Re: [glob2-devel] IRC (freenode problems)

[Andrew Sayers]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2005 at 11:05:26PM +0100, Stephane Magnenat wrote:
> It's in:
> src/YOGScreen.cpp:#define IRC_SERVER "irc.freenode.net"
> 
> Bye the way, did you told the guy that its not for game really but more for 
> community discussing? YOG itself does handle chat, we added irc so that 
> testers (players) can discuss with other testers and developers while the 
> game is in development.

I think their problem is more one of principle really.  I'm not sure if
I was clear before, but they're fine (happy even) for us to have the dev
channel on freenode.  It's just that if they let one game use their
server for in-game meet ups, it's a slippery slope to having the system
overrun by hoardes of games.

I've been thinking about it, and I think we should bundle this up into a
broader package of small changes.  How about we make an 0.8.16 release
in the next few weeks with the following changes:

1. #define IRC_SERVER "irc.globulation2.org"

Presumably we can add/modify *.globulation2.org domain names as we
please, so we can make this an alias for irc.oftc.net for now, then when
they want us to move on, we just have to update a DNS record rather than
going through all this hassle again.

2. Fix the inn bug

This is a serious gameplay issue for some people, and a simple fix should
be quite easy to put in.  Also, it's an incompatible change to gameplay,
so players will have to upgrade if they want to play multiplayer.

3. Use "gcc -O3"

It seems like glob2 is currently being compiled with no optimisation.
We should be able to get a significant boost in performance by using
"-O3" (the highest level of optimisation).

4. Fix explorer damage

At present, explorers damage each tile of a building that they hit.  For
large buildings, this means that a direct hit can do 9 times the damage
it should.  This is what makes explorers so unfairly powerful.  It
wouldn't be too hard to make sure that each building only gets hit once
by each pulse, which would make things much fairer.

5. Backport syncRand() (or just inline the old one)

syncRand() is a very small function that's called very often.  Inlining
it should speed the game up a bit.

6. Fix the campaign text

The text in the main campaign is written a bit sloppily, and the last
two levels need to be marked as only completable through cheating due
to recent changes in gameplay.

        - Andrew