firstly id like to thank the posters for reading and replying to my posts (Ernest have you noticed my new name :-) ).
Ok, helpful adivce has been given to me, and ill work through the tutorials today. I have used java before e.g. to produce a simple program related to a customer purchasing goods, but this was a while back. I guess im now a rusty newbie!
I really dont want to come across as somebody who wants a quick fix and requires an immediate answer - ive scheduled 8 months to complete my project, and currently have requirements, specifications and a paper-based prototype. I think what i am really lacking at the moment is a strong knowledge of Java and grapics. These tutorials will no doubt be a help.
If anyone else has the time, any other help would be useful. For example, what keywords should i look for - to find tutorials and the such. Examples of keywords ive typed are "java terrain generator" and "java tile based 2d".
Alot of the findings are of 3d fractal landscapes. (My final product will hopefully use a simple top-down tile based system with perlin noise).
An example of simple help i could be given could be as follows:
-type of java file to open with new project eg awt
-syntax used within jbuilder for tiles (ie a single phrase that can be looked up and studied)
-the best way to "identify tiles" eg assign a color (0-255)
-Do i first identify the whole grid, followed by identifying the 2 tile types?
-Do i have to identify the "blank" tiles in the 8x8 grid.
a simple theory is to give each blank tile in the 8x8 grid a name eg A1/A2, and name "green tile" G, and "blue tile" B, and to code so that A1/A2 has either G or B. Im not sure if i actually place a new tile on the old tile, or simply change the background color as appropriate, or assign a similar sized art file.
(when i produce an 8x8 grid that randomly places two tiles eg green and blue, my next step is to have 8 different tile types, that uses AI (some might say CSP) to realisticly place these tiles. eg blue will not be found touching brown - This is my 2nd step as such, and am not working on it with java until the first is done. From what i have seen, tile edges are assigned numbers - 1/2/3/4)
so overall any "keywords" that will allow me to look in the right direction would be great. Or any tried and tested methods i could look into. Please note, i do read books :-)