Slitherine

nikivdd wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 5:53 pm
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An alpha test of combat between the human player and the AI opponent.

Some gameplay mechanics are deliberately different from those in Panzer General and the more recent Panzer Corps.

Units with transport can mount, move, dismount, and still attack if eligible. Artillery can provide supporting fire based on its firing range, so it no longer needs to be adjacent to the unit it is supporting.

The game runs as a native 64-bit Windows application.
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Suggestions and feedback welcome.

I have two questions: how will your game differ from *Panzer General Forever*, and how can I create those animation circles that still fill me with a pleasant sense of nostalgia for my youth?

nikivdd wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 9:17 pm

I have two questions: how will your game differ from *Panzer General Forever*, and how can I create those animation circles that still fill me with a pleasant sense of nostalgia for my youth?

This project is at the very early stage, one difference is the transport of units who can mount, move, dismount and attack; another difference is that artillery and AA give covering fire as far as their range allows, friendly unit adjacency is not necessary.
I decided not to implement the circular animations, there are over 600 shp files with their animation frames.

nikivdd wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 9:47 pm Thanks for your input. I hope to implement a lot of features. But first i need to have the basics ready. My first aim is to have the original campaign running, the second is a Scenario generator. Currently i am still busy to implement the update and purchase mechanism followed by the creation of the deployement phase. The game will be free to play but a copy of DOS Panzer General must be on your device.

bondjamesbond wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 2:43 am
We’d like to express our respect and gratitude to you for continuing to delight us with your creativity and experiments!

cw58 wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 3:09 am

bondjamesbond wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 2:43 am
We’d like to express our respect and gratitude to you for continuing to delight us with your creativity and experiments!

I'd like to second this!

Panzer General Windows v0.4.11 — Tactical Status & Adaptive AI.

This build includes the latest batch of changes:

strength plates are now cropped from their large transparent source canvas and positioned underneath the unit

added tactical status cluster:
ammo icon left of strength
strength plate center
fuel icon right
green 50–100%
orange 25–49%
red below 25%
ammo/fuel icons disappear when the active unit/transport profile does not use that resource
mounted units display transport ammo/fuel status
exhausted units stay sharp and receive only subtle dimming

selected-unit top status:
Awaiting orders — green
Attack available — orange
Move available — orange
No actions remaining — dark red

artillery remains one-way indirect fire even against an adjacent unit

no meaningless Missed text appears over an indirect-fire shooter

combat floating text duration shortened by roughly 0.5 seconds

standard informational Windows message boxes used by the main UI have been replaced by our borderless PG-style in-game message panel

the unwanted toolbar separator is now a visible but disabled unused button

AI can use mount → transport move → dismount

AI now remembers player artillery support fire for the remainder of its current turn
after suffering artillery support, it penalizes repeating attacks through the suspected artillery-covered area
it can instead favor alternate approaches/flanking and somewhat more defensible terrain
this does not reveal hidden artillery positions to the AI
the artillery-danger memory resets after each AI turn

All Class 1 units are inherently Overrun-capable
Any unit from another class can also gain Overrun capability through the Traits column
Overrun becomes the first active trait supported by the game
the Traits column is now officially activated instead of being a placeholder

Tobi72 wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 4:14 pm Hello,
This is a serious question, Niko:

Are you working on something like a campaign generator where, in the end, you would only have to provide fairly broad instructions, for example:

“Generate a 10-mission campaign set during World War II. Theme: the Battle for Caen in 1944. Focus on the combat operations of the 21st Panzer Division at historical locations, with tactical counterattacks, individual briefings and debriefings, historically appropriate units, briefing/debriefing images, and so on.”

And then the system would actually generate the complete campaign from those instructions?

Tobi72 wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 4:34 pm My goal is to get Sol to the point where, with just a few commands and requirements, she can design a complete, playable scenario or even an entire campaign. For relatively simple and less demanding projects, this already works very well. But I still have a lot to learn too.

For now, however, I want to work with existing mods and their equipment files. I am not planning to create a completely new mod from scratch.

At least not yet.

P.S. Steel Panthers was a great game.

nikivdd wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 4:37 pm

Tobi72 wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 4:34 pm My goal is to get Sol to the point where, with just a few commands and requirements, she can design a complete, playable scenario or even an entire campaign. For relatively simple and less demanding projects, this already works very well. But I still have a lot to learn too.

For now, however, I want to work with existing mods and their equipment files. I am not planning to create a completely new mod from scratch.

At least not yet.

P.S. Steel Panthers was a great game.

Ask Sol to create a template for scenario and campaign creation. Use those templates to create, and while testing, if need be, tell Sol (her/his/its) mistakes and must update the templates. Also for each filled in template by you and passing on she should automatically check online sources. Sol will get smarter but needs sufficient "food"

nikivdd wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 3:27 pm
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A second video.
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Units with transport can mount, move, dismount, and still attack if eligible. Artillery can provide supporting fire based on its firing range, so it no longer needs to be adjacent to the unit it is supporting. Severely damaged AI units will retreat. If an AI unit attacks a friendly unit protected by supporting artillery, the AI will not send another unit into the same meat grinder during that turn.
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Questions and suggestions welcome.

nikivdd wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 4:37 pm

Tobi72 wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 4:34 pm My goal is to get Sol to the point where, with just a few commands and requirements, she can design a complete, playable scenario or even an entire campaign. For relatively simple and less demanding projects, this already works very well. But I still have a lot to learn too.

For now, however, I want to work with existing mods and their equipment files. I am not planning to create a completely new mod from scratch.

At least not yet.

P.S. Steel Panthers was a great game.

Ask Sol to create a template for scenario and campaign creation. Use those templates to create, and while testing, if need be, tell Sol (her/his/its) mistakes and must update the templates. Also for each filled in template by you and passing on she should automatically check online sources. Sol will get smarter but needs sufficient "food"

nikivdd wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2026 3:27 pm Campaign Options version 1.
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001.png
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Any option ideas or requests?
Suggestions are always welcome.