Beta Galactic Artifact - Release B

[TrevorBradley]

A quick update. I've just finished commenting all the code. It's up to 14,500 lines right now.

I'll be releasing the source with the game, but under a license of my own creation. The code will be released under an "educational use only" license. You can modify or compile it for personal use, but can't redistribute the code or binaries without permission. This license will let you compile your own client and server so you can play locally with friends, but won't be able to connect to the main game server.

I'm hoping I might find some volunteers to help me compile a binary for 64 bit linux and OSX that will be usable on those platforms that can connect to the main game server.

I'm doing this at the moment because the licensing issue for the game media is very much in intermediate state right now. If I released the game under an open or free license, you'd be able to compile and redistribute everything except the game media. Unless you're willing to hunt down your own game music and graphics, you're just as restricted either way.

I still may release the code under a different license at a later date. At the moment this seems like a good interim solution

There are a few more changes making it in for Release C, but mostly it's documentation from here on out. I'm targeting for a Friday release, then taking a break for a week unless there's something supercritical I missed..

 

[jook2oh]

...unless there's something supercritical I missed...

None that I can see, and I hope that you'll get better IRL.

On a side note, I just beat 2 games in the 10 to 15 minute range... With version 317. (But they might have been 'lucky starts'.)

 

[fusion_power]

You could add 2 optional "slots" for the two missing Portraits of the Ancients and the Technics, so if we want, we can draw and animate our own portrait Ideas into the game (could be funny :lol: )

 

[TrevorBradley]

Just a note that the non-beta Release B server has been taken down, in preparation for Release C. You won't be able to play a game using the standard Release B now.

Documentation (manual, licensing, etc) is almost done, next I have packaging to do. There have been a few last second surprise additions, I'm hoping to get a few more in before Friday morning.

 

[TrevorBradley]

OK guys, care to run this through the tilt-a-whirl?

Galactic Artifact SVN 0328 Release C (Release Candidate 1)

That's not a patch, but a full sized release. There's some extra goodies in there some of you may have been waiting for.

I'm still seeing if Pat has some more stuff for me before Friday, otherwise, this is it...

No blog posts yet please... I'd like to wait until Friday.

EDIT: Realized a first flaw. The LICENSE and manual don't reference pthread, which is distributed under the LGPL. the lib files are only there for Windows though.

EDIT2: More notes for me. Animation works poorly on Linux. Verified game crash when closing window from network victory screen (not reproducible?)

 

[TrevorBradley]

Sorry about this folks... looks like I did a major screw up on the networking code... I'll need you to download this patch to connect to the server.

http://games.randomlynx.net/GalacticArtifa...t0330-PATCH.rar

Looks like I got a bit too eager with my Crypto code. Messages were getting dropped, especially the ones that announced previous players names.

 

[zear_]

I see there is a source code included.
However when i try to compile it i get:
CODE
NumberGenerator.h:24: error: extra qualification 'NumberGenerator::' on member 'ran0'

It's probably something easy to fix, but im no programmer

About the gameplay, I loled when I first saw the industrial guy portrait. I wouldn't expect to meet a guy like him in a space game. I was rather imagining industrials to be more like that:

But I must to say I love the drawing style. It reminds me of the one in Transport Tycoon.

On the other topic, I don't know if it was discussed before, but what about adding a key that would zoom right into the sector where your ship is.
It's kinda annoying when I need to quickly zoom to my ship but I overlook it and end up few sectors farther.

 

[sinoth]

On the other topic, I don't know if it was discussed before, but what about adding a key that would zoom right into the sector where your ship is.

'*' on the numberpad?

 

[zear_]

'*' on the numberpad?

Haha, how could I miss that

 

[TrevorBradley]

'*' on the numberpad?

Haha, how could I miss that


Or HOME. It's in the manual.

 

[TrevorBradley]

I see there is a source code included.
However when i try to compile it i get:
CODE
NumberGenerator.h:24: error: extra qualification 'NumberGenerator::' on member 'ran0'

It's probably something easy to fix, but im no programmer

Whoops.. find NumberGenerator.h, line 24 and change:

static float NumberGenerator::ran0(long *idum);
to:
static float ran0(long *idum);

Let me know if there are other similar errors further down the compiler process.

EDIT: grep :: *.h | grep -v std

Whoa, hold on, there's a bunch of them in there... I'll clean them up for the release, but for now if you're super keen, just remove everything immediately before the :: if it matches the class name. Leave the std:: alone though. And don't delete the *'s.

I'll just fix this up for the release then...

 

[jook2oh]

The discussion of Galactic Artifact is now here:

Galactic Artifact - Release C, It's finally here!