food for thought (ideas)

[Zoythrus]

ok, so i was wanting to throw a bunch of random ideas out there for you guys for some sort of conversation. just to be safe, this thread is not meant to sound like "I want these ideas implemented by tomorrow!" this is solely for thought so maybe we can work out some interesting ideas for the Merge.

so, the actual ideas:

the power to resurrect units. think necromancer, a unit who can revive dead units (but only ones whose corpses havent disappeared). this should have a list of resurrectable units (so you can specify which units can be brought back), but you should have some way of saying "all" so you can resurrect units that didnt belong to you (imagine using someone's army against them!).

regenerating shields. like the stereotypical futuristic force fields that must be broken before the unit is harmed.

the power to shoot down projectiles. i assume that the proj's should become pseudo-units that can only be attacked by anti-proj attacks.

some way of upgrading a unit type into another unit type. eg. imagine an upgrade that turned all swordmen into guards. now, this would apply across the board, so swordmen would be phased out entirely if you research this (there'd be no reason why you wouldnt want to upgrade them). now, the units ive mentioned are just for an example, think of this idea like how AoE does it. PS, if you research this, the icon to build more swordmen would be entirely gone.

also, what about getting ^this^ idea and applying it to attacks? have an upgrade that forces an overlap of one attack with a superior version of itself.

now, here's an idea that i would like asap:
why is it that when you specify a unit's name in a language file that it isnt known by that name ingame. eg. in Constellus, the IPV should be referenced to as "IPV" in all circumstances, not just the lists of affected/required units. that means every time you'd see "Ipv" (the way it is now), it'd be replaced with "IPV"

what do you think? (feel free to add ideas)

-Zoy

[ultifd]

I think you mean after the merge, as there will be enough stuff to do and test...otherwise, awesome ideas.

[John.d.h]

I think it could be worthwhile to think more "meta", i.e. the overarching direction that we want Glest to go.

[Zoythrus]

I think it could be worthwhile to think more "meta", i.e. the overarching direction that we want Glest to go.

well, that's why this thread is around, for thinking...

[Zoythrus]

so, since the merge isnt happening....this thread is now about "where would you like GAE to ultimately go?"

[Kiko]

Love the resurrect idea, and am hoping someone will give their life and soul to create a really cool Vampire mod. Imagine, you could set up a Twilight scenario, and just kill the entire cast!

Seriously, wouldn't it be cool to have a vampire game where they can only be killed during the day, invincible (or nearly so) at night..? Perhaps buried bodies could be 'turned' with a spell, and grab-attacks for sucking blood would be neat and quite different to hack or shoot gameplay. Hey; garlic garlands for villagers!

I think some simple RPG elements added to GAE – as others have suggested – would be amazing. Starting a game as a single character, turning others to your cause, etc., could have all sorts of neat implications. More GAE than MG I think, as the impression I'm getting (as well as from my own play time) is that GAE is more suited to single player gaming.

[Zoythrus]

Love the resurrect idea, and am hoping someone will give their life and soul to create a really cool Vampire mod. (Imagine, you could set up a Twilight scenario, and just kill them all!) Seriously, wouldn't it be cool to have a vampire game where they can only be killed during the day, invincible (or nearly so) at night..? Perhaps buried bodies could be 'turned' with a spell, and grab-attacks for sucking blood would be neat and quite different to hack or shoot gameplay. Hey – garlic garlands for villagers!

well, once i become more proficient in C++, i plan on coding a way to change stats based upon time of day. If i ever do this, then your idea could become possible.

[Kiko]

well, once i become more proficient in C++, i plan on coding a way to change stats based upon time of day. If i ever do this, then your idea could become possible.

I'm a loooooong way from peeking at GAE code – am just learning how mods work – but might not that be as easy as checking for day/night and allowing HP decrease or not when attacked? Haha, I know; it always sounds so simple from my chair... 

[Zoythrus]

well, once i become more proficient in C++, i plan on coding a way to change stats based upon time of day. If i ever do this, then your idea could become possible.

I'm a loooooog way from peeking at GAE code – am just learning how mods work – but might not that be as easy as checking for day/night and allowing HP decrease or not when attacked? Haha, I know; it always sounds so simple from my chair... 

sadly, GAE's code is a bit more....confusing than i hoped. i've poked around at it, and it's....interesting.....

[Omega]

I am pretty sure it would be really easy to create a resurrect skill based on the vector m_deadList. I think having a boolean value for day and night would also allow the whole day night stats thing. I have implemented a capture unit option which could with some simple flavor derived name of the attack skill(which is where capture is defined), would allow for a "recruit"-type skill.

As for GAE being confusing, hell-to-the-yes. Whether the code of other games is more or less confusing I can't say. I am working at maybe creating a new set of comments to document what does what to make it easier for new coders to get into source altering, but I have so much to do already with features.

I can implement regenerating shields as easy as pie when I have some free time.

Sounds great. Regarding your commenting of the source, perhaps you could do so Doxygen style?

[Zoythrus]

I am pretty sure it would be really easy to create a resurrect skill based on the vector m_deadList. I think having a boolean value for day and night would also allow the whole day night stats thing. I have implemented a capture unit option which could with some simple flavor derived name of the attack skill(which is where capture is defined), would allow for a "recruit"-type skill.

As for GAE being confusing, hell-to-the-yes. Whether the code of other games is more or less confusing I can't say. I am working at maybe creating a new set of comments to document what does what to make it easier for new coders to get into source altering, but I have so much to do already with features.

I can implement regenerating shields as easy as pie when I have some free time.

Sounds great. Regarding your commenting of the source, perhaps you could do so Doxygen style?

I don't really understand the purpose of doxygen. The stuff in the doxygen file has little to do with the stuff I am going to be doing. IIRC it has almost no useful information about what various lines of code do.

You obviously seem like a man who knows what he's doing. Commenting all of this stuff would be really useful to inexperienced coders such as myself. PM me so we can discuss code, because it seems like you get this stuff better than i do.

[Zoythrus]

I am pretty sure it would be really easy to create a resurrect skill based on the vector m_deadList. I think having a boolean value for day and night would also allow the whole day night stats thing. I have implemented a capture unit option which could with some simple flavor derived name of the attack skill(which is where capture is defined), would allow for a "recruit"-type skill.

As for GAE being confusing, hell-to-the-yes. Whether the code of other games is more or less confusing I can't say. I am working at maybe creating a new set of comments to document what does what to make it easier for new coders to get into source altering, but I have so much to do already with features.

I can implement regenerating shields as easy as pie when I have some free time.

Sounds great. Regarding your commenting of the source, perhaps you could do so Doxygen style?

I don't really understand the purpose of doxygen. The stuff in the doxygen file has little to do with the stuff I am going to be doing. IIRC it has almost no useful information about what various lines of code do.

You obviously seem like a man who knows what he's doing. Commenting all of this stuff would be really useful to inexperienced coders such as myself. PM me so we can discuss code, because it seems like you get this stuff better than i do.

This is the first serious coding I have done. I have done and still do some work on some pretty complex theoretical games. Mostly designing class systems for items and stats.

That's why my modifications for GAE primarily deal with the simpler stuff like adding new stats and not with graphics and such. Most of my work involves copy pasting the stuff that deals with XML and heavily relying on a search and replace program to make sure I don't miss any functions or classes that my additions interact with.

How much experience do you have with C++? Because if you don't have pointers and <vector>s down you are going to run into some serious problems. Also what compilers do you have installed? I typically edit the files in Code::Blocks and compile with VSC++2008.

i'm decent with pointers and i can use vectors. am i actually skilled with these? no, not really, but i do know how to use them. I use CodeBlocks to edit and compile (but then, i've never compiled GAE before

[Omega]

i'm decent with pointers and i can use vectors. am i actually skilled with these? no, not really, but i do know how to use them. I use CodeBlocks to edit and compile (but then, i've never compiled GAE before

Compiling GAE itself without any modifications to the source should be pretty easy. Check out the compiling guide on the GAE Sourceforge wiki. You can't play the game if you can't compile it, so it's a pretty crucial step.

[Bloodwurm]

You know what, I've been refraining from any comments for quite some time now, because I don't want to start any form of war but... I'm kind of fed up....

Please, would it be possible for people to stop complaining about the lack of documentation, bad code structure, badly named variables or "impenetrable functions" (whatever that means).

Yes, things could be better. Yes documentation is always good. Yes I'm sure everything is surely perfect elsewhere in some other projects, be it open source or not.
And it's not because "things have been like that forever" that it means you can't ask for improvements.

But PLEASE understand that we are all working with a codebase we weren't originally part of. And PLEASE understand there isn't millions of coders working on GAE or MG.
Refactoring the code base would take a huge effort and time. Yeah surely comments could be added by people when they investigate part of the code.
If anyone has the time and interest, well please go ahead, commit to working on refactoring the architecture and have us all benefit from that work.
But STOP complaining about it. Especially if you are junior coder with barely any serious coding experience.....

I've seen a lot of code in several projects, and let me tell you, you'll face this type of "no documentation, bad code structure" a lot.

Oh, and also, PLEASE don't complain about stuff you don't understand or don't even know what it's for.. (Doxygen for instance)

[Bloodwurm]

Maybe you should re-read your posts:

I don't really understand the purpose of doxygen. The stuff in the doxygen file has little to do with the stuff I am going to be doing. IIRC it has almost no useful information about what various lines of code do.