I've been busy during this year with a new house. It's finished, and I've been leaving in it for the last 3 weeks.

Now comes 2006.

I've decide to start again working on SSS. Use all the knowledge I get from my earliest work, and make the game nicer, easier to develop and mod. Redo some parts of the engine.

For the people who don't know it, SSS (Steph's Strategical Simulation) is a Turn Based Strategy game, with similar settings as civ (from 4000 BC to 2000AD, with civilizations, warfare, science, economy, etc). It is supposed to be highly editable, with a lot of included editors. The game mechanisms will be quite different from civ, often more realistic and with more options to the player. More info can be found in the various link in my signature.

This is a vast project. Help would be more than welcome.
I can use developers (C# or C++) to help programm some parts.
I can use artists (mainly for terrain or units, so they are original enough to avoid copyright issues).
I can also use designers to model some parts of the game. However, I'll have the final word on what gets in or not.
I'll answer questions here, and if you are interested, you can contact me by email or MSN at stephane.f.david@free.fr.

If no one wants to help, I'll try to do it anyway, but it will of course not be so fast...
I need serious people. There are many tasks to do. People who join the effort can chose the task they want / can do. I won't require people to do to much (like asking to pick task if you don't want it), but I hope they will finish the tasks they start.

Huzzah! SSS is under way again. I can't code or do graphics, so I'm no good. But like many people I'll be watching eagerly.

Pretty much what Plot said. I'd love to be able to help out Steph but my skill set does not allow me.

Power to you though!

EDIT: Actually, 'pedia writing, English language, history research, art history / pic research and that kind of thing can be offered. Feel free to bring a deluge!

Please feel free to make use of any and everything I've made for Civ3.
I'd love to support SSS in a more formal manner, but time constraints will just not allow it (for now).

I would be willing to lend a hand with this project. I have C# skills as well as some 2D graphics and software design skills.

Cool!

Do you have MSN? Contact me at stephane.f.david@free.fr

Or by email

I can help with terrain/cities/resources, if you have something specific in mind :)

Well, the most urgent parts would be to do a graphic set for terrain with original graphics.
It means no import from another game ;)

I would need details of tile size/tile number/tile connections/different number of terrain etc. I would be more interested in city making ofcourse, but i can try to make terrain too.
Is the terrain similar/same in those qualities to civ3 terrain?

Steph, I would be more than honored to offer you use of any of my units I post here or at Evo games. Also, if warships require any new animations (eg: AA attack/defense), I would gladly accomodate.

I hope to see possible AI implemented in your mod in the future.

I would need details of tile size/tile number/tile connections/different number of terrain etc. I would be more interested in city making ofcourse, but i can try to make terrain too.
Is the terrain similar/same in those qualities to civ3 terrain?
Currently, the terrain works with the same method. But with more options (I can have for instand a pine forest tundra mountains, or a rocky desert hill).
I will explore some other ideas for terrain in January, I may try a different approach from what I currently do.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=57820&stc=1&d=1087157845

I can give you more details by email

And don't worry, cities will be needed later

Steph, I would be more than honored to offer you use of any of my units I post here or at Evo games. Also, if warships require any new animations (eg: AA attack/defense), I would gladly accomodate.

I hope to see possible AI implemented in your mod in the future.
Thanks. Having AA and ASW animation for the ships is indeed a good idea.
I can support up to 3 different surface surface attacks animation, 2 different AA animation (Guns / missiles), and 1 ASW animation. I can also support several fortify anim, if one is not generic enough.

Also, there is a possibility to extand the animations so a ship could fire broadside on the left ofthe right (but it would require x 2 the animations...)

Possibilities are "endless" so far, nothing is set in stone yet. We could imagine animation for damaged ships...

In fact, I can try to prepare the engine to handle as much as possible, and then the actual use of the option will depands on support from artists

I would also love to see AI in the game, but I'm afraid I can't do it alone. I hope to find and AI specialist programmer to work on this part.

i'm no programmer or graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination. however, i've always watched this project w/ great interest and would like to contribute if 'atall possible.

I could work on any graphics you might need I have experience making xp icons toolbar icons program interfaces (gui) etc. Basically anything using 2D graphic programs I still havnt started the 3D thing. To give you an idea my avatar was made by me from scratch to replace the existing Civ3 program icon.

Your avatar is great :)
Can you make some replacements for civ3 2d graphics? (sorry for being mildly off-topic; I trust they can be used in SSS too ;) )

Which graphics are you looking for replacements for? Making replacements for Civ3 is pretty easy since I allready have the pallette set up in Photoshop.

Well, to start with I would need graphics to replace the base terrain in civIII (grassland, tundra, desert, plains, oceans, etc).
So it should be based on the existing pcx, but with different textures, shape of coast..
Then, new hills, moutains, high mountains and plateau.
Based on the existing graphics, but with new textures, and for each climate.
Soo there should be a grassland mountain, a plain mountain, a tundra mountain, a desert mountain.
The mountains and hills should connect as the civIII graphics

OK.....I'll work something up what pixel size are you planning to assign to each square?

I dunno, I´m going on holiday tomorrow, but I´ve already said it: anything you need, just ask.

Thanks for the E-mail Steph that really explains everything perfectly.

Any graphics, especially Static ones, I can do. I can even try to help with terrain.

Welcome aboard then ;)

hey steph i dont think i can help you too much but i would like to say that tihs is great that your doing this and good idea and good luck.

I'm going to learn C++ soon (I already know C), so hopefully I will be able to help with the programming at some point. :)

Steph, you're welcome to use any of my units (such as they are) for this project.... Of course, most of mine would only work in Fantasy/Alt-History/Sci-FI scenarios, but I do have a few that would work in a historical timeline (Female Ninja, Gatling gun and possibly the female ranger), and I do have a few more Japanese units planned.

As for the terrain, couldn't you use one of the open source terrains, such as Snoopy's for a base, then build off of that?

Steph, you're welcome to use any of my units (such as they are) for this project.... Of course, most of mine would only work in Fantasy/Alt-History/Sci-FI scenarios, but I do have a few that would work in a historical timeline (Female Ninja, Gatling gun and possibly the female ranger), and I do have a few more Japanese units planned.

As for the terrain, couldn't you use one of the open source terrains, such as Snoopy's for a base, then build off of that?
All units are welcomed. As SSS is opened for modding, having fantasy units is not a real problem.

Regarding terrain, that's what I did currently. However, with the new version I want to explore some ideas, and I'll need new graphics for that. Also, as I have several hills, mountains, etc. with different terrain, I need some work on that (like colour changes), and I'm not very good with that

just out of curiosity, how diverse is the terrain?
is it as varied as, for example: having correl as a "sea" tile, with a chance that ships could sink in it, and units can land on it? or having a terrain called "suburbs" or something, so if you feed of a tile for a long time, it converts to a suburb?
how will you work terrain buildings? could you have it so that a colony eventually becomes a town? or that a fortress could produce units if build on that resource? can you upgrade the irrigation to farms?
and for units,will there be a promotion system ala civ4?
these are a few things i wanted from civ 3 but couldnt do it.

Lots of questions...
For terrain, I make a distinction between natural and artificial.
For natural, I currently have different "background" (grassland, plains, tudnra, desert, coast, sea, ocean). Then different relief (flat, hills, mountains, high mountains), different vegetation (decideous forest, pine forest, jungle, racks, cactucs, bush (not the US president)).
You can usually combine all this, and have mountains in the desert, or hill in plains with warm pine trees.
These are the complicated graphics, as they need to be seamless when spread on several tiles.
Then, the artificial terrain : mine, irrigation, etc. They are simplier.
Correl could be a specific vegetation terrain.
For population: each tile has a specific population, that grows / decrease during game (natural groth, immigration, wars). When enough people are in a tile, it becomes a town, and then can growth to a city (this is the theory, this part is not implemented yet).
You can have several levels of farms / irrigation, as well has mine, fortress, etc. There is not set limit: you can add as many as you want in the editor, you just need to create new graphics and set them to your new level.

There is no promotion system for the moment, because of the time scale. I just have a experience level that cna give a bonus to the various skills and morale of the units.
However, I could add this, I need to think about it. But if I do it, it will not be "free", but linked to what you do. A unit that fights in forest and is victorious would get "atuomatically" the promotion giving bonus to battle in forest.
Note also thyat you can create specialized units in the editor, with bonuses against specific units, or for specific terrain

great. thats all i need to know at the moment.
i'll think of more later ;)

I'm updating the website, with now a public/private part.

The public part will show screenshots, and contains a team diary, where we'll try to keep you up-to-date with the latest news.

2006 has been a year where we prepared a lot of things. I expect in 2007 we'll make much more things than can interest the modders / players!!

website is here

http://history.sss.free.fr

If you need Asian flavor cities and buildings, I can supply them. ;)

Wow, I just saw this thread! I don't know how I missed it in December 2005 (the period when I was most active, together with spring 2006)

This is amazing! I've always admired your concepts/work. Do you still need artists and/or developers? If you do I could help with graphics (mostly anything, except units), and now that I learned Bryce I can make some pretty realistic city sets. :) SSS looks too good to be true! :eek: