possibility of merging RevDCM and FF???

[Psychic_Llamas]

i made THIS thread in the programmers forum and got a below average response. im not really expecting anything better here but its worth a shot.

basically i wanted to know if anyone could merge RevolutionDCM Mod into Fall Further. we (the warhammer team) need both as we are rebuilding the mod (again... i know its becoming a joke aint it) and none of us have the skills to mod the SDK.

again, im not holding my breath but its worth a try.

 

[xienwolf]

I didn't want to respond out in the "more public area" so now that you've posted here I'll state that I think you might be getting in a LITTLE bit over your head RevDCM is a combination of 2 of the largest and most ambitious mods for base BtS, and FF does some wacky crap that most people haven't even thought of doing before, or dismissed outright as impossible. Merging these two would be about the most difficult merge you can EVER think of, though it does get you an amazing code base.

Also, both mods kinda fail at the AI side of things. I imagine that RevDCM is in the same place we are, looking at slowing down on new features to focus on getting the AI up to par, but I know that neither of us is QUITE at that point yet. FF recently got a lot better, but mostly with python hardcoding of AI decisions, which means all of that work is useless for a different mod base since you have different ideal choices.

We are eager to use some Rev type of capabilities in FF eventually, and are slowly writing the pieces needed for it, but are designing it all from scratch and trying to keep it AI friendly from the start. Revolutions is a small source of inpiration/direction in that light, but isn't a straight up codebase for us. Plus we are all seeming rather plugged for time of late, so that hampers us as well.


So basically: I hope someone signs on with you out in the public forums (or even here after reading this even), but I do think that you yourself have the best drive/motivation. Read my Idiot's Guide, I will always answer any questions you have in the Modders guide here and in the Idiot's Guide, and with the guide + questions, you can figure out the DLL pretty decently. Just start small, and repeat a lot. I think I had coded more than 20 copied Booleans before I made one of my own, then I made a couple dozen booleans before I attempted an integer. About that time I had seen so many areas of the code that I kinda took off from there, but I still tend to slow down and do repetitive tasks whenever I enter a new section of code, till I am completely comfortable with it and could nearly write it all from memory if I wanted to do some work away from the computer.

So anyway... I have faith that you can figure out the code, but do NOT start immediately with making this merge. Choose which one of our two mods offers you the most of your current features and use that codebase, then slowly import things one at a time from the other source, starting first with the most basic elements (simple booleans), and slowly working up to more complicated mechanics (Master/Slave system, or Stack Combat). The basic rule of thumb is that if you couldn't write something yourself from scratch, you shouldn't be importing it. Otherwise you wind up blaming every bug which ever occurs on the imported code, simply because you don't know what it is doing.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

I didn't want to respond out in the "more public area" so now that you've posted here I'll state that I think you might be getting in a LITTLE bit over your head RevDCM is a combination of 2 of the largest and most ambitious mods for base BtS, and FF does some wacky crap that most people haven't even thought of doing before, or dismissed outright as impossible. Merging these two would be about the most difficult merge you can EVER think of, though it does get you an amazing code base.

oh... i didnt realise it'd be that insanely difficult O_O ok then bummer

We are eager to use some Rev type of capabilities in FF eventually, and are slowly writing the pieces needed for it, but are designing it all from scratch and trying to keep it AI friendly from the start. Revolutions is a small source of inpiration/direction in that light

well this is great news any idea if influence driven war is included in that? thats really the only thing we need from RevDCM.

So basically: I hope someone signs on with you out in the public forums (or even here after reading this even), but I do think that you yourself have the best drive/motivation. Read my Idiot's Guide, I will always answer any questions you have in the Modders guide here and in the Idiot's Guide, and with the guide + questions, you can figure out the DLL pretty decently.

thanks for the vote of confidence, but i really dont have the time to learn SDK modding let alone spend ages copying booleans and integers and stuff before i can get into anything juicy. it seems to be a common trend really real life does get in the way of the fun things.

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If i were to rephrase my request and say all we want is the influence driven war part of RevDCM in FF, is that still an insanely difficult task? or would it be more achievable?

 

[xienwolf]

That would actually be nearly trivial for anyone familiar with both systems. The influence driven war bits of code aren't spread out too much from what I picture them being (note, I only know a LITTLE bit about the system, but basically what I know is that you just have culture spread a little bit when you win a battle near your territory, and recede a bit when you lose one in your territory). So bringing that one piece into the Fall Further code could be a very reasonable request. If you sweet talk Valk into using it for one of his races I bet he would even do it. Or remind Vehem of somewhere that he wanted to use it and he might ask me to make it happen in our "urgent" timeline (I swear he had looked at it once and had an idea for the thing).

I would say that I'd import it myself right away, but I have a backlog of bugs to sort out and a kid being born any day now, so I'll hold off on claiming that I will do it so that someone else might beat me to the punch.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

now THIS is good news i knew it couldnt be that hard yay

congratualtions on the baby btw! do you know if its a boy or a girl yet?

 

[xienwolf]

It's a boy, so I'll wind up being quite busy teaching him his first functions and watching him compile for the first time

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

HAHA

first word: Configure

First step: to EB Games

First function: ???

 

[WarKirby]

Nah, his first words will be "Hello World"