Dragon Pharaoh's Blog: July 2021

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Development Process and technical sketches - WFS

It is important, when designing software, to look at the model at hand from various angles. I did much research when it comes to Warhammer and the results that I got led to learn how to write pseudo-code and draw sketches to understand the inner workings of systems.

Here are some of my sketches. The first one shows some design about spells data schema and about triggers and how they should work. Also visible, near the bottom of the image, is the details about the development environments I have been using. Notice the move from C++ GDI to DirectX and the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that followed. Eclipse was big at the time, with support for pretty much all languages.

Various drawings about the development cycles and kernel of the game

This screen shows designs for the Spells, Abilities and Items screens and data layers. Also more Model OOP design.

Models, Abilities and active effects are all interlinked in the design

The next screen is about the ActiveEffects and how they dynamically affect the attributes displayed. This is the same principle for many games today, especially Blizzard, who likes to have basic attributes (Strength, Intellect, Dex) boosted by items or buffs.

A concept for dynamic modifiers being applied to attributes of a Character in Warhammer

This screen is for the Active Effects (FX). I have designed arrangements of Queues data structures to hold various items (such as models and items)

Data structures being designed to hold the data for the Active FX and Models Queues

Notice that although multiple terms are very similar, the game differs from Medieval 2 Total War or Total War Warhammer. Even if we talk about the good old "Shadow of the Horned Rat", it still is not the same as this game. This game is much more about a simulation of the real tabletop game.

Thanks for reading!

Donate crypto (BTC, ETH, BCH, others...) and use my referral links: https://cointr.ee/archivist

Check out my Publish0x channel: https://www.publish0x.com/intelli-gaming

Or Read.cash if you know your coins... https://read.cash/@Librarian

Also visit my Odysee channel: https://odysee.com/@IntelliGaming:6

YouTube Intelli Gaming channel

Warhammer Fantasy Strategy - Game Screens

I began developing Warhammer Fantasy Strategy in 2003. Initially, I had to learn how to code. I thus learnt C++. Then I had the challenge of making a Windows. That's when I started to use the GDI. Eventually, I did pretty much what I wanted with the GDI but I moved on to DirectX 8. Here are some of the graphics designs for the game, starting with the Main Menu Screen:

Main Menu Screen for Warhammer Fantasy Strategy based on GW Warhammer Fantasy Battles

Following, we have the Army Creation Screen:

Army creation screen. Allows edition of armies and their composition. Points displayed.

Then the Custom Game Screen, where both armies can be selected. The points limits are set and also the Battlefield can be selected or customised.

The Custom Game Screen is where decisions are made about the battle to customise it.

Then the Formations screen:

Formations are set for each unit/regiment and Auto-Arrange is possible

The in-Game screen:

The Main Game screen. This is where the action happens. Lead your armies to victory!

The Model screen:

The Model screen is where all stats about models are displayed

The Options screen:

The Options screens is where global game options reside and can be turned on or off.

The Message Box:

A Message Box as a simple picture with text drawn on top dynamically

This Message Box is to display information to the player and ask simple YES / NO questions.

I will continue to document the project in the future.