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Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:50 pm
by Implode
Well, I've been working on the Java port for coming close to 5 months now, which is just a bit scary, I don't know where the time goes. There was even someone else helping me with it (he's got busy with other things now, but early on he was producing code much faster than I could review it!) so we were picking different areas to work on so we didn't clash. So a couple of months back, I decided I make a push to get all the "start game" code done so you could actually connect the client to it, start a game and see the map come up. Talk about underestimate how much was involved :D So finally, after months of work, finally I get _this_!

You can't move or do anything else yet, just the map screen comes up. Now, as dauntingly unimpressive as that looks, I reckon this means the Java port is probably 75% done! Because to display that one small city, all the unit calculations have to work so it can tell how far your 2 starting units can see (yes I tried starting with Draconians to prove they get to see the 4 corner squares!), the city calculations all work, the production calculations all work (if I click onto my city, the display on the right hand side changes to the per turn production values, which are all correct), spells work (you can't cast them... but if you could cast Flight on one of your two units, it would know they could then see range 2 and get it right), and all the fog of war calculations are done which is most of the really big components of the game. Also bear in mind there was a LOT of legwork up front just to get things off the ground, from making a solid enough Java version of my multiplayer code, switchable server UI (you can run it with a GUI like in the screenshot or just with Console output, and switch creation of a debug file on/off without having to download a separate version) to code to cache the XML database and so on before we even started writing one line of MoM-specific code.

So I reckon all that's left is: being able to move around the map, casting spells, combat, the simultaneous turns combat scheduler, and small miscellaneous stuff like being able to name cities & heroes.

By the way, because of the different approach I've used to threads locking lists, and caching the whole XML database rather than just specific portions of it, it runs blazingly fast compared to 0.9.3. The startup dialogs which go through "Adding heroes" and "Adding starting cities" and such you don't even see. You just pick a race, click OK and the map is up in half a second. The map generator runs in under a second too :D

Optimistically I'm hoping for the end of Sept, but everything always takes longer than I guess up front, and I'm away for a week starting Oct 23, so realistically I'll be happy if I get 0.9.4 out before I go away, so latest weekend date would be Oct 19.

The other thing is, since this is a complete port rather than just specific things changed, it needs a LOT more testing. Also sticktrick found some pretty severe bugs in 0.9.3 which I should have spotted, so that just goes to show that I often don't test things thoroughly enough. So if anyone fancies beta testing early versions starting I'd really appreciate it :D To aim for a final version on Oct 19 (or earlier if possible), I'd expect to start producing beta builds from mid-late September.

Thanks!

Implode.

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:00 am
by Tino Didriksen
Excellent news...and I definetly want to beta test.

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:42 am
by Lucern
Mr. Blah's quest for domination would end when he realized that he could never leave Elmwood.


Good news indeed, Implode. Thanks for the update. More speed is definitely welcome, and this looks like a worthy base for the rest of this project.

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:34 pm
by Singularity
Good to read :D

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:46 am
by klausbreuer
Yup, I'm certainly prepared to beta-test for you! Can do so on both Linux and Windoze.

PS: Wow. Just wow. I love MoM, always have. Started playing it again recently, decided to make a Java port (good way to learn that language), sniffed through the net, got a lot of info (including all graphics, followed by a graphics extractor), sniffed some more, and just before starting - found this!
Yaaay! Guess I'll be doing an OMEGA port instead :wink:

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:08 am
by Korenn
waiting eagerly on the Java port! ;)

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:46 pm
by Implode
Sorry this is taking me ages more than I originally expected, I'll be honest and say its because I've been hooked on playing Perfect World far too much lately :) Although now I'm lv 71 its becoming a real slog and so I'm tending to give up playing that for a day here and there, so I expect I'll start to get MoM IME moving again soon. Also over Xmas I'll have a week away where I'll have no internet access, and so expect to get quite a bit on MoM IME done then too. When I get back at the end of Dec I'll try to post an update as to how far I got :)

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:09 am
by elliott20
Implode wrote:Sorry this is taking me ages more than I originally expected, I'll be honest and say its because I've been hooked on playing Perfect World far too much lately :) Although now I'm lv 71 its becoming a real slog and so I'm tending to give up playing that for a day here and there, so I expect I'll start to get MoM IME moving again soon. Also over Xmas I'll have a week away where I'll have no internet access, and so expect to get quite a bit on MoM IME done then too. When I get back at the end of Dec I'll try to post an update as to how far I got :)
sniff *wipes tear from eye* bless you sir...

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 6:36 am
by Pure Pandemonium
So how goes the Java port, Implode? We're past the Christmas season and into the new year, and no updates! :'(

I recently found MoM IME and started playing with it, and I must say I'm impressed by the work you've already accomplished. I'm really looking forward to further progress on the project and playing with the speedier Java version.

Man, I totally understand getting hooked on an MMO. Any projects I'm working on suffer significantly if I get sucked into something like that =P

Re: Progress on 0.9.4 (Java port)

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:19 pm
by ragnar-gd
Implode wrote:Sorry this is taking me ages more than I originally expected, ...
implode: Perhaps I don't understand to handle private mails, but: Did my offer to help get through? (Delete this on sight!)