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Hi!
I bought DBC 3 short months ago and have made a few games (a text game, a hunting simulator based off the Monster Hunt tutorial) and now want to make something more complicated, namely an RTS.

I havent been able to find much about a tutorial for this, mostly people linking to game engines like Spring, which doesnt help me because Im here to learn DarkBasic. I found a tutorial or two for DBP, and one for DBC that unfortunately gives be a 404 error.

Any thoughts? What should I be looking into in order to do this?

Thanks in advance!

Here would be a perfect time for you to make a full project or tutorial yourself , plenty of people will give you advice if desired.

1st step, create a design doc
http://www.runawaystudios.com/articles/chris_taylor_gdd.asp <-- every time i do a project, i usually start from this template.

Make sure you've got every detail of what you want in it! that includes units, buildings, how much power they should have etc..

next step
compile a list of things to do with your game. What are the core components, then you can worry about making it look shiny and polished after you've finished the core parts to the game.

e.g. simple list:
HUD - with building menu
Terrain
be able to place building / check for places cannot be placed
do check if enough money
reduce money when baught
place building
update building in your array / database for that player
be able to click/highlight buildings
select building to do x task

building to make unit
texture unit with correct image
unit clickable/highlighted, so you can move them


The most boring part of this will be the database part, storing all the units information and building information in a nicely accessible database / (array) / struct


The Database information:
It's up to you what to decide to put in here. For example for ease of use, what i did for my first RTS was compiled a list of attributes for troopers / tanks etc.. it would have an array like this


Power[troopers][level] = 10;
Health[troopers][level] = 1000;
Speed[troopers][level] = 2.2;

Power[tank][level]=40;
Health[tank][level]=2000;
... and so on

The troopers/tank = an enum previously set, the level is depending on what level you want to set your troop to have these stats, in my game they were able to go up to level 5.

I'd love to create a full tutorial right now but I've got a compiler to write and I must get back to work. If you require any help you can always post what part you're stuck in, but just give it a try . If you don't believe you're experienced enough yet i suggest building a tower defense game with the use of stats for each building etc.. that will give you the necessary experience without the project being too big. Estimated time for tower defense (1 month)

Thanks ! That was an amazing help, Ill get on that right away!

Ill probably do the tower defense clone first, as there seems to be some readily available help for that if I get stuck.

Thanks also for the link to the design document.

Wow that link sure is awsome, very useful stuff!

That link is very good! I always layout my design docs in the most inefficient way. But now this will help me out in the long run!

I think you have been dabbling in c++ too much

that is a great link though!

yay, I feel appreciated

Caleb, heh busted

Xzeleous, try and beat my tower defence game

I'm currently one month into development, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNja2cstKXM

I've also uploaded the design doc i'm currently using / updating for my tower defense. It might help you have some ideas, and remember place holders are great, get the core of the game done, then worry about graphics.

Side tip (Make your menu interactive )

It's ok. it's allowed because it's c++ lol

My tutorial is hardly complete and in desperate need of a rewrite (something I've been thinking about doing recently), but it might give you some direction.
http://dbchallenge.com/?page=tutorials

I have no idea how old or out of date the DBC version is, but should have something useful I hope.