Weekly Report: August 21-September 2

Wow. I've been way too busy this past week. Classes started and the workload managed to pile on way too fast. I still haven't even gotten some of my books. Thankfully, most of Dronesec was already done for the deadline on August 18. I've managed to do a couple of things in the short amounts of free time I had but not nearly as much as I would like. I managed to get tpserver-py on windows to work which I hope to put on a full How-To article on the TP wiki tonight or tomorrow if time permits.

I used epydoc on tpserver-py and I found that I need to find a more standard format for the docstrings and to fill it out for a lot more documentation. I'll be slowly working on that this week as my time permits. I do however think that finding a good standard form for the docstrings would be a good idea to make sure that at least most of the information needed is there.

Today officially marks the end of GSOC, but I think I'll keep writing on this blog once in a while to help keep track of dronesec and what I'm doing with tpserver-py. I imagine the next couple of months will see a transition into the TP04 protocol which I am very excited about and hope it will be relatively painless :-D

Weekly Report August 13 - August 20

Its the second to last week and most of the touch ups and documentation are on their way. Unfortunately, classes began this week and it has kept me much busier than I hoped. However, dronesec and tpserver-py are both coming along nicely and windows operability has been achieved!

This week I:

• Added some documentation trying to explain some of the tougher concepts in tpserver-py for future developers.
• Added Designs for Researches so that players can look up most of its information in-game.
• Added a short Combat Message when a player loses ships
• Guest accounts have been enabled.
• Some changes to EOT so that guests and defeated players are not required
• I made some changes to key formatting in the OnGetOrder function. The output is virtually identical but with the new changes tpserver-py is able to work correctly on cygwin.
• Our first screen cast is up! Its not very good, but there is always room from improvement. I hope to make more for a short series on Dronesec.
  
  

The server is now operational on Windows! I haven't fully tested it yet but so far the server will start and allow players to join. I already have a quick installation guide made for it but I hope to add a more fleshed out and comprehensive guide to the TP wiki.

I hope to continue doing more documentation and get tpserver-py ready for a release this week as well as another screencast.

Weekly Report August 6 - August 12

Its been both a fun and frustrating week.

• I got tpserver-py to work on windows using cygwin. Then when I tried it again it broke >.<
• I have the audio for my screencast. I had the video portion but unfortunately the encoding for recordmydesktop keeps freezing so that will be put on hold for a short while.
• Dronesec now has an identity! I've been watching a little bit of Battlestar Galactica and I've decided that dronesec should have a Greek Mythology scheme for its names instead of "borrowing" from other sci fi shows/games. Fighters are named after male gods, Bombers after female gods and Capital Ships after Titans.
• Some more documentation has been added but a lot more is still left to do.
• Times stamps on SQL objects now update! Yay! This should clear up most if not all of the caching issues.

Next Week I need to focus on getting my screen casts up. Hopefully I can find a different program that won't have these encoding issues. I also need to figure out how to get tpserver-py on cygwin. It was working before but now I am getting some strange errors about permissions.

I'll be adding more documentation and perhaps a general guide to what things do to help out future tpserver-py devs.

I also hope to get another playtesting game going to hunt for more bugs. I do believe mithro wanted to set one up and anyone else can feel free to join in.

tpserver-py on Windows

I got tpserver to work on windows using Cygwin. It took a while to figure and I haven't tested it fully but at least the server will run. I'll have to write up some simple instructions to setting up the server.

It wasn't a simple process so I'll draw up an initial guide and reinstall it to see how it works.


Now I have to find someone with a Mac.

Weekly Report June 29 - August 5

Its been a little busy around here lately with moving into the new house and then helping my roomates move in that I almost forgot about my weekly report!

This week I've been trying to make Dronesec more user friendly.

• Designs! - Added Designs allows players to check all of those hidden statistics in drones while in game and it has the added bonus of telling players what drones are in their fleets.
• I fixed a couple of typos and errors of littles things I missed.
• Had a short playtesting session in which a bug popped up and was soon squashed
• Added something else to the server! Not much mind you but it was something to help server admins know on which turn the game was on.
  
• Documentation: I added a bit to the server and I have started what will hopefully be the idiot-proof step-by-step guide to playing Dronesec.

As the summer of code comes close to an end I'll be preparing tpserver-py for a release. This would mean having to hunt someone down with a Mac to see if it will run. I've started looking into running the server on Windows. Right now there seems to be a problem with using select.poll() which isn't supported by Windows but I do believe I can get it to work almost out of the box using Cygwin.

I'll also be adding more documentation to the server so that other future python devs can have some help figuring out how everything works.

As per mithro's suggestiong I will also be making some screencasts to show how to set up the server and how to play dronesec. Something similiar to what jphr is doing for his Risk Ruleset.

Hopefully more playtesting!

Playtest!

Got a game going last night: A couple of bugs cropped up.

Some feedback:

• It seems that in the windows version of tpclient-pywx. If someone moves the mouse towards the star map the main window will come into focus. This issue came up when one of the players was trying to see the designs.
• Some problems with the cache. The universe is downloaded but the star map and the system tree still contain the same information.
  I think it might be an issue mostly with caching.
• I believe I need to fix my reparenting as some issues are occurring when dealing with overlords and drones.
• On windows tpclient-pywx, the starmap completely disappeared after deleting a cache to update the map. Map reappeared on the next turn.
  
• At one point: One of the players got a Network Error 38. Fixed by deleting cache.
  

Playtesting Foiled by University Fail

So I tried to playtest tonight. Unfortunately the University wireless is baaaaaaaad. I think I might be between wireless connections and thus the connection is going a little haywire leaving the games disconnected every other 10 seconds.

So I guess Tomorrow I will be searching for good a good spot to get my wireless connection going hopefully then I can get an actual game going. Fingers are crossed.