On Multiplayer and Dice

Hi all,

It has been a very productive (for me anyway) month. The basics of multiplayer are all but done (I am still working on the game over step) and the basic UI rework has been done. 

UI

Things that have changed in the UI:

• Adding dice has a much nicer selection interface
• The contents of an Army has a much nicer viewing interface
• Building build buttons are always there but out of the way which is nice (I need to add a delete building button though)
  • They also have cool tooltips
• Hex information is much more minimal than before
• The camera pans (albeit quickly) to the next player which is nice than the jerkiness before
• Territory border highlights encompass the entire territory and not individual cells (this is much nicer now)

Multiplayer

(note that mp will not be available this build sorry, partly because I need to make it better and partly because I need to set up a server for it)

• A rough first attempt at multiplayer works! A few limitations:
  • You only get a map update when your turn starts. This will need to be updated before release as seeing your opponent's moves live would be a better play experience
• Updates are checked every 5 seconds which I will increase after more testing
• The does not handle if the connection to the server is d/c. This needs to be fixed. Players would expect full reliability in their games and not have to close/reopen the game

What's Next

Dice rework

I did some research on similar games and as a result, I have decided to rework the dice. Right now they are just a count of each type (e.g. an army has 6 d6, 2 d3, etc) but in other games, people get attached to their units and like seeing them get experience. So I intend for each dice to be its own entity, with its own experience and health (dice currently get demoted to the type below on a loss, instead I'd want their health to go down). I'll also want skins for the dice (basic for now).

This results in some considerable work to do, and then I have to replicate it for the multiplayer server. I expect it to take me most of the month (I can only do an hour a day).

Bonus: Finish multiplayer v0.1

If I have time I'd like to show off multiplayer so I would like it to work quite well and be fairly resilient to network interruptions. I would also like to have a server setup so the build can actually be played.

Bonus: Review art

If I have time I would like to show the Godot community how I'm handling art and sprites (engine-wise) and ask for their input on better ways to do it. This would make me well placed to prepare for better placeholder art.