The Tharin Server

A forum for online playing, administration, bugs and feature requests
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

Yeah, not a lot of people using the server right now.

If you want to help and have the time we need the following:
  • coders (python, c++)
    play testers (unit balancing)
    artists (new game icons, 3D modelers, 2D art
    story writers (missions, campaigns)
Pretty much anything you can help out with. I don't know how well tested the game server is compared to standalone game... but if you think you can pick up on python we can use the help.. anywhere.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

I know some coding (althoug it has been quite a while :wink: ), arts are NOT my cup of tea, testing and story development is ok for me.
tell me where to start :)
Deus Siddis
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by Deus Siddis »

The best place to start probably depends on what coding experience you have had and with which language(s)?
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

from coding point of view I have experiences in Pascal (!), Visual basic and java.
I looked at the python code and it seemed pretty understandable (=readable)
c++ I'd rather not venture in now, seems like a brigde too far.
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

Theres plenty of python code to toy with. Check out campaigns.py and the associated py files. You can always write some new missions. The fixers graphics are kinda sparse.. but some new side missions to make the universe feel more alive would be nice. Ask questions no matter how dumb they sound, there are a lot of dumb things that are written into the game that people are still scratching their heads over at times.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

hahaha... ok, first stupid question then...
where do I find the most up to date version of campaigns.py? where can I find them? just download the 0.5.0 package?
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

no, use the copy on SVN. Everything on the svn is uptodate. So, if you are using windows just download TortoiseSVN then follow the instructions in the wiki for checkout (probably a bit dated). If you want to compile yourself just grab a copy of vc2008 or 2010 express. All the python files have the same directory strcuture (i think) as 0.5.0. Also, for a good editor you might want to try Notepad++

As for linux... just follow the svn checkout under the wiki.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

OK, got it.

will first run the "campaign" as it is now in the SVN (from the code I judge it is not that long...)
meanwhile (whilst autopilot is running :) ) I will see how that matches with the Python code

It seems that now the campaign is only some missions strung together??

should it not be more linked in with the general storyline? (political background etc?)

just a thought...

by the way... this is now more on contributing towards single player version --> should I not start to contribute in another thread?
Would also like to be involved in the MMO version.
are there any active people on this subject?
Mets
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by Mets »

welcome, timesorrow! The MMO version is quite underdeveloped. Ace is technically the lead coder, but there hasn't been any real development on the multiplayer platform for some time, so feel free to dive in. I've become the other active MMO person, but unfortunately I don't have the time for anything other than basic systems work right now, so I just keep the server up and running, make sure SVN compiles, etc.

If you want to help develop the MMO, then, depending on your experience level, you could work on a better UI. It would be nice if you could dock in a station and see who else is there, for example. Better chat and in-game messaging are all needed, too. If that seems like too much, then working through the python code to help make better universe simulations, better admin controls, better universe dynamics (it's pretty basic right now) would all be nice. Just some ideas though, if you want to get involved, pick something you actually want to do, so that you don't feel it's a chore, and we all can enjoy your work :)
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

HI Mets,

thanks indeed for keeping the server running :)

how would I be able to help out here? is there a special branch (e.g. for the universe) specific for the MMO version?
sadly, I will not be able to help in hard coding (c++ is not my cup of tea), but maybe I can do some things in the python area (have some VB experience)

any way glad to meet you :)
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

hmmm... on the campaign...

I creates save files along the route... now when I open a saved file, I still have my first mission (Bernard's (shouldn't that be Barnard's???) Star) listed as incomplete...
seems there is a flaw in the save games for the mission...

is this a Python thing or is it deeper in the code?
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

I don't know if anyone has ever figured that one out... There is a known bug with missions that even after you complete them they sometimes wont go away. Or the cargo won't go away... The worst part is its damn impossible to reproduce when you want to track it down.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

timesorrow wrote:OK, got it.

will first run the "campaign" as it is now in the SVN (from the code I judge it is not that long...)
meanwhile (whilst autopilot is running :) ) I will see how that matches with the Python code

It seems that now the campaign is only some missions strung together??
Yeah, I think campaign stories were thought up but never put into the python code so you just have a few missions strung together.
should it not be more linked in with the general storyline? (political background etc?)
see above
by the way... this is now more on contributing towards single player version --> should I not start to contribute in another thread?
Would also like to be involved in the MMO version.
are there any active people on this subject?
I think most of the python code runs together. You will probably have to dig throught a lot of code to find what is different from Vegastrike and vegaserver.

Vegaserver is on my todo list to improve upon. I think mostly I want to check some coding from a few other MMOs such as the wow clones, eveEMU (if I can find source), and an open source commercial MMO i found but can't remember the name of....

For whatever work you do post it in the dev focus forum or if its server relate you can just post a new thread in the mmo forum (here). For all things vegaserver ask Mets or leave questions for ace. Be warned ace doesnt come around much so any questions for ace may take awhile to get answered.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by breese »

pheonixstorm wrote:eveEMU (if I can find source)
It has moved a couple of times. This appears to be the latest: http://trac.evemu.org/wiki/GettingTheSourceCode
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

About the Campaign (apparently having been thought up already)..

Where can I find it (forum/topic)? I can then see if I can get it in the Python code.

another question: the player is always human? any plans to also play (and therefore have a campaign) looking from the other races' perspective?
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

Also, from the MMO perspective:
seems there should be a nice way to get an overview of active players.
I gues this cannot be done in Python but must be coded in C?

also: where is the code for communication (chat using "[") located? same C code?

don't get me wrong, I think the game is already very nice, but some tweaking might help in the interface department (use of mouse, hover, fonts)
I noticed for example when I change settings in the setup, the fonts change??? (from small to big and back, depending on the settings)

do we have some thorough documentation on the coding?

lot of questions, I know, but would really like to help. guess this is my past as ICT project manager coming back to me...
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

@breese Thanks I shall look into it

@time Best place to start looking for all the information you need is (MMO) this forum or maybe the wiki. Between the forum and the wiki I am sure a lot of questions can be answered w/o waiting on a reply by one of us. Online multiplayer is now working seems to have a good bit of information.
also: where is the code for communication (chat using "[") located? same C code?
Yep, probably in the C++ code somewhere.
the player is always human? any plans to also play (and therefore have a campaign) looking from the other races' perspective?
Not that I have ever seen.
don't get me wrong, I think the game is already very nice, but some tweaking might help in the interface department (use of mouse, hover, fonts)
I noticed for example when I change settings in the setup, the fonts change??? (from small to big and back, depending on the settings)
Part of the interface is done in python the rest is in C++. Again its scattered about and need some heavy work. In this regard I would love to see a completely skinable interface like what world of warcraft has.
do we have some thorough documentation on the coding?
If we do its in the wiki. If its not... send klauss a pm he might know soemthing. Hes on vacation for another week though. Its possible someone left some information in this forum.. It all just requires a lot of leg work to do the research.

Good luck and I hope you can do some wonderous work with the servers backend code.

Heres a question for you. Do you have any experience with developing or creating databases?? I think at some point we really need to build up a database for vegaserver. Would make polling for online players easier.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

ok, thanks, I'll check out what I can from the forum/wiki. I noticed already it is pretty scattered... will try put some order into the chaos for myself there (will also try to document along the way, but no promises there :P

databases? well, I have set up quite a bit of them in the past (mySQL, SQL server and MS Access). (this being design, implementation and access through php and VB) don't have any experience wrt MMO, but could check out something there.

How is data for MMO now stored? in memory and savefiles?
What data is preserved? (I guess player location, status, wealth, etc...)
some of this is of course quite static (basically everything except location, others are triggered by actions)
therefore would make sense to have everything exept location in a database. this would also allow easy polling for communication.

wrt the GUI. I noticed quite some *.sprite files in the cockpit. is this how the flight screen GUI is made? then we should also be able to make that skinnable? (by storing the locations of the sprites and markers in the database as well for a player...
Mets
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by Mets »

timesorrow wrote:How is data for MMO now stored? in memory and savefiles?
What data is preserved? (I guess player location, status, wealth, etc...)
some of this is of course quite static (basically everything except location, others are triggered by actions)
therefore would make sense to have everything exept location in a database. this would also allow easy polling for communication.
Data can be stored in a database or save game files. I choose save game files, because, at the time, I was also using this box to run a few servers for another open source game called BZFlag. I don't host maps for that anymore, so I guess I could run the sql version, but the file approach is working with no big issues, so I've left it as such. If VegaMMO ever gets big, then we'd definitely want to use more than just files.

There's info on data storage in the thread phoenix posted, and also in the server setup instructions.
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

Hi Mets,

I don't think I have enough server power to host my own MMo server, could I use yours as test case?

also: for the storyline/campaign I would like to make the univere more accurate using the info from HAB/HYG star catalogues. I have already made lists of systems which can be interconnected using the jumps which span max 3 or 5 parsecs. interesting network this gives :)
Would you be interested to have that system on the MMO server as test as well (after I test it locally here)?


Generally: would want to set up the campaign also that it works for MMO. Will bounce some story lines off the community here, trying to keep them linked with the info I got from wiki/docs/forums.
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

Quick question...

I tried experimenting changing the python scripts for the campaign... but it seems it is not getting through in the game. Guess it needs to be compiled in the .pyc files? how do I do that?
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

when you start the game it should automaticlly compile the py file. What did you change, the campaigns.py or did you create a new file to have loaded into campaigns? A little more info on what you did would help us to figure out what went wrong (if anything)
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
timesorrow
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

I changed the *.py file (campaigns.py). I do not see any new .pyc file when I started vegastrike.exe.
what did I do wrong?
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by timesorrow »

installed python and it seems to work now...
pheonixstorm
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Re: The Tharin Server

Post by pheonixstorm »

?? You shouldn't have had to install python for it to compile. Normally any changes you make to any of the used *.py files should be compiled when the game starts. One of the ways you can tell which files don't get used or just don't get used much. I think it only compiles then when they are called though I could be wrong.
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
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