Ultima Ratio Regum development feedback

[UltimaRatioRegum]

@ Endorya - oh, yeah, I'd definitely add other stuff for the mouse too. That kind of hover/RMB system is the kind of thing I imagined for it. Interesting combo preference - hitting 'N' will let you use those keys, though obviously no mouse control yet. I'll definitely look into adding the mouse support, though, as I realize a lot of people would like it rather than keyboard purism!

@ Minotauros - thanks for the two posts. Yeah, I'm going to at least remove a single button-press from the looking system and just have it display what's on the tile automatically. That's the current thinking, but we'll see what else can be done. I agree re: changing the name; will implement. I did have a similar idea, as 'g'rabbing a block does mention in the message log what type it is anyway, but I agree there's no harm in adding another system for that. You've read my mind for the implementation of certain traps for "wrong" answers - I might be adding that in this release, since traps in general are the focus for 0.4's release. I'm not sure I agree about ambiguous hints though - I'm going to be uploading the first part of a retrospective on 0.3 next week, but making sure solutions were cryptic, but unambiguous, was a crucial part of the design. Similarly, if there IS a trap-based punishment for an incorrect answer, you shouldn't ever have to rely on trial and error!

A fellow Borges nut, excellent! There's going to be a lot of Borgesian weirdness, rest assured. We won't see any in the next release, but 0.5 is going to start implementing some hints in that direction. That's weird re: Wine; I've had some people say it works fine, and some like your comment say it's unplayable. Strange. Thanks for the link - is there anything else on the topic you can throw my way? I know *nothing* of Linux, and I'm not even totally sure what the "byte code" in this context means, though I really do want to get a Linux version out. Does the PYC (if that's correct) mean it can't just be opened in a text editor?

Also, that's an awesome list. In the future I intend to add a lot of murals and other graphics to dungeons, and that's a really nice bit of inspiration I've not seen. They will also have gameplay use, I feel compelled to add, rather than being merely pretty decoration...

[AgingMinotaur]

Byte code is the same as *.pyc. If you open it in a text editor, it comes out mostly as garbled machine language, although variable names (and strings?) seem to be intact. As far as I've understood, *.pyc files can be "reverse engineered" in some sense, but not without jumping through hoops, and they're not human readable in themselves.

For example, try to download this: http://www.midboss.net/download/MidBoss_Other.zip and see if you can manage to read the code. (To actually run it, you need Pygame.)

Sadly, I don't know of any way to "compile" a Python script for Linux, so if you want a working Linux version, I think your only viable option is to distribute the *.pyc-files in one way or the other. There exists the equivalent of installers for Linux (with file extensions *.deb or *.rpm), but these are mostly for convenience – the user will still end up with all the *.pycs on his or her hard drive.

Regarding Wine, people having different experience may have to do with the individual setup, running different versions of Wine and so forth. But I'm guessing it's a hardware issue in many cases. Me, I'm sitting on a venerable netbook, hardly a gamer's machine. It's normal for Wine to run slower than Windows, but users with powerful hardware might simply not get noticeable lag.

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

I looked a bit more into this, and it seems there are ways to freeze Python scripts into "pure" executables, also for Linux. Read more eg. here and here. I guess I'd look into cx_Freeze, if I were in your shoes. Sorry for misleading you earlier As you can tell, I'm talking out of my arse

As always,
Minotauros

[UltimaRatioRegum]

Many thanks for the info. Interesting re: Wine - I think you're right about varying performance from different setups. It's just another good reason to get a Linux version... but at the same time, another good reason to continue optimizing the game. Hopefully I can hack out saving times quite a bit by multithreading it so that when you start moving on the Travel map, it saves the previous grid in the background whilst you move. Loading can be sped up a little, but I think saving can be improved quite a lot more.

Right, freeze must be the one to look at then. Hopefully it works *from* Windows, rather than having to compile on Linux, but a quick Google suggests you have to be running it on the system you want the compiled version for. We'll see. Haha, no worries about said arse-talking. It's not like I have the slightest idea about this Linux whatnot . It'll have to come last though, since at the moment I'm busy working on the mechanics for 0.4. Developing traps is proving a lot of fun...

[Gr3yling]

Your games looks very beautiful, Ultima.  It really is ascii art.  Just wanted to say that I am impressed with it.

[tangoliber]

I'm very excited for this project.  I love Borges and world simulation.  I'm not really sure where this game is going to go, but I love your influences.   
Obviously, it is very beautiful too.

[JollyRoger]

I really admire your skill to make true art from basic symbols.