Progress report

I sent my latest build to Arpad last week, and he gave me a list of bugs and issues that needs to be fixed.  I've been working on those, and also fixing some other bugs that I discovered.  There's now 8 code issues, 1 art issue, and 2 enhancements left in the list (not counting the "Other" category).  As soon as those issues are resolved, and I've finished the planet list, I will update the Desura build.  Then you all can submit bugs that you discover at https://code.google.com/p/beyond-beyaan/issues/list.

One of the issues I worked on is that ETA wasn't being displayed.  So I took time to implement it, and here's a screenshot of it in action:

Let me explain each of the picture.  Top left is the star being out of range for the colony ship which does not have extended fuel tanks.  Top right shows a scout already en-route, with 3 turns left to arrive.  Bottom right shows you being able to change destination, but since it's already en-route to the first star, it will have to continue there, then it'll go directly to next destination.  Hence two ETAs being displayed.  However, since it won't stop at the first star (it will simply continue to next star without stopping there for a full turn), it won't explore the star.

This latter is very useful in cases when you have ships retreating, and you want them to reroute to another star when they're already en-route, this allows you to make orders without forgetting about the fleet.

Hyperspace communications will of course simply change the route to be direct to the new destination.

Space Scanners Implemented!

I realized that I totally forgot the space scanner part of the planets!  So I took time to implement them, and to fix up issues related to it (such as able to select invisible fleets, seeing other fleets not in range between turns, etc).  I also even added a scanner range visual indicator, by pressing "R" (similar to Fuel Range's "F").  I changed the fuel range to be green, instead of empire color, and radar to be red.

Here's a screenshot with me using Deep Space Scanner technology.  Note, fleet's radar is actually centered at the system they're in, otherwise they'd be centered on the fleet.

Announcing the AI Developer

For those who've been worried about the AI for Beyond Beyaan, worry no more!  I am now joined by a Dr. Arpad Kelemen, who specialize in AI.  Let me introduce him:

"I am the #2 designer and developer of reMaster of Magic, which is the latest open source attempt to revive the best turn based strategy game idea of all time – Master of Magic. Master of Orion 1 is #2 on my list. I am a computer science PhD who is an extreme Master of Orion 1 fan since it came out. I am also a funded academic researcher who leads developments of computer games that involves programmers, doctoral students, and faculty at an American university.  My Ph.D. was in AI theory and AI software development. I published many scientific papers and books on AI and taught AI courses at a university."

Right now, he is assisting me in testing my game and giving me feedback on bugs and things that needs improvement.  When the game reaches a stable state, with all the rules frozen and bugs fixed, then he will start development on AI.

Please welcome Dr. Arpad Kelemen!

Planet code ~95% done!

Yes, you read the title right, the planet's code is about 95% done!  The remaining 5% is for minor stuff like adding to list of notifications the player gets when starting his next turn, bug fixes, stargate which isn't implemented yet, planetary bonuses being applied, and number tweaking.  Now I'll finally go back to the Planets List screen and finish it.

The following has been implemented:

Factories, with robotic controls and refitting

Environment, with pollution cleanup, terraforming, atmospheric terraforming, soil and advanced soil enrichment, and population growth (yes, you can actually generate waste now, and reduce max population)

Missile bases and shields, including upgrading older bases (Yes, missile bases factor in your available technologies when determining how much it costs)

Display text for each of the field to correctly show what that field is working on ("Building Shield", "Atmospheric Terraforming", etc)

Matched the planet type generation to MoO 1 (such as higher chance of hostile planets at blue stars, etc)

Matched the planetary bonus generation from MoO 1 (even though their bonuses are not actually applied yet)

Matched the star type generation percentages from MoO 1 (Such as 25-30% chance of having red star, etc)

Fixed some crashes that I came across.

Slowly matching MoO 1's mechanisms

If you follow my commit history, you'll see that I'm working on under-the-hood for matching up Master of Orion 1's mechanisms.

It is a bit tedious work, nothing too exciting.  But I thought I'd let you know that work is still under way.  The planet list is mostly implemented, but required that I finish the planet mechanisms before I can finish the planet list.  So as soon as missile bases, waste, and a few other items are handled, then I'll finish the planet list and post a new screenshot.

There is one detail that I can't quite figure out.  The manual or the official strategy guide have no explanations on how waste affects population's growth.  Over at Realms Beyond, I learned that max waste is the planet's base size - 10 (terraforming does not count toward the limit, but atmospheric terraforming and soil enrichments does affect the limit).  But the actual population loss is still a mystery.  I did some number crunching, and the closest I could get to the game's results is the following:

private static float GetNewPop(float pop, float maxPop, float waste)
{
float newPop = pop - (pop * ((waste / maxPop) * 0.1f));
newPop = newPop + (pop * ((1 - (newPop / maxPop)) * 0.1f));
return newPop;
}

So if you happen to have the actual formula laying around, please share, thanks.