Re: [glob2-devel] Thats it, we need a plan

[Bradley Arsenault]

Heres another few things I want to see in the project (some
suggestions by AppleBoy). Hopefully people will have usefull comments.

1) The ability to set teams in custom games. Teams can be set via a
team number. Every tesam has a team number. By default, human players
have a team number of 1 and AI players have at eam number of 2. Team
number selector can go right beside the colour selector in the custom
game menu and in the yog game setup menu. People on the same team are
allianced in all manners, except Inn View. People on different teams
have the standard 0 alliance settings.

2) Jackit audio support.          """ JACK is a low-latency audio
server, written for POSIX conformant operating systems such as
GNU/Linux and Apple's OS X. It can connect a number of different
applications to an audio device, as well as allowing them to share
audio between themselves. Its clients can run in their own processes
(ie. as normal applications), or can they can run within the JACK
server (ie. as a "plugin"). """          Support for Jackit should be
optional, as a compile flag. Configure should automatically enable
jackit supprt if jackit is installed on the system, and it should
disable support if jackit is not. Use of Jackit should not entirely
replace SDL sound support, only if the jackd server is running (at
runtime) should Jackit be used. Otherwise, SDL sound should be used.
This means either system could be used, it is runtime determinable.

3) Units should not enter clearing or defense zones if there is also
forbidden zone on that area. Currently, Appleboy notes that units will
ignore forbidden zoning if there is overlayed clearing zone. Instead,
the forbidden zone should take priority.

4) Appleboy desires the functionality to filter maps, allowing you to
see maps of only a specific size. This is a difficult to implement
problem, as the gui structure will have to be reanrranged for the
filter settings to be do-able. If one filter setting is achieved,
perhaps more could be implemented. Special live search filtering
should be done (if the above is done). As you type in your entry, the
list of maps is automatically filtered, rather than filtering at the
end of typing (when you click enter). This does result in allot of
filters, but it makes it easier to tell if the map your typing
actually exists, and if you misspelled something.

5) If the user tries to quit a game, he/she should be presented with
"Would you like to save?" message. When saving, the save filename
should automatically default to any previous filename save.
Saves-default filenames should be done by a formatted date string as
well, something like "Big Pond - Wed / March 22" would do very well.
Although its long, length doesn't really matter, as long as its quick
and easy to read, where as something like "Big Pond 22/03/06" makes
you think more about what your reading, and indeed, it may confuse
some of those dummer people. Auto saves should be done by map name
*and* date, so "Big Pond - Wed / March 22 - Autosave", rather than
using one generic name of Autosave. Again, length isn't important,
because one can read it all very quickly, without having to "think"
about what their reading, which slows them down. When quitting, one
should not be presented with the "You Lost" screen, as the person has
quit, and it only makes them feel unhappy. They want to get to the
main menu, they don't want to be told that they suck. It should only
tell them they lost when they actually lost. So, another question
should be presented, (this one should have a checkmark saying "Don't
ask me again", because it will get annoying after a while, and that
option should also be changeable in the options menu), and this one
should say "Would you like to see the games statistics?". If the user
says yes, then the game should go into the end game statistics, and
then it can tell them they lost.

6) In the endgame statistics, you should know what graph your
examining. If I click "Total Attack", at the top of the graph, it
should be labbelled "Total Attack", and if I click "All Buildings", it
should say so. I Should also be able to disable the showing of various
graphs by clicking a checkmark placed beside the names of the players
and their colors. The menu should contain a link to a help menu that
describes each of the graphs with little detail (to be short for slow
readers). This menu can be as simple as a popup with a scroll bar, on
the left will give indexes for each of the graph information, (So it
lists "Total Attack" and "Total Buildings", and "Conversions Per
Minute" etc..), and on the right side, it should contain the
information. Clicking on one of the menu objects on the left hand side
should automatically scroll the right hand text window to the
appropriette location. The last item should not be scrolled at the
bottom, infact, extra empty lines may have to be placed in the text to
garuntee that when you click on an item on the left hand side, it
always scrolls to the *top* of the right hand text menu.

7) The campaign system sucks bad. It should not be map based, and you
definitly should not get the feeling that what you are seeing when you
select a map is simply the contents of a folder. Instead, you should
select a "campaign". You are told that you can either load a campaign
or start a new campaign. Should you start a new one, you will be given
a list of playable maps, but only the ones that you have "unlocked".
When you select a map on this screen, its description should come up
on the right hand side. When you beat a game in a campaign, your
progress should be automatically saved in the campaign. If you save a
game in a campaign, it should save the campaign its accocciatted with.
When you load a saved campaign game, it should automatically load the
campaign as well. When inside the campaign selection menu, you should
get a list of saved games from that campaign, bassically, this is the
global saved game lists filtered for ones that are for the campaign
the user has loaded. The user should be congradulated for beating the
campaign. When this system is done, the tutorial should be integrated
into a campaign. Campaign games should have "hints" that can be
retrieved from the menu. You should not be able to change alliances in
campaign games.