, i want it to be placed, i think i can do this in a visual manner actually, i know Magical Diary did it with the same resources as i've got. Yes, i can do this! Note, note.

Luckily doing the skill modifiers didn't require much testing since basically every skill uses almost the exact same formula for the modifier (i.e. Attribute[?] / 2)  there are 2 exceptions where i need to use stats as modifiers and a few where i need to use more than one attribute or two separate attributes for one skill (that is int "and" willpower, or int "or" willpower)

Unfortunately though writing the alignment system wasn't easy, and writing the reputation system was hard.

Oh, i just thought of a great idea to lure in artists to work with me when i'm ready for them.

I'll offer them a percentage of the total earnings for the first game made, If i want to earn enough to start and run a company i couldn't possibly give 50% to artists, i also need sfx and soundtrack.

Lets see.
Soundtrack: 15%
Sfx: 10%
Environments: 10%
Characters & Sprites: 20%
UI: 5% (I'm thinking Environment Artist could possibly do this task)

That way 50% of earnings go to my resources, 50% to me for well.. all the other work (Writing, Design, Programming, Animating, Others).

Hopefully some people will bite and hopefully that 50% will be enough to Pay rent + Pay for developing the next game. I had thought of this, but didn't wanna resort to it since i need to earn enough to well.. Start and keep running a company + pay rent + pay for developing the next game. It'd be wishful thinking to think 50% would be enough to do that, but if i get through greenlight on steam i might have a shot.

Anyways, that's it for today. Sleep.