Space: Absolute War - Release Candidate 1

[SpreeTree]

Space: Absolute War
Epic Turn Based War Spanning a Whole Galaxy

Edit: Added zLib1.dll download link if needed

Release Information
Space: Absolute War is designed to be part of my demo CV that I will be using to re-enter the game industry sometime in the next year. With that in mind, I have posted the first release candidate that hopefully people can download and report any issues that might arise.

I have spent the last 14 hours excessivly bug hunting (and fixing) so I am pretty confidant about its stability, but I would like the experience of running the game on a variety of hardware.

For information on how to play the game, scroll down to the Game Instructions section.

Download: Space: Absolute War RC1 (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/absolutewar/Space.rc1b.zip?download) - Hosted by SourceForge.net
Download: zLib1.dll (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/absolutewar/zlib1.dll?download) - Download and place in the root directory if required

Any feedback, either on the quality of the game, or any percived issues, would be more than appreciated. Feel free to post your opinions on the forums to let me know.


Game Overview
Space: Absolute War is a turn based strategy game, based on the map sections of the Total War series, with various diplomatic and tactical elements from Sid Meier's Civilization.

The game allows the player to advance and expand their galactic faction through the use of military, technological or diplomatic means, giving them a varied amount of playing options. The player is able to do this while playing any of the available factions, each with their own unique unit, building and technology trees.


Screen Shots
The following are various screen shots from throughout the game. Different elements are shown, but for the full effect, download the game and give it a try.

http://mary.berlios.de/Images/CampaignSmall.png (http://mary.berlios.de/Images/Campaign.png) http://mary.berlios.de/Images/HintSmall.png (http://mary.berlios.de/Images/Hint.png) http://mary.berlios.de/Images/FinanceSmall.png (http://mary.berlios.de/Images/Finance.png) http://mary.berlios.de/Images/MapSmall.png (http://mary.berlios.de/Images/Map.png) http://mary.berlios.de/Images/UnitDataSmall.png (http://mary.berlios.de/Images/UnitData.png)


Minimum Spec
The following is an estimation of the minimum spec needed to play Space. Hopefully, from the feedback I get, I can narrow this down.
Processor: 1Ghz processor plus
Memory: 256MB Ram
Graphics Card: Any DX9 capable graphics card
Sound Card: Any 16-bit plus sound card


Known Issues
Whilst the game is almost feature complete, it is intended as a demo project, rather than a full and complete game. With that in mind, their are certain known issues, which are described as follows.
* When German is selected, speech is still in English
* German translations were done via Babel Fish so will not be 100% accurate


Game Play Instructions
Space: Absolute War plays in a very similar manner to the pre-Rome, Total War map sections. Select and drag a unit to move them to an adjacent system, and drop them onto other units to carry out commands, such as attack, assassinate, bribe etc.

To build system constructions or train units, click on the buttons on the main HUD, which will allow you to select from a range of possible units/constructions. It is not possible to build constructions until you build a Space Platform in the host system.

The smaller buttons on the main HUD allow you to control various elements of your faction, from diplomacy and trade, to finances and research. The on-screen advisor will give you more information when you first select the screen.

To view unit and system information, right click on the unit, which will bring up the entity details screen, giving you information on loyalty, happiness and command ratings.

If you want to play around with the debug settings, press Ctrl+T to bring up the tweak menu. These features allow you to change various game elements. To take a screen shot, press Ctrl+S, which will store the image in the ScreenCapture folder.


Team Structure
Lee Winder - Project Lead and Programmer.
Anthony Fallows - Concept Artist and Faction Design.
James Currie - Planet and Artist.
Adam Kirby - Music Design and Performance


Contact Information
If you wish to send me any information regarding the project, and do not want to use the forums, please contact me by any of the following methods.

E-Mail - leewinder@hotmail.com
MSN - leewinder@hotmail.com
ICQ - 216292275


Thanks for reading, and hopefully trying the game out. Let me know what you think.

Spree

[roel]

[windows default popup box translated from dutch to "english"]:

the application can't be started because zlib1.dll can't be found. try to ...

[/...]

[SpreeTree]

Almost perfect. Its pretty easy to forget which dll's you need after you need so many!

Anyway, I have added a link to a zLib1.dll in the OP, so if your missing it, download it and put it in the Space root directory.

Spree

[bladder]

Downloaded, extracted, ran exe, checked options and extras, began game, realized it was a strategy game, clicked around a bit to no avail, hit esc, exit.

That entire process went as smooth as anything else. Not a hitch in the system. Framerate was smooth, animation was smooth. Sorry I didn't actually play it but I just can't bring myself to play strategy games - never could.

I ran it on a p4 1.7, 256 ram, gf4 Ti, WinXp

[SpreeTree]

Downloaded, extracted, ran exe, checked options and extras, began game, realized it was a strategy game, clicked around a bit to no avail, hit esc, exit.

lol that will do for me! As long as it ran, and you got into the game and quit ok, I'm happy.

Thanks :lol:
Spree

[Jynks]

Looks great mate!! Love the fact that it is turn based, and that it is a space sim.. I didn;'t have much time to play it but I'll give it a wack on the weekend and let you know... hope the instructions are good :)

[SpreeTree]

hope the instructions are good :)

Errr.... I'm planning on writting a small set of instructions to go along with the game over the holiday period, to help potential employers know exactly what I have created, but until then... :blush:

Thanks for downloading it, and thanks for the future feedback, just jope it lives up to your expectations :happy:

Spree

[SpreeTree]

Just a quick bump.

A few small issues have been picked up but I have managed to fix them now. Hopefully some more people will give it a go before the weekend, and let me know how it goes :)

Spree

[monjardin]

I downloaded it to my laptop last night, and I'll hopefully have a report for you tomorrow. :)

[monjardin]

I hit a crash bug in the options screen. It is repeatable by opening the screen resolution combo-box and scrolling down until a resolution doesn't appear in the edit portion. Clicking the "back" button at this point crashes.
I think the selected option is getting cleared and the menu doesn't handle an invalid resolution pick
It looks good so far. Now I'll try starting a game. :)

Update: It's a bug with the handling of all the combo boxes. It happens if you mess with the advice level and/or victory conditions and try to start the game.

Update 2: Your HTML debug log looks great too. I remember you posting about that last month. ;)

[SpreeTree]

I hit a crash bug in the options screen. It is repeatable by opening the screen resolution combo-box and scrolling down until a resolution doesn't appear in the edit portion. Clicking the "back" button at this point crashes.
I think the selected option is getting cleared and the menu doesn't handle an invalid resolution pick

Update: It's a bug with the handling of all the combo boxes. It happens if you mess with the advice level and/or victory conditions and try to start the game.


Thanks for finding that one. It was a bug with the under-lying engine, that was trying to handle selecting 'empty' regions of the list box, but didn't do it very well.

I've fixed it now, so its impossible to select invalid entries in the combo, so the game can handle it witout worry.

Update 2: Your HTML debug log looks great too. I remember you posting about that last month. ;)

Thanks :lol: I'm quiet proud og the debug log, it makes looking through the output so easy. I finally went with a system that uses HTML and CSS code to make the code gerneration much easier to handle.


Well, so far only 2 crash bugs have been found, and any niggeling issues have been ironed out. So unless me or someone else comes across something drastic, I think I have a completed game on my hands! Not bad for a years work :yes:

Thanks to everyone who has downloaded it so far, you have been a real help
Spree

[Methulah]

I'm going to donwload it over the weekend when I get over my download limit. Sorry I can't download it now, but it looks awesome and always. I can't wait to play it. Well done Spree.

[Nodlehs]

I took a look at it, seems to run pretty decent, but it crashed on me a couple times with no visible error while trying to right click on a system for information. I will see if I can reproduce it.

Couldn't get it to crash doing that on command, but if I make a group of fighters large enough so that I must scroll down in the bottom window to see the others. the counts of 20 show up above the scroll window.

[SpreeTree]

I took a look at it, seems to run pretty decent, but it crashed on me a couple times with no visible error while trying to right click on a system for information. I will see if I can reproduce it.

Yeah, that bug has shown up before, it happens when you take over a previously free system - one with no owner. When the system is aligned to you, the population controller was not being informed, so it assumed it still had no owner. So when you tried to query for the happiness/loyalty - crash!


Couldn't get it to crash doing that on command, but if I make a group of fighters large enough so that I must scroll down in the bottom window to see the others. the counts of 20 show up above the scroll window.

Damn, I knew about that, but I totally forgot. I was thinking the other day there was something I needed to fix, but couldn't remember what it was. I'm in the process of fixing it right now - thanks for that one!

Spree

[chot]

Very good job! It ran perfectly on my machine, good fps (~100) and very nice in-game art!

[Wizeman]

Nice! ran with no glitches. (average 120fps)
Pentium D 820
1 GB DDR2 3200 Ram
Geforce 6600 128MB Ram
I wouldn't see why they wouldn't hire you!!:yes:

[SpreeTree]

Thanks for the extra testing guys, glad to see you like, and that it works!

Spree