Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Still chugging away!

Ok, first sorry I didn't reply earlier to the comments.  My job has been eating up a LOT of my time the last month, and for the next week or two.  That is very unusual for me, typically I'm 40 hours a week and no more.  This job will probably not last too long, but enough of that.

I *AM* still chugging away on the site update.  At first I was like "Oh, I'll put in a few hours and update the site" and now I'm like "OMG, wtf did I get myself into?!?!?".

Basically, I have an equipment table that has 3400 or so items that can be on units.  This table ended up completely different than the original. I had to change the vast majority of it, 131 columns * 3400 rows.  Ugh.

On top of that, I've had to rewrite HUGE chunks of code.  Whatever idiot wrote this crap should be shot.  However, I am making progress.  As of now, I know an AS7-D Atlas, WHM-6R warhammer, Manticore, and Behemoth tank work, have the correct weight/cost.  I can get a McKenna up, and a Stuka.  Hopefully I have gone through the last of my major bugs that require me repopulate my entire database as those updates take a lot of time.

I also have some wonky issue with my PC where when I access a network drive, where my 10TB+ of stuff is, I have to wait a full minute to rename a file, copy a file, etc.  Its horribly frustrating.  I have copied all the code locally and since resolved it, but there were a lot of lockups that ate through time.

I also ended up having to go back through my megamek assets and clean them up.  Now there is a new megamek I probably need to integrate as well.  That was a huge pain, but luckily the new mech shading works fine with my existing camo code.

Once I get the majority of mechs, combat vehicles, aerospace fighters, dropships, jumpships, warships, and small craft working I'll do a quick release. After that I'll work on battle armor, infantry, and support vehicles.  Lastly will come buildings, mobile structures, and bases.  RPG characters is another project for a later time, if ever.

When I finish that first part, I may get distracted with my real time battletech project (where 10 seconds in real time = 10 seconds game time).  This is really ambitious but I have figured out ways to map 3000 worlds, with persistent damage, with hundreds of thousands of players (I'm trying for 200 on screen at a time, with a max zoom of 2km per screen that is a LOT of units).  We'll see though.

But, thanks for the support for the few of you still hanging around.  I do have a facebook group called "Battletech Design Works" if you want to join.  Sometimes it gets more updates, sometimes less, than this blog.

I also think I figured out a way past the hardest aspect of a unit designer, the part that slow me down on my last attempt.... not sure what'll come of that.

Have a great spring!