[Finished] Theater of War II: The Pacific

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Ghislain
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[Finished] Theater of War II: The Pacific

Post by Ghislain »

So while my schedule remains fairly busy (putting my ambitious Poe adventure project to the side for now), I've started to work on some lighter fare: a WW2 tactical naval warfare game. It will use the same game engine as the first game (which should save me time to complete it), but it will be quite different as well. All surface ships have some anti-aircraft capabilities, and the cost of planes are less than in the first. There are also ship types that can absorb up to two hits before they are destroyed.

And of course, fighting takes place in the sea, so all terrain types block all naval movement. The flags of each respective player represent sea ports that must be destroyed in order to win the round of combat.

Image

The human player takes on the role of commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The preamble will state that you are about to take on the American naval forces at Midway in June 1942. Historically, this was a crushing loss and Japan retreated into defensive mode until the bitter end. But if you go on to win Midway, then you keep pressing onto Hawaii, etc. until a climactic battle near San Francisco harbor.

I did some research on the web about the various ship types. Most notably here: http://users.swing.be/navbat/edito/navi ... avires.htm

I realize that not all ships of the same class could take on submarines or aircraft as well as others, but for the "sake of the game" I gave each type of unit strengths and weaknesses with a certain 'rock-paper-scissors' symmetry that is also present in the first game.

1. SUBMARINE
cost: 10
move: 2
vs submarine: NORMAL attack
vs destroyer: WEAK attack
vs cruiser: NORMAL attack
vs aircraft carrier: STRONG attack
vs battleship: STRONG attack

They are cheap to deploy and quite effective against larger ships. But they are vulnerable to the smaller ships' anti-sub tactics. They also possess no anti-aircraft capabilities.

2. DESTROYER
cost: 10
move: 2
vs submarine: STRONG attack
vs destroyer: NORMAL attack
vs cruiser: WEAK attack
vs aircraft carrier: NORMAL attack
vs battleship: WEAK attack

This smaller ship is the mainstay of the navy to protect the larger warships from enemy submarines.

3. CRUISER
cost: 20
move: 3
vs submarine: NORMAL attack
vs destroyer: STRONG attack
vs cruiser: NORMAL attack
vs aircraft carrier: STRONG attack
vs battleship: NORMAL attack
vs bomber: WEAK attack

A midsize ship with strong attack capabilities.

4. AIRCRAFT CARRIER
cost: 30
move: 1
vs submarine: WEAK attack
vs destroyer: NORMAL attack
vs cruiser: WEAK attack
vs aircraft carrier: NORMAL attack
vs battleship: WEAK attack
vs fighter: NORMAL attack
vs bomber: STRONG attack

These are crucial for establishing air superiority in the sea. The number of air units that can fly out is determined by the number of aircraft carriers you have (plus one). Due to their large size, they can absorb two hits before they are sunk.

5. BATTLESHIP
cost: 30
move: 3
vs submarine: WEAK attack
vs destroyer: STRONG attack
vs cruiser: NORMAL attack
vs aircraft carrier: STRONG attack
vs battleship: NORMAL attack
vs fighter: WEAK attack
vs bomber: NORMAL attack

These colossal warships have impressive offensive capabilities (though vulnerable to submarine attacks). They can also absorb two hits before they are destroyed.

6. FIGHTER
cost: 10
move: *
vs fighter: NORMAL attack
vs bomber: STRONG attack

They are not deployed on the screen but are rather hidden on the respective player's side of the screen. When they attack, they fly a random path to the other side to attack other air units. They attack other fighters first, and when those are eliminated, they then attack bombers. The maximum number that can fly out to attack is determined by the number of deployed aircraft carriers (plus one).

7. BOMBER
cost: 20
move: *
vs submarine: WEAK attack
vs destroyer: STRONG attack
vs cruiser: NORMAL attack
vs aircraft carrier: NORMAL attack
vs battleship: NORMAL attack

These are deployed in the same manner as fighters, however when they fly their random flight path from one side of the screen to the other, they do not attack other air units but rather enemy naval ships. The maximum number that can fly out to attack is determined by the number of deployed aircraft carriers (plus one).
Last edited by Ghislain on Sat Nov 05, 2011 5:14 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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robinsonmason
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Post by robinsonmason »

Sounds great! I recently picked up the original on tape from Chronosoft and look forward to playing it on my VIC.
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Post by Ghislain »

robinsonmason wrote:Sounds great! I recently picked up the original on tape from Chronosoft and look forward to playing it on my VIC.
Thank you for your support! You can also download a digital D64 copy from my website: http://realmsofquest.blogspot.com/2011/ ... d-vic.html

But I understand, it's pretty cool to load a game from tape. The several minutes you spend waiting makes playing it all the more worthwhile.

As for part II, I just finished the splash screen:

Image
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Post by PhilRanger »

Nice!
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Post by orion70 »

Another great wargame from Ghislain! Thank you so much, I can't wait to play it. I see you'll use alternate graphics :).
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Post by Ghislain »

orion70 wrote:Another great wargame from Ghislain! Thank you so much, I can't wait to play it. I see you'll use alternate graphics :).
I thank you for your kind words. I think 'Theater' is pretty good, I'm not sure if it's great, but I appreciate the sentiment.

I was struggling a bit today coming up with a "mission briefing" that introduces the game's instructions. So I wrote one, then I used Google Translate to convert it to Japanese, then back into English again. It's slightly broken, but I wanted to convey a propaganda piece that I imagine would be communicated within the WW2 era Japanese military circles.

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Post by Ghislain »

So I just finished the main menu screen, which didn't take long to do because I use an almost exact copy of the previous, save for some minor changes. As with the first game, the instructions menu outlines all of the units, along with their specs.

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Post by Ghislain »

Today, I mostly organized game data and created ML routines.

Code: Select all

 673 unit data

 828 initialize
 834 hide screen
 853 print map
 908 movecursor
 926 show screen
 933 sink boat animation8
 990 hit sound
 998 beep sound
1003 pause
1012 turn off sound

7210 color fill
7275 prescan position   ; pos 671-672
7286 scan for japan     ; pos 671-672
7324 scan for usa	; pos 671-672
7415 directions 
7424 graphics

37888 map data
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

This is how the game map will look like:

Image

The four big islands are fixed: one with japanese airfield, one with trees, one with mountains and one with the american airfield. The smaller sand islets are randomized to create variety.
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Post by orion70 »

Looks great! Can't wait to play it (I installed the colour monitor mainly to play your wargames :) ).
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

orion70 wrote:Looks great! Can't wait to play it (I installed the colour monitor mainly to play your wargames :) ).
Making more progress. All of the coding is finished for the single player version. But I'll have to playtest it for a while to make sure that the bugs are ironed out.

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Post by Ghislain »

Name: Theater of War II: The Pacific
Author: Ghislain
Released: November 5, 2011
Requirements: Unexpanded VIC-20 + Disk Drive.
Description: In the sequel to the first WW2 Tactical Strategy game that takes place on the Eastern Front in Russia, this time you are transported to the Pacific Ocean where you command the Imperial Japanese Navy against the American forces.

The preamble states: "June 1942. Our Grand Imperial Navy is chasing the Yankee interlopers across the Pacific Ocean. We will attack a fatal blow at Midway and then hunt them into their havens". If you can defeat the the enemy through five levels of increasing difficulty, you will have achieved the ultimate victory.

There is also a two-player option. Instructions are included in the game program from the main menu.

Image

Download it here: https://sites.google.com/site/gdbsite50 ... ects=0&d=1

Discuss it here: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=5413
Last edited by Ghislain on Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Mayhem »

Great work... any chance of a PDF manual like last time? ;)
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Post by Ghislain »

Mayhem wrote:Great work... any chance of a PDF manual like last time? ;)
Thank you. I might do one in a few days, but I didn't want to delay uploading the game. I pretty much stayed up all night Friday and then spent most of my Saturday finishing it and debugging. It's a fun hobby to make an old school game, but it can be mentally draining. And I had to re-learn my old code from last year.

I tried to put in as much information in the game menu's instructions, as in the first game. There wasn't a manual when it was published by Cronosoft.

Do let me know if you come across any bugs. The major features that were added here this time were units that can withstand up to two hits, and a small animated custom char when a ship is sunk.
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Post by Mayhem »

It's just nice to have the PDF to hand to reference while you play, as you can forget which ship type is good against a particular other if the opponent happens to have more of a certain kind in play. And noting how far each ship type can move.

In reality there's no special need to move the aircraft carriers away from home base, right? They are mostly there to allow the planes to fly, and only need to fight in an emergency. So if you have one carrier, you can fly two of each per turn, if you have two carriers, you can fly three etc, correct?

Not noted any bugs so far, I'll let you know if I spot any...
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