Pulsar 4X

[HaliRyan]

The main reasons to keep it 2D (imho) are simplicity in design and playability. Plus in a 3D volume anything less than 4 points can be viewed as a 2D plane; so for a battle where two fleets stick in a close formation relative to their distance from each other there isn't much point in displaying it 3 dimensionally.

Feel free to correct me if I'm missing something.

[Nathan_]

When you mention realtime, what model are you talking about? the Homeworld/Cataclysm/2 model? The DEFCON model? the SOTS model? the Rebellion model?
I don't necessarily see any appreciable difference between advanceTimeOneDay, and speedX86400.  

On 3D: we can do some 3D gfx, but keep the basic gameplay 2D. I agree that full 3 dimensions has been a hastle thus far.

On the UI/developer front I can also help in that regards, but any UI design I make is going to be spartan as can be.

[Antagonist (OP)]

Think of the 'realtime' as auto-turns, just with much faster and efficient turns with smaller subdivisions.  And yeah, pausing will be possible.

Note though that this is an ideal, we'll have to see if practical.

[sublight]

The Repository: ask again tomorrow. I was getting a little bit of code-overload, so I swore off anything and everything code related this Saturday. So far the break has been doing wonders for my sanity. But yes, we'll try github.

Primary Developers
So we have Sublight, Antagonist, MrBear, Nathan_, clement, and SnopyDogy? Did I miss anyone or add someone who only plans to make periodic submissions? If that's the list I think we have our Dev-Team.

[DizzyFoxkit]

I'd like to help, but I have no professional experience or experience at all with C#. Just Python and Ruby, with a little bit of C++. I can try to help with whoever needs it, as I've got time to kill. I would like to throw this food for thought out there as far as the time goes: What I seem to be hearing is something akin to XCOM's model just with a pause button added.

[sublight]

Ok, we now have a github repository:
HTTP Repository Link: https://github.com/PsiDog/Pulsar4x.git
SSH Repository Link: git@github.com:PsiDog/Pulsar4x.git

On the UI: Spartan is good, for now. Gameplay first, graphics 2nd.

We ought to plan a real-time Developer brain storm session or two to clarify expectations and direction. Voice communication would probably be the most efficient, but text would be a lot easiest to set up. Thoughts?

[DizzyFoxkit]

Well, Skype or Teamspeak would work, if you just want to set up text, I believe there is an aurora irc somewhere iirc. Teamspeak servers are free, but a little clunky. While skype is not very clunky and does have both text and voice for conference calls.

[Antagonist (OP)]

I have IRC and the Aurora channel is on my autojoin list.

As for voice I have skype, just not always with headphones on me.  Teamspeak is possible, tho I'd have to install that again.

I'll see about getting git to work in the morning.

[Nathan_]

IRC and skype will work for me, but I haven't got a mic so I'd be using the chat functionality there.

[clement]

I have skype, don't have teamspeak would have to get that set up.

[Antagonist (OP)]

Writing this while waiting for github for windows to install...

About organisation, i hate formal titles and all but it is true that developers will tend to fall within certain roles in this project. Multiple people may fill a single role and a single person may fill multiple roles, but this I feel is a good initial guide for work subdivision:

Project Head - Creates repos and takes basic responsibility (sublight?)
Build Manager - Primary responsibility for project and build files. Confirms mono compatibility.
UI Dev - Developer(s) of the winforms UI as well as the viewmodels to connect UI to the backend
Simulation Dev - Developer(s) of the simulation and updates, orbits, ship movement, population and resource growth
(Combat Dev) - Developer(s) of the combat system, weapons, targetting, damage and such
Generation Dev - Generation of realistic star systems (interest from myself and clement)
(Scripting System Dev) - If we are doing scripting, a developer needs to maintain the bindings
(Scripting Dev) - Maintains the script and data files
(AI Dev) - Developer(s) of the AI

Meta-Maintainer - Maintainer of ticket system, wiki and such
UI Designer - Mockups and designs for the UI.  Doesn't need C# experience
Economy Designer - What planets do
Ships and Technology Designer - What you can research and what it means, how subsystems on ships interact
Artist - Not a graphics intensive app, but we still need icons and such at the LEAST
Sound - While default windows tones can be used, it is possible to do better
(Testers) - Eventually we need someone to make sure everything works the way we intend it


Those in () brackets imply only needed later in project.
This is propably horribly incomplete, but these are the 'roles' I can think of right now.
There are several tasks we need help with that does not involve programming, largely around the side of design which is an especially critical aspect right now.  We are currently working off of an assumption of: 'Like Aurora unless said otherwise' I suppose though.

EDIT:
I threw together this: http://pulsar4x.pentarch.org/wiki/index.php?title=Source_Code

I would like to get the basic solution and project structure up asap. I dunno when we'll be able to get the devs together for a chat, but I don't think too many disagree with my proposed structure here. MrBear suggested splitting the Lib project into multiple projects, but I agree with clement in that others can be extracted later.  Test and installer projects are possible 3rd and 4th projects that will happen, but those won't affect the structure of the basic gameplay.

I'm considering doing a quick WPF UI as a side-project on the repo simply because I find it faster to prototype with it as output for testing mechanics.  Since we want cross-platform compatibility though Winforms will remain the main supported UI.

[SnopyDogy]

Like Clement I have Skype but not Teamspeak, can set it up if thats what we want to use tho.

[HaliRyan]

I'd personally rather use skype than teamspeak, but will go with whatever's chosen.

[Antagonist (OP)]

I'm hearing a lot of everyone saying they have and are willing to use Skype and noone against. Best way to do this might be to send Skype usernames to a single person who adds them, as we join in conference calls and such we'll get access to everyone else's.  Not sure whether sublight wants to take care of this or we should appoint a communications officer?  Or just post skype usernames here


As an aside, github is setup and working fine here, I can download and push changes fine. This pretty much solves any issues I had about it before.

[sublight]

Skype it will be.
I guess organizing communication is a Project Head responsibility. I can do that.
Time: Also send when you are available. Best times for me is this hour and 12 hours from now: but I'm flexible.

I can wear a 2nd hat besides Project Head. Simulation Dev and/or Ships and Technology Designer are of greatest interest to me.