X@Com - Xcom as roguelike

[michal]

Yeah, i love colors in your syntax highlighting

[Kyzrati]

Me too

I've spent years doing lots of custom syntax highlighting schemes for various editors, because I can't live without pretty colors telling me what everything is. How I used to code in a simple text editor back in the day beats me! (Actually, back then I had no idea what I was doing, so I guess it didn't matter =p)

And for further perusal, today someone else asked the *exact* same question as you on Bay 12. You can read here for a more in-depth discussion of "why not yaml," and other data/scripting ideas.

[SupSuper]

Me too

I've spent years doing lots of custom syntax highlighting schemes for various editors, because I can't live without pretty colors telling me what everything is. How I used to code in a simple text editor back in the day beats me! (Actually, back then I had no idea what I was doing, so I guess it didn't matter =p)

And for further perusal, today someone else asked the *exact* same question as you on Bay 12. You can read here for a more in-depth discussion of "why not yaml," and other data/scripting ideas.

Funny how Bay12 would bug you about the format when DF itself uses a custom format. Nice read though.

Personally I just direct all the "why not X" questions directly to Mr. Who Gives A Damn it keeps development flowing.

[Kyzrati]

Hehe, good point, he did mention later: "more like the DF raws actually, although that format is even stranger than yours "

Since this question will undoubtedly come up countless times in the future, I thought I'd write up the full answer in a convenient place I can point to if asked again ;p

I'll no doubt have to take a stance similar to your own about some aspects, at least once the project gains a bit more attention, otherwise I'll spend all my time answering these kinds of questions...

[michal]

I've spent years doing lots of custom syntax highlighting schemes for various editors, because I can't live without pretty colors telling me what everything is.

It's also visible in x@com - your color selection is really good

[Kyzrati]

Just uploaded something a little different: X-COM turned fantasy. Mostly a way to expand the engine and test out lots of crazy interactive possibilities. Later all this fun stuff can be applied to sci-fi/X-COM, both in the core game and through modding--no coding experience required!

On the sci-fi side, we already have a modder working on a WH40k version, too.

[pmprog]

I tried X@COM the other day, with the intentions of making a non-ascii graphic tileset. However, I couldn't get my tank off the skyranger ramp. I got frustrated and switched it off

[Kyzrati]

Ah yes, that gets a lot of people since the tutorial is in its infancy and the default mission starts you on level 2 (Skyranger). You have to switch to level 1 elevation if you want to move there. It'll be nicer once we've gotten beyond the simple UI, and have a tutorial intro to familiarize new players with how to use it.

A graphical tileset will be nice, though I haven't added official support for one yet, so anything done now would end up being extremely limited, merely replacing letters rather than assigning images to an arbitrary number of objects. At this stage that part of the game is not even as far along as Cogmind (for which tileset support took less than a day to add--for X@COM I have to wait until the full interface and data structure are in place ).

[pmprog]

You have to switch to level 1 elevation if you want to move there.

I'm pretty sure I tried that, though I can't be certain now. I'll try and pick it up again in the not too distant future

[Kyzrati]

Cool, it's mouse wheel, btw (or numpad +/-). It highlights the level you're currently viewing off to the right on the HUD, and if you're based on a level higher than 1, it's likely lots of areas will be shaded in blue because they're below your current elevation.

[Kyzrati]

New release, X@COM now comes with sound effects! One of these days I'll catch up to OXC

And pmprog, to avoid that issue with new players having trouble figuring out how to disembark, I recently made it so targeting the air for movement moves to the ground below that space--should have done that a while ago...

[pmprog]

Cheers. I'll check that out later