Perking up the AI

[Ballbarian]

So much that I want to respond to, but I am rapidly running out of minutes before I have to get ready for work.

I am currently giving Python another look. Now I remember what held me back before. I think the language itself is not a problem, but I am struggling to decide on a GUI and have not found an IDE yet that peeks my interest. I quickly get frustrated with the minutia of coding UI objects like buttons and frames. I would much prefer to have a WYSIWYG editor for laying out components and generating the code in the background. There is likely a utility out there and I have just overlooked it at this point. Meanwhile, I will keep browsing.

das123,
What tool sets did you find useful when creating Dom3Bak? (Nice app btw!)

[lch]

Originally Posted by Ballbarian

I am currently giving Python another look. Now I remember what held me back before. I think the language itself is not a problem, but I am struggling to decide on a GUI and have not found an IDE yet that peeks my interest. I quickly get frustrated with the minutia of coding UI objects like buttons and frames. I would much prefer to have a WYSIWYG editor for laying out components and generating the code in the background. There is likely a utility out there and I have just overlooked it at this point.

In my experience, all IDEs fail at some point or the other. They do manage to get something out there quite fast, which looks close to what you want to have. But if you really want to get the GUI together like you imagined, then you won't be able to do that with a WYSIWYG editor alone, or at least not without spending an extreme amount of time to find out about every nook and corner.

That said, I am fairly sure that there should be some kind of GUI designer tool for the Qt port. And getting a GUI together with wx wasn't too hard. You will spend most of the time that you're programming on the GUI of course, no matter how complex the other code may be.

[das123]

Originally Posted by Ballbarian

das123,
What tool sets did you find useful when creating Dom3Bak? (Nice app btw!)

Thanks .

I hunted around for a while trying to find something similar to VB where you can just drag and drop components into a frame. Everything I read about GUI and Python was contradictory. I tried placing the components by code but was a pain. There are a number of GUI libraries for Python, but that also makes it tricky. In the end I found what many said was the simplest setup (and I agree with them):

• Latest Python
• wx Library
• Boa Constructor

All the work is done in Boa. You create a new application from the button bar by clicking new wx.App and it automatically brings in what you need. Click on Frame Designer and you're in WYSIWYG mode - dragging and dropping components into a frame. Boa also is a debugger so it becomes a very familiar working environment. There are also some good tutorials and examples that come with Boa that iron out most questions.

[Ballbarian]

Originally Posted by das123

Thanks .

I hunted around for a while trying to find something similar to VB where you can just drag and drop components into a frame. Everything I read about GUI and Python was contradictory. I tried placing the components by code but was a pain. There are a number of GUI libraries for Python, but that also makes it tricky. In the end I found what many said was the simplest setup (and I agree with them):

• Latest Python
• wx Library
• Boa Constructor

All the work is done in Boa. You create a new application from the button bar by clicking new wx.App and it automatically brings in what you need. Click on Frame Designer and you're in WYSIWYG mode - dragging and dropping components into a frame. Boa also is a debugger so it becomes a very familiar working environment. There are also some good tutorials and examples that come with Boa that iron out most questions.

das! I think you just saved me a TON of reading and trial & error. Within a short time I have Boa up and running and I am happily plopping down controls all over the place. Now if I can just figure out how to get them to do stuff.

Of course there is also the small matter of learning a new language, but hey, this is one hell of a good start.
Thanks a million.

[pyg]

Not sure where to post this actually so posting here in the most active relevant thread.

I made some auto-generated mods that have added custom nations using independent units with independent flags to mix in with other *original nation* ais. There 20+ added to each era so a straight mix will result in about 50% IndyFunPits AI nations. These aren't going to be as strong as *original nation* AIs but they will be hidden with their independent flags and independent units. Also capturing an IndyFunPits capital will give you a nice high pop province, but they don't get much in the way of magic sites.

If there were enough people interested it might be fun to try ~10 players with ~10 allied impossible IndyFunPits AIs on AoMOgre SemiRand version with independents-9 and fixed starts so AIs alternated players (maybe VP victory by 50% capitals). This would make a challenging start but most of the early game would be against independents not humans. After that whomever had the best early game would probably at least do very well. This would favor certain nations with good sacreds and awake SC pretenders.

Included are three mods, one for each era.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by pyg

Not sure where to post this actually so posting here in the most active relevant thread.

Included are three mods, one for each era.

WAY cool IMHO.

You probably should begin a new thread in the mods subdirectory just for discussing this mod and its changes. The first post in such a thread will always be able to be edited by you so it should contain description and the link to the file itself to allow for updates later.

Ummm... I have one request. Could you place the images in a subdir called ifp? Its become abit of a standard. That way the mod directory is only .dm files and each .dm refers to subdirs for anything else. It makes updates, deletions, and cleanups much easier

And by the way, Id be happy to host such a game.

Gandalf Parker
--
per peer-pressure preoccupation
My maps, mods, and mullings can be found at
http://www.Dom3Minions.com