Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns

= Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns by Patrick Schoenmakers =

Licence
TBC

Introduction
In the style of the classic M.C. Lothlorien war games, Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns was inspired by the PC/Amiga/NES turn-based strategy role-playing simulation Bandit Kings of Ancient China. Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns has been designed to be a Master 128-only title with nice MODE 2 graphics.

Discuss Bandit Kings for Ancient Acorns

BBC Microcomputer Master 128/B+
Original by Patrick Schoenmakers

Downloads
COMING SOON

Development Log
Ok, I got the new shiny project page so I guess have to take this serious now. Enter the development log!

10-08-2013 : Game outline
Let's start with the outline of the intended game. I'm going to assume anyone who reads this is familiar with the concept of hex war gaming so I'm not going into that.

Despite the title, which is an obvious reference to the famous Koei game (BKOAC for short), the game play will be quite a bit different. Some elements are inspired by the various other hex games I played and some are my own because of pending technical limitations :o). The BKOAC reference is because it was the first such game I extensively played and liked.

First of all, and this is the biggest difference from BKOAC, it will be 1 big hex map. Let's say 100x100 which can be freely navigated by scrolling. Preferably maps will be computer generated, but let's assume a fixed map for now. To inspect and use elements on the map I want to use popup windows and menus, so the limited screen real estate is used for map-view most of the time.

The map consists of 16 types of terrain, which are the usual suspects. Mountains, hills, grasslands, woodlands, water etc. As I have 16 types available maybe some seasonal variation is possible like BKOAC, such as water turning to ice thus being traversable without a boat.

On this map various "constructions" can be placed. Think of castles, villages, barracks, etc. These will not be part of the map proper so it should be possible to "construct" a village at any suitable place on the map. It should also be possible to cultivate land to generate crop revenue. I'm not sure yet if cultivated land is going to be part of the map proper or a "construction". In the same vain I'm thinking of a "road" construction which would allow armies to move faster across the map.

Obviously we also want to place "armies" on this map (that's the whole point). I'm going for "stackable" armies here. The things placed on the map are army units which can occupy the same hex. That way I can freely combine units to construct an army of, for instance, archers, spear-men, chariots, etc. Each unit has its strengths and weaknesses which combine to the total strength of the army.

Army units can be generated by a sufficiently big settlement which contains barracks where these units can be trained.

To start off there will be settlements scattered around the map. The player(s) will first have to settle and assume leadership of an existing settlement. Once this is done the player becomes a "faction" that can claim regions on the map. At first the player will have to expand his settlement to the point where he can build barracks and thus generate army units. This is done by the usual cultivating, hunting or tax.

Once a faction has army units these are combined to armies that can be sent out to claim more land (hexes) for the faction. If the hex is unclaimed moving an army there will automatically claim it. If it is already claimed by another faction the player can declare war. If war is declared the hex is claimed but the faction is now open for attack by any opposing armies.

Battle resolution will turn based, so if the appropriate units are in the army a player can choose the type of attack. The goal is to position, combine and divide army divisions on the map such as to gain a strategic advantage over the opposition. Think of a division of spear-men positioned in a mountain pass that can block opposing charioteer divisions. Of course there will be an element of randomness built in the battle resolution.

At some point I'd probably want some computer AI thrown in, but as this is already very ambitious that's of later concern.

TECHNICAL STUFF

Considering the scope it will, in my view, be impossible to do this on a standard beeb, especially because I want to use a 20k screen mode. So this will be M128 or B+ only. Therefore I can assume the availability of SWR slots.

For map scrolling the HEXAROM comes in. Its first purpose is to display a hex map segment as quickly as possible. It will NOT contain the map itself as not to impose any size restrictions here. Because of that HEXAROM must read the map segment to display from a work area in lower memory. It will contain terrain sprite definitions. The map itself is probably going into another SWR position. Map dimensions must be user configurable in number of half-hexes. Scrolling is done in half hex steps.

For the pop-ups I'd like to use BAUW windows. Proven technology and it handles the overlapping already.

18-08-2013 : Research
Didn't get back down to the programming yet, because I first want to decide where to go with this.

While getting stuff to run again I noticed some issues that I encountered earlier and caused me to put this on hold for a while.

To get a reasonable text size in mode 2 I'll need something like JHGs 4 bit font. Unfortunately that does not play nice with the BAU windows.

Another option is to go for mode 0 graphics. While it loses the color the detail might make up for it and the font is not a problem anymore. I'll have to make some mock-ups in mode 0 to see how it would look.

I got BKOAC running in DosBox to check out the actual hex maps. Unfotunately it uses 12 hexes vertical while the HEXAROM can only manage 9 or 10 if I do half hexes. It got me pondering the map mechanics actually used there: an overview map and drop to the hexes for battle. While that would probably make an easier engine I'd really like a big scrolling map. Something like Commander, Europe at war.

20-09-2013 : graphics
Got sidetracked again, but this time a I suppose it was a constructive distraction.

While checking the artwork on BKOAC I noticed it is actually built up from the same 8 color scheme as the Beeb uses. So I did some experiments how that would look.



Actually It's pretty cool, but the hexes will be squashed and way to big in my view.

So back to the original hex size it is, but with a big rewrite for the hexarom to support quarter hexes.