Bill Balcerski wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 10:10 PM, Mark Mielke <mark at mark.mielke.cc> wrote:
>   
>> Forward and reverse orbits - depending on entry trajectory (affects game
>> play)
>>     
> Sounds like a good candidate for sysdef option.  This feature already
> exists in the paradise server, might want to take a look and see how
> they did it.
>   

Yep - lots of people with similar ideas. I think mine was first - but 
not really sure - both happened years ago (over a decade?).

>> Proper calculation of wall wrap - again, errors in the wall logic under
>> chaos rules
>>     
>
> Never noticed any misalignment when crossing over during the days of
> chaos (monster).
> What exactly are you referring to here?
>   

This leads into my next answer:

>> Phaser lock across the wall, plasma seeking across the wall
>> Enemies across the wall show up as "near", meaning better cloaker
>> approximation (more frequent updates), and proper updates to "see"
>> torpedoes, phasers, etc. across the wall in suitably modified clients.
>>     
>
> Yes plasma tracking would be nice :0  There's certainly a large issue
> with chaos mode wall wrap in that clients don't have the ability to
> draw information on tactical across the "wall" even if it was given by
> the server (which it isn't).  With a fair amount of work on both
> client and server end it could be done.

If the client doesn't let you "see" across the wall, the mistakes are 
difficult to see. The teleport effect where you are on one side, and 
then on the other, and you cannot see how this affects your position 
relative to others. Of course, it's also possible that they fixed it 
independent of me - my patches have been sitting around for a _long_ time.

>   It would require a feature
> packet to let the client know wall wrap is enabled.  The feature
> packet would have to be resent if sysdef is modified.  A lot of server
> routines would have to be modified (enemy visibility, alert status,
> phaser hit, torp tracking, plasma tracking, possibly more I'm
> forgetting).  A lot of client draw routines on local (ships, weapons,
> planets, stars, etc) would have to be changed to support that feature
> packet.  A few things on galactic map as well (phasers, view box).
> All in all, a lot of work for a feature that isn't used on any servers
> currently.

That's certainly the official way of doing it. I chose to make it an 
option. Of course, within the company I worked, my client was also the 
only one to have cracked the reserved.c key in use and provide borg 
features. Those were fun times... :-)

>   I personally think there are better things to spend time
> working on

Once upon a time - it was very interesting. Back then (1993?) Netrek 
encouraged me to learn C, trigonometry and calculus. I was a geeky 13 
year old... :-)

Now, at 29, with three children, Netrek is a good memory from the past.

Cheers,
mark

-- 
Mark Mielke <mark at mielke.cc>

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