51 replies to this topic

[zoot]

German Diago Gomez, on 19 June 2012 - 06:22 AM, said:

My opinion here again: I didn't take a deep look to everything. You say noone on the team suggested it. Ok, I couldn't make a quick difference about wether it was or not a team/core proposal.

Sorry, you must have meant this. That was indeed a team proposal, but as the thread progressed, they seem to have settled on a much narrower redesign of just the unit panel.

[Sonarpulse]

Well, let me just through this out here: For people interested in FOSS highly portable games, projects like this are more captivating because they are under constant development. I know I for one got over Minecraft about the same time it was finished. Even with the most radical game, once you "beat it" (or multiplayer seems to hold no new surprises), that's it, the game has nothing more to offer. With a game always in development, the replay value is endless because there is always something new.

While it is important to prepare the occasional stable snapshot for those "conventional types" interested in polish (who I imagine are little into 0ad at the moment) when the time is ripe, I would be perfectly happy of development of pyrogenisis carried on indefinitely, with the goal of basically making the engine the superset of every other RTS engine ever

[Gen.Kenobi]

Sonarpulse, on 20 June 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

Well, let me just through this out here: For people interested in FOSS highly portable games, projects like this are more captivating because they are under constant development. I know I for one got over Minecraft about the same time it was finished. Even with the most radical game, once you "beat it" (or multiplayer seems to hold no new surprises), that's it, the game has nothing more to offer. With a game always in development, the replay value is endless because there is always something new.

While it is important to prepare the occasional stable snapshot for those "conventional types" interested in polish (who I imagine are little into 0ad at the moment) when the time is ripe, I would be perfectly happy of development of pyrogenisis carried on indefinitely, with the goal of basically making the engine the superset of every other RTS engine ever

Couldn't agree more. The most rewarding thing is to see the development of something, help it out and see the updates going on and on and on.
A final game is important. But as the word say, it should be final. And when the time comes for a final game, it shall be realesed with polished engine and art. There's no rush here.

[German Diago Gomez]

Sonarpulse, on 20 June 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

While it is important to prepare the occasional stable snapshot for those "conventional types" interested in polish (who I imagine are little into 0ad at the moment) when the time is ripe, I would be perfectly happy of development of pyrogenisis carried on indefinitely, with the goal of basically making the engine the superset of every other RTS engine ever

The "continuous evolution" perspective doesn't go against what I'm proposing. It's just about setting sensible milestones, in a way that looks like a complete and coherent game. You can always add more features later. My point is to make a playable game.
Of course there are little interested at the moment. Because it's done the other way around: when you have a "full product" people will come for it. When you have a "working title" many people won't bother to play it seriously and people who come are primarily interested in adding content.

I think we should then mark two goals to keep everyone happy: continuous evolution with well defined milestones.

Edited by German Diago Gomez, 20 June 2012 - 05:35 PM.

[k776]

There are already well defined milestones for each release (the set of features targeted for it, the 2-monthly release schedule). The problem is getting things done during that time. We need more active developers. If you want to help, go see if you can drum up some free time C++/Javascript developers willing to help out for free.

[Pureon]

We urgently need some experienced Blender Skeletal Animators too - otherwise we'll be stuck with moonwalking elephants and a limited variety of unit body meshes to work with

[German Diago Gomez]

k776, on 20 June 2012 - 07:56 PM, said:

There are already well defined milestones for each release (the set of features targeted for it, the 2-monthly release schedule). The problem is getting things done during that time. We need more active developers. If you want to help, go see if you can drum up some free time C++/Javascript developers willing to help out for free.

Please, provide me the links so that I can take a look. I didn't find anything immediately visible :-)

You say we need developers (I could be one myself). Also animators (in the post below you). I will try to find the appropiate places to look for them. But I cannot guarantee anything. Let's move!

Please, tell me what exact tasks are to be done by these people or point me accurately where to find these tasks (not all of them, the concrete ones you really need help for).

Also, if you can provide me the links on how they could begin inspecting how to do things, it would be great, to lower barrier to entry and encourage people to do it. Let's make it easy for them.

Edited by German Diago Gomez, 21 June 2012 - 05:41 AM.

[Zeta1127]

I wish I was qualify to be a C++/JavaScript developer, because I only know C# and Java, and have limited experience with JavaScript. I really should start learing C++ soon, since game development is what I want to do, but I am extremely busy trying to wrap up my Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from DeVry University.

[German Diago Gomez]

Zeta1127, on 21 June 2012 - 08:18 AM, said:

I wish I was qualify to be a C++/JavaScript developer, because I only know C# and Java.

One advice. Remember one thing when you start with C++. Repeat with me: Java/C# are not the same as C++ although their syntax looks similar. Hehe, really. Be careful:

- Java/C# --- Garbage-collected, object-oriented. Primarily reference semantics. Managed.

- C++ --- More oriented towards value semantics. Not garbage collected. Native.

Many people miss the point and when they use C++ they start to do indiscriminate new Something() everywhere. You will have to code with other styles.

[Sonarpulse]

Honestly, your knowledge of those languages is probably good enough to let you do JavaScript. There might be some corner cases where doing something in a Java/C# way will introduce a bug or other unexpected behavior, but you'll be able to do 75% of a task not worrying about the differences.

For me, the best way to learn a new language is just to dive right in, and C#, Java, and JavaScript are clearly similar enough for you to do that.

[Zeta1127]

I have been thinking that I could probably handle something like random map scripting with my programming skills, only time will tell.

[Sonarpulse]

Well, just try it! may not be to long to tell