Re: [Xconq-developers] New ideas for Xconq

[Eric M. <mcd...@ph...>]

mar...@ae... wrote:

> My knowledge of C+ Windows programming is scarce at best.

Not much knowledge of Windows programming is needed, unless you intend
to make a native Windows interface for xConq. And, most of xConq is
actually just plain ANSI C; some C++-isms have been added as of late.
For the time being, you just need to have a decent working knowledge of
C, plus knowledge of how C++ namespaces and function overloading work.

Eventually, xConq might become more object-oriented, since there are
some advantages to that (using STL to provide a consistent, more
maintainable linked-list implementation, for example), but I am still
quite some ways from achieving that ambition. xConq is mostly the same
legacy C application that it was 7 years ago.

> pratical example: in a "combat" between 2 units instead of the simple
> shot a zoomed map zone (same engine) would appear with a bit more
> detail where each "main unit" is represented by 3 or 5 single units...
> The tactical (zoomed ) zone would be composed by the 6 hexs
> surrounding the main one. 

This has been discussed several times in the past. Currently, xConq is
tied to one map per game. (The interfaces use one map _view_ and one
world map _view_ per game window, but all views of the same map.) To
achieve what you are proposing, you will likely have to introduce an
auxiliary or tactical map, in addition to the main map.

Also, there is the issue of unit decomposition/recomposition: a decent
mechanism must be specified for decomposing an unit into subunits for
use on the tactical map, and then recomposing them back into a regular
unit for use on the main map. Given that xConq already has the concept
of container units (commonly referred to as "transports"), you may be
best served by simply unloading units from a transport when a tactical
map is entered, and then reloading them back onto the transport when the
tactical map is exited. This, however, requires additional bookkeeping,
such as remembering which transport the tactical units are associated
with -- not to mention which map units are presently on. In conjunction
with this, xConq likely needs to have more precise mechanisms for damage
distribution to occupants, occupant effects on transports, etc....

> But I want to help...

Great!

> Regarding the windows GUI only one critical comestic change is
> required: the inclusion of the "Next Turn" in a button.

Just a note: there is no "Windows" GUI. The primary GUI is the Tcl/Tk
GUI, which is portable across multiple platforms, including Linux and
Windows.

> Although I need some points regarding compiling in the win32 I am
> using DevC and GCC as compiler to start this project.
> any comments ?

I have provided a pre-built Dev-C++ project in the 'pkg' subdirectory of
the 'xconq' source tree. It is now probably somewhat out-of-date, but it
should be easy to bring up-to-date. You may wish to read the
accompanying README file that I provided in that directory.

MinGW32 gcc works fine for building xConq. All of the Windows binaries
that I have released were built with this compiler.

  Have Fun,
    Eric