1) Spend time at a soup kitchen.
and
2) Create and release a videogame that meets my personal standards.

I haven't missed a new years resolution in my life and I don't plan on starting now.

In case you haven't guessed, this thread is about the second resolution. I work best under pressure and with 20 days to go I'd say the pressure is on.

This thread will have links to the game in progress. I'm not depending on anyone else on this game aside from myself. Feedback will be listened to and taken into account, but I'm not setting myself to be dependent on any external resources. The UI may look like shit, but the game will work.

In an attempt to justify its existence, the Institute of Zombie Research managed to create an aggressive infectious zombie. The zombie infected some of the staff who in turn infected part of your population. Your city is now under quarantine and your people are scared.

Aardvark is your city and your responsibility. The world is looking to you. Will you become a hero or let the world down?

Winning Conditions:
Your team needs to restore the town to a working condition. People need to be able to go to their jobs normally and the economy needs to function like it did before the disaster.

Every game will have two random victory conditions. Either condition may be met to win the game.
Example:
- Create a research center. Capture ten zombies for a cure. Manufacture the cure in a hospital. Distribute the cure.
- Arm all citizens with every weapon and heart monitors. Requires the Heart Monitor karma action.

Losing Conditions:
If you run out of any resource, you lose the game. If the game lasts past the third cycle, you lose the game.

Resources:
Population - This signifies the number of living people in the game. When this resource reaches 0 you lose the game. The military will have no choice but to firebomb the city to prevent the zombie menace from spreading. This is the hardest resource to get back. Please note that 0 population doesn't mean you are out of people, it just means that the population is overrun enough to be marked off as a loss.
Morale - This signifies the morale of the city. This is a combination of hope, belief in the status quo, and your ability to maintain it. When Morale reaches 0 society has reached a sate of anarchy beyond your control. This is a difficult resource to get back.
Funding - This signifies the amount of physical resources your town has. It can be spent to the players advantage, but if it ever reaches 0 you won't have the ability to provide basic services, such as clean water and power. Funding is replenished every turn, but is still in limited supply. When funding reaches 0 you will be in breach and future funds will be suspended until the overrun is justified. Your city will plunge into chaos as red tape prevents food drops.

World:
The world is a 4x4 or 5x5 grid containing one building (or clearing) per space and any number of units per space. Some advanced buildings use more than one space.

Turns:
Every turn a player has four actions. He or she can perform any action listed on his character card as well as any action listed on his/her current location.

Turn order:
- Player uses his/her actions
- Player draws a card from the disaster deck
- Combat occurs if applicable (including zombie movement)

Unit types:
There are five types of units.
- Players. Player units represent the player. This is the most powerful type of unit.
- Population. This signifies a group of Joe and Jane citizens. They are counting on you to help them survive. They are the worst combat unit, but can be trained an upgraded.
- Zombies. Mindless ravenous killing machines. Zombies are infected citizens. They are poor in combat but can convert population into zombies.
- Looters. Opportunistic population. Unlike Zombies, the looters don't actually want to hurt anyone, they just want their stuff. Looters attack the following units for funding - population, players, and other looters. Looters do not destroy units upon a successful attack - they only steal funding. Looters do not attack zombies, but can be turned into zombies. If a looter is killed or turned into a zombie, lose one population.
- Special units. Certain cards require a unit to represent them. For example, the "This is what we signed up for" karma card summons a volunteer military unit with special rules as described on the card.

Note that there are more population units than population resources. This is intentional.

Combat Phase:
Order of attack:
Combat occurs in the following order, from first to last
- Armed units (hit on ?-6 depending on weapon)
- Zombies (hit on 5-6)
- Unarmed units (hit on 6)

Units in the same category attack at the same time. Looters are always considered unarmed.

Each unit may only attack once per combat phase. If there are multiple valid targets, the player may choose which target gets attacked. For example, if there is a zombie, a player, and three population in one square, the player may chose to have the zombie attack the population instead of herself/himself.

Zombies:
- A successful attack against a zombie kills it unless a special card says otherwise.
- A successful attack by a zombie turns the target victim into a zombie.
- If a Population or Looter is turned into a zombie, lose one population resource and replace that unit with a Zombie.
- If a Player is turned into a Zombie, lose 1 morale and 1 funding. That player loses his/her next turn and starts a new character of the Intern type.
- Zombies may never attack other zombies.

Looters
- Looters never attack a zombie. The current player choses the direction a looter flees if a zombie attacks the looter.
- If a looter successfully attacks a player, population, or another looter, lose one funding resource. The attacked unit is not affected directly.
- If a player or population successfully attacks a looter while unarmed, remove the looter token from the game.
- If a player or population successfully attacks a looter while armed, remove the looter token from the game and lose one population resource.
- If a zombie successfully attacks a looter, turn the looter into a zombie and lose one population.

Population
- Population automatically attack zombies and looters. If a population is armed with a weapon, it will use it unless the current player says that they will not.
- If a population unit is killed or turned into a zombie, lose one population resource. Remember that looters do not kill population.

Players
- If a player uses actions to attack, this is done before the combat phase. The player will participate in the combat phase in addition to any actions taken, even attack actions.
- Players attack at the end of the turn as normal automatically.
- If a player is successfully attacked by a zombie, that player turns into a zombie and you lose one morale resource. That player loses his/her actions next turn and comes back as an intern.

Zombie Movement:
If there is no living being in a square that a zombie occupies at the end of combat, it moves. This occurs even if it attacked this turn.

Every tile has a unique random number between 1 and 6 assigned to each direction. (For example, Up, right, down, left could be represented by 2,1,3,4). The current player rolls a d4 after combat and all zombies move in their appropriate directions. If the number rolled does not exist on a tile, then the zombies on that tile do not move.

Actions:
(Character cards have a combination of 4 to 5 actions, depending on their character card)
Standard actions (most character cards have these actions):
- Move. A character may move one square.
- Attack. A character may attack a zombie in his/her current square. Hits on a 6. (Note: If a character has a weapon, he/she would be better off using the weapon's action instead)

Character-Card specific actions:
- Petition for funding (Spend two actions for one funding)
- Demolish (Destroy the current building and turn it into empty lot. See Demolish section for details)
- Apply for permit (May turn empty lot into construction site)
- Build (May put build tokens on construction site to turn into building).
- Rapid building (May spend any number of funding resources in exchange for build actions). Example: One rapid building action and 5 funding resources is the same as five normal build actions.
- Karma building (Get one Karma token. 5 karma tokens can be exchanged for a Karma card, which goes on top of the disaster deck).

Weapon-Specific Actions:
- Shotgun. Standard attack, but hits on a 3-6 instead of a 5-6.
- Assault Rife. Two attacks that hit on a 5-6.
- Sniper Rifle. Free attack on any zombie enering the current square. Hits only on a 6.
- Handgun. Hits on a 5-6.

General Buildings:
Residential:
Description: Most buildings are residential buildings. They house your population and are vulnerable to zombie attack and looters.
Special: By default, every residential building is filled with 3 population tokens.
Actions:
- Spend 2 funding to activate increased capacity (can hold up to 5 population without losing morale)
- Sweep and clean (Will not spawn random zombies for 5 more turns)

Mayor's Office:
Description: This allows players access to critical skills needed to win the game that may not be in their cards. Some of these are redundant with character cards. The only difference is if your character has this action on a card you do not need to be at the mayer's officer to perform it.
- Apply for building permit.
- Request the military perform an air-strike on a building for 2 funding. This is the same as the demolish action.

Distribution center:
Description: The military airdrops food and equipment onto distribution centers and the police distribute them.
Actions:
- If a player has equipment with a "distribution" option, he/she may pay the pend the funding cost (as well as one action) to distribute the item to the population. For example, the handgun has a distribution cost of (Population: 7 Players: 4). If the player has a handgun and is on a distribution center, a player may spend an action and 7 funding to distribute handguns to the population. Population units would then be considered armed with a handgun. The player may then spend another action and 4 more funding to arm all the players with the handgun as well.

Hospital:
Description: You need to know the difference between who is really sick and who is infected.
Special: Hospitals can be used to hold units like a residential unit and are just as susceptible to zombie and looter attack. Hospitals always have a capacity of 5.
Actions:
- Stop one random zombie from appearing during the disaster phase at the end of the current turn.
- Spend five funding to upgrade to a heliport

Hospital with heliport:
As hospital but with the following action
- Move player anywhere for 1 funding.

Research Center:
Description: One of the ways to win the game. Can find a cure to the infection.
Special: If you have a research center, a player (and only a player) may perform an unarmed attack on a zombie to capture it. A player may capture any number of zombies at once.
Actions:
- Research. The current player places a captured zombie token onto the research center.
- Find a cure. Remove ten captured zombie tokens from the research center for the cure equipment. Any player may then pick up the cure equipment for free at any hospital. The cure equipment may be distributed at a distribution center to win the game.
- Advanced buildings. Spend 20 funding to draw an advanced building card.

Advanced Buildings
Every game starts with two advanced building cards. You can only petition to build advanced building cards that are in play.

Police Station:
The police station is built to deal with looters and keep the peace
Special: Rubber bullets. You no longer lose a population when using weapons against looters.
Actions: - None

Aid station:
This allows any a character to generate karma
Special: None
Actions
- Karma Building

Underground:
This is a shady building run by unsavory characters.
Special: You may chose to lose morale or population instead of funding when looters attack. Looters now attack zombies.
Special: Players may now make unarmed attacks against population for funding at the cost of morale or population.

Characters:
Users start with the 4 basic character types and can unlock new characters for 50xp each

Basic Characters:
These characters are open to any player at the start of the game.

Intern.
Special: The intern has five actions a turn instead of the standard 4.
Funding: The intern generates 2 funding at the end of every turn.
Nonbasic Actions:
The intern has no nonbasic actions

Soldier.
Special: The soldier starts with every weapon.
Funding: The soldier does not generate funding at the end of his/her turn.
Nonbasic Actions:
- Demolish

Construction Worker:
Special: The construction worker has no special rules.
Funding: The construction worker generates 1 funding at the end of every turn.
- Demolish
- Apply for building permit
- Rapid building

Mayor's aid:
Funding: The aid generates 2 funding at the end of every turn
- Petition for funding
- Karma action
- Apply for building permit

But I'm not 90% of your market.

quote:

---

A sleep deprived Mr. Parcelan stammered:
I'll be totally honest with you: I saw "zombie" and skipped the rest.

But I'm not 90% of your market.

---

That seems to be a common reaction.

[zim]But I don't care![/zim]

Unless you're going to do something totally your own with zombies. Then go wild.

Example:
- Soapy the Clown sold his soul to tell the funniest joke ever. The joke was so horrifyingly funny that all he could do was laugh and tell the joke. Tho who had the misfortune of hearing the damned joke became themselves clowns, following the same twisted fate as Soapy. So started the Clown Apocalypse.

- A giant space amoeba found its way to earth and has a hankering for human flesh. Every time it eats a person it divides.

- Mutant spiders made their way from the sewers and are entering people's homes at night and planting eggs in their eyes.

- Hippies roam the earth, refusing to shower and making the world reek of BO. If you lose a fight to a hippie you become a hippie.

For now, zombies. If it becomes an issue I can change it. I can also make one of the two victory conditions based on the infection type.

But for now, zombies. There's enough of a fad to be able to get testers from zombie fansites too (like the zombie subreddit).

I want the player to feel like they are on the brink of losing every round to produce a feeling of tension and relief when they pass. I want the player to have to feel the sting of necessary sacrifice for the greater good.

Pandemic and BSG have a similar model and they are both popular games.

Example random event: Let a bunch of refugees in? Some may be infected. Gain one population but double the number of disasters for the next two rounds. Chosen by vote. Current player's vote is tiebreaker.

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 12-11-2010 at 05:30 AM.

code:

---

@model IEnumerable<MvcApplication1.BO.TILE>
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "ViewPage1";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}
<table style="width: 100%;">
    @foreach (var item in Model)
    {               
               if(item.TILE_X == 0)
               {
        <tr>
            }
            <td style="border:1px solid black;height:80px;width:200px;" data-name="@item.TILE_Y-@item.TILE_X">
                <b>@item.TILE_TYPE</b><br />
                People: @item.TILE_PEOPLE_NM<br />
                Zombies: @item.TILE_ZED_NM<br />
                Looters: @item.TILE_LOOTERS_NM
            </td>     
                        
            @if(item.TO:E_Y == 4)
            {
                </tr>
            }
    }
</table>

---

This creates a parsing error because it doesn't associate the last } with the foreach loop.

code:

---

@model IEnumerable<MvcApplication1.BO.TILE>
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "ViewPage1";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}
<table style="width: 100%;">
    @foreach (var item in Model)
    {               
               if(item.TILE_X == 0)
               {
        <tr>
            }
            <td style="border:1px solid black;height:80px;width:200px;" data-name="@item.TILE_Y-@item.TILE_X">
                <b>@item.TILE_TYPE</b><br />
                People: @item.TILE_PEOPLE_NM<br />
                Zombies: @item.TILE_ZED_NM<br />
                Looters: @item.TILE_LOOTERS_NM
            </td>     
                        
            if(item.TO:E_Y == 4)
            {
                </tr>
            }
    }
</table>

---

This renders the if statement as html.

It will let me open the TR but not close it. Help! How do I process the last if statement?

(Disclaimer: I know this code is sloppy and uses magic numbers - but it should still work). I know I can make TR a property of tile but that's just skirting around the "what type of drugs is this parser using?" issue

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 12-11-2010 at 06:08 PM.

Was your hand right a key here?
"O:" -> "IL"

quote:

---

Inferno-Spirit enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
if(item.TO:E_Y == 4)

Was your hand right a key here?
"O:" -> "IL"

---

Woops. That's a copy and paste error to evercrest. The actual code is TILE_X not TO:E_Y

The errors are still the same as the above.

If I put in an @ I get

quote:

---

Parser Error Message: The foreach block is missing a closing "}" character. Make sure you have a matching "}" character for all the "{" characters within this block, and that none of the "}" characters are being interpreted as markup.

---

If I don't put in the @ the if statement is rendered to the screen as html and not processed.

I suppose if worse comes to worse I can change the view engine for this page to aspx instead of Razor but I'd still like to know how this thing works.

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 12-11-2010 at 06:25 PM.

quote:

---

Mr. Parcelan thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
I'll be totally honest with you: I saw "zombie" and skipped the rest.

But I'm not 90% of your market.

---

For me it was the whole "draw a card" element. Too many card games.

Obviously the zombie/person layout won't be uniform and the tiles won't all be houses.

I'm thinking 25 tiles may not be enough, but that'll be easier to judge during playtesting.

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 12-11-2010 at 09:08 PM.

edit: Found it!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/efzfe/i_love_cellophane_glass_noodles_wh at_are_some/

I must have bookmarked - well almost all of that - by mistake at some point.

Most of them seem to be food related.

Ghost of Forums Past fucked around with this message on 12-12-2010 at 12:01 PM.