[Campaign 4] Release & Development topic

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Stress testing has begun for Release-19! And so far, aside from one little tiny triggering glitch (already fixed), it's working very, very nicely.

- M4 has been updated with the new parameters and story -- mostly. Let me know if there are old story elements still present. I'll likely see most of them during stress testing. The missions there aren't very smart or relevant to the story just yet -- that'll be a feature for Release-20. I just wanted it working for now.
- All stages should be available up to and including Nexus Base in the southwest. We'll get to M12+ later on.

I'll spend the overnight testing and fixing as needed. If no serious issues are present, expect Release-19 around 8am EST Monday.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

And true to form, nothing is ever easy. I've run into some glaring issues where code isn't being executed as it should.

For performance reasons I've been using the T4 build of 3.1 -- and I think my issues are a result of that rather than any deficiency in the codebase elsewhere.

I'm going to take a page out of Iluvalar's book and play "mad scientist" with a different executable, and see if that helps. I'll likely end up back at this point, but it's worth a try.

As far as the release goes, I'll continue working on the problem until it's solved. I needed some sleep.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Status update:

- The fixes to M2/M3 are complete .... FINALLY.
- The fixes required for M4 (remember that the map geography has changed significantly) will require another day of coding. FlaME on one monitor, Notepad++ on the other. Rest assured that all that is involved will be the areas being checked, flagged, etc. Easy work but it'll be well into tomorrow before it's changed up. Right now it's impossible for anything in M4 to move forward until I've fixed that.
- The "Attack Event" will now happen at the end of M4. That's been partially implemented already. Bear in mind that there is WAY more to code in for Nexus Bases to get Factory, Power, Research upgrades, etc. and that requires someone with ... shall we say ... a Shadowy personality.

So at any rate, all is well. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon or even Wednesday morning will see Release-19 ... and what a release it'll be.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

And it's live! See the first post for download location and list of changes. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, I'm going to take a day or two off. You guys know the drill -- report any problems or post questions!

*wipes brow*

[montetank]

Great

Congratulation Goth Zagog-Thou-thanks

[Rman Virgil]

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Guess I know what I'll be doing after work today besides having a little supper.
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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

I did a full play-through and my observations are (from a player standpoint):

- Nexus Prime may look intimidating, but once we finish our research (in whichever weapon(s) you choose) the base is a nice challenge without costing the player more than 20 units ... depends on the vehicle body, of course. I was using Excalibur Longshot Mortars + Quad Erinyes Halftracks, with an assortment of Wyvern Artillery Missiles and Longshot Bombards for ranged attack. Yes, there were 30 of each They get the job done!

- Took me 2 hours 35 minutes start to finish. A good session without being overly long.

- Couple of minor things that need to be fixed for Release-20 .. but nothing major as far as glitches go. No showstoppers anyway.

Hope everyone is enjoying the release thus far. Thanks for all the support! Plenty more to come!

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Also looks like for Release-20 I'll be working a lot on decoration and really spicing things up on the map on M4+. I always enjoy map work ...

Feature and decorum requests are always welcome! Since Release-20 is going to be all about polish in the western half of the map (well, the rest of the Weapon Paths of course), and since I always have included the .fme files with the .wz, anyone who would like to should feel free to open up the map in FlaME (using the Contingency+USM+Cam4 dataset) and take a shot at it themselves!

We have some talented map makers here on the site, and here's your chance to add your ideas/style to a Campaign map! Really good submissions will be permanently added to the map. Here's the criteria:

- Only mod the western half of the map
- Base structures (Research Facilities, Power Generators, Factories, HQ, etc) may NOT be removed (due to hard-coded ID's in the campaign script), but you can add whatever you like. Extra base weapons, features, more enemies to fight, etc. Shuffle things around a little if you want but not too far from where they belong. The map has labels for the base areas, and are clearly marked out.
- Limit the geography changes to aesthetics, please. If you've got a good idea for a geography change, speak up -- chances are it'll be better than my geography choices are. I'll address them on a case-by-case basis.

That's all for now, folks. I'll check in later today after I've had a little shut-eye.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Good news -- we're loading on Warzone 3.2 now ...

At least the map is. I still have to port the dataset. A laughable prospect to say the least -- but I'll get it done somehow.

What this means is that I can port the Campaign script over to the new API. That'll make development MUCH easier, and I'll have more help with code problems.

Yay!

[montetank]

Very good news. I can hardly wait

[Rman Virgil]

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I'm stretching out this run. Wanna savor it. So extended feedback will come over the weekend. I'll play it in one sitting at some point, and also experiment with different approaches in other replays, but this first time, I'm slowing it down.

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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

@ Rman: Absolutely! It's meant to be enjoyed at one's leisure, like a nice red wine .... or a steak at your local steak place. Not the chain stores, mind ya -- but the local mom-and-pop place where they cut their own meats. I plan to enjoy both today -- meaning that my day off is today. Huzzah!

The next step is to get Release-20 cooked up (no pun intended!) and then I can focus entirely on the 3.2 port, now that things are loading.

Checkbox added to bucket list -- Cam 4 on WZ 3.2.

[Rman Virgil]

@ Rman: Absolutely! It's meant to be enjoyed at one's leisure, like a nice red wine .... or a steak at your local steak place. Not the chain stores, mind ya -- but the local mom-and-pop place where they cut their own meats. I plan to enjoy both today -- meaning that my day off is today. Huzzah!

Exactly !

One more day for me, then my weekend. Some highlight stuff to look forward to: friends blow-out birthday party, more time with CAM 4 and, now, "Tears of Steel".

The next step is to get Release-20 cooked up (no pun intended!) and then I can focus entirely on the 3.2 port, now that things are loading.

Checkbox added to bucket list -- Cam 4 on WZ 3.2.

Huge milestone in a truly singular project.
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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Thanks Rman, and everyone else, for the continued support. (Does that sound like a PBS funding drive?)

Moving right along. I'm implementing the rest of the Weapon Paths and Miscellaneous Weapons (AA, Fortresses, Hybrid Weaponry, etc). Release-20 and 21 will be dedicated to shaking down the Research Paths so that they are something approaching the standard Contingency experience (read: as close as possible!) along with fine-tuning the rest of the tree that I've used the new API to script in. One this work is done, that will be where the road ends for 3.1 Warzone and I can fully focus upon the port to 3.2, which is superior in almost every way imho.

I already have a few ideas in mind concerning how we'll be doing things on 3.2 ... I'd like to script in as much as possible using includes so that the scripting engine isn't getting overloaded by my admittedly large and ungainly abuse of file sizes. It's made the job extremely slow and I refuse to endure it any longer. Breaking things up into smaller pieces, as it were. Nullbot makes good use of that paradigm and I intend to adhere to that standard and practice.

Back to work! *cracks whip*

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Add another feature to everything Campaign 4 does ... and it's SO simple that I'm surprised nobody thought of it before I did.

Imagine, if you will .. instead of clicking on the Intelligence button to find out what a research topic does, we see the precise function and role of the research we are mousing over. This can be any useful text we want the player to see.

How is this done? By simply adding the information to the string in names.txt.

Told ya it was simple!

The only caveat is that it's a single, long line. I'd love to see it displayed in an Enhanced Tooltip way like items are in World of Warcraft, RIFT, etc. To see an example, look here and mouseover any colored text or icon of the item(s) in the list. Including options to use the old-style Warzone mouseovers or the new way would help too. Use it if you want to, turn it off if you don't. All that's needed to do is sort out a good format and layout!

Release-20 will see this additional information upon mouseovers on the Weapon Path topics and research that is unique to Campaign 4. I'll add the rest over the course of Cam 4's development cycle.