Politician Archive
Thread: Hi Pappi I know it has been asked before but...
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PreLaunch
Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:38 am
#1
Can you ask someone exactly why it would be so hard to put a line in the code to say ( x % ) of mission value or NPC training value goes to city treasury.
Im not looking for a response like " yes we are looking at that in a future publish "
What I am looking for is a reason why it can't be added to the game in less than 10 minutes by someone. It realy just seems like 1 line of code that can be hotfixed with no real time consumption by a single developer.
LOL its not like it could go all wrong an destroy the game. I can't imagine a "Oh wow we added the line of code and now wookies are running out without heads, how didnt we see that bug in the adding of the code."
There is a lot in our profession that staggers the mind as far as how easy it seems to implement yet it is made out to be a game changing event that would need months of planning and testing like fixing our Masters box.
Anyway hope you can get a simple 1 line answer.
To be honest in the time it would take a dev to write that 1 line answer he could have added the code himself. 
DaQuilla2
Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:27 am
#2
Now, I'm not Pappi. But considering she's no Dev, "just" an elected correspondant and she might not get this long answer to this 1 line question, since there are very pressing issues the devs have to concentrate on, I'll try and explain. Although I'm also nosoftware develepor I am studying elektronics... and this is why I think it could be a little more complicated than "adding 1 line of code" ...
the technical side:
Modern software is develept object orientated ... you break down the many features in components and subcomponents until you have an object. This small part has functions inside, that can be executed, and a specified interface that defines what data can come in and out ...
Now I guess terminal missions could work something like this: You go to a terminal and open the grafical terminal object ... this executes the "create possible missions" object ... you get a list of missions ... take some ... and then this mission object is created ... it has information about kind of mission, predesigned location, payout ... it creates a waypoint object ... creates the spawn somewhere (1 km 
) around the predesigned location ... and when you finish it delets the waypoint object, gives you status messages and a payout ...
) around the predesigned location ... and when you finish it delets the waypoint object, gives you status messages and a payout ...Only this mission object probably doesn't know from where you got the mission ... so including a 1 line "Transfer X% to bank account [mission_city]" won't work, unless you include this [mission_city] in all objects between getting the mission, saving the mission, creating the mission, ending the mission ... and probably a lot of other objects that interact inbetween ... include it as an interface object, add it into all the functions as possibility (since this won't happen in NPC cities) ... include exceptions and failsafes ...
Since we here again and again how interconnected all this code is, there are probably a lot of city and mission systems, spawn and money transfersystems that all have to be tested, if they are affected ...
the strategic side:
But if easy to code or not ... another aspect would be to have an idea about the consequences if it works ... how much money will be generated that way, do the devs want player cities to get money "that easily". You have to have data about who much mission payout goes through player cities (if you can track this) etc ... At least that's what I get from reading a lot of Thunderhearts "We had a meating" threads ...
...
So ... to sum it up ... I don't think it really is remotly that simple as "adding 1 line of code", and I hope I could explain what might be behind the troubles of expanding written software.
Laeren
Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:35 am
#3
From what I understand about how SOE/SWG works, most of the problems, bugs and lack of immediate new-feature coding has more to do with the designers than it does with the ease of programming. Sure, some things are a VERY easy switch in the database (such as the resource stacks going to 500k or 1mil, rather than sticking at 100k), and others are just a few lines of code (switching incumbency to another candidate in the election process), but the designers tend to hold the programmers/devs back from doing these, until they have had a good chance to incorporate these kinds of requests into their design schemes.
Though it might sound like an easy fix for whatever we want, sometimes they just aren't allowed to do so.
vortexala
Wed Jul 21, 2004 8:12 am
#4
It may seem like an easy fix, but they have to be sure that the easy fix doesn't effect other systems. A lot of it is interconnected, touch one line and you may be effecting something completely unrelated.
For instance, implementing the minimum timer to CM anti-med throws somehow borked regular stim/cure/extinguish/tend timers.
So it may not be the time it takes to change one line of code that holds things up, but rather the time it takes to make sure that change doesn't effect anything else down the line.
For instance, implementing the minimum timer to CM anti-med throws somehow borked regular stim/cure/extinguish/tend timers.
So it may not be the time it takes to change one line of code that holds things up, but rather the time it takes to make sure that change doesn't effect anything else down the line.
Chibi-Bar
Wed Jul 21, 2004 8:49 am
#5
well.. I know the code for giving X% to bases exist... I would normally assume it would be a single object and the mission terminal (being available everywhere) just do a call of that object to check if mission terminal is in a base.. I guess they could add a city... but then I guess maybe if it does not have an error checking.. a single city with 10 mission terminal might get 10 times money instead of 1 time (it can happen depending how you code it)
hehe
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