Suran Reborn

[Marxist ßastard]

At this time, Suran Reborn's recruitment capabilities are extremely limited and both the reliability (In terms of commitment and willingness to do any work at all) and numbers of existing team members has reached a somewhat critical point. I've figured that this is as good a time as any to decide Suran Reborn's route in terms of structure, lay out the foundations for a web site, and prepare for a possible "preview" release. The first few questions that came to my mind with the first category were, of course, technical: What format should Suran Reborn's data files take, and what level of organization should be featured in the IDs of new objects? The advantages and disadvantages that I know of for each choice are outlined below:

 

ESM Format

 

This would mean including at least one ESM file with the plugin

 

Pro: Would prevent doubling up to a reasonable level of complexity; main file can be assured patch-friendly (So that one could download a 250kb application instead of a 2.5Mb pseudo-master); third-party plugins to Suran Reborn made much more realistic

 

Con: All references existing within Morrowind.esm or Tribunal.esm must be included in a seperate plugin file; specifics about format cannot be made certain; errors upon uninstallation may be much more severe

 

ESP Format

 

All data files for the plugin would be ESPs, meaning that merging would probably have to take place in order to have a (more) complete plugin

 

Pro: Can lump most, if not all, of the data files that do not rely on data from other plugins together -- no seperate file needed for the modification of existing references (This may or may not be a good thing, however, as there could be those who want such work seperated from the completely new data and references)

 

Con: More susceptible to doubling; result of merging several data files will probably be anywhere from chaotic to simply disastrous

 

Hex + Alphanumeric Object IDs

 

This would mean prefixing a hex value to all new object IDs. Something that would be purple_128_neffect traditionally and #sr_ligh_a_p_128_no with the current standards would be something like sr40BFF442E6128 with this method.

 

Pro: Most structured and descriptive; would conserve space in theory; keeps IDs from not having a special charachter to ensure uniqueness

 

Con: Most cryptic at first glance -- though one could probably describe what the object is in detail from the ID when given a few minutes, a translation PDF, and a fresh pot of coffee, it would be absolute gibberish when seeing it in-game and hence unrecognizeable and unmemorable (It's a word, isn't it? ISN'T IT?); descriptive nature means that many changes to an object would also mean a change to its ID

 

#sr - Style Object IDs

 

This is the current system, and basically a more structured version of traditional IDs with a #sr prefix to ensure unique names.

 

Pro: More structured and unique than traditional IDs

 

Con: Takes up the most space; uses a questionable charachter; still less memorable than traditional IDs

 

Traditional IDs

 

It's the standard -- though it appears to be somewhat chaotic, it does give you a good sense of what something is without describing every aspect of it unnecessarily

 

Pro: See above, basically

 

Con: Ditto -- not many new things to discuss here

[Daddy Two-Foot]

I have a question... What the heck is "Suran Reborn"? It'd be kinda nice to know what you're talking about.

[Marxist ßastard]

     Marxist ßastard's First Law

 

Even though there's a pinned topic about it, people oft times make it a point of honor to forget Suran Reborn. Additionally, one will find it very diffucult to find a single person willing to help the development of this plugin, even if doing so simply means giving an opinion.

 

EDIT: Did I say simply giving an opinion? Because it'd be much better if you'd also support your opinion...

[Switch]

Hmm, I'd say stick with the #SR prefix. It may take up more space but it seems to be the simplest and most efficient way of doing it. Better than

#sr_non_ledg_ibl_p_l_ds :P

 

Oh and yeah sorry for my absence from the channel on IRC, just can't be bothered to keep logging in there every time only for nothing to happen and you never reveal anything about what direction SR is going in. I don't even know what the mod will be about :P

 

Oh and Suran Reborn is the name of the "Morrowind Source Plug-in" which it no longer is, since HeLLL quit and Marxist has now taken over.

[Marxist ßastard]

Yeah, but that's the thing... I've had to create toned-down objects such as waterfalls with no sound and non-dynamic hangers in order to keep framerates reasonable in the Quarters entrance -- this oft times meant something like #sr_ligh_ropelantern_n going in the ID field. With NPCs, this was even worse, leading to #sr_npc_hguard_nolanlssgea.

 

However, with the hex IDs, I could have something like...

 

_sr003AF8noanim-nodyn

 

...Where the structure would be laid out in the readme (Release) or a seperate document (Beta)...

 

003 - Light, non-ambient, common color follows

 

A - Yellow color, type follows

 

F8 - Ropelantern, comments follow

 

...As for the IRC room, that idea sort of flopped. I figured that all of the developers could gather in the room and those who would want to spy on us could do so, but I never worked out a set time as there are some pretty massive time differences between (Let's see, myself... you... Peregrine would be a maybe, as would JAZA747, but he's probably strictly beta... I've no idea about that Orange guy...) two-and-a-half people and I figured I would lay that sort of thing out when ownership of the chan was transferred over to me...

 

But, hey, if you want to discuss any ideas you might have and the possible implementation of some of mine before exterior work gets essentially locked, you can come in around 5-6 AM or 10:30-3:30 AM EST and I'll likely be there. Peregrine, if you're reading this, you should probably come around at one of those times as well as you'd probably be a valuable asset to this team -- I've seen your work, and if you can model activators and creatures as well as you do weapons, you'll be essential.

 

If anyone else wants to come for whatever reason, the channel is #suranreborn on network GamesNET.net. Who knows, I might even DCC you a copy of Suran Reborn 0.1.3 and addpeon you.

[Peregrine]

Like what kind of stuff? I can probably do statics just fine, but creatures are a definite no. My organic modeling skills do not exist, and I don't really know anything about character animation.

 

Before I committ to anything, I'll need a list of exactly what models you want done.