PLEASE VOTE! NEW BATTLETECH CHESS GAME

[Skyfaller]

Just thought I'd drop in a few ideas. Do with them as you please.

• Stars of battle armor might make good pawns
• For chess, maybe of few good sprites would suffice
• You can contact Whammy on mektek.net for Mech geometry
• You can contact Solthan on mech2.org or mech3.org for Mech geometry

[Keebler]

Just thought I'd drop in a few ideas. Do with them as you please.

• Stars of battle armor might make good pawns
• For chess, maybe of few good sprites would suffice
• You can contact Whammy on mektek.net for Mech geometry
• You can contact Solthan on mech2.org or mech3.org for Mech geometry

I'm currently working with Hana Yuriko (Liz) on the models. So far she's made all the one's we're currently working on animating. Most were made during our involvement with the MPBT:3025/IS3028 Remake we were doing.

We have an Elemental already made in the event we want to add in additional features. Still need to make a BattleSuit.

Also, I've been considering doing Sprites off and on. Would save on some of the rendering requirements of the PowerVR GPU in the iPhone/iPad. However, we already have most of the IS Mechs Made/textured. Granted, I can make 2D Sprite Animations from 3D Model Animations, but I did want to see how well we could make a true 3D game using the limited environment of the iPhone. Currently experimenting with a few ideas. Zoomed in Death Scenes, full screen LOD with zoom capability and Occulsion Culling, and a few other things. Been using the Unity 3D Engine for most of my tests, and it's VERY Awesome. But, it's not GPL or Opensource and costs a pretty penny for a commercial license. Also looking at Oolong, and SIO2 because of their GPL nature. Worse case scenario. I can always release my source code under GPL/LGPL, and if people want to change to a different engine, they can modify to their hearts content. Then there's the whole nature of OpenGL ES and such...

This just kinda exploded in interest with everyone over the last few weeks. It's been in my head for awhile though. Haven't given it much more thought before now.

As far as Atlas and Dire Wolf. I was mainly just trying to emphasis the "Role" of the King Piece, both in Chess, and in the Feudalism nature of "Kings". There are so many ways to look at the concepts and proper applications. But really, the main point in doing chess, isn't the power of the pieces, (entirely), but more just the goal of getting a Mech Game into the Mainstream audience, in a format EVERYONE can play. Besides, from what I can tell, the most popular mech in the game, or at least most recognizable, is the Timberwolf. And if you make it the King or similarly other less played piece, it won't get very much action. Making it the Queen ensures everyone will get their chance to play with the Timberwolf the most. And really, DAMN THE RESEENS/UNSEENS, the Marauder is without a doubt one of the best/coolest mechs, but we can't use it. I'll stick by the verdict of the votes, but I gotta say, not a big fan of the Awesome, in any form. But it's got a good load-out, and isn't the slowest behemoth. If this were a Feudalistic System and I the King, I would banish the Awesome.

[Skyfaller]

Ideally, players would choose between more than the Clan and IS factions. The factions have quite different Mechs available. For example, Clan Ghost Bear would have Grizzly and Kodiak, Smoke Jaguar would have Dire Wolf, Clan Wolf would have Timber Wolf, and so on.

Looks like SDL has been ported to the IPhone. It allows programming both 2D and 3D applications in a portable manner.

I like to keep work units small, so I would start development with the basic game logic, AI and perhaps even text mode display, adding rendered sprites and 3D animations after that, but it's your project of course. Is the game intended to be player versus player or player against AI?

[Keebler]

Ideally, players would choose between more than the Clan and IS factions. The factions have quite different Mechs available. For example, Clan Ghost Bear would have Grizzly and Kodiak, Smoke Jaguar would have Dire Wolf, Clan Wolf would have Timber Wolf, and so on.

Looks like SDL has been ported to the IPhone. It allows programming both 2D and 3D applications in a portable manner.

I like to keep work units small, so I would start development with the basic game logic, AI and perhaps even text mode display, adding rendered sprites and 3D animations after that, but it's your project of course. Is the game intended to be player versus player or player against AI?

SDL has been ported to the iPhone. Right now I'm working on the matrix for the chess pieces. The game is intended to be PvP, but I'm modifying the gnuchess AI as the AI option in the game. Right now that is my primary focus. In terms of my actual capabilities. I'm not a very good modeler, or graphics design artist, or programmer really. I'm more of an embedded hardware operations person. (8bit MCUs and the like), but I can program somewhat, and have been playing with the iPhone/iOS API's for over a year. So I have a fundamental understanding of the processes which allows me to get by. I'm usually the Project Manager on projects like this. No one else on the project knows how to program, so they're working on the eyecandy bits and pieces while I take my sweet time and get this stuff working on the iPad Platform.

After the initial launch with the core pieces decided. I would like to provide updates to allow players to select their mechs for either side. And perhaps include a random-dice role feature to allow the players to roll for their side during the match. (Or, allow full freedom and let each player choose their side.) The possibilities are limitless. But first things first, get something playable out there for people to enjoy. The rest is just extra fluff.

[Archon]

@LordNova2 - Lookin at my Crusader Clans sourcebook, and I think I see the pic you're talking about (pg.22, Blood Spirit section). I really have no clue what that could be illustrating. But it IS directly over the text about Kerensky's death. Curious.

As for the new stuff, I agree. I really don't much care for (I guess you could call it) retrocanon. Leave my history alone!

[LordNova2]

I forgot to post the image of the art, I used it in my clan's website for the Zelbrigen rules page.

I also got some time to sit down and read the fluff on the Atlas II, it is not too bad of a fluff-job, however saying that both Aleksandr and Nicholas piloted one along with the fact that Nicholas died in the cockpit of one after Operation Klondike (which would hint to me that several of these bad boys were used in Operation Klondike) just dose not seem to fit in so well, it throws a monkey-wrench into the whole thing and changes too much that has already been written. Like you would think with such a grand mech design the clans should have made it to an 'Atlass II IIC' OmniMech version, at minimal to pay homage to the prestige of this mech's history of the Star League, The Great Father, and The Founder.
However this was all due to the fact that this fluff was only introduced in the TRO:3075, I have not read any of the Dark Ages novels so as far as I know this TRO is the only published cannon CBT source that makes referance to such history of the Atlas II, I have yet to really sit down and read over the Jihad erra sourcebooks, but I would assume that they would mostly mention the current usage of this design.


But before we all get to side-tracked and off topic, so far what I have been reading in all the posts this BattleTech Chess Game project sounds neat and interesting. I am looking forward to seeing the final release.
So is the actual game going to be 2D sprites of 3D images, or in full 3D?

[Keebler]

But before we all get to side-tracked and off topic, so far what I have been reading in all the posts this BattleTech Chess Game project sounds neat and interesting. I am looking forward to seeing the final release.
So is the actual game going to be 2D sprites of 3D images, or in full 3D?

As of right now, it's in Full 3D. Preliminary testing is being done with the Unity 3D Engine. But I've been able to get some work done with Torque as well. The Torque iPhone port though, is broken and until they finish patching some stuff, won't be usable without much modification. I've got SOI2 downloaded and installed, but haven't taken the time to play with it yet. Unity has the easiest to import and build environment for the iPhone. So it's what I played with first. IF we do Sprites, they will be 2D Sprites taken from the 3D Models. And really, the more I read up on it, would be the fastest method. And pretty easy to implement in OpenGL ES. Again, just testing as much options as possible.

[Skyfaller]

If you're going for a 3D engine, you could use the mechs from MW2 and MW3, which are extracted by MechVM. You wouldn't be able to distribute them, of course. MechVM extracts the files in .OBJ format. I'd welcome a chess plugin for MechVM, but I'm not sure if that's what you want to do with it. Does GNU chess have networking support?

[Keebler]

Due to terms of usage, property rights, and potential liability. We can not/will not use any model from any preexisting game. Not to mention, we already have most of the mechs completed.

GNUChess does have Multiplayer/Network support via the IFCS (International Free Chess Society), using Xboard/eBoard. There are also several other options that are provided by the game engine's themselves. That is, of course, if I write it from scratch. Which was the original goal. Just using the GNUChess rules/moves matrix to determine valid movements on the board. If we go with the Unity Engine, or Torque we can make it platform independent without much issue. If we use Oolong, or SIO2, that might pose a problem for cross compilation. SDL and Qt have some nifty stuff, but their frameworks within OS X is a real PITA. I am kinda hoping to find a more user friendly solution. We could include a chess plugin for MechVM too. And even adapt the MegaMek system to our game engine, if you wanted to consider that as well....

Again, the first platform we're aiming for is the iPhone/iPad, then Android, then PC. SmartPhones users are more prone to casual gaming, and provide the quickest means of exposure to the most amount of people who try things on shear curiosity.

As a side note: We lost our Animator, so, other than me, we could really use someone to help out in that department. I have been using Blender for all my modeling and animation needs. It's free, robust, and has a HUGE user base. If you're interested and have experience. Please, shoot me an email or PM.

Thanks,
Christopher

[Keebler]

A small update:

We lost an Animator due to a conflicting schedule. I've started a new contracting job that's been sapping away a lot of time. BUT, all is not lost. We have 9 models completed, 2 animated with simple animations. And a working Alpha. I'll upload some Screenshots/video when I can get more than a couple minutes reprieve. Until then, I've gotta get back to work.