Re: Snapshot 7.1.91, and general remarks

[Stan Shebs <shebs@cygnus.com>]

   Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 11:58:19 +0200
   From: Marcus Schrattenholzer <1schratt@informatik.uni-hamburg.de>

   Some comments on the new snapshot 7.1.91:
   Confusingly, you forgot to change the version number: it still prompts
   as 7.1.90.

OK, I just tweaked that.

   Building Xconq under Linux is fine, just for the sake of completeness I
   mention the trouble building cconq:

   make[1]: Entering directory `/home/marcus/xc7.1.91/curses'
   rm -f cconq
   gcc -O2 -o cconq -g -DUNIX -I. -I./../kernel cconq.o cdraw.o ccmd.o
   ../kernel/libconq.a ../kernel/libconqlow.a -lncurses -lm
   cdraw.o(.text+0xed): undefined reference to `__waddbytes'
   cdraw.o(.text+0x44f): undefined reference to `wstandout'
   cdraw.o(.text+0x643): undefined reference to `wstandend'
   [more of these...]

This is curious, the functions are standard curses things.  Are you sure
your curses include files match the ncurses library you're using?

   I regularly get an error message "Warning: Can't open statistics file
   "/home/marcus/.xconq/stats.xconq". That used to work in 7.1.90.

What is your umask?

   How am I supposed to notice the toolups for the various cities in
   ww2-eur-42? (I *did* notice them by browsing the game definition file.)
   Unit closeups for the 30 or so cities of the British seem impracticable.
   How about displaying the toolup in the unit/cell info window, for
   example in the plan line, further to the right?

That's a good point, they are critical (the Mac interface shows these
in the construction window, but the X interface has nothing like that).
Toolings are potentially a lot of data, with different values for each
unit type, so they would need their own line or several lines in unit
info.  They should at least show up when doing help for 'P'.

   Also, while playing these huge maps, I noticed the subtleties of
   delaying and selecting the next awake mover. Frequently Xconq scrolls to
   southeastern Asia while you're engaged with an invasion at the English
   Canal. I don't know the ultimate solution, but I think a lot could be
   improved by making *any* unit selectable via the mid mouse button. I
   think it is apparent that you really want to do something with a unit
   which you explicitly click on, may it be asleep or delayed or whatever.
   Also, after rescaling the map it should be automatically centered around
   the current unit.

I've experimented with ways to deal with large maps and large numbers
of units for some years now, and still don't have anything entirely
satisfactory. (I even proposed this as a research problem in
comp.theory; the article and ensuing discussion seems to have survived
since that time in various archives around the net...)

   Is it right that there's no single game with combat experience? I wonder
   whether the functionality has been implemented yet, or is it more like a
   project?

Experience is half-implemented, needs a good game to exercise it
before deciding what to do next.

   There is a serious bug related to the napoleonic unit types. When a
   leader gets captured, the interface of the capturing side hangs up. We
   saved the same (from the opponents interface), but loading it yields a
   segmentation fault (I can submit the savefile, if you want). (This was
   noticed under 7.1.90, actually; don't know, if it persists).

I couldn't reproduce this in the current code.  Could you please send me
the saved game?

							Stan