Hi Everybody:
The time has come to formulate exactly what goes into Demo 5! (Well, actually it's probably past time, but we won't go into that...) If we are going to get something out by February, we need to organize and start work now.
Here's what I would like from each of you
Model Leads:
Come up with a fairly well-constrained start on what your model will become. There is already some existing code there for military and diplomacy. For the other areas we can try and salvage some things from my old code, but the programmers are in essence starting from scratch. If you can have a crude proposal out by the end of this weekend that would help a lot. You need to talk with your respective coders and try and figure out what level of progress is reasonable to achieve with something like a mid-February target. (I'll be the Military coder for this round; Darren, on interfaces you get to talk to yourself ) My advice on the simple models for demo 5 is to just test out a few big things. The most important things to check out are probably the ones you are concerned might not work. Otherwise, I'd say emphasize the things that will be fun to get in as soon as possible. It's probably best at this early stage not to rely on too much connection with another model. Once you have your crude model, please go ahead and start a thread dedicated to your demo 5 version so it can be discussed a little bit, with a minimal intrusion on the main model development threads. If anyone has any other bright ideas, speak up You also need to think about a very crude interface to allow the player to interact with your model. That leads us to the next point.
Darren, how are the interfaces coming? Do you think you will have a few widgets that are basically ready for prime time in the next few weeks? It would be great to start using your interface stuff for the limited interfaces we will need to put in for the models. But I know you've got quite a full plate between the interface and diplomacy programming. Just let us know which way we should plan for.
Programmers:
You need to give what ever input you think is necessary to the model lead in your respective area ASAP. If it would be much more efficient to build up the classes for the code in a particular way, now is the time to get in your suggestions for what the first shot at the model should be. Once a model has been proposed for the demo 5 version, you need to make a realistic appraisal as to whether you can do all that stuff efficiently by February 15th or so. If it turns out that you think you just can't code a reasonable first shot at the model by the deadline, you just need to figure out with your model lead if that particular model should skip demo 5 and shoot for demo 6 instead. I think the overall progress of the project takes precedence over any particular model making it into this demo, although clearly I think we would all like to have all of those things I've outlined present in some fashion
I'm Sure I haven't covered it all. Let's use this thread as a meeting room for the model leads and coders to discuss the demo 5 issues. Speak up soon if there is a big hole in the plan, or there is handshaking you need to do with some other particular model. If Darren thinks he will be ready to go with the basic interfaces, then we will all need to give him feedback as soon as possible as to what sort of widgets will be required for our individual models.
Thanks Everybody!
Also, once you see this, even if you don't have anything to say go ahead and make a quick post. That will ensure that I know who has seen this and who hasn't... so I can mercilessly hound those who don't check the forum often enough .
The time has come to formulate exactly what goes into Demo 5! (Well, actually it's probably past time, but we won't go into that...) If we are going to get something out by February, we need to organize and start work now.
Here's what I would like from each of you
Model Leads:
Come up with a fairly well-constrained start on what your model will become. There is already some existing code there for military and diplomacy. For the other areas we can try and salvage some things from my old code, but the programmers are in essence starting from scratch. If you can have a crude proposal out by the end of this weekend that would help a lot. You need to talk with your respective coders and try and figure out what level of progress is reasonable to achieve with something like a mid-February target. (I'll be the Military coder for this round; Darren, on interfaces you get to talk to yourself ) My advice on the simple models for demo 5 is to just test out a few big things. The most important things to check out are probably the ones you are concerned might not work. Otherwise, I'd say emphasize the things that will be fun to get in as soon as possible. It's probably best at this early stage not to rely on too much connection with another model. Once you have your crude model, please go ahead and start a thread dedicated to your demo 5 version so it can be discussed a little bit, with a minimal intrusion on the main model development threads. If anyone has any other bright ideas, speak up You also need to think about a very crude interface to allow the player to interact with your model. That leads us to the next point.
Darren, how are the interfaces coming? Do you think you will have a few widgets that are basically ready for prime time in the next few weeks? It would be great to start using your interface stuff for the limited interfaces we will need to put in for the models. But I know you've got quite a full plate between the interface and diplomacy programming. Just let us know which way we should plan for.
Programmers:
You need to give what ever input you think is necessary to the model lead in your respective area ASAP. If it would be much more efficient to build up the classes for the code in a particular way, now is the time to get in your suggestions for what the first shot at the model should be. Once a model has been proposed for the demo 5 version, you need to make a realistic appraisal as to whether you can do all that stuff efficiently by February 15th or so. If it turns out that you think you just can't code a reasonable first shot at the model by the deadline, you just need to figure out with your model lead if that particular model should skip demo 5 and shoot for demo 6 instead. I think the overall progress of the project takes precedence over any particular model making it into this demo, although clearly I think we would all like to have all of those things I've outlined present in some fashion
I'm Sure I haven't covered it all. Let's use this thread as a meeting room for the model leads and coders to discuss the demo 5 issues. Speak up soon if there is a big hole in the plan, or there is handshaking you need to do with some other particular model. If Darren thinks he will be ready to go with the basic interfaces, then we will all need to give him feedback as soon as possible as to what sort of widgets will be required for our individual models.
Thanks Everybody!
Also, once you see this, even if you don't have anything to say go ahead and make a quick post. That will ensure that I know who has seen this and who hasn't... so I can mercilessly hound those who don't check the forum often enough .
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