I have an idea....

[Durandal]

It's been bouncing around inside of my head for a long, long time, for a Turn-Based and Real-Time Strategy game, both at the same time.

Basically, in the Civilization series, the entire world is made up of a grid.  My idea is simple:  Have a massive campaign map made up of that grid, but each square on the grid would be roughly equivalent to your average RTS map, taking the terrain details and such from the features of the square that it is on.  You would be able to control armies in the big map until it came to an enemy in the big map, going into that square of the grid to do an RTS battle.  I'm not sure how construction and building and stuff like that would be handled, but I am just tossing this idea out there to see how feasible it would be.

Just my thoughts.

[Rizimar]

Sounds kinda cool, actually. Why not try developing it and see how it turns out?

[Durandal]

The reason I wouldn't put it into dev is because I know little about anything involving coding, much less a heavy project like this.  Not to mention that since each square would be a battle map.... I think it'd require a LOT of memory/processing power to first build the map, and then save all of the attributes about the map.

I'm an ideas and concept guy, not a build something guy.

[Bad Sector]

This is something that has been repeated thousands of millions of times in the Internet (and more), but there are still people who do not know about it, so i'm going to mention it yet another time (i hope there is somebody out there who is still counting ):

ideas are worth nothing, implementation is what matters.

Beyond that, what you describe isn't really very sophisticated. You don't have to keep everything at memory, but only the dynamic units. Everything else (terrain, static units, etc) can be saved on disk and loaded on-demand.

[Durandal]

Again, the total lack of any ability to program, the total lack of funds, the total lack of people around me that'd know how to do this, etc. etc. etc. kinda limits this.

[Bad Sector]

Learning how to program isn't hard.

[Rizimar]

Learning how to program isn't hard.

It depends on the type of person. Some people just can't get it (I think "Code Complete" explains this, though it's been a while since I've seriously looked through my copy).

But for the most part, it really isn't hard. In fact, coding can be really fun if you are making something that you enjoy.

Then again, there will be times where you'll tear out your hair looking for the cause of a bug and figure out hours (or days) later that it was from one character in a section of a code that you didn't even think was problematic

[Durandal]

Basically, I coded for a relatively short while.  The very basics of C++ which I barely remember now, the very basics of BASIC.... Calculator coding.... Etc.

[Rizimar]

Why not try it again? There are plenty of great resources online to help you with anything from general programming to building games.

[Bad Sector]

I disagree about people not being able to learn how to program. One has to have some serious brain damage to not be able to think logically (which can be the case with some people of course, but they'll have more serious problems than not being able to program - not be able to support themselves is one).

What it is all about is interest: if someone is interested in something (and i mean *truly* interested, not in a "that would be nice to know" way) then he can learn it. Its all about knowledge and will (there is such a thing as "talent" and orientation, but its at most 10% of the whole picture - the rest 90%+ is work).

Obviously if you're not interested in programming, then you'll not learn to program. But you will not learn to program because "you dont want" not because "you cannot".

[Hugo]

I disagree. There’s more to programming than simply learning syntax. Sure, anybody can learn to use the syntax.
But it also involves math and physics to name a few other key components.

Your second posts was “learning how to program isn’t hard.” But it really is. I’m coding since 1995 and since 2003
I started learning C on my own. It’s 2009 and I’m still learning new stuff about C and C++. Most programming courses
that you can take in the Netherlands take 4 years to complete.

And especially in context of this thread it’s hard. Sure you could learn the syntax.
But that doesn’t make you cable of writing your own next-gen advanced RTS game.

[Chubz]

This was already done in C&C 3 Kane's Wrath, but just not overly well.

The Total War series - Empire: Total War being the best example since it's the most recent - also basically does this, minus the base building (though you do technically get forts, harbors, etc. on the huge map, just not in the RTS view.)

[Bad Sector]

I disagree. There’s more to programming than simply learning syntax. Sure, anybody can learn to use the syntax. But it also involves math and physics to name a few other key components.

You don't need math and physics to program.

Your second posts was “learning how to program isn’t hard.” But it really is. I’m coding since 1995 and since 2003
I started learning C on my own. It’s 2009 and I’m still learning new stuff about C and C++. Most programming courses
that you can take in the Netherlands take 4 years to complete.

First of all, K&R's book 'The C programming language' is all you need to know. C is a simple language (C++ is not) and if you sit down and learn it, you won't learn "new stuff" since the language doesn't get as frequent updates as other languages (which is good since you get to focus on the program not on the language - not to mention that there isn't much C needs anymore).

Secondly, what you're talking about is learning how to be a very good programmer. I didn't said that. Learning how to be a very good programmer is hard and i agree with that. However i just said "learning how to program" - you don't need to be a good programmer to be a programmer and many commercial games -especially indie games made these days- have crap code. A very known example is Platypus. The programmer said that his code was horrible (i think it was his first or one of his first games), everything in a single file, copy/paste everywhere, almost inexistant indentation and other stuff. But it was an insane success which made a couple of sequels and a PSP port (although the author was screwed by the publisher and got only about $2k from the whole game and he's not allowed to even put the game on his own site).

And especially in context of this thread it’s hard. Sure you could learn the syntax. But that doesn’t make you cable of writing your own next-gen advanced RTS game.

I agree but i was talking about learning programming in general. If you learn how to program, you'll have a better idea on what it takes to make such a game and you'll either get on improving your skills or quitting. But i cannot tell what others will do, i'm just pointing out that learning how to program (=starting programming) is not a hard task.

[Durandal]

Before I can do anything involving coding or anything else, I first have to actually get some money.  19 years old, horrible job market, and no prior experience makes me a very sad job searcher.

[Rizimar]

Before I can do anything involving coding or anything else, I first have to actually get some money.  19 years old, horrible job market, and no prior experience makes me a very sad job searcher.

Many people are saying the same thing. What you can do is try learning on your own and then build the game in your free time. Then, not only will you have a game when you are finished, but you will also have some experience on working on a project.

Or you could try joining an open source project if you're confident enough in your skills and have good ideas for existing projects that you are able to implement. That will also give you experience.