gerbilOFdoom

An idea for the "download for free @ wildfiregames.com" message is to hard code it into the game via obfuscation. Drop bits and pieces of the sucker EVERYWHERE in the release packages and have it executed at multiple points so that removal of the message would take more effort than your average buy-this-free-game ebay guy is willing to put into it. Then, the user can disable the message from the options menu or something. Just add "Click here to remove this message" directing to the option. Somewhat complex, but would make a good system, no?

Massing Armies - Steamrolling; Prefers to crush in one attack rather than micromanage a prolonged campaign Hit and Run/Ambush - Guerrilla; Micromanages small groups of units for a high K/D ratio; Can be used while amassing resources for a steamroll Pulling back damaged units - Conservative; Used when resources are limited or when doing so is extremely easy, otherwise usually not worth the clicks Layered walls/building used for walls - Turtle; Usually a precursor to a good steamrolling, heavy base defense that makes offensive enemies prefer to stay away; vulnerable to supply disruption Close-together buildings - Defensive tactic intended to confuse pathfinding, makes base assault harder Far-apart buildings - Offensive tactic intended to make unit production and movement easier Resource Collection Priority - Infrastructure for the future, less focus on the now. Used in turtling and steamrolling; Vulnerable to rushing Attacking as fast as possible- Rushing, eliminate or cripple enemy before game has had a chance to start; Less able in the late game, but enemies are even worse off if executed properly Conversion - Tactic used to conserve resources; Micro-management intensive without some form of automated assistance Attacking with anything available - When not in an emergency, stupidity. When in an emergency, desperation The strategies RTS players use most: Rush, Turtle, Steamroll. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, it all depends on your personality and commands-per-minute ability.

Come on guys, it's gotta be Janus and we gotta get gates going, this is pretty much the only opportunity for this particular point of humor!!!

Janus <- if truly the god of doors, then let's release gates with alpha 10 and call it Janus?

I can see the politics of a game involving a protection agreement between players, Iberians cover land, whoever else covers sea... with some resources trading hands, of course.

If a gesture-interface using Kinect were developed, we could definitely port to Xbox. Never thought of that! It would also provide a much better UI to mobile devices that have a front-side webcam.

Lately, I've been thinking about the concept of more intuitive user interfaces. I often find myself annoyed with the inherent limitations of the keyboard and mouse, especially while playing an RTS. As humans, we are more comfortable using our body than any tool we can create, simply because we are always in contact with our own bodies. Therefor, the best user interface is one that focuses on interpreting or otherwise using the body as an input, not key presses or mouse clicks. Currently, the premier method of gathering inputs from the human body is Microsoft's Kinect because it has all the hardware required to gather those inputs and filter out background noise. I've taken up a hobby-level interest in electronics, focused primarily in software/control side of robotics at this point, and I'm trying to figure out a better way to interact with RTS games. Perhaps 0 AD would be better off with an option for a more intuitive user-input scheme to set it apart from other RTS games? If so, then a general layout for how to integrate such an input scheme would be useful. Current thoughts: -Camera --Track hand motions and hand position --Display "ghost" hands on display, essentially a mouse pointer controlled by the hand instead of the mouse... times two --Monitor basic gestures ---"Grab" gesture to pick up objects in a "ghost mode" interface, such as picking up a unit and placing his ghost at the target destination, thus ordering him to move there. Could also be used to replace buttons, grab and drop commands in a way that signifies exactly what should be done ---"Point" gesture to select objects or units -Glove --Track hand gestures ---how to determine relative position of hands/reference point? --Same purpose as camera, different method, different limitations -Distribution to End User --Guide/parts list for self-construction --Order premade --Buy a Kinect Thoughts and discussion welcome, especially ways to make the UI lend itself to RTS gaming more than the current RTS standard-interface... just please no "can't be done, won't be done, not enough time to do" posts. This is just a fantastical concept that would be really incredible to see done.

A reminder, as per the Wiki, that a bunch of patches are up for review by the developers here.

The wiki currently has extremely limited documentation. A search of the forums says Jeru and Erik are set to update the documentation, but I haven't seen much evidence of activity in that respect. I'm trying to work on a few simple tickets, but without solid documentation I'm having a tough time of locating everything that needs to be located. So, is a structure already in place for documenting the game? If so, what is it or where can I find it? I've begun in a format based on the object or action being referenced here, if anyone cares to throw in what they know. Along with documenting past changes, I think that for every addition/change in functionality that could warrant a change to the documentation, the change should be required before the ticket is closed. If the person programming the patch doesn't want to do it, perhaps tagging the ticket with "document"?

What I mean is, instead of a complete port of the game, a separate game that integrates into the standard 0 AD gameplay. I'm thinking a persistent world in which players build up an "empire" in a tick-based strategy game with combat either happening on the desktop or through "dice rolls", depending on the choice of the players involved. The players could even assign bots to run the combat for them. When I say combat, I mean the normal 0 AD gameplay. When players attack from the mobile version, the units they attack with are converted to additional starting units in the desktop version for the corresponding battle (as are the defender's units). If time zone discrepancies exist, the player would probably choose to revert to dice rolls, bots, or having someone else run the battle for them. It would be far less work than completely porting the game, could be set up using HTTP services (web browser access as well as mobile app access), and would still add an interesting new dynamic in the form of a persistent game world. I can see the politics of the persistent world becoming fairly intense.

Problem solved! Using Eclipse JS, "Javascript Resources" provides a list of all resources in the entire project. File search with "*.js" filter set for variables and functions shows every reference of the function, can also be found by right clicking a function/variable and hit "References -> Project".

Perhaps not a full port, but a mobile add-on that lets a player manage some sort of "global conquest" mode outside of the RTS gameplay? My thought here is like Galactic Conquest from Star Wars Battlefront 2, maybe something like Tribal Wars in terms of functionality. People play the RTS portion of the game on PC, but manage an empire on their mobile device. Just a concept though, I don't have any specific ideas for what it could do at this time.

I feel like an IDE thread should be created and stickied with a list of all the IDE's used by developers with their advantages, disadvantages, and helpful hints...

The answer you're looking for was above you the whole time: As for tracing my way through the code, I'm looking into writing my own static-trace. Here's hoping I can figure it out...

I use Notepad++ for any web development I do, including Javascript, but in this case I'd like to use an IDE because I don't know my way around the code base. I want to be able to trace the use of functions throughout the entire "public" directory tree so I can find where everything is implemented. So far, I've been placing the "warn()" function at certain points and seeing what actions in the game trigger my code (in Notepad++, nonetheless). As for not working with standard conventions, the big thing that throws Eclipse for a loop is your implementation of "for each" loops. Usually, and according to Eclipse, a for each loop is implemented as "for(var x in array)" but in 0 A.D. it is implemented as "for each(var x in array)", which is why I'd turn off debugging in Eclipse... I don't want to be buggered with 300 error messages because of small things like that. Unless I have an outdated version of Eclipse and an outdated memory of Javascript syntax O.o

Does Visual Studio 2010 have a way to work with the javascript files in \binaries\data\mods\public? Specifically, I'd like to be able to trace the use of functions throughout all the files that use them. If I have file A.js and file B.js, and file A defines the function doThis() and B calls that function, I'd like to see a list that would show something like "doThis() - B.js line X". If Visual Studio can't do this, I'll just set up an Eclipse project in that directory and disable the editor debugging (the game doesn't appear to use standard Javascript conventions, correct me if I'm wrong).

For the purpose of figuring out my way around the code, does a command exist that I could use to print a message to the console? For example, if I wanted to print "User has right-clicked" when the user right clicks, what command would I use?

That's exactly it, Quantumstate! Thanks. I think I'll start logging my exploration of the code, too. Maybe I can add to the documentation...

Alright, so I'm trying to figure out where the input events are in the source code. If this project were in java, it would have event listeners to perform an action upon a mouse click or key press, but I can't find anything even remotely along those lines. Where is the code for input events and the resulting actions located?

Err, whoops. Sorry, I posted that while half asleep and half excited about trying to help out here.

One of the reasons I enjoy RTS/FPS hybrids is that I despise micromanagement of every unit, so I let my RTS-junkie friend micro manage while I go out and set up a strategy for my squad. I don't have the time to get extremely good at telling each one of my hundreds of units to do something at the same time, so the solution I have thought of is a "player assistant" that can, optionally, do some of the micro managing for the player. I'm a bit too tired to write out a full essay on the idea so I'm going to outline... sorta. When you read this, think "make things more strategy oriented instead of micro-managing when your chickens cluck while your swordsmen are getting torn to shreds" option. I. Overview -Players have access to a lightweight scripting language to create their own micromanagement AI -Scope limited to small actions that are often repeated in a game -Should be implemented as a server-wide "option", enabled/disabled -This idea is probably more mod material than game feature material, but a low-priority addition to the game could be a framework to make this happen, namely visual placement of "building markers" for building locations in section II. II. Building -Players place "construction sets" that define a plan for their base, in parts. Construction sets are defined by the player --Example: "Resource Harvesting" construction set plans out number of resource drop points, what conditions to build each point under, and how many units to assign to the task/create for the task. General locations for each building are selected when the construction set is implemented -Certain buildings cannot be constructed by the assistant, such as defensive buildings? III. Economy -Work unit allocation --5 units on farming, 5 on mining IV. Military -Unit Creation, build certain sets of units (10 swordsmen, 5 cavalry archers, etc.) -Automatically create unit platoons based on predefined composition instructions. Goal: 1 click, select entire platoon of units (another form of group hotkeying) -Target prioritization, set units to seek out certain types of enemies within a small range around them (a swordsman shouldn't run through an entire 200 unit battle to get to a single archer, but should prefer to take on archers within a small area of 4-5 enemies around himself) -Situational Formations, set areas in a battle that platoons should consider themselves "on defense" and "on offense" and set their formation based on predefined constants (Defensive = Turtle, no conditional options)

I had this same problem, here's the ticket: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/1047

I'm interested in improving my programming skills and I'd like to do so by contributing some small changes to this project. Before I start, I'd like to know which version of Visual Studio is suggested. As a student, I have have access to: Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate/Premium/Professional/ExpressVisual Studio 2010 Visualization & Modeling Feature Pack (I know, not an IDE but would it even be useful?)Visual C++/C# (All Years) Express XNA Game Studio 3/4 (Probably not, but it's worth putting on the list!)