[VANILLA-L:1227] Re: [VANILLA-L:1217] Futures

[Dave Ahn <ahn@vec.wfubmc.edu>]

On Wed, Jan 20, 1999 at 09:25:44PM -0500, James Cameron wrote:
> Netrek ideas for discussion.
> 
> 
> Client
> 	- adopt the cool graphics of Netrek: 1999, merge with COW,

I think that it's important to have several Netrek clients available
instead of merging everything into "The One Client."  Aside from the
religious issue of personal preference, variety is a good thing.
This is the reason why I am investing time in updating and porting
TedTurner to Win32.

> 	- include a practice server, with AI robots,
> 	- include a training server, with scenarios (Adrian Moore),

It would be great to merge the concepts of the dogfight and basepractice
servers.  The full galaxy is big enough to partition into several
sections where there may be a couple of arenas.  In an arena, you could
practice dogfighting or basing against real players or AI robots,  Maybe
the bigger partitions could be designed for scenarios.

> 	- animated splash screen including base ogg or planet take
> 	  playback, merged with metaserver listing,

Actually, it would be pretty cool to have a mini-observer type screen
merged with the metaserver listing.  It would show what is happening in
a particular game without being a full observer.  This would go hand in
hand with the idea of an observer server that doesn't require player
slots.  I thought of that a long time ago, but I never got around to
ironing out the details.

> Server

There has been some traffic about rewriting the server to some particular
language.  As far as Java is concerned, I don't think it would be terribly
useful and agree with James on the points he made.

However, I do feel that a general cleanup of the Vanilla source base is
a good idea.  The major issue I have with the source is that it isn't
ANSIfied.  My copy of the Vanilla source does contain a fair bit of
ANSIfication, but it also contains numerous other features that may or
may not belong in the main branch of the CVS tree.  It certainly contains
a lot of untested code that definitely breaks compatibility.  I have been
waiting patiently for Bob to give me write access to the repository so that
I can create a branch and check in the changes for peer review.  I may
just give up waiting and revert back to my personal CVS repository at the
cost of a bigger code gap later on.  I want to finish up the ever-promised-
but-never-delivered INL package.

-- 
Dave Ahn <ahn@vec.wfubmc.edu>        |  "When you were born, you cried and the
                                     |  world rejoiced.  Try to live your life
Virtual Endoscopy Center             |  so that when you die, you will rejoice
Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine |  and the world will cry."  -1/2 jj^2
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