My name's Dmitry or MK (musickiller), and I've got a lot of ideas wich from my point of view would improve the sim. I won't write them all coz it would make the discussion harder. So I'll start with those I'm sure of. I'll write those in comments, coz in most forums it looks nicer.
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[1] First of all - the sim should be on pause on load. At least make it an option. A small thing that would save me and may be some other ppl a lot of nerves. I dunno why, but I hate to loose first seconds of simulation. It's kind of "We've got a new colony on mars, time to celebrate!"
I'm posting it under "Open Discussion" topic, because all new stuff should be discussed. So if you disagree, I'm all ears (eyes? o_O).
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Yea, some games start out with screen pause because at the same time a help tool also pops up awaiting player's response if he wants to jump into tutorial mode or turns on/off interactive tooltip.
For now, we only have a plain-vanilla guide window open up at the center of the screen.
This is a good feature that we should definitely add into the list of settings in the Config option in the main menu. (note: we haven't coded anything inside Config)
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[2] Pausing time on mission creation/cancell should be a little a little more complicated.
For example: I have paused the game, opened "mission" window. Created a new mission, and want to do smth else, before colonists do smth else - but the game automaticly unpaused the game. It's uncomfortable. The game should stay on pause after the window is coled if it was on pause before it was opened. Should not be hard to make anyway.
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If it has to do with the autosave timer, I just checked that on 29 Jun in build 3442 that I touched the codes on pausing and unpausing the autosave timeline while pausing and unpausing the simulation. They are inside the class MainScene.java.
Another area to track down is sending resupply using Resupply Tool. The TransportWizard class may have codes that unwittingly pause and unpause a simulation.
But there could be other events that interrupts it.
If we track down the cause for that, it'll make my debugging task easier.
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Yea, but what about the thing I wrote about? Try this:
press pause
create a mission
the game is not on pause anymore!!
I think this should be changed. If I were you, I would add a variable called "user_pause" (controlled by the button 'pause') and make the game check it before unpausing itself. But gladly you are not me and you surely know a better way =D
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[3] Rover should be usable after mission was canceled.
This one I hate the most. After the mission was canceled, a rover should be rescued. This sux. What if I wanted to return it sooner? What if another rover is in danger and I need the one I canceled NOW?
There at least should be a mission "return a rover". After you start it, rover calculate how much resources it would take to return to a selected settlement and writes warnings (yellow cells in cettlement selection) if smth is not enough. But even if there is not enough fuel (or O2, or anything) to return, it should try to. Coz there may be another rover on it's way already.
BUT there would much better to be able to start a rover mission from anywhere (rover thinks of itself as of starting settlement, for example). This way, when some rover1 had O2 leak, the player would be able to send a rover2 to be ready to assist in case anything else happen, by creatind a mission to collect regolith (or ice) somewhere not for from glitchy rover1 (why waste precious time?).
This one should be harder to implement, but as I estimate, not that much harder. And of course the result would be awesome. Complex rover missions! Imagine that!
I'm not out of ideas, but will wait for a reply before I post anything else. In the meantime will check the latest code revision for any sweet bugs (it's a breakfast time) ^_^
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Let's build upon what we have so far. Currently, if a rover is stranded for whatever reason, the onboard beacon will signal the settlement for rescue.
AI will compute if there are "qualified" people who could man a rescue mission....Conceivably, the rescuing rover will also bring those needed parts so that the stranded vehicle can be repaired on the spot. If not, the rescuing vehicle will tow the broken vehicle home.
You can look up in the Inventory tab on a vehicle to see what "spare parts" they are bringing for the trip just in case something breaks.
Yes there have been some discussions here and there over the years in deeping the simulation of a rover mission. I'm all for creating a more comprehensive "Mission Planning" tool than our Mission Tool. Yes we're getting there.
So let's nail one by one in what we want to do.
It's hard to mimic all of our real world experience. We can only simulate certain aspect of it one at a time. Let's start with something most easy to implement.
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Sure. I have not said it was a priority task. I'm new here and don't know what discussions were you dragging for years. Good to know that we think alike.
I'll be back on testing soon. Had to reinstall the OS. BTW, win 10 is nice. Did you know those bastards implemented P2P for updates??? It's for the first time I thought "wow, this I never saw even on linux!"
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I've just restructured the code in Mission.java and VehicleMission.java in r3717 (https://sourceforge.net/p/mars-sim/code/3717/) so as to allow users to ABORT any vehicle mission in a sensible way.
Previously, cancelling an on-going mission will cause the vehicle to stall at a location, activate the emergency beacon. The beacon triggers a rescue mission in that a new vehicle will rush to the scene to tow away the stalled vehicle.
I agree having to wait for another vehicle to be dispatched is totally unnecessary if that vehicle is not broken.
User should be able to abort a mission and have the vehicles come back on its own, provided that it has sufficient consumables (fuel and food/water).
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Hi all.
My name's Dmitry or MK (musickiller), and I've got a lot of ideas wich from my point of view would improve the sim. I won't write them all coz it would make the discussion harder. So I'll start with those I'm sure of. I'll write those in comments, coz in most forums it looks nicer.
[1] First of all - the sim should be on pause on load. At least make it an option. A small thing that would save me and may be some other ppl a lot of nerves. I dunno why, but I hate to loose first seconds of simulation. It's kind of "We've got a new colony on mars, time to celebrate!"
I'm posting it under "Open Discussion" topic, because all new stuff should be discussed. So if you disagree, I'm all ears (eyes? o_O).
Yea, some games start out with screen pause because at the same time a help tool also pops up awaiting player's response if he wants to jump into tutorial mode or turns on/off interactive tooltip.
For now, we only have a plain-vanilla guide window open up at the center of the screen.
This is a good feature that we should definitely add into the list of settings in the Config option in the main menu. (note: we haven't coded anything inside Config)
[2] Pausing time on mission creation/cancell should be a little a little more complicated.
For example: I have paused the game, opened "mission" window. Created a new mission, and want to do smth else, before colonists do smth else - but the game automaticly unpaused the game. It's uncomfortable. The game should stay on pause after the window is coled if it was on pause before it was opened. Should not be hard to make anyway.
Let's find out what interfere the pause mode.
The autosave timer could be the culprit.
If it has to do with the autosave timer, I just checked that on 29 Jun in build 3442 that I touched the codes on pausing and unpausing the autosave timeline while pausing and unpausing the simulation. They are inside the class MainScene.java.
Another area to track down is sending resupply using Resupply Tool. The TransportWizard class may have codes that unwittingly pause and unpause a simulation.
But there could be other events that interrupts it.
If we track down the cause for that, it'll make my debugging task easier.
Well, I'm not sure I will be able to do that, but I'll keep my eyes open =)
I made some code changes on r3526 yesterday. At least it fixes certain cases I know of. I hope we don't see any more uninitiated pause/unpause.
Yea, but what about the thing I wrote about? Try this:
I think this should be changed. If I were you, I would add a variable called "user_pause" (controlled by the button 'pause') and make the game check it before unpausing itself. But gladly you are not me and you surely know a better way =D
[3] Rover should be usable after mission was canceled.
This one I hate the most. After the mission was canceled, a rover should be rescued. This sux. What if I wanted to return it sooner? What if another rover is in danger and I need the one I canceled NOW?
There at least should be a mission "return a rover". After you start it, rover calculate how much resources it would take to return to a selected settlement and writes warnings (yellow cells in cettlement selection) if smth is not enough. But even if there is not enough fuel (or O2, or anything) to return, it should try to. Coz there may be another rover on it's way already.
BUT there would much better to be able to start a rover mission from anywhere (rover thinks of itself as of starting settlement, for example). This way, when some rover1 had O2 leak, the player would be able to send a rover2 to be ready to assist in case anything else happen, by creatind a mission to collect regolith (or ice) somewhere not for from glitchy rover1 (why waste precious time?).
This one should be harder to implement, but as I estimate, not that much harder. And of course the result would be awesome. Complex rover missions! Imagine that!
I'm not out of ideas, but will wait for a reply before I post anything else. In the meantime will check the latest code revision for any sweet bugs (it's a breakfast time) ^_^
Let's build upon what we have so far. Currently, if a rover is stranded for whatever reason, the onboard beacon will signal the settlement for rescue.
AI will compute if there are "qualified" people who could man a rescue mission....Conceivably, the rescuing rover will also bring those needed parts so that the stranded vehicle can be repaired on the spot. If not, the rescuing vehicle will tow the broken vehicle home.
You can look up in the Inventory tab on a vehicle to see what "spare parts" they are bringing for the trip just in case something breaks.
Yes there have been some discussions here and there over the years in deeping the simulation of a rover mission. I'm all for creating a more comprehensive "Mission Planning" tool than our Mission Tool. Yes we're getting there.
So let's nail one by one in what we want to do.
It's hard to mimic all of our real world experience. We can only simulate certain aspect of it one at a time. Let's start with something most easy to implement.
Sure. I have not said it was a priority task. I'm new here and don't know what discussions were you dragging for years. Good to know that we think alike.
I'll be back on testing soon. Had to reinstall the OS. BTW, win 10 is nice. Did you know those bastards implemented P2P for updates??? It's for the first time I thought "wow, this I never saw even on linux!"
I've just restructured the code in Mission.java and VehicleMission.java in r3717 (https://sourceforge.net/p/mars-sim/code/3717/) so as to allow users to ABORT any vehicle mission in a sensible way.
Previously, cancelling an on-going mission will cause the vehicle to stall at a location, activate the emergency beacon. The beacon triggers a rescue mission in that a new vehicle will rush to the scene to tow away the stalled vehicle.
I agree having to wait for another vehicle to be dispatched is totally unnecessary if that vehicle is not broken.
User should be able to abort a mission and have the vehicles come back on its own, provided that it has sufficient consumables (fuel and food/water).