Quest for Myrithia

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Ok, thanks guys.

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Whew, sorry for not posting for so long, but I just got back from vacation. I can't wait to get back to work on QfM. I'll hopefully be posting the next version soon.

[spir]

Hello,

Just discovering your project and find it really attractive -- also had a look at Brent some time ago. I hope you will be able to achieve it and introduce the nice ideas you describe in this thread.

Just a comment, or advice, if ever you are not used to development. For what it's worth.
I have the impression that your design and implementation process sort of randomly goes here and there as ideas come and go; this is great for the creative aspect of development. On the other hand, it also may lead to real program mess & impossible challenges.

If ever this "talks to you", I would recommend to temper this with a bit of organisation. The best way, maybe (?), is to first concentrate on implementating a base framework (what you describe in your first post), including only all really necessary elements, in their simplest possible form. This can well be fakes or placeholders such as temporarily reusing a unit or map from another campaign, or a fast and easy means to jump to other scenarios (villages) while the real feature in not yet done. This base or skeleton (lol!) should be severely tested for you to rely on it.
Then, you can start and introduce changes & additions on this solid ground. This process is more or less what is called "incremental development" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incremental_development) and precisely the way wesnoth has been developed. It has numerous advantages, among which:
* naturally leads to clearer program structure: for each element / aspect / function, a program unit called a module (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_programming)
* easier debug: an issue is probably due to the last thing you introduced, or its interaction with the core
* avoid useless early development: further thinking will let change your mind constantly (*)

Note that this does not prevent at all simultaneously going on the creative design/programming way. It's rather complementary. When you're fed up with implementing the core, just play for a while with exploring a fun idea. Then jump back on the solid ground. Both are necessary, IMO, for non standard development projects.

Hope you do not take it bad if ever all of this is trivial for you... have no way to guess.



(*) For instance, imagine you change your mind about "chatting" NPCs, either that it should work totally differently, or even that this feature is useles -- what then about the version already implemented with so much care & effort?

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Wow, thanks, sure hadn't expected anyone to post something to this thread.
I've gotten caught up in real life lately and unfortunately haven't had much time for Wesnoth.
I had been expecting myself to eventually find more time and get back to work on this campaign, but it has just been really busy for me... Maybe now that I know someone else has stumbled upon this and had some interest, I'll start working on it again.

Just a comment, or advice, if ever you are not used to development. For what it's worth.
I have the impression that your design and implementation process sort of randomly goes here and there as ideas come and go; this is great for the creative aspect of development. On the other hand, it also may lead to real program mess & impossible challenges.

No, I can't say I have organized this very well. The best I can say is that I have a lot of pretty ideas floating around that I hope will evolve into something great eventually...
A basic skeleton of the entire thing would be good, much better than my current jumble of ideas and code.

* easier debug: an issue is probably due to the last thing you introduced, or its interaction with the core

Yes, I have realized that debugging is going to be difficult in this campaign, especially because of all the variables introduced in the first scenario that track things throughout the game.

* avoid useless early development: further thinking will let change your mind constantly

That's probably my biggest problem. Thanks for pointing that out, it could cause a lot of disorganization and problems.

Note that this does not prevent at all simultaneously going on the creative design/programming way. It's rather complementary. When you're fed up with implementing the core, just play for a while with exploring a fun idea. Then jump back on the solid ground. Both are necessary, IMO, for non standard development projects.

Thanks for that advice too, I was beginning to get scared of coding all that core stuff.
I suppose you have gotten the impression that I'm not a much of a developer yet, and that's true; I won't deny it. But I AM going to finish this project, no matter how long it takes. I think this was really just the advice and encouragement I needed to jumpstart me into working on this project again. Thank you very much for all the advice.

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Hello everyone. For the last few months (since Spir's post) I have been telling myself that I'm going to get back to work on Quest for Myrithia, but I just keep managing to "not quite get around to it". Anyway, the point is, I finally convinced myself to work on it today, and I'll hopefully be working on it more frequently from now on. This project is going to take a long time, but I am not abandoning it. (hopefully)

[alextit]

his advance??

[melinath]

Wrathbow: could you post your latest version?

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Eh...
Well, I was almost done with another scenario. (Port Merith)
And then something was wrong with my computer. (not related to QfM or wesnoth) So I formatted it and reinstalled everything. And wouldn't you know- the only thing I forgot to back up was QfM. Sooo... I have an older version on my jump drive that I had backed up a while ago, so I ought to start working again from that I guess. But since losing a bunch of stuff when I formatted, I've been kind of discouraged and there isn't really much more to post than before cause I haven't really worked on it.

Lately I have actually been taking a break from coding and been playing campaigns a lot more. (almost done with IftU and just starting BMR)

[Captain_Wrathbow]

I have decided to officially postpone this project. Not that I've really been working on it lately and decided to stop suddenly. Just announcing that I won't be doing anything with it for a while.
Why?
Partly because I read this:

I wanted to write a Civilization-like game, but with some major rule changes, and a better AI. I had thought up sophisticated systems for everything. The result? It failed before it even got started, collapsing in a mountain of complexity.

(the whole wiki article here.)
And I realized that's what's happening here, no matter how much I deny it to myself. I'm not entirely quitting on this, though. Right now I feel that I have set goals and ambitions above my skill level. So later, when I am more skilled with WML and I feel I am ready to take on a huge project like this again, I will return. But for now, I'm going to continue learning and practicing WML. (hopefully with a few art attempts also intermixed)
I think I may also start working on a much smaller, simpler (just all around much more KISS) campaign, mostly for my own benefit from the WML experience. But not yet sure if I'll do that. So for now- farewell QfM. I shall return!

[Huston]

then maybe you shouldn't have read it

[Captain_Wrathbow]

No, it helped me see that I'm making this too complicated and attempting something too big. For example, look at this quote from the same article:

The idea of KISS is that the feature must be easy enough to program that before the programmer starts working on it, they have a very clear and strong understanding of how they're going to make it work. Not a 'yes I can do this but it is kinda complicated'. Rather they should be thinking 'this is so stupid and simple that it's really really easy for me to do'.

Most of QfM is a 'yes I can do this but it is kinda complicated', and very little of what I had planned was 'this is so stupid and simple that it's really really easy for me to do'. So I have decided that once I feel I am to the point in WML skill where most of it is 'so stupid and simple that it's really really easy for me to do', I will come back to this. But I'm not going to be idle. Like I said, I'm going to start making a simpler, shorter, (I think 5-7 scenarios) more normal (not RPG!) campaign soon.