Feature Bounty - pot $50 - Completed

[Caydr]

Person who changes the code so that the following tags are recognized and followed gets $25 (less paypal fees) from me as well as anything else that is contributed (also less paypal fees). Will be transferred via paypal.

The deadline for this is the version of Spring following 0.73b. (the one about to be released)

If you want to see the following changes implemented, donate any amount you wish by sending it to altor@rogers.com via paypal. As a long-time respected member of this community with many future goals and commitments, you can be assured that I will respect your wishes. If the changes are not made in time for the deadline, your money will be returned. Make sure to include a note saying that it is "for the feature request" or I might mistakenly think it is just a donation for my own work.

If you're not comfortable with this, just post the amount you agree to donate below. However, the possibility that the money will not come through may not encourage prospective coders as much. (for instance, if you pledge $100 and it's your 1st post... I don't think anyone would take you seriously) If you do not follow through, I'm sure there will be repercussions of some kind.

Conditions to meet:

Must not interfere with normal game functioning or affect the game detrimentally in any way, in my sole educated opinion based on analysis and testing by a developer.

You must not bother full-time developers for assistance excessively, as they are already busy with many other things.

Your patch must be accepted, after peer review, by an individual capable of committing it to the SVN.

Canrepair=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of performing repairs
Canreclamate=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of reclaiming features and wrecks
Canattack=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of attacking units or locations.
Canmove=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of moving
Canpatrol=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of patroling
Canguard=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of guarding
Canassist=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of assisting construction
Canrestore=0/1 - Makes a unit capable or incapable of restoring terrain
Reclaimable=0/1 - Makes a unit (not its wreck) able to be reclaimed or not reclaimed by any unit.
Standingmoveorder=0/1/2 - Makes a unit have its (and anything it builds) default movement state to hold position, maneuver, or roam depending on which is set
Standingfireorder=0/1/2 - Makes a unit have its (and anything it builds) default firing state to hold fire, return fire, or fire at will depending on which is set
Noautofire=1/2 - Makes a unit fire only when told to, then stop after firing one shot, or (2) makes a unit fire only when told to, and then continue firing until it us no longer capable of doing so (target destroyed, itself destroyed, out of ammo).

All changes must be reflected in the GUI - for instance, a unit without the ability to patrol should not have the patrol button. Also, for instance, an attack cursor must not appear if you're hovering over an enemy unit when you have a unit with canattack=0 selected.

-----

Ok, now it's up to you, community. If you want better mods than ever before, start committing money. Even $5 will make a difference if we get a bunch of generous people. If you go to a store and buy a game, it will cost you $50 or more. With these new tags, new mods will be possible and existing mods will be enhanced. The above tags will open the door to a great many new possibilities for us mod developers.

At the end of the month I may be able to double my commitment, depending on if I get paid properly for my overtime this month.

If you intend to work on the features, please post below stating your serious intentions. Other developers may decide to join you, or not. This is not a competition, this is just meant as a bit of encouragement to do some unpleasant work. If you do not announce your intention to perform the change and prove your capability to do so, you will be automatically disqualified from receiving the bounty. If two or more individuals collaborate, it is their responsibility to decide how the money will be split between them.

This is a serious post, do not post anything intended to be humorous. >_>

Amounts are in US Dollars only.

~~~

For some clarification:

builder=1 : can build things, but not repair or assist in construction
builder=1, canrepair=1 : can build things, can repair things, cannot assist in construction
builder=1, canrepair=1, canassist=1 : can build things, repair things, or assist construction
builder=0, canrepair=1, canassist=1 : can't build things on its own, can repair things, can assist in construction
builder=0, canrepair=0, canassist=1 : can't build things on its own, can't repair things, can assist in construction
builder=0, canrepair=1, canassist=0 : can't build things on its own, can repair things, can't assist in construction

NONE of the above can reclaim features or units, since they lack canreclamate.

[Tobi]

However, if you finish it in time for this next release, I will add an additional $30 to the pot.

Note that we already created a feature frozen (ie. bugfix only) release branch, so getting it into this next release is impossible.

[Tim Blokdijk]

...

There is a deadline for this - the release of Spring following this next release. However, if you finish it in time for this next release, I will add an additional $30 to the pot.

...

Well, it won't make the next release as the release branch is feature frozen.
(Unless someone implemented it already)

[Tobi]

lol

[Tim Blokdijk]

Yhea,..

[EXit_W0und]

I've already implemented standingMoveOrder and standingFireOrder, the patch was sent to Tobi a while back. He hasn't got back to me to say if its been added to the trunk and i did test it quite thouroughly so i'm assuming it's working if no one says otherwise.
Do i get a tiny fraction of the cash for this?

edit: just rememebered that it doesn't update the firestate or movestate in the GUI. no cash for me

[Caydr]

It's a start. I think we have enough of a fair-minded community here to decide, once the whole task has been completed, how much you might deserve.

[FireCrack]

Hmm, wouldnt noautofire be better as a weapon tag? That way you could have units with one weapon that requires manual firing and then some smaller, automatic point defence weapons, or somesuch....

[Das Bruce]

But what if you want a unit that does fire it automatically? Mightn't it be better to do noautofireweapon#?

[FireCrack]

^yeah, prehaps that would be better...

[AF]

wonders why these few tags are worth more than skirmish AI's or lobbies or GUI's or model formats

[SinbadEV]

wonders why these few tags are worth more than skirmish AI's or lobbies or GUI's or model formats

boringness to effort to "value that cadyr can afford" ratios

[AF]

the features he wants are more of a convenience coding thign than an urgent thing or w/e, the sort of thing you do while your passing by that bit of code


*opens VStudio*

[AF]

My patch I'm working on now currently does alot of those and its surprisingly easy.

canpatrol
canreclaim
canrepair
canmove
canguard
canrestore
canattack
NoAutoFire

are atm in my patch sorted for all mobile units and factories except transports metal extractors and aircraft for which I have a few last commands to add fitlers too.

[Argh]

I have sent $20 in for this request. I feel that this feature is of prime importance for many mods.

[Nemo]

Thought I might mention that commandfire=1 already works for weapons. Which is essentially a noautofire tag.

As for the rest of them..YES. Go AF!

[KDR_11k]

Last time I tested commandfire the units took that as meaning "return fire". Even worse, in a burst the unit will pick a new target after the attack order expires which means the first shot goes where you want it and the rest goes where the unit has spotted something shootable.

[AF]

In my patch if NoAutoFire==true then the movement and firing orders are set to holdfire/holdpos and the buttons are never added to the GUI so the user cant break it by changing it.

[AF]

Any other basic commands you wanna be able to turn off? I've added a canunload tag so transports caa pick up weapons or units and never unload them, for say stuff like component systems or those FTL drives in OTA FF

[clericvash]

How can the spring devs let such a big thing that many of us think is needed (a few people being "big dogs" around here) not go into the next release?