Skull Island Development Log #5
Working on the shipper's, log page. This page shall give an overview of the current position of the ship as well as the current supply with food and water (vittles) and the damage the ship has gotten due to fighting pirates.
As we can see here our ship status is fine but we are slowly running out of supplies and need to replenish soon on an island!
The objective of the game is on the one hand trading and become immeasurably rich and fighting evil foes on our way through the sea. Now we are developing the sea engine with all the 48 islands we can travel to. This will still take some time but now we already can see how we run out of supplies if we try to travel too far...
Skull Island Development Log #4:
The basic sail the sea engine is done. Islands are stored in a big database file and get reloaded as needed while we travel the sea around skull island. it is easy to get lost hence you will need a map and we need to introduce a grid so you can orient yourself where you are. It's to easy to get lost if you are not cautious!
Animation speed gets a bit reduced due to the housekeeping we need to do at each animation step in order to check whether
we are still on an island
we just left an island
we arrived at a new island
we need to reload the island database
we need to load new island tiles to the tile memory RAM space
This will make animation slightly slower as we have seen in the very first videos but makes it possible to simulate a HUGE ocean with a loads of islands spread over the sea and make the game more challenging.
Daniel is doing a great job in drawing all those islands to perfect detail which I will add more and more to the file database enlarging the "world" step by step.
Next will be a grid display for helping not getting lost...
Skull Island Development Log #6
The following demo video shows the current development status of the new game Skull Island. The map engine is almost done and we can travel to the different ports.
We have successfully implemented all 48 islands and Daniel has drawn a great map which should give you some overview about the Sea of Bones when traveling and trying to find the other islands.
Next stepp will be the implementation of the "Port Engine" which will allow trading of goods, talking to pirates, making deals with a bank or staffing your ship and improving it.
More info about the development process can be read in the Call -151 Apple II group here on Facebook!
Skull Island Development Log #6
Skull Island's sea will have 48 islands to sail to. Placement of the islands is done using a simple Excel spreadsheet.
A scatter plot shows the rough distribution of the islands, coordinates are set around +14/+74 in a fictional archipelago.
The map engine now handles all 48 islands. Daniel Henderson has drawn about 85 wonderful map tiles that individually picture each island with love to detail.
Skull Island Development Log #7
We can now check in at any of the 48 ports. At a port you can trade or equip your ship. You can also gather some information about the island.
These features shall be coded next.
Skull Island Development Log #8
Adding a trading system to the game: when checking into a port you will land into the trading system menu where you can gather some information about the island, i.e. the pirate-in-chief and some background information what makes that island special and might you give a clue what to buy or sell here.
You can buy/sell 11 commodities from which one is "food" or your vittles which you always need to replenish since you will use that during your travel through the Sea of Bones. The maximum amount of food is 50.
The size of your other cargo bay is depending on your ship class. Starting with the smallest ship class 1 you have a hold of 20 units of the other 10 commodities altogether which you can mix up as you like.
When you are going to exceed your cargo hold maximum units you will get an error message.
Next will be the implementation of the maths algorithms for
calculating the amount of gold you have according to the unit price sold or bought. This is done in 24 bit maths so theoretically you can have about of 16,7 million units of gold when the game should end otherwise you'd wrap around the 24-bit counter and be poor again!
calculating the commodity prices for that island using some randomness and a pricing algorithm that relies on certain economic factors of each island which will simulate a pricing level in the sea of bones that undergoes constant variations.
The equipment of the ship which is buying a larger vessel or doing repairs or adding cannons and gunpowder as well as cannonballs can be done only at major islands that have also a shipyard. But that is still to be designed into the game...
Skull Island Development Log #9
First trading system version is working now!
Watch the video what a possible trading system could look like and work. We start with a credit of 2000 pieces of gold of the bank at Skull Island and set sail for trade (no fighting at the moment programmed).
As we sail from island to island we hope for good prices to trade our goods. Buy cheap and sell expensive. At least try to and make sure never to run out of food (vittles).
Some islands have always higher or lower prices for certain goods. And it is for you captain to find out and plan your trade routes! And finally hope for good randomness which governs the trading system regarding the price of the goods and the available units at each island!
A good aim would be to start in jewel, rum, wine and coca trading which are the most expensive goods. But beware! Carrying these goods will for sure attract other pirates and looters that may attack your ship (well not now since this part of the code is missing).
For now you may safely rate the Sea of Bones and do your trading! The only enemy is maybe your lack of food and false trading decisions. It is up to you Captain!
Skull Island Development Log #10
Further Beta-testing of the new Skull Island game engine. Trading Coca might bring you lots of money but it will also make your ship attractive to pirates that lallygag bored between the islands waiting for attractive prey.
So now you run into some pirates! What is your decision? Will you try to run or enter a fight? Or pay a ransom?
The game keeps fascinating my 9-year-old son who already developed some clever strategies becoming a rich and mighty pirate in the Sea of Bones!
Skull Island Development Log #11
Rare footage of a lost fight against pirates...
It comes from time to time that you meet pirates out there in the Sea of Bones also depending on your cargo you are carrying. And if you chose to fight you will end up in an action game like shootout where you will likely get blasted away by those guys.
You better get guns and enough cannonballs to have an advantage during fights! And yes, the wavy sea gives you extra problems in aiming and shooting your cannons! Better get gun crews and gun captains to improve accuracy of your shots!
Oh I forgot to mention that the top status bar is the health of the pirate and the lower is your health, the number displays the number of cannonball rounds you have left for shooting!
