Erfworld Video Game *Source Code*

[depricated]

http://watchmythreat.com/erfgame/erfworld_source.zip

I got a basic gui, some server communications set up, etc.

It is now at the point of being ready for the "fun stuff."

would probably help to mention that it's in Java.

[chrono]

I've only had a little bit of time to give the code a look, so I realize my impressions aren't necessarily complete or correct, but here's what I first thought:

If you're gonna throw source around, you might as well set it up as a sourceforge project (or something equivalent). Doing so will probably make keeping track of things and contributing easier.
A little bit of commenting will make it much readable for those who see it for the first time - a line or so for each method and a general README file saying which file contains what is a good start and it makes a huge difference (and yes, it's a drag, but it doesn't really take that much time).
I saw that you tried to incorporate a lot inside the initial design (which I think is a good thing) and I'd like to suggest thinking about making it multilingual from the start. It's almost no effort at all to stuff all output strings in an <lang>.ini file and read it from there (this way practically anybody can pick one up and start translating the entire game to another language). Or there's probably another dozen good ways of going about it - but the point is that if you don't do it from the start it will be a bitch to get right later on.

Most of my actual comments are about the unit design anyway, but I'll go ahead and put them in the other thread

[depricated]

Good points.

I meant to go through and comment last night before putting it up and I'm gonna be honest here - I need a break from it haha. I've been working on this since early June, and I want to take a couple weeks off from it and just not worry about it. Maybe after that I can hit it again with some fresh ideas.

As for the multilingual bit - absolutely. I'm more than happy to do just that. However, I only know English and ASL, so I wouldn't be able to contribute beyond putting in the code to pull from said ini file. Still, that's a very good idea, I'm happy to run with that.

I didn't look too closely at the actual code for units, etc. That was written by a classmate, he can better explain those if he's around(he comes to these boards, don't know if he's registered). All I wrote was the communication section in Game.java.

My current aim is this:

We'll run Server.java on a server, obviously. We could possibly allow players to host their own games and they would just run Server and connect to localhost.
Server will connect to an SQL Database, which should house registered user information, armies, troop stats, etc. More importantly it would house the base stats and details of each unit. Rather than hard coding that a Gobwin Miner has 3 combats and 2 defense we could put them in the database and modify that as necessary much easier.

private pepper had set up a google code site. I emailed him to see if he was still interested in participating in this a few days ago. I haven't gotten a response. At any rate, I possess my own server that I can host stuff on. I don't know how sourceforge eases communication but I imagine a simple forum at my site would do the trick just as well.

Sorry for the lack of comments. I'll go through them and add more, but that'll wait til Monday. My brain just needs a bit of a break. I had finals this past week, too - that didn't help.

[turbler]

I unzipped the thing, and then tried double clicking Client.JAVA and it gave the /I dunno what program to use to open this thing/ error. I have fully updated Java... what else can I do? I really wanna check this thing out

[depricated]

I wrote it in Netbeans. Any IDE or Editor should load the code. You can open it in Notepad even, or since it's in Netbeans it might need at most Wordpad if you're in Windows.

If you just want to see what I have so far, which is by no means a complete and functional game, I can compile it and upload it for you.

[turbler]

Well I didn't expect it to be done, but I kinda Expected it to be in... a non coding format (that IS a coding format right?? I have no clue ^-^") But either way, thanks and if by upload it , you mean put it in the non coding (if that's what it is ) format thing, then sure

[Raigne]

That's why the topic is labeled as source code. It's the code the program is written in.

[depricated]

Umm, for the record, I AM still adding comments to everything. I didn't forget. There's a lot to explain for each part.

Also:
http://www.watchmythreat.com/erfgame/Erfgame.jar

That should be the runnable version.

KEEP IN MIND, if you decide to look at the runnable version, that this is way way way early pre-alpha. It's nothing impressive at all, imo. There's lots more to come, but that should give you a feel for the basic layout.

[chrono]

I still think it'd be near impossible to get anything Erf-like written from scratch, so there's another idea which might be worth thinking about, namely a branch of the battle for Wesnoth.
The game already has:
-hex grid, turn based strategy
-support for all kinds of units, including flying
-towns which are really Erf-like (i.e. the town isn't a single structure but rather a group of hexes each of which is treated separately). It's a matter of a little work to make different kinds of town hex (i.e. walls, etc) which would give defenders different bonuses
-It contains a lot of the things that you need for _any_ such strategy (graphics, music, user controls, online play, etc)
-there are many different units (different for each side) who gain experience and level.
-units are purchased using ONE currency (like shmuckers in Erf), so there's no woodcutting, stone or other mining

The biggest thing is that it already supports user-made campaigns with incorporated story. Hell, just sticking Erf unit images and making a short campaign on the original Wesnoth would be a lot closer to Erfworld than any from-scratch project could get within a year or three.

So really, Wesnoth is such a good choice because there's so little in it that actually doesn't fit in an Erfworld setting. Most of what we'd have to do is add stuff, most notably stacks. This is actually one of the few major things which are missing, and once stacks are handled the path would be clear for dealing with mounts, leadership, casters, etc.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Wesnoth also has a fully functional AI, which is something that can be horribly time-consuming to get up and running (let alone to get right). Admittedly it's written in C++, which is much harder to be good at than Java for these kinds of applications. Still, there are a few other projects in sourceForge that are Java implementations of various hex-grid turn-based strategies (though admittedly most of them are WAY behind where Wesnoth is at right now). Picking up any of them to clone will probably save months of development.

[depricated]

Well, I'll admit, my interests are selfish.

I want to learn to do this.

No game will ever work without the low-level mechanics that underlie the system. Not the mechanics that handle interactivity between units, or battles, or showing the gif or png associated with the unit, but the mechanics that say there are units, that units have an avatar, and that the avatar should draw like this.

Ya, it's a lot of work. I'm not daunted by that. I'm not going to decry those who would go the easier route and simply make a Battle for Wesnoth campaign, but I want to see something original. If it takes 3 years and I do it with only one other person the entire time, well, wouldn't that be fitting? I'm ok with it taking that long. It's a project. Work will always come first, as will many other things in my life such as my girl and my games. I'm quite willing to spend the time necessary to make it a good, solid game, though - I even hope to.

I've added a plethitude of notes to the classes I made. They'll be uploaded Monday night. Those who wish to join me and help are more than welcome. Those who wish go another route are of course more than welcome to do that as well, I'll not naysay it.

[lathomas64]

nothing happens when i try to connect to myself at localhost. no error message or connection message.

[depricated]

I err commented out the action listener for the connect button in the version I compiled

my bad

incoming correct version

ok - same links, new stuff.

Commented code, as promised - and a compiled version of that exact code, which does connect on localhost at port 8484

[cib]

Sounds really nice. It's true, if you only think about how you may end up failing, you will never get something done. I'd also like to help, however I don't like the thought of learning Java, sorry.

[valce]

I'd be interested in helping. Have pretty solid experience with Java

Set up some sort of version tracking system? https://github.com/ has free hosting for open source projects.

-V

[valce]

I saw that you tried to incorporate a lot inside the initial design (which I think is a good thing) and I'd like to suggest thinking about making it multilingual from the start. It's almost no effort at all to stuff all output strings in an <lang>.ini file

Dunno about Netbeans, but Eclipse has an externalization function that'll externalize all strings for you and dump them in a messages.properties file for easy translations. The process is pretty much fully automated, so you can do it at any point in development without any real hassles.

[chrono]

I saw that you tried to incorporate a lot inside the initial design (which I think is a good thing) and I'd like to suggest thinking about making it multilingual from the start. It's almost no effort at all to stuff all output strings in an <lang>.ini file

Dunno about Netbeans, but Eclipse has an externalization function that'll externalize all strings for you and dump them in a messages.properties file for easy translations. The process is pretty much fully automated, so you can do it at any point in development without any real hassles.

That's a very useful feature that I apparently didn't know about. If that's the case then it's best to focus on the more important aspects and leave the multilingual part for when there's something at least vaguely erf-like already built. I haven't written much in Java so I'm not aware of the more subtle aspects of Eclipse. I've used it for developing Ruby, PHP and C++, but I feel it pretty much sucks major ass if not used to write Java.

[cib]

Not to question your work or anything, but why are you doing it in Java? I don't see any advantages to Java and it's.. aesthetically challenging, if you ask me.. but maybe you can enlighten me?

[depricated]

I was doing it as a project for a java class. That and when we were initially discussing it, most people who were interested in participating knew java.

I don't know dick all about graphics, tbh, and don't plan to have anything spectacular in the game