Archipelago - Update 0.6 - Player Dashboard plus Forests and Ironwo...

A new set of features for Archipelago - the seafaring and trading turn-based strategy game that I have been working on. Full details of the project and previous updates can be found at the end of this contribution post.

You can find the current state of the game here:
https://miniature-tiger.github.io/archipelago/

New Features covered by this Contribution

A larger update for v0.6 focusing on the player dashboard on the left hand panel. The aim of the dashboard is to allow the player to see the state of their board pieces at a glance. Once resources and production are added a future development of the dashboard will also allow the player to drill down into each piece and plan for future trades and construction based on output.

The dashboard is fully dynamic, updating as the board status changes, with new categories and piece types added automatically as soon as the player constructs or uncovers them. Newly developed (i.e coded) board pieces simply have to be added to the list in the pieceTypes array to be automatically available for inclusion in the dashboard.

The dashboard required a new stockTake method to be developed which counts the pieces of each player on the board at the end of each move.

Two new board pieces - Forests and Ironworks - were also designed and added to the board. These will produce wood and iron necessary for ship building.

Creation of player dashboard on left hand panel

As described above, a fully dynamic dashboard was added to the left hand panel. Each board piece has been assigned to a category (Settlements / Transport / Resources) within the "pieceTypes" array and the dashboard automatically allocates each piece to the appropriate category and type.

Sample pictures of the dashboard are included below:

Screen Shot 2018-03-22 at 22.54.53.png

The dashboard is covered by the following commit:
https://github.com/miniature-tiger/archipelago/pull/18/commits/c13aa6102d60f36d0a04cd76bed1ad9a98e0bcca

The main javascript coding for this section can be found in the new file dashboard.js in particular the method "drawStock". The createActionTile method in board.js was also reworked to allow non-board tiles to be added as icons to the dashboard.

Addition of stockTake method

The building of the dashboard required a new stockTake method to be developed which counts the pieces of each player at the end of each move.

Sample output from the method can be seen below.

This stockTake method is covered by the following commit:
https://github.com/miniature-tiger/archipelago/pull/15/commits/cf5958ccc7de64d18ad8062da39092e935321d96

The javascript coding for the method was moved into a new javascript file: dashboard.js after this commit was added.

Forest and Ironworks tiles added

Two new board pieces - Forests and Ironworks - were designed and added to the board. These will produce wood and iron necessary for ship building. The designs can be seen below.

These new tiles are covered by the following commit:
https://github.com/miniature-tiger/archipelago/pull/16/commits/c5583de843e01904ec430d8f13fce9b9dd445d2e

The coding is mainly the CSS design (which takes ages!) with a few lines of javascript to place the new tiles on the board.

That is all for this update. If you have any queries please drop them in the comments or contact me on discord.

Details of the Archipelago Project

What is the Project About?

Archipelago is a new project that I have been working on. The aim is to develop a seafaring and trading turn-based strategy game. Players will guide their ships around the islands, searching for goods to aid construction of ships and their bases, trading with the central market and each other, and avoiding hazards like pirates and whirlpools.

Technology Stack

The project is a browser based game:

Mechanics: Javascript
Visuals: HTML and CSS initially but will be revisited later once I'm happy with the basic gameplay

Previous Updates

0.1 Setting up the initial game board and website structure for the game:
@miniature-tiger/archipelago-a-seafaring-and-trading-turn-based-strategy-game
0.2 Adding ships and ship movement
@miniature-tiger/archipelago-a-seafaring-and-trading-turn-based-strategy-game-adding-ships-and-ship-movement
0.3 - Compass added, wind changes, multiple piece movements, game surround
@miniature-tiger/archipelago-update-to-0-3-compass-added-wind-changes-multiple-piece-movements-game-surround-updated
Update 0.4 - Ship transition effects and direction
@miniature-tiger/archipelago-update-0-4-ship-transition-effects-and-direction-plus-minor-updates
Update 0.5 - Icon bar updates and settings panel
@miniature-tiger/archipelago-update-0-5-icon-bar-updates-and-settings-panel

Roadmap

For the short term roadmap the first main goal is to get ships on the board moving at different speeds under the influence of the compass. As this is mainly complete with just a few more steps required work has already begun on the second stage which is land squares and goods discovery including the player dashboards.

Board and ship movement:

Board set up - COMPLETE
Basic ship creation: functionality and graphics - COMPLETE
Manual ship movement and board updating - COMPLETE
Basic compass creation: functionality and graphics - COMPLETE
Turn based activity of ship movement - COMPLETE
Logic of length of longer moves around obstacles
Chaining together transitions to allow graphics of longer moves
Refactoring to allow CSS transitions layer above "refresh" layer

Land Squares and goods discovery:

Resource tiles (forest, iron, flax, gold etc) - in progress
Dashboard of player pieces - in progress
Summaries of produce and populations and functioning for each Resource

The long term roadmap is still to be fully fleshed out but includes:

Building: (recipes, times etc)
Contracts for delivery:
Islands (naming: for describing location ot pieces, trading settlements)
Central trading centre:
Conflicts:
Pirates:
Scoring:

Contact / Contribute

You can get in touch with me on discord if you would like to contribute.