Project Management, Concepts, and Implementation news - Evolution of Warfare mod for Star Wars Battlefront II

The overdue update has arrived! Coming into March, I've been able to work on Evolution of Warfare once again. This article will cover what has happened these past two months: project management issues, concept changes, and the implementation of those concepts.

Project Management (brief overview)

A lot of the work I have been doing over the past two months concerns project management. Previously, Evolution of Warfare's files were scattered and cluttered. I needed an organized setting where files were easily accessible. As simple as it sounds to do, the amount of work required to create a clean work area was no simple task.

I have also written some important documentation to direct my work process and record what has or has not been done. Having made all these adjustments and written out plans for the project, progress should be able to be made more efficiently.

Concept and Implementation

What has received the most attention in terms of concept is the waypoint system. I can now confirm that there will be three squads per team rather than the four previously planned. This is a result of an unavoidable limitation. Due to the unfortunate turn of events, the waypoint symbol has changed, now having three indicators (where one corresponds to one squad) to show who has been assigned to the waypoint.

In addition, the significance of the waypoint has increased, as well as how it functions. Previously, Evolution of Warfare worked on a kill based point system, and waypoints were useful only for relocating troops. Now points will be scored based off of the effectiveness of the waypoints you assign troops to. At each waypoint, data will be collected to indicate the significance of its usage and score accordingly, increasing the importance of your ability to move and purchase for your squads. Another aspect that has changed is the waypoint weight option, which used to determine how important it was for a given squad to go to the selected waypoint. The weight option is now used to determine how spread out the troops are at a given waypoint, allowing battle data to be more accurately collected.

What else? Not surprisingly, a menu had to be put together as I began to work on the waypoint system. That meant that I needed to come up with some concepts for the design:

As seen above, players will be able to select a squad, select its target, adjust the tightness of the squad formation, and adjust the aggressiveness of the squad. Within in the center of the menu there will be a live camera of the map being played, bordered by a still of that same map. Execution of the concept ingame has been going well. (Live camera test)

One last concept change I would like to address is that of the HUD. As stated in the mod's description (which will be updated soon), the HUD was to be based off of SWBF Elite Squadron and Free Radical's SWBF3 . Due to incompatibility with menu features and the use of the inspiration in another mod, I've decided to re-design the HUD. The change will also allow for more intricate HUD features that could not be executed with the old design. I hope you will like the new design just as much (or more) than the old one when I come around to making it. I appreciate everyone's patience, and apologize for the delay.

That's all for now!

Should I create a Twitter feed that updates as I make progress (small, more regular updates)? Post your thoughts in the comment section below!