I've finally decided to put a bit more effort into the graphics of the game. It's never going to be anything 3D (and I don't want it to be - I don't like doing 3D stuff mainly because I don't feel like spending 100x as much time drawing), but I might as well at least push it into the 1980s :) It actually looks quite pleasant now at least in my opinion.
Game balance is a pain - I never realized just how much many of my older levels were relying on the player's vastly superior micromanagement ability, which is now inferior thanks to the version 10 AI upgrade. On some levels like rebellion 12 AI can handle almost everything better than the player! The main focus now is actually makng the player more powerful - future possibilities include nerfing backpedaling (what the AI soldiers do when you try to swarm a couple who are ahead of the rest of the group you're trying to get away from) some more, more hills and valleys for the player to exploit (or make the existing ones have more effect), and changing archer mechanics so there's more to placing them than just making sure they're in LOS (I'm thinking making archers hit all targets in a line near the target to some extent - this mirrors real-world archer functionality where you can aim directionwise just fine but targeting the right distance is a pain - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfilade_and_defilade ; this will require serious level rebalancing though).
Roadmap:
Short term: balancing foundation, aforementioned player buffs
Medium term (version 12): high scores
Long term (version 13 or more): a level editor
Enjoy!
Game balance is a pain - I never realized just how much many of my older levels were relying on the player's vastly superior micromanagement ability, which is now inferior thanks to the version 10 AI upgrade. On some levels like rebellion 12 AI can handle almost everything better than the player! The main focus now is actually makng the player more powerful - future possibilities include nerfing backpedaling (what the AI soldiers do when you try to swarm a couple who are ahead of the rest of the group you're trying to get away from) some more, more hills and valleys for the player to exploit (or make the existing ones have more effect), and changing archer mechanics so there's more to placing them than just making sure they're in LOS (I'm thinking making archers hit all targets in a line near the target to some extent - this mirrors real-world archer functionality where you can aim directionwise just fine but targeting the right distance is a pain - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfilade_and_defilade ; this will require serious level rebalancing though).
Roadmap:
Short term: balancing foundation, aforementioned player buffs
Medium term (version 12): high scores
Long term (version 13 or more): a level editor
Enjoy!
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