This is basically a help-wanted add

If you are someone who checks in on us occasionally and want to Play Clash asap, please consider making a committment in one of the highlighted areas below. Or ask about other opportunities. We are moving forward, but the progress is Much slower than we'd like. If you think you have the time and interest, come help us make a truly revolutionary game!

We currently have almost no discussion about military aspects of the game . And I am coding up that model for Demo 5 now, so discussion there is Especially appropriate.

We've been mostly without artists for quite some time, and that is another area that needs to get going. We don't want to have an ugly game!

And of course we are perenially in need of java programmers.

Check out the top post in the forum if you are new, and would like to see more info about us.

Thanks for responding to the "call to Clash" We can always use help!

There is a variety of things you could do that would contribute seriously to the military model. Just go ahead and start on whenever you think looks like the most fun! I will rank them in order of what I perceive as the most useful at this point.

1. Go over most of the military model with a "fresh eyes" approach. First looking for big issues like the potential for lousy gameplay or extremely unrealistic things. I think the gameplay is more important at this point, because big realism problems can probably be fixed with patches at a later date. Whereas, if it ain't fun, it's very hard to make it so with tweaks. The first thing I would like you to look at would be the "ticks" model for strategic movement. That's because it is what I am coding up now, so suggestions would be most timely there. There are references to where you find info on it at the end of the military III thread. After that I would like to hear your criticism on the model that Harli and Krenski worked out that I think you are already somewhat familiar with. Just follow the links to that model in the military III thread. You can recognize them because the links are to the names of the pages, which are Units, Scouting, Maneuver, and assault.

2. Nearly as important as the stuff above would be to work on models that are consistent with our philosophy to cover things like naval power and airpower. Krenski seemed to have something in mind for naval power, but it's going to be at least two months before he gets back to Clash. So if those things are of interest to you it would be a good time to start putting models out to discuss. But before you put real details into a model, I think you should post on the forum about the general outlines just to see if it catches the excitement at least of those of us who are interested in things military.

3. If you like the Harli/Krenski model, start putting numbers on some historical element and unit types. It's a bit unfortunate that your interest is at the modern end, because the first thing we willbe putting in the demo is the ancient military stuff. Nonetheless, that would be a useful thing to get going against the day when we are actually ready to handle a modern military.

4. Feel free to suggest something that you think would be the most fun. I think it's important that you do something that you're really interested in, or you will quickly tire of it.

1. Obviously the graphics set is being worked on. I checked out the Map Graphics section on the Clash site and agree the tileset should have a "subdued" feel to it (that was EXACTLY what I was thinking when I first opened the program). The tileset is too grainy right now, and in the Demo4 the "new" tileset was not better than the original because there was too much white in the water tiles (froth?). I suggest the water have a plain light or dark blue, maybe a slight gradient. The mountains look cool, keep 'em. The most pressing problems in the graphics in my mind are the villages (UGH), plains, and military units.

2. JAVA PEOPLE, JAVA! You should DEFINITELY take advantage of the cross-platform capability of Java. So far I only saw a Windows version extraction file. Don't let this advantage slip through your fingers!

3. The message box is too annoying. Messages should be put on the left hand side of the screen as icons like they are in Civ 3: CTP. If that's too hard for now there should be an elongated window where those icons can "pop up". The message box could be used for project status updates from the Internet?

4. I'm not even gonna mention the GUI, I'm sure that's being worked on.

5. Finally, I saw some diplomacy screenshots. I'm sure this is just a small portion of the whole government model, but adjusting the policies of the governors is just not realistic. You could adjust your own policies and have mostly governors that like your policies (but dont follow them EXACTLY) run for office (wait, am I getting into democracy?). However, you see my point.

Good work! Keep it up!

Just a quickie response, since this isn't really the place to discuss these things in detail...

Graphics: Agree with most of what you said. I encourage you to find the most recent graphics discussion thread (it'd be Old) off the web page if you want to cover these issues further.

Java: We will use its cross-platform capabilities, the windows extractor was due to a problem in netscape when directly downloading the jar file.

Have you checked out the Beast?
http://home.austin.rr.com/lostmerchant/Clash/Editor/ClashEditor.html

It is the product of F_Smith's attempt to code the social/government models, integrated into a scenario editor. There is a thread about it somewhere in the forum, you could check it out if you don't understand what it's all about.

There are other goodies in the website as well, f.e. some very interesting spreadsheets, if you're interested in game mechanics.

Successful candidate needs good Java skills and probably at least 5-10 hours per week to work on Tech.

We also still are in desperate need of several artists, esp for tile and unit graphics.

I am very much interested in the tech part, unless someone has snagged it already, and I should easily be able to devote 5-10 hours a week to the project. (I estimate it might be another week until I have read up on all the info available, and skimmed the code enough to feel at home in it.)

We could really use a wordsmith type for several things:
-Working on teaser blurbs and short summaries for the website
-In a bit we'll need someone to write text for the gui
-Someone really dedicated could sumarize old threads and post the synopsis on the webpage!

We could also use more:

artists / art kibbitzers

someone to work on refining the military model, esp relating to navy/air forces

and we can Always use another dedicated java coder...

I would be interested in joining the Clash team as a Java programmer. I'm currently attending college in a computer programmer analyst course. Please email me if I can be of any help.

I offered to help before when I finish my exams(May 24th). I am about to graduate with a MSci in Maths and Comp Sci. I am a very competent programmer (Java and C++) and have a lot of theoretical knowledge on CS as well. I am not going to be a pro coder but want to do stuff in my spare time. I love civ games and think this one looks cool. I am eager to do some coding. So if anyone has anything for me to do contact me tjawatts@hotmail.com

I have a couple of comments :
Firstly the website not working in Netscape is really getting on my nerves.
Secondly, why is there problems running demos in OSs other than windows? You are programming in Java!!! Surely it should work on any machine with a JRE 2. I havent tried it yet myself but I will do and perhaps portability is something I can look into?

Tony

Welcome to the project! Dom fixed the website, so that shouldn't plague you anymore. I think your looking into portability would be great. I just don't know Anything about other OSs, so the more you can give directions for, the better. But I still think we will get resistance from some to downloading the jre. Lets continue this discussion in the general coding thread. I'll cross-post the relevant parts of this there.