while (!sleep) sheep++;

So I've been spending the last few weeks implementing battles and the associated algorithms into the game, as well as occasionally being unmotivated, and instead playing video games. Regardless of which activity it is that I'm involved in for the night tho, I haven't been getting huge amounts of sleep, haha ^-^v I've started trying to go to bed earlier tho, as I've found my cognoscence start to lack when my sleep levels get too low, which ultimately results in less production by time.

I've gotten so far as to implement a rudimentary battle interface with the basic commands "Fight" "Magic" and "Item"- although currently "Magic" and "Item" do nothing. I've also put together a fairly extensive set of algorithms for hit detection and damage calculation. Virtually every type of attack can now be made with these 4 functions. I've put these 4 functions into their own class that can be configured remotely by scripts. Typically, each script will do the same thing, that is, ask the player to select a target, pass that target to the attackHandler class, pass the type of attack being made to the attackHandler class, and request the attack be made. The only different thing a script may want to do (off the top of my head) would be to request an attempt at applying a status effect on the target. Everything else tho, instant death, elemental weakness, etc.. is handled in the attackHandler class.

That in mind, it will be virtually nothing to actually start implementing spells and have them called with the "Magic" option in the interface. I'll just have to put something together to allow the player to select a spell (or an item, in the case of selecting "Item"). That's really the only reason those 2 options aren't functioning yet.

I have a basic "target selection" system in place, but for all intents and purposes, it's just for me to throw a target at the attackHandler class. It's going to get almost completely rewritten for end-product.

Additionally, I've started implementing custom sceneNodes and sceneNodeAnimators for my specific needs in the game- things like the movement/fading/etc effects of the damage text and whatnot, that appears briefly on the entity in question.A couple of bugs have been preventing me from expanding too much on that yet, but the basic effect is there.

I had to start teaching myself some DirectX (Irrlicht typically hides this from the programmer...) so I could write some custom material handlers for Irrlicht, as it didn't have a material or 2 to do some of the things that I want.