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News – September 17^th, 2008

Imperium: Sticks is back under active development! After a three month leave, we're back working on the project and hope to have new code and artwork up and ready soon. Please feel free to drop any of us a line with code, comments, or anything at all. Can't promise we'll respond *quickly*, but respond we will!

Thanks for trying the game out, and hope to hear from the people out there!

Special thanks again go out to qubodup...this game wouldn't be the same without you, mate!

News – August 5^th, 2008

Imperium: Sticks is on hiatus! The project isn't dead, but will be dormant until sometime in late September, early October. Please check back in late November for the next release.

News – June 11^th, 2008

The latest version of Imperium: Sticks is out. The biggest new feature of this release is the support of 8-directional sprites, although the female worker is the only unit animated 8 ways as yet. This release also fixes some bugs and makes improvements to the granular pathfinder and obstacle avoidance, although this is a fairly shaky release, so I'm certain there are some fairly major bugs hidden below the surface.

Yes, this is Imperium: Sticks - Vista.

Please let me know of any bugs that you find (caerwyn AT users.sourceforge.net) so I can eliminate them in the next release.

News – May 8^th, 2008

Well, it seems that drawing and animating eight-directional sprites, even with Daz doing most of the heavy lifting is taking *far* longer than I expected. I'll be releasing a new version of Imperium: Sticks soon, but the only updated sprite will be the stage1 female worker unit, plus some minor bug fixes. Unless someone can take over the generation of the sprites, this will be the format for the next couple of months; one or two units completed with minor upgrades to the game. 'Course, part of the slowdown this release was just me learning how to use Daz and Blender, so even if no one steps forward (anyone?), things should start to move faster in the future.

News – April 1^st, 2008

Work is now underway on reworking the unit sprites to eight-directional movement. As you can expect, work on this is *bloody* slow, but constant. In order to keep the perspectives proper and the movement smooth and fluid (you can't imagine how many attempts were made and tossed in the last four weeks), I've switched to 3D modelling applications, specifically Blender to create props and Daz Studio to animate them and the figures they thoughtfully provide. Blender's great (but what a learning curve!) for modelling all sorts of stuff, and Daz is invaluable for proper figure movement and motion.
Due to the length of time it takes to properly model a prop, I'm needing more time than usual for this next release. If anyone has any pose animations (15 frames or so), or props they'd like to share, please let me know at caerwyn AT users.sourceforge.net, if you would. That would help enormously. I'm mostly needing building, farming, and fighting animations and props for the near future.
Thanks to all!

News – March 3^rd, 2008

Version 0.1.4 of Imperium: Sticks is out. This version fixes most of the bugs introduced in version 0.1.3, features a greatly improved granular pathfinder, sound and artwork upgrades courtesy of qubodup, a rework of the windowing management piece (and a big thanks to nikosgr for the heads up!), and a rework of the audio and technology components for easier addition of new techs and sounds.
The sprite updates have been pushed back to v0.1.5 due to issues with my total inability to handle sprite perspectives. :)
As always, feedback wanted! Email me at caerwyn AT users.sourceforge.net and let me know what you think! A response may be a littlei slow in coming due to a pretty full schedule this and the next few months, but I *will* answer.

News – February 21^st, 2008

Version 0.1.4 is nearly ready to go; I'm just creating new 8-directional unit sprites for the worker units. Once completed, work to seriously add content to the game will begin, as most of the pathfinding bugs are (I think) eliminated.

News – January 21^st, 2008

Version 0.1.4 of Imperium: Sticks is again underway; there hasn't been much done for the last month due to the holidays and other happenings. This version will feature the new unit perspectives used for all future units, and most of all the bugs introduced in v0.1.3 fixed.

News – December 19^th, 2007

Version 0.1.3 of Imperium: Sticks is out. This version fixes some bugs (thanks, guys, for posting the bug reports), and adds unit cost modifiers based on gender preferences, the base civilization traditions (whether your civ prefers to train men or women, Ancient Greeks or Amazons, so to speak), and more updated artwork (thanks again to qubodup and tijutiju!). It also adds livestock units and some more (not not complete) text translations to French.

This release adds a fair bit of new code, so a lot of it will be buggy. A list of known bugs in this release can be found through the bugs link on the left, others will no doubt crop up. One of the biggest is the fact that units will not harvest the chickens produced at the Stockyard - not sure why yet, but that'll be fixed before the next version's out. Features in the next release will include game window resizing using the maximize button if I can, working game resolution modifications, volume adjustment, statusbar hiding (work on that was started in this release - I *still* haven't forgotten, Brian), updated artwork for mobile units, rework of the tech advancement system so tech discoveries are syncronized across the network, and maybe...just maybe...working obstacle avoidance.

News – November 28^th, 2007

Version 0.1.3 of Imperium: Sticks is just about ready to go. Once cleanup of file locations and some more cleanup of hard-coded English text is taken care of, I'll be uploading the next release. This version will feature art updates to everything but the worker units, more language cleanup and translations, the implementation of the first of the gender-based societal choices (in that preferring a particular gender lowers the cost of those units but increases the cost of the others - this will be refined in the future), the Stockyard and livestock units, and code changes to the game which make it easier to add features. Thanks to qubodup for some excellent advice and artwork! Thanks, mate!

News – November 7^th, 2007

Version 0.1.2 of Imperium: Sticks has been released. This version features updates to the map, fixing all missing map tiles, adding rivers and deep-sea tiles to the map. As well, map tile assignments have changed from a basic land/water check to a height check.
As well, more game options have been added to control the amount of data displayed on the minimap, the minimap display itself has been corrected, and metal and gold sprites have been updated. Some minor improvements to the game UI have also been added.
Movements bugs have not been addressed as yet, but obstacle avoidance is actively being worked on.

News – October 23^rd, 2007

Version 0.1.1 of Imperium: Sticks has been released. Progress has been made on obstacle avoidance, and is in the process of being rewritten. The AI has been disabled in this release to avoid crashes during obstacle avoidance loops. This version also includes many bugfixes, a reversion of the map to a square-tile system, and enhancements to the technology tree.

News – October 19^th, 2007

The reversion back to a square tile-based engine was completed some time ago, but it looks as though movement and pathfinding has grown too complex and sprawled to be managable. Version 0.1.1 of Imperium: Sticks will be released in the next week, and then the movement portion of Imperium: Sticks is going to be reviewed and rewritten where applicable.
It looks as though I have too many conditionals spread over too many places (see for yourself - action.c ,sprite.c, move.c ,and event.c are the worst offenders), so I'm going to spend a few days charting out the logical flow and moving/rewriting as needed.
Movement bugs seem to be the last major problem with the game, so once they're under control, I can concentrate on content.
Any ideas on how to improve this subsystem really appreciated.

News – September 25^th, 2007

Due to ongoing issues with collision detection, obstacle avoidance, and unit placement, Imperium: Sticks is being reverted back to a square-tile map from isometric. Conversion in the engine should be complete by the end of the week, map images should be complete by the end of the first week of October. Once completed, I'll be releasing v0.1.1, then tackling once and for all the remaining obstacle avoidance issues plaguing Imperium: Sticks.
As always, contributions are welcome, in any form: artwork, sounds, code improvement, units, whatever.

News – September 11^th, 2007

Version 0.1 of Imperium: Sticks is finished! It's been a long three years, but the first milestone version is released into the wild. Imperium: Sticks now contains basic function in all core subsystems: video, sound, network, AI, Game UI, technology pathing, multilingual messaging, pathfinding, civilization structures.
For the next few point releases, I'll be concentrating on adding more game options (volume adjustment, civilization choices), setting up scalable tiles and units (some of the stick figures are *awfully* tiny to look at), and multiple font choices.
As well, I'll be adding some new units, and working towards releasing a more fully playable game, as right now most of the content is concept content, drawn to show off what the game can do now, not necessarily where it will be going.
I have to say that since I feel that this game is at a state right now only deserving a 0.1 versioning, that this program will, I expect, become quite large towards v1.0. The goal, as always, is to have options to do just about everything, while allowing folks to use just as many as they're comfortable with.

And as always, I can be reached at caerwyn AT users.sourceforge.net. Drop me a line anytime to let me know what you think of the game, offer suggestions, advice or comments, or whatever.

News – August 9^th, 2007

The next version of Imperium: Sticks is out. This version has a completely redone start screen, replacing the old placeholder. I've also started splitting text out of the game to be replaced with description handlers to allow for more languages than just English, and added some French as a partial translation.

Most of the segfaults that I've seen have been eliminated – the game's pretty stable now, except for the “units stuck in other units” bug, which (I know I've said this before, but I got sidetracked with internationalization issues) should be tracked down and eliminated by the next release. The next release should be available in mid-September.

Don't expect too much, though. Some complete bastard gave me a copy of Dungeon Siege, and that's chewing up way too much time. Bleedin' hell. Yeah, I know that game's five years old, but I almost never play games, so what the 'ell, eh?

A binary package for OSX is in the works; if anyone knows of a quick and simple tutorial for PackageBuilder under OSX, can you send the link my way? That'd help a lot.

News – June 29^th, 2007

Well, I'm well into the summer slowdown working on Imperium: Sticks, same as last year. Currently, I'm redesigning the start screen, replacing that placeholder I've been using for more than a year, and working on a binary package for Mac OS X. Also, I'm hoping to eliminate the unit-stuck-in-objects bug before the next release. It's looking as though sound support is not in the cards before August, so I'll be releasing the next version as v0.0.11.

A developer section for the website is in progress as well.

News - June 6^th, 2007

Version 0.0.10 has been released for Linux and Windows, and I'm working on packaging a Mac OSX binary for distribution as well.

Work on the next release will include basic(!) sound support (axesmash A, axesmash B, bird call type of thing), elimination of the segfaults that occur when a unit dies, and, hopefully, elimination of instances when a unit stops out of effective range to harvest a resource...but then tries to gather that resource anyway.

Thanks to Ryan S. for the bug reports. You know who you are, mate!

Also, the start screen that the game currently uses is in the middle of being replaced with a better design. The old start screen was a proof of concept that just never got replaced; hopefully by version 0.1.1 I'll have a better-looking and more intuitive screen in place. Same lousy artwork, though. Sorry, folks.

Also, a mailing list is enabled; as soon as I get folks signed up for it, I'll be using it for announcements and whatnot. A developer link will also be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

And, as always, bug reports, ideas, feature requests, or even just a “Hi! I tried your game.” can be sent to me at:

caerwyn AT users.sourceforge.net.

News – May 29^th, 2007

Version 0.0.10 will be released in a day or so. I've decided to release version 0.0.10 rather than another 0.1 snapshot as I feel that the changes made to this version warrant a full version designation.

Changes for this version include new sliding status panels for greater flexibility down the road. While it's true that the panels look ugly now, down the road I hope to have better looking bitmaps that can be used in place of the solid colours I have now, and better looking buttons. The core functionality is there, though.

As well, the technology tree has been reworked so that the tree is no longer a linear tree. Every technology now has a probability of discovery every year, providing all prerequisites have been met. Prerequisites can include older technology, researched technology, use of resources, use of certain units, or what have you. The skeleton is there; just about anything can be used as a flag now.

Version 0.1 will be the version that includes sound support. It may seem arbitrary, but isn't; version 0.1 will be a complete basic engine (not necessarily a flawless engine, mind you), and sound is about the last subsystem to implement. It isn't hard; I just haven't recorded any sounds yet to use in the game. That is top priority, though, for the next month or so.

As well, I intend to implement one of the basic sociological structures of the game – I have split the sticks into male and female units, and starting in version 0.1, the units the player chooses to use will determine the society type as a patriarchy, matriarchy, or gender neutral society, with advantages and disadvantages to either side. More details will follow soon.

And, as always, bug reports, ideas, feature requests, or even just a “Hi! I tried your game.” can be sent to me at:

caerwyn AT users.sourceforge.net.

Graphics and sounds always appreciated! There's no real set-in-stone graphics dimensions yet, so send 'em on in!