Resource Transferrence
Hi, I haven't posted here in a while, but, I recently got back into this game and had a couple of suggestions. They are vastly unrelated, so, I'll be posting the second in its own thread.
Anyhow, this suggestion is regarding custom resources, like hats, flags, etc. I'm not sure if the bug from .13 where if a player was lacking a flag image that someone was actively using, they would crash, is present in .15, but I don't want to find out. Either way, custom flags and hats have no way of automatically transferring to other players.
I have mentioned this in the past, and I believe Tiyuri told me that the devs did not want an automatic resource transfer to occur, because what it transferred could be content that the person on the receiving end did not want. While I understand the sentiment (people with teams donning genitalia-based hats, and the like), I don't think that should stop the idea altogether. So, I have a proposal for a system.
Basically, if someone joins a room that you are in, it will say something like:
Tiyuri has N hats and N flags that you lack. Would you like to download these?
This would be dependent on the flags/hats they had currently equipped to their teams, though a hard cap could be put on the number it would mention at once to avoid bugs, maybe even restricting them to one team's worth. You could get a similar dialogue if you join a room that intends to use a map style that you don't have, or whatever else there might be (I'm no longer entirely familiar with all of the resources in Hedgewars).
Anyhow, this dialogue box could also have a sort of "preview" square for each hat/flag that would have a button in the center. This could be generated from a random frame from the image to avoid spoofing in hats (i.e. the first frame is one thing, the rest are something else). Anyhow, upon clicking a preview button, you'd see a preview, and if you didn't like what you saw, you just cancel out of the dialogue.
Further options could be "Download", "Download All", Don't ask me again for these images" (which could be done by a checksum to avoid valid file names getting banned), and "Don't ask again for this user". You'd also want to ensure that no files by that name existed, to keep other hats you might have from getting overwritten.
I realize you guys are really busy, and that this sort of thing is not likely on your list of priorities, but, I feel it would really enrich the "uniqueness" of each team, and enable easy sharing of these sorts of resources.
This is a bit lengthier than I intended, so, I apologize for that, but, thanks for reading through all of it if you did. =]
Listening is the first step, and the last step.
Personally, i think it would be tedious to always have a dialogue that pops up for each thing.
Plus, the imo the hats and flags arent really the important part.
It would be much more usefull if the process of sharing maps, were simplified.
Well, you could have an option in the settings to disable it, something like "Never Notify Me About Resource Updates". A little, easily workable issue like that is certainly not a reason to avoid adding a feature like this.
Well, my group of friends personally makes a lot of custom stuff, and it's annoying to constantly have to pass everything around, but, that is why I said "resource". Maps and such would count as well. Though it's worth mentioning that the maps I made seemed to auto-transmit when I chose to play them, though I don't think anyone else could host with said map, if that is what you mean.
Listening is the first step, and the last step.
This is an excellent idea and I hope it gets implemented soon. It really deserves more attention by the developers. I see no reason to even bother with custom resources at this point. At the very least, a proper resource transference system would definitely strengthen community activity and probably lengthen a person's interest in the game.
Wow really!?!?! How does that work? Usually when one person chooses a custom map that the others don't have, it gives an error message saying "different maps generated", and the game goes back to the lobby.
I'm on .15, and they were hand-drawn maps, which might have something to do with it. I'm sure I'd -really- be raring for such a system if I made a static map that no one could play. As I've said, such a system would hopefully offer to transmit *any* resources you were missing, that way you could play with full force. I offered the preview option to avoid things like penis hats/flags, entire phallic maps, etc.
As it stands right now, all of my friends updated to 0.15, and none of them can see my hats because they don't have them. It's kind of silly that everyone would have to quit, I'd have to put a package together, and they'd all have to download them.
Though, I did provide my hats in the hat thread, so, considering there's been an update, I am puzzled as to why they were not added. They were quality hats.
Anyhow, a big part of what I like about the hats, is it gives you the ability to make your own unique hogs. And it'd be nice if other people could see those, without everyone having to pretty much stick to the same set of hogs, and kill some of the uniqueness.
Listening is the first step, and the last step.
Tiyuri decides on what hats are to be included. Take it up with him.
--
Oh, what the heck. 1PLXzL1CBUD1kdEWqMrwNUfGrGiirV1WpH <= tip a hedgewars dev
@nemo: Aren't you a dev? I'm not sure if you're *trying* to derail my thread, but that is most certainly not the point of this topic. I don't harbor anything against him or anyone for it, I don't really care- it was just an aside. However, based on the large volume of other text I bothered writing, I really think that what I'm suggesting is a great idea, and even if you guys don't like it, there's certainly room for *some* sort of feature that enables users to share the things they create.
I apologize if you didn't mean it the way it sounds to me, but it certainly is coming off like you're trying to undermine the topic in this thread because you don't like the premise of the idea, especially considering you made the effort to post, but refrained from saying anything relevant. I'd expect more maturity from someone in a position of power.
Listening is the first step, and the last step.
...
Woah. Snarky.
I was trying to answer your last comment about hats that you had submitted that hadn't been included.
I was suggesting asking Tiyuri why they weren't included (whether he hadn't noticed 'em, or whether he felt they needed work).
But now, I'm kinda irritated. Resource download systems have been a subject of quite a bit of discussion. Nothing in there is terribly unusual. Things like confirming downloads, deleting them, voting content up/down, user resource location vs system has come up before.
It didn't seem worth commenting on since the issues are well known and you were right as to why it wasn't implemented.
So I focused on what I felt could answer.
No need for you to be an ass.
--
Oh, what the heck. 1PLXzL1CBUD1kdEWqMrwNUfGrGiirV1WpH <= tip a hedgewars dev
I think more important thing is to stop server from failing when hats/flags are missing and replace them with some default things.
Also I would like to see the scripts to be server side or transfer. Although transfer is not as good. But ye, I would like to be able to host my own game modes with strangers so they don't have to fiddle with getting the scripts being sent to them and place them in right folder.
@nemo: As I said, if that was not the way you intended it, then take my comments lightly. I feel that if you thought I had gotten much right, and weren't going to address it, you should have at least said that much. And "take it up with Tiyuri" sounds a lot different to me than "I suggest asking him why your hats weren't added". As a side note, he actually commented that they were good. He asked something about me using google images, of which I said I had for two of them, but that the others had been done from scratch. It seemed strange to me that none of them were added, that's all. I apologize for offending you, though.
I understand, thanks for filling me in. It just seems sort of important to me. A new friend joins us, and I have to find the pack of the hats and flags we use (so they don't crash from missing flags and can see our hogs' hats), as well as whatever custom maps we might be playing on. It just feels really unpolished for a newer game, you know? Anyhow, I do realize you guys are busy, but something like this is really needed, at least in my opinion.
I was not trying to be an ass, only defend myself against what I saw as an infringement. Generally, if people answer in the form you did, it's basically to say "your idea is too shitty for me to grace it with a comment, but you can ask the hat guy why your hats weren't added" or some such thing.
@whitebear: That would definitely be a good first step. I think the problem with getting that sort of thing out quickly though, is that they seem to want to add a lot of content/fixes at once before the recommend everyone run out and grab it, to minimize on updates. I think if they had some sort of online updater that grabbed the new stuff, it could mean more frequent updates so that the little details see the light of day earlier, and also, hopefully less bandwidth for the server, as most people would only be downloading what they're missing. It's a bit of a pain to have to re-install each time, and to a different folder, and then copy all your custom stuff over. Actually, I'd suggest having a folder in %appdata% for Windows users where they could keep their custom content that would just keep carrying over. Consider this an addendum to the original post, detailing where to store downloaded/custom resources. That way, the game files themselves aren't messed with, and someone can just go to their appdata to get rid of stuff.
Yeah, scripts would be a good thing to add to this as well, again fitting under the broad term 'resources', but I haven't messed with them much myself, so, I hadn't brought them up yet.
Thanks for contributing. =]
Listening is the first step, and the last step.