a_bertrand

Sorry moderators must not know everything or even be skilled. A moderator should just MODERATE which means, when things off topic, or bashing / flaming start, thread should be moderated. But it's not up to the moderators to answer every single question. Also if I have no clue about one of your post why should I post something? Just to increase my post count? Doesn't seems right. Now what have ORM to do with this site? Sure you could use an ORM for your game, but does that mean you MUST know them? No. So I keep my idea that moderator must be trusted and known by the community, if they know all (which is impossible) it's better but that's not required. You don't agree with my point of view? Fine, complain to the owners and try to setup different rules for moderators. Till then accept the one we choose or show that they are abusing they power. Keep in mind the issue here wasn't with moderators, it was with one of the owner of the site. Want to change him too? Maybe you should buy back the forums then.

Shop is ready, and a few little last minute fixes have been done. We are basically up and running for the big day! Of course big day doesn't mean end of the story, as this will be the first release. We do have a HUGE list of features we want to bring in the next releases, and improvement which could be made, however the first release should be perfectly fine for all of you to start with, design your game, and then in case enjoy the next modules / features we will provide. As anyhow if you just install new versions of modules, it will NOT destroy your own modules. Last thing I will say today: The market place do have 2 different payment options. Directly with paypal for any sales greater or equal 5$ or via credits (1 credits being 1 USD). All the plugin which cost less than 5$ we will take no share on the sales. So you could sell modules for 1$ and get the full $. Also we don't have minimum payout, yet all the paypal fees are on your side. In case the package (being a module, a template, or a font) costs more than 4$ (5$ and above as we allow only integer prices) we get about 20% of the sales. Each and every package will be checked before being accepted in the market place. On the other side if you don't want to use the market place to sell your modules, you are free to do so, as you can export modules, templates, fonts directly from the admin interface, create a NWE package (nwp file), and share it as you want. Yet customers should be warned that malicious package could actually destroy games, hack your license or any other kind of bad things, so if you download packages out of the market place, be sure you fully trust the developer, and test the package on a test environment first.

BTW Shall I ask why to choose XHTML? What are the advantages for you? The only advantage that I could see is if you need to parse it via an XML parser / DOM, that means, read back data out of your page and extract some stuff. Otherwise I see only drawbacks.

I would say that as this forum is meant for hobby development and is NOT a support forum of a company product, I hardly see why we must have everybody pro in the field to be moderators. Actually anybody with some sense of the discussion should manage to know if something is spam, abuse or whatever else. Also, I hardly see how any of the moderators which in your opinion could be non-pro had anything to do with the current issue... and actually in any other. Also, I would say it's up to the admin and the owners to decide who is mod and maybe the current mods simply are choosen from a pool of active and quiet members. We don't need extremists nor people which comes or post once per year. Finally, the rule remains, if you are unhappy, you may always try to propose a solution (instead of complaining).

Nearly, there is a couple of differences still.

Stay tuned for the 21th March, 9 AM GMT On this date, you will get full access to the engine, price and explanation of the market place. Till then we will polish the release, and the market place.

ColdBlooded was the moderator which wasn't happy with the post. Nobody beside him was involved. AFTERWARD there has been some discussion in the private section. However as it's afterward it's too late. For the moderation, as long as it's not purely garbage, full of bad words, spam or illegal, I personally tend to try the discussion. I know Nickson do even less removal than me. And Dom and Illusion I doubt you can blame them. Who remains? Dabs and CB? Well it's the first time I really see CB reacting so, so far I doubt you can be unhappy about being too strict. This thread did went well? No indeed. Wasn't the way I would have treated it. On the "professional" field. What field are you after? Nickson is finishing his network / sysadmin / developer training, myself, for those which still do not know, I work as full time software developer / analyst for a gov research institute. Beside that nobody is a pro in the web game industry. Sorry.

Maybe because it's filtered? I would say it's not a needed word in our forums... But no I didn't placed the filter myself, it's a default feature. Let's say a special one for you ;)

Typing fast doesn't mean being a pig on your keyboard. Show respect to others and type correctly. You may type fast and still write correctly. Actually it's a lot more useful, as I doubt many professional mails, code or anything would be fine with pseudo sentences. Ok, let's say I still have a major issue. You talk about an engine where I would say you are working on a game and not an engine. The difference may seems subtle but is in fact huge. An engine is a framework, a base ground where you will be able to build games. It should be flexible (and by flexible I don't mean simply changing a couple of words) enough to accommodate many kind of games. An engine may come or not with pre-made content but the main feature of an engine is not the content delivered with it. A game should be self contained, which means, you should be install it and be ready to accept players without having anything to do. Usually this means you loose much of the flexibility from an engine as the developer instead concentrate on a particular game type. The advantage of a pre-made game is that for a new comer, he will have in no time a full running game. Yet all games based on this code will look and act the same. Sure you may change the layout and some texts... yet all game will share a huge common feel. Why do you think we always say "ooo... this is another McCode game". The advantage of an engine is the flexibility it gives, and the possibility to create basically anything you want with it. Being a mafia, pirate, 2D or pure text, that's up to you. The cost of it is that as it takes a lot more effort to make a flexible engine, they usually don't come with a pre-made content and due to the target of more mature developers it doesn't have to. It will of course take more time for a developer to make a game out of an engine, but the result will be more likely unique (and therefore more appealing in my opinion). To come back to your post, I see NOTHING which is even remotely an engine in your description. I see a mafia / gang war style game. Why? Because I see nowhere where you will offer flexibility. It will be in the best case a bit cleaner code than McCodes, ok, but it requires a lot more thinking / drawing / design / coding to have a flexible engine. And here I believe you are not there. Is that bad? no, by itself it's not bad selling a pre-made game. But then don't sell it as an engine, it's simply a game code.

Odd that every time somebody complains about typos made by somebody willing to sell something, the answer is ALWAYS: I'm in hurry. Am I the only one which clearly admit that I do errors? Odd. Anyhow, I have to remember you Prototype, that you came out a couple of month ago with your idea of doing a new engine, and when I asked you why, the answer you gave was: because McCodes is not good. Yet honestly you fail to demonstrate that your engine will be any better. Why? Because you don't talk about the features it will offer, you don't talk about the design, you don't talk even about in what way it will be different from the current engines. Also showing us yet another similar game (or in this case just a screenshot) doesn't show much. It just show that you can do a screenshot of maybe a static page. Does that make your engine any better than McCode? No. Does that mean we should trust you in any way? No. Sorry to show so little interest in your engine, but honestly I told you already which way you should take, you continue with your idea, fine, but then at least wait to have something to show before actually posting, or expect that people will react badly to a badly posted answer. Also, in your posts, 90% of the space is taken by your "signature" and... do not actually contain much. If you really want to give away, share, or sell your engine, to come back with a feature list, show what will it do which differ from the current codes, in what it will be better, and show a bit of your skills. So far, I have seen none of those and you even tried to use my name as guarantee of your work when I cannot guarantee anything about your engine as I didn't saw it. Yes maybe you gave me a link to some site which was half working. Does that mean you did it? Or does that mean it's better than McCodes? No. Finally, think that if people choose your engine over either a free one (like GL, ezRPG or others), or McCodes they need to have some advantages. With this knowledge, come back with a list of such advantages... till then please stop advertising vaporware.

"Feel free to contact me about this matter, just keep in mind that I can not read your pm." ?? How can somebody contact you Nickson? Jokes asside: Anyhow, I do strongly suggest everyone to cool down. ColdBlooded too. RulerOfZu: I think you simply steeped in on the wrong day here, and some people have been a bit too picky. I'm sorry for it, and hope somebody will say something. For McCodes past track: yes they are not really good, however I would suggest to see if they can correct themselves... That's all what I can say. But guys, I still have an hard time to understand why you bash them EVEN when they do actually what everyone was waiting for. Wasn't a patch release something the community was waiting? Yes it's late, but... still some people buy the engine. So for new comers it's good to have at least a patched one, no? Of course I see as well the fact the patches and activities of CB and Dabs are increasing... and it seems it's just for the fact they will release a new engine. Well maybe they changed their way to act and want to be more active? Or maybe simply they have yet some free time and spend it on their hobby which is McCodes? Overall I tend to see that you guys are easy on the complain, saying that this thing is bad (not talking about McCodes) or it's not the right way to do it, yet I hardly see any of those complainer trying to change both the mood of the board, being pro-active, and offering alternatives. You don't like McCodes? Fine, then why don't do something else? You find the skills of the board members are low? What did you do to help? Etc... So instead of being just plainly negative let's try to help each other a bit more. You are tired of "I NEED HELP" threads? Beside the fact I'm too, well you could simply skip them!

Sorry but I never ever saw the code behind your engine. However I remember you tried to sell something which would replace McCodes... yet I don't remember to ever have seen it.

I open the web page => nothing beside an image and a login? mmm not inviting in my opinion. Now, you don't state even how much work is involved, what you are willing to pay or share, you don't state how many people are involved nothing. What will your game have to offer that we didn't saw many many times? Plus mafia... sorry but that's really not new... specially on this board. As lilith said, follow the partnership template, offer more details, even a demo account maybe... till then I will close this thread.

Prototype: "The official release date is not certain, but is planned to be in late Q2 / early Q3 2012 - that is, June or July." Good info Dabomstew. Well, what I can see from your post match nearly 1 to 1 to my own engine. Which means either that my ideas were indeed something so basic that any engine would need them, or that you thought "yea we should do it too" which means I gave a good impulse to your design. For me in both case it's good news. The modular approach => great! I can't wait to see how you did it, but it's really something which in my mind was needed seeing the number of "how can I install this mod?" posts. The multi-language => indeed separating the text from the code is something needed in such project. Layout engine => same Market place => good to find all the modules, and actually for me the only viable solution. Browsing through the forums is not exactly easy, so having a single place to search for is certainly the way to go. So overall, I'm happy for you guys (McCodes users and developers) and can't wait to see how it will be at the end.

I actually support McCodes on the issue. I hardly see why giving yet more configurations options is actually bad. If you don't use the database for configuration, then you must use a file, no other ways around. So is the file faster than the database? Maybe but it has to be proven. If not then what would be the advantage to use a file? Sorry I'm maybe blind (also because I don't know how McCodes works), still I would love to understand really the issue. If the real issue is the fact you didn't got updates for 6 years, well, I may agree it wasn't really a good practice, yet, they started to do it. Actually I doubt that ANY running game will simply pick up the update and install as it would mean find the differences and merge the patch to their code as we all know that any modification to an McCodes game means modifying some files which ends up of having your code mixed with the original code. Therefore this patch is good for new games or future owners. For those of you which doesn't like McCodes style, fine, simply don't use it. I doubt anybody here will ever force you to use it, even less myself. But I find trying to see always the same kind of flaming without actually seeing real issues. If you don't like something, it's your right, but unless you propose an alternative, it's then just destructive comments, and for that I have little acceptance.

Sorry but all is impressive... as pure idea. Till you actually see it. So I reserve my right to judge... when I actually see it.

sniko: what I'm saying, theory is all good and fun, but is nothing till you actually have proofs. Do the checks and then think about changing something. Why? Because imagine you spend days to rewrite all... and you end up being slower than before? So really, do some trials yourself, check what will happen if you have multiple tables or just one and see if there is a positive or negative impact. The little memory used to store a whole row even if it's not used will have no impact on your server. Sure defining the columns you wait for and actually NOT USE the name / value array but instead just numbered arrays do have sense but it's not given that you actually see much difference if any. And if you don't know if you will actually see difference, I would think it's smarter that you work on some other areas. BTW didn't your teacher said: don't fix what's not broken? Till you see issues, do NOT optimize. That's a normal rule.

Close it.-----

Andy: you think that investing a WHOLE day will be enough? Ok ok I stop being annoying. Check XNA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23714 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa937791 Yet for that you should know C#... and ideally have Visual Studio Professional. If you want to take the Java road instead (lot less rich) http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tech/index-jsp-138252.html And the hard way in C++? http://www.ogre3d.org/ Or lower level: Open GL: http://www.opengl.org/resources/ Direct X: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=6812 So where to start? Well first DECIDE which tech you want to use. From the hardest being the C++ to the newest C# with XNA but which could as well be the best option as long as you accept to develop only for Windows XBox or windows phone. Now instead of hanging here... go to: http://www.gamedev.net/ But before asking again the same kind of questions... invest at least 6 month to learn how to code with one of the framework.

Slow queries are when you start group functions, sub queries and more. Simple "where id=?" will not be slow queries... unless you miss the index keys and do a full table scan which again can end up in slow queries.

Well, simply to have the JS on top, and be able to spot all the JS / CSS files directly in the header. Honestly not useful for me, however I do know many frameworks (even .NET) put JS code on top. There is also another small advantage, is that you can "stop" the execution of the page and still have the JS in it.

Sniko: did you made some tests to see if there is really a possible gain by splitting the table? I have NO CLUES of how McCode work, so I can't really talk for it, however from my own researches, if I have a table with let's say 40 columns, and I query 10 or 40 of them I see little to no difference, where if I need to join 4 tables or issue 4 queries to get the same 40 values it will indeed have an impact. Yet, there is an issue which is more annoying of having a single table for all, it's that if 2 modules want a column with the same name but for different purpose... well you will have an issue. Also, installing / removing a module means, touching a table (which personally I don't like to do on a production system).

It will be 100$ with a full year of updates / upgrades.

No Lilith. Yes the JS should be in another file in order to be cached and save bandwidth. However it's better to put it on the bottom of the page such that when it starts the document is mainly there and you will not have issues. If you put in on the header then you need to have some sort of "onload" hook installed to start your code only when the page is loaded. So it's much easier to put it on the bottom and let the browser do the work for you.

It's not just question of time (which however is an issue as I doubt you will code it for the next 10 years). It's also a question of knowledge involved. I mean there is hard math behind, for good collision detection, LOD, special effects, light effects, and more. Myself I would feel totally lost over such huge project but as I don't know your personal knowledge maybe you already have the required skills, but given the requirements of today engines, I doubt a single person will ever have them.