Arch Linux

hut

Member

From: Hanover, Germany

Registered: 2010-03-12

Posts: 569

Website

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

If we accept a draw like that as a possible outcome, it would be sufficient for a player to occupy a spot like Doomicide described in order to make it impossible for everyone else to win... That sounds a little demotivating, especially in multiplayer.

Fun game by the way. I didn't think a fun strategy game would have been possible on ncurses.

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"hut_" or "h00th00t" in irc.freenode.net #archlinux
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jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

I think, I have fixed map generation.
With option -i0 you are getting very similar conditions for all countries. Even though sometimes they are not exactly equivalent.
With option -i4 asymmetry is even higher than before, which is good for novice players.

Generation time is roughly the same as it was before, though it is a little slower on large maps.

Blocked gold mines are possible, but they are not taken in account by map evaluation algorithm. Two initial mines are always reachable.

jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Good news. Multiplayer mode is ready.

Maybe, it is not perfect, but it is playable and quite feature complete. UDP is used for all communications.

Quick start:

To start a server for two players:

$ ./curseofwar -E 2

To start a client and connect to the server:

$ ./curseofwar -C <server's IP>

Optionally, the port of the server is set using argument -e. And the port of the client using -c. The last section of the readme file contains more details if you need.

Also, added a few minor improvements. Rectangular map shape is default from now on.
Playing time of some sort is added, it is measured in days: Game starts at random day between 1850 and 1950, and every simulation step adds a day. In the fictional universe of the game all monthes are 30 days long..

I'm not sure if command line arguments are clear, especially the way to setup ports. Expect some lag when playing, but for me it was acceptable even for a very long distance connection. Hope, it will work well. If you will like to test the game and play with me, I actually failed to setup my own server earlier. I will let you know if I fix it. Also, btw, there is no in-game chat for now, use other tools to talk with your opponents ) And feel free to report bugs and make suggestions, thanks.

Update:
To play with a friend, you must run both a server, and a client that connects to 127.0.0.1. Your friend runs only a client.

Last edited by jokengle (2013-07-10 00:13:28)

jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

There is a stable release v1.1.2 on github and a non-git package in AUR.
With this release, AIO is not used any more for input, so probably the game must be more portable now. There was also an error in the map generation code that could lead to a segfault, it's fixed.

Thanks to an announcement in the news on linux.org.ru, there are some new people interesed in the game, and also there are PPA packages for Ubuntu by a new member of the development team (... well, two people is a team, right?)).

A game video you might have missed (it's quite old, but was not posted here before):

Because, I'm afraid, this game is somewhat offtopic-ish, I will not be posting here frequently, maybe only keeping you updated about major things (say, when the game will get nice SDL graphics, for example). However, all news and updates are published on Twitter: https://twitter.com/curseofwar.

Doomcide

Member

Registered: 2011-08-22

Posts: 221

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Thank you, very much. I haven't tried the new version yet, nevertheless I already made a crux-port (should be up here in a day.)
That being said, a man page would be nice, I already started to write one, if you're interested you can use this as a base or just tell me and I'll sit down and try to finish it myself in the foreseeable future.

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github

jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

This is great! In fact a few days ago we got a stub for a man page. But I did not have time to really figure out what's the right way to integrate it in the project, so it's staying unfinished there. Definitely, the file in the repo and yours must be merged. Well, I haven't been going to work on the man in the near future, so it will be nice if you can improve documentation, feel free to contribute.

Doomcide

Member

Registered: 2011-08-22

Posts: 221

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Ok, I had some unexpected freetime this morning and merged the two manpages and completed it. I opened a pull request on github.

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github

jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

The SDL version is ready, but I cannot decide what's the best way to name packages. At the moment, you can build two executables from the source code: one is using ncurses, second is using SDL. Because the SDL executable does not have the server functionality, I thought about making two packages:

1) curseofwar-ncurses contains only ncurses executable (= the original package, depends on ncurses).
2) curseofwar includes two executables (curseofwar and curseofwar-sdl, depends on ncurses and SDL).

Another way is to make 1) curseofwar = the original ncurses-only, and 2) curseofwar-sdl that includes both executables. But it is probably more confusing, because a more general name corresponds to a more specific package, and the other way around.

What can be the best naming policy in your opinion?

Update:
It is also possible to keep the original curseofwar ncurses-only, and create new curseofwar-full that contains both sdl and ncurses..

Last edited by jokengle (2013-08-11 06:48:28)

Doomcide

Member

Registered: 2011-08-22

Posts: 221

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Third way of doing it would be:
curseofwar = ncurses
curseofwar-sdl = sdl
and no package that includes both. That's for example how dc stone soup is packaged.

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github

jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Third way of doing it would be:
curseofwar = ncurses
curseofwar-sdl = sdl
and no package that includes both. That's for example how dc stone soup is packaged.

What should I do then with the shared parts of the package?

Now, there are changelog, and curseofwar.6 manpage installed anyway for both executables. If there will be more important shared data in future, e.g. maps, how to handle that if a person would like to install both versions? By adding another package with common data?

Maybe I should completely decouple both executables. But, I'm afraid, it can lead to even more cofusion with shared data in future. What if I put all shared data in "curseofwar" package, and "curseofwar-sdl" will be only an addon to the game that contain only the sdl executable and its own manpage?

Thanks, I will look at stone soup again.

jokengle

Member

Registered: 2010-04-21

Posts: 19

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Version 1.2.0 is released. The first post is updated.

A new combined packages that includes both SDL and ncurses executables:
AUR (ncurses+SDL) git.

I had to make a combined package, because it is easier for development and hopefully easier for installation. Debian and Ubuntu package is split into three parts (ncurses, common, sdl).

darkfeline

Member

Registered: 2012-02-14

Posts: 94

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Interesting game, very fun.  It feels a little simple mechanic-wise, but the simplicity is a plus too.  If you can add more mechanics without compromising that simplicity, that'd be even better.

Neven

Member

Registered: 2014-05-02

Posts: 76

Re: game Curse of War [RTS, ncurses/SDL]

Is there a community of people doing multi-player?
Or, is somebody interested in playing against me?

Last edited by Neven (2014-06-13 22:42:32)