NewCol

NewCol is a game based on a map engine displaying forests, rivers, mountains and seas with a textured contour line map, gaussian random number generator and z-buffer like algorithm. NewCol is develloped in C (but compiled with a C++ compiler for more convenience) and the SDL library. The game works under Mac OS X and Windows. It should works under linux if we take time to re-compile it.The goal of this project is to motivate students to learn computer science and C language in a funny motivating way.

The goal of the game is to bound the new world from europe, trade with native, bring new colonists there, and found a new nation brick by brick. The project was started in 2007 on January the 28th. There is one main developper (Fred Vernier) who mostly work on it every year from november to january... and only part - time. The game is inspired after the Sid Myers serie of civilisation (1, 2, 3 and IV) and Colonization (Microprose, 1995)

• Very clear view avoiding all the useless 3D effects (but keeping the usefull ones)
• More complex world. 7 different elevation levels (for now), different forest densities, river with different sizes, etc.
• More unit complexity (movement cost depend on terrain, steepness, etc.), experience levels, health, etc.
• More complex good processing (needing wood and iron to make tools), coal and ore to make iron, etc.
• Intuitive and powerfull map editor
• Grouping of unit (to handle more unit orders in a simple interaction)
• Different city sizes implying different sizes of circle of influence
• 2 cities with their circles touching would share directly goods.
• Visualization techniques (maybe a fisheye view like my other project FiCell?)
• No europe panel. Europe countries would be part of the map with it's own existing cities where trade would be allowed if not at war with you.
• Friendly cities would welcome your ships to trade and send ships to your cities. Cities of your king would bring you even more with new colonists, free support at the beginning(tools, muskets), etc.
• More complex fog of war (showing how old is your latest visit)
• Territory visualization (not yet implemented)
• Season view (tree colors + snow in winter) in a month by month timeline
• Elaborated war rules (artillery efficient against infantery, cavalry efficient against artillery, etc.)
• More countries (Germany, Portugal, Russia, Italy and maybe more)
• Better navigation and minimap view with information visualization techniques (InfoVis again !)