New Stars Status

Trying to crush off the bugs from the last bug report...


Here we can see the main fixes. I've added a player command to the Tcl interface, mainly to implement player relations. However, I think the main player relation code will need to be reworked...

I also fixed the mining rate calculation, and max defenses calculation (and the resources now say max/max instead of 0/max).

I also added some menus (view race - previously only accessible through F8, research - ditto/F5, battle plans - stub, change password - stub).

I fixed a bug where using the race wizard would break viewing your current game race, and another where planetary resources display as 0 on the first turn.

Stuff I've read lately

"Halting State" (Charles Stross) - This is very near future fiction, about 10 years out. It is basically a mystery/spy thriller featuring a nerdy programmer and an accountant. I found it pretty well done. The zombie flash mob at the end was a nice touch.

Stuff I've read lately

"Nebula Awards 26" (James Morrow ed.) - I guess 1990 wasn't a very good year for short stories in science fiction. I didn't like any of them, at all. There was one by Ursala Le Guin, which was just ok. I read "Left Hand of Darkness" about three years ago, and couldn't remember the specifics. The novella by Haldeman was kind of interesting, but was very Hemingway specific, and I didn't really get it.

Stuff I've read lately

I finished the Simak book, the last stories were:

"All the Traps of Earth" (1960) - Very reminiscent of Asimov's "Bicentennial Man", which I guess, wasn't written until 1976... so a point for Simak, there.

"Death Scene" (1957) - Very short, somewhat ominous feeling, but ends well.

"Reunion on Ganymede" (1966) - War heroes overcome their differences by blasting robot animals.

"The Money Tree" (1958) - Alien botanists help out a local thug.

"Party Line" (1978) - Interstellar communication via psychic hot-line/chat room.

"The Answers" (1953) - Man loses his drive to expand after learning life has no purpose.

"The Thing in the Stone" (1970) - Ironically, I picked up Simak because he is listed as a Christian author. The previous stories weren't exactly pinnacles of Christian doctrine. This one at least had a touching ending. The "thing" in the stone is some sort of universal war criminal. The main character meets an energy being attendant, which he first takes as a sort of "loyal pet". But, in the last paragraph, this being is revealed as a "shepherd", waiting for the redemption of the "thing". So, not all bad.

Stuff I've read lately

"Inheritor" (C.J. Cherryh) - The third book in the "Invader" series. It feels like Cherryh has slowed things down a little. The story is taking longer to progress, and the stress for the characters isn't quite as challenging. But, the story is still pretty compelling, and the universe is interesting.

I've also started a collection of short stories by Clifford D. Simak. The collection is called "The Creator amd Other Stories".

The first story (from 1935!) is called "The Creator", about a couple of guys who meet an energy being who claims to be the creator of the universe -- and kill him. Not a high quality story.

"Shotgun Cure" (1960). This is shorter and punchier, but the ending falls flat. Aliens cure the human race of all disease, but we get kind of dumber. How much dumber? Do the aliens come back to harvest us for lunch? It doesn't say...

Stuff I've read lately

"The Last Colony" (John Scalzi) - This is the last book in the "Old Man's War" trilogy. I think it ended strongly. Scalzi's humor remains, and there is some good action. I thought it was interesting that the base colony size is 2500 colonists, the same as Stars.

New Stars Status

Started in on the bugs from last update...

• Fixed names with spaces (caused planet names in the test bed to shift... which required an update to the orders.tcl)
• Added display of max infrastructure (which is stored in the turn file). This caused me to realize that turn 0 does not have a max infra calculation. I also realized we did not factor in OBRM and JOAT...
• Added display of defenses (including max)
• I moved the "bottom right" frame (which shows planets, fleets, minefields, etc.) over to the left. This makes more room for the starmap. I also changed the display to 800x600, and shrunk the hab bars to make things fit better, and fixed the hab pluses to use a brighter color.
• Fixed message display when you have no messages.
  

New Stars Status

Bug report:

• Planet names file stopped at first space (no multi-word planet names)
• No max calc for planetary mines, factories, and defenses
  
• No mining rate calc
• Missing pop-ups on population, resources, scanner, defenses
• Missing gui cargo transfer (work-around: use waypoint 0 load/unload)
• Missing clear planetary queue button (work-around: manually clear, who ever uses this button?)
• Missing route button (not a big usage, it adds a move order on newly constructed ships, basically automation)
• Missing starbase display panel
• Missing mineral display in bottom right
• Missing message display
• Need menu commands for Research (dialog is done, use F5), Generate (done, F9), Planet/Fleet view (not done, F3), battle plans (not done, F6), Player relations (not done, F7)
• Battle engine improvements
• Report menu
• Scanner pane filters/options
• Starbase and fleet icons in bottom right
• Pop-ups in bottom right
• Should probably disable add to queue from empty/unowned planets... (server will reject the commands... I hope...)
  

New Stars Status

A few more minor improvements, but they're the sorts of things that are important for playability:

• Implemented slot compatibility checks (no engines in weapon slots!)
  
• Implemented slot moving (used to have to discard and re-add)
• Implemented cost and design feature labels in ship designer
• Fixed a crash when the production window is not open, and a new design is created (tried to update the production list with the new design...)
• Improved zoom-in/zoom-out behavior (less shifting of the center point)
  

Here we can see the path highlighting I added last time. It also shows a ship with no engine being rejected. I also made the ship designer window a default size, which should reduce window resizing jitter. You can also see the cost/feature labels below the ship layout.

Stuff I've read lately

"The Faded Sun: Shon'Jir" (C.J. Cherryh) - This is the second book in the Faded Sun universe. I hadn't realized there was a trilogy here. In the first book, "the People" (mri) were reduced from millions to two (and brother and sister at that). The second book focuses on a human sent with the last two mri on a journey to their homeworld. Not the best Cherryh, but pretty good.

New Stars Status

Ok, sorry, been a long while... things are pretty close now, and it is sometimes hard to be motivated to finish :)



I've fixed the clearing of private information from enemy scans. This was a lot more intrusive than I had imagined.

We have to clear the fleet and design names from enemy scans. So what do we put there? I'm leaving it blank (so players can't name their designs "War Pig Scout" and confuse people...). But then, I had to update the client to fill in "War Pig Scout" when it sees a scout with a blank name. Except, where does "War Pig" come from? Seems, we never added a place to store the names of known enemies (players start without knowing the names and ids of other player races).

So, then I had to update the PlayerData structure, and the toXML and parseXML, and the regression files...


In other news, I added a highlight to the path of the currently selected ship (not shown).

I also fixed the next turn generation in the client. Note, it just goes ahead and generates a multi-player turn when any one player hits generate...

Stuff I've read lately

"Old Man's War" (John Scalzi) - This is the first book in the series including "Ghost Brigades". I didn't mind reading them out of order, there is not much overlap. Scalzi has an interesting universe here, it will be interesting to see where he takes it.

Card Game Client

The client is now usable. Here we can see a game of Texas hold-em. The cards can be moved around, and the movement is reflected to the other clients. I also have added the code to pop up more information on more complicated card sets.

Stuff I've read lately

"Manifold: Space" (Stephen Baxter) - This is a continuation of the Manifold: Time "manifold universe". It is basically an alternate history (near future), where now there are many alien intelligences (thanks to our hero's efforts in the first book). Baxter attempts to deal with the Fermi paradox by claiming galactic catastrophes. I'm not familiar with the physics involved, but it wasn't real satisfying. I liked the first book better, but this one had some touching points, and some interesting tech.

Card Game Client

I've gotten the hello protocol working. Here you can see a jumble as three clients connect to each other on my machine.




The network topology is arbitrary. That is, any client can act as a server for new players to join. In my example, the client on the left started serving. Then the client on the right connected. The first stopped serving, then the second started. The third client connected to the second. You can see the third client sees welcome from both when it connects. The original two only see the new player when added.

I need to add the in-game messages. And I should probably handle clients quitting gracefully...

Card Game Client

I haven't forgotten NewStars! I'll have another update soon...

But I have also thrown together a card game client (modeled after Apprentice). My client allows any card set, and will support any number of connected players (eventually). I have shuffling, drawing, and playing cards (including moving cards around) done.

Here is an odd nine card hand (and I forgot to shuffle until after drawing about six cards):



The main thing I need to add is the network messages for starting the game, and reflecting playing and re-arranging cards (I have the network connectivity [listen and call], as well as the code to reflect messages to everyone).

Stuff I've read lately

"Manifold: Time" (Stephen Baxter) - I was very curious where Baxter was going with this book. He starts with solid premises: the promise of off earth expansion and the inevitability of entropy (heat death of the universe). This theme peaks about halfway through (~page 206), as the main characters watch a video stream from the end of time.

Turns out, Baxter is bootstrapping himself an alternate history series (not that there is anything wrong with that). I have started the second book (Manifold: Space). We'll see how it goes...

Stuff I've read lately

"Invader" (C. J. Cherry) - Second book in the "Foreigner" series. It picks up right where the last left off. Cherryh is always rough on her poor characters. But Cameron (the guy in this one) spends a lot of time struggling with a powerful sense of loneliness. Kind of unusual for Cherryh, but very well done.

"The Ghost Brigades" (John Scalzi) - Apparently this book is a sort of sequel to "Old Man's War". At least, it is set in the same universe. I will have to read that one, because it is a pretty interesting universe. Scalzi does a good job with building deep characters.

Stuff I've read lately

"The Android's Dream" (John Scalzi) - This is the first Scalzi book I've read. I find his humor to be unique, and I like it a lot. I found myself laughing out loud frequently (first book to do that to me was the Hitchhiker's Guide).

Stuff I've read lately

"The Far Side of the Stars" (David Drake) - This is the third novel in the Lt. Leary series. It is classic Drake, classic Lt. Leary. I was surprised to see an all-knowing tree, though. Don't normally see something so mystical from Drake. Of course, Leary uses it to find a bauble for his current employer, and protect his country from a sneak attack :).