Hi, im new here

[redindus]

Hi guys, i am happy that someone started this project some time ago and didnt realise that it been out for so long that i missed it
I been messing with the game and realise there alot to do to polish and add more features to the game itself.

There so many things that needed to be fixed and added as well adjusted, i have been looking into the mineral situations and realise that other colonies couldnt produce any minerals and noticed that cannot build anything that will improve the colony's resouces except for foods. So i looked into the building.txt and hate to say this, but its messy codes and difficult to read. So i decided to rewrite them for myself and do some test runs, so far it running great!

You will noticed that when the game start, there a Empire's Capitol on the list and you can build another, on and on. So i fixed that issues and many other structures like the drydocks can be made over and over. Anyway this will take time for me to get all this in order so it will be orderly fashion as well easier to read, it will be alot easier incase have to go back to redo or change the codes in the future. This will help keeping the players as well AIs from making too many copies of structures that only need one per colony, except for Capitol.

I know there alot of other codes that HUGE that needed to be corrected as well. I do what i can to fix this. Now i dont want to step on someone toes, but who do i need to speak with about joining the club? Or you guys rather i leave it alone and keep this to myself??

[Zireael]

Wow, love the fact that you managed to fix these, have been bugging me and the newcomers.

The question is, can you build a new Capital if you want to move your Capital somewhere?

[Vezzra]

...Now i dont want to step on someone toes, but who do i need to speak with about joining the club?

Usually people just show up and begin contributing in one way or the other. By far the most don't stay long before disappearing again. Some stay. If you're persistent enough and manage to contribute regulary, competently and reliably, the others will start to consider you as "part of the team" (happened to me just recently ).

Or you guys rather i leave it alone and keep this to myself??

FreeOrion is an Open Source project, so suggestions and contributions are welcome! However, to spare yourself some frustration make sure to become familiar with the project first. The two most important places are the Wiki and the forums.

The Wiki main page has a lot of links, maybe go to the FAQ, Philosophy, Vision Statement and of course How to Help pages first.

On the forums you should dig through the Brainstorming, Game Design and Design Archive subforums, because there you'll find most of the past and present discussions that lead to the important design decisions. It will give you an insight what has already been suggested, what has been accepted and rejected, the reasons for this decisions and so on.

I know this is a bit daunting due to the massive amount of info you'll have to face, but it will help you to understand what kind of game the team wants to create, which ideas might be interesting or which ones will almost certainly be rejected. It will help you a lot to contribute in a constructive way

EDIT: Another subforum you might want to take a look at is Announcements, especially this thread. I know it's old, but I think what is said there still applies

[redindus]

Wow, love the fact that you managed to fix these, have been bugging me and the newcomers.

The question is, can you build a new Capital if you want to move your Capital somewhere?

Not at this time, the codes will have to be redo (IMO) so not sure how the others will like it. So give me time to get the codes in order in buildings.txt first

...Now i dont want to step on someone toes, but who do i need to speak with about joining the club?

Usually people just show up and begin contributing in one way or the other. By far the most don't stay long before disappearing again. Some stay. If you're persistent enough and manage to contribute regulary, competently and reliably, the others will start to consider you as "part of the team" (happened to me just recently ).

Or you guys rather i leave it alone and keep this to myself??

FreeOrion is an Open Source project, so suggestions and contributions are welcome! However, to spare yourself some frustration make sure to become familiar with the project first. The two most important places are the Wiki and the forums.

The Wiki main page has a lot of links, maybe go to the FAQ, Philosophy, Vision Statement and of course How to Help pages first.

On the forums you should dig through the Brainstorming, Game Design and Design Archive subforums, because there you'll find most of the past and present discussions that lead to the important design decisions. It will give you an insight what has already been suggested, what has been accepted and rejected, the reasons for this decisions and so on.

I know this is a bit daunting due to the massive amount of info you'll have to face, but it will help you to understand what kind of game the team wants to create, which ideas might be interesting or which ones will almost certainly be rejected. It will help you a lot to contribute in a constructive way

I understand what you are saying, some will agreed and some wont. What so bad about it when someone manage to fix the problems and doesnt want the ideas what the person was doing and kept part of that codes for themselves and not giving them the credits for it. I been working on alot of games trying to fix bugs and improving them over the years. Got burned out few times and wasnt so happy with it. Let see what happen after i get the buildings.txt done.

[Vezzra]

...What so bad about it when someone manage to fix the problems and doesnt want the ideas what the person was doing and kept part of that codes for themselves and not giving them the credits for it...

You mean adapting the game contents to your desire, and just keeping your modifications for your own "personalized" version of the game if the team doesn't want to incorporate them? There's nothing wrong with that That's the point in making a game moddable after all, isn't it?

However, you asked about joining the club, this I understood as wanting to contribute, and I just wanted to point out what will help you doing that

[eleazar]

Welcome

There so many things that needed to be fixed and added as well adjusted, i have been looking into the mineral situations and realise that other colonies couldnt produce any minerals

Yeah, there are many things that have been neglected and need to be fixed, or improved -- and there are also things that are being changed to work differently, which may not make a lot of sense in the intermediate state. For instance, we recently got rid of minerals as a resource.

I know there alot of other codes that

Just to help prevent confusion, we generally refer to the stuff in the .TXT files as "scripts" -- changes to these take effect as soon as you restart. "Code" changes require the game to be recompiled to take effect.


You are of course welcome to change whatever for your own use and enjoyment. If you want to participate in making the game everyone else is playing, it is generally better to submit patches focused on particular issues, rather than bundle a large number of changes together.

For instance if you submitted a patch that disallowed making any duplicate buildings on the same planet, i'd have tested and committed it today, with your name credited in the commit log. That would be an obvious improvement. Then you could move on to the next issue, knowing that what you've done has already improved the game for everyone.

If you summit a thoroughly revised Buildings.txt, chances are you will have changed some things in a way incompatible with our plans, so it takes more time to go through all the changes and sort out what to keep and make sure that it's not dependent on anything left out. It is a less efficient way to spend your and our time. It's not only an issue of total time, but chunks of time. I have an hour free for FreeOrion, relatively frequently, when i could examine and commit a focused patch. Much less frequently will i have several hours together needed to focus on and review a much larger set of changes.

Also generally speaking, unless it is an obvious bug, it is generally better to describe and discuss ideas for changes on the forums first. Its a large and complicated game, and it is not easy even for the oldest developers to keep in mind how all the parts interact. If you say, "I don't like how X works, i think it should do Y instead", you'll generally quickly find out if it is something that could be incorporated into the game or not.

[redindus]

Well the only things i have changed in buildings.txt so that the users doesnt mistakely rebuild the capitol, drydock, etcs. The bad news that some of you guys wont like what i had in mind about adding the minerals back to the list, but i dont want them to stockpile and include the foods as well. The minerals should be fixed directly to that planet and if the supply lines is connected, should get some extra minerals if avab.

I can only take this one step at a time, right now i just rearrange the scripts in .txt for easier to change and read. Once i get the scripts in order then i can take a look at the capitol that can be moved or rebuild. Noticed when i colonized another planet, there is no production points, so there no way can build anything, and you cant produce anything without minerals. Unless you guys planning to add different type of minerals. At this stage, you would have to spend so many turns to get the tech so other colonies can build something, i find that annoying.

The game itself can expand in many directions, some will like it and some wont. I do however like playing MoO2 and 3 and i find MoO3 better, but lack of realism. I just want to make it simply and not too complex. So how long have this project been running, since 2004? The game doesnt seem that complex to me, maybe for some people.

[Geoff the Medio]

So how long have this project been running, since 2004?

Early 2003... soon after the release of Master of Orion 3.

[eleazar]

Noticed when i colonized another planet, there is no production points, so there no way can build anything, and you cant produce anything without minerals. Unless you guys planning to add different type of minerals.

Either you misunderstand how the game currently works, or you are working off an out-of-date version. Minerals/Mining are not needed for anything currently, though on planets with certain specials you can focus on "mining" to get an industry boost.

We're currently at revision 4972. Please make sure you are working off the most recent files, or ask if you don't know how.

Well the only things i have changed in buildings.txt so that the users doesnt mistakely rebuild the capitol, drydock, etcs....
I can only take this one step at a time...

That's fine -- it's worth committing that much. In fact, it is generally more convenient to commit a smaller set of changes, than a whole bunch at once.

If you'll state that you'll release that work under the GPL 2.0, and attach the changes here, it will soon be incorporated with credit into the main repository.

[redindus]

So how long have this project been running, since 2004?

Early 2003... soon after the release of Master of Orion 3.

Gessh that a long time, sorry i wasnt around to help you guys out back then.

eleazar, look like i have the older version here, i clicked on the download section and this is what i have here. v0.4 [SVN 4635] MSVC 2010

Still looking for the topics that have latest verison, havent found it yet, if you want you can point me in the right direction

[Vezzra]

...look like i have the older version here, i clicked on the download section and this is what i have here. v0.4 [SVN 4635] MSVC 2010

That's the last point release, there has been much change in the meantime. You can get the latest test builds for Windows and OSX here.

Still looking for the topics that have latest verison, havent found it yet, if you want you can point me in the right direction

When I upload new binaries I post notifications in these threads:

Windows: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4208

OSX: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5587

[redindus]

That cool, thank you for sharing that infos. Heh though i would have to start all over rearrange the scripts again in buildings.txt.

I should be done with this less than a week, it does take time though. Here an example what it will look like...

BuildingType name = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES"
description = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES_DESC"
buildcost = 2000
buildtime = 200
location = Not All
effectsgroups = EffectsGroup scope = And [ Planet OwnedBy TheEmpire Source.Owner Contains Source ]
effects = [ SetTargetResearch Value + 5 SetTargetFarming Value + Target.Population * 1.0 SetTargetMining Value + Target.Population * 0.5 SetTargetIndustry Value + Target.Population * 1.0 SetMaxTroops Value + 5 ]
graphic = "icons/building/archive.png"

Believe it or not, this take less file space and when everything is complete, you can compress it or leave it as it is.

[Geoff the Medio]

Here an example what it will look like...

You appear to have removed the newlines and indenting in effect and condition definitions... Why is this an improvement? It would appear to do little but compress a script entry vertically, at the cost of making reading complicated cases harder to read.

Also, the version you've been editing didn't have macros. These make a big impact on what scripts look like, so you might want to reconsider your plans...

[redindus]

Here an example what it will look like...

You appear to have removed the newlines and indenting in effect and condition definitions... Why is this an improvement? It would appear to do little but compress a script entry vertically, at the cost of making reading complicated cases harder to read.

Also, the version you've been editing didn't have macros. These make a big impact on what scripts look like, so you might want to reconsider your plans...

I havent removed any lines, it was tab-space between some parameters and taken up spaces will slow down the process as well. Only different is better for me and some others to read vertically than the way it was. Infact once it done it can be rearrange the way you guys want it. It was more complicated for me and some others to read it and wasnt comfortable about it.

If this doesnt get anywhere, then i simply will quit and work on my other projects.

[Geoff the Medio]

You appear to have removed the newlines and indenting...

I havent removed any lines

The SVN 4635 version is:

Code: Select all

BuildingType
    name = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES"
    description = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES_DESC"
    buildcost = 2000
    buildtime = 200
    location = Not All
    effectsgroups =
        EffectsGroup
            scope = And [
                Planet
                OwnedBy TheEmpire Source.Owner
                Contains Source
            ]
            effects = [
                SetTargetResearch Value + 5
                SetTargetFarming Value + Target.Population * 1.0
                SetTargetMining Value + Target.Population * 0.5
                SetTargetIndustry Value + Target.Population * 1.0
                SetMaxTroops Value + 5
            ]
    graphic = "icons/building/archive.png"

and your version is

Code: Select all

BuildingType name = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES"
description = "BLD_CULTURE_ARCHIVES_DESC"
buildcost = 2000
buildtime = 200
location = Not All
effectsgroups = EffectsGroup scope = And [ Planet OwnedBy TheEmpire Source.Owner Contains Source ]
effects = [ SetTargetResearch Value + 5 SetTargetFarming Value + Target.Population * 1.0 SetTargetMining Value + Target.Population * 0.5 SetTargetIndustry Value + Target.Population * 1.0 SetMaxTroops Value + 5 ]
graphic = "icons/building/archive.png"

If that's not different mainly due to removing newlines and indenting, then I'm missing something... Perhaps pasting text into the forum post with wrapping in code tags has mangled your layout?

...it was tab-space between some parameters and taken up spaces will slow down the process as well. Only different is better for me and some others to read vertically than the way it was. Infact once it done it can be rearrange the way you guys want it. It was more complicated for me and some others to read it and wasnt comfortable about it.

I don't understand what you mean by that paragraph.