Dev Blog - Trilarion

Discussion of ongoing programming work.
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Re: XCII - The Scenario

Post by Member number 56 »

Trilarion wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:02 pm I upgraded the forum software, inserted some custom links at the top, packaging on Windows and PyPI seems to work too.

The difficult thing is the scenario currently. I decided that for legal reasons I cannot use the current scenario which is closely adapted of the original Imp1 1814 scenario. It's nice to have original scenarios as guideline, but it's very probably inappropriate to just copy them. We need to make our own. Of course geography will be largely the same, even borders of nations and provinces might be, but resources should better not.

This will take some time. Indeed, currently it's impossible to change the terrain or add rivers for example. In order to advance I would maybe push for randomly created scenarios (so the editor can be tested more easily). This would also take some time, but it would be more on the programming side.

Closely related is the internal representation of a scenario. I'm thinking about it for some time now that I need to write down the exact requirements better in order to come to a better representation. When, if not now.
Well, this is my thoughts, in the scenario dilemma:
Frog City Software did they're best to copy history, now from what I know directly copying them might not be smart. Although if you copy history too, you have done absolutely nothing wrong. Now the smart people realize that by doing that you would end up with a result much like the original Imperilsim. Because changing borders etc. would be historically wrong. So I'm pretty sure you can safely copy history. PS: I think Bill Spieth, Ted Spieth, and Rachel Bernstein would agree :p.
amtyurin
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by amtyurin »

Let me bring some fresh air.
Steps for near future:
1. Return back save/load buttons to the game screen. The were removed intentionally because they must be placed on different UI widget(like menu), but at the current moment it would be better to return them back for easier development
2. Add server processing of road and collect resources from warehouses connected to the road. Only those resource will be collected which are connected to a capital through a road.
3. Introduce farmer and forester
4. Fix terrain type under resource tile in editor mode (now terrain type remains the same even if resource is located in other terrain type)
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Trilarion
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by Trilarion »

These things make sense. They go in a good direction. Nevertheless, a more long term plan is also needed. What are the next big things that need to be finished in your eyes?

Back then, I never really finished a description of the game and you seem to have some sort of long term plan. Do you want to recreate Imperialism 1 as accurately as possible? Or rather deviate from the original if things seem more convenient from a current perspective?
amtyurin
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by amtyurin »

What do you mean by 'description of the game'? Set of rules, behavior and goal? I see it almost the same as Imperialism 1, may be with some deviations, like little different UI and behavior (AI, multiplayer, may be some game details).
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Trilarion
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by Trilarion »

Not all internal things of Imperialism 1 are known. And some things I found not really optimal like the battles. But I understand what you mean. The question is how to get a description of all the features of Imperialism 1. The description needs to be quite detailed. So, how do you know what an engineer can do? Do you run the game along and check? Or do you read in the manual?
amtyurin
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by amtyurin »

I have Imp1 manual and will be sticked to it. We can have some improvements too.
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by Trilarion »

Sure. That's one way to do it, but you'll have to improvise things nevertheless because the Imp1 manual does not contain all the details of the game, especially not how it works internally. How are the prices for the produced stuff set? How is the influence on the minor nations sets? How does the algorithm to create random worlds work? That's not part of the manual, but it needs to be defined and implemented in any game.

Nevertheless, it's a plan and it will work. You will make a close remake. Back then I thought more about a more loose remake, but then I never really did much about it. Having a close remake that is more or less identical to the original game will be quite popular with gamers I think. And if I ever have more time, the possibility to add the things I wanted to add will still be there always.
amtyurin
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by amtyurin »

Sure. Let's do things in our way which are not so obvious
amtyurin
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by amtyurin »

Next step for me is to work with editor. I am going to correct things like border generation and add ability to edit workforce, roads, rivers, structures in the editor mode. I've stopped with the game mode for now because I am not quite confident with QT widget/UI creation. If anyone can help with that it is much appreciated. Next step for game mode i see is to introduce generic order screen with 4 buttons on top(transport, industrial, market, diplomacy), 1 button on left side (exit to main map) and ability to switch between order screens, and particular implementation beginning of these4 4 screens
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Re: Dev Blog - Trilarion

Post by Trilarion »

Sorry, at the moment I cannot help. There are good tutorials for UI creation with Qt. It's not difficult, there are signals and slots in Qt and they enable event driven communication in a very decoupled way. UI elements are all derived from QWidget. Layouts are recommended to determine the position of each element. Layouts can be nested. With vertical, horizontal and grid-based layout you can do almost anything you want. All UI elements have reasonable signals (like a line edit has a text changed signal). Slots (the receivers of an event) can be any Python callable.
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