Steel Fury Dynamic Mission Generator...

[Voyd]

Hey all...looks like there is more activity here than at the Lighthouse forums. Anyway, I'm developing a dynamic mission generator for Steel Fury w/ the Steel Panzer mod.

Basically, ALL units are available for placement and all of them are able to be randomly selected by faction and type. I have broken the factions into groups and divisions (multiple divisions per each group). The map and starting zones are static atm, but I am working on a simple zone generation function that will allow for multiple groups to be placed in random locations (within a reasonable distance from each other), and then will look into dynamic map generation.

I just got finished implementing a basic AI script generation function, so I was able to have some interesting skirmishes this evening. If anyone is interested, I'd love to have some input in the development, and maybe some testers in the next week or so. My current goal for the week is to have 2 mission types: Assault and Defend. Right now, I have been working on the assault portion, and it is coming along nicely. Essentially, this game has the most powerful scripting engine that I have seen in any game, so the possibilities of mission generation are almost limitless.

Best,

Voyd

[Skybird]

Okay guys, breath some life into SF - the man says he needs testers, so sign in!

Sorry Voyd, I am not playing SF myself, else I would be the first to join. Good luck with that mod. A generator like that always is welcomed for any game.

[Onkel Neal]

Voyd, I've posted this over on Tanksim.com. Is this mission generator a stand alone app or will it be available as an ingame menu item?

[Sledgehammer427]

hi unkle neal!

when i get my copy working, Ill sign up!

expect a pm in a week, or two

[Voyd]

Neal,

This is a standalone app (written in VB.Net (.Net 3.5)). I just tab back and fourth between the game and the generator. I've been working on the GUI here at work (one of the perks of being a programmer ), but will crawl back under the hood after I get home.

Cheers,

Voyd

P.S. Thanks for posting it!!

P.S.S. Glad to have you aboard, Sledgehammer.

[mrfritz44]

Count me in! I'm drunk right now, so forgive me if I'm short. I make a living implementing software and wrote business software once.

Let me know what service I can be.

Fritz

AKA: Admiral Glascock

[Voyd]

Great to hear, Admiral! I hope have the first test release done by Saturday. At that time I should have some basic documentation and a list of all of the functions that are implemented up to that point. I am greatly looking forward to the input from those who want to give it a go, because I'm sure you all will have some great ideas that I haven't even thought about.

Voyd

[mrfritz44]

Sounds like a plan. My e-mail is bebe@ptd.net and may be faster. I did some M1TP2 mission generating back in the day so it'll be interesting to compare the two engines.

[Voyd]

Just a quick update...dynamic division sizes have been implemented this evening as well as dynamic zone assignment (dynamic group generation is going to be finished within the hour). I'm also working on adding tactical symbols in order to give the player an idea of where the enemy is located. At the moment, there is a global attack script assigned to the player's group that will "auto-pilot" them to the enemy's position, but I want to change this up. I was thinking that it would be neat to add a randomness to the reliability of the tactical information in order to mimic false or dated information (allow the user to assign the amount of error), but this will be something to add in the future.

Back to the code ,

Voyd

P.S: mrfritz, what type of scripting did M1TP2 use? I've never played it, so I'm just a little curious...thx.

[mrfritz44]

It was just a text based mission editor. All references to positions, speed, armor, and maps were text.

Not really computer coding, just a computer code.

[Voyd]

Hey All,

Just a quick update on progress. I've been busy getting all of the features implemented that I had originally set out to do w/ this first release. I have just a couple of more things to do and everything should be in place. I'll probably take a week or so off after that because I have another project in the works as well.

I can report that I've had some very intense battles so far, and that I never have had the same experience twice (which is what I wanted the first time I played SF). Version 0.1 should be ready either tonight or tomorrow.

Best,

Voyd

[Hitman]

That sounds encouraging

How many units can you currently script in a mission? I have seen in the reviews that the game doesn't seem to be able to handle many units

[Voyd]

I'm not certain what the maximum unit # is, but I did generate one mission with 8 groups (4 per each factions), large div size (6-10 divs), and large platoon occurance (50-75% occurance) and it did load, but was verrrry laggy on my outdated system (2.3Ghz single core, 3Gb RAM, ATI X1650 512Mb).

I suppose others can max out the generator settings and post their results. Right now, I have the group size limited to a max of 4, but I can increase by changing one line of code...

I'll be sending out version 0.07 starting tonight to anyone who PMs me...0.1 will be out as soon as I can squash a couple of pesky bugs that have popped up in the last couple of days.

Voyd

[Voyd]

Well...2 weeks and only one tester. I will be waiting for his input on things before I continue development. At the moment it's generating some intense gameplay, so I'll be keeping the basic engine as it is for the most part. Here are a couple of features that I want to finish adding, but I've been distracted with Steel Beasts Pro PE for the past week or so.

If anyone else is interested, just PM me...

Best,

Voyd

Hi!

I am interested in helping you test the mission generator. I will send you a PM as well.

I have the base Steel Fury game. Are there any patches (official or unofficial) that I should have in place?

Thanks,
Ray