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Welcome to the website of the Plasma Empire Building Game. 'Empire Building Game' is a tempory name given to the game until we make enough of the game to decide on a proper name. EBG is the abbrieviation given to it. The EBG is one of the current projects of Plasma. If you are interested in the specification of the Game, see below for the PDF specification.
One of the best ways to see what the EBG is like these days is to download the binaries for your system. Currently there is support for Win32 (Direct X) and Linux (X windows). The Binaries are freely distributable, testing is encouraged on a multiple platforms platforms (as supported). Snapshots are released weekly, and bugs [or requested features] are reported through Bugzilla.
Source is only available privately to Plasma via CVS. Source is under the Plasma Private License. [link to PPL later]. However once the game is more advanced an Open Source License will be considered as a viable option.
It should be noted that version 0.30 - also known as Preview Release 1 is not released yet, but is near completion. If you want to suggest features and bug fixes please add them to Bugzilla, (un-useable) and wait for them to be assigned to people. Stay tuned to this website for the launch of EBG PR1.
Go the the Binary Snapshot page, for releases, more documentation and information.
This project includes the following people:
Project Leader
Konstanty
Programming:
Konstanty (thekon/metaplasma)
Ashley (hAhAsPlAt)
John (Ko)
Kristan (Wolfchild)
Dylan (Mithrandir)
Graphic Artists:
John (Wave3D/CyLeX) - [Lead Graphics Artist]
Aidan (Pyro)
Building/Unit List:
Dan (elf) - [Concepts]
Owen (hetfield) - [Concepts]
Music/Sound FX:
Ed (Edz)
An empire building game with views in OpenGL (3D), Isometric (quasi 3D), and top view 2D. Currently only the isometric engine is mature enough to be played. The 2D view is visible in EBG-dev (for AI development).
In all viewing modes multiple resolutions will be possible. However the sizes of images/objects on the screen will be scaled at run time such that some resolutions do not suffer from extremely large or extremely small pictures.
The game will go through time and will have raw materials as the source of wealth. Not Primarily money (as in Red Alert/Warcraft etc). To build buildings you need wood from trees, stone from the ground etc. Also People will be an important element, such that without a person unit you cannot control a vehicle etc.
The game is close to the 0.30 "Milestone" which will be marked as Preview Release 1. The latest release now features a network core and games can be "shared" between many people - the word "shared" is used as there are no opponents - everyone can move anything on the map etc.
In the previous main release the template maker was made obsolete as images are rescaled at run-time be the game engine.
In order to make doucmentation easier some "UML" like diagrams of the game class structure have been made - and are available on the EBG-doc updates page. The code is made in C++ - and many modules are now being shared between EBG-main, EBG-networkserver and EBG-dev.
The collection of images currently seen in EBG are made by Wave3D/CyLeX. These images have come from the list by the two concept people hetfield and elf. For a while the game has supported tiles of all dimensions, and it is possible to make use of 3 "modes", select building, build building, and move "units". There are no units drawn at this time so currently the image used is the hut tile.
With the network layer now complete - opponents are the next feature to be added in the next release. While this feature is being added more of the AI implemented in EBG-dev will be ported across.
Also, the OpenGL viewing engine needs to be finished. Currently it consists mainly of an LWO object loader. The 2D viewing mode will be ported from EBG-dev.
Some more User Interface related tasks need to be done. And the graphics for the game (buildings etc) needs to be drawn.
The story line is something that will also need to be finalised (although it has been started in Bug 40. (see old bugzilla).