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The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

wesnoth.org

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Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#21

Post by Figs »

johnchristopher wrote: post #10

I am trying to download the latest release (1.12.4a) but I am caught in a never ending loop http://sourceforge.net/projects/wesnoth/files/ . Edit: okay, sourceforge is broken for me for any download, no matter the browser. Let's consider that my sourceforge rant of the week.

Well, Sourceforge is still recovering from a major fuck up in their storage system a week ago, so it's not that surprising that things aren't entirely working...

http://sourceforge.net/blog/sourceforge-infrastructure-and-s...

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#22

Post by LoSboccacc »

kazagistar wrote: post #2

Why does the game need to keep advancing? Most games in the industry are written, released, and finished. The best have a timeless nature, still excellent even though they haven't been changed for decades. Battle for Wesnoth is an excellent game. But declining interest seems to indicate that maybe it is just finished?

went here to say the same thing. it's ten years old, and while I was super excited at the beginning, playing it and discovering every aspect of the many campaigns, it has felt stale in a while.

the game is basically equals of it's former self, with many more graphic enhancement and sophistication that push the battle system, the maps and the editors to their limits, but while being timeless it also has exhausted its replay value and lives in a market which is vastly different to the circumstances that brought it to life many years ago

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#23

Post by IsTom »

enraged_camel wrote: post #4

Perhaps the issue is that they are looking for intermediate to advanced C++ programmers who have experience with very large code-bases. That's a tiny portion of the programmer population. I know this is a risky thing to say here, but I wonder if they should re-write the game in a more common/popular language, maybe something web-based like JavaScript. They would have a much bigger talent pool to pull from, gain acces…

I've made a litte patch for Wesnoth long time ago. While the codebase wasn't small it didn't really matter that much. There are a lot of things in the game (animation, networking, ui, game logic) that are separated enough that it's not that much of a big code mess like most commercials projects you see.

Also the C++ used isn't the monster from under the bed people tell tales of. It's mostly simple OOP/procedural code using boost library.

It's not that difficult to learn enough C++ to be useful.

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#24

Post by avereveard »

jon-wood wrote: post #7
enraged_camel wrote: post #4

Perhaps the issue is that they are looking for intermediate to advanced C++ programmers who have experience with very large code-bases. That's a tiny portion of the programmer population. I know this is a risky thing to say here, but I wonder if they should re-write the game in a more common/popular language, maybe something web-based like JavaScript. They would have a much bigger talent pool to pull from, gain acces…

If one of the problems they're trying to fix is not being able to iterate as fast as they'd like then rewriting the entireity of a ten year old game isn't going to help that.

another of the problem is that they need more polish and fixing and there aren't major captivating features in the works, and it's hard to bring unpaid volunteers on board with that prospect in mind.

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#25

Post by AdieuToLogic »

enraged_camel wrote: post #13
jon-wood wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one of the problems they're trying to fix is not being able to iterate as fast as they'd like then rewriting the entireity of a ten year old game isn't going to help that.

That's what I'm saying though: they aren't able to iterate quickly because it's a huge codebase written in a programming language that is quite complex and fairly outdated. Besides, I'd assume that intermediate and experienced C++ developers are probably older on average, and are unlikely to be interested in developing games.

You would assume incorrectly.

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#26

Post by AdieuToLogic »

enraged_camel wrote: post #4

Perhaps the issue is that they are looking for intermediate to advanced C++ programmers who have experience with very large code-bases. That's a tiny portion of the programmer population. I know this is a risky thing to say here, but I wonder if they should re-write the game in a more common/popular language, maybe something web-based like JavaScript. They would have a much bigger talent pool to pull from, gain acces…

If you're looking to rewrite the game, I'd recommend looking into Unity3D[1] instead of trying to make it in JavaScript. It'll be a lot less painful.

Out of the gate, Unity3D provides a much better indie game development environment than trying to do it JavaScript. Even though their name includes "3D", their software fully supports 2D games. Plus, there are no royalties/costs for the personal edition.

1 - http://unity3d.com/get-unity

EDIT: Read my response below for context regarding this message. And if you're disagreeing because I said JavaScript game development is painful, then keep hammering this message to your delight.

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#28

Post by icebraining »

anon3_ wrote: post #12

I have to tell you, when I see GPL license on a game, I see the good intention you have. Have you considered changing the license of Wesnoth to MIT so commercial game developers can use their time and effort on components can port them to their own projects too? I can't justify investing hundreds of hours programming new components a project (even one I'm passionate about) that a later derivative can't be used by my…

Regardless of the merits or lack thereof of changing the license, it'd probably present an even larger problem, since they don't seem to ask for copyright assignment and they have 100+ contributors, all of whom would have to consent to the new license or have their code thrown out and cleanly reimplemented.

Re: The Battle for Wesnoth needs help

#29

Post by anon3_ »

anon3_ wrote: post #12

I have to tell you, when I see GPL license on a game, I see the good intention you have. Have you considered changing the license of Wesnoth to MIT so commercial game developers can use their time and effort on components can port them to their own projects too? I can't justify investing hundreds of hours programming new components a project (even one I'm passionate about) that a later derivative can't be used by my…

Sorry for being redpilled toward the GPL crowd, but we just need to get some realities straight. There's another side to this.

Have you ever played a game an felt an eery "I've felt that before", but couldn't put your finger on it?

Examples include:

- Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon -> Roller Coaster Tycoon.

- World of Warcraft + Starcraft's Download Programs (which both used a similar, skinned UX and bittorrent downloaders)

- Shining Force III -> Golden Sun (battle gfx, character sprites / dialogs)

Games have a unique type of taste and "feel" that come off them. As an artist, I'd like to see my touch be able to go along wherever I go.

If finding and retaining top tier talent matters, why not try to be more accomodating to developers?

1. Creativity is priceless. GPL isn't geared toward creatives and game engineers. See the billion dollar video game industry.

2. It takes a tremendous amount of investment to meet the basal technical requirements to program a game. Let alone study the frameworks in question, build tools, so on and so forth. You have to cater to engineers who, care about open source, but won't tolerate reinventing the wheel again to satisfy a viral license (please research the position why, I could elaborate).

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