First really chilly day this side of the summer, and I'm sitting down in the code dungeon with a jumper on. Bummer. On the plus side though, I've got the email-based mission engine in and running and tested, along with some tweaks to the file save mechanism, and a few new models - 4 new ships and a new cargo crate model. A bit of variety in the enemy craft is a really nice addition, and each model has it's own handling characteristics. Lovely.
Anyway this is only a quick update tonight, I'm trying to fix my body clock so I'd better get off to bed soon. I've tidied up the enemy ship AI (thank the good lord for enumerators, they make logic tracing so much easier) and re-balanced the mission reward params so you don't get 500,000 a mission any more...mind you I saved a few games before I made that change, just for testing you understand ;0)
I've got some placeholder images for the "between systems" hyperspace transitions with handy hints and tips. Going to brief Charlotta tomorrow on these items, and give her some source images and text to work up in to pretty slides. Size in this instance doesn't matter because the slides are smart-scaled for the output resolution, so they'll look the same size for SDTV, HDTV and the various VGA modes the Xbox supports. Everything does that now, and I've run numerous tests with the many monitors, TVs and projectors lying about Mistry Towers. You can happily play the game for hours, jumping around between systems and switching between trade, combat and missions. Just what we wanted.
Irritatingly (for me), I'd forgotten all about awardments. These are like Achievements in AAA and LIVE! Arcade games, but don't reflect on the players Gamerscore or anything (due to the limitations on the XNA framework - we don't have access to those areas of the Xbox API). I'll add an engine tomorrow which awards "medals" for kills, missions, system visits, rank advances and so on, and you'll be able to see your achievements on the status and (soon-to-be-added) peer-to-peer scoreboard. The network code is solidifying in my mind as we speak and will be in and working for the weekend. Honest guv'nor!
Anyway as I said this is just a quick post, no images tonight. I'll post some of the new ships tomorrow when I take a break.
Pip pip!
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