Mod development

[TomastheTankEngine]

Hello,

I am trying to get some understanding of the current state of the development team for the mod. I have had a look at the Elite about title page and through the forum. It seems that there is currently no one working on the programming side of the mod. I was wondering if I could offer my services for development on the mod. I am PhD computer science student with strong background low level development.

I have had a look at the SCAR API and dll injection and I believe it should not be too hard for me to add new features or game types to the mod.

Are there any developers working on the mod that I could talk to? Would any body else be interesting in helping with the development?

Many thanks,
ThomasTheTankEngine

[FiSH]

!!! this is such a great news !!!

Although I am not in the mod team or anything like that, as an ELITE mod player, one thing that I'd love to see is a matchmaker (maybe like Forged Alliance Forever styled one that can also incorporate ELITE group chat?)

[TomastheTankEngine]

I saw a post about match making earlier. I think first off to answer that question we need to talk to Steam about how mods can use the matchmaking system. I suspect there is a way to use the Steam matchmaking but I would have to do some research into the problem. I will do some reading into the steam matching making process, there might be some legal issues around it too.

[Caeltos]

Just hook me up on steam and we can chatter.

[Lulgrim]

Hello,

I am trying to get some understanding of the current state of the development team for the mod. I have had a look at the Elite about title page and through the forum. It seems that there is currently no one working on the programming side of the mod. I was wondering if I could offer my services for development on the mod. I am PhD computer science student with strong background low level development.

I have had a look at the SCAR API and dll injection and I believe it should not be too hard for me to add new features or game types to the mod.

Are there any developers working on the mod that I could talk to? Would any body else be interesting in helping with the development?

Many thanks,
ThomasTheTankEngine

Hello!

What we have done so far doesn't require actual programming, we get by with editing structured data trees using prebuilt tools. The most technical thing I ever needed to do was some hex editing to insert the custom music. It's quite light on the technical side although it still needs some time investment to learn the quirks.

On the down side, if we need something complicated like an entirely new mechanic we are largely fucked. I've had to refuse a couple of ideas for lack of tools. A programmer would probably eliminate problems on this front and open some new possibilities.

You can talk to Caeltos about the design and me about technical stuff. Add us on Steam via the group profile page (moderator list).

[TomastheTankEngine]

Regarding the matchmaking I have had a look at the Steamworks matchmaking system and it look like we need to talk to Relic about their implementation. Is there any contact with developers at Relic?


>>> I have messaged Caeltos

[Lulgrim]

Even if Steam was cool with it, we'd still need Relic to patch the game for mod matchmaking support. It will never happen. Just forget it. Support was cut ages ago even before publisher went bankrupt and sold Relic to Sega. Official support is done, forever.

What remains is hacking it (illegal I assume) to replace Steam matchmaking with our own which would require building the service to begin with... So that is out as well.

[PanKiller]

Maybe instead we should improve elite mod steamgroup so it informs about every game dat has been hosted on public? That would allow for faster finding games and encourage guys which play other games ( cuz no elite servers at the time being ) to get back to the elite . I assume we need either auto information bot which checks the list or some observator who is going to idle for a lot to inform other ppl.

[Kvek]

PanKiller ur idea is kinda nice but useless. You can already inform other people. Just by typing -game up 1 slot left.

[PanKiller]

Yeah but instead make it auto bot is going to make it fasta .

[Lulgrim]

Just make it red...

[Kilgarn]

Yeey more brains for the game :3
Its good to see others willing to help out Hopefully you can help with a lot of stuff in the game

[TomastheTankEngine]

Maybe instead we should improve elite mod steamgroup so it informs about every game dat has been hosted on public? That would allow for faster finding games and encourage guys which play other games ( cuz no elite servers at the time being ) to get back to the elite . I assume we need either auto information bot which checks the list or some observator who is going to idle for a lot to inform other ppl.

A lot people who have joined the group don't always join the group chat. One other way I can thinking of notifying people of games is through announcements. Couple problems with that though... I think only group admins can make announcements and if was possible to automate the announcements it might annoy people getting too many of them. It will also need to interact with Steamworks which might be a problem.

What I think might be possible is some sort of web based game listing. If we could create a script that queries the DoW2 server for list of games every x seconds then people could just have a look at the site rather then loading DoW to look for the games. A shortcut for the site/script could be included with the installer.

I will investigate what is needed to query the DoW2 server for a list of games...