News
March 30, 2008
This month's improvements include, most notably, a greatly enhanced applet experience. While the applet is still (and will always be) far less capable than the downloadable application, it no longer experiences the many bugs reported by users. Applet mode also gained many much-needed features, such as focus detection. The dashboard now provides a heads-up messaging display, which primarily benefits applet mode, but is visible in all modes. Have a lot of fun!January 11, 2008
Relatively simple changes, but exciting none the less. Due to incredible demand, we've added applet support. This means you can now play online without JavaWebStart and/or downloading the tarballs and jars. The applet version does have fewer features, but that's the cost of running it in an incredibly strict sandbox. We cleaned up most of the deprecated methods, so you won't find them anymore :). Lastly, we re-compiled the pre-compiled binaries using java 1.5, which should increase the compatibility of legacy users. Oh, one more thing, we added a bash script to make the packaging of the game easier (for those of you who had troubles).January 10, 2008
I know it's been a while since our last release, but our development team has been spending a lot of its time working on AirForce3. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out!. TimeBombs now work better (press "b" to drop one). Another cool thing: the AI ships now understand how to use lasers. This adds a massive complexity to the game play, because now you have to avoid getting in front of an enemy ship at risk of instance death. We also worked hard to increase the game's reliability. For anyone interested, the reliability issues were caused by multiple threads doing too many things at once. Programmers will notice we decided to go on a deprecating spree, and please observe the changes because the next release (coming very soon) will not have the deprecated methods anymore.May 28, 2007
I haven't worked on AForce in a while and decided to pop it open and make an improvement. I was browsing through some internet archives and ran across a java application that you just click and it starts up (using something called JavaWebStart). I figured it would be cool to make AForce do that too. Just a few quick changes and I was up and running, but with one drawback. When AForce runs with JavaWebStart, it puts a message at the top of every window that says "Java Application Window". This seems to be some sort of "security feature". Well, I spent hours trying to find a way to get rid of it (trying to overwrite functions, change variables, empty frames, etc), but to no avail. Oh well, I guess the java people did a good job making it difficult to remove. What a pain. Well, you can check out the webstart in the downlaods section, or by clicking right HERE (NOTE: Java SE6 is REQUIRED).May 15, 2007
Today was mostly just cleanup. The menus (although I did make it so they show), were causing null pointer exceptions, so I fixed that. I also updated the game so the help files now point to our official website instead of our old free host. There was lots of cleanup to do, like removing the getType() and toType() methods, which were painful to use and not as fool proof. Some of the weapon control has been moved to the WeaponsControl subclass in the Commander class. Warp drive has been added, and given a cool down time of about 5 seconds. The laser (which had no restrictions in the previous version) may now be used only after a 20 second delay. In case you haven't guessed, most of the changes only apply to developers, but users will also see added benifits. Have a lot of Fun!May 13, 2007
I spent quite a few hours working on it today, and I think the work shows. Lasers are now fully functional (except they have no limitations or cooldown times). I also fixed up a minor problem that resulted in small bits of color being drawn to the screen along the edges of the frame as a result of close-flight objects. Lastly, (for developers), I fixed up the collision detection. The collision detection is faster, more reliable, easier to read and understand, shorter, and more maintainable; I hope you like it. Enjoy!May 11, 2007
Just spent an hour or two on it. I fixed a problem that caused the menus not to open, it was a problem with heavy and light objects that came into effect because of the new graphics engine. I am quite unhappy with lasers and how they behave, so I started re-writing them. They are now fast and defined properly (according to the game's standards), but don't actually kill anything, and go through all objects.April 7, 2007
Ok, this release took me all day, but it's finally done. The graphics engine has been totally re-written from the ground up. This new graphics engine has a much better ability to handle objects moving at different speeds. Because it rebuilds each frame from scratch (unlike the old engine which just applied a delta), there are far fewer artifacts. Although the new engine uses slightly more cpu power, I hope (and believe) it will result in a much smoother game play on slower machines. Many methods such as draw have been deperacated or removed, so if you are playing with the source code, be aware! The end user should see very little change in this release, so if you are happy with what you are using now, don't bother upgrading.April 2, 2007
Again, a somewhat minor release. Moved all the images where they belong, and changed all the paths. Some of the maps were never converted to xml after the map engine was changed, so I finished converting them. The jars and tarballs no longer come with the example screenshots (they use up too much space, make download times too large). The screen shots can, ofcorse, still be seen online. Have a lot of Fun!April 1, 2007
Ok, this is just a quickey. This release is important for windows users who use the jar file on windows. Windows (unlike Linux) does not include the running jar file in the class path. This means that the game wasn't loading properly. Well, anyway, it's fixed now!March 30, 2007
Wow, 2007. Well, I finally got the website setup. The game was pointing to a "coming soon" page. Also, since Mustang (Sorry, JKD1.6.0 SE6) came out, many of the functions have been deprecated. Many other warnings were also created by the new version, so I spent most of my time cleaning them up. I also fixed the bug where the ships sometimes leave their tails behind when they die. Fun Fun Fun!September 08, 2006
Probably the last release for a while, busy around here. The more donations, the more I know there is interest, and the more time I will be able to devote to the project!September 07, 2006
And may I present... Another Release!September 05, 2006
I forgot how fun working on AForce is! Release!September 04, 2006
For one reason or another, I just haven't gotten around to making any upgrades. I decided it is time to continue work on my favorite game. Probably for just a few more releases for now.May 29, 2006
OOOh, No more school. I guess that means this will be the last release for a while. I plan to pick the game back up in the future. Anyway, Release!May 28, 2006
More Releases!May 27, 2006
Have a lot of fun, the game is changing every day!May 26, 2006
Google says to "Release early, release often." I say, " that's a good idea!"May 25, 2006
I got so much work done today, (actually, I decided that I wanted to keep working after I made today's release), that I am releasing another version for today. It will be called 2060525b.May 25, 2006
Release!May 24, 2006
Release Away!May 23, 2006
Yet Another Release!May 22, 2006
My teacher says it's time for a Release!May 15, 2006
Release!May 11, 2006
Another day of Advanced Placement Computer Science, Another Release!May 8, 2006
I can't keep my mind off the game. It is going well. Release!May 7, 2006
After a few days of messing around with the graphics libraries, I finally feel that I have the skills required to start the project. I just spent some large number of hours working on this project, and the first release is ready. The first release of AirForce2 can be downloaded now!May 1, 2006
My AP Computer Science teacher, Mr. Anderson, assigned us a final project - make something impressive. A few years earlier, I had switched from using Windows, to using exclusively Linux as my desktop operating system. The one thing I missed more than anything else was a small Windows 3.1 game called Alien Airforce. In the game, you are a little ship and you fly around and kill all the other little ships. As my final project, I have decided to make my own version of the game, and make it better!
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