I hope that UFO:AI finds a good solid way to improve the game steadily.
2 years ago or something (maybe 3 years ago) I started to look at any projects that tried to simulate the old UFO feeling (you know... UFO XCOM and so on..).
I think I found 3 or 4 projects, and at least two of these died horribly, as far as I can judge.
I dont remember what it was... talon? or maybe Project Xenocide. They moved to XNA and .NET and basically made it a Windows game, after a sleeping hiatus for many many months. I stopped looking at how it developed after I realized that UFO:AI not only works on Linux, but it also had resolved so many more issues without the crap that blocked that other Project for months (there was quite some aggression about this on their forum)
So from my part, UFO:AI was miles ahead of every other project, plus it had a much more modern feel as well. (Today when I play the old UFO games, they still have a great gameplay, but the graphics often really just SUCK...)
Eloz again! WOW! To think someone else other than me knows Xenocide! Yupz, indeed, if u folks know X-force, Xenocide, Lasersquad and many other 4x squads kinda games, u will probably find many of their active forumers here on UFOAI.
Why? Cos they are like me probably: Bored of non updates..... and probably disappointed by total projects abandonment......
The worst thing that can happen to any project is stalling, i.e. if no work is done to improve it visibly.
So I disagree about the comment with release cycles as such - as long as the project is still improving, even if it improves slowly, there is nothing wrong. Even Wesnoth does have problems here and there to release more rapidly.
Wooooo, a Wesnoth die-hard too, shevegen? Me too me too! I have followed em since alpha! :p *5^*
Agreed. Alot of good major open source projects (including games AND applications) has hiccups. Impt thing is the community revolving ard em supports them greatly, dun tear down the coders and managers of the projects! Plus, give tons of CONSTRUCTIVE feedbacks and even offer help or beta testing.
I rmbr even this game called, 'FreeDroidRPG', dunnoe how many of u heard of this diablo-like cutisie hack slash game tat is opensource and very LINUX styled. lol. I love it! Even tat - it has tons of hiccups, yet progress as this project has.
I agree with misiek, there's LOTS of work done, but quite invisible to the world.
The monthly status report on the front page is a very good thing already, and I believe the developers don't have time time to update this more often.
And just like all those projects i have quoted above, this project, UFOAI, HAS alot of work DONE! See my quotes? Yupz. And its not exactly invisible to the world. It is quite visible. Just download version 2.1, 2.2.1 and maybe one of destructavator / muton / my SVN builts, u will see.
So, project managers like geever, take heart!
You folks are doing a GREATLY FANTABULOUSLY INCREDIBLE JOB!
Go and convince mattn and the other coders. I wouldn't mind.
*THEREFORE* - Poke poke mattn, geever and gang.....
"A partial freeze, where all features are frozen except pathfinding could do it. Kind of like considering "fixed pathfinding" a feature itself."
This might just be a good idea? Poke some more.
The comments in the code? They don't solve the problem of a programmer who has no idea what they are looking at. Even if they are fine for reminding someone who knows the code what a given routine is doing, the ones I've seen are worthless for someone new to the program.
Maybe it's not possible to go back and get comments like that in in time for 2.3. But if that's the case, then adding comments and internal documentation at that level should be the first priority for 2.3.1.
If you are saying that your primary problem is a lack of coders that understand what the code does, then you need to make it easier for new coders to understand what the code does.
Not very sure if u r a programmer or not in real life, or have done any programming - this might be very hard if this is not your source, and it is inherited since eons ago.
But i do agree, that all good programmers should comment their programming well (esp in C which is modular / sub-routines heavy). This helps others who look at their scripts understand better where went wrong.
However again, like a thread i saw somewhere before - i thnk since the projects been so extensively worked on, far far FAR beyond most amatuers, i believe its better to contribute in areas like beta testing, bugs finding, and probably help with pedias and even learn graphics enhancements.
Then again, there are many more talented programmers than me, so they might see this in a different light.