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Standard game menu for ZK

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USrankZag
11 years ago
(edited 11 years ago)
The idea:
Have a standard game style menu for launching and setting options in ZK. This would make it more intuitive for newbies to get started in ZK, and it would allow a single-player campaign to ship with ZK. In addition, the menu could unlock the next mission in the campaign and provide in-between-mission story elements and briefing. I would have the menu package as the suggested download, but still provide the ZK lobby. Another thing to note is that I think there was just a thread about someone who was not expecting the download to be a downloader, and was concerned that the small file size meant it was a virus.

What I am working on:

(EDIT: Does the forum not support image resizing? Image link here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/449i9rjno7pkw3u/ZKMenu.bmp )
I have written this in C# with XNA framework. It currently has a background video (the trailer by FIranksprang ) and music (the victory music), buttons with mouse-over support, and is scaled based on resolution height.

What do you think about having a more standard game menu for Zero-K? If you want to see the actual program I have so far I could upload it and give the link.
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DErank[2up]knorke
11 years ago
in theory it is a nice idea.
there were some previous tries at this, but ultimately they all colleceted dust for one reason or another. (no documentation, not portable, noone actually made missions, not finished etc)
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GBrankTheEloIsALie
11 years ago
It would be a big bonus if ZK/ZKL had a (non-windows-explorer-based) kind of main menu. I support this idea!
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CZrankAdminLicho
11 years ago
(edited 11 years ago)
It looks very nice!

But there are some problems with this kind of menu you have to take into account:
  • portability .. atm ZKL is trying to remove WPF to be linux compatible again, XNA is a huge dependency with extra big download. WPF is more acceptable because its installed on windows by default, winforms is best because its portable

  • development cycle - developing and deploying any kind of client program is much more work than having a website. It also brings more problems due to local configurations and need to sync data with remote server

  • there can be campaign and progression without this fullscreen thing, in fact its planned and already prepared in minds. We are lacking missions not the tools usually.

  • some poeple might prefer current "social" lobby more than fullscreen traditional app

  • you need to replicate whole site! And maintain it! Things like unlocks (i assume that goes in account) change often, planetwars tab etc.

  • Replicating features of ZKL will be massive work, even if you just swap gui. What do you imagine will multi-player do?



There is also one more approach - making it all within spring engine. It has support for menu and lua can access socket so you could connect to lobby and implement quickmatch or traditional lobby.
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USrankZag
11 years ago
1: I was afraid the necessary libraries for xna would be bulky, I don't know how bulky though.
2: What needs to be synced with remote server?
3: Not having a campaign might be a small problem for the campaign.
4/6: I guess it would be possible just to launch ZK lobby for multiplayer.
5: Actually, my plan for account was to use .net browser to view a modified version of the account page that contained no external links (eg. it would keep unlock and commanders, but not have forum, nav-bar, etc.)

In-engine menu would be cool, and allow dynamic back-grounds with less worry of resolution than a video.

I might be able to replicate most of the functionality I was planning on having in Python with pyGame libraries so it would be cross-platform with no extra effort.
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AUrankAdminSaktoth
11 years ago
A better landing screen for ZKL, which was uncluttered and newb-friendly and emphasizes singleplayer (we have enough content now to put people in singleplayer first, even if it's not a campaign) is a good idea. If this were only for people who do not have accounts, we could still show news, ladders, profiles and that explosion of information you generally get on the home screen.
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USrankAdminmaackey
11 years ago
I like the idea as well. While I love the chatroom/lobby of spring games, it is not polished at all and does not appeal to the larger audience.

Licho has some good points. Cross platform is a must. Not having ZKL on Linux is a huge detriment (the bad kind) for me. It would probably be better to work on re-skinning ZKL than creating an entirely separate application. The lobby can already render web pages, and with HTML5/Canvas you can do quite a lot of cool effects (like video in the background, cool button icons, etc.) with the added bonus that its already integrated with the website :)

AUrankAdminSaktoth: I'm working on some ideas to compartmentalize the information explosion so it works more like an internal combustion engine instead of a brick of TNT. Depending on my schedule, I might have some progress in the upcoming months.
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CZrankAdminLicho
11 years ago
Yes what maackey says, best to work on ZKL directly.

Regarding technology ZKL is in process of being transformed back to winforms, when its done it will be linux compatible again, so all buttons should use winforms (they can of course use manual rendering to canvas to create nice looking things).
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