driven by boredom, man creates thing

well it appears after a lengthy beta sa:mp 0.3 is now final and has been released. i hadn’t really even looked at any code during the summer, but the open beta test and the lack of intellectual stimulation outside of work drove me to pick it up again. so i’ve been tinkering around with some of the new features offered and once again the spark struck something in my head, because now i’m working on a continuation of the corporations gamemode i’ve been kicking around with forever.

the main thing i’m aiming for in this round of coding is the simplification and streamlining of player commands. the obfuscation and esoteric nature of a lot of core gamemode commands (in both my gamemodes and others) has been something i’ve been trying to solve for a significant amount of time, and it seems like every added feature brought with it a new and more complex command list. the goal, this time around, is (as usual) to remove and combine as many commands as possible, but this time it will be done mainly through the new GUI features in sa:mp 0.3.

live from work

here’s some shitty cell phone pics i took at work today:

copilot’s instrument panel on one of our blackhawks

looking out at our flight line while towing it in to the hangar

ill try to find a non-shit camera and take some more when it’s nicer out

coding goals and standards

standards

the codebase for the corporations gamemode will follow a strict standardization scheme, which will not only assist in lateral development but will become essential for later additions to the code. one of the major critisisms i have of the base godfather script is the complete lack of continuity throughout the code; entire sections appear hacked together, reeking of copy and paste coding by multiple past coders, each with a distinctly different coding style, which makes for an extremely difficult and obtuse development enviroment for us script maintainers. the master gamemode will try to avoid static values as much as possible, using clearly-defined variables following a global naming scheme instead. corporations will attempt to follow a distinct coding style in order to make future feature additions as easy as possible, even though the ultimate goal of the entire gamemode is to remove most of the coding requirements entirely in place of on-the-fly editing through mysql and php. these standards will have to be communicated clearly with each coder, but they should also be self-explanitory in nature and easily picked up.

gamemodes (part 1)

corporations gamemode

this gamemode takes its namesake from the idea i’ve been developing for the roleplay sub-gamemode. in szr we’ve created a very unrestrictive enviroment where players are allowed to really dictate the type of gameplay they want for themselves. while this specific type of gameplay has become very popular, i feel that it has a few major downsides which are inherent to this gameplay style. for example, there is a very hands-off approach when it comes to player interaction, and while it allows players to invent their own style of interaction, it also leaves many players constantly looking for something to do and people to meet. the goal of the corporations gamemode is to change that. the focus from the start will be concentrated on improving and maintaining the player experience from the moment they connect, the registration and account creation process, to the introduction into the corporations gamemode.

corporations gamemode preliminary outline

this is an informal outline of what i plan to do with the new gamemode i’m making, what i’m going to focus on first, and some basic milestones for the development direction.

welcome to the moon

i’m not one to gush over every little thing, but i do like to put my thoughts to the paper once and a while, since i do tend to drink heavily and these things just get lost sometimes. so that’s what this is for, although there’s no guarentee i’ll actually use it regularly. anyways, all i’m going to do is throw out some of my ideas for things for feedback, either from other people or myself down the line.