Okay, a proper status update from me - no code, just info. Rob, please feel free to pop this on the web site.
After much thinking about (and talking about!) game / level structure, and objectives, I have made a solid start on this aspect today. I'm building this with a view to ultimately being able to "skin" the engine and create completely new games using the engine without changing any code. Okay, so in reality you're likely to want to tweak some code, but you get the idea!
The engine now looks at a "game" file, which defines basic stuff like the imagery for the main menu, the world map, and the first level. When you select "New Game", after selecting a character, you now select a level from the world map. I'm an appalling artist, so for now I'm just using a real world map, but this could be as zoomed in or out as you like. For example, a really complex base, a country, a world, a star map. Each "level" then has a file defining it, including the x,y on the map, a small image to display when selecting on the world map, and a descriptive text.
On selecting the appropriate level, you start on a "map" file of the same name as the "level". This is where I've got to, the remainder is to be coded over the next coupld of days. From each map, you could move to other maps through a new script command, but you stay within the one "level". This allows complex levels with buildings to enter, stairs to climb, etc.
Objectives apply to the level (not to an individual map!). Again this will allow for some neat level design, especially when you include plans to assign primary and secondary objectives at the start *and* partway through a level...
All of this is currently just using handcrafted files, eventually it should move into the editor. But it's always so much easier to just get it working in the game engine, rather than ending up having to rewrite everything over an over!
After much thinking about (and talking about!) game / level structure, and objectives, I have made a solid start on this aspect today. I'm building this with a view to ultimately being able to "skin" the engine and create completely new games using the engine without changing any code. Okay, so in reality you're likely to want to tweak some code, but you get the idea!
The engine now looks at a "game" file, which defines basic stuff like the imagery for the main menu, the world map, and the first level. When you select "New Game", after selecting a character, you now select a level from the world map. I'm an appalling artist, so for now I'm just using a real world map, but this could be as zoomed in or out as you like. For example, a really complex base, a country, a world, a star map. Each "level" then has a file defining it, including the x,y on the map, a small image to display when selecting on the world map, and a descriptive text.
On selecting the appropriate level, you start on a "map" file of the same name as the "level". This is where I've got to, the remainder is to be coded over the next coupld of days. From each map, you could move to other maps through a new script command, but you stay within the one "level". This allows complex levels with buildings to enter, stairs to climb, etc.
Objectives apply to the level (not to an individual map!). Again this will allow for some neat level design, especially when you include plans to assign primary and secondary objectives at the start *and* partway through a level...
All of this is currently just using handcrafted files, eventually it should move into the editor. But it's always so much easier to just get it working in the game engine, rather than ending up having to rewrite everything over an over!