Post by feeder74 on Nov 18, 2007 1:24:54 GMT -5
I have been thinking of the many ways in which this could be implemented, and talked briefly with MrGenie and TAFireHawk about it.
Since it is due to commence at the start or at least early in December, and since this is less than 2 weeks away, I wanted to start planning it out a little.
TA and Mr G. said they both have some static non changeable ideas for the front end, but I would like to start by saying I'd like to do it up real nice.
To this end - I've been thinking about a DirectX GUI, much the same as in the actual Civ IV game, with buttons like the ones found in GameFonts, with tooltip mouseovers, and up/down toggle-able on/off.
I would also like it to use standard XML, exactly the same as Civ IV to allow for a Description, an Author, a Converted By, a Version, etc... in this file for each of the mods, and have a civilopedia style reference available of the mod.
A screen to allow editing particular files, such as the ini file, through a means of toggle switches, and text boxes, and numeric up/down controls.
Another thing I was thinking is in the XML, a list of which mods are incompatable with each other cross referenced so that in the tool-tip it can display (in red) what mods it can not be used with.
A *.WoCconf file save/load ability so that people can easily transfer settings by IRC or eMail.
In future releases(say V2.0,etc..) Some of the other features I would like to see are some simple tools along the lines of XML and Python IDEs, that while are not as verbose as the many that are around, will still allow for tweaking, and manipulating the mods for final use - as well as an ability to construct a complete mod in the Beyond the Sword\MODS directory from the available mods in WoC, for distribution to people who do not have WoC, and are of too limited bandwidth to download the whole thing (as I can see this project growing large in the gigabytes).
I'd like to hear what other suggest, as well as what people think of what I have laid down on the table so far, so feel free to reply to this thread with anything relevant.
EDIT:As for mods that are incompatable, such as say two mods that alter the Foreign Advisor Screen in Python, maybe we could go through the list and make mod [COMBO]s that incorporate both of the features in one mod, allowing for both to be selected, or in the case of 3 or more, a compleate network of cross mods, which effectivly solve the non-compatable problem - sure, it is extra overhead, but such a nice feature, that it might be worth considertion...
EDIT 2:Another thing - which I am also thinking of - as a potential is to have all the mods stored in a database, and auto-downloaded on demand, this could be very good too.
EDIT 3:A news page on new versions should also be a must, as well if the game client is patched in future, which of the current versions work with which patch.
Edit 4:I have assumed this to be a web-based app, maybe this is a bit overstated, but I think it is for the best, if we do make it web-based, will it hurt to have an irc built in also? or is this taking it too far - imo it would be a nice piece of icing on the cake
- as far as being a web-based app, we could distribute the file with an all-encomapssing offline version as well.
Since it is due to commence at the start or at least early in December, and since this is less than 2 weeks away, I wanted to start planning it out a little.
TA and Mr G. said they both have some static non changeable ideas for the front end, but I would like to start by saying I'd like to do it up real nice.
To this end - I've been thinking about a DirectX GUI, much the same as in the actual Civ IV game, with buttons like the ones found in GameFonts, with tooltip mouseovers, and up/down toggle-able on/off.
I would also like it to use standard XML, exactly the same as Civ IV to allow for a Description, an Author, a Converted By, a Version, etc... in this file for each of the mods, and have a civilopedia style reference available of the mod.
A screen to allow editing particular files, such as the ini file, through a means of toggle switches, and text boxes, and numeric up/down controls.
Another thing I was thinking is in the XML, a list of which mods are incompatable with each other cross referenced so that in the tool-tip it can display (in red) what mods it can not be used with.
A *.WoCconf file save/load ability so that people can easily transfer settings by IRC or eMail.
In future releases(say V2.0,etc..) Some of the other features I would like to see are some simple tools along the lines of XML and Python IDEs, that while are not as verbose as the many that are around, will still allow for tweaking, and manipulating the mods for final use - as well as an ability to construct a complete mod in the Beyond the Sword\MODS directory from the available mods in WoC, for distribution to people who do not have WoC, and are of too limited bandwidth to download the whole thing (as I can see this project growing large in the gigabytes).
I'd like to hear what other suggest, as well as what people think of what I have laid down on the table so far, so feel free to reply to this thread with anything relevant.
EDIT:As for mods that are incompatable, such as say two mods that alter the Foreign Advisor Screen in Python, maybe we could go through the list and make mod [COMBO]s that incorporate both of the features in one mod, allowing for both to be selected, or in the case of 3 or more, a compleate network of cross mods, which effectivly solve the non-compatable problem - sure, it is extra overhead, but such a nice feature, that it might be worth considertion...
EDIT 2:Another thing - which I am also thinking of - as a potential is to have all the mods stored in a database, and auto-downloaded on demand, this could be very good too.
EDIT 3:
[20:02] L: If there would be some update-news on new mod versions, that'd be gread.
Edit 4:I have assumed this to be a web-based app, maybe this is a bit overstated, but I think it is for the best, if we do make it web-based, will it hurt to have an irc built in also? or is this taking it too far - imo it would be a nice piece of icing on the cake
- as far as being a web-based app, we could distribute the file with an all-encomapssing offline version as well.