Toronto-area expert?

tinkerer · January 4, 2005, 14:55

Hi, everyone. I'm a T.A. at the University of Toronto (Canada), where we're using Call to Power II as part of a design class. One phase in this design process is for the students to gather requirements (they will be designing some new interface features) from subject matter experts (i.e., people who are very familiar with the game).

We're looking for somebody with a lot of expertise with the game, who lives in (or near) Toronto, who would be willing to volunteer a couple of hours of time on a Thursday morning (likely late January or early February) to come in and talk to students and answer their questions about how you play the game. No preparation would be needed on your part.

If you're interested, or would like more information, please either respond to this post or email me at duez (AT) mie.utoronto.ca.

-Pierre Duez

Solver · January 4, 2005, 15:20

It's great to see CtP2 being used as a research subject... I love that

. I won't be much help to you, though, I'm not anywhere near Toronto, but maybe you'll get lucky.

Locutus · January 5, 2005, 09:39

Hey Pierre,

As Solver said, it's always nice to see CtP2 being used for scientific or educational purposes. If the class leads to any results being published publically, do let us know about it -- we're always curious about those things here

Out of curiosity, will the students actually be implementing the interface features as well (with or without using the CtP2 source code), or is it purely a design class? As you may or may not have noticed, we at Apolyton are designing our own improved version of the game (which we've named "Apolyton Edition", see this forum if you're interested) using the said source code. So either way, any results that your students deliver might be useful for our project. If so, and if they are willing to share the fruits of their labour with us, we might be able to put their work to good use in the actual game. I guess that would mostly be up to the students themselves, but if you think their work might be useful to us, do pass along our site's address

As far as volunteers go, I think it might not be too easy to find one. Unfortunately there aren't terribly many Canadians in the CtP2 community anymore and most of the ones that are, seem to live in the western parts of Canada. But I posted a news item for you, maybe it will attract some people.

I know one person in our community who lives in Toronto though: Flinx. The only problem is that he hasn't posted since late October, I'm not sure if he still visits the site. I've sent him a PM to let him know about your class. If he does not respond on his own within a few days, you could try emailing him directly using the email link in his profile. I think that if he hears of this and has the time, he wouldn't mind helping out.

Edit: I checked and Flinx was last online on this site a few days before Christmas, so he's apparently still here.

Another option might be DanQ, the co-owner of this site. He also lives near Toronto, but I think that when he last actually had time to play games for fun they hadn't even invented SVGA yet

And besides that I don't think he's ever been a real big fan of CtP2, he seems to be more into certain other games this site covers

But he's bound to see my news item, so if he feels he qualifies for this and has the time, I'm sure he'll post here or contact you.

Finally, I know blackice also lives near Toronto, though I think he may live a bit too far to the south (Hamilton IIRC). The main problem with him (aside from distance) is that he's mostly a CtP1 player, I don't think he's much into CtP2. If CtP1 players are also suitable for the purpose of your class, I guess you could repost your request in the CtP1 forum as well, or contact blackice directly.

Of course, if it would be possible to help without living near Toronto (by doing the whole thing online via this forum, email or IM), you'd probably have volunteers lining up for you (I for one would be delighted to help). So should you not be able to find anyone, maybe you should consider that as an alternative...

tinkerer · January 5, 2005, 13:14

Thanks for the reply, and for posting this more broadly! With a bit of luck, some of the people you mention will get in touch with me... I hope I don't have to start badgering complete strangers.

It's hard to say whether or not the class will lead to published results; in all likelihood, they won't have time over the term to develop a prototype to that level. Then again, anything is possible. We would certainly not stop students from publishing something first-rate.

To answer your question, they will probably not implement any of this in code. Although there are some CS/Comp. Eng students in the class, the majority of them are from industrial engineering, and are probably not going to be too inclined to delve too deeply into the code, so I'm not expecting anything beyond screenshots and a design spec.

That said, I'm sure that some of them will probably start pestering this message board (as well as the Source Code Project one) for help (I'm planning on pointing them this way, as there seem to be a lot of helpful people here); ultimately, some of them might be willing to share their results. (Here's hoping!)

Solver · January 5, 2005, 18:17

You know, any persons we can get to help out with the Source Code project are a great asset, because the project is greatly limited in manpower... so if any able programmers come over here from those classes, they will be a big success for us

.

Yolky · January 21, 2005, 01:51

I have played Call to Power2. I lost my cd, can't find it anywhare but I can help if you would like it. Give me a shout if you want. dmackovic@sympatico.ca

I am not an expert but love playing the game. I live an hour away from Toronto but work in Mississauga everyday.

davor

Mazaika · February 5, 2005, 15:05

Hi I live in toronto and I go to York university 3-rd year Computer science. I am actually quite an expert in this game. Some ppl might know me very well lol. But i am more known to the Multiplayer community. I dont really enjoy volunteering, but in any case email me if u may have some questions or offers. gmazaika@yahoo.ca

Maquiladora · February 5, 2005, 15:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Mazaika
I dont really enjoy volunteering, but in any case email me if u may have some questions or offers.

Maz why dont you ask them to provide free lunch

tinkerer · February 14, 2005, 12:29

Thanks for (almost) volunteering, Mazaika.

Right now, we have someone (probably) lined up, and we're just sorting out details. But if for some reason that doesn't work, I might try to persuade you to drop by UofT...

-Pierre

tinkerer · March 14, 2005, 10:24

I just wanted to thank Yolky for coming out last week to help out with this. The class seems to have had a lot of fun, and it was quite instructional.

I hope you had a good time, too...

(By the way -- the envelope I sent you got returned to me on Friday... apparently, I managed to mess up the address!)

-Pierre

Yolky · March 14, 2005, 13:55

Quote:

Originally posted by tinkerer
I just wanted to thank Yolky for coming out last week to help out with this. The class seems to have had a lot of fun, and it was quite instructional.

I hope you had a good time, too...

(By the way -- the envelope I sent you got returned to me on Friday... apparently, I managed to mess up the address!)

-Pierre

I had a blast, glad I could help out the class.

davor

Martin Gühmann · March 14, 2005, 19:25

Any chance to see any results in action.

-Martin

tinkerer · March 22, 2005, 15:21

The class ends in a few weeks; I can see if the students will be willing to share their work.

Bear in mind, though, that they're creating schematic diagrams, not actually coding anything... work for that would probably have to fall to veterans around here.