Aurora 4x

VB6 Aurora => VB6 Mechanics => Topic started by: CaptainBipto on November 15, 2014, 05:16:45 PM

Title: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: CaptainBipto on November 15, 2014, 05:16:45 PM
Hey guys! Sorry to bug you Steve I am not sure if my PM i sent to you about half an hour ago actually went thru due to my dodgy internet connection.  I have run into the perpetual 5 second interval and if possible pls PM me the Designer password so I can get my game back on track! My apologies if you did get my PM but my outbox didn't show anything.  Thanks again for the game!!!!
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: 83athom on November 15, 2014, 05:58:54 PM
There is none, just hit OK.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: CaptainBipto on November 15, 2014, 07:58:00 PM
Hmm I tried that and it said no valid password.   Is that normal? Thanks btw!
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: Witty on November 15, 2014, 10:07:04 PM
Yeah I'm not entirely sure what Athom is talking about. There definitely is a password.

I don't know it personally, and I don't think anyone besides Steve is able to distribute it without getting into trouble. Steve himself hasn't been in these forums for over a month however, so you may have to wait a bit to get it.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: CaptainBipto on November 15, 2014, 10:32:19 PM
He gave it to me a looooong time ago but that PM disappeared:(
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: 83athom on November 15, 2014, 11:48:26 PM
I am sure there isn't one, I just tried going into SM and when it asked for a password, I just clicked OK and it accepted it.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: MarcAFK on November 15, 2014, 11:57:59 PM
I am sure there isn't one, I just tried going into SM and when it asked for a password, I just clicked OK and it accepted it.
That's spacemaster mode, there's no password for that unless you set one at the start of the game.
Designer mode lets you alter the database, which can cause undesirable bugs. Steve won't give you any help for problems you encounter if you gave altered the database, he avoids giving to password out to prevent erroneous bug reports.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: letsdance on November 16, 2014, 03:28:48 AM
i asked him for the pw a few months ago. i guess he doesn't read PMs here, because i got no reply at all. i didn't try email. i'd like to mod the game =)
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: CaptainBipto on November 16, 2014, 03:58:21 AM
I sent him an email just now:p

I'm sticking with this game.  Maybe next time if I can't get the pword. . . I'll stock my game with SM races.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: sloanjh on November 16, 2014, 09:07:35 AM
That's spacemaster mode, there's no password for that unless you set one at the start of the game.
Designer mode lets you alter the database, which can cause undesirable bugs. Steve won't give you any help for problems you encounter if you gave altered the database, he avoids giving to password out to prevent erroneous bug reports.

A little more detail: Designer mode allows you to "see" (and give orders to) computer-controlled NPR empires in the GUI as if they were player-controlled NPRs.  Since the AI makes assumptions about what the empires it controls are doing, if you change the state of the computer-controlled empire (i.e. give orders or (possibly) delete things) it can break the AI, generating the erroneous bug reports that Steve wants to prevent.

John
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: CaptainBipto on November 16, 2014, 02:38:26 PM
In SM I managed to find the fight dragging out my game.  A NPR encountered some ships called Pirate Alpha, Charlie and Bravo.   The NPR ships would see pirate alpha on active but not do anything :(
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: MarcAFK on November 17, 2014, 08:01:44 AM
I thought I already posted this, but in the logs you can see information about NPRs that isn't viewable in SM mode.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: 83athom on November 17, 2014, 08:19:48 AM
i asked him for the pw a few months ago. i guess he doesn't read PMs here, because i got no reply at all. i didn't try email. i'd like to mod the game =)
What kind of mod are you going to do?
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: letsdance on November 19, 2014, 11:52:13 AM
What kind of mod are you going to do?
since it don't have the pw, none it seems =)

if i had the pw it depends on what's all in the database. i'd like to mod engines as in my suggestions thread, and remove the 10x size factor for commercial designs (by reducing the size of such components), and remove commercial shipyards. probably also the cost of some techs. but it all depends on what's possible and i don't know that.
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: boggo2300 on November 19, 2014, 02:45:41 PM
You do realise the Database and Developer passwords are different?

or aren't they anymore?

Matt
Title: Re: Request for the Designer Mode Password
Post by: Steve Walmsley on November 25, 2014, 11:05:59 AM
There are three passwords:

Spacemaster: Entered at the start of a game and set up by whoever creates the game

Designer: Which allows you to see NPRs as if there were player races. There are two major issues with using this:
1) It takes away the fog of war because you can now see everything about the NPRs, including their location, ship designs, colonies, etc. Fog of War adds a lot to the fun of Aurora, which means that using designer mode will take away a lot of the fun. Once you know information about NPRs, you can't unlearn it so this is a permanent reduction in the fun element.
2) NPRs rely on certain things (Fleets, colonies, systems, etc) being in place and if you change those things, you can crash the game or cause bugs.

Database: This is where you can really screw things up :). Without a UI there is no safety net that will ensure you can't delete or change something critical. If you access the database directly, you are changing data without any safeguards on what will be affected and it is really easy to corrupt your entire installation, not just one game.