The Future of Transcendence

[Aury]

I made a little thread regarding commercial mods, mostly just to get an idea of how many people would actually be interested in buying a mod
http://www.neurohack.com/transcendence/ ... f=5&t=4717

[alterecco]

However, George, if you want any help with the Stats system, I have some work done on it my self more then just a pastebin.

Cool--thanks. I think you in particular will like the new server architecture I'm building. It's basically JSON over HTTP to talk to the server; the server then executes a variant of TransLISP to do whatever it needs. By 1.08 (I hope) you should be able to talk to the server yourself (I'll have to document the protocol). Eventually I will also open up the server programming model so that you can write your own TransLISP code and have it execute on the server.

Does this mean we can have a console (headless) tscript runtime? Also, do you have any plans for supporting other platforms?

[Aury]

With regards to a post atarlost made yesterday, I was wondering: Will D&O-Transcendence remain freeware? I'm quite sure it will, but was wondering.

[Aury]

Ok, got my answers.
To quote george:

But for now I want to emphasize three things that will not change: first, the core game will continue to be free: I strongly believe that a free game will maximize the size of our community. Second, as I described above, the ability to modify and extend the game is integral to Transcendence and that is only going to get better in the future. Finally, and most importantly, I am determined to continue to grow and nurture the community.

[RPC]

Definitely! I agree that an adventure should get to control station and item spawning. The easiest way to do this (I think) is to allow <AdventureDesc> and <SystemType> elements to (optionally) override station and item spawning. Imagine a table like:

Code: Select all

<AdventureDesc>
   ...
   <Encounters>
      <Station type="{some UNID}" levelFrequency="...." />
      <Station type="{some UNID}" ... />
      ...
      <Item criteria="f =5" frequency="common"/>
      ...
   </Encounters>
</AdventureDesc>

We could also include directives to exclude stations not listed or to only include stations below a certain level or whatever.

This is something I'll likely get to after 1.08.

I'm up for this. If there's nothing too much too add, I think I'll go make a ticket for it.

[Betelgeuse]

wow I just read the global mod server idea. That is a wonderful idea.
Are there plans for doing this with just one computer first or do you want to avoid mods saving data separate from the main game save?

[george moromisato]

wow I just read the global mod server idea. That is a wonderful idea.
Are there plans for doing this with just one computer first or do you want to avoid mods saving data separate from the main game save?

Someone suggested saving mod data to the Settings.xml file. I've got a ticket on it for 1.08:
http://wiki.neurohack.com/transcendence/trac/ticket/696

I haven't thought it through, but maybe the same call saves to both places (server and local file) so that we have a fallback in case there is no connection.

[alterecco]

Definitely have a local cache folder, and definitely allow each mod to write to a sandboxed folder, if anything. Having all mods write to one file would quickly become a mess... particularly if it is settings.xml.

[Aury]

Definitely have a local cache folder, and definitely allow each mod to write to a sandboxed folder, if anything. Having all mods write to one file would quickly become a mess... particularly if it is settings.xml.

Definitly this.

[Ttech]

I'm almost thinking instead of putting it just in the settings maybe a database of sorts?

[alterecco]

I'm almost thinking instead of putting it just in the settings maybe a database of sorts?

Urgh... a database? As in something that can not be opened with a text editor? Is that not overcomplicating things?

[RPC]

Guys, let's not ask IRC questions before IRC

[Aury]

I'm almost thinking instead of putting it just in the settings maybe a database of sorts?

Urgh... a database? As in something that can not be opened with a text editor? Is that not overcomplicating things?

Unless it were something really simple, like a [char] delimited file