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[wolf.b]

It is important to us to make the game available on Linux and Mac OS X in the near future.

[wolf.b]

BY WOLF

We've got some interesting map designs coming with this build, we've also split Queens Borough into 2 display areas (Upper and Lower Queens) and whilst these are fictious seperations they won't affect the function of the borough which will remain as one (this is purely to better serve map functionality).

I've been doing quite a bit of research into how to generate gangster nicknames (which might be the hardest challenge I've ever given myself for this game) as well as continuing my research in how to generate gang names (a little less challenging, but not by much if I want them to feel original).

We've also said goodbye to Micycle. When I first began to rebuild the team after the first build, I didn't know if we were going to find the right partners to make this work the way I needed it to. That ultimately led me to bringing on both Micycle and Nerdrage. But Nerdrage has turned out to be our proverbial Atlas, holding the world (in this case, code) on his shoulders. With that in mind it was agreed between all of us that it was best to let him carry on solo for the forseeable future in the game's development.


BY NERDRAGE

The upcoming patch 0.1.7 is well on its way and should start internal testing this week. While its focus is on maps, it also brings more infrastructure for procedural generation (randomized neighborhoods) and initial memory optimization (more gangs).

[wolf.b]

WOLF

This week I completed the design framework for a new gangster nickname generator. Now when I say this what I am referring to are the more urban gangster nicknames found amongst ethnic minority gangs in the USA as opposed to gangs that consist of Italians etc. where they've got names like 'Mickey the Knife' etc. This generator reflects the more rapper-esque nickname convention and it has been incredibly challenging to figure out the components of. I was actually lost for a while before Nerd stepped in with some great ideas.

Now we have a designed generator that can randomly produce over 6000 names (hopefully this can be significantly expanded over time to provide even more randomness).

We've also said goodbye to Anon E Moose this week. He was critical to the development of the prototype for this game and helped me get started with v0.1.5 and I'm eternally grateful to him for his help and persistence. Thank you Anon.

NERDRAGE

Due to unforeseen distractions on my end, 0.1.7 is taking a bit longer than expected. It should not however take more than this extra week, hopefully the earlier pace will be regained shortly. The list of features will stay the same and the roadmap is unchanged.

[wolf.b]

WOLF
Not much to report on my end this belated end of week report, as I'm trying not to get too far ahead of the code with my designs and I've already got a year's head start on Nerdrage's code. But I do want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe year. We've entered uncertain times and many of us may end up facing hardships in this journey we take together as this species we call humanity. Nerdrage and I intend to continue with the game no matter what comes and we hope you'll be able to enjoy it with us along the way.

NERDRAGE
0.1.7 turned out to be a bumpy one. New concepts for cities, zones, map filters, etc. all on top of a new custom memory allocation system is a lot to debug. These things were feverishly implemented last week. And when I say feverishly I mean I had a fever. So memory corruption was not so much in the game engine as in my head, a few things had to be rolled back and reimplemented. This extended release cycle has also allowed me to steal a few janitorial code tasks originally planned for 0.1.8.

[wolf.b]

BUILD v0.1.7.200322 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

WOLF
Our newest build features a new city neighborhood map systems along with an overlay to show gang presences. Our next build will focus on introducing turf war combat and guns to the game. Meanwhile I'm currently designing a new corner heat system that will act as a concequence mechanic for violence in a neighborhood.

Basically when someone gets caught selling drugs on a corner or someone is killed the heat raises (on a 5 star system) and then has a random cooldown period (based on neighborhood rating) till heat returns to no stars. Putting people back on corners has more chance of them being arrested based on the star rating at the time.

Now my plan is to tie this into the neighborhood rating system, thereby affecting a) the heat obtained and b) the heat cooldown. For example a 1 star neighborhood is basically a slum so murders raise heat but not as much as in say a 5 star neighborhood where they are expected to be less common.

NERDRAGE
0.1.7 is finally here! One small step for gameplay, one giant leap for visualization, or however that saying goes. Sadly my cold is back and in case it's the undead plague, I'll try to turn while coding so that I'll hopefully keep going for a while.

[wolf.b]

WOLF

Sadly there will only be a brief update this week. As Nerdrage reported last week he'd been recovering from a bad fever, however when last we spoke he said it had returned (and yet he still pushed through to bugfix our release right up until the last moment). Since last Sunday he's been offline. I can't speculate on his condition or if it has any relation to the current global situation. Our community has been praying that he makes a full recovery and I know he'll be grateful for all those messages of support. See you next Sunday.

[wolf.b]

WOLF

It has now been 14 days since I last heard from Vyacheslav aka Nerdrage. It's hard not to draw certain conclusions in situations such as this, especially given what the world is going through and whatever is happening in his life, he is in my prayers. Obviously my concern is for his health and safety at this point and not the game's future. Meanwhile I hope you're all staying safe and well with your loved ones and I will continue to do my best in keeping a vigil on these weekly reports until I hear from Nerd again.

[wolf.b]

WOLF

It's been 3 weeks now since Nerdrage got sick and disappeared. I'm still hoping he's okay but I am starting to consider how we could proceed without him if we had to. The news isn't good. After v1.5 Nerd stopped updating the GitHub repository, backing up offline I can only assume. It was actually something I planned to bring up with him right after 1.7's release except he vanished the day after (the irony is not lost on me). As C++ applications cannot be decompiled into source code (it'd be like trying to make a cow out of hamburger meat), any continuation in the future without Nerdrage would require development returning to v1.5 territory. Which would be incredibly disheartening.

[wolf.b]

NERDRAGE

First of all, I apologize for my abrupt disappearance. It was unfair to Wolf and to you people. What I've mistaken for a cold turned out to be a very serious infection that forced an urgent operation and hospitalization. I was woefully unprepared to for such an occasion, as my luck has kept me out of hospitals so far. But worry not, I'm back home and 0.1.8 is back on track. That said my ability to spend time in front of the PC is still restricted, and consequently so is my productivity with the project. Hopefully I can gradually compensate for this setback as my abilities are restored. For the moment the roadmap is unchanged, just delayed. Combat is coming, pew-pew.

[wolf.b]

WOLF

Another turbulent week for development I'm afraid. Nerdrage was informed by the hospital that there was a case of COVID-19 on his ward. The last I heard from him on Wednesday, he was about to find out if he was going to be placed in isolation for 2-3 weeks. So it's looking like that is the case. These are the difficult times we live in sadly. Otherwise, he seemed to be in good spirits and slowly recovering from his infection and wounds.

On my end, I've been map making like it's the end of the world

I've compiled a map of the USA, New York state, I've designed a basic county backup map system, and a more complex coordinates based system which in theory has worked out beautifully. It'll still be a massive 4-5 month data collection project (roughly 300,000 pieces of data) but I'm having fun and that's all that matters. I intend to stop after completing New York State, and I'll collect the rest down the road. Completing the NY State map sets us up for state wide gameplay in the future. I've finished 10 map datasets out of 62 thus far.

USA Map

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

New York State Map

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Suffolk County, NY State (real map)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Suffolk County, NY State (coordinates test map)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[King Zultan]

PTW

[wolf.b]

PTW

PTW?

[n9103]

Posting To Watch
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[wolf.b]

Posting To Watch
Allows folks to see topics they're interested in the "New replies to your posts" page.

Aha, thank you for explaining.

[wolf.b]

WOLF

Another Nerd-less week here at U$E, he seems to have left his computer on unlike last time, so I'm pretty confident he's been placed in isolated quarantine as he warned me he might, a week and a half ago when he was leaving to meet his doctor and find out. He expected that to last 2-3 weeks so we're at the half-way point, I hope.

On my end I've been expanding mapping capabilities and recently found a dataset source that would allow me to cover the macro and micro locations of the USA and much of the world's macro. I have access to the free macro datasets (15,000 locations) and they are releasing micro datasets in a few months (I spoke with the developers of the data packets) hopefully some micro datasets will make it into the free version as well. Hopefully raising funding in the future will allow us to immediately plug and play a MUCH larger dataset (4.3 million macro locations) in the future.

Anyway, now that I don't have to spend months/years of my life aggregating all of this data I can get back to work on feature mechanics this week. Here's a sneak peak at some test data I used for the macro map designs - you're looking at the south eastern chunk of New York State (each color is a different county).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)