Another simple improvement
 

Is there any way we could get the magic item inventory to be interactive? I realise this would take some attention from Johan, but it would be nice if we could play with/organize our magical items. It's a very small thing, I realize, but it would be a nice feature if this were improved.

The simplest way to do this would just be to allow us to grab-and-drag items within the magic item "box" and then press a key/drag them to an icon to assign them. It's alright the way things currently are, and there are definitely other things which require more immediate attention, but it'd be nice to be able to fiddle with our spare items while thinking.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Im not sure if drag-n-drop would work. Thats kindof a windowsy thing isnt it?

Re: Another simple improvement
 

It's a GUI thing, Gandalf. If you play Dom III via CLI I will be very impressed.

Personally, I would love some polishing done to the interface. The right libraries make it easy to do in almost any language. The trick here would be to make it portable since you have to allow for crazy Winders in addition to X11 for Linux and Mac.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

It seems like whatever its programmed on comes out ahead and whatever its ported to loses a few things. The D-n-D thing seems to happen automatically on programs written on windows.

Im sure it can still be done, just something abit more manual.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Dominions uses the SDL library, and only the SDL library - no ..-widgets, no GTK or something else ... do you really expect ONE hobby programmer to be able to be "fluent" with those as well, especially if he has a life? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif


http://www.libsdl.org/pipermail/sdl/...er/071467.html

[SDL] Drag and Drop
Paulo A Ferreira paulo at novisnet.pt
Sun Dec 4 04:10:54 PST 2005

Benjamin Grauer wrote:
>
> Hi there
>
> i was wondering, it there was some simple SDL-like trick to get DnD
> (Drag and Drop) running, so i can drop some file-links fron
> konqueror/MS-Explorer/etc. into my SDL-app??

Maybe this can help you ?

http://www.libsdl.org/projects/scrap/


Scrap 1.0

Author: Sam Lantinga
Source: scrap-1.0.tar.gz
Requires: SDL 1.0
Runs on: Linux, Win32

Description:
An example of cut-and-paste in an SDL application, using the platform-specific window message hooks SDL provides.

Instructions:
Unpack, and build. Run "scrap example.bmp" in one window, and then the program "scrap" in another window. They both will display the same image, copied from the clipboard.



As one can see, there's the critical "Mac" missing from the "runs on" list ...



http://www.libsdl.org/pipermail/sdl/...er/064976.html

[SDL] Drag and Drop
Paulo Pinto pjmlp at progtools.org

squale wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I want to know if any of you has ever programmed a drag and drop
>behaviour in something like card games, bacjgammon or chess...
>
>In that case could you please tell me the way you did it and if you
>have any source about this (URL, code sample...) it would be greatly
>appreciated !
>
>thanx

Hi,

You should do something like this:

- When you get a click event, check if the mouse
if over a moveable object, say a card. Change into
grabbing mode;

- While in grabbing mode, when the user moves
the mouse, update the object location to reflect the
movement;

- When the user releases the mouse button, return
to normal mouse mode.

The refered normal/grabbing modes are something
that you have to keep track of.

Cheers,
Paulo



Doesn't work as well I think - the icons of the items are likely not "objects" in that sense, but simply bitmaps loaded into a pre-made grid ... nothing to grab here.
This doesn't mean it can't be done, but it's unlikely: Johan does not like coding GUI (its a pain with C/C++, even if you're using SDL or Allegro Library or some widget pack), there are some urgend bugs to fix, and this would be prone to induce lots of new ones ...

What might be much easier done would be auto-sorting, preferably in the very same order the items are on the commanders:
Weapons, Shields, Helmets, Armors, Boots, Misc.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

That would atleast be a great improvement, but I hope we get objects by Dom4. If I were Johan, by the way, I'd hire someone to do all the grunge programming he doesn't like to do, like C/C++.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

HoneyBadger: I think you overestimate the amount of money dom3 generate for illwinter, or underestimate the cost of hiring someone for such a task.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

I suspect that some things would involve such a "start from scratch" that we would end up seeing Johan move on to one of his other game ideas rather than dong a complete rewrite for Dom4.
Just guessing.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Well, you would know better than I, Johan, but I wouldn't bet money against there being one or two fans of the game out there who are quite good with C/C++ and would be only too happy to work on the game-even the drudgework of the game-as an internship project, or as research for a college thesus, and I'll bet there's one or two working at McDonalds that haven't landed a company contract and would rather be programming for minimum wage than flipping burgers. I'd also hazard a guess that in Sweden it's harder to find good programmers for less than it is in the US. I know that a lot of us here-myself included-would love to be involved more directly in the production of the game, it's just the question of getting our backsides on to your couch http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
You're a fine, extremely hard-working programmer, Johan, and the pressure on you must be enormous. I love the game you've created, dearly, and I want to see it continue and flourish, without causing you any undo stress. I don't know you as a human being, but from what I do know, you certainly deserve to enjoy the fruits of your labor and watch your Dom3 baby grow in beautiful directions without having to break your back in the process. I hope you'll understand that I'm just trying to think of ways to help you achieve that. And thank you, by the way, for all that you have done so far. We're all grateful.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Actually thats a different Johan. He is the brother of Kristoffer.

But personally, Ive managed programmers. And your post made me smile.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Oh, well, you know which Johan I mean, and so do the relevant Johans, and I believe the other Johan helped as well with Dom3? Anyway, before I confuse myself too much with all the Johans, I haven't managed programmers before (but I have managed plenty of angry fliers, and programmers couldn't possibly be worse than angry confused jetlaggers in the middle of a snowstorm), and I'm sure they can be difficult, but any specifics that you'd like to share, though?

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Programmers dont tend to work well together. Apparently its true of many creative skills where each person is sure that their way is best.

One of the jokes is that managing programmers is like herding cats. You stand behind them, wave your arms, make lots of noise, and then hope that ONE of them ends up where you wanted them. (in other words they dont move together well)

What it would take for another programmer to write code then have them work to insert it.. Im sorry but it makes me smile. Now that I think of it, Johan is probably doing things in the best possible way. He has put lots of effort into allowing more and more MOD commands which allows outside volunteer programmers to make things for the game. That has achieved more than might have happened from the same amount of time trying to work with someone else.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Yes, I definitely agree about the mod commands. The more the merrier. I have cats, and as far as herding them, we use food for that, which I've heard also works for programmers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Right, programmers love to eat. They don't need to eat as much as 1000 people (and they even can't eat as much as 1000 people), but they still love to have enough money to eat as much as 1000 people http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Another simple improvement
 

I agree... Johan and Kristofer are heroes in my book for creating such a wonderful game! Many of us are from the software and would be glad to help.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

In Dom terms it's called "Gluttony".
For example Bill gates is Gluttony (10000000000) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Yes, but if Bill Gates was working for Illwinter, he wouldn't be doing it for the money. Not everyone out there-not even Bill Gates anymore-is motivated by greed, or contrariness for that matter. You can say what you want about programmers, or lawyers, or cooks, or gamers, or people who eat hotdogs for a living, one thing I know, irrefutably: for every steriotype, even if you list them off for the next thousand years, there's always an exception.

Re: Another simple improvement
 

Sure, but
1/ That's why Bill gates doesn't work for IW
2/ Anyway I understand he isn't motivated by greed *anymore* since he's billionnaire since long now
3/ That was meant to be humor, not serious, and I didn't want to offend programmers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif