Terra Militia is a real-time strategy game set in classical antiquity currently in development.


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Super Summer Update

News 3 comments

To begin with, I'm sorry for not posting any blog posts for some time - but fear not, the machines are running and here's a super mega update for compensation! Don't forget that you can follow Terra Militia on social media for more frequent updates... hint hint.

Now then, let's get straight down to business! A truckload of time (because #science) has been spent grinding the multiplayer high-level code which has now been greatly optimized and also allows for more than two players.

One of the bigger problems the game had was how many players found the game unplayable due to spikes of very low frame rate (1-6fps). I finally found the culprit behind most of these frame rate issues, which were situations where orders were being re-run because units could not reach their target(bots especially enjoyed doing this a lot). These were all(?) fixed and as a result syncing times were also improved and players now experience far less "waiting for player lag" than before.

With these two important parts of the game improved, I thought I'd finally spend some time working on the fun stuff!

Bot Improvements

I had pretty much left the AI code since I wrote it the first time, and now that the game is really shaping up I thought it was about time to improve it.

First of, support for more than 1v1 was added. Playing eight player matches is quite interesting.

They are much better at placing buildings, defending and attacking and realizing when to do it (without cheating through free vision etc!). The bots are also less predictable now and vary slightly in their behavior each game.

AI AssaultYellow bot claiming victory just after his final assault after an one hour full-bot game.

The first bot iteration cheated by gaining 300% resources from gathering, it's now decreased to 200% and they perform much better than before and offer a challenge to most players. Preferably the bot shouldn't cheat at all, but there's a long way to get there. The plan is that when bot difficulties are added there will be at least one or several levels that don't cheat.


Improving the bot difficulty is not very high on the priority list as the single player aspect of Terra Militia will focus mostly on campaigns where players are given scenarios to complete and not generic bot encounters.

In fact, it's very common for bots to cheat in real-time strategy games. Some examples: Starcraft I, Starcraft II, Age of Empires 2, Empire Earth.

Input 2.0

If you've read my earlier posts you probably have an idea of how much time I spend on making things, in my eyes, perfect. Therefore, I decided it was time to make a streamlined system for all input when I realized how I'd have to bang my head against the wall for the next couple of the days if I didn't.

This time, a set of reusable input components (that work fantastically together through events), for both reading and displaying user input that was made. This immensely simplified the process of adding the ingame console, a chat to lobbies and remaking the options menu.

Console

I have to admit it was a huge mistake not to implement an easy way to speak with the code in real-time before now. A task easier to carry out than anticipated yet has already saved a lot of valuable time previously spent on changing a few values in the code, exporting a build and running it. All now accessible by pressing a hotkey, typing out a command and hitting enter. Commands and values are easily defined in the code in beforehand. As a bonus, all custom script commands can be run through the console, to ease up the debugging process for map-makers.

Console ScreenshotHere, a few variables were edited and two commands entered by the user. If you start typing something you will immediately be shown valid commands containing your input and their current value.

Options

A proper system for options was made and new options are now super easy to add at any time. In addition, the following options were added;

  • Vertical Sync - On | Off
  • Particles - Enabled | Disabled
  • Clouds - Full | Subtle
  • Always Show Resource Bars - On | Off
  • Camera Movement - Smooth | Instant
  • Mouse Orientation - Left | Right
  • Printscreen Key - Print Screen

More keybindings to be added Soon™.

Related to this, the main menu and options menu were redone, with options now FINALLY being accessible ingame.

Options Menu
It's scrollable and pretty smooth.

Gameplay

It's been amazing to play more and more multiplayer matches as it greatly increases the amount of feedback I get. Here are some of the latest QOL improvements and fixes worth mentioning.

  • When in Borderless or Fullscreen mode, the cursor will now lock to the monitor displaying the game to prevent the cursor moving to another when panning the camera. Personally I almost always move the camera by holding the scrollwheel. (Not finalized)
  • Player names are now displayed not only for units but for buildings too.
  • Players are now properly warned if one of their buildings is under attack.
  • Towers will now correctly start firing at maximum range. (These are the broken things you notice when you start playing with the aim to win.)
  • A big batch of unit balancing.
  • Various interface fixes.
  • Ordering several gatherers to gather from player-made resources (farms) will now properly spread them out to available farms.
  • Various fixes to decrease frequency of units going idle.

Team up!

Functionality for teams was written from the ground up and the host can now assign teams in the lobby. Players in the same team share vision. Co-op multiplayer might still cause desyncing though.

Friendly botBONUS: Here I'm visiting the base of my bot ally on a 2v2 player made custom map.

New Effects

GFY Preview
When a building is destroyed a debris prop will spawn along with some particles.
GFY Preview
Catapult stones leave a small hole in the ground following a small particle impact.

Experimental Mode


In the launcher you can now choose whether to run a Stable or the latest (experimental) build. It's a relief to finally be able to test things on multiplayer on a regular basis without ruining the experience of other users. However, should you be curious you can always jump into the experimental version to get a sneak peek of latest changes.

Launcher ScreenshotFor best experience, players not advised by the developer should run the Stable version while planned tests run on the experimental version.

Wrapping Up


All this and more is now available in the experimental mode, make sure to keep an eye out for keys if you haven't got one yet!

As you might have noticed it's been hard to follow a regular scheme of blog posts, often because I'm working on something that I think isn't interesting enough to write about and sometimes because I'm having too much work to get around writing about it.

Do you personally prefer more frequent small updates or fewer but larger ones? I'd love to know. Please leave a reply below.

Trigger01, over and out.

UI Improvements

UI Improvements

News 4 comments

The new update of the UI comes with command buttons and more displayed information, this is a quick update on what the focus has been the last month.

Deceptions

Deceptions

News

On the topic of Fog of War and about those little details that you tend to forget implementing seemingly simple features.

Menus on the menu

Menus on the menu

News 2 comments

After much time spent over-thinking the menus and the design choices that come with them, a new format was finally decided.

Recent Alpha Progress

Recent Alpha Progress

News 2 comments

A lot a work is being done behind the scenes, and here are some of the details.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 30)
Pancake_Ninja132
Pancake_Ninja132

DANG THIS LOOKS GOOD!

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masterlete
masterlete

looks good, entertaining and pleasing graphics the game, you have good luck and hope much of the game, could put the infinite ores minerals like empire earth 2 and you could also do as a bar scale with which these points Might improve the stats and unlock units and structures, you could also make maps inspired by the world such as asia, europe. america, oceania and africa or even countries, morals do not know if you would like to bring it could put countries such as race and choose their own units I hope you serve what races I do not like much but has your game as hell you want very lucky and want to finish the game to play it :(

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kenzo36
kenzo36

Hello,i just stoped by to say that this game looks awesome.(to bad it's only 2d (*winks))
Any way thanks for your efforts. :D

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Trigger01 Creator
Trigger01

Thanks for the comment! :)
The "problem" with 3D is that it requires a much larger team for all the work that goes into meshes, textures and animation - if you don't want to have a very simple art style that is.

I hope to make a 3D RTS in the future though!

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CrazyVulcan
CrazyVulcan

I know its much harder to draw and animate but have you considered 2d isometric styles? Like in AoE2 and Warcraft 2?

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PetrenkaPie
PetrenkaPie

check out driftmoon at instantkingdom.com

they made something 2.5D

would be fitting here, too.

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mat5030
mat5030

sounds promising

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shef2
shef2

great job! when will this game?

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Carens
Carens

Been looking for rts games like aoe/ron/ee good luck...

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Trigger01 Creator
Trigger01

Empire Earth is probably my all time favorite, so I think you'll find enjoyment in Terra Militia. Thank you :)

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Latest posts from @terramilitia

New profile picture! What could it mean? #gamedev #indiedev T.co

Nov 28 2016

#gamedev #indiedev T.co

Jan 2 2016

Super Summer Update, have a read! Terramilitia.com #gamedev #indiedev #devblog T.co

Jul 22 2015

Grab it while it's hot! Terramilitia.com #alpha #key #gamedev

Jul 11 2015

Here shown during his final assault; after a one hour eight player bot game, yellow bot emerged victorious! #gamedev T.co

Jul 9 2015

3 days: Experimental mode, console, team functionality, multiplayer co-op, improved bot logic, new particles and effects. #gamedev #progress

Jul 8 2015

“The 1st 90% of the code accounts for 90% of dev time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of dev time” #gamedev #code

Jul 2 2015

While debugging, why not triple the amount of fun? #gamedev #indiedev #debugginghell T.co

Jul 1 2015

Not dead, just busy. Check out the new post on our build tool! Terramilitia.com #gamedev #indiedev #developer

Apr 20 2015

This past week of work resulted in reduction of draw calls by 60-75%, nice. #optimization #gamedev #indiedev

Mar 12 2015