Why we need to move to a client we can control

Iceball is a moddable, open source, cross-platform engine and game inspired by AoS Classic. Created by GreaseMonkey.
Incompatible with PySnip/pyspades-based AoS Classic 0.75/0.76 servers.
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Sonarpulse
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Well iceball does support tons of modding ability, but yes that type of stuff belongs in the iceball thread. This thread is about trying to the community on something open source so the community can run itself, which I think everybody here agrees is paramount.

@Jdrew, Client anti-hack vastly overrated for proprietary software and truely useless for open source software. Obviously the first thing you would do if writing a hack is remove it. People can always run a hacked server, but then nobody will play it so that's not an issue. Cheatings only worth if it gives you an edge, and it wouldn't on a server with anti-cheat disabled.
Vucgy
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Oh i remember this mod , I always tough AOS will be one day like this .
Spoiler:
Image
A Bolt action rifle , Shotgun , bayonet , colt1911 and a Mounted MG for defending trenches , Sadly it gone tottaly the other way
Edit: Iceball should be like this , a slow , tacticall ww1 game , I knew you can make it via scripts and stop telling it we aren't retarded , but Iceball cant be a "skeleton" without any "guns (multiple guns) " , game-play andn that special spirit a game has. It should move to the ww1 gameplay and leave the scripting for the ones who want to make ww2 modern combat game or whatever.
rakiru
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Vucgy wrote:
leave the scripting for the ones who want to make ww2 modern combat game or whatever.
We are - the devs are the ones that want it like it is. Anyway, this is irrelevant to the topic, which is about an opensource client for Ace of Spades 0.x.
Handles
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I remember it. Thought it was the future. Obviously not. Green_Crying
GreaseMonkey
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Thank you for your feedback and criticisms. Seems I needed them.

I'm still going to say no to having an SMG in the trunk, but:
1. it's ultimately up to the server owners as to what they want to have
2. it's actually pretty easy to shove one in, even hackishly
3. weapon balances can be fixed with ease by the owners... hell, this might even have a weapon balance subculture ("THE RIFLE RECOIL IS TOO HIGH!!!!!!!1").
4. someone's totally going to write a lua+pmf+wav package anyway.

Considering that there's still the perk of getting your own name if you configure the damn thing properly, I've made the kick_on_join check optional and disabled by default (but will definitely come in handy if a server owner REALLY feels the need to do some filtering - check pkg/base/preconf.lua if you really want it).

As for connection, .bat files should come in handy for people wanting to connect, but PLEASE supply the IP/hostname and port for those of us who know what the hell we're doing - we do NOT want to be fucking around with mediafire for a single line of information! If you'd like a place to host them, try Dropbox, or use a pastebin with a "raw" functionality (gist might be worth looking into).

Oh yeah, SMG.
pkg/base/ent/ has the gun stuff.
A simple hack would be to just modify gun_rifle.lua, recommended is 20-120 ammo, 1/15 RoF, 5 sec reload time; basically make it feel like this (might as well use the SMG reload sound from that - I give you permission!).
To shove spread in, before the "perform a trace" section, do:
Code: Select all
local spread=0.006
fwx,fwy,fwz = fwx+(math.random()*2-1)*spread, fwy+(math.random()*2-1)*spread, fwz+(math.random()*2-1)*spread
Warning, code is untested!
Alternatively, wait until we feel the need to shove a shotgun in, and then you should have spread functionality with that. (I know having two rifles is redundant (hell, one is disabled right now), but they're a base we already have for eventually shifting some of the duplicate functionality into libraries.)
Cajun Style
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We're talking about a new client, not a new game.
I think it is best to switch the game too. IIUC AoS is very hacker prone. And as said making a new client for AoS would take a lot of reverse engineering (protocol-wise).
2. it's actually pretty easy to shove one in, even hackishly
This is why I've never taken Monkey's stance on SMGs too seriously. Green_BigSmile Guess what I'd like to be making as first mod.

It is true Iceball needs adaptation, but it also needs maturing; especially in the documentation (for modding). When Iceball has matured a bit, it needs some fresh publicity. I.e. there should be a point where Iceball becomes "official", with a server list, plenty of documentation, as little bugs as possible, a dedicated site, and not in the least some clever build-up in publicity to it. I actually think you'll be hurting your brand, if you try to push the current version. Most people don't feel like debugging programs they run, and are inclined to remember their first impression.
Personally I don't play Iceball, because there is no server list, the game seems to be buggy in movement, and the visuals aren't very clear. I haven't checked for a while, though.
>_>: Haven't worked on Voxlap for a while. Hopefully put in some time this week. I do think it should benefit an Iceball compatible client, and not an AoS compatible client when done.
Space Inspader
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The point of iceball is that it is a client to let other's create what they want out of. You know the Aloha Counterstrike maps? Think of a mod that adds Counterstrike weapons and maybe even a GUI with a money system. There you have it. It's the art style of AoS that you like, only with modding. Though, GreaseMonkey, eventually someone is going to make an SMG mod. Kekeke. I'm sure everyone knew that was going to come up eventually.
Duff Paddy
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Hi there, I have been lurking, but felt the need to comment. I have nearly finished my update to Pysnip that allows 0.76 and 0.75 to run together along side each other on the same server (yes, the 0.76 client has an edge) . No issues so far, and I will have the server running as Zombiegeddon tomorrow, If you'd like to come and test out first person mode etc.

We also have Human, and Zombie AI bots on there, for extra players when it get's quiet, and so far it's been a blast watching them duke it out, and joining in for carnage. ( Terminator style anti-aimbot AI bot is hilarious but not finished yet ;) )

I have been working on a client also, and so far have got VERY good results with OpenGL, but in the tradition of AOS, I'd like to make a hybrid engine that uses Voxlap as a fall back, or potentially something even more exciting (Raytrace + Opengl shaders and polygon based models for entities with KV6 fallback )

As I've been working with the netcode I have come to realise that bandwidth issues can be improved seriously using a visibility hierarchy (0.76 has gone some way towards this by Optimising world packet updates , but there huge is room for improvement.)
Also, by determining visibility on the server, player positions will be hidden from client thus helping the aimbot situation greatly.

I've re-written the map span format, and it's 40%-70% smaller and that is without hashing the colour table.

Ericson2314 is working on a voxlap port, and this will allow Mac + PC + Linux + Toaster ports of the voxlap engine. So far his progress is going well. Mat^2 did some sterling work on a 3d Client too.
StackOverflow has done a good job with Pysnip, and the future looks rosy.

I have work tidying up loose ends at the moment, but will be publishing a lot of this for the community once It's been sanitised.


Hit me up if you're interested
Blue_Happy1
Sonarpulse
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I am very interested. (and I am Ericson2314 btw)
is this you? https://github.com/Lensman If so, you mentioned Haskell which makes me even more interested.
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I have work tidying up loose ends at the moment, but will be publishing a lot of this for the community once It's been sanitised.
CAN'T WAIT. And please don't disappear before releasing it (like it seems to be common on the internet).
As I've been working with the netcode I have come to realise that bandwidth issues can be improved seriously using a visibility hierarchy (0.76 has gone some way towards this by Optimising world packet updates , but there huge is room for improvement.)
DAYUM. Sounds like you're most qualified to make and maintain an AoS compatible client. How many people do you work with?
Duff Paddy
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Hi guys. I work on my own now. Team got handed it's arse when the recession hit, and the mobile tech market got flooded with providers and agregators.

I've opend a new github Lensman/pysnip. Code is going up after review (Python is new to me, but WOW! ) it makes c++ seem so medieval.

I really need to make a proto analyser for wireshark, to route out a few more bugs, there seems to be a few in spec mode on 0.76, but ther server is up and has been running all night without issue ( appart from one scary one that will not be revealed, anyone who knows a little about buffers and overflows will understand ;)

I'd really like to help out on this project, you guys have put a lot of effort into it, and are really under appreciated. Anything I can do to help is my pleasure.
Ericson , nice to meet again. Yes, I mentioned Haskell becasue I have been doing some experiments with it as a server on Heroku. Promising so far, but I think Cython / Python will be easier to mantain in the long run. Haskell is a sexy, but unwieldy beast. Great for async server, hard for non mathematician brain to reason with. My background is jack of all trades coder / fixer, and math is not my strong point.

Do you have an irc channel we can chat on? If not come over to the zombiegeddon server with your 0.76 client tonight, and we can chat and build. ;)
Sonarpulse
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Cool stuff! Normal IRC we use is #AoS.Development QuakeNet
HoboHob
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Duff Paddy, release teh sorce codes on geethub nao.

Seriously, do it.
Duff Paddy
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It's up now https://github.com/Lensman/pysnip including the messy 0.76 code which i didn't refactor yet, but seems to be stable.
My server has been running all night and day with no issues ( Hopefully )
Have fun, and I'll be keeping an eye out for bugs etc, so I won't be going away and dropping this as i know does happen.
Sonarpulse
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Excellent! I hope you will get the others up soon too. You may want to consider rebasing off of https://github.com/infogulch/pyspades . I don't know why Stack removed the old history from pysnip, but if you could combine that repository (the old history), with pysnip and then your own changes for a complete history that would be excellent.

I could also recombine the history for you if you like.
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