Simplification and lights

So, I've been simplifying my approach, which is something I should have been doing a long time ago. Anyway, so I'm fleshing out my light source routines. I've got some light sources now that are connected to the agents, and follow the agent around when they move. These are simple fill lights and do not cast shadows; which will be replaced with actual light ray lights when I get to it. I've already got a few different kinds of lights, but I need more. Anyway, here is a screen shot of what it looks like so far. I can tell already that I'll need to deal with the offset problem, trying to get it centered directly on the agent, instead of its top left corner.

Why did I think I'd start with 3d?

So, after being convinced of what I already knew to be true, I've decided that 3d is much to difficult (at least, to start with) my XCom roguelike will be 2D for the time being. This will make everything much, much easier to code. An as was previously stated by a wise person, even Dwarf Fortress started out as a 2D game.

I'm back.

I've been gone for far too long. I'm in my final semester as an undergraduate, and I must say that I've been feeling a little down. Living in Michigan (United States) means that I'll soon be out in state with over 15% unemployment. At least we're the best at something... being the worst. Luckily though, I live in Ann Arbor, which is likely my best hope at getting a job in the state.
Though, Michigan does have a lot of nice things, especially when you look at our countryside and natural aspects. I believe we have the most/largest fresh water lakes in the world.


Anyway, I'm back; I've fixed my installation of Eclipse on my laptop; and I've actually started thinking about this project again. I've got about two months of archived rec.games.roguelike posts to sort through. I'd also like to separate my class that deals with the display and make it a little more robust. I can see it being the starting points for many of my other projects; such as artificial life simulations. Another long-term goal is to have some sort of framework, a skeleton, so that I could quickly make a roguelike game for a 7dlr competition without having to start from scratch. I've never been that into using other people's libraries, mostly because I feel that any problems I have to solve will help be get better footing as far as coding goes. I don't mind reinventing the wheel, at least, when I don't have a deadline.