Well, first let me say that I agree entirely with Dave's statements about the
evoloution of the Wesnoth code-base. Secondly, I would be happy to take over
the "lead coder" position, while recognizing that there are still coders far
more familiar than I am with several areas of the code. I would therefore view
the position largely as one of coordination with the other domain leads and,
hopefully less frequently, arbiter on conflicts over whether certain
features are not worth supporting because of the maintenance headache they
will cause. I would continue working on those areas of the code I felt
comfortable modifying, and fully expect the other code-junkies to continue
critiqueing my work when I get off track.
As for my available time, I am doing a lot of traveling in the next month, as I
am changing jobs and moving to a new state. This means that, while I will
still be keeping up with wesnoth via the forum and mail-list, I will likely not
be on IRC much in December. In January things will settle down, and in
addition, I should be getting internet at my new apartment, which should
actually increase my responsiveness.
In answer to the original question posed about what my goals for my
mid-term participation in wesnoth are, in no particular order:
1) Improvements with presentation of information to the user.
2) Graphical improvements to make things look cool. Priority will still need
to be placed on making sure that the game can be played on low-end machines.
This means either that any new graphics code should either have a low impact,
or will need to be optional. Since I don't have any really low-end machine, I
will be depending on theory and other people to tell me when a graphical effect
impacts slower machines.
3) Adding flexibility to the engine. For example, I agree with Jetryl that it
would be good if it was possible to define in WML various magic-like special
attack attributes, or even generic aura effects. I don't think that these
should necessarily be in the main game, but rather that someone should be able
to use the same engine, but completely balance things differently just by
changing WML. One requirement I think is necessary is to make sure that the AI
can handle such effects better than just ignoring it. This is one of the aims
of my still-in-development AI. I don't intend to add any new abilities that
the AI doesn't know about.
Allright, that is about all I have to say for now with regards to the >50
emails that piled up over Thanksgiving.
Enjoy,
John
On Sun, 27 Nov 2005, David White wrote: (with lots of stuff removed)
> Firstly, the project will absolutely still be based heavily on the KISS
> principle. Development has been hard enough in the past when the project
> was small, without throwing away the KISS principle now the project is
> large.
>
> We will also continue to use evolutionary development heavily. We will
> not re-write large portions of code. Rather, we will add a small amount
> at a time. Add one small feature at a time.
>
> We will continue to constantly refactor the codebase as we develop to
> keep things working nicely, and to keep the code at an acceptable
> standard. We will not embark on a massive rewrite of large portions of
> code under the guise of 'improving code quality'.
>
> We will stick to the same basic game rules. We might add (or better,
> remove!) an ability or two that are in the style of Wesnoth, but we will
> not add big gameplay changes that totally change the face of the game.
>
> Now that I've finished preaching against common fallacies that I think
> I've spouted against for the last two years, I will get on to the
> important part of suggesting the new project structure. :)
>
> Importantly, we also need a domain leader who leads coding. Someone
> other than me. This person would probably be the most important domain
> leader of all, since they would have to co-ordinate across domains. They
> would have to discuss with the artists what support is needed for a
> certain new animation, and with translators what support is needed to
> properly support translations, and so forth.
>
> Rather than leave things so very hypothetical, I would like to name some
> candidates for various positions:
>
> - Darth Fool could possibly be 'lead coder'. Ayin and Yogi would be the
> other main contenders, but Ayin doesn't seem to have enough time, and
>
> So, what do people think? Is this workable? Any other ideas?
>
> David
--
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"In theory, theory and practice are the same,
but in practice they're different."
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John W. C. McNabb
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