If you use Windows a lot, then you should have WindowBlinds 7. The big new feature in WindowBlinds 7 (imo) is the ability to skin “aero” *(the default skin in Windows Vista and Windows 7). 

While there are thousands of WindowBlinds skins that can drastically change the UI, I am finding myself gravitating towards these Aero skins because they’re so subtle and because they conform to the standard Windows GUI sizes, I can program and such knowing that the funky tools I use won’t care about my customization.

Screenshots of this one texture in action:

Other skins:

To get WindowBlinds 7, go to www.windowblinds.net.

Greetings!

GPG has submitted to us version 1.3 of Demigod for testing. It addresses a whole bunch of outstanding issues that have been reported.

GPG has intimated to us that v1.3 is the beginning of a new series of free updates to Demigod.  I will have more details next week as it goes through QA.

If Stardock were a real company, a guy like me wouldn’t be allowed to put up dirty laundry like I’m about to put up.

For those of you who know me, I’m a bean counter.  It’s probably why I love strategy games so much because tactics are for amateurs, logistics is for experts.

So one of my ongoing angst with the Elemental budget overall is just how large a percentage of the budget thus far has gone into “modder tools”.

Don’t get me wrong, I love modding. But in my day, modding meant opening up LUA or Python scripts or creating your own “stuff” using tools like After Effects or Maya or 3D Studio. THAT is modding.

Now, I have seen and known about the Workshop tools in Elemental for a long time. I’ve discussed them. The Map Editor I understand. Being able to make maps is important for modding. The tile designer is important too for people who want to create their own custom environments.   However, the particle editor I didn’t “get” and I had, on more than one occasion, brought up the $$$ spent on building it.

Well, on Friday I finally got to see why it’s there and what it does.  The internal build on Friday added in the spell effects (i.e. when you revive land or cast fireballs or whatever).  I had assumed that each spell effect was being created in Maya and exported to be used.  I was shocked to learn that no, all of the spell effects were made with the built in effect editor. 

The spell that really shocked me was whirlwind.  In the game, we’re in a battle and there’s lots of units fighting it out when they show me the Sovereign casting whirlwind on a group of units. A tornado shows up and wreaks havoc.  My first inclination was “Great job! That looks great” and wondered what they used in Maya to do that.  That’s when I learned that no, none of the spell effects were made in Maya. They were all done with the built in effects editor – in less than 5 minutes. That’s why it cost so much to make. It allows for crazy amounts of spells to be made and visually implemented by us and modders alike.

What’s really sad, and this is the really embarassing part, when I’ve demoed Elemental to the media and showed them the workshop, I didn’t show the effects editor because I didn’t think it was a big deal.  Turns out, it’s a very big deal.

In another couple months, you guys will be able to play around with this too. I can only imagine the kinds of crazy stuff people will make and share with this.

I didn't want to make a journal entry on this but would rather talk directly to you guys on what we have in mind.

We don't like that players have to use so much essence to build up cities right now.

Instead, the plan is to require essence to still revive land but the land will spread out more quickly (it'll become more apparent why in the full 3D engine).  So while you will still need to spend essence if you want to spread across large swaths of the map, you won't need to use it to build a city 8 tiles away. Instead, cities will cost 100 materials to build -- a big sacrifice at the start of the game but not a big deal later.

We don't want to gimp essence too much because you'll need that essence to imbue your heroes and start casting some cool spells.

There is quite a bit of concern (mostly from marketing) that people will be angry when beta 2 comes out because of how much we crippled the betas.

I hope those of you in the beta understand why we did what we did with the betas. Elemental is a new game. It’s been many years since there’s been a new fantasy strategy game made from scratch. As a result, it was important to us that we not rely on 3D graphics or multiplayer in order for the game to have good game mechanics.

Now, some of you may be like me where you’ve played games for decades so you’ll understand where I’m coming from.  A GOOD game shouldn’t need super good graphics or high end production values. Tower Defense is an awesome game and it has virtually no graphics.  So for Beta 1, we went to considerable efforts to force it to be, well, suck in order to get the beta testers to think about the game AS A GAME rather than as some sort of multimedia experience.

Now, when Beta 2 shows up, obviously with the 3D engine, some of you may feel we were trying to torture you or something. We just wanted to make sure that you guys felt truly free to debate and suggest different game ideas.

When this is all done, we will have to revisit just how much of an impact you guys have had in making the game a BETTER game and how much of that was because of being able to play minus fancy graphics.

Nowadays, it’s very very rare for brand new major PC games to be made. Nearly everything is a sequel or a remake. We felt it important that we take our time and do this right.  So while 7 months in beta 1 might have seemed excessive, I think it’ll become clear that giving the beta testers time to debate game mechanics and concepts was worth it.

After a lengthy meeting with the Network team, it was concluded that it would require a considerable amount of effort (read: expensive) to release beta 2 with it crippled (like beta 1 is) for the public.

Therefore, Beta 2 and 3 are being combined so that from here on out, all builds will be the “full beta” (minus the Workshop mod options and campaign). This way, the network team doesn’t have to put a bunch of code in to turn off certain parts for the public build versus what we use internally.

This means that starting with Beta 2 (rather than 3) you will be able to give all the feedback you want on both single player and multiplayer in terms of what you would like in the game (either before release or as a post release update).

It also means that Beta 2 (rather than 3) should start being (I dare say) fun-ish.

The updated schedule which now includes some of our post release plans can be found below:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/363845

The change does not affect the beta schedule one way or the other except that players will get the full graphics engine a bit earlier than originally planned.

When Beta 2 (rather than 3) hits, the clock starts ticking towards release. Typically, the gameplay beta (based on The Corporate Machine, GalCiv, Sins of a Solar Empire, etc.) occurs roughly 90 days prior to street date.  That isn’t a promise mind you. But it does show just how much things change in that final 90 days (GalCiv beta testers and Sins beta testers can tell you – GalCiv didn’t have starbases 90 days before street date and Sins didn’t have phase lanes or infinite resources).

Cheers!

This week will mark the second full week I’ve been working on the AI in Elemental.  Beta 1 doesn’t have AI in it per se. It just randomly does nonsense really.

I’ve been writing computer AI now for 17 years (egads). It’s what got me into making games in the first place. I love computer AI.  Everything else in the game (for me) is secondary.

Early AI: OS/2

The first computer AI I wrote was for Galactic Civilizations for OS/2. It had the distinction of being the first commercial (i.e. at retail) 32-bit PC game. The first commercial game to support >256 colors. But for me, the key feature was that it was also the first game to have a multithreaded AI.

Back in 1993, most developers weren’t familiar with multithreading. Games were made with a big WHILE loop.  When a player hit the turn button, they would sit and wait for the computer to make their moves.

In the OS/2 version of Galactic Civilizations, the AI generated their move in the background. This was a key advantage back then because the computing power (think 386SX) was such that most AI had to massively cheat (and I don’t mean money bonuses, I mean play a different game) in order to be challenging.  The AI in the OS/2 version of GalCiv didn’t have to cheat because it received the CPU time necessary to come up with a good strategy.

Of course, my programming abilities at the time were dismal. But thanks to multithreading, I was able to use brute force to make an AI that played reasonably well.

Today’s AI

For me, multicore does’t make quite as much of a difference in AI programming as XML has.  I have previously talked about data driving the AI.  The goal is to move away from hard-coded scripts (whether in Python or C++) and towards XML based state machines. 

The idea is that on reasonably modern computers, the AI can crunch a lot more data to come up with solutions that we humans wouldn’t think of.  Chess programs have done this sort of thing for years but chess boards are very small compared to a game.  With XML based state machines, we can do all kinds of interesting things by letting the AI look at lots and lots of data and look at overall goals that it might have and then make “intelligent” decisions.

Example: Elemental

If you look at the screenshot above, this is an example of an AI driven state machine. The AI was not “told” to build a city like this. Nor was there any sort of (IF I need Food THEN build a farm) type logic.  Instead, it looked at the XML and looked at many different conflicting priorities and determined a course of action which.  The amount of C++ code necessary to get it to intelligent build a city is less than 100 lines (compared to several thousand lines for the craptastic planetary improvement AI in Galactic Civilizations II).

AI Modding

A key feature of having an XML based AI comes in modding.  Modders can make their own AI personalities and drive their own priorities.  After all, the AI can only do what I (the AI developer) thinks is the best way to win. Experienced players may come up with other means.

Now, modding AI is nothing new. In the past, you could use Python or Lua or some other scripting language to write your own AI.  XML driven AI isn’t particularly innovative either, it’s just the sheer level of its use that is a bit different here.

For beta testers, only the Kingdoms have been exposed.  The Kingdoms play much like a traditional 4X game.  You build city improvements to get benefits to your city. You train up soldiers hoping they’ll get better and better. It is a civilization based on laws and rules.

The Empire has taken a different path…

In War

Their soldiers don’t gain experience. Such a concept of thinking about individual soldiers is anathema to the Empire.

As such, there is no such thing as a veteran Imperial soldier. However, they can train up special, powerful units (Guardians, Enforcers, and Sions).  These powerful individuals will routinely demonstrate the inherent flaw in trying to train groups of soldiers to be more effective. Greatness is born. Not learned.

In Peace

There is no tradition of civics in the Empire. Moreover, the concept of bee keeping or fruit orchard harvesting and what not is completely foreign. The Empire looks at the Kingdoms with absolute contempt that they would waste time harvesting such things.

Of course, it also means the Empires can harvest fewer special resources in the world. To make up for this, the Empire can build hog farms adjacent to their farms. That’s real food. Pathetic Kingdoms.

The Empire also scoffs at the Civics concepts of markets. Deals are made on the basis of leverage alone. Instead of relying on institutions, the Empire relies on leaders of capitalism to deal with it. Players can build Financiers (until we have a better name, feel free to suggest a better one) who enhance the city’s money making.

Similarly, there is no formal education system in the Empire. Schools? Universities? These concepts are worthless. The Kingdoms foolishly entrust their futures to special interests. In the Empire, players can create Sage units who can be sent where they are needed to boost knowledge production.

There are no pubs in the Empire. No Inns.  Such decadence is forbidden. Prestige is generated by showing respect to those who have seized power such as statues to great figures such as Lord Kir-Tion and Curgen the Dred’nir.

In Magic

Again, letting something as important as magic be taught by a special interest is another weakness of the Kingdom that the Empire has no part of. The Empire instead has its own magic commissars – the Lore masters who study the ancient texts to discover the correct spells needed to dominate the world. These units can be built and sent where needed.

Adventuring? I don’t think so

The Kingdoms have an entire knowledge field called “Adventuring”. There is no such concept in The Empire. Adventuring implies a light hearted search for excitement. This is why the Empire has dominated the world, it has no use for pointless wandering.

The Empires focus on Domination. Finding and re-learning knowledge scattered throughout the world. 

The Kingdoms, dominated by cowardly men, like to stay in their schools and temples. The Empire, dominated by the races of the Fallen and the lone race of men with the strength to embrace the philosophy of the Empires (Kraxis) gain knowledge and strength from going out into the world and seizing it from others. Dangerous places have great knowledge and the Empire is particularly skilled in finding that knowledge.

The Empire will rule

The fact is, the Empires are the dominant form of social organization in the world. The Kingdoms, with their weak, so-called concepts of liberty, social contracts and obsession with the rights of individuals is an absurd, artificial creation that violates the laws of nature.

In the 1990s, the big fan war was between fans of Windows and fans of OS/2.

In those days, believe it or not, Microsoft was the one with massive numbers of zealots (OS/2 had them as well). Today, it may seem absurd that Microsoft had Mac-level zealots but it did.

With a single PC OS, we could all standardize. It would be great. Microsoft would never be so stupid as to let their OS get complacent…

Let’s use pictures:

Windows in 1994:

OS/2 in 1994:

Windows in 1995:

Competition causes Windows to make dramatic changes.

The next year, IBM throws in the towel on OS/2.  Microsoft wins the OS wars through contracts with PC manufacturers that makes Windows available exclusively through them (i.e. the contracts promise a “lower price on Windows” in exchange for not shipping any other OSes). This becomes the beginning of the Microsoft anti-trust issue.

Microsoft now owns the desktop…

TEN. YEARS. LATER.

With the OS market cornered, Microsoft moves off to doing the Xbox, making search engines, Zune, etc.

You can see the depressing affect of market share here in this history of Windows.

Contrary to popular belief, consumers often do not choose the winners. Instead, the winners are able to get short-sighted decision makers to hand it to them.  We use Windows as the standard today because the PC OEMs made the short-term decision to get a price cut in exchange for exclusivity.

This has become the template in the tech industry.  Give something for cheap or free in exchange for exclusivity to those who have the real power to decide who will dominate. Once dominance is achieved, the dominant player then calls the shots.

Once dominance is achieved, the investment and cost necessary to compete is too high. That’s why Linux will never be a viable desktop competitor. The inertia is too strong.

All Malibu Stacey needed was a new hat to win her war. 

I’m an engineer. I went to college for it. Got a degree in it. Dilbert cartoons apply to people like me.

One of the things that’s been really challenging since having my own company is just how idiotic the business world is.

You read about it. You hear about it. But seeing the idiocy first hand is just incredibly frustrating. Why did such and such deal get made? Because someone had a better technology? No. Because someone made a better business case? No. Instead, all too often I see deals made because “the other guys” has non-engineer sales teams that know how the biz game is really played. They got the decision maker at company X tickets to see their favorite baseball team at Spring Training. Or they pulled some strings to get the decision maker’s son a visit from a local sports hero or a visit from some other celebrity.

Hearing about it. Reading about it. It doesn’t come anywhere close to having the same impact in actually seeing it in action.