Vantha

@Norse_HaroldCan you split the messages about the AI Names into a seperate thread?

PR for the Lighthouse of Alexandria:https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/128

Should I open a designated thread?

Regarding the AI Names, in my local files each civ actually has at least 8 AINames (only the Iberians for some reason have a double entry of Viriato, so there'd be a single one missing for the Iberians). I suggest to remove the system of counting names that are chosen multiple times with Roman numbers. Especially if it's this simple to change. Currently, in a 4v4 of AIs with everyone playing Persians, on average 2 to 3 players will get a 'problematic' name because many of the their names include a Roman numeral themselves and an additional one is added if a name is picked multiple times.

@Gurken Khan @Obelix I was not able to replicate the bug: However, forcing the game to choose a new name for each AI player (and avoid all the hassle with the Roman numerals) could be done by simply adding this:

Thanks, I will take a look into it.

Hi everyone, I want to add an internal hyperlinking feature to the encyclopedia (single words in one article on press opening other articles). For that that I'd have to place buttons over the specific words in a text. What would be the best way to do that? I can't think of a good way to calculate the coordinates of a given word in a text or any other way to place the button.

Yeah, maybe we should write one text for each civ about its architecture.

Essentially, peltasts are a mixture of ranged and melee. They carry a light shield and light armor, a sword and javelins. This makes them fast enough to evade melee charges as well superior to traditional ranged units like javelineers.

The role of peltasts should indeed be rethought. According to my knowledge it is still debated whether it actually were peltasts who Ihpicrates reformed. Iphicratean pikemen could be added separately from peltasts, maybe replacing the hoplite champions. About the peltasts themselves, I suggest to either: increase their armor and balance it with reducing speed, firing speed or damage. Or: enable them to switch from javelins to swords.

Library of Alexandria https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/124

For the Chinese chariot, instead of switching between melee and ranged, I think the best way would be to have two soldiers on the chariot dealing damage simultaneously, one with a bow and the other one with a dagger-axe. (ranged and melee at same time)

Thanks

I have some more texts in the works, but in the meantime here's an update on the UI work: A quick showcase: 0 A.D. 2024-03-03 20-49-23.mp4 I have done some layouting, moving everything to a place where it fits. It already looks a lot better than before, but I will probably still change some sprites, fonts or colors. How do you like the new arrangement? The right is still pretty empty, this is where the related articles section would be, they have to be added manually to each file and I havent done that (the Athenian civic center is the only article where I added some for testing). Here are the new features (mainly improving navigation between different pages and menus): - Because everything is structured like (and in) folders I added the current "path" at the top, by clicking on different parts of the path you can switch to the respective page. There also is an "UpButton" (with the arrow pointing up) to the left of the path that will alway open the current page's "parent" (like the "up" button found in most file managers) - Every action you take/ every menu or text you open will (temporarily) be saved. With the back and forward button you can move back and forth through your history (like the back and forward button in browsers) - the button "suprise me!" opens a random article (I am aware that it currently chooses "general" and "environment" more often than "civilisations". That happens because folders inside "civilisations" are only partially filled with files/articles (yet!)) I've also put together a quick mod: encyclopedia.zip Try it out! Let me know any errrors or unwanted behaviour you encounter or any suggestion you have! Keep in mind that it is still in progress, I have cleaned up the code, but it's not very well commented yet. I'm quite new to programming, so don't be suprised if something's done in a confusing way. Tell me if you think I should change something to bring it into line with 0ad's code. And regarding the sprites, @wowgetoffyourcellphone You've done a great job with the mockups. What textures did you use? Are they in the game files? I couldn't find them. I'm specifically talking about the beige/white background and the golden frame around the image. Was the background texture just a brigther and hueshifted version of 0ad's black background?

I'm in parallel also writing some texts to keep the progress going. Here's the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Macedonian civic centers: https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/123/

corrected

I just finished two more Han texts that I had started some time ago. With that we've now entirely finished the Han, our third civ. @ShadowOfHassen and I decided to get back to the Greek civs, we will do the Macedonians next and then maybe the Ptolemies and Seleucids in parallel. Here is the PR: https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/121 The Battle of Mobei: And the entire Han Xiognu war: (it's the longest text I've ever written, maybe I should split it up into multiple texts) I'm also still working on the new encyclopedia page UI, adding some more features. I think I'm close to finishing a good-looking prototype.

Hi! I've dug a lot in 0ad's files lately and I've noticed two small things regarding the naming of files: 1. There are two 'standing_stone' templates. One in the treasures folder and one in the ruins folder. They are almost identical, use the same actor. Why not just remove one of them? Or at least rename them to avoid to different objects being called the exact same? 2. All civ emblems are called 'emblem_' + civ name. For example 'emblem_macedonians' and 'emblem_kushites'. But for some reason, the Gaul one is called 'emblem_celts'. I don't really see a reason to call them Celts here because in all other files (and in-game) they're called Gauls. I would suggest to rename it to 'emblem_gauls' to keep a uniform way of naming civilisations in the game files.

@wowgetoffyourcellphone I actually really like the look of your mockups and I would like to design the new page similarly. What textures did you use?

So, progress has sadly been going a bit slow lately. I haven't done the UI design of the page itself. But I have restructured the entire page. Now it has every text we've ever written that I'm aware of. This includes all templates, mixins, animals, trees, and more. Here is a short showcase, clicking through what I have done so far: 1300745683_0A.D.2024-02-1618-46-25.mp4 There are seven categories chosen by the buttons on the right, every category has its own overview text, displayed where later the article will be shown. We never wrote such texts which is why I use placeholders right now ("Here is..." at the top). The categories also have subcategories that are chosen by the buttons appearing on the right. My idea was to have the overview text and then something like "Learn more about ..." below it. After selecting a subcategory, there is the list of articles in the specific subcategory, and here one can open the individual articles. In addition to all that, the civilisations tab also has a dropdown for choosing civ. The civs' overview texts are of course the ones in the game. The categories 'historical background' 'maps' and 'gameplay' are currently empty. If you're curious, here is the file with the folder structure in it that I use for my external setup script: folders.json I also added a related articles section on the right. The related articles need to be manually added to the files (which is why in the showcase only one article actually has related articles showing up). And there are back buttons to more easily navigate all the menus. I am aware that that some name choices aren't very good or fitting, I am definelty open for any sugggestions, especially regarding adding, removing, or renaming categories. What do you think of the 'category-subcategory-selection' system in general? Does anyone have ideas on how to arrange all the buttons in the middle panel? P.S.: I will upload a mod with the current version soon for people to try out. I have to clean up my messy code first.

Yes, that's what I was asking. I probably should have been more precise.

Thanks. I found there what I've been searching for.

I have a dropdown in an XML for a GUI page like this: <object name="dropdown" type="dropdown"/> I know I can add items like this: <item>name of the first item</item> <item>name of the second item</item> The problem is that I want to have more than ten items in the dropdown, and preferably add them from a JavaScript script instead of listing all of them in the XML. How can I do that? I found list functions here: https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/Exposed_GUI_Functions#List_functions. But I'm not sure how to use them. And from a quick search not a single instance of 'addItem' or 'pushItem' was found in 0ad's code.

Do you know this captcha? https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Ks-C4YJGnc Seems to be a newly developed system. And I assume it's made in such a way that bots using most recent technology can't pass. I have to say though, they can get very annoying. When you get one wrong you have to start all over. And the amount increases. I once had to do twenty or so. But it depends on the implementation. What about having to solve a captcha like this when registering a forum account?

Sorry for the delayed response. I couldn't figure out how to work with the current XML templates because I'm not a very experienced programmer to be honest and not very familiar with 0ad's code (yet). I believe we should store the articles separate from the templates to keep them clear, easy to read, and everything in them related to gameplay. Kind of like the text in the credits popup is stored in JSONs too. But if you insist and think it's better the other way, I can of course change it to read the texts directly from the XMLs. I'm sure I'll figure everything out, it can't be that hard. And I was planning on pulling other information from the XML anyway, the portraits and some stats. Not entirely sure what you mean. But yes, it's possible to add tags inside the history tag. We could also rename the 'History' tag to 'Encyclopedia' and then put 'Title' 'RelevantArticles' and 'Content' and 'Quote' in it for example.