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5/5/08

As evident by the lack of site update, the last four months has 

seen a reduced amount of time devoted to developing SmokeJumpers

due to personal reasons.  However, work did progress but at a much 

slower pace.  A little over a week ago time devoted to SmokeJumpers

has increased and should get better as we go forward.  Progress has been

made on scoring & displaying the results of finishing a wildfire assignment.

More work on refining and tweaking the scoring is yet to be done as well as

improving wildfire responses to firelines.  In the screenshots section are some

new pictures of this progress.

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1/31/08

Good progress has been made in fixing bugs and correcting AI logic flaws.  Enough progress I thought to do some work on the Wildfire Assignment Results window.  As can be seen in the two screen shots of window examples below, the results are delivered through a TV field journalist reporting on the wildfire status.  This  will interject a human element as to what affects a wildfire has and the extraordinary efforts of fire fighters.  The  window includes a See Score button for the player to see a break down of the score for that particular assignment.  The score break down window is yet to come.

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12/30/07

The AI for the wildfires behavior is the key to the game play for SmokeJumpers.  How fast the wilfires move, how intense the different elements of fire are, which direction they will move and whether they will be stopped by handlines built by the smoke jumpers, by fire breaks made by aerial drops or by roads & creeks are all determined by the AI.  So, it's very important for making the game play challenging and fun for the player.  It's taking me longer to code the AI than I expected because it's more complexed than I had envisioned.  But, I'm almost there and once it's developed it will drive most of the wildfire assignment portions of the game.  When I get it completed enough to make the game play work, then I will move on to coding the determining if the smoke jumpers have completed the assignment and scoring it to award team & individual experience, leadership and public relations points.  Though coding of the AI is very important to the game, it's not very interesting to report on.

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12/20/07

Added a new section for Videos.  The first video

is titled Wildfire Assignment Game Play video.

It begins on the wildfire assignment screen and goes

to the wildfire location showing construction of 

handlines, some User Interface features and an 

aerial retardant drop.  To see video click on

VIDEOS

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Progress in the month of November was slow and undramatic.  The 

time has been spent refining, cleaning and debugging code for the

features at a wildfire scene that had already been added.  More work

on the code is needed as well as some work on the User Interface.  In the 

game section below is a screenshot of a retardant drop which has been added.

12/1/07

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The focus in October was on local support that becomes available

to the player such as fire engines and water drops by helicopters and 

fixed wing tankers.  In Level One the local support is not available

at the beginning of a wildfire assignment but depending upon the

assignment may become available after a delay.  See screen shots below

of this new features.

10/30/07

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Good progress was made in September.  The wildfire's behavior AI 

and the building & display of fire lines coding is in; as well as the

coding for determining if the fire lines will stop the wildfire's progress.

Also, the new User Interface has been added (see screen shots below).

A weather window display current wind speed, wind direction and 

humidity.  The weather window can be toggle with a tile information

window.  By holding down the Control button while right clicking

on a grid tile the terrain & fuel info is displayed.  If there's a structure

in the tile, that is displayed and if there are fires in the tile that information

is displayed.  10/2/07

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Screenshots Update

7/16/08

5/5/08

In the Base hub screens the Player can review individual's status and progress to the next rating level; as well as manage human resources.  Here's screen shots of before and after the results of completing a wildfire assignment:


Here are the two Wildfire Assignment screens:
 

1/31/08

12/1/07

Here's two types of fixed wing drops:

1030/07

When fire engine support becomes available its button is enabled and a short burst of a siren alerts the player

to its availability.  The player clicks on the support button and then selects a structure the fire engine is to be 

assigned.  The second screen shot shows the fire engine enroute to the structure protection assignment.

In Level One both air support and fire engines are not available on the same wildfire assignment.

When helicopter support becomes available the player is alerted by a helicopte sound effect.  The 

player clicks on the support button and the cursor turns to a target selector.  The player then locates

the location they want a drop and left clicks on the target.  The helicopter then flies in and makes a drop.

Finally the fixed wing tanker water drop increases the target coverage by one quad.  The player can toggle
between four different drop target cursor configurations.  Otherwise, it works the same as the helicopter drop.

10/2/07

Here's the new tile info & weather windows:

8/30/07

On selecting a fire line type on the hand radio UI, the cursor changes to fire line shape, Player selects

location and smoke jumpers move to selected spot & build fire line.  The Player then selects another

location for a joining fire line, and so on.

 Voila!  When smoke jumpers build this fire line, the wild fires are contained.  Of course, under certain circumstances, wild fires will jump over fire lines.  That's still under construction.

6/25/07

The squad of smoke jumpers move off to the wildfire.

Next they start building a hand line or fire break.

The fire line is built and time to move on to next task.  Time will tell if the fire line will stop 

the fire's progress or not.

5/26/07

First, we have an overview of the wildfire location map with the user interface on the left.

The Player selects one of three paths for the parachute jump run - starts the run and then initiates the jump cycle.  Notice the three path selectors; on in the upper right, one at middle right and the third at lower left.

Next, the Player starts the jump run - and then initiates the jump

The Player can visually track the smoke jumpers' parachute jump and then a green flag marks the location of the landing.  Also, this is used as a safe zone that smoke jumpers will rally after escaping a fast rushing fire.

Oops!  At least one smoke jumper was injured during the parachute landing.  Note the white flag with a red cross at landing location.  The scroll down arrow to the right of the hand radio readout indicates more than one smoke jumper was injured.

Soon the actualy fighting of the wildfire will be developed and then the smoke jumpers can wrap and return to base.

Check back soon!

4/26/07

Developing the wildfire behavior and display on screen has taken longer than expected.  SmokeJumpers is progressing nicely and my hope is soon to have an alpha demo of Level One ready.  Attached are screenshots of wildfire patterns without any attempts to stop the wildfire advancement.  Wildfire behavior is not just a random pattern.  Wildfire behavior is affected by the environment, e.g. wind direction, wind speed, temperature and humidity.  Also affecting the behavior is the fuel, e.g. type – grass only, brush, small trees, large trees or conifer; grade – fine, medium or coarse and fuel moisture.  Last but not least, terrain – flat, up or down hill, up or down slope or up or down steep grade.  These factors affect the wildfires movement direction & speed, the intensity of the wildfires and whether adjoining fuel will be ignited spreading the wildfire.

2/1/07

New Resource Management Screens

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"Wildfire Assignment Game Play Video"

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http://www.garagegames.com/

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Questions or comments regarding SmokeJumpers can be sent to: Vronsoftware@dslextreme.com