Rewriting WOK4

Mullog · Post by **Mullog** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:03 am

[quote="Polymorphic]Please, PLEASE rewrite it in something nicer than VB...
*begging on knees icon*
If you could 'translate' it to, say, C++ I'll be able to compile it and run it under linux (yeah, my fault for not using Windows, blah, blah, I'll argue about that later...) - then once I'd written a short shell script and added it as a cronjob I'll be able to have automatic turn-running

Of course, having a GM there to see that it doesn't screw up will still be a requirement - I don't trust computers that much...[quote]

Technofobe warning: Reading this reply may cause severe trauma. Don't blame me...

We will NOT do it in VB or QBasic or C++. Rather we will probably do it in PHP so that we can run the game in a webpage on a shared webserver. This way you will not have to install anything in your own computer at all and we will never again have the problem with GM's dissapearing or their computers crashing.
We will probably setup a cron job on the web server so that games are run automatically. If that is what we want. At least it will be useful to have the option.
Since you have Linux installed, you must be a nerd. Do you know any programming? PHP maybe?

Post by **Duke** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:24 am

10 X-wing loves British footballcommentators
20 GOTO 10
RUN

I can program the scrubbing section of a Nilfisk BR700S Combi Scrubber.

Dont know it that will help you though

Post by **trewqh** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:00 am

Mullog wrote:(linux is a free alternative to windows)

So Windows is not free?!

We have it for free in Poland (ie. I don't anyone who paid for it.)

trewqh

Saladin · Post by **Saladin** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:13 am

What i've always been a big fan off is to give a GM great control over the game he's running.

For instance the level bonus for attacking another player is now a hard coded number, i would rather see this as a variable that can be set by the GM. Same for the levelling of armies and most other variables.

Of course there will be standard settings, but a GM should have the option to modify most of these variables to create the type of game he/she would like to run.

Also it would be handy if you could modify several provinces at once. Right now you have to go to every province and modify every little thing one at a time. If you for instance would like to set pop in every province to 100 that would be so much easier if you could just choose all the provinces and then modify all pop at the same time.

What would also be nice is we could have a look at the wok 4 scoring. I think that is needed so we can have games with a fixed number of turns with the outcome decided by the scores.

Thanks again for doing this guys!

Post by **trewqh** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:35 pm

Saladin wrote:What i've always been a big fan off is to give a GM great control over the game he's running.

Yes, like being able to not run turns for ages, right GM Wilfred?

Saladin wrote:For instance the level bonus for attacking another player is now a hard coded number, i would rather see this as a variable that can be set by the GM. Same for the levelling of armies and most other variables.

Of course there will be standard settings, but a GM should have the option to modify most of these variables to create the type of game he/she would like to run.

Also it would be handy if you could modify several provinces at once. Right now you have to go to every province and modify every little thing one at a time. If you for instance would like to set pop in every province to 100 that would be so much easier if you could just choose all the provinces and then modify all pop at the same time.

I agree with that! Very good idea!

Saladin wrote:What would also be nice is we could have a look at the wok 4 scoring. I think that is needed so we can have games with a fixed number of turns with the outcome decided by the scores.

I believe I have been asigned (or rather allowed) to create a new fornule for score calculation. I have some bright ideas regarding that.

trewqh

Post by **ThinKing** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:02 pm

trewqh wrote:I believe I have been asigned (or rather allowed) to create a new fornule for score calculation. I have some bright ideas regarding that.

Uh oh....

Polymorphic · Post by **Polymorphic** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:24 pm

Mullog wrote:We will NOT do it in VB or QBasic or C++. Rather we will probably do it in PHP so that we can run the game in a webpage on a shared webserver. This way you will not have to install anything in your own computer at all and we will never again have the problem with GM's dissapearing or their computers crashing.
We will probably setup a cron job on the web server so that games are run automatically. If that is what we want. At least it will be useful to have the option.

I'm sure Al wrote it in VB, rather than QB (the Microsoft specific upgraded/newer version of QB)...
I thought shifting to a web-server was a (quite) long-term plan, me being able to GM is a shorter term plan

Can you specify your own cron-jobs on web-servers? Or would you have to have someone sign in and click a big button on a page?

Since you have Linux installed, you must be a nerd. Do you know any programming? PHP maybe?

Of course I'm a nerd! (where's the nerd-with-big-glasses icon?)
I know some Java (may be slightly helpful for a web-server, but we never covered applets in the course), Haskell (just don't ask), Oberon (Pascal-like) and minor amounts of C.
I'm learning Assembly if that helps?

Post by **Duke** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 5:41 am

Post by **gm_al** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:46 am

Sorry Poly, but WOK4 was really done in QBasic back then.... which came with quite some limitiations, like only having 128 KB of code allowed (WOK4 uses that up to the last byte I believe). Also dont call VB an "upgraded" version of QB - it may sound like that, but its two very different pair of shoes.

And yes, the shift to a PHP/server code (just like WOK SP may I remind you all) is a rather short-term plan too. Regarding cron jobs, WOK SP already uses them to trigger the turns, so it shouldnt be a problem to use this for WOK4+ too.

Post by **korexus** » Sun Jul 25, 2004 12:01 pm

Ok, I think I speak for both Rune and myself when I say, slow down a bit

The first step (which I began about 3 months back, then stopped for those pesky finals) will be to make an exact duplicate of the current WoK 4 engine with no extra features at all. Yes it will work and yes it will be great!

After that it will be cool to have GM defined options so that we can set up at least some automated X-Games, but I don't think we should change any of the basic ideas of WoK 4. The neighbours idea is cool. But I think we should only implement it if we make the same change to "normal" WoK 4, otherwise there will be too much confuision.

Also I think that it would be a bad idea to let GMs play in their own games. Somebody has to be able to look into the mistakes that will innevitably occur so the GM needs access to all the player data. Otherwise someone else would have to be appointed to oversee all the games and I have a nasty suspiceon of who that would be...

Apart from that though, glad you like the idea, I'll get back to work!

korexus.