consider this a devlog. progress, fails, lessons β€” all while building a strategy game in one C++ file. yes, really.

goal? learn C++ deeply. no frameworks. no engine. just raw STL and a grid-based fever dream.

introduction

i play a lot of map games. stare at borders. micromanage. get invaded. rinse. repeat.

but those games come with a 10-page tutorial and 4 DLCs. so i figured: make my own β€” no GUI, no paywalls. just C++ and vibes.

progress

πŸ—“οΈ June 25, 2025

β†’ current code

TL;DR: build a grid β†’ randomly generate regions β†’ name them β†’ print them pretty in terminal.

[1] take user input for rows and cols β†’ define map size

[2] call makeRegion(rows, cols) β†’ returns a grid + map of region names

[3] createGrid() builds 2D base; regionNames maps ids like {1: "coastline"}

[4] usedNames (a set) avoids duplicate region names

[5] cap region size with:
maxSize = min(rows, cols) / 2;

[6] pick random values:
β†’ randSize: 1 to maxSize
β†’ randRow, randCol: within bounds

[7] use namePool[] for random, non-repeating region names

[8] loop (500 tries):
β†’ check if area is free with checkFreeArea()
β†’ if yes, fill it via fillRegion()
β†’ assign name, bump regionId++

then we return the grid and regionNames map.

πŸ–¨οΈ printRegionInfo()

tracks bounding boxes for each region id:

β†’ scans grid
β†’ updates min/max row+col for each id
β†’ prints: region id, name, top-left coords, and size

πŸ—ΊοΈ printMap()

prints grid as a color-coded ASCII map:

β†’ 0 β†’ gray dots
β†’ other ids β†’ colored blocks via ANSI codes
β†’ std::setw(3) for spacing

it's a visual debug tool, but honestly kinda satisfying to look at

next: saving to .txt, maybe adding basic region editing

πŸ—“οΈ July 2, 2025

β†’ current code

TL;DR: save the map to txt file and also intialize map and add resources , to distribute later , to be saved in a file too

[1] btw i have started making gemini cli summarize the file changes in documentation.md

[2]so now the map is saved at data/map.txt in format of size then the grid then the region names

[3]now when the program is started and the map is found at said path we load the map using the loadMap function , also made a struct named `cells` to easily store the data in the format i want that is row , column , regionId and name of the region

[4]then i defined a std::vector with cell innit and well stored the data of the file into it , thus loading our map

[5]then the loadMap function prints our map and all details , honestly wasn't needed but i wanted to create the effect of lot of things loading

[6]so now i defined primaryResources and derivedUnit to differentiate between like primary is present by default in regions , distributed using random (to be done ) and auto supplies a fixed amount every turn (TBD) and collecting these resources we can make things in the derivedUnits like outpost , tanks , aircrafts and other things. some derived units need other derived units to be made in the region. for ease i have taken the approach of `build it and you have it` instead of research then build and what not. also for now i have decided popuplation or say human resources doesn't really matter

[7] then after defining all those units and their dependencies i have finsihed this segment of todo things , next i have to define giveAndSaveResources function which will give primary resources randomly to each region by ID

next : save the resources and their location in a separate txt file , honestly i wish cpp supported json natively or any db