Working on the 0.5/0.6 features, and I'm checking out for the night.
Done so far:
GUI tabs, with a new one for accessing stats directly in BlenderPeople. This means you select an Actor, hit the get Stats button, and Blender queries the database and shows you all the Actor's stats within the GUI. You can adjust them however you please, including manually setting new commanders and orders, then Set the changes back into the database. It's pretty cool.
When I need a break from coding the strategy section, I'll include, just under the Actor stats GUI, a similar tool for editing (and creating new) Actor Types. After doing the groundwork on Actor stats, this'll be easy.
No GUI yet for this next feature, but I have the toughest part of it done: Strategy Rules. Basically, you enter commands into the Strategy screen, using the proper syntax (to be provided in comprehensive docs). These rules are saved and evaluated after each round of motion calculation. Here's an example of a statement:
enemy average Health >= commandedby 145 average Health orders commandedby 145 Retreat 2
This means that if after a turn, the average of all enemy Health is greater than or equal to the average Health of all actors Commanded by Actor 145, then change the orders of all Actors commanded by 145 to Retreat at double speed.
I have the syntax fully worked out. The parser is coded, too, and it makes nice SQL statements out of the strategy syntax. All that's left to do is put in the code that actually checks and implements the statements (easy), then put a GUI on it.
Also, thanks to everyone for the nice comments, words of encouragement, and offers of help.
I've taken a look at what I'll have to do to write an NLA Python module for the Blender source, and it's a little intimidating. I think I can do it, though I'll need some help. Fortunately, this is the best software community in the world for getting help!
Later!
