Gestalt on 21/3/2005 at 05:32
While I'd like the ability to do briefings in html/css, I can think of a wide variety of reasons why that might not be a good idea.
Keep up the good work, anyway.
SneaksieDave on 21/3/2005 at 05:35
Quote:
Too bad its in .NET
Ah, I was wondering if you were still taking on that project or not. Well, if you're not going to use .NET, it seems there are at least a few of us that are interested.
Do we even know what goes into making this thing yet? As Krypt said, we don't know what's going to be needed for distribution of gamesys, triggerscripts, etc. I'd imagine there are possibly dozens of considerations yet to be worked out.
Gregorius on 21/3/2005 at 12:44
Quote Posted by Kingers
OK people, suggestions beyond basic DarkLoader style functionality!
- User text field to comment every mission. The DL has small 'Finished' checkbox, but it is really not enough :eww:
- Possibility to rate every finished mission.
- Information about mission rating, downloaded from thiefmissions or other site (if the mission is rated on Komag's site for example).
- Information about loot/secrets(?) found - updated automatically or manually by the user (if he wants to).
The user information (comment, rating etc.) may be stored in one file placed in Shadow's directory.
The users may then share their personal files, compare ratings etc. That would be nice! :thumb:
Two more things:- The information file in FanMission package may be in XML format.
- It would be great if we could prepare some kind of CHECKSUM (md5 for example) for every mission and place it on some site (thiefmissions??).
Every user could then check: Is the mission file I have correct and is it downloaded OK?
It would be especially nice for CL-sized FanMissions...
The last thing may be not a good idea after all. The ZIP or 7ZIP file has it's own checksum, so it is easy to check if the file is corrupted or not...
I did similar things in my 'ThiefEx' app :) but it's not a DL-type thing anyway...
sparhawk on 21/3/2005 at 12:54
So we have a 20meg download for an app which should be not bigger than 2-3MB (being generous here) in total.
sparhawk on 21/3/2005 at 13:11
What I always not liked in Darkloader was that it only had one flag named finished. I would like to see a flag that I can check when I finished a FM like this, but also another flag (or even better an arbitrary number) where I can assign a priority to a FM. So that I can later see which FMs I liked and might want to replay them again.
One other thing that bothers me in all Windows application is, that you can only order by one field. It would be great if you could order by multiple arbitrary fields in the listbox. Like size and name.
Another thing is: We might need such a tool for The Dark Mod as well. So it would be great if there would be a pluginsystem where we can develop a de-/installation routine that is independent from the application and later plug it in the app and can install TDM FMs as well. This might also be a benefit, because then you can implement a plugin for T1/T2 as well.
If TDM is taken into consideration .NET should not be used, because TDM will run on Linux as well. In this case I would propose wxWidgets as the framework. It is easy to use, provides a lot of functionality and is easily portable. And the overhead of using wxWidgets is on Windows about 2MB.
SneaksieDave on 21/3/2005 at 17:23
I don't mind the download so much as I mind the further bloat added to an already bloated operating system. I like running lean so the system stays running fast. So much speed is lost when windows gets bogged down by unnecessary install after unnecessary install after...
The free version of Qt (2.1 I think?) is also very easy to use and powerful, and is ready to go on windows and linux as well.
OrbWeaver on 21/3/2005 at 18:14
Quote Posted by Gregorius
The information file in FanMission package may be in XML format.
Why?
XML is for representing complex, tree-structured datasets. It is complete overkill for the sort of parameter=value data necessary for installing a Thief FM.
Rosd on 21/3/2005 at 19:19
Please don't store all the information in a bunch of seperate text files! While XML would be overkill, the .ini solution suggested earlier would be a perfect fit for this kind of application.
Gestalt on 21/3/2005 at 21:46
I'd definitely prefer using a single text file to having four separate ones. Having a file just for the mission title sounds rather silly to me, and I'd be more likely to make a mistake when editing four files rather than one. It's much easier to keep everything consistent when it's all in one place. I like the .ini-type idea.
Kingers on 22/3/2005 at 09:12
WoW, lot to take on board here,
[Zillameth] Not going to add features just for the sake of it. :cheeky:
[dracflamloc] The interface is more or less complete, and 7Zip and Zip functionality is built as well as data files support. Essentially the only thing that needs to be added is the structure of the FM files. So there is not really a point in doing a separate app when the application's core is almost finished however if you want to work with me on this and don't know how to program VB.NET you could perhaps help in scouring all the posts for the FM files and help provide an extraction / cleanup routine. :thumb:
[Gestalt] Agreed, too many security issues, and RTF can provide a detailed briefing with picture support.
[SneaksieDave] I plan on suppling 2 types of download one with and one without the framework so don't drop Shadow simply because of the download size, please :(
[Gregorius] The whole idea of ratings and uploading to servers etc. is abit overkill and would doubtless cause trouble. It would also require a lot of extra code to manage server transaction as well as server admins building their websites around Shadow which I don't think is fair. XML is somewhat overkill, however I am looking into a ini style manifest for FM headers.
In order to automatically update loot counts, secrets etc I would have to build code to dig into and read save files everytime (providing I could actually do it in the first place.) which would increase the overhead and load time of the application and I very much doubt people are going to share them. However I may be wrong so if others REALLY want this I might consider it.
Personal ratings of missions could be implemented and will be definitely considered to extend the simple finished option.
[sparhawk] You will only have a large download if you don't have the 20 MB Framework and chances are you will already have it through WindowsUpdate or if you don't you should get it because there are loads of great tools built on the Solid Foundation of .NET. The rating/priority feature will probably go in. We can probably integrate ordering by other fields as well. As for a TDM plugin I don't really see the need, DOOM 3 already supports a simple MOD manager and I think its enough for the moment however when TDM comes closer to release I can re-evaluate Shadow for TDM integration.
[SneaksieDave] .NET does not slow your system, many third parties have conducted plenty of tests to prove this. A google search will prove this! :thumb:
[Rosd & Gestalt] Manifest file is coming!
