Docoto Defense September Update
by Deozaan · 09/30/2007 (10:16 pm) · 6 comments
In September I managed to scrounge up the funds to purchase the RTS Kit for TGE. After doing so I immediately went to the forums to see about updating it to the TGE 1.5.2 so I could begin incorporating it into my project. I was very dismayed to find how unstable it is.
At first I thought the bugs were a result of a poor update to 1.5.2, but then I tested out many of the problems I was having on a fresh install of the RTS-Kit and I found out that the update seems to be done very well. All these bugs and crashes happen with a fresh install.
It's hard to believe that the good folks here at GG are selling a broken and unsupported kit. I was expecting to have to adapt the code and the functionality to my project, but I wasn't expecting to have to debug it just to keep it from crashing on a fresh install. But hey, I should get in line or join the club of all the other people who have been saying the exact same stuff for months.
Sadly I think that right now the RTS Kit is mostly useless to my project as I don't have the time to spend debugging it just to get the features it advertises coming with stable and working properly. I did spend some time on the forums asking around and messing with the code myself trying to fix the problems, but they are beyond what I have the capability and time to resolve. I may be able to grab snippets of code to learn how some things work, but those individual aspects I'm wanting are probably available as free resources somewhere on this site.
Sometime in the future I may be able to spend more resources fixing those problems and get some use out of the RTS Kit, but that probably won't be until the Dream Games contest is over (next April) at the soonest.
That's all for now.
At first I thought the bugs were a result of a poor update to 1.5.2, but then I tested out many of the problems I was having on a fresh install of the RTS-Kit and I found out that the update seems to be done very well. All these bugs and crashes happen with a fresh install.
It's hard to believe that the good folks here at GG are selling a broken and unsupported kit. I was expecting to have to adapt the code and the functionality to my project, but I wasn't expecting to have to debug it just to keep it from crashing on a fresh install. But hey, I should get in line or join the club of all the other people who have been saying the exact same stuff for months.
Sadly I think that right now the RTS Kit is mostly useless to my project as I don't have the time to spend debugging it just to get the features it advertises coming with stable and working properly. I did spend some time on the forums asking around and messing with the code myself trying to fix the problems, but they are beyond what I have the capability and time to resolve. I may be able to grab snippets of code to learn how some things work, but those individual aspects I'm wanting are probably available as free resources somewhere on this site.
Sometime in the future I may be able to spend more resources fixing those problems and get some use out of the RTS Kit, but that probably won't be until the Dream Games contest is over (next April) at the soonest.
That's all for now.
About the author
#2
I haven't given up on the RTS Kit, but I'm really concerned with the feasibility of using it for my project, which has a deadline of April. Six months may seem like a while, but I'm practically a one man team (and they say there's no "I" in team) so I can't afford to spend the time fixing the RTS Kit and implementing everything else for this project.
I certainly do hope that in the future the RTS Kit will be useful, and it looks the community is making progress in that regard.
It seems I just need to make some decisions about my project because I'm doing this on almost zero budget in my spare time. The RTS Kit is relatively inexpensive, but with most of the funding for this project being provided out of pocket, I can't really afford to waste money on things that won't help.
Also, I wasn't trying to imply negative things about GG. They're a good bunch and I'm thankful for the tools at such a low price. Sometimes I just feel like I'm being sold a Stealth Bomber for a really good price. The technology is awesome and the potential for what it can do is incredible, but there's no instruction manual and some of the flight controls don't work as advertised.
It's cool and I'm excited about what I can do with Torque technology. It's great how GG are putting this technology into the hands of Indie Game Programmers. But I feel that if they were really focused on the Indie Programmer, they'd empower us by providing us with useful, updated, and thorough information on how to use their engines.
Again I'm not ragging on them. It's just my opinion that actions speak louder for words. Their words seem to say "We're doing great stuff for Indie Programmers out there!" and that is true. But if they really wanted to empower the Indies, they'd provide the knowledge on how to use the tools.
The books are neat, but they're outdated and expensive. Torque School is probably also great, but it's expensive and only in Oregon (as far as I know). TDN is great, but many of the articles are outdated, incomplete, irrelevant to my interests, or missing entirely.
It's definitely been a challenge.
10/01/2007 (11:42 am)
Thanks James,I haven't given up on the RTS Kit, but I'm really concerned with the feasibility of using it for my project, which has a deadline of April. Six months may seem like a while, but I'm practically a one man team (and they say there's no "I" in team) so I can't afford to spend the time fixing the RTS Kit and implementing everything else for this project.
I certainly do hope that in the future the RTS Kit will be useful, and it looks the community is making progress in that regard.
It seems I just need to make some decisions about my project because I'm doing this on almost zero budget in my spare time. The RTS Kit is relatively inexpensive, but with most of the funding for this project being provided out of pocket, I can't really afford to waste money on things that won't help.
Also, I wasn't trying to imply negative things about GG. They're a good bunch and I'm thankful for the tools at such a low price. Sometimes I just feel like I'm being sold a Stealth Bomber for a really good price. The technology is awesome and the potential for what it can do is incredible, but there's no instruction manual and some of the flight controls don't work as advertised.
It's cool and I'm excited about what I can do with Torque technology. It's great how GG are putting this technology into the hands of Indie Game Programmers. But I feel that if they were really focused on the Indie Programmer, they'd empower us by providing us with useful, updated, and thorough information on how to use their engines.
Again I'm not ragging on them. It's just my opinion that actions speak louder for words. Their words seem to say "We're doing great stuff for Indie Programmers out there!" and that is true. But if they really wanted to empower the Indies, they'd provide the knowledge on how to use the tools.
The books are neat, but they're outdated and expensive. Torque School is probably also great, but it's expensive and only in Oregon (as far as I know). TDN is great, but many of the articles are outdated, incomplete, irrelevant to my interests, or missing entirely.
It's definitely been a challenge.
#3
What you mention is right. Nevertheless like all in life we can complain, or act.
Anyway I understand you run agains time with your project, but I hope you pal can use the kit on your project. On the 2nd revision of the porting patch we are not only covering issues of the port, but also including about 15 bug fixes. This is comming this week, on the weekend at most.
If a list of those fixes is useful to you, just make me a shout.
10/01/2007 (4:06 pm)
Yes it is. A challenge, like almost anything in life :)What you mention is right. Nevertheless like all in life we can complain, or act.
Anyway I understand you run agains time with your project, but I hope you pal can use the kit on your project. On the 2nd revision of the porting patch we are not only covering issues of the port, but also including about 15 bug fixes. This is comming this week, on the weekend at most.
If a list of those fixes is useful to you, just make me a shout.
#4
I'd love to see the list of bugfixes. It would be nice to have a sort of changelog from stock RTS Kit (1.3) to RTS 1.5 + bugfixes.
You rock! Thanks for your support to the RTS community here!
10/01/2007 (6:50 pm)
Novack,I'd love to see the list of bugfixes. It would be nice to have a sort of changelog from stock RTS Kit (1.3) to RTS 1.5 + bugfixes.
You rock! Thanks for your support to the RTS community here!
#5
I do not see any mail address in your profile, where can I send you the preeliminary list?
Or, maybe you could wait some days, we are beta testing the new patch and after that, we'll be posting the patch with the fixes list.
10/01/2007 (7:06 pm)
Haha thanks Deo, but its really not only me, its always James directly helping and working, you with your effort on testing what we do, and of course, all the people that made the resources and fixes that we are using ;) (Specially Stephen Zepp ones, more than half of the forums threads are from him)I do not see any mail address in your profile, where can I send you the preeliminary list?
Or, maybe you could wait some days, we are beta testing the new patch and after that, we'll be posting the patch with the fixes list.
Torque 3D Owner James
Novack and I have been working on implementing bug fixes for the next patch release, mostly from the forums but also documenting reported uncorrected bugs. From this, we can make a solid effort to make the RTS kit as solid as possible.
Like you, coding in Torque is not a strength as I'm more on the art asset side of things. However, I feel with the efforts of people like Novack and Rigo, the kit will start showing some great improvement over the next few weeks.
And GG hasn't forgotten us. Individuals there are more than happy, when they have a cycle, to help us out when they can. Because of this and the contributions of others, I've started back to work on my own project with renewed enthusiasm and optimism.