Matthew Knott

For a long time now I've fancied trying to make an online web-based ajax-powered 4x game for myself. It would be a space-based game, similar to a game I used to love, Star Wars Supremacy (Rebellion in the US).

I used to stay up till the early hours grinding away at that game. It was not well received critically but it struck a chord with me anyway.

The only part I wouldn't be able to replicate is the real-time 3d space combat component, which is only a small piece of the game anyway. I don't really plan on hosting the game, though I may offer it for free download if I think it's any good.

I've worked out the majority of algorithms already, either by myself or by googling. The last one was how the combat system would work. In the end, I decided to give each vessel an attacking and defensive value to start with, that gives us a simple calculation for victory. 

Sum of attack from side a versus sum of defense from side b, and vice versa. For example:

• Side a totals an Attack value of 65, and a defensive value of 135. 
• Side b totals an attack value of 105, and a defensive value of 110
  
• Side a's attack v defense outcome is -45, and their defense outcome is +25 giving them a total score of -20.
• Side b's attack v defense outcome is -20, and their defense outcome is +45, giving them a total score of +20.

It is a high level approach, playing real-time the result may differ through tactical deployment of assets and targeting strategically.

Add to this captain bonuses for game characters on-board the ships and it does get slightly more complicated, but that's a different discussion.

Anyway, back to the topic. As a proud Mac owner and an iPod touch owner, I've decided to side-line the web-based version and concentrate on a version for the iPhone / iPod touch using the highly capable iPhone SDK.

Having seen the demos, I think it might be possible to create a 3d space battle engine also, which would just be amazing.

We'll see how it goes, I'm going to dust of my C programming skills and brush up on objective-c through a couple of books that I've ordered and see where it takes me.

• Development

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