Operation: Forklift - music makes the war go round...

[Technocrat]

Atteeeeeeen-tion! Listen up soldier, VFP shows it's FUBAR out there, and we need you on the DZ ASAP. No more R&R for you - stock up on AA&E, get in touch with CINC.

After its first free elections in decades, the tiny island-chain republic of Vontinalys has been overwhelmed by seditious elements of its own army and a dictatorial political movement, the "Socialist People's Union for Democratic Democracy" (SPUDD), leading to the most brutal military dictatorship the region has ever seen.

As a last resort, the civilian government has appealled to the League of Nations. To put an end to the crisis and help restore democracy, the League has agreed to deploy its elite peacekeeping force, the legendary White Helmets, to the islands. Commanded from the nearby HMS Tactless, the White Helmets must return control to the legitimate government - and investigate rumours that SPUDD have been stockpiling weaponised Explodium, to unknown purposes. Prepare to commence:

OPERATION: FORKLIFT

As part of my ongoing campaign of completely ignoring the "A" in "AGS", Forklift is a turn-based strategy and a shameful knockoff loving homage to certain other favourites (Nintendo Wars series, Endwar, and a bit of Cannon Fodder thrown in), putting your tactical skills to the test.
Featuring:

- Incredible AI!
- Turn-based hotseat mode! (requirements - at least one (1) friend)
- Play-by-mail mode! (if I get enough people telling me this is the kind of thing they'd make use of)
- Seven (7!) varieties of combat unit!
- A riveting campaign storyline!
- Surprise bear attacks!
- Fully-functional map editor, for if you feel I'm just not good enough and you want to build your own custom battlespace environment.




Being constructed as part of a test of all sorts of elements for the next game I plan to make, Forklift is currently well underway, and helping avoid all this "socialising" nonsense my coworkers are trying to compel me into. At this rate, it should be complete by July/August. In fact, I guarantee August at the latest, since I'll be extremely sick of it by then anyway.

Graphics: 90%
Plot: 100%
Editor: 100%
AI: It will now make more reasonable choices of targets.
Bears: 100%
Levels: 40%, now just the campaign ones to do...
Sound/Music: Wonderfully appropriate music being cooked up by Shivermesideways

July 1st: Looks like I'm still on track for a July-August release. Skirmish testing will commence this weekend, provided I can get the demo up and running. Mostly to test for fatal errors, and balancing issues.

August 19th: Did I say July-August? I meant September-October. This whole "building the campaign" thing is deeper than I thought.
Further SITREP to follow at later date...

[Matt Frith]

Explodium! Yayyy.

I will keep my eye on this, it looks fun.  Good luck, Sir!

[tzachs]

This looks like a treat!
Waiting for some screenshots of the bears  

[bicilotti]

PLAY BY MAIL

I would use it

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The title made me think of a fat man trying to lift his fork to eat that last hot dog, but this also looks quite fun!  Good luck finishing it.

[De-Communizer]

Are these advanced tactical bears like in Red Alert?

Also, how do you plan to implement play-by-mail? I'm intrigued, I'd probably use it.

[Wonkyth]

IMHO, PBM works well in LeyLines, so it should work fine here.
LFTPT!

[Technocrat]

Because I'm extremely lazy, and can only make a campaign game -so- long, Operation Forklift will include a map editor. With it, players can customise the ultimate battlefield, bigger than they could reasonably need.





Includes:
- Five custom level slots (at the moment, I'm sure I could add more in)
- Painting any of the landscapes, in 1x1 or 3x3
- Bears
- Starting off with an overbalanced, cheating army
- Starting off with an underbalanced, easily squashed army
- The ability to modify the singleplayer levels for your own multiplayer/skirmish use
- Send the maps to a friend, and see if they can fight their way through!

Still can't quite decide whether to make it "Left click does land, right click does units" or make two individual cursors for it, but I'll see which I'm most comfortable with first.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I love the GUI!

[bicilotti]

That's just like the level editor of colorwise... made by a man who can actually draw! Nice one!

[ShiverMeSideways]

This looks absolutely WONDERFUL!

Good luck with this, I'm intrigued and really want to see it finished!

* whores to make music *

[abstauber]

Yay, Technocrat Computers!
This looks awfully familiar to the golden age of home computing .

If you could now just add the opponent's portrait like in Nuclear War...
That would be awesome. Good luck with this!

[Technocrat]

The positive reaction so far is encouraging! Now I just need to make the game work a lot more sensibly than it does at the moment. Being editable is all well and good, but when the computer acts like a lemon, things need fixing. And drawing. Right now, the artillery is an enormous square rolling around the battlefield.

@ bicilotti -
I'd hardly say I can draw properly! Just functionally, and I'm trying to pay attention to lighting sources after being yelled at in the critics lounge about it. Plus, I'm trying to go for a "1980s army computer" motif.

@ ShiverMeSideways -
It'll definitely need music, I can only use my "Now That's What I call Open-source Midi '95" CD for so long. It needs something that conveys both "martial" and "light hearted". Sort of "our army will crush you, but in a cuddly way".

@ abstauber

Well, I was considering using an array of different generals (on either side), and/or taking the AGS Football route and using people from the forum as the commanders, for variety's sake, with special abilities/strengths/weaknesses for each. Kind of like in Advance/Famicom Wars!

[Jim Reed]

I am very looking forward to this =D =D =D

[Matti]

This looks quite interesting and I'm looking forward to it!

Nice to see a growing amount of non-adventure projects around here as I'm currently only making non-adventures myself. This looks like fun and I'm totally into turn-based tactics.

Good luck with this, sir.

PS: I wanna see some damn bears too

[Technocrat]

From: MilComCenLON
To: FieldComTacFORKLIFT

!EYES ONLY! Authentication Lv. Required: Blue with stripey bits

11 August 1997

Congratulations, <insert rank and name here>!

You have been activated and deployed to the League of Nations peacekeeping force, in accordance with the treaties signed by <insert member state here>. Rest assured that your participation in OPERATION FORKLIFT will help to better ensure the security of the region. If you believe you have been incorrectly assigned to this mission, please advise your nearest senior officer, who will doubtless treat such activity as seditious, and see that you receive the appropriate disciplinary action.

If you have chosen to stay with us, then congratulations! While you are here, you may find it useful to familiarise yourself with this guide to military units you are likely to come across. By a bizarre coincidence, SPUDD appears to have been able to procure military hardware comparable to our own. We wish to take this opportunity to remind you that selling your equipment to locals will result in severe disciplinary measures.



UNITS - A SPOTTER'S GUIDE

- Infantry
The basic unit of any army, whether conscript or professional. These are one of only two types of unit capable of securing positions, and also carry the added benefit of versatility, being able to conceal themselves in forests and scale difficult mountains.

- Sappers
Trained in specialist areas of demolitions, sappers can be extremely deadly against armoured vehicles and targets. Unfortunately, their heavy gear precludes high speed, meaning they're likely to be caught by swifter infantry. Can also repair vehicles on the go.

- FAV (Fast Attack Vehicle)
This sporty little number? Only 4993 on the clock, one previous owner, a little old lady who only used it for shopping runs. For you? Well, since you're such a great customer, only $26,000. After all, where else are you going to find not only the fastest car around, but one that can spot infantry in cover?

- IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle)
Does what it says on the tin - particularly good at dealing with footsoldiers and aircraft, but has a distinct weakness to tanks. In order to cut laziness among the ranks, the IFV's priorities have been changed from carrying soldiers to logistics and resupply. Its main role now is to refuel/rearm units out of reach from cities, and to provide air-cover.

- L-41 Boudica Armoured Fighting Vehicle
Also known as a "tank", this armoured fighting vehicle provides the cavalry backbone of the forces, with a force that can overpower most land-based combat systems. Suffers against helicopters, but will wipe the floor with anything that can't fly.

- Artillery
Do you really, really need something blown up, but don't want to get your hands dirty? You need ARTILLERY, from Technocrat Armament Solutions LLC. The only unit that doesn't need to be in direct proximity to fight, they will unfortunately be rendered helpless if something gets within the inside limit of its firing range.

- Helicopter Gunship
Using arcane sorcery to levitate above the battlefield, the helicopter combines swift mobility with deadly firepower, hunting its prey across any obstacle on the battlefield. The only unit that can cross water, but it possesses only a limited suply of fuel. It must be returned to a city or base after each sortie, or you're going to find an awful lot of fields of parked helicopters, manned by lazy pilots.



We hope you enjoy your time in the Vontinalys combat theatre of operations! If you are in any way unsatisfied with your wartime experience, please complete a customer satisfaction form, available by the exit.

Lots and lots of love,

League of Nations Strategic Command
<insert current secretary general here>

~~TRANSMISSION ENDS~~

[Technocrat]

Just an update since the last report. It's all going swimmingly, and I now have a functional game - i.e. if I were struck with incredible apathy, I could release it as a half-drawn but fully working two-player hotseat turn-based strategy.

But of course, I'm not going to do that! Now I just have to teach the AI how to do its thing, finish up all the multitudes of drawing, build the singleplayer campaign, playtest/balance it to death, and find some music for it. The hard part is already over!

[Victor6]

This does look awesome....I'm probably going to lose a weeks work now while I play Advance wars again.

Besides the current lack of bears, a screenshot of the battle animations would be nice assuming you're doing battle animations. Unless they're part of the 60% of to-do graphics.

Good luck getting this finished.

[Technocrat]

"Sarge?" The young corporal asked his superior. The sergeant tried to ignore him.

"Sarge? Why are we patrolling this forest?"
"Orders, that's why. We're flanking SPUDD's main advance up the highway. Weren't you paying attention?"
"Yes, but...why this forest?" The sergeant was unsure to what his junior was referring. He conveyed this with a expression that mixed equal parts confusion with contempt. "It's just...the bears, Sarge." This didn't answer the sergeant's unvoiced question, so he screwed him face up slightly more. "This is where they found 115th last week, isn't it? Torn to pieces..." the corporal explained. Sarge rolled his eyes - it was correct, there had been some bodies found, and it had looked like the wildlife had helped themselves.

"Look here, boyo," he tried his best to be reassuring. "115th were sloppy, and they were engineers. We have something," he continued, unshouldered his rifle, "that they did not." He stroked his armament, in case the corporal did not quite grasp his subtle hint, but this did not seem to reassure him. Instead, the young man seemed to be shaking visibly.

"I've had enough of this. What the hell is your..."



As you can guess, I've finally implemented functional bears into the game. Operation: Forklift promises at least 130% more bears than the next leading AGS turn-based strategy game. As one of several randomly occuring events, bears serve as one of the greates hazards to poorly-armoured infantry. So much so, that they have to go into battle mode to handle them!



The GUI and all the mechanics for it have been worked out, now I'm working on more detailed scenery depending on where the units are fighting, and combat animations for unts.

[kaputtnik]

I must admit: I am shocked.

You promise something one week, and the next week you actually do it. This...this is outrageous! And the game now has actual bears, wow.

Also, I quite enjoy your graphics on the screenshots you have posted up to now, they look not only very functional but really nice.