The Chosen

I’ve had a lot going on lately and haven’t had much time to sit down and document my adventures, let alone sit down and actually write code for the RTS. Hopefully this will catch you up on what I have been working on for the past 2+ months. Progress on the RTS had slowed down mainly because I still had some legitimate doubts about the server-side code I was going to have to write to handle the enormous amount of data. I was sure that I could get something working, but instead of storing data in cryptic text files like I have done before, I wanted to try something entirely new. I had been looking into Java database clients (JDBCs) for a while but never had the real need to get one working, so this seemed like the perfect time to push my limits once again. In addition, the actual performance of my previous servers was severely limited because of the code structure I used, and it needs to be drastically re-designed.

Knowing that a major overhaul was gonna be necessary on my server’s design, I figured that now would be as good a time as any to design a new server structure that incorporated a complete database back end, as well as data protection and more sophisticated client management interface. Not entirely sure what would be necessary in the RTS database, I made the tough decision to put the RTS engine on hold while I dedicated my designing, coding and testing a completely new sever structure.

I started by once again trying to get a JDBC client to run, this time with the HSQLDB package. My past attempts at getting the JDBC working all failed miserably so this time I was absolutely determined to get it working. I sat down expecting a big fight to get it up and running and much to my surprise, this time it just worked. With very little fight at all I got a small test app setup and running just like I would like. After a very brief celebration, I began writing a new server.

While it would be nice to just be happy about the new server and start implementing it into the RTS, I would rather see the design tested in some working environment to ensure that this structure will, in fact, do what I need it to do. I eventually decided that I would use pieces of my old chess program to create a new stratego program to use the new server. The concept is an entire tabbed interface where users login, chat in the lobby, join as many games as they want, and play stratego with other players over the internet, with all the traffic running through my server of course. Most of the networking and database code is complete and working but there is still a lot that need to be fixed and/or improved in the client side code. As of right now, it is entirely playable but still has a few code bugs that need to get worked out, and some design issues that need to get fully implemented before I release it beta group. More news will be posted on FreshProgramming.com.

Despite numerous distractions, I final got my my Chat server up and running. Spending all that time one networking side of the code has really improved my confidence in the multilayer side of this project. As part of the process of getting my first server up, I also have all configuration done on my home network, meaning that the next server application I write will be a much simpler process. Also, because I picked a program that I use on a regular basis, I am able to work out all of the design problems in a less stressful environment, and will have an excellent template to build from when I start on my RTS server. In addition to my progress on the server development, I have also made some decent progress on the GUI. I believe I have the entire layout handler complete and have a complete default GUI setup, functional, and ready to go.

Whenever I start a project like this, I also try and identify all of the possible problems, and troublesome issues first. Long before I start writing any code that will end up in the final game, during the first design meetings, I isolate each issue, either mentally or in actual test code environments, and make sure that the design concept is possible, and within grasp. This project was no exception, and I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing.

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I knew that clickable units would brighten the spirits of my anxious audience, so I made that my next goal. However, as a programmer, I knew that implementing the unit selection system could be much easier if I had a visual representation of which unit(s) were selected. To represent this status I would need a graphic user interface (GUI), which meant that before I could add units, I needed to design and implement a GUI. The actual GUI layout was one of the many details that me and my designer argues over for quite some time. To settle this debate I decided that I would write the GUI using a my scripting engine, which would allow any user to customize the GUI any way that the user would see fit, the better way of course would then just be the default version. During initial talks, this process sounded pretty strait forward, and it it seemed like just a matter of time before it was done. Once I started work on this feature, I soon ran into several issues. (more…)

After completing the scroll engine, and implementing a working pause system, I found myself at a decent stopping point to take a break and collect my thoughts. However, I found that I was very pleased with the progress so far, and after a brief break, I jumped back in by working up a list of tasks, that still need to be done. I knew that there was still a lot to do, but apparently it may still be a while before official version 1 is released. I knew that eventually I would have to to do some serious optimizations to the graphics engine, but decided to put that off for a while longer to see how long I could live with the simple version. The actual task list proved to be more that even I remembered. (more…)

Well, the official first day of conception and collaboration was November 9th. Many ideas were introduced and debated until the first day of coding which began on December 4th. Coding started and moved slowly until a basic version of the graphics engine was proven reliable. The graphics engine was slightly upgraded and tested while progress was also made on the scroll engine. Before long a working demo with simple tiles and a scrolling interface was released on December 8th. Next, we decided on the title: “The Chosen”. We then set up this small site to showcase those and future results. This site/blog was launched on December 22, 2007.