I kept the promise and I closed the release just before Christmas. Now it's in the hands of a few selected people to be examined and evaluated, so I finally enjoyed a bit of relax during these last days of the year.
After a major clean up of my PC I'll be back to work focusing on an update of some pages of the website, before going back to my lines of code.
Happy New Year!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but that only meant I spent every minute of my time to concentrate on this last and most delicate development phase concerning modifications and improvements to the game rules.
I'm at a good point now and after some more gameplay testing while I write down the necessary documentation, I think I'll be able to finally close the release just before Christmas.
Time is never enough, as they say, so I'd better go back to work!

While I was working on the interface changes I realized that player interaction with the game could greatly benefit from a more homogeneous and intuitive user interface. I wanted to give a sort of a "Windows style" to the way the buttons of the game interface and the menus are displayed, highlighted, pressed and released. To make the proper changes I had to browse through a lot of code, but I managed to hasten the times by working non stop until yesterday, with good results in the end.
I've also changed the menu used to add new units during scenario editing.
This week I should finally start working exclusively on the game rules, in particular how the unit parameters change and how they influence one another in a realistic way.

Here I am after another two weeks full of serious work. As well as giving a new form to the combat resolution routines, I managed to improve the animation system a bit more, something that will make my 2D engine look even better, and to improve the input management system allowing for smarter text and string editing, since it was barely functional. This week I should focus on tweaking the game interface to make room for the "suppression" parameter and a different fuel usage management for vehicles. Then I'll be back to the damage calculation routines to fine tune enemy units reactions to fire. I've also a couple of new nice gameplay features left to implement, but more about that later.

I'm pretty satisfied of the enhancements made to the movement and targeting mode. After completing them I focused my work on rewriting the weapon systems management in the most realistic way introducing hit probability curves for every ammunition type currently in the game. Also I made an useful database in which are detailed all the info about the weapons. A similar database will be made for unit types, but for this release I'll not spend additional time adding more units or weapons. Now I must concentrate on combat resolution and damage calculation routines, a very delicate matter.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I've been very busy concentrating on the coding of some of the core routines of the game, including the Line of Sight, movement and targeting mode. The internal calculations are now much more realistic than before. All that work has finally opened the way to some gameplay changes and improvements that will be definitely more fun to code and test.
I've just closed my "to do" list now, since I have to put together an internal release of SoD. It will not be a public release, but I promise to show you some nice screenshots at least!

The development is proceeding with other enhancements, testing and optimizations to the new Field of Sight overlay system and the spotting levels.
I've also started reading AI Game Programming Wisdom, a book that will certainly help me in designing and implementing a challenging AI opponent for single player mode.

Well, here I am back again. I had a bad technical problem that forced me to format my hard disk and to reinstall all of my programs, something that I find to be extremely boring.
Then I tried to relax a bit playing some strategy games.
In particular I enjoyed Strategic Command, a turn based wargame created by an independent developer like me. I just wrote a review of the game for NWI, the italian resource for wargamers. If you can read italian check it out while I'll resume regular updates on the development of Strike or Die.

I'm pretty satisfied about the command and control feature. I still need to figure out some details related to gameplay, but the system works very well.
In the last week I've been busy working on the new Field of Sight overlay. In practice when a unit is selected you will be able to see the "battle space" around it, that is all the terrain on which the unit has a clear Line of Sight to it. The interesting thing is that in movement mode you will be able to preview the Field of Sight before deciding where to move the unit, a feature that will make happy many wargamers out there!
To properly implement it I had to modify and optimize some core routines of the 2D engine, but all that work will pay in the end allowing for many more animations and special effects at the same time.

Well, the development resumed at a good rhythm and during the last days I've been working on the new routines to display unit bitmaps that will allow to use NATO symbols and most importantly will make them independent from a unit's "footprint", that will change according to the current formation. It's easy to notice that limitation in the current release Alpha.
Also I've almost completed work on the command and control system and hierarchy building, a gameplay element that add a lot more depth to the game.
Stay tuned for more juicy updates!

The so-called good season has come and the unusual hot of the last days did not certainly helped me keeping a good rhythm of work on my project.
However I managed to do some experiments with different map scales while I was working on the code changes needed to introduce the new announced features, in particular the alterable terrain seems to be very high on the wish list of the few nice guys who contacted me and so it will be on my "to do" list!

Well, I'm still busy working on the new Fog of War routines and I'm just going to add "spotting levels", but mostly I'm making some more brainstorming about the better way to implement some new features, like for example the alterable terrain. Also I'm steadily reading some US Army Field Manuals from the Military Reference Library by Major Holdridge. They're proving to be a really invaluable source of information for the new "realism way" Strike or Die is following!

During the last days work proceeded slowly due to the many technical and design issues I had to face, but that's the price to pay for the new road Strike or Die is heading for.
I'm still working on the new FOW and LOS routines and among other things I made improvements to the fonts management system and introduced a lock/unlock feature for easier scenario editing.

As well as working on the Order Of Battle menu in which squads are now divided into five different classes, I introduced two new important gameplay elements such as formations and the command and control hierarchy.
More time will be needed to fine tune them, but now I'm going to start working on the new Fog of War and Field of Sight routines. A lot of recoding waits me, but in the end the game will definitely benefit from that.

Well, Strike or Die has come at an important turning point!
After some heavy brainstorming I just started working to bring my game to the higher step of realism I can. It's a very important change that will obviously lengthen the development time more that I expected, but I decided to go this way not only because all wargame publishers I contacted asked me to do that, but also because I feel that in this way I could provide players with a deeper and involving gameplay.
The first thing I'm working on is a complete Order of Battle menu to replace the simple Squads List, but there are also other important changes and improvements I'll be working on.
More on that on the next update.

The tool to create new terrain sets is almost complete. Since a new map can have only a limited number of different terrain types, with this tool you can associate to it any custom terrain set or you can easily adapt an existing one.
During the last days I also spent some time playing two classic wargames about modern warfare, TacOps 3.0 and Brigade Combat Team.
Strike or Die doesn't pretend to equal their military realism, but I'll certainly learn something useful from them.

There are pretty good news for Strike or Die on the horizon!
More about that soon, in the meantime the development continues and I'm going to clean up some parts of the code and to start working on more powerful editing tools.

Well, after some serious playtesting and bug hunting, my very personal D-day has come at last!
The new website is up and Strike or Die release Alpha 0.6 is ready for you to download.
There's not much else to say but I hope you'll be pleasantly amazed looking at the result of the last six months of hard work.

The new website is ready, but it took me the last seven days of work to complete the new graphics, to write the new game documentation and to update or correct all the other pages both in the english and italian versions.
I did not wanted to miss my weekly update even if I think I'll be able to upload everything within this very week.
I just have to put the finishing touches to this release of the game, that considering the development status I named release Alpha 0.6!

The game testing proceeded well, but has been slowed down by some unfailing bugs.
I need to do some more playtesting because the last thing I want is to publish a buggy release.
Today I begun updating the website. I'm going to improve the graphics with a new camouflage, rewrite the game documentation and check the spelling of all the english pages.
Still a few days of work and all will be ready for the big update!

Last week I completed the second map. It's twice as big as the first one and I experimented with some new terrain types. I also started working on "opportunity fire", a feature that can significantly enhance gameplay. Once completed I'm NOT going to add anything more to this release so that I can finally start testing it.
During this week as well as testing the game and creating some scenarios, I'll also work on updating the website.
That means the next update will be the long awaited one!

Once the first map was completed I spent a lot of time on the anti-aliasing routines and adding a couple of small but useful new features. So I've yet to make the second map.
Done that I'll start testing the game and if I won't find too much bugs to correct I think the new release will be ready by the end of this week.

Last week I've solved the last issues of the Replay feature, I rewrote part of the animation system, I improved the squads movement mode and I worked on the routines to generate the map bitmaps using textures, but first tests did not showed the good results I expected. So I'm going to abandon this method and I'll create the map bitmaps drawing them by hand, because the results really justify the extra time needed.
The first map is almost complete and the second one will soon follow. This week I'm also going to work on an improved version of the anti-aliasing algorithm for the squad bitmaps. Then my "to do" list for this release could be considered empty and I could start testing the game as a whole.
The most important release of Strike or Die is closing in, stay tuned!.

Testing the Replay feature took much more time than expected, but I'm very satisfied with the result because now all the played turns can be replayed. Furthermore I'm going to add the option to replay the game from either player side, or even alternating them, once the game is over.
Last week I've also been a bit distracted by the new Creative 5.1 speakers I bought for my PC. They're far from a real home theater system, but they sound good and above all they're good value for money.

The Replay feature is complete and now I'm going to test it carefully to make sure it generates consistent replay events, because it'll be a fundamental part of the game. This week I'll also work on the last feature scheduled for this release: some routines to make easier producing the bitmaps used to create new maps. Then I'll use them to make a couple of maps that will be included in the incoming release 4.0.
Another week full of work waits me.

Last week I improved the targeting mode further on by adding multiple targets selection for indirect fire weapons, I optimized and increased the compatibility of the video subsystem and finally I started working on the Replay feature, rewriting it from scratch.
It will be time consuming to make it work well, but I think I'll bee able to complete it by the end of this week.

A bad system crash forced me to reformat the hard disk with consequent slow down of the work on the game. Fortunately I lost no data. Ironically it happened just when Microsoft is talking about increasing the stability of their operative systems.
Nevertheless I rewrote the targeting mode routines making it more accurate and realistic. I retouched the logo, as you can see, and made a new animation for machine-gun fire.
This week will certainly go better.

Last week flew away as I worked at a good pace. I made a couple of optimizations, changed and reorganized some data structures, solved a number of minor bugs and finally rewrote the sound system in a smarter way. Using DirectShow now I can play soundtrack files in MP3 format.
I think this week I'll proceed the same way to shorten my "to do" list even more.

Once I completed the new reinforcements management I began to clean some parts of the code, so the work on the Replay feature has been delayed.
This process will be more substantial after the incoming release 4.0 and will be very important to make the program more stable and bugless, I hope.

Take a look at the new logo!
It's a nice piece of work from Pier Tommaso Bennati, Lead Graphic Artist at Trecision. He made the background of the logo and I just added the text. Thank you again Benna!
Actually I'm cleaning up the code and solving some minor issues. This week I'm going to work on a better reinforcements management and on the Replay feature.

The new basic tutorial is ready and I resolved some issues with text display routines as well. I plan to make also an advanced tutorial, but I'll do it for the next version, when probably squads special abilities will assume a definitive form.
Now I'd like to wish an Happy New Year to all people who are following this project, hoping that 2002 will see the good conclusion of Strike or Die.
See you to the next year!

I finished working on the new scenario creation and management menus and I'm going to test their functionality. Work will continue even in these days, I'll modify the tutorial to adapt it to the new settings and then I'll proceed with what's left in my "to do" list.
Merry Christmas!

Besides fine tuning the units movement mode I managed to produce an useful After Action Report menu with full statistics that appears at the end of the battle. Now I'm beginning to work on a new idea about scenario creation and management.
That will make easier to get into the game for first time players and will make available more options and flexibility for the scenario creator.

Last days work did not proceed at full time, so I missed the last weekly update.
I worked on important gameplay issues and I decided to make the game a little more strategical than tactical. Now a single sprite on the map, like a tank, represents a small group of units instead of a single one. That is more coherent with the map scale I want to use. So I had to rework carefully on units variable parameters, like health, morale and experience to reflect these changes. In particular I worked on the combat phase and I added some graphic effects during the process, such as smoke animation and a nice explosion wave effect.
See you next week for more updates!

The new menus for maps selection and Map Pak creation are up and running. Now I could start to draw some brand new maps, but I've got other things left in my "to do" list.
I'd like to welcome the birth of Net Wargaming Italia, the first italian portal devoted to wargames, turn based strategy games and combat simulations.
Long live to Net Wargaming Italia!

Last week work proceeded a little slowly because I struggled to improve and optimize the "Fog of War" algorithm.
Optimizations really suck up time, but they are very important to make the game a bit more playable .
From tomorrow I'll start working on more interesting features such as the new maps creation menu!

I've just started optimizing code and working on features that I was going to leave for the next release of Strike or Die, so I decided to skip version 3.5 to go directly to version 4.0.
Actually I rewrote the animation system and from this will benefit in particular special effects such as smoke and fire.
I know the downloadable version 3.0 is getting really old, but I feel this is the way to go to release a really improved version!

Another week spent working more with the graphics program than with the compiler...
I made a clearer, slightly larger alpha blended font and modified all the menus accordingly. I also worked on a better 4x anti-aliasing routine for the bitmaps of the squads, and on a shadow effect for the mouse cursor.
That' s all, I think these modifications to menus and game interface can be considered definitive since I really like the result!

During the last week I worked hard on improving the graphics of all the menus and game interface.
Now they are procedurally generated with a camouflage texture as background, which the user can choose.
I'll apply the same technique to unit bitmaps, to mouse cursors and in the end to the website!

The list of improvements and updates is getting long .
I only need to work on the replay feature and on some minor technical issues, then an extensive testing will follow to ensure everything is all right.
But now I decided to give a nice retouch to the menus and game interface, to make more appealing the new version and this will take some extra time.

Work is going well and I've definitively solved many technical issues. Now I'm checking and debugging other routines more related to gameplay, but I'm not going to hurry up just to release a new version not adequately tested.
So it will take some more time but the wait will be worth of it!

The rebirth of Strike or Die is proceeding with a major revision of the game code and I'm rewriting many routines because, as any programmer knows, better and clearer code is much easier to debug .
I've made many technical enhancements and discovered some nasty bugs in the process, so I think I'll upload a new version with all these improvements soon.
Stay tuned, Strike or Die release 3.5 is coming soon!

I love strategy games and when I'm not too far from completing my first one, do I give up?
It can't be!!!
Well, here I am again, after some months of work at Trecision I decided to quit my job to take care of important personal matters. So I think now I'll have the time to complete the Strike or Die project.
I've just updated some sections of the site and temporarily closed the "Play!" page.
It will take some time before the next release of the game because I've got to work on the Artificial Intelligence routines, but I promise I'll keep the site updated!