The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.

[Ruatha]

Q:So what's up with 0.8, whats taking so long time??
A: It's been totally reprogramed again, from the foundation and up.
The GUI has nothing in common with v 0.76.
I'm currently doing the individual game companions, then I'll make the settings screen and the set-up wizard.
Enhance the alert screen and add some sound alerts and make the help and readme file.
Then I'll playtest it for a week before I release it.

Q: That seems like a lot, when do you expect to release 0.8, next year?
A: Nah, in 4 weeks at most.

Q:What are these new features I've heard about?
A:Not very many. Those that existed has been improved, it now alerts for PBW game news, nag mails and other PBW type mails.
It can warn for deadline approaching and has quick links to the games PBW game forum.
And, it got a function that easily enables IRC contact with the SE4 channel, that works really good.
But above all else, it's easier to use, less clutter and more logic in the UI.

Q: 0.76 sucked bigtime, should I really try 0.8?
A:Yes, it's a completely different program, try it when it's released, you'll like it!

[ July 21, 2004, 06:26: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Slynky]

I'm still interested. 'Ppreciate your hard work!

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
OK, just figured out how to get it working- fantastic! I can't wait for my PBW turns to be readt so I can play with it some more!

Are you still looking for more features to add to this beast? If so, I have one:

Could yo link it somehow to the game forum at PBW for the games listed in the PBWfavourites list? I hate going through all the clicks needed to access a game forum, especially when you go to all that trouble and there are no new Messages.
Wouldn't necessarily need the ability to post there, but just to see what's new and then a direct link to open the forum in my preferred browser.

I have more sugestions too, but they would probably belong in another prgram.

Now it (v 0.8) can access the individual game forums on PBW, with a click.
No need to enter username or password or browse through several pages.
What where those other suggestions you had??


-------------
These are the features of the SE4 Companion:

Easy starting of modded games, simply dubbelclick on the game in the gamelist.

No need to enter game passwords, enter it once and start the games in the future with one click.

Use for PBW games or single player games.

Use several different Versions of SE4.

Scan PBW on-line for new turns, new game news, see how many players are left to upload.

Easy access to the PBW game forum for your individual games.

Automatic download of PBW turns.

Easy upload to the PBW site on-line.

Scan your POP3 mail box for new turns, nag mails or other PBW related mails.

Be alerted when you've got new mails. (General mail alerter)

Automatic download and unpack of mailed turns.

Automatic deletion of Turn mails, nag mails other PBW mails.

Autostart games when they are downloaded.

Automatic upload of finished games to the PBW site, or by mail.

Set your own deadline alert time. (hours before deadline)

A easy to use specialized notepad, called sidenotes, that can be autostarted each time the game is started.

Easy insertion of turn number, game date, players and empires in the sidenotes.

A easy to use history event editor, copy incoming and outgoing game diplomacy from SE4 to the event editor, and you will be able to see these Messages in the coming turns, in-game!

Copy history file to HTML or Excel format or print it.

Launch any external file or program by a single click, or have it automaticly launched when your game is started.

Make individual music lists with mp3, midi or wave songs to any of your games, have it autoplay when the game is started.

Run games as host by a single click, see it execute and finish without further input from you!

Easy access to the #SE4 channel on IRC, with a handy alert if anyone has posted there the Last minutes.

Work through a firewall by setting up a proxy.

Be alerted for new turns either by audio and or by a pop-up, flashing keyboard leds, on-screen text or a discreet change of application icon.

Password protect the entire application, or have it hide all passwords, or run it totally open.

Easy set-up through a set-up wizard.

Just about everything is user changable, new PBW adress? Change it in the settings screen!

Autosearch for mods and games when a new se4 Version is choosen.

Autoscan the harddrives for se4 Versions, games and mods and autoinstall them.

[ July 22, 2004, 06:14: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[dogscoff]

Wow... love that feature list... just beautiful. Ruatha I owe you many many pints.

Other suggestions? OK, you asked for it, but remember I did say they probably belong in an other program:

-Scan through All race AI files automatically and either flag up or fix all those missing lines that generate annoying error Messages in-game. I imagine this would be a pain to implement in a program that supports several Versions of SE4.

-Option to scan pictures/races and subfolders and delete any superfluous copies of the styletester program: It's easy to end up with many redundant copies of this eating up your HD space. Some ppl might want a copy in each and every race folder, so there should be an option to copy it in, too.

-Option to create empty race folders in mod directory - ie I have a shipset in pictures/races/vikings but in order to use the shipset in adamant mod I need an empty adamant/pictures/races/vikings folder.

-Some kind of support for the modinfo files for Maryx's modlauncher.

-scan all the general.txt AI files and look for missing dsgnname files, then copy them to mod subfolders where appropriate, and create a list of files that need to be found and downloaded.

-Race-style browser. (including an option to spit out a list of which installed mods and races are fully or partially neo-standard compliant or neo++ compliant, perhaps with some kind of races/mod compatibility table spit out at the bottom, so you can see which shipsets will look best under which mods.)

-(Not sure if this is possible) Option to look at your PBW games (either from the website or the saegame files) and determine what race styles you need to download. This ties in quite nicely with the following sugestion:

-(This one is really way out, and would probably require some kind of server somewhere, I think) Option to somehow scan the readme.txt, credits.txt and modlancher files of races and mods to determine what Version is currently installed. Then it either connects to a central server (and/or the SotAS site) or it searches for a URL in the local readme files and tries to determine whether a more up to date Version is available, then downloads, unzips and installs it.

If I think of any more i'll let you know.

[ July 22, 2004, 10:56: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Wow... love that feature list... just beautiful. .

Other suggestions? OK, you asked for it, but remember I did say they probably belong in an other program:

-Scan through All race AI files automatically and either flag up or fix all those missing lines that generate annoying error Messages in-game. I imagine this would be a pain to implement in a program that supports several Versions of SE4.

-Option to scan pictures/races and subfolders and delete any superfluous copies of the styletester program: It's easy to end up with many redundant copies of this eating up your HD space. Some ppl might want a copy in each and every race folder, so there should be an option to copy it in, too.

-Option to create empty race folders in mod directory - ie I have a shipset in pictures/races/vikings but in order to use the shipset in adamant mod I need an empty adamant/pictures/races/vikings folder.


-scan all the general.txt AI files and look for missing dsgnname files, then copy them to mod subfolders where appropriate, and create a list of files that need to be found and downloaded.

-Race-style browser. (including an option to spit out a list of which installed mods and races are fully or partially neo-standard compliant or neo++ compliant, perhaps with some kind of races/mod compatibility table spit out at the bottom, so you can see which shipsets will look best under which mods.)

-(Not sure if this is possible) Option to look at your PBW games (either from the website or the saegame files) and determine what race styles you need to download. This ties in quite nicely with the following sugestion:

-(This one is really way out, and would probably require some kind of server somewhere, I think) Option to somehow scan the readme.txt, credits.txt and modlancher files of races and mods to determine what Version is currently installed. Then it either connects to a central server (and/or the SotAS site) or it searches for a URL in the local readme files and tries to determine whether a more up to date Version is available, then downloads, unzips and installs it.

If I think of any more i'll let you know.

-Some kind of support for the modinfo files for Maryx's modlauncher.
This is already included, it reads in the name and Version right now and uses everywhere. the rest info along with a button to the website from the modinfo.txt and the e-mail to the author of the mod can be reached through a click.

Ruatha I owe you many many pints
Let's save that until you've tried it....


-(Not sure if this is possible) Option to look at your PBW games (either from the website or the saegame files) and determine what race styles you need to download.
I'll try to prepare for this by scanning the registred shipsets that player has choosen when uploading their shipsets, not sure if this will be included in 0.8 as that is almost finished, but perhaps for 0.9.


As to the others...
When the companion is done, I'll try to make a "Fixit all" proggie, will make a button for it in the companion so that when it's done you can press that button in the companion to check all files and make shipset empty dirs in all mods.
It won't include everyting of the above but I think I can do most!
Thanks for the suggestions

[ July 24, 2004, 08:15: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

Added plug-in support.
Current plug-ins:
Map Editor
SE4 modder.
SE4 shooter

Planned plug-ins:
Drushoka-Man
Shipset/raceset viewer/browser.
Emty mod shipset directories maker.
AI files fixer.
styletester remover (Shipset cleaner)
PBW game shipset check (Player sets)

Will need some help later on in what's going to be included in each plug-in, will return on that topic after 0.8 is released.

Any executable file can be run as plug-in by writing a simple textfile and placing in the plug in directory, then you can get the parameters you want from the companion!
So Excel or netscape can be a plugin, anything.

This is the current plugin format (More path and parameter options will be added, to handle mods etc):
----------------

Files must end with .PLG and be placed in the COMPANION_RESOURCE\PLUGIN directory.
The files have atleast 5 lines, name, path, parameters, enabled and info.
The name is the name that is displayed in the companion
The path is the path to the plugin executable
in the path you may put :
[EXEPATH] to be replaced by the path to the choosen games se4.exe in the companion.

No paths are ended with a '\' so you must include that.
The third line is parameters, those are the parameters you wish the companion to apss to you, and they will be passed in the order you declare.
Parameters can be:
[EXEPATH] to be replaced by the path to the choosen games se4.exe in the companion.
[SAVEGAMEPATH] current savegamepath
[PLAYER] current playernumber
[PLAYERS] number of players in chosed game
[GAMENAME] name of gamefile
[GAMETITLE] Title of current game
[PLAYERNAMES] all playernames in current game surrounded by "
[EMPIRENAMES] all empirenames in current game surrounded by "

Then a line if the plug-in is enabled or not, disabled plug-ins won't show up in the companion
And then some info on the plug-in.

Plugins can be managed through any text editor or the plug-in editor in the settings page in the companion.
-----------------
Example (mapedit.plg):
NAME:MapEditor
PATH:[EXEPATH]\SE4MAP.exe
PARAMETERS:
ENABLED:YES
INFO:
The original SE4 map editor.
It will start the editor that exists in the currently selected games SE4 Version main directory, ie if the current game uses ver 1.91 it will start the map editor in the directory that contains the SE4.exe for ver 1.91.
-----------------


Can't do any work on it now for the next 24 hours do, am at work

EDIT: Now that I think of it, it could be possible to add se4.exe as a plug-in and make it start games that way, no use but it could.
And the Mod launcher aswell, no use but it could
A plugin for se4.exe would look like this:
-----------------
Example (se4exe.plg):
NAME:Space Empires IV Gold
PATH:[EXEPATH]\se4exe.exe
PARAMETERS:"[SAVEGAMEPATH]\[FILENAME]" " " "[PLAYER]" "[MODNAME]"
ENABLED:YES
INFO:
Play current game as single player without password, but with the games selected mod.
-----------------
(I'll include this as a plug-in, just to confuse people ), the companion itself modifies the path.txt to enable mods, not by the command line.

Will have to try this one when I come home:
-----------------
Example (shrapnel.plg):
NAME:Shrapnel SE4 Forum
PATH:http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...ubb=forum;f=23
PARAMETERS:
ENABLED:YES
INFO:
The Shrapnel SE4 forum where you will get all necessery help about anything!
-----------------

And ofcourse:
-----------------
Example (faq.plg):
NAME:SE4 FAQ (Frequently asked questions)
PATH:http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=005518
PARAMETERS:
ENABLED:YES
INFO:
The SE4 FAQ administred by Slick and Ruatha.
Any question regarding SE4, here is the answer.
-----------------

Any plugin (*.plg) files you want to see shipped with the release? A special link?
Post here or mail me.

To do (28/7):

//Set-up wizard
//Settings page
//Plug-in editor
// More plugin parameters
//Global error handler
//make del turn button in gamecomp
//mark players as dead when scanning file.
//Plug-in: empire upload, create new game, host upload, host download, change PBW game password,
//PBW settings from settings page
// doesn't count players left to uplaod correctly?
//earlier Versions of exe and savegames/Gam files
//Hide option for mods (Enabled in modinfo.txt) and games
//map editor changes path.txt
//Changes game in browser when downlaoding
//Changes game in browser when mail check
//Gamesort enable all options
//Rewrite OSD to delete text
//Fill in all default values
//Deadline alert form instead of showmessage
//Enable pop-up for nag-mail and misc PBW mails

28/7: When testing it on NT machine: don't write to registry, splash screen form causes error? or is it registry read?

[ July 28, 2004, 21:29: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

Whats left:

//Set-up wizard
//Settings page
//Plug-in editor
// More plugin parameters
//enable del turn button in gamecomp
//PBW settings from settings page
//earlier Versions of exe and savegames/Gam files (Re-install SE-4 and do all patches one by one, save exes and savegames)
//Rewrite OSD to delete text
//Fill in all default values
//Enable pop-up for nag-mail and misc PBW mails
//Global error handler for underprograms
//If fail to acces internet, release Scan button, bugfix.
//move files to resources
//misc mail Messages?
// Does proxy settings work??? Think now! Check!
// When adding extra savegamedir to mod, app locks up when accessing mod editor, bugfix.

Should be finished about on wednesday, then one and a half week of personal bug tracking while I finish the "Dogscoff plug-in pack" that hopefully will be shipped with the 0.8 release.

App currently tested on Win NT, Win 2K and win XP, will test on Win98 before release.

[ July 30, 2004, 16:02: Message edited by: Ruatha ]