This Idea I’ve had on my mind for some years now and now I think it’s time to get real with it. But then again, I’d like to hear the opinion of the people here and, the important part, ask some questions concerning realisation befor I do a headstart into an unfinished job.
( I’ve started some object model (software) design work and some basic mesh stuff for units.)
This is the reworked proposal of m9, to give an impression of what I’m talking about. Comments welcome:
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Stand on Molinari Nine
Proposal
Stand on Molinari Nine (m9) is the concept of a roundbased
strategy/tactics game programmed entirely in Blender/Python for an
optimum in ease of realisation, quality, use, installation and
platform independence.
One of the core goals for the m9 project is to keep visual design and
programming more or less head to head throughout developement and the
projects goal in clear sight throughout progress. This is achieved by
preparing a variety of artwork and general visual design rules, gui
concepts, stories (as in OOAD) and use cases and by basically
finishing and freezing the games concept and a detailed object model
before actual programming starts.
Game Concept
An overseeable amount of players (aprox. 2-8, real, computer or mixed)
engage in a roundbased match with individually assembled armies of
'round-about 15-30 single units bought with a certain amount of
recruting and equiping points. Action takes place on customizable
semi-multilevel hexfield maps with specially assigned setup areas.
Players take turns in moving, attacking or other actions until they
pass, use up all actionpoints of each unit or their time is up.
Ranking is achieved by a point system that evaluates smaller actions,
single unit fraggs, opponent extinctions, or, in variants/mods, the
achievement of certain goals (King of the Hill, Assault, Domination,
etc.).
Matches take place on a single hotseat client, via live network
connection or in offline mode (email gaming and/or other variants).
Sidenote:
Basically m9 is going to be a sophisticated implementation of various
war/tabletop game mechanisims and concepts. Roundbased but yet fast
paced and challenging. We hope that m9 will eventually claim the first
rank in roundbased computergaming. Of commercial and free projects
that is! (so much for the hype. 
)
Visually and Scenario wise m9 is set in a future world with the main
single unit being a sort of modern battle-power-armor mechanoid that
is highly customizable and thus can adopt to various tasks that the
player plans for it to take over during a match.
Features proposal (no specific order):
-Optional Teamplay
-Saveable army setups
-Easy multiple simultanious offline games
-Quality graphics, GUI design and animations
-Balanced amount of aprox. 40 different weapons and equipment parts.
(not to many and not to few)
-Aprox. 5 different basic unit types (from scout to juggernaut)
-Point based movement and action
-Terrain type, unit type and individual units condition affects
movement and operatability
-Saveable game recordings and protocols
-Game recording playback
-Serverside module for automatic organziation of offline matches,
scoring and community support (this is actually not a blender but a file-format thing…)
-Sophisticated Ladder/League Server mechanisim with absolute
amount-of-matches control for each participant
-Automatic server turn-takeover on expiration of turn-upload term
(that’s almost a toungebraker)
-Cryptographically strengthend cheat prevention for offline matches
(restricted/no mutiple reload & retry’s)
-Scriptable Computer opponents
-Scriptable Player standins
-Scriptable player assistants/unit auto behaviours
-Variable turntime (seconds per unit/seconds per player) or maxtime per
player (‘clockchess’ mode)
-Highly customizable modes
-Solid set of playtested mode recomendations
-One-click online player chat engagement (patent pending ;
)
-Line-of-sight long range combat
-Supporting and special units (forward observer, artillery, scouting
droids, movable mines, etc.)
-Teamwide-option for support features (i.e. teamwide forward observing)
-Human-overseable underlying mechanisim rules (easy to plan ahead)
-No or optional random ‘luck’ factor
-Modular rulesets/game mechanics
-Easy i18n
-Simple and easy in-game Internet community interface
-In-match current view/postion snapshot, mark and comment option for
quick-and-easy team strategy consulting
-Extra cool GPL software project option with advanced built-in bragging
rights ™
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And now for some extra questions:
1.)How much a fuss is it to merge certain blender files into on another?
Like if I say I have a Combat unit with animation and explosion logic, ready textured and all, would it be a big problem to get it over into the main file where the map logic and interface lies? Any expierience with that anyone?
The background of this is that m9 will require more that one thing being worked at at a time, and I have no expierience with collaborative work on a game engine project in blender and where the tarpits are.
2.)What’s with the network capabilities of blender? Would I use a preinstalled python enviroment for a network game or can that be realized in a standalone blender executable? This is a crucial part of the game, allthoug it need not be superbly elegant, since there’s no such thing as real-time collision-detection or sorts to be done.
Info on the different plattforms would be usefull too. Which way to go on Windows which on Linux? Different approaches? What’s to keep in mind for enviroments when developing cross-plattform with blender?
3.) How far does the ability go to merge blender with python? I mean can I access and control things like animation curves and such in the game engine and can I dynamically distribute, let’s say, camera tracks (dunno the exact word just now…) in a blender generated executable during runtime?
4.) How would version management work best on this? If python and visual stuff could stay seperated until the very end (see question 3.)) that would make things easyer, and CVS would win. But what if not?
5.) How much people and time would this take on a spare time basis? I judge something like a team of 5 blenderians with at least one good (chief) designer and one good (chief) programmer and 2 years time. Maybe an extra composer for the music, and one to manage website and documentation. Does that sound resonable? (Where do you get composers for a GPLs project???)
5.) Does this all make sense/sound interessting too you? Would you like a game like that/maybe join such a project one day?
Thanks for your replies in advance!
Kind regards
Check out the “append” function.
