[ian-reeds-games] Re: My big response email
- From: "Allan Thompson" <allan1.thompson@xxxxxxx>
- To: <ian-reeds-games@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2012 00:16:33 -0500
Ok, so now I realize why I failed math class, lol.
To be honest, I never noticed it one way or the other. There is no way I want
to rewrite anything for map coordinates, cause I don't think it is really much
of a handicap, but that is just me.
I guess, if I get a vote, is for some kind of toggle. Heck , I didn't even
notice it before so I don't think I would care either way.
Taking over AI and forcing it to move was really a smart idea. Especially when
you want your missiles to go first, and that seemed to work pretty well, grin.
Thanks for the hard work.
al
"The truth will set you free"
Jesus Christ of Nazareth 33A.D.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Reed
To: ian-reeds-games@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2012 9:55 PM
Subject: [ian-reeds-games] My big response email
Hi all!
I'm so happy to see so many conversations on the mailing list and that
people are helping each other out.
Kudos to Allan especially for loading up Greta's map pack and giving
detailed feedback on how to fix things. You rock!
I can tell that there's no way I'll be able to respond to everyone in a
timely way so I appreciate it when people can help each other.
Just know that I do read all the emails, even if I don't respond to
everything.
Welcome Hadi, Greta, Shaun and others who have joined the list but not
spoken yet.
Carlos, thanks for reporting the bug, I've noted it and will look into
it. I assume it was when the friendly AI lost. If you have extra info
or a map that reproduces it very quickly that would be helpful.
A few people mentioned how strange it is that the Y coordinate increases
as you go down rather than up as it would in math.
It works this way because in GDI+ (which I use for drawing to the
window) and other programming frameworks such as HTML the Y coordinate
starts at the top of the window as 0 and increases as it goes down.
This is really just a side effect of me programming a lot more than I do
math and so without even thinking about it I implemented it the same way.
As most people are familiar with math but not programming having Y
increase as you move up would seem the better choice.
The biggest problem is that since I already implemented it the other way
and since there are a number of map packs out there with their map files
having the backwards coordinates it would be a big map upgrade, and no
map creator wants to update those manually.
So here are some options:
1 I could make a setting in game that let's you toggle whether Y
increases as it goes up or down.
This would make it so each player could choose which way they like it to
be announced.
2 I could change the default way it announces to be the math way
assuming people agree that this makes more sense in general.
3 I could update the map parser to expect coordinates in the math way.
I think I should definitely do option 1.
I'd like some feedback from people on whether they think I should do
option 2 as well.
I don't think I should do option 3 because it would require a huge map
upgrade by all the map creators.
One thing to note if I don't do option 3 is that even if the game
announces coordinates in the math way they must still be done in the
programming way in the map files.
This is not so big of a problem since those lines are usually generated
with the in game map editor and very rarely edited by hand.
Well, let me know what you think about the first 2 options and now you
know why I wouldn't do option 3 and how it will affect you.
I think most of Hadi's and Greta's questions were answered already.
Greta, the save and load feature is a good idea. I've got it on my list.
Austen, I understand that you are suggesting that shields could be an
effect that has points that absorb damage and the effect goes away once
enough damage is absorbed.
The discussion we'd had about how a unit could have shield points and
hull points and we could specify that a skill inflicts damage to shield
points until they run out and then inflicts damage to hull points is
related, but does not support the effect scenario you are describing.
That said, I think having effects be able to absorb points also makes a
lot of sense for the shields that you can raise and lower and so I
definitely want to support that as well.
Thanks for pointing it out so I can think about it when I go to do
shield points.
Hadi, you wanted the AI to wait inside the building until you entered
before it attacked. There is currently no way to do this but it is on
my list.
I'll probably do it around the same time as I do fog of war and sight
range, which is hopefully soon.
Allan, 2 music bugs and an AI bug. Nice work! I'll look into these.
Carlos and all, I'm glad you like when the errors are spoken rather than
showing up in the crashing dialog. I'll actually put some time into
making more of the parsing errors work this way.
A few notes for those who are new to the list:
1 There is a page for downloading map packs on the main website. This is
so people don't have to search the entire mailing list to find links to
map packs.
Testing and fully completed maps are both welcome on that page.
If you want your map pack listed there then you need to include a link
to it in an email to the list and also specifically tell me you want me
to add it.
The link should be one that you can update the zip file for without
needing to give me an updated link. This saves me time and let's you
update the file whenever you want.
Dropbox public links work reasonably well for this.
2 I love to hear all the great ideas and features you have for the game
so feel free to keep sharing them.
That said, my list of features to add is huge and so I still need to
manage prioritizing those features.
I do this by moving features that give lots of value for how much work
they are to complete to the front of the list.
I also group similar features together so sometimes a feature that only
gives a little value gets added just because I'm already in that portion
of code and it becomes easy for me to add at the time.
3 Another way I prioritize features is by letting you all choose the top
3 features that are most important to you.
I still use my other methods of prioritizing but this is a way for you
to also have input.
I did this once before and am still working on a few items for that list.
Once I get the other low hanging fruit done from that list I'll let all
of you know so you can give me your new top 3.
I'm not ready for that right now though, but be thinking about what your
3 would be for when the time comes.
Thanks again for all your support!
Ian Reed
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