Re: [Adonthell-general] Brief meeting summary

[Alexandre Courbot]

Hi everybody! As Kai said, the meeting has been so cool and so
productive once again. Most of the main ideas will come as documents
soon, as we found out that we were re-discussing stuff that had already
been before. So when reaching something, it is very important to *write
it down* and put it somewhere (either the private FTP, the website (if
relevant for public to look at), or the upcoming developers diaries),
otherwise it will come again and again next times.

> Sadly, this year's summer meeting is over. We had a really great time,
> and although we didn't get too much work done, we have discussed lots
> about v0.4 and beyond. Each of us will write down part of it in detail
> and post it to the list for further discussion. So more info about the
> new mapengine, combat, game controls, the 'Book' (inventory, stats,
> journal, loading+saving, options, ...) and the 0.4 plot will follow
> ASAP. As Alex, Ben and Nils are working over the next month(s), their
> part may take a little longer finish.
> 
> Also to come are documentation for graphics artists and guidelines for
> dialogue and plot design. The windows port will be delayed until a
> first version of the gfx docu is available. As it is mainly meant to
> attract more artists, we thought it would be sensible to wait for
> that.

True. This is probably the thing that will be done first. 

> The 0.3.3 release will also incorporate a vast speed improvement to
> allow smoother gameplay on low end PCs and Handhelds like the Zaurus.

<happy> ^_^

The global thing is that Python schedules will only be called when
necessary. Playing 0.3 on slow Pentiums or on the Zaurus is simply
unplayable, unless you disable the Python scripts (it becomes very
smooth then). We figured out that most of the times the Python schedules
were only called to do basic stuff like decrementing a counter. In these
cases, the overhead due to the Python call is much more important that
the actual stuff performed in Python. So the schedules programming will
be much more event-based (which will be more logical, after all), and
this should allow avoiding something like 9 Python calls upon 10. In the
current situation, we have more than 10 characters who all have their
Python schedules called 70 times per second. Gruiiiik!

> During this week I'll implement a "developer's diary" for the website.
> Each developer should regularly post what he's been doing or plans to
> do, or just that he's been too busy to do anything. That way we (and
> others) can keep better track of the progress we make. Basically it's
> a newslist for development related stuff, a little like the .plan
> files some other developers have.

I insist on it, that it can only work if everybody plays the game and
actually uses his diary. I think that writing stuff on it at least once
a week would be cool. That way we can basically know what everybody is
doing, planning to do, whether or not he is working on more pressing
matters that keeps him away from Adonthell, and so on. Random ideas
(that are in a pre-discussion state) can also go there. Anything you
want! :)

> I imagine that James will do an article for the website, which also
> deals with our non-adonthell related activities. Some photos should be
> available soon as well.

Yay! Ben, please upload them to the FTP as soon as you can! :)

> And finally, for next year we'd like to have an Adonthell work camp,
> where we discuss less and get more stuff done. Not sure if we'll
> manage that, but we'll try for sure. :)

As Ben suggested, maybe making it an annex of a bigger event would
simplify the task. We also regretted that every major contributor to
Adonthell couldn't come to the meetings (mainly for distance and money
reasons), and that maybe some merchandising could help having a small
money reserve that could be used to organize meetings and help people
coming. The ideas are nothing new: CDs containing Adonthell releases
with extra bonuses, Audio CDs (Kai did one which is very cool), T-Shirts
(we have enough cool graphics to make some killer ones). Of course, our
audience isn't very large yet, but better few than nothing. And maybe
the derived products could get some more people to know the project
("Dude! Nice T-Shirt, where have you got it?")

So what we need in the short term is more gfx artists. Once the gfx doc
base is completed, we will release a Windows version for them to test
(the Windows installer is working as well - we'll release both an
installer version and a zip version, for those who want to keep their
system clear, although the installer version wouldn't make any new entry
to the registry). 1 or 2 more programmers would be nice as well. What is
good is that the team is stable, with a very solid core that is running
since several years now! We don't have many newcomers these days, but
better a few good ones than a lot of bad ones. I especially think about
Andrew here, since you arrived our Website library has doubled in size!
:) The printed library is now 31 pages of stories and legends, which
helps a lot in giving the game an ambiance and some consistency to the
world. I personally like your writing very much!

Okay, that's it for now. See you soon on the developers list for some
map engine discussion!

"Keep it real!" ;)
Alex.
-- 
http://www.gnurou.org