Commander X16

Hi all,

I've realised that the majority of the game action takes place via the message window. Quiet Isle is leaning more towards text adventure, with strategy / resource management playing more of a supporting role.  So I've pinched a few rows from the main hexes window to give me more space for the player's stats/progress/feedback etc. 

I've finalised the encumbrance mechanic for carrying resources. It's a hybrid weight/size system - your backpack fills up as you collect food / wood / stone. Larger things take more space and so you can't carry as much of it. So for example, carrying 1 unit of stone take up 16 "slots" of backpack space, whereas 1 unit of bread only takes up 4 slots, or 1 unit of seeds takes up 1 slot. The total number of slots allowed in the backpack is 255 (1 byte - how handy!) so the player has to make decisions as to how much of each kind of resource to carry around. 

I've also added a couple of new mechanics:

- experience points :  combat will be an element of the game, requiring the player to fight monsters to advance in levels in order to be able to complete the game. It'll be quite basic (health/attack/defence stats only) but I've not yet completely finalised how it will be implemented. I've allocated vram for 16x16 monster graphics and three x 8kb bank memory slots for monster descriptions which gives me space for 108 different types of monster!  Sadly given my spectacular lack of animation skills the fights I'm pretty sure will have to be text described, taking place via the message window.

- days elapsed : the game now keeps tabs on how many days you've spent in the game (in-game days, not real-life days!), and specific timed events will take place after a certain number of days no matter what the player has achieved, requiring them to get their move on and not just harvest wheat for weeks on end, this ain't Stardew Valley!!! ?



That's all for now, here's how it's looking after the interface re-hash: