| Author |
Reviving the game |
ThePile
Vice Admiral
Deicide
Joined: June 27, 2010
Posts: 39
From: ThePile
|  Posted: 2018-01-03 08:35
Hi!
Old player and fan of this game since it's pre-release times chiming in!
I come back to this game now and again to see what has been done, join in discussions, the chat and ask questions. I remember that, at least before it went open-source in 2016, this game had volunteer devs that were not spoken highly of in the forums.
I have wanted to contribute to this game since 2008 when I started my degree in Engineering Physics (specialized in numerical analysis), I remember sending an email ~2011 to the volunteer email address but never got a response.
I am now working but would like to contribute to this game still, but the Github page does not seem to be active. There is currently a pull request (submitted 3 times it seems) stuck in limbo since August with no-one addressing it.
What's the point of contributing if my pull requests will go unanswered?
Also - from what I can see in the forums - people are discussing what needs to be done to bring the game to its former glory.
Could we summarize what is being said in the forums somewhere like a wiki or development tool like Confluence/JIRA or Redmine?
We could then create issues / tickets and when someone contributes, they can pick an open ticket to implement and close and suggest new ones.
This became a bit unstructured, but I would like to help in improving the code-base and help in restoring the game.
[ This Message was edited by: ThePile on 2018-01-03 08:48 ]
_________________
|
Mersenne Twister
Fleet Admiral
Joined: May 11, 2003
Posts: 1161
From: Sector C Test Labs and Contol Facilities
| Posted: 2018-01-03 09:45
didnt know there was open pull requests.
drop a message here somewhere, it'll get seen.
otherwise, we have Beta Testing Discussion (recommended)
Dev Feedback
Dev Updates
Discord
and the wiki
[ This Message was edited by: Doran on 2018-06-13 17:56 ]
_________________
I wouldn't screw with it if I were you. The doctor already holds you in poor favor. Messing with this might really fry his shorts.
|
Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2018-01-03 16:13
I only see one merged file, FieldInterdictor, and I can't understand its revertion. The logic changed is minor, but optimisations were also reverted.
_________________
|
ThePile
Vice Admiral
Deicide
Joined: June 27, 2010
Posts: 39
From: ThePile
| Posted: 2018-01-03 17:43
I can mention that the change / pull request was not mine, I just noticed it when I was looking over the github page.
When I wrote "my pull requests" I meant my future pull requests I would be making, and since that persons pull request had been unanswered since august, it gave the impression that my future requests would be ignored as well.
I will do as Mersenne mentioned and write here when I make a pull request, after I set everything up and get it to work - from what I've read the solution files are from VS2005 so I'll either have to get that version of visual studio or try to get the code to build in VS2017 and .gitignore the solution files when I submit my request.
_________________
|
Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2018-01-04 06:44
Honestly Discord is probably the better platform for discussing development changes as it allows a much faster turn-around and discussion. It's also far easier to get responses regarding questions you might have about the codebase and give you feedback about any changes you've made.
_________________
|
ThePile
Vice Admiral
Deicide
Joined: June 27, 2010
Posts: 39
From: ThePile
| Posted: 2018-01-04 07:04
Sounds good! I will get on discord.
_________________
|
Pand0rum (Dragoon)
Marshal
Joined: May 06, 2007
Posts: 51
From: Arizona
| Posted: 2018-01-04 16:38
Teamspeak is where its at tho
_________________
I play every faction
|
Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2018-01-05 12:32
I just spent the last two days porting over the entire project to compile and run under Visual Studio 2017 (which has a free version I might add). If you pull the VS2017 branch on GitHub it should work.
There some warnings regarding string output and conversion but those are minor. GCQL, the client, and the server all run and work perfectly. If anyone needs anymore information see Discord.
_________________
|
Nine Arts Dragon
Marshal
Joined: March 11, 2003
Posts: 51
| Posted: 2018-01-06 10:31
i realise this is probabably pissing into the wind with regards to darkspace, but if anyone is capable the single biggest thing this game could do to be revived is to be ported to tablets and phones, there are a billion devices out there that DS will run on going totally ignored.
I realise i am speaking with no programming background so i have no idea if what im suggesting is easy or hard, im assuming its hard cause if it wasn't it surely would have been done by now.
I truly honestly feel that it would turn this game around and give it a new lease of life.
[ This Message was edited by: Nine Arts Dragon on 2018-01-06 10:33 ]
_________________
|
ThePile
Vice Admiral
Deicide
Joined: June 27, 2010
Posts: 39
From: ThePile
| Posted: 2018-01-06 14:36
Quote:
On 2018-01-06 10:31, Nine Arts Dragon wrote:
i realise this is probabably pissing into the wind with regards to darkspace, but if anyone is capable the single biggest thing this game could do to be revived is to be ported to tablets and phones, there are a billion devices out there that DS will run on going totally ignored.
I realise i am speaking with no programming background so i have no idea if what im suggesting is easy or hard, im assuming its hard cause if it wasn't it surely would have been done by now.
I truly honestly feel that it would turn this game around and give it a new lease of life.
[ This Message was edited by: ThePile on 2018-01-06 14:49 ]
|
Playing this game on tablets is not a bad idea. I would say that the game is not in a state where porting to tablet is viable. It is not easy porting to smart devices, but hey a lot of things are hard and a lot of things take time, so it's not an argument really to point to that like it's a problem or an issue.
The state of the game is an issue. There are balancing issues, bugs, the graphics need to be updated, the code base need to be improved, etc. You get the point.
The game is open-source since May of 2016 (I think?) so anyone can improve on it, and anyone can see for themselves the state of the game here:
The Game:
https://github.com/palestar/darkspace
Medusa - The Graphics Engine:
https://github.com/palestar/medusa
GameCQ:
https://github.com/palestar/gamecq
The project was ported to Visual Studio 2017 two days ago, so You can download Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition (free!) here and get started: https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
You can go to the live discord chat channel, which is populated all the time, and we will help you build and launch the game - after Pantheons work it's really easy to get going. See this forum post on getting Discord: http://www.darkspace.net/index.htm?module=forums.php&page=/viewtopic.php?topic=54824&forum=1&1
This will help you stay in sync with the changes to the repo:
https://desktop.github.com/
or if you prefer learning GIT straight away while getting started:
http://gitforwindows.org/
Remember, google search is your friend - it will help you A LOT with GIT.
_________________
|
English
Deutsch
Nederlands
)
