Slitherine

"I wonder if there are any coders who might be interested in getting involved with the Field of Glory project to add all these small tweaks and polish that the team don't have the resources to add?"

Iain McNeil (Slitherine)

This quote comes from the current "FOG 50% skill 50% luck" thread. I have spoken to Iain by e-mail today and he has agreed to me putting this appeal out to you all to see if there are some of us who can contribute to the fine tuning of the game by adding some of the things that are mentioned by players on the forum quite regularly.

You can either contact Iain directly or, alternatively, you can indicate your interest in this thread.

Anyone expressing an interest - it would be great to know your experience and time availability to commit to the project.

I'm willing to contribute some of my time for this.

Chris

me too

Yay! Go to it guys.

Deeter

Great, thanks guys!. Since I cant code I shall bring the beer and tobacco products.

There will be opportunities to help out in testing and refining and changes so we dont just need coders. Anyone who is interested can yoyu post your experience so we can get an idea of if this is feasible.

iainmcneil wrote:There will be opportunities to help out in testing and refining and changes so we dont just need coders. Anyone who is interested can yoyu post your experience so we can get an idea of if this is feasible.

I know nothing about Codeing or history but i am very willing
to play test anything if it helps.
Cheers
Ian

iainmcneil wrote:There will be opportunities to help out in testing and refining and changes so we dont just need coders. Anyone who is interested can yoyu post your experience so we can get an idea of if this is feasible.

If I can help in any way then I will. I have no coding or computer techie skills but I can help with historical research and play-testing.

Know nothing on coding but for testing count me in.

thanks

I've done a lot of testing and am a little bit codey (step through it and write the odd little fix here and there, but not a full-on developer).

We'd need one really experienced programmer to lead on the project and others could assist. The team leader/programmer is the key really.

The game is written in Real Basic for PC and Mac so someone familiar with that or something similar would be a bonus.

Hi Ian
As its more generla help you want rather than just coding skills (which I don't have) count me in as well an.

Many thanks
Ian AKA Hoplite1963

Ready to give an help in historical researches and testing!

Even though I am not working as a programmer (lead game designer and senior producer), I know C, C++, C# and scripting. Dealing with some Basic wouldn't be a problem, I'd say, even if I would be much better fit for leading the team and doing the design/scripting than actually coding.

iainmcneil wrote:We'd need one really experienced programmer to lead on the project and others could assist. The team leader/programmer is the key really.

The game is written in Real Basic for PC and Mac so someone familiar with that or something similar would be a bonus.

What is your feeling about all this now, Iain? Might we be in business?

We're still investigating so no firm news on this yet. Choosing the lead programmer is the key to this project.

Is this proposal making any headway? Would really like to see the combat results cleaned up as well as several other lingering issues.

Deeter

No progress yet. It will take some time to sort it all out - weeks/months realistically.

That's OK - and I feel that we can all take it as quite good news really - at least the idea hasn't been ruled out quickly as a non-starter and its' viability is going to be investigated thoroughly. It does seem to me that we may have a lot of the skills needed between us all for this "support group", but I can appreciate that it will take some thinking about in terms of integrating it into what Slitherine does in the future e.g. terms of reference/division of labour, that sort of thing.

Iain, you may have seen in another thread that Todd is a bit of a whizz-kid with Photoshop and that he has offered his services too.

stockwellpete wrote:"I wonder if there are any coders who might be interested in getting involved with the Field of Glory project to add all these small tweaks and polish that the team don't have the resources to add?"

Iain McNeil (Slitherine)

First of all, I ain't no coder so no help there.
More than willing to use my time to test, change and otherwise be used to bounce ideas off.

But a few questions come to mind....

1. Small tweaks and polish? Far as I can figure, we're talking about a wholesale change to the combat-system.
(which, since this is a war-game is kinda important )
Granted, we could start with changing the D6 system to something a little less random, but it'll still leave horde armies insanely powerful.
We also need (off the top of my oddly-shaped head): Some way of dealing with the attrition making Superior troops worth the points, some kind of Command/Control rules linking BGs into larger units moving together (making hordes harder to control), improvements to the missile-casualties (making massed arrows actually effective), Army morale (so that units no longer fight to the death until some arbitrary BP line is crossed)........
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. Hell, fixing just some of the idiosyncrasies would probably bring me back into the FOG fold.
I'm just not sure it'll be merely tweaking.

2. Will we lose some of the target audience?
One huge advantage of FOG over e.g. HPS' Ancient Wars is that it plays easily and fast. That, and the graphics are 10 times better.
What worries me a little is that Slitherine/HexWar has a market for WargamingLite.
This isn't meant as a snide remark, it's simply the way it is, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with entry-level wargames.
So when we add this rule, and that rule, and have phalanxes moving one hex right when in mêlée to cover their exposed flanks etc. etc. we should perhaps be aware that the game is designed as a Tourney game (hence the point-sized armies), and as a fast-playing one.
One of the reasons TT FOG is so popular is (or so I believe) because it doesn't get bogged down in combat-tables and 'chrome' rules.
One way to circumvent this particular problem would be to have Optional Rules, making it possible to play with the level of realism the players are comfortable with. Though this makes scenarios a lot harder to balance than they already are.

3. Copyright issues.
In order for this to work, first someone has to talk HexWar into surrendering the source-code.
Now, knowing wargamers in general, and modders in particular, what happens when the New and Improved FOG sees the light (wishful thinking, but bear with me), and the modders/coders want to distribute this new game for free?
Even if this becomes available only for those with FOG already registered, I can see an argument for launching this as a new game (FOG v2.0 if you will), and charging people accordingly.
I can't contribute significantly, so I have no opinion either way, but if I was a coder spending time on this project, I'd be a little miffed if someone subsequently charged me for the end-product.

Having said all that, count me and my meagre skills in!
The fact that FOG, despite all the wonkiness of it, has never left my HDD completely is perhaps saying something.......
Though I have thrown my mouse through the room in disgust from time to time

Cheerfully