[WIP] ToEE Front-End X 5.0 Progress Report

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by Agetian, Apr 20, 2013.

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  1. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: Back on track!

    @ Gaear: Ok, will do! :)

    @ Salk: My pleasure, it really needed to be done earlier but I just had no time to get back to more active coding...

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 22, 2013
    #16
  2. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: Back on track!

    Progress so far:
    The new front-end can now complete most of the initialization, installation, and deployment procedure - at least it can create the files music.tfp, movies.tfp, and the default module package/description for ToEE in the same way as the original TFE-X does. Error reporting has been improved, the internal logging is very detailed (even more so than in classic TFE-X) and allows to pinpoint what exactly had happened with great precision. Package creation routines report percentages of completion to the UI (but the UI is not responsive enough to make good use of it yet).
    Next step - learn to use the Swing Worker class to actually make the UI display installation progress dynamically without becoming unresponsive.

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 22, 2013
    #17
  3. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Ok, something I'm really proud of, actually: a fully working, responsive, automated installation and deployment UI that shows progress dynamically and that does not require you to tap Enter every now and then. :) Getting pretty close to actually having the installation and initial deployment procedure fully ported over.

    - Agetian
     

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    Agetian, Apr 22, 2013
    #18
  4. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    This is truly wonderful!

    I'm sure even the most impatient of us can appreciate an on going status.

    I really like the way it says, "Cleaning up after making so and so", this almost personalizes the install.

    Makes you feel like "My TOEE is Talking to Me" and wants me to know what's taking so long.

    Sorry if I have messed up the thread with "fan boi" type posts, but someone has to let you guys know how much we appreciate your work. ;)
     
    sirchet, Apr 22, 2013
    #19
  5. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Seconded - great work! :thumbsup:
     
    Gaear, Apr 22, 2013
    #20
  6. Ank

    Ank Established Member

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    The 'End Turn after Default Action' is not a bad thing on the contrary as most of the times one first repositions a char(runs back a short distance/5 foot steps or goes to flanking position) and then does a combat/tactical action/spell cast and so its ok for that char's turn to end automatically without the user having to craze tap' the space bar at least 5 times a turn ... just my opinion.
    As for the concurrent turns option: by all that its holly auto disable it !!(u may as well have an auto solve combat button if u don't mind a chain of 3 of more npcs each doing smth in an opposite screen corner at the same time without u seeing it) that option its totally un-welcomed as far as i'm concerned(can't wrap my head around the reason it was included in the first place-except if yr doing 'gobo dungeon' with a 10th level party :roll:)
     
    Ank, Apr 22, 2013
    #21
  7. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Thanks a lot for the encouraging comments, guys! I appreciate it! :) Will keep working to get the new TFE-X released sooner rather than later! ;)

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 22, 2013
    #22
  8. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Hi, Agetian. Thank you for updating the ToEEWB recombining/splitting tool. Tis dream come true. :)
     
    Zoltec, Apr 22, 2013
    #23
  9. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    The important thing to remember is that this is just setting defaults. You can still change the options in-game, you just won't be starting with non-turn-based elements that may make it harder for new players to realize what's going on. New/inexperienced players are most likely to just play with whatever's there when they show up because they assume we figured out what's best for them. ;)
     
    Gaear, Apr 22, 2013
    #24
  10. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    @ Zoltec: Glad I could help and glad it works for you! :) Thanks!

    @ Gaear: Agreed about the default options - I assume the "maximum control, fully turn-based" defaults would be a very solid choice, and it's always easy to flip the relevant option in the options menu when necessary. :) I believe these defaults will only be set once when the front-end is installed.

    Speaking of which, by the way - the new ToEE Front-End X can now fully complete the installation procedure and create an installation setup compatible with the classic TFE-X out of a fresh vanilla game installation. It can also run this installed game. However, that's all it does for now - that is, it's not aware of any options, DLL hacks, or other modules (it can't activate custom modules or their addons yet). That's the next milestone, I'll keep you guys posted! :)

    P.S. Module activation will use the same UI as the installer - that means, fully responsive, automatic, and dynamic (will inform you of the progress as it goes along).

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 23, 2013
    #25
  11. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Ok, perhaps not much of a progress today, but still significant enough: the new ToEE Front-End X was tested on an actual real game installation for the first time (as opposed to the test makeshift setups) and worked very well, deployed itself interactively in under 3 minutes on my PC and allowed me to launch the game correctly (in the converted TFE-X format), on both Linux and Windows. Also, I implemented the default options setup during deployment, it sets the following:
    Code:
    autosave_between_maps=0
end_turn_default=0
concurrent_turnbased=0
    Next stop - being able to load TFE-X options and populate the module table list with the installed TFM package names.

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 23, 2013
    #26
  12. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    I added the overall progress report to the first post in this thread.

    The new ToEE Front-End X can now properly package the current saved games and player characters into the initial ToEE module bundle if the game was already played before the installation of TFE-X. Instead of becoming the intrinsic part of the module, the saved games and players will correctly be stored as a separate .TFS package meant for saved games. Also, the new TFE-X was optimized a bit, I don't think it's quite up to speed of the old one yet but I'll see what I can do. Still working on the module activation support, that's likely to take another day or two.

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 24, 2013
    #27
  13. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    If that means what I think it means (bringing characters forward between versions), we'll have to skip right past beatification and move directly to sainthood for you, sir!
     
    Daryk, Apr 24, 2013
    #28
  14. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Looking good. :thumbsup:
     
    Gaear, Apr 24, 2013
    #29
  15. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    @ Daryk, Gaear: Thanks a lot for your encouraging comments! :)

    - Agetian
     
    Agetian, Apr 24, 2013
    #30
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