Matrix Games Forums

well, any news? because a few months have passed

Sorry for the delay in responding! [:(]

Well, I have unfortunately been busy with other tasks lately. But I have cleared up some time and I am working on the recruiting rules and the interface for it. Here is a sample of the City Report Dialog with a new 'pane' for seeing details on the city's population, including manpower for recruiting:

Here is that same dialog with an update and values added for Recruiting:

I am a little behind this week, but I'll try to post more screenshots next weekend.

Here is a screenshot of the recruiting entry for the city report dialog. I have improved the data layout and refined some of the manpower calculations.

I must take this moment to report some disappointing news. I won't have The Fall of Rome ready for beta testing, let alone release, any time this year. Maybe next summer. I realize that this stinks. But I don't want people to hope for something this Christmas when I know that it isn't going to materialize (my game, not Christmas. That is still scheduled for Dec. 25th [:)]).

Back in March I thought that I could get some additional funding. But I couldn't. And so I spent quite a bit of time just working to pay bills.

I really hate to be in the position of selling vaporware. I am making progress, and I have scrounged up some money for the game, but I still have an old contract to get off of my back. When that is done then I can work full time on The Fall of Rome.

If this is too much information for this forum, well, I feel it's better to err on the side of too much rather than too little.

Thanks for your purchase of 'Hannibal' and your interest in further efforts from Forced March Games.

Thank you for the update. [&o]

I rather would have had Christmas delayed. [;)] But getting one out of two ain't that bad. [:)]

And there can not be to much information.

Looking forward to next year, and perhaps a release for next Christmas. [:)]

Any update James ?

Thanks for rattling my cage! I have meant to post something for a little while now.

I am still plugging away at it, dividing my time between "The Fall of Rome" and other work. I have a little more work to do on the interface and then I can write the first two tutorials. After I do that I'll be able to get some organized 'taste testing' done in advance of real alpha testing.

I have pretty much finished the first version of a feature in the game that doesn't exist in 'Hannibal': popup menus for every selectable item on the strategy map. Please remember that some features may wind up looking significantly different in the final game. If only because some graphics will certainly be redone or - if the budget permits - replaced.

Anyway, attached is a sample of the popup menu when a friendly army is selected.

I intend to eventually have a simple label that can be toggled on and off for each item on the popup menus. I am not going to do that until I do some testing with the menus and decide about the final graphics for these items.

I can't post any expected release time because my past estimates were so ridiculously wrong. [:(]

After I get the first two tutorials done then I will do the preliminary work on the multiplayer option. I have another programmer who is going to help me on that, but it still may be a bit of a slog. We'll see.

Thanks for your interest!



P.S. I cannot get the DPI right, so the image is a little blurry. It's not like that at the runtime. I don't know if the problem is my browser or not. 96 DPI and 72 DPI are not getting it done here. [:@]

Many thanks friend. Please keep up the good work

Thank you for the update.

And, for me, the graphics come low on what I think is important. So I do hope that graphics improvements doesn't take up to much time, or resources, from other improvements.

I am patiently awaiting the release. So no hurry.

Thanks, as usual, Orm, for your kind words.

I am not spending any time lately working on graphics. I have pretty much got everything in final form, or at least laid out with placeholders that will serve as guides for an artist to eventually improve. I don't expect the final art expenses to be too large.

I do have a few map edits to do, but those will be things that are easy (even for me) to draw. Not anything which is conceptually difficult, just some grunt work. For example, I need to rework the western border of Macedonia. I think that I will have it done in a couple of weeks. THEN I can start working on the first two tutorials.

Good to know that the project is moving forward. Looking forward to the release of this game.

Hi, any news mercenarius?Maybe you will finish the game this year?
Thx

The game is coming along slowly. But it is progressing. I decided to work out the order of battle (i.e., initial map state) for two or three more scenarios before starting the tutorials. So I haven't posted anything.

I am also revising the logistics rules which are turning out to be a little harder than I originally thought. [:(]

But I think that I have finally gotten the logistics right. I'll try to post some screenshots before next weekend. [:)]

So much for getting this to you before next weekend. [:(]

But here are a couple of screenshots. The first shows the Upper Mesopotamia and the Kingdom of Osrhoene in the Optimus Princeps (Trajan) scenario:

This one shows Britannia and Caledonia (and Hibernia) before the construction of Hadrian's wall. The British tribes are still quite "unassimilated."


Again, sorry about the DPI not being quite right.

Wow,screenshots looks pretty.i want play this game soon.
Thx for the job.

ORIGINAL: mercenarius

This one shows Britannia and Caledonia (and Hibernia) before the construction of Hadrian's wall. The British tribes are still quite "unassimilated."

They haven't discovered Fermented Beverages yet. Or Tea.

Mucho thanks and encouragement!

Thank you for the update. [:)]

How about another update? Nothing major needed. Just if there has been some progress, and if you think a release is likely for next year.

I have not made much progress the last 4 weeks, unfortunately. I had some contract work which turned out to be rather grueling. But I expect to make some progress these next two weeks so that I can post something here.

Right now I am working on the Point-And-Click interface for the battle board. Turns out that I need to do that before designing the multiplayer logic, and I need to design the multiplayer logic before doing anything more with the AI.

I fully hope and expect that the game will be published some time next year. I had originally hoped for something this year but things have not gone as planned. Oh well.

Thanks again for your (and everyone else's) interest, and I will try to post some new screenshots very soon.