A while since last post. DeFinibus project has not been progressing at all, but it is not dead yet. Planning to revive the doings soon.

Meanwhile, I experimented with Virtual Machine / assembler compiler design in the evenings during the week, just for fun. Results can be viewed here:

https://github.com/DeFinibus/DefinibusVM

Why on earth DefinibusVM, you may ask? Well, I originally named it as ZVM, but then realized that IBM has z/VM OS. So I decided to change the name to avoid the confusion, but didn't come up with anything sane. Hence the DefinibusVM :)

another quick update..

 # 1.2.2024 thu

Need to add a feature where stations get their own share of transactions..

Done: When station is running out of raw materials, it shall increase its prize...

TBD if this is good..

# 06.02.2024 tue

Been doing statistics implementation and "API" for Station Management for them...

TODO BUG: When game is continued after exit (also to titlescreen), stockmarket

is activated...

# 09.02.2024 fri

Need to implement Widget / button UI system for better Station Managing.

Can be used also in main screen for navigating

between different view modes..

# 12.02.2024 mon

UI Widget system progressing very slowly. Not very much time to spend on this

project currently, unfortunately.  Anyways, some design on supported features

ongoing. Like Buttons can have either text or images, and such a like.

Another quick update

 # 29.01.2024 mon

NPC station time depends now on time acceleration ( as it should)

TODO next:

Station manage screen must be sketched..It must be nice :)

Also, planning on doing point'n'click graphical interface also to the bottom of

game main screen (now blue bar with text).  So you could select between views

using mouse (of course old function keys would still work ). But thats after

station manage interface is done.

# 31.01.2024 wed

Station Managing screen added now. Only statistics so far. Also some tweaking

with statistics information done. Also chased some weird bug related to text input

widget being displayed always after saved game was continued. Got rid of it, but

root cause still a bit mystery :-O I think accelerated time need to be even more

faster, so that things progress more faster when you are managing the station.

Need to address that...Now it is approximately so that one second is one hour

when time acceleration is on.

quick update

# 25.01.2024 thu

Planning station managing screen... Now listing all attributes that need to

be adjustable by station manager.

# 27.01.2024 sat

Station statistics implementing. added some counters related to income

and expenses. Need to think about economy next a bit more detail.

e.g. raw materials, production rates vs. human resources etc..

For inspiration, watched the Story of SimCity and its author Will Wright

from Youtube. Very interesting to watch!

Station buying and new youtube video

 Stations can be bought now. Still TODO is "station management screen". Put a quick youtube video on buying the station. It is not so quick in real scenario, credits must be earned first... 

Link to video: https://youtu.be/vJz2R7V8mMc?feature=shared

And, some latest "raw notes" from my dev diary added, below:

Added algorithm for determining the station value. It is determined based
on station credits, stock value and tech level.

( Station::determine_station_value() )

TODO next: buy option to station in station info screen. => maybe just can leave

offer to owner and owner responds in bbs message ?

If owner is short on quick cash, he may sell station under-prized ... maybe there

could be hints on bulletin board on this ?

Update: Bid for station can be now set from info view of a station. Build some

generic(ish) numeric input routines and callback system in the process.

Bid not yet handled by owner, thats next.

# 19.01.2024 fri

Now stations can be bought. some tweaking needs to be done still, but anyway.

# 20.01.2024 sat

## Status

NPCs now arrive & dock to destination station almost immediately, when accelerated

time is on as otherwise they would float in space foreva.

## Some Raw materials and producing planning.

Raw Materials are used to build stuff..

If they run out, nothing can be manufactured.

They are obtained from: Traders, and own operations (e.g. mining asteroids)

TODO FIXES:

- station owner must not be able to buy the station again :) => FIXED

- BUG still with NPC ship Particle System being affected by player movement...

TODO next: station managing screen usable

Linux test

 18.01.2024 thu

==============

Smoke tested DeFinibus on Linux, only few changes  related to file system

paths being handled differently between Win and Linux need to be made.

Performance, however, was horrible on Linux running on VirtualBox.

Hopefully performance on native Linux is better. Don't have now native

Linux available for testing.

Station Managment, part 1

 16.01.2024 thu
===============

Station and NPC "AI" general improvements. Workers now do station maintenance by daily

basis and get even payed for it :)

Station condition decreases over time and doing maintenance then increases it, obviously.

Next in the tasklist is the station "control menu" for the station owner.

Oh, and option for to buy the stations fron the owners is also needed, of course.

Im pondering whether station management would be behind password/credentials,

so that anyone knowing the credentials would be able to log on the management system.

That would open some possibilities, of coursee...like stealing credentials.. :)