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May I suggest in Atlas (and I assume in the rest of the code) changing "Water colour" to "Water depths" and "Water tint" to "Water shallows." Seems more accurate to what is happening.

Here's a game I played yesterday. We didn't get to finish it (people were getting out-of-memory errors and I had to leave anyway), but I think the result was clear enough by the end anyway (I think the other team was going to win). EDIT: And here's another one:

I don't know if you plan on doing so already, but animations for the formations would be awesome. For example you would see your Roman Legions form into the Testudo or your Spartans interlock shields in the Phalanx etc.

i like these ideas very much! maybe it should be connected to difficulty? or it should be done with a simple on/off-switch (non-fertile grounds...)

One with more than Intel HD graphics (it's not a bad budget option but will never be great for gaming) You should read reviews and check benchmarks if you're in the market for a new laptop, plus there are so many other factors to consider like screen and keyboard quality, size, battery life, etc. that I personally would consider at least as important as GPU.

I have talked a bit with a few of the more active programmers, and there are two things which are clear. First, they think Jorma is a highly talented programmer. Second, that it at least can seem as if he's a bit too prone to rewrite whole parts of the code as opposed to improve on what's already there, even if the task he set out to complete would be completed (and in less time, and easier to review) by improving the existing code. This can of course be both a good and a bad thing. The old code might be so bad that the only way forward is to rewrite/it might be less effort etc. On the other hand, rewriting code means it's a lot more code to review for other programmers, and can of course introduce new errors. It can also be hard for someone else to judge whether the rewrite is a good or a bad thing. All-in-all this doesn't mean that Jorma can't get paid/never should rewrite anything, I just think there are a few things he (and everyone else who makes any substantial changes for that matter) can do to make it easier both to review and to accept bigger changes (these are based on things the programmers mentioned, but using my words. In other words, don't blame them if something sounds weird, and don't give me credit if there's something great ): If the objective of the change is to improve performance it should be demonstrated clearly (using e.g. one of the existing profilers or an external profiling tool) comparing the results before and after the code change. If entire bigger blocks of code is rewritten it should be demonstrated clearly that the alternative of improving the existing code has been considered. I don't mean that the programmer needs to write an essay on the pros and cons of doing things one way or another, but it should be obvious that's not just done on a whim, "I can't be bothered figuring out why someone else did things that way so I'll just rewrite things the way I think is best". Exactly how it is done is less important, it can be done through forum discussions with other programmers, it can be a few lines in the Trac ticket describing the thought process (and preferably offering some kind of proof that the rewrite is necessary), etc. Just something to acknowledge that the old code has been considered and not just thrown away because it seemed easier to begin from scratch. (And of course it depends on the scale of the rewrite how much effort should be spent, rewriting a couple of hundred lines of code or something shouldn't need more than a line or two in the relevant Trac ticket while rewriting entire files/sets of files of code should preferably be discussed thoroughly beforehand.) In conclusion, I think (with the above posts and my discussion with the programmers as a base for my thoughts) that Jorma should be paid with the Pledgie money under the following conditions: 1) that he communicates to the rest of the team and the fans at least once or twice a week in a progress report, and 2) that he communicates to the other programmers why he has made the choices he has.

The code is a little too fresh for me to contribute much in this discussion, other than to say this slowdown issue makes playing this game completely impossible for me, on a modern gaming machine. I cannot stress enough how important the work you guys are doing in this thread is! Cudos and great work! *edit*: +1 Cookie for Redfox