Messages

1

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: March 12, 2011, 10:07:40 am »

Thanks gl0w.

I've been away last week, so didn't find the time to develop any further.
I obviously need to put more work into this in order to make it fully functional.

Currently, I'm trying to understand how to make this a single patch ?
GIT seems to create serial patches for each and every code commit I do.. Is it possible to regroup everything into one global patch ?

Thanks

Malick

2

Newbie Coding / Re: The GIT problem

« on: March 02, 2011, 08:47:57 pm »

Gents,

I need some help with GIT, it's puzzling me ?

I tried to update the sources with PULL command. Now, I have some weird artifacts which I have to track and erase one by one, such as :

...soldiers 1
   scientists 3
<<<<<<< HEAD
=======
   workers 1
>>>>>>> 36011dc324793d8b64cd5d4d72c28c2c45de39b8
   pilots   1
   pos "-46 26"

And GIT now refuse to commit any change, because I have unmerged files. When I try to merge them, it tells me that I can't, because, I have some unmerged files...
Any help appreciated !

Malick

3

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 27, 2011, 04:49:49 pm »

Gents,

STEP 3 :
Pilots now have skills, which have an effect in game.
Their skills are shown in the 'hire' menu and on the 'aircraft-pilots' menu.
Number of missions and number of shot down ufos are shown also.

Check the patches below for more details.

Malick

EDIT : gasp, there is an error in patch 003-Pilots-effects-and-skills... Redownload the updated version (there was a CLIENT_DEBUG instead of DEBUG_CLIENT...)

4

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 20, 2011, 03:50:20 pm »

Gents,

I've been coding a little bit.
For the moment, I added 3 skills to all characters : piloting, targeting and evading. The crash survival is just a reuse of the HP value.
Soldiers will have 0 piloting/targeting/evading skills and pilots, 0 combat skills.
Here is a screenshot for example.
Skills have currently no applications, it will come at a later stage.

I'll progress a bit more and will generate a patch file.

Malick

EDIT : patch attached. I will post it on the tracker as well.

5

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 20, 2011, 03:38:56 pm »

BTAxis,

OK, point taken. I'm not really a game designer myself.

However, your point applies to the entire game : if I loose a soldier, I just hit reload. If my base gets attacked because I was looking elsewhere, I just hit reload. So on...
What can prevent the player from doing so ? Does this mean this is bad design ? I don't think so.
Just because the players WILL try to exploit the game to a point where no attributes and skills are meaningful, does not mean necessarily we should not add features.

In my opinion, the solution is not to downgrade, but to have safeguards : flying a jet costs an awful lot of money. Losing a jet, costs also money. Currently, a dropship costs 30 000 credit, or just about 30 assault rifles.
Make this a realistic amount : an aircraft should cost at least 100 000 credits. But, this is just a method of preventing abuse.

Regarding the progress of the pilots, I believe this is the same principle applied to the soldiers : hit something with a gun and your skills improves. Bad soldiers can not hit a barn, they don't progress.

So, BTAxis, I get your point, but respectfuly disagree.
Plus, you make my life difficult

Malick

6

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 20, 2011, 02:59:52 pm »

Of course, but no one forces the player to do so...
It's up to him : if he wants to improve his pilots, he will manage the time it takes and cost to train them. Otherwise, just keep them warm in the hangar.
It may be used as an exploit (if the bonus of flying is too high), but it remains a tedious and dangerous one, if the player is caught with his interceptors anavailable or out of fuel.

Malick

7

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 20, 2011, 02:17:01 pm »

Well, for the survival skill, there will be a good chance of loosing the pilot each time he's shot down. If the player is willing to take the risk.
And, having the pilots flying all the time just to improve their 'piloting' skill doesn't sound foolish to me : our respective air forces do it all the time ! The only limiting factor would be price of fuel and availibility for scramble / interception.
For targeting, if the pilots hits something, then his skill improves.
For evasion, it may be used as an additional check in the calculation in 'AIRFIGHT_ProbabilityToHit'. If succesful, then, the skill improves.

Right now, I'm struggling with the amount of code to be created just for the pilots.
Please correct me if I'm wrong :
Pilots can not use the same structure as the soldiers character_s.
As for the UGV, I need to create dedicated structures with attached functions :
- characterPilot_s
- CHRSH_CharGenPilotSkills to assign the skills
- chrPilotScoreGlobal_s to store them (and allow an evolution over time).

After this,  I'll modify the chrtemplates to take chrPilotTemplate, with parsing of the info from the template.ufo file.

I'm in for some serious coding !

Malick

EDIT: Alternatively, I may also modify the existing structure to take into account the new skills...
1 - I add new skills, all characters have them, but pilots have 0 skill in ground combat and soldiers 0 skill in flying. However, the savegames won't work.
2 - I re-use existing skills, will be less clean, but slightly easier. (for ex, ASSAULT - > PILOTING, HEAVY -> TARGETING, SNIPER-> EVASION...

What's your preferred solution ?

8

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 20, 2011, 12:58:23 pm »

Hi BTAxis,

Thanks for your reply. Here are some of my thoughts :

1 - I agree in fact pilots do not really need 'attributes'. Everything can be expressed ingame by a skill, as they play in real time (no TU), do not take shots (no health) etc... So, I'll remove this.
2 - The piloting skill is like a 'driving' skill. A friend has exactly the same car as mine. However, he is always able to drive faster and use slightly less gas than me. How does he do that ? Well, he probably knows better than me. Furthermore, this is an all-around skill that could apply to both interceptors and dropships. However, coding its influence in game will be another story...
3 - Skill improving in mission : that's a trickier one. When a pilot uses his/her skills, then they will improve. How much ? To be defined, tested and debugged.

As a summary, I'll start with the 4 following skills : Piloting, Targeting, Evasion, Survival.
It seems reasonable enough, and covers the events in the life of a PHALANX pilot.

To geever : I uploaded a corrected patch on sourceforge. Can you tell me if it works ? I'm sorry, I messed with the patch file, so I think I have corrupted it.

Malick

9

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 18, 2011, 07:41:07 pm »

did you ceck the ufo-scripts?

For some reason, team_templates didn't show up in codeblocks. Or I was falling asleep. 
I got them now.

I'll be glad to have a chat with BTAxis and anyone who wants to join.
The attributes and skills I expected to implement were :

Code: [Select]

Attributes : Speed / Health / Mind
Skills : Piloting / Targeting / Evasion / Survival
Each governing particular parts of the interception, normal flight and air combat.

See you later...

Malick

10

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 18, 2011, 12:03:05 am »

Hi there,

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I gave a look on the proposal for pilots and I think this is rather close. We can discuss this, I'll try to join the IRC in the next few days.

In the mean time, did you find any issue with the patch (the test one here or the one on the tracker) ?

On my side, I'm trying to implement simple attributes/skills.
I'm looking for the definition of character templates (soldier_heavy, soldier_assault etc..)... Where can I find them ?
Anyway, it's too late to code anything right now, so I'll test this maybe on sunday.

Malick

11

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 16, 2011, 11:18:08 pm »

Hi geever,

Thanks for the feedback. It's rather simple anyway : generate x pilots at game start and y each month. I ruthlessly copied code from the soldiers lines
Regarding comments with my name in it, it's just to make it easier for me : I get often lost in the hundreds of files and thousands of lines... I'll remove them when i submit an official patch on the tracker, thanks.

I have made a simple roadmap for improvement of the pilots. If there is something already done by the team, I'll be glad to follow it, otherwise, here are my ideas :
1 - make pilots generated at the campaign start and each month depending on difficulty and nations [done]
2 - save the number of missions and shot down ufos, show it on screen [open]
3 - create a set of ranks, link them to the missions / kills for promotion [open]
4 - create a set of skills and attributes [open]
5 - create rules so that the skills have an impact on aircraft speed, range, targeting, missile evasion, crash survival etc.. [open]

If you have any comment or proposal, feel free to jump in !
I've been on these forums for sooooo long without contributing, it's time I do something

Malick

EDIT : sent on tracker as 'pilots generated in campaign'. Please tell me if everything works fine, as I may have messed with the patching process 

12

Newbie Coding / Re: First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 16, 2011, 08:32:40 pm »

STEP 1 :
Make initial / starting number of pilots depend on campaign difficulty setting (in campaign.ufo)
Make number of pilots generated each month depend on Nations satisfaction (in nation.ufo)

It 'seems' to work...
I'm trying to create a patch with GIT and then I'll post it here for you to test.
I'll be back

Malick

EDIT : I think I found the way to make a patch... Can you try it and tell me if it works ?
OK, the filename is not the one I expected, but anyway, you can still try ^^

13

Newbie Coding / First coding attempts : pilots

« on: February 16, 2011, 08:29:47 pm »

Hi all,

This is my first coding attempt, so I started with something which I thought could be easy to implement.

My goals are :
1 - learn the coding basics and get used to the project structure.
2 - improve the implementation of the pilots ingame, in order to make them as refined as soldiers.

For this, I will start with simple mods and patches, just to see if I catch the principle.
First step : number of spawned pilots during campaign (starting and monthly)

See next posts for more details.

Malick

14

Newbie Coding / Re: The GIT problem

« on: February 16, 2011, 07:43:08 pm »

Hi Bayo,

No prob, I will start with 'patch' for a start
Thanks for the help, anyway. I'll have plenty other silly questions (in a separate thread !)

Malick

EDIT : OK, I do need help. I want to create a patch and to submit it here (I created a topic)
Problem : when I click on "Create Patch Serial", well, I don't see anything happening. Any help appreciated
Thanks for your patience with noobs like me !

15

Newbie Coding / Re: The GIT problem

« on: February 15, 2011, 09:23:16 pm »

I remember CodeBlock didn't like path with space in it. Maybe this is the problem?

D'oh...
After all this development, it can still not take spaces ? We're back to Win 3.1 ! 

Thanks geever, it works now I can update the sources and compile...
Now I'll figure how to mess with the code ^^

By the way, with Git what is the 'smartest' solution to upload any modification : patch, push, commit ...  ?

Malick