Use case scenarios

So I've been learning to make a little game based on pong.  The amount of work that goes into making even a simple game is pretty mind blowing.  I think the best way to put it is that computers are incredibly dumb, and therefore programmers have to write out explicit instructions on how to react to every little thing that a player may do.  And so one exercise we are going through is to think of every possible way that a human interacts with a game write up what the system should do if a player does something.  These are called use cases, and every button or thing that someone can click on really needs to have something written up or the system doesn't know what to do and cries in a corner making everything stop.  It really is pretty mind boggling how we have programs and systems in the first place.  At any rate I'm going to start working on a monstrous document going through every menu and every possible key press that a player may decide to do while playing the game.

In other news I'm starting out in my C++ class on a program that allows a user to log in to a system and/or register for something.  I hope to have this be my starting out point for the main program, as the first thing players will do will be to log in.  I have until December to get it up and running.  I know it's not much, but it is a start.  I think that during winter break time I will also try to work on more artwork.

Powerups - Same look different function

I have been thinking a bit about how to handle the graphical aspects of armor and weapons and how they will interact with the game.  As I was explaining the game to someone and I told them that the "Aliens" have encased the players in suits that keep them from all harm, then I was trying to explain things like armor and weapons they pointed out that a graphical armor would be pointless since they are already encased in an all harm reducing suit.  Also there was the issue of the armor only covering certain areas, like would it protect the torso if you have the standard shoulder pad type armor.  This also led to me thinking about this from the perspective of an experiment, where much of what is going on has to be simulated to be like war, but not actually be like war.  Anyway the short story is that I am rethinking how these will happen in the game.  Rather than have a brand new graphic for weapons and armor I will make them more like the slot system in FFVII.  this will mean that the powerups for weapons and armor will be represented by little globes which when they are "equipped" they will do things like make the player's suit glow brighter or make the weapon fire differently.  This will mean that the "Aliens" will be able to introduce and temporarily disable all kind of things without necessarily changing anything in the reality of the simulation.

So what this means is that every player comes equipped with the suit, a distance weapon, and a melee weapon that then can change depending on what class they are.  The powerups are then applied to these already existing items to simulate a weapon change or increased armor.  They will still have to be "hacked" in order to be compatible with a given faction, and certain power ups will require the correct class to use them.  They can still take up the pack space as I talked about in armor a while ago.

Anyway a quick update about school.  I am very busy doing the projects for my classes, though I am still learning a lot of valuable information.  I won't be able to work on this project extensively in the near future, though I have a good idea of what I need to do to get started now.