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I wanted to share something I have been working on with a group of people who might be interested...

A virtual map for hex-based war games.
I've been designing temporarily using the Battletech rules, with plans to implement my own game once the bugs are worked out of the system.

You can see a live web player where you can get your hands on the game right now at www.electricrune.com.
Written in Unity 3D, you'll have to download a small plugin.

The game is not complete, but you can move through the first Move Phase, and declare fire.
Firing animations go off, but no damage is implemented yet.

Development of the game has been temporarily put on hold, with the immediate goal of putting the map engine up for sale on the Unity Asset Store, estimated price $100.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!

How does this differ from the 2d battletech map generator?

Well, the obvious is that this is fully 3D, animated, with sound.

My original intent was to be able to play BT over the internet, and run bigger battles than would really be feasible using dice and figs.

This is one of best looking traditional war games. I am really loving the way its turning out so far, thanks for sharing the details.

Tasarran wrote:My original intent was to be able to play BT over the internet, and run bigger battles than would really be feasible using dice and figs.

Not trying to discourage you, but you can already do that quite well, for free, with Megamek.

Still, a 3D version would be nice. Not $100 nice, mind you, but nice.

IcyCool wrote:Not trying to discourage you, but you can already do that quite well, for free, with Megamek.

Still, a 3D version would be nice. Not $100 nice, mind you, but nice.

I personally thought it was way past time for a better version of MegaMek...

Also, the tentative $100 price tag is only for the development kit, for Unity programmers who want to take my engine and build on it.
If I do follow through with the Battletech implementation, it will likely have to be freeware, due to licensing issues.

I do have plans to do my own game with this engine, working title "Under Steel Skies". This game, when released, will be reasonably priced, in the range of $10-$20...
The premise is that in the distant future, Earth has been abandoned, due to the final atomic holocaust; the space colonies are the only survivors.
Matter transmutation and nano-manufacturing are the usual means of production; modern science can transmute almost any material into a similar weight of most any other material.
But there is one thing that cannot be transmuted: radioactive isotopes.

You control a mining and factory ship that has to land on the old planet, Earth, and gather radioactives from the ruined, blasted cities of Old Earth.
One thing stands in your way: a rival ship has followed you down.

The goal is to be the first to reach your mining quota and get back off the planet.
The thing that makes this tricky is that you build out of the same pool that you are building your quota from.
Build too much, and your opponent will beat you to the the quota. Build too little, and he might just overrun you.

I plan to have an interesting and versatile "bot lab", where you drag and drop components onto chassis to design your bot.

The game that arose from this tinkering with the BattleTech engine (Under Steel Skies) is nearing completion...

YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNLW5XFPZJ4

Check the actual program in your browser at www.electricrune.com

The game sounds very interesting to play and the in-game graphics seemed decent enough, but I'd spruce up the intro screen a little. Some ideas (possibly cliche):

Make the text type out with a flashing underscore and rephrase like it's a report from someone on the scene. Add a voice-over from someone eloquent. As it is now, it's a little wall-of-text-y.
Make the symbols 3d or at least add some light shading (which I'm sure you'll get around to anyway).

Also, from a pure marketing standpoint, the current video is a loading screen for 20% of the time. I'd personally cheat and fast forward it.

Just a few thoughts I like the concept though, and LOVE the twist on the resource management angle.

Thanks for your feedback!

The intro was just something I added on in a few hours; I do plan to re-work that .