Wow- I already excited by the screenshots. I would just like to know how much time you expect is left (just a rough estimate based on the pace you are going at) and whether or not you would feel it would be feasible to expand the project to get a team working on it.
The core features still missing from the gaming board portion of the project - the ones I know of, anyway, as I'm sure more will pop up once people get to try the client out - are game creation and password locking, unit squad change tool, unit description change tool and templates (explosions and weapons). Once these are in, you can theoretically play a game of WH40k if you have an army file and a terrain file available, unless I've forgotten something essential. If all goes as planned, these missing features should be in place within the next few weeks. Even then, though, there's a lot of polishing to do. In its present state, for example, if you get disconnected from the game then that's it - you can re-join the game, but your client will not get all of the moves that happened in the game and thus your map of the battle will not match that of the others'. If / when playtesting commences, it's probably a good idea to play small games or make sure that you don't get disconnected / suffer a crash.
At that point I imagine I will manually create one or two very, very basic terrain files which can be used for playtesting (remember that thus far I have only one terrain tile - grass - and two scenery objects - a tree and a rock - and no graphical terrain editor at my disposal). Unit markers are equally scarce at the moment, with just a basic 1x1 inch troop marker and a Whirlwind-sized tank marker.
And yes, there are some things that people can do to pitch in, but I want to remind everyone, once again, that your participation is purely voluntary and you should not do anything you're not willing to put aside if the project never comes to fruitition. That's the main reason why I haven't actively sought anyone to work on something thus far; it's disappointing to do something only to find out it was never used for anything. Not to mention the fact that I am a new face on these boards and so far I have shown you nothing that would prove that I actually have working code on my hands. Right now all you have is my word.
With that aside, there are some things that can be done separately from the client code I'm working on.
1) The army editor. This is a PHP project so knowledge of PHP and HTML is required (Skyline?). I can provide you with a hand-created XML file and explain how the army editor should go about creating a file in similar format. Since the army file format is NOT finalized at this point, the editor should be done so that the things it asks the user and writes into an XML file can be altered with minimal fuss. The editor also needs to be able to load up an XML file it has created, present an editable list of all information contained within the XML file, and save it back onto the server with another name (no overwriting at this point).
2) Unit markers. This is a three-part project:
2.1) We need inch sizes of units (in the case of vehicles) or their bases to create markers for the client. For example, the basic troop base is 1 x 1 inches, while a Whirlwind is roughly 2.8" by 5" in size, for example. If the model extends beyond its base, then the base size is the one that should be measured.
2.2) We need graphics for these units. Since the unit markers are done in Flash and exported as SWF files, Macromedia Flash is required for this part. Anyone with the skills to do this will receive an example unit file (in FLA format) and instructions from me to see how they are created. Remember, when I say "graphics" I mean very, very basic stuff - if you look at the 1x1 troop marker in the screenshots, you can see that they are just circles. The tank marker is a box with some features on it which remotely resemble the top-down outline of a Whirlwind. In marker graphics, one inch equals to 15 pixels.
2.3) Adding code to the units. Although I moved most of the code that might change from the unit markers over to the client, there are still some things which I have kept behind. These might still change along the way, so any changes done to one unit marker's code need to be copied over to all other unit markers within Macromedia Flash. This is something I'll likely do myself, since it ties in with the client code.
3) Scenery objects. This, just like the unit markers, requires Macromedia Flash software but also a bit more graphical talent (just a bit). The scenery objects are created in a similar fashion to unit markers and they contain a little bit of code, but that code is likely not going to change - it's there just to show the user information text when they move a mouse over the object. In the screenshots above you can see two scenery objects: a tree and a rock. These have both been drawn to a certain size, but since they are vector graphics they will be re-sizeable in the terrain editor. Thus the tree picture can, with some changes to its info text, be also used as a bush object (after sizing it down). I can provide example FLA files for anyone who want to give this a try, so that they know how the objects work and what kind of style they should try to emulate (for the sake of unity, the scenery objects should roughly resemble one another in style regardless of artist). Obviously all objects need to be drawn from the top-down perspective and you should keep in mind that units will always be drawn on top of scenery objects, so you can't create arches for example.
4) Terrain tiles. These are bitmap graphics (in JPEG format), which need to tile seamlessly within an area of 1080 x 720 pixels. 60 x 60 pixels is one good size for the tile, but you could just as well use 270x180 as long as it tiles well. Right now I have a pale grass tile available (see screenshot below), but we'll obviously need plenty of different tiles: sand, snow, alien soil, mud, swamp, etc, etc. Note that unlike in RTS games, "tile" in this project means a graphical object which is tiled to cover the WHOLE board and on top of which scenery objects are laid. You only need to draw one tile per soil type. The program you use to create the tile is up to you, as long as you can maintain a high-quality copy (in Photoshop's case PSD) of the tile in addition to the final JPEG version. Some graphical talent is naturally required. The tiles should be lit as if they were exposed to normal earth daylight.
5) Full terrain backgrounds. This is a VERY "iffy" part of the project, as I'm not yet sure if it will be used (it works right now, but how will it work when people with 56k modems try to download a 200-300 kilobyte background image over the net?). As I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, terrain backgrounds are basically one huge terrain tile (1080 x 720 pixels in size) that does not get tiled. Talented artists can, if they want to (and with no firm promise of this feature being used in the end if technical problems arise), draw any top-down landscape they want (without scenery objects such as trees, rocks, ruins, etc - but lakes and rivers are ok) and save it as a JPEG file. This file will then be loaded in place of a tileable graphic, and scenery objects can be laid on top of it. Theoretically this offers a whole lot of freedom for anyone who has the skills to draw good-looking landscape and feels that tiles restrict them. Theoretically terrain features such as hills can also be drawn onto the background image (all shadows on the landscape should be drawn as if the light was coming from the top edge of the picture), but to make the presence of a hill clear you might want to also draw elevation lines to indicate where the elevation of the terrain has changed by one WH40k unit compared to neighbouring areas. If you're not familiar with elevation lines, here's an example:
The white wavy lines show where terrain height has changed significantly - in this case the top of the hill is on the left. The short straight lines pointing away from the wavy lines show which way water flows (so if they were pointing the other way, this would be a pit instead of a hill).
6) Terrain editor (done in Flash). I'm noting this down here, but in reality this is a big task and one that I have not even planned for yet (save for the terrain file format). This is what I'll start working on after the client is done, but if there are any Flash / ActionScript wizards in here feel free to stand up.
