CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

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CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 12 Nov 2009, 07:39

Here's CoCoNet 0.9.9:

CoCoNet Installer 0.9.9.exe

Changelog:
- New: Fullscreen mode is back.
- New: Window fully sizable.
- Fixed: Zoom 2x is now only available for devices supporting big textures (> 2048x2048).

Can you test it and send me your "Logs" folder if it crashes?
Thank you!
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Monty » 12 Nov 2009, 10:03

had a quick look at it and it seems to work great! :D
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 12 Nov 2009, 21:59

Thank you very much for your time. You tried before going at work? :wink: I think we are almost in the same timezone?
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Monty » 13 Nov 2009, 02:16

no, it changes as i'm an eternal student :roll:
i just kind of revived my studies as they gave me a deadline now.
i'm working 3 days per week in the evening though (17-24 h).

btw.: where is the load dialog? i can save a game but not load...obviously it's intentional or is it not ready so far?
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 13 Nov 2009, 02:37

Monty wrote:btw.: where is the load dialog? i can save a game but not load...obviously it's intentional or is it not ready so far?

The "load" feature is ready, you can find it in the combo box of the game type:
- Standard
- Scenario
- Saved game

Let me know if it works fine for you!

Edit: When loading a saved game, you can change the player type for each major, so you can finish a game if your friend can't play anymore for example.
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Symoon » 13 Nov 2009, 11:35

Game completed fine in a solo game against computers here ! (on a 1.5 years-old computer)

Too bad it won't work on older graphic cards, would some lower graphic option allow Coconet to run, or would it be too much pain to program for only a few players ?

Anyway, first things first: the bugs. Well, I didn't notice any, congratulations ;-)
Only small thing: I think the neutal countries' flag are sometimes too hard to notice. For instance, see South Africa: one has to guess where to click to go there.
Also, nothing dramatic here but it would be cool to have somewhere a reminder that Spring is the building phase. Like "building phase" in the top of screen, next to "give your orders". Yes, I know, there's the statisitcs display as reminder, but (maybe I'm not focused enough) I missed the building phase 2 or 3 times during the game. I was focused on moving my troops and ships and suddenly realised I forgot to build on the previous season.

Anyway, great work indeed. All those options, the new graphics, everything is excellent.
I'll try to find some distant players and let you know what happens :-)
thanks a lot Kroah !
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Monty » 13 Nov 2009, 13:04

cosmetical: the info box has a little bit too less width for the name "equatorial africa"
the load dialog: my fault, i overlooked it at the start screen. but wouldn't anyone expect a load opportunity (additionally) in the "file" section?

can you give a little explanation about the test ai? what have you implemented there? i can't say much about it but it seems to be more aggressive than the st version (like attacking the human player without being attacked before even if the player has low victory points). what's the algorithm behind it compared to the other versions? early retreats still seem to happen (not 100% sure).
and you implemented the thing, that a target of yours isn't attacked if the major country who occupies it changes during the battle phase and before you attack it, didn't you? (result: no unwanted war)

do you plan to further enhance the game by giving more options concerning the starting conditions?
i'm referring to my very first post about colonial conquest...

greetz, monty
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 13 Nov 2009, 15:51

Symoon wrote:Game completed fine in a solo game against computers here ! (on a 1.5 years-old computer)

Cool! Did you try loading a game?

Symoon wrote:Too bad it won't work on older graphic cards, would some lower graphic option allow Coconet to run, or would it be too much pain to program for only a few players ?

I tried 2 alternatives:
- GDI+: no need for 3D card, average performance at 640x480 (40 fps), poor performance beyond that (10 fps). My desktop resolution is 1920x1200.
- D3D: need a "little" 3D card (GeForce 4 Ti, ATI having more trouble), good performance for all resolutions.

Even if i remove all 3D fancy effects, it's still a problem for old cards because they miss the pixel/vertex shader processor (needed to render a single triangle).

The map is drawn differently between the software rendering method with GDI+ and the D3D pipeline. I'll try something with GDI+ but i think i will get 10 fps at best.

Symoon wrote:Only small thing: I think the neutal countries' flag are sometimes too hard to notice. For instance, see South Africa: one has to guess where to click to go there.

You mean for Spying, Ecocomic Aid or Subversion? If so, i'll make the transparent hint less transparent.

Symoon wrote:Also, nothing dramatic here but it would be cool to have somewhere a reminder that Spring is the building phase. Like "building phase" in the top of screen, next to "give your orders". Yes, I know, there's the statisitcs display as reminder, but (maybe I'm not focused enough) I missed the building phase 2 or 3 times during the game. I was focused on moving my troops and ships and suddenly realised I forgot to build on the previous season.

You're right, i missed it several times too. You've good suggestions, i'll try them.

Monty wrote:cosmetical: the info box has a little bit too less width for the name "equatorial africa"

Good one. Fixed!

Monty wrote:the load dialog: my fault, i overlooked it at the start screen. but wouldn't anyone expect a load opportunity (additionally) in the "file" section?

I thought about that, but it's a lot of coding because of the client/server framework (closing connections, waiting for the system to release the ressources, opening back the connections...). But i can change the game type combo-box to a list box. This way "Saved Game" will be visible right away. What do you think of that.

Monty wrote:can you give a little explanation about the test ai? what have you implemented there? i can't say much about it but it seems to be more aggressive than the st version (like attacking the human player without being attacked before even if the player has low victory points). what's the algorithm behind it compared to the other versions? early retreats still seem to happen (not 100% sure).

In fact this AI is exactly the same as the 800XL AI but without the diplomacy part (so unfinished).
I added this AI to test (and show) how to add an AI at the runtime. You can see this AI source code in the "AI Plugins" folder. It's compiled at runtime.

Actually, without the CoCoNet source code and visual studio (coding hint & compiling help), it's hard for anyone to change/create a new AI.

But the idea behind this is to develop an AI with the full source code of CoCoNet, then to put the AI in the "AI Plugins" folder of the server binary (without compiling CoCoNet). When a client connect to a server, the client downloads automatically all the files located in the "AI Plugins" folder of the server, then the client is relaunched to compile all the new AI.

This way it's easy to share new AI:
- without sending manually all the files to clients.
- without recompiling CoCoNet and having N version of CoCoNet because each one has it's own AI.

Monty wrote:and you implemented the thing, that a target of yours isn't attacked if the major country who occupies it changes during the battle phase and before you attack it, didn't you? (result: no unwanted war)

Yes exactly. I did that because <right now> i don't see any advantage to attack an area for which the owner has changed between the moment the order was given (the player turn) and the battle. When i played in my childhood with my brother, we started again a LOT of games because a war was unintentionally declared against a level 9 AI...

Monty wrote:do you plan to further enhance the game by giving more options concerning the starting conditions? i'm referring to my very first post about colonial conquest...

I confess i should read all the posts/mails again to gather all ideas/suggestions. As soon as the GDI/D3D problem is solved, i'll compile a list of all of them. Thanks to point this out!

And again, thanks to both of you for your time and support, it helps a lot!
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Monty » 13 Nov 2009, 16:32

Kroah wrote:Yes exactly. I did that because <right now> i don't see any advantage to attack an area for which the owner has changed between the moment the order was given (the player turn) and the battle. When i played in my childhood with my brother, we started again a LOT of games because a war was unintentionally declared against a level 9 AI...

i see your point and i like it as the default setting. i think i mentioned it earlier in some thread (have to re-read them all again, too :) ), that there can be strategical reasons that make you want to occupy a country at all costs. for example if you want to conquer an enemies factory in winter (maybe by surprise attack) and then fortify it immediately in spring. for that scenario i suggested an additional entry in the attack window, where you can check a box to "attack in any case". by default, that box would be unchecked of course.

and i have to thank you, because your work is SO cool!
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 13 Nov 2009, 19:10

Monty wrote:for that scenario i suggested an additional entry in the attack window, where you can check a box to "attack in any case". by default, that box would be unchecked of course.


Yes, we have already discussed about this stuff some months ago. Unfortunately i hadn't any idea how to implement it in the interface.
Your idea is really good imho, not an additional option in the menu but an easy and fast way to enable it. I don't know why i hadn't thought about this earlier. I will certainly add it, thanks!
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Symoon » 13 Nov 2009, 22:11

Kroah wrote:
Symoon wrote:Game completed fine in a solo game against computers here ! (on a 1.5 years-old computer)

Cool! Did you try loading a game?

Yes I did, it worked like a charm.

Kroah wrote:
Symoon wrote:Only small thing: I think the neutal countries' flag are sometimes too hard to notice. For instance, see South Africa: one has to guess where to click to go there.

You mean for Spying, Ecocomic Aid or Subversion? If so, i'll make the transparent hint less transparent.

Yes that's it. In South Africa the "flag" is invisible !

Cheers
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 14 Nov 2009, 03:09

Monty wrote:for that scenario i suggested an additional entry in the attack window, where you can check a box to "attack in any case". by default, that box would be unchecked of course.

Hum, any idea for the name of this option? Something in 1 or 2 words, I'm out of idea :? .
Presently, i use your suggestion "Attack in any case".

Question:
Do you think the army & navy lines should be swapped in the "move navy" dialog box?
Actually, you use first the navy buttons (below) then the army buttons (above).
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Kroah » 14 Nov 2009, 04:26

I can name it "Return if owner changed" otherwise? (checked by default)
CoCoNet.png
CoCoNet.png (22.6 KiB) Viewed 7568 times
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Monty » 14 Nov 2009, 09:37

Kroah wrote:Hum, any idea for the name of this option? Something in 1 or 2 words, I'm out of idea :? .
Presently, i use your suggestion "Attack in any case".

i thought about that too and the only thing i came up with was something like "forced attack" or "force attack".
Kroah wrote:Question:
Do you think the army & navy lines should be swapped in the "move navy" dialog box?
Actually, you use first the navy buttons (below) then the army buttons (above).

it's a valid question, but after thinking about it i think it should stay in the used order. never was irritated by it so why change it...
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Re: CoCoNet 0.9.9 released

Postby Symoon » 14 Nov 2009, 11:21

Kroah wrote:Hum, any idea for the name of this option? Something in 1 or 2 words, I'm out of idea :? .
Presently, i use your suggestion "Attack in any case".


Quite complicated actually, it should let the player understand what he's checking in a few words. Something like "Attack even if owner changed".
Would there be a menu option to set up this choice by default ? This would let the checkbox always checked according to the player global choice, but could let him change it for specific attacks.
EDIT: Ok, just read above, there's a general default option, and checking the box will be the exception. That seems fine, things should not be too complicated to setup before playing.

BTW, just to drive you crazy, an option "return if the owner changed and I'm not at war with him" would be nice... No, stop, I'm kidding ;-)
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