Some future improvements

Robin · #1 04-26-2008, 03:42 AM

Hiyo all,

Since I've stopped playing Graal and come back, There were some things that, well, more than bothered me. I lament these things.

First off is the disappearance of the changelog that used to be included with the client, showing all new changes in the scripting language, bug fixes et al. This had all but vanished when the move to v4 (or is it, v5 now?) was complete, but it was a useful reference tool as well as being able to let people know what had been fixed.

The other issue I found was the Scripted RC. Now I can see a lot of work has been put into this, but I do not believe that the Graal client has matured enough to dignify this script to be used, instead of a native RemoteControl client. For one thing, whenever I have used this script, it appears to lose focus by itself. I could be typing a sentence or editing a script and suddenly the keyboard be unresponsive.

I believe that if this Scripted RC is here to stay, it should be an option on the start menu (Which is also something I lament, but do not care enough about to mention seperately), to open the RC, and ONLY the RC. So that you never actually log onto a server in player mode, and save resources, time, etc.

Operating system integration (I'm talking OS X in particular) does not match what the client needs to do and the fact is that the game, gui and options are all very laggy on my Intel Mac (Due to the fact that the binary is not yet Universal! Come on Stefan, you've had two years!)

I know development machines tend to be expensive and if Stefan owns an intel mac the he cannot be expected to compile Graal on his personal computer, but I know that there are some services out there that can be quite cheap which offer cluster compiling farms on any and every platform including Intel OS X.

The global chat system just seems tacked on, like Graal had been turned into a giant IRC server. Not that anyone uses it.

Anyway these are my points, thanks for reading :P

cbk1994 · #2 04-26-2008, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin

Operating system integration (I'm talking OS X in particular) does not match what the client needs to do and the fact is that the game, gui and options are all very laggy on my Intel Mac (Due to the fact that the binary is not yet Universal! Come on Stefan, you've had two years!)

Stefan has made an Intel version (not to be confused with Universal), and he has released it to a few players, I think only Skyld and myself. You can ask him and he may give you a copy.

See attachment.

Also, the addition of external windows in the new Mac client has helped the scripted RC a lot.

Hopefully we will see additions to IRC that let scripter create locked channels and only allow certain players, and allow more control (this could be used to have different chats for just your group, without toguild. For example, you can have sides, teams, guilds, and gangs and talk to them all in a different tab)

Robin · #3 04-26-2008, 03:48 AM

Thanks but I'd rather have a release version, let's face it more and more people have Intel Mac's these days and it will certainly put them off if they have to struggle using Rosetta to run this game.

Crow · #4 04-26-2008, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin

First off is the disappearance of the changelog that used to be included with the client, showing all new changes in the scripting language, bug fixes et al. This had all but vanished when the move to v4 (or is it, v5 now?) was complete, but it was a useful reference tool as well as being able to let people know what had been fixed.

This can be found here now:

http://wiki.graal.net/index.php/Crea...lient_Releases

And I personally find this better to be honest :]

Skyld · #5 04-26-2008, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin

The other issue I found was the Scripted RC. Now I can see a lot of work has been put into this, but I do not believe that the Graal client has matured enough to dignify this script to be used, instead of a native RemoteControl client. For one thing, whenever I have used this script, it appears to lose focus by itself. I could be typing a sentence or editing a script and suddenly the keyboard be unresponsive.

Can you be a bit more specific? I have not experienced this problem myself, so any directions on how to reproduce the problem would be appreciated.

Admins · #6 04-26-2008, 02:49 PM

The client change log is at the wiki now yes

A version for Intel Mac will be released in a few weeks, it includes external windows (and external playerlist).
The global chat has been mainly added to complete the features of the scripted RC. The scripted RC still needs some work but has made good progress and with the new Graal version it can start to become a real alternative.

Crow · #7 04-26-2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefan

The client change log is at the wiki now yes

A version for Intel Mac will be released in a few weeks, it includes external windows (and external playerlist).
The global chat has been mainly added to complete the features of the scripted RC. The scripted RC still needs some work but has made good progress and with the new Graal version it can start to become a real alternative.

Aslong as the background image and buttons will still be skinnable, I am happy.

Skyld · #8 04-26-2008, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crow

Aslong as the background image and buttons will still be skinnable, I am happy.

In theory they are already by changing the rc_*.png/.jpg files in your folder, I do not know if they would get overwritten by being redownloaded from mainfiles though. Would be worth checking.

Crow · #9 04-26-2008, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyld

In theory they are already by changing the rc_*.png/.jpg files in your folder, I do not know if they would get overwritten by being redownloaded from mainfiles though. Would be worth checking.

Read-only. Problem solved.

What about font colors and that kind of stuff?

cbk1994 · #10 04-26-2008, 06:23 PM

I wish players could script their own Scripted RC

I made a totally awesome one, did about everything as Skylds, needed some work, but I liked it MUCH better ... then they disabled client-rc for normal weapons

Crow · #11 04-26-2008, 06:40 PM

I would like the Scripted RC to have the visual part and only the visual part to be seperated and then I want full access. Please and thanks?

Skyld · #12 04-26-2008, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crow

I would like the Scripted RC to have the visual part and only the visual part to be seperated and then I want full access. Please and thanks?

No, sorry. Giving people direct access to the Client-RC stuff is just asking for trouble - that's been proven already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin

Maybe a framework that anyone could put a custom front end on and be able to customize for each server / level of staff? Might be good. Hint hint @ Skyld.

It would be very easy to just provide some public functions for changing images and appearance, and then a script on the server could do it.

Robin · #13 04-26-2008, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyld

No, sorry. Giving people direct access to the Client-RC stuff is just asking for trouble - that's been proven already.

It would be very easy to just provide some public functions for changing images and appearance, and then a script on the server could do it.

Yeah, that'd be good. No offence but that button that used to be something else and is now a popup menu = fail.

Robin · #14 04-26-2008, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefan

The client change log is at the wiki now yes

A version for Intel Mac will be released in a few weeks, it includes external windows (and external playerlist).
The global chat has been mainly added to complete the features of the scripted RC. The scripted RC still needs some work but has made good progress and with the new Graal version it can start to become a real alternative.

Intel mac version with external windows = <3
Intel mac version of the RC seperate (GTK compiles on OS X Too! :P) = <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyld

Can you be a bit more specific? I have not experienced this problem myself, so any directions on how to reproduce the problem would be appreciated.

As I've only got RC access on Zodiac, it could be an issue with their scripts, but then it could be a symptom of the current version of graal for OSX. I tend to find if I click a link, and the client loses focus (say the web page opens up in Firefox) when I come back to the client, and click (doesn't matter where) it seems like the link still has focus, until I actually click on the title bar of the window and wiggle my mouse a bit (how technical!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbkbud

I wish players could script their own Scripted RC

I made a totally awesome one, did about everything as Skylds, needed some work, but I liked it MUCH better ... then they disabled client-rc for normal weapons

Maybe a framework that anyone could put a custom front end on and be able to customize for each server / level of staff? Might be good. Hint hint @ Skyld.

cbk1994 · #15 04-26-2008, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin

Maybe a framework that anyone could put a custom front end on and be able to customize for each server / level of staff? Might be good. Hint hint @ Skyld.

Only problem with what we had or what you're suggesting is you can do this:

PHP Code:


			
//#CLIENTSIDE
function onCreated()
{
  requesttext( "clientrc", 1 );
  sendtext( "rights", "cbk1994", { "changerights" } ); //etc
}

(I forget exactly how rights where sent)

Then add this to the owner of the server

cbk1994 · #16 04-26-2008, 08:30 PM

Skyld, what I'm saying is that I made a scripted RC that did about everything yours does (and more). It looked SO much better, and I much preferred it ...

Can't we have client-rc, perhaps with a window the player can click to disable it in the F3 options?

Skyld · #17 04-26-2008, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbkbud

Skyld, what I'm saying is that I made a scripted RC that did about everything yours does (and more). It looked SO much better, and I much preferred it ...

Can't we have client-rc, perhaps with a window the player can click to disable it in the F3 options?

I don't really see why it's necessary. At the end of the day, the RC is a means to an end. It is largely mimicing the standard RC (except for the Script Editor and ban window), and people have been using that for years.

Opening the Client-RC stuff to all scripts is asking for people to put Client-RC code into weapons and add it to the weapon lists of managers and such; cosmetics are not a big enough reason to allow that. I already said it's possible to add some functions that can help modify the appearance of the Scripted RC, so if you have suggestions for that, they are welcome.