GENERAL: Cafe "Tamerlin" II

[Maquiladora]

Yeah there should be a party in the chat room

[Myrddin]

Would love an update on the project

Lurking I can see that there is a lot being done, but its not clear when something will be available to the non-coders

[Solver]

Anyone can download the playtest builds, not just the coders .

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Myrddin
Would love an update on the project

Lurking I can see that there is a lot being done, but its not clear when something will be available to the non-coders

Well, the main thing available to non-coders is the playtest. Coders always appreciate feedback.

I think that the basic state of the playtest version (and hence the project as a whole) is as follows:

We have a version which is, in SP, very much more stable than the commercial releases, and has all the features in the patched version and more besides, as well as better AI.

It also works in hotseat, and probably email games, at least to a certain extent, but is minimally tested and it is likely that we have introduced at least some bugs in making the other changes.

Network and internet MP is still unstable (probably even worse than it was in the unpatched version) and there is no prospect of it improving in the near future.

Support for mods is still pretty good, and a fairly ddecent backwards compatibility has been maintained, but the mods would certainly benefit from being updated to take advantage and/or account of the changes and new features.

[J Bytheway]

Have your say on barbarian placement .

[Solver]

Yes, and we are not releasing an 'official' CtP2:AE till MP works at least as well as in patched original, that's the reason cited by Locutus. Personally, I believe MP to be of minimal importance, but I understand everyone who disagrees. However, indeed, the current playtest build is far better than the original for playtest. Less bugs, better AI, new feautures and all the old ones. I've encountered no problems running any of the mods I tried. IIRC, it was a late March build that reimplemented all SLIC functions. Yes, no major mod updates were issued, but still .

[J Bytheway]

I think that, since there is no prospect of any change on the MP front, it's now worth thinking about a semi-official release. If we wait for the MP bugs to be fixed then we'll likely never get there. Who knows, we might even attract a competant network programmer...

[Solver]

I would agree with the above statement. With singleplayer, I think we are almost where we wanted to be when talking about the first official patch - that is, old bugs and crashes fixed, minor new things added. It's obviously a long time till new big feautures will be in, and the bad SP bugs are all fixed, IIRC.

A network programmer is something we need badly. Since we have the unpatched sourcetree, multiplayer was very poor there, so we almost have to code that from scratch. I'd certainly support putting a semi-official release on, for getting more recognition to the whole thing and with the hopes of attracting additional manpower.

[Flinx]

By calling it CTP2:AE with a version date (not number e.g. 1.2) and new splash screen, I think releasing official builds without the MP fixes in the 1.11 patch should not be too much of a problem. Every second or third playtest could be released as an 'official' build - that is usually a 10-20 week period and collects some significant changes.

I am sure Myrddin is not the only lurker who would be feel better about downloading an 'official release' from the main news page than a 'playtest' from some old thread in the forums.

That's my 2¢ anyway...

[child of Thor]

J Bytheway,

you say hotseat is fixed/working - that should go someway to placating fans who like to play with a couple of friends.
Still a few regulars still seem to be playing MP games, so i guess even with the bugs its still possible to do MP - not sure if they use the playtest version or the old version though?

Maybe someone(aployton/CTP big cheeses ) should start to see if we can find a network programmer willing to have a look at the code? I know the Candle'bre project is supporting MP, so someone there might have an idea or be interested?
I can see how it would definately be best to have the 'official' release all fixed as it should have been when it was released, but if that isnt possible then maybe a semi-official release could encourage more people(me included!) to download and try the latest stage of CTP2's development?

[Solver]

Candle'Bre programmers are probably way too busy with that project alone.

Locutus pointed out recently that there's a ton of people who play and like CtP, but don't post on the forums. A semi-official release would surely make these people feel better, too. Besides, AFAIK, tere have been MP games with playtest builds, so pure MP is also possible to some degree. As for Hotseat, I can't confirm or deny the claims it's fixed now, but if it is, great.

[Maquiladora]

Well last time I tried MP (previous playtest from current) it wasn't playable IMO, although it ran fine, there were bugs with collecting public works tax, a major part of the game.

I don't know about Hotseat or PBEM, but if this is intended to be a big release then it might be an idea to take out the network game button or at least include some kind of very noticeable warning.

[Solver]

An easy thing for the readme, stating there that the game is intended for single-player and that major instability and bugs are to be expected in MP modes. That will look better than taking out the network game button altogether.

[Tamerlin]

IMO, it is still a bit too early for an official release, even if all the coders have done a great job so far.

The playtest thread demonstrates that there are still some little annoying bugs.

[The Big Mc]

No it’s way to early. Just look at actoscrap with there official launch .