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Re: Launcher/Updater (paid job)[message #356441 is a reply to message #356438] Thu, 17 January 2019 03:22 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
ZedJA2

 
Messages:202
Registered:January 2018
SUMMARY:

PROBLEM 1:
-- the ini and xml files have all sorts of options distributed all over the place and placement changes, so compatability is hard for a user to keep with his old set-up.
PROBLEM 2:
-- the options files even if they were concentrated back into one file, for setting up, include long explanations and settings in a huge multi-page text file, that literally can take a day to set-up from scratch, even if you know the settings basically from last time. If the explanations were separated from the options list, making each easy to find, ordered the same each update (with any new settings tacked onto the end), you could create a basic way of just inputting an old settings file list, read that in, and then the autoexec batch file (or something like it), could prompt you for the remaining new settings. You'd read a help file as you set up the settings, and your old settings file would always be compatible. As long as someone updates the autoexec batch reader file.

(The above is mod maker friendly, not basic user settings set-up friendly. It is powerful, but without some easy way to use all that as a basic user, it's not user-friendly)

-----

I'm not a programmer, although I use to do some programming in my school years. The idea of some launcher as almost a batch file, makes a lot of sense however.

A few notes though beforehand. I don't really believe that USUALLY you need to go back to the JA2 GOLD v1.12 clean install. That's almost always a bunch of unnecessary hooey. The files that change the most are files that are always used in the previous versions (so they will be replaced by new version), or new files that will just be added and not overwrite. So as long as the placement is correct in the correct directory, most of that isn't an issue.

HOWEVER, the settings, the xml files, the ini files, those are a hassle in some ways. Because they overwrite you back to the new default set-up, and do not retain your customizations.

I'll give an example. I have a few changes to my M.E.R.C. mercs, so I have to remember not to overwrite that file (which I forget the exact name for now -- part of the problem as the orig poster put so well). I have to MERGE MY CHANGES TO ANY UPDATES instead. That's basically appending text files, or going thru the whole thing manually and keeping my changes plus updating any NOTICED new changes from the new SCI directories.

Same thing goes for the INI files. Most of them change not at all or very little. But, the modders keep changing which file has which option -- that can totally nuke your simple update. You have to choose all your options again.

Flugente meant well when he moved to a non-graphical at start interface -- BUT he totally went the other way from having a nice easy to implement launcher at start. ARGUABLY -- IF you could choose all the options in all the files at start inside the JA2 v1.13 game, it would be A WHOLE LOT EASIER FOR ANY FAN. That, in effect, is the orig posters concept of a launcher.

The best I can suggest in the interim. Would be having all the options repeated in one place, in one file, and the player just picks yes or no. Each option gets a number next to it. You could then just pick all the numbers of all you want as yes, and not those for no, and then enter a value. This creates your autoexec bat of the game, basically. The player could open another help file explaining everything, just as the JA2options.ini does currently, and read that for explanation as he enters values. He then saves the values and boom, he's set.

A list of those numbers could be saved to disk. Then every time you update, you just feed in the old numbers, read them into the new versions autoexec bat, and boom it is set-up.

Now, here's the laughable part. If the JA2v113 Editor was working as it should, and pumping out all the files correctly, that would be basically your launcher. But it isn't kept up to date. It could be and expanded upon, but as the original poster mentions, that might be something only done for money.

What I'm saying is that maybe you can't do it for mods, but you could do it for v1.13 easily enough conceptually. But the move over the years to breaking the files up into various files, although great for modding to create stuff, actually makes it harder for a person to just set up options and go, because it requires more intimate knowledge of the history of changes in the game to find the right files, remember what you did before and all that.

TO ORIGINAL POSTER:

I've gone to keeping my old files unless I have to change something key. I also keep an increasingly more detailed Notepad file on what I do to each file and why, so that I can rebuild quicker my set-up. All I can say is if you log most of your customizations in a text file, it sure makes it easier to recreate.

Right now, the game just reads all the distributed files on a new campaign, and creates the game. That certainly could be automated, by adding flags in the files, whatever, with a simple procedure. But as it stands, the confusion for the basic fan player who hasn't kept up with the distributed files and settings, well he's going to have a hard time. You would need a commitment to a certain overarching file that simply lists all options in a standardized order, and a help file for that. Then each time you play even with a new version, that file sets it up. That's basically what any launcher does anyway, just in a more complicated manner.

[Updated on: Thu, 17 January 2019 03:27]

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