OutpostHD v0.7.0 Released!

[leeor_net]

OutpostHD v0.7.0 is now officially ready for release!

This release sees the introduction of the population and morale models, GUI skinning and lots and lots of bug fixes. Goof has been extremely helpful in making this release possible so many thanks and shout outs!

Morale isn't completely finished and population requirements aren't yet implemented into structures. That's slated for the next update!

What's New

A LOT of new stuff in this update. Thanks to forumite Goof for assistance in developing all of the available structures!

• Site Map now shows Command Center's influence radius.
• Added the following structures:
  • Hot Laboratory
  • Park / Reservoir
  • Recreation Facility
  • Red Light District
  • Robot Command
  • Solar Power Receiver Array
  • Surface Police
  • University
  • UG Commercial
  • UG Factory
  • UG Laboratory
  • UG Police
  • Warehouse
• Added Robot Counts to the display.
• Added an almost perfect haunting track to the planet select state. Really sets the mood.
• Added a background and some visual flare to the planet select state. Again, really sets the mood.
• Added a PopulationPanel to the UI in the HUD.
• Added UI skinning. Pretty basic skin but adds a an air of refinement to the overall look and feel.
• Added a method to switch between levels and move around the map using the mouse.
• Added a check when placing robots, structures or tubes so that these objects aren't placed unless the tile being pointed at is actually visible.

What's Changed

• Windows (tile inspector, structure inspector, digger direction and factory production) are now drag-able.
• Windows will now arrange themselves according to their position in a 'stack'.
• Updated Digger placement logic to account for additional use cases that caused weird behavior.
• Updated Miner bot placement logic so that insertion mode isn't cleared if more miner's are available.
• Save/Load now handles Morale.
• Save/Load now handles Population.
• Reworked UI
  • Structures/Robots/Tubes menus are now displayed all at once.
  • The buttons made to toggle between the menus are removed.
  • The count of robots available/total for each type of robot has been added on screen above the structure menu in the lower left corner.
  • The other buttons were moved/rearranged to avoid space loss.
• Changed the Splash Screen jingle. Little less creepy, little more appropriate, still hardly perfect.
• Command Center now provides bare bones food storage.
• Digger direction dialog is repositioned when placing a digger bot on an underground level. This prevents the user from accidentally selection a direction they may not have intended.

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed a mistake in GameState that would forget to set a pointer to the players resource pool when the surface factory was placed.
• Fixed a mistake that causes a game crash when turning on the Debug information when the view is at the edges of the map.
• Fixed an issue in the Agricultural Dome that would cause food production and storage to continue past storage capacity.
• Fixed an issue in the savegame load code that neglected to update the current storage availability until a turn was completed.
• Fixed a mistake which caused the underground build menu to show surface structures if you attempted to go to a depth level below the max planetary depth.
• Fixed an oversight that caused the structure build menu to populate with structures when underground before placing a SEED Lander.

Gimme Gimme! Where do I get it?

Head over to the main thread and look for the 'Current Build' section.

[Hooman]

Always pleased to see progress. This one looks like a fairly big update.

[leeor_net]

It's massive.

Goof helped me add a bunch of new structures, came up with most of the UI improvements (I just did the skinning and draggable windows) and helped me identify and squash a lot of bugs I never thought to check for, mostly placement logic type deals (e.g., not checking for some cases but checking for others). For instance, the Digger bot can no longer be placed if there is an obstruction on the level beneath it. I think Outpost 1 had the buildings just get destroyed or set the robodigger to explode or something equally inane.

Anyway, so there's that and of course GUI skinning! It's not the most efficient but that's because of the way I built the skinning helper functions in the NAS2D Renderer... will need to fix that some day too.

Feels good to be a little more than half way done. Need to rethink some of the versions and what they mean to make sure I've got everything included in the 1.0 release.

[Hooman]

Version 0.99999999...
Still feels like something is missing. 

How do you really know you are over half way done? Because your arbitrary counting is over half way to 1.0?

Ahh, the problem with decimal. And moving goals. Mostly moving, fuzzy, not entirely defined goals. And 1.0 having some magically defined significance.

Congratulations on reaching the 0.7-way mark. 

[leeor_net]

How do you really know you are over half way done? Because your arbitrary counting is over half way to 1.0?

It's sort of arbitrary and sort of a road map.

I say a little more than half way vs. 70% finished. I'm using specific versions as milestones for key features. By 1.0 the intent is that all core features have been implemented and hopefully polished. That stated, the sub-versions (e.g, 0.7.5) implement additional features and round out the core features.

Version 0.99999999...
Still feels like something is missing. 

I have a feeling it's going to feel like this a lot. That's part of the reason I'm laying out a roadmap with specific goals to meet.

Ahh, the problem with decimal. And moving goals. Mostly moving, fuzzy, not entirely defined goals.

Yeah yeah yeah.

I still feel accomplished.

[Hooman]

Don't mind me. I was just being subversive.

Must have been all that talk about Git, and ... Subversion? 

Glad to hear you have a road map. That's actually quite good to hear.

[leeor_net]

Don't mind me. I was just being subversive.

Must have been all that talk about Git, and ... Subversion? 

You are terrible.

As for the roadmap:

http://redmine.outpostuniverse.org/projects/outposthd/roadmap

Lays it out here and the planned core features. Not all of the tasks are set up, I do that as I go along... it's shockingly difficult to determine exactly what needs to be done to complete various features, sometimes I think of tasks as I'm already in the process of implementing a new feature.

[Hooman]

I'm amused that you have tasks numbering over 120, with some in the 90s crossed off, yet there remains:

Task #4: Implement A* Pathing

That sounds about right.

Mostly though, I'm impressed that you have so many tasks planned out and grouped into milestones.

[leeor_net]

I'm amused that you have tasks numbering over 120, with some in the 90s crossed off, yet there remains:

Task #4: Implement A* Pathing

That sounds about right.

I knew very early on that I'd be using some form of A* pathing and will likely take advantage of MicroPather by grinning lizzard (same guy who does TinyXML and a few other very very useful libraries). A lot of the other stuff happens as I get through the code and as I think about how and what I need to implement to get certain tasks/functions/features working.

Mostly though, I'm impressed that you have so many tasks planned out and grouped into milestones.

Thank you! It's taken years to learn to do this and years more to actually move forward and complete each task.