going back a few pages. i 100% agree that over planning definitely kills productivity. all you need is a basic idea, and then work from there
As for removing bad maps..what's a bad map to some is a good map to others. I am hard pressed to find any one map that everyone thinks is bad or good for that matter.
It's a great game and there isn't any like it out there. But without new people, this game is mainly memories now.
Here's a thread that touches on the problem that arose here: http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?p=514204#post514204
I do concede that point. This was a very 20,000 foot view post. I believe I acknowledged that, or at least I should probably have been more clear, that this is more a framework for people who know more than I do to organize their thoughts and plans Also, a fast way to get people summarize the state of things in response to the post.
you assume this wouldnt be common logic? the problem a lot of people dont seem to grasp is the disconnect between what you hear in a project management seminar and what you encounter in spare time projects that are barely kept alive due to a lack of resources (not will or commitment - the major resource lacking is time, most ppl need to work for their living or study) also sry i tried to stay out of this. i dont mean to be rude, sry if it sounds like.
*shrugs* I know there is a disconnect. I'm perfectly aware of it, as I actually regularly translate such things into actions. Its a process. In this case, I adapted this particular tool into an slightly unorthodox situation for a particular effect. Coming in as a pseudo outsider, the tactic is thus: You put out a framework, then you begin the process of fitting it. Either people come out and reject it and say "This is where we really are in this category, get your facts straight!" or they accept it partly and are all "Well we could meet this point using what we're doing here, or we could look at that" By being a bird-eye framework, people are left to assert the level of detail they want to talk about. They want to talk about their overall sense of everything, then they will. They want to rant about how they need more specificity in their part of the project, they'll put those down too. Regardless, definition is achieved, and information is collated. I'm sorry if this strikes you as disingenuous or deceptive. If my intrusion, gumption, or ignorance makes you think less of me, however, I do not care as much. Not in my radar. But don't worry about it Flaschte, I get what you're saying, and its not offensive I am but a wandering Ronin/Refrigerator Salesman. I go where refrigeration or service is needed. I remember Starsiege. I was in that community for years. The reason I randomly give a damn about small indie hobby games like this is precisely because of the experience of watching that game community fragment and fling apart over successive failed projects, each one provoking new divisions that shed more players, with each iteration causing a set of the community to fling their hands up and say "Time to move on". 2845 had real potential to reboot the entire franchise, as a semi-professional indie project, but alas, failed. I'd prefer it not happen to Empires. But I see your point about people with skills. Let me reach out, I know at least a few people who might have some spare time to devote.
My nigga, I'll absolve you of your sins of buzzwords for saying that you played starsiege. I didn't play starsiege but I did play tribes and am still sad 6 DOF shooters inspired by it all failed.
Ok..So this issue is too many sounds playing at the same time. 1 building on another until nothing but ear rape can be heard. Solution.. Limit the amount of sounds. Since portal 2 we have the option of operator stacks."which are used to add complex behavior to sounds" Example import_stack "P2_poly_limiting_start" limit_sound { match_entry "VFX.OGSignFlicker" input_max_entries 3.000000 } Now say if we was to use this for ML impact sounds. "Vehicle_ML.Impact" { "channel" "CHAN_WEAPON" "volume" "1.000" "pitch" "PITCH_NORM" "soundlevel" "SNDLVL_130dB" //"wave" "vehicles\cannon\impact.wav" "rndwave" { "wave" "^explosion/grenade.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade2.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade3.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade4.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade5.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade6.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade7.wav" } import_stack "P2_poly_limiting_start" limit_sound { match_entry "Vehicle_ML.Impact" input_max_entries 3.000000 } } That is just 1 of many things you can do with the operator stacks. So if someone was too take the time to set limits to all the weapon sounds. There would be no more sound problems. Was almost done with it a few times but the random unannounced updates over wrote every thing. But basically it will need testing to find out what the limits should be. Limiting to much would sound boring. There is also the issue of 2 types of impact sounds.. "Vehicle_ML.Impact" { "channel" "CHAN_WEAPON" "volume" "1.000" "pitch" "PITCH_NORM" "soundlevel" "SNDLVL_130dB" //"wave" "vehicles\cannon\impact.wav" "rndwave" { "wave" "^explosion/grenade.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade2.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade3.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade4.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade5.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade6.wav" "wave" "^explosion/grenade7.wav" And Empires/empires/surfaceproperties.txt NOTE: "default" properties are assigned to ALL other materials unless overriden!!! "default" { "bulletimpact" "Default.BulletImpact" So 1 idea would be remove all impact sounds from surface properties if your going to continue to use impact sounds in the weapon scripts. Or remove them from the weapon scripts and keep the surface properties sounds. surface properties are all ready codded to limit sound. I think it's set to 4 per second.
@beerdude Lost the work I did. /Fresh install But I have a new idea I'm working. limiting sounds by channel. { match_channel "CHAN_WEAPON" input_max_entries 5.0 input_duration 1 // seconds to block for } If this works right then we could just add new channels in the code. vehicle MG, Vehicle ML, Vehicle ML, Sort all the weapons to their channels then set limits per channel. Could also add a channel for turrets. Or just set them to Vehicle ML channel. So that way no matter how many ML's are shooting you would only hear the set max per second.
Test client had some working for the best part of a year I think, but I don't think it was pushed to the main client because it was loud as fuck.
Oh, I thought someone said it was because it used the new html loading pages and we don't have any of those yet.
Adding new channels is pretty simple in the code. Would post the link but a power surge took out my desktop yesterday. It's in the SDK where the channels are defined and commented that it's where you can add in custom channels. Not sure why fmod never got fully added. Since most of empires sound is pure SDK I could try looking at it when I get my desktop up and running again. Just needs someone with code access to Download http://www.fmod.org/download/ Then make a "fmod" folder in your /src folder and put everything in there. In addition to the files FMOD provides you, you will need to download the following files and add them to your client project: fmod_manager.cpp https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Fmod_manager.cpp fmod_manager.h https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Fmod_manager.h navigate to your fmod/api folder (assuming you followed the suggested folder structure mentioned above) and copy the fmodex.dll into /bin folder.
