Here is some hopefully meaningful input for you to contemplate Bonk. First of all, outstanding work on a potential front end application for the SQL kit. If you were Romulan, I would petition the Emperor to bestow on you, the Order of Red Leaf, in recognition for your service to the Empire. This includes the tedium of decrypting the various ?blobs? in the DB. We really need a stress test though to see if your current config is stable enough for ?Prime Time?.
I would love to see a stress test of this setup with a stable server config, for sure.
For many years I (and many in the community) have dreamed of a good front end, looks like you are well on your way to making many dreams come true. All of this without Server Kit Source code.
I know I have been slow, but the recognition of the effort is appreciated, thanks.
First of all, I like the concept behind CW?interesting to say the least. The shipyard works well enough as an illustrative example of how things could work with an external shipyard. Others have remarked, and I concur that it could use a more efficient way of presenting the data to the user, I do have a couple ideas on potential layout schemes, needs more work before I make it public. One thing that could be done right away, is seed the Ship List with the OOB from Federation and Empire, with refits stock as they become available. I could post it again as a reference for debate on the merits of the Stock FnE OOB versus a Custom Version. There are some here, myself included, that feel the Federation and Empire OOB is all you need, with a little tweak here and there to make it compliant with the number of ships currently available.
I do intend to work on the shipyard format, perhaps sooner now with this feedback and established function. I had thought of using the F&E OoB as a base after requesting one, I'll take a good look at it. There are other ideas in the works too, to make it easier and more flexible.
Initially, the Map should be seeded with AI in accordance with initial Fleet Composition per Federation and Empire (or player/RM defined if that is preferred). Border Fleets dispersed on the relevant borders, Reserve Fleets on the Starbases as noted and the Home Fleet on the Homeworld. That will populate the Map nicely with AI to hunt and Kill in the area they are supposed to be located in.
I like this idea a lot. With the correct settings it will have the desired effect. The AI can be set to move or remain "stationary", they could also be allowed to take hexes if desired. Really what this idea made me think of is to try an experiment: I am curious to see what will happen if I set a human account to AI... (probably not much, but perhaps some interesting effects could be achieved).
New construction should be what is available in the web based shipyard. How do we determine what gets placed there? I am glad you asked that question. First the default build list should automatically be built. I know that is at variance to my beloved Federation and Empire economic rules, but as everyone knows, SFC-OP is not Federation and Empire. Here is I would handle new construction:
Players seed the Shipyard by spending PP to place ships for bid there. Now this might get tricky with the nutters who regularly have 40k plus in the bank, but a simple equation could equalize things, i.e. the more PP a player has in the bank, the more PP it cost that player to request that a specific ship to built so that it could be purchased. It could also be run as bid system similar in nature to the default bid system in the DV. Since the shipyard is ?programmable?, the Federation and Empire Restrictions in ship production could easily be implemented, such as no more than one DN per year. The ?system? would track how many ships were ?ordered? by the players and would automatically restrict illegal purchases such as two DN constructed in a single game year and the like. Overbuilds and build substitutions could also be handled in the same way.
Example, 5 war cruisers are the maximum built using normal cost during a build cycle, but some player wants another one. The end price would be doubled, both for the order (placed in shipyard) and the price of the ship that is purchased is also doubled. Variants would be handled exactly the same with a couple restrictions, only a percentage (admin defined) of available new construction are eligible for conversion during the build cycle.
Say you have 6 destroyers normally built during the cycle in accordance with the OOB. Admin decides that only 1/3 of the total can be constructed initially as variants, that means Four stock destroyers at Normal Prices automatically will populate in the shipyard. Two of the Six are eligible for conversion to variants. If no Player chooses to convert these before the end of the build cycle, they will populate as stock destroyers. Any player could spend PP to convert one of the two before the end of the build cycle, to a legal variant with the corresponding deduction of PP from their account. Once all those that could have been ?selected for conversion? are designated, any further construction of destroyers and subsequent conversion, would be at the overbuild cost both to place in the shipyard, as well as purchase price.
Substitutions to the build list would be handled similarly. Example, if the OOB states you can replace a CA with BCH once per cycle, once a player has done so, the option would not be accessible for another player until the time passes and the choice would become available again.
Server Admins could also use scripting to seed the ship list. Say if one race took a strategic objective, they could get as a reward an extra big ship in the shipyard for their labors.
OK, you're on to the kind of thing we can do. Your proposed "seeding" would be one possible way to go about it. The thing is once I have an OoB for a shiplist, I can automatically populate the in-game shipyards according to it. Then additional shipyard function could be achieved on the webmap shipyard, (assigned ships, refits etc...). I still need to decode one last piece of the db to really open up the options.
What else can SQL allow?
How about players spending their accumulated PP to purchase AI ships and spending PP to move them around on the map? That would be very interesting factor in itself and provide another angle to strategic game play as well as give players something else to spend the hard earned PP on. Right Now, the AI is pretty much ignored and treated with disdain, but it does not have to be that way.
How about players moving themselves strategically on the map using the web map, with, of course the necessary expenditure of accumulated PP. This could be restricted, example include player must start at a base/planet and end their movement at a base/planet.
All kinds of things (especially with SQL-enabled missions). I had thought about creating a movement system for the webmap after discovering the command line parameters to launch a direct tcp/ip game, but got hung up on browser plugin / app development and avoiding re-inventing gamespy. The idea of movement from the webmap is probably pretty easy to do, but it would not generate a mission as such and as you suggest perhaps the use of PP to jump long distances might be handy. The trick is that the functionality of the webmap must not disturb/bug the player if they are logged in simultaneously... it would take a bit of testing but would be a neat feature.
I have thought of adding a casino to the webmap for betting PP, or better yet, I just thought of giving the players the ability to bet PP on the outcome of battles or VCs... <evil grin>
Players could trade PP with each other (say 3 points invested = 1 point to the player) or even with allied players belonging to another race. Think the lend/lease deal with Great Briton and USA during WW2 for an historical example.
Godd idea, I had thought of a "bank" but thought what'd be the use? Better yet an "Allies Co-op" has much potental for loaning or pooling PP, perhaps restricted ship builds could depend on pooled PP in the "Allies Co-op"...
Players ?hire? AI Pirates to harass the enemy behind the lines as it were, this might not be workable, but an ideal nonetheless.
Whoah, another excellent idea! Not necessarily pirates, but a selection of AI characters... with the AI controls set properly this could make a whole new game out of it. Once I have that last piece of the db (shipcachevector) this too will be possible. I just love this idea, allow the AI to take hexes and allow players to buy them... (using them as an automated numbers balance has also been discussed).
Players could spend PP to increase or decrease political tensions. This could include non-allied as well?think propaganda and efforts of diplomacy, all which require funds to be successful.
I'd love to try a politics page, the intial political tensions make sense in the db, but the current political tensions settings are all messed in the db I still havent figured them out, or if they are even used...
What about internal development? Player would expend PP and the hex they were in could be improved in some manner. Improvements could be as radical as bringing a Minor Planet on board if 100k donated by players, or increase the DV or Econ of the hex by one for every 10k-50k PP spent. I am certain once things get rolling, others can come up with some other ?uses? for accumulated PP.
Well now, you're just full of good ideas!... I could run a server without base contruction missions and allow players to purchase/place bases on the webmap in a controlled fashion. Terraforming projects... Economic and defense investment in a hex is a good idea too, easy to implement. This could really change what kind of an intial map you could use. A game of empire building could precede the big wars...
There is still a lot of work to do, I want to place the priority on an OoB mechanism that is easy to use, which accounts for economy and VCs. Also, I need to decode that last bit of the db to really get this going. I've been pretty busy lately so it won't happen fast but I'll keep plugging away at it. I might eventually have a go at mission scripting too.
Again, thanks for the feedback and good ideas, it has got me thinking now too. (look for some of the easier ideas to be implemented soon...)
Topic: Classic War (experimental/fun server) (Read 11168 times)