Mission testing program? (All interested, please read)

Ephialtes

Hi there. I've been rolling an idea around in my head for quite a while and I have decided to try and program it. What it is would be a program that simulates the missions. More accurately it would simulate the mission bits, and thus you would be able to test what would happen if you aborted/accepted/refused/failed/completed etc... a mission, showing what missions would become available, and as I progressed in the program, which outfits, planets etc... Of course, I would also have to simulate the crons as these are very important to the bits, but the question is, would there be a demand for this?

Post ideas, requests, etc.. here (I should have a working version within a few days, the hardest part was working out the parser, which I've done)

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Azratax2

Quote

Originally posted by Ephialtes:
**Hi there. I've been rolling an idea around in my head for quite a while and I have decided to try and program it. What it is would be a program that simulates the missions. More accurately it would simulate the mission bits, and thus you would be able to test what would happen if you aborted/accepted/refused/failed/completed etc... a mission, showing what missions would become available, and as I progressed in the program, which outfits, planets etc... Of course, I would also have to simulate the crons as these are very important to the bits, but the question is, would there be a demand for this?

Post ideas, requests, etc.. here (I should have a working version within a few days, the hardest part was working out the parser, which I've done)

**

I would sure find it useful, if it was implemented reasonably well.
Alas, if it was mac only, i couldnt use it, so my vote doeesnt really count.
-Az

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Kame

I believe Mission Viewer already has this capability. Though I use it alot just for viewing mission data quickly, I've found that testing mission bits works but only so so. Something that worked reliably would definetly be nice.

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Tiresmoke

I would have to second Az. It would certainly be useful but not to me if it is Mac only.

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Guest_UE_Research & Development_*

If someone makes a PC version, I will gladly use it. Such a tool has a lot of potential, especially with troubleshooting missions that don't go as they're supposed to.

If you make it, I suggest you include a feature that dumps an internal log of what the program does (e.g. bit 1000 leads to mission 241, which is available 20% of the time on Spob XXX in the YYY system; if player accepts start mission 242 and abort mission 243; if player rejects start mission 400 and 510, etc.)

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Mazca

Sounds pretty damn useful to me!

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Martin Turner

What would be even more useful would be something that created a mission flow diagram. You could use the PERT methodology, which is a public domain algorithm available in texts on project management. Essentially it turns a set of choices into a flow chart by applying mathematical tests.

Even even more useful would be a flow diagram that you could manipulate graphically, by drawing in lines and then selecting the type of choice, and which would then produce the mission code, at least as far as ncbs is concerned.

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Azratax2

What I find most interesting is that 3 out of 6 replies are from PC users.
Martin Turner's idea is a good one, but i think it's a bit more than Ephiltes planned on.
-Az

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Aprosenf

That sounds like a good and useful idea. Don't expect me to make it, though, I have enough to work on already.

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(This message has been edited by Aprosenf (edited 01-05-2004).)

Ephialtes

Well, at the moment I have no way of making it for Windows (as I am using REALBasic, using which I can access the resource fork, but I have no idea how the .rez format reads). If there was a way to access the information in a .rez file that could be implemented in RB, I would be happy to try.
The PERT algorithm idea would be very useful, but at my current level of programming experience I would be hard pressed to find a way to do this, however, as I advance in this program, I may choose to do such a thing.

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orcaloverbri9

Quote

Originally posted by Ephialtes:
Well, at the moment I have no way of making it for Windows (as I am using REALBasic, using which I can access the resource fork, but I have no idea how the .rez format reads). If there was a way to access the information in a .rez file that could be implemented in RB, I would be happy to try.
The PERT algorithm idea would be very useful, but at my current level of programming experience I would be hard pressed to find a way to do this, however, as I advance in this program, I may choose to do such a thing.

Well, it's written in C++, but you could always try and use the EVNEW source code to help yourself out. Of course, I imagine there are likely some commands in C++ with no RB equivalent, so that might not work.

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Ephialtes

Quote

Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
**Well, it's written in C++, but you could always try and use the EVNEW source code to help yourself out. Of course, I imagine there are likely some commands in C++ with no RB equivalent, so that might not work.

**

Sorry, what is written in C++? PERT or the .rez format? I'm slightly confuserised

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orcaloverbri9

Quote

Originally posted by Ephialtes:
Sorry, what is written in C++? PERT or the .rez format? I'm slightly confuserised

EVNEW.

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Artanis

Quote

Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**Even even more useful would be a flow diagram that you could manipulate graphically, by drawing in lines and then selecting the type of choice, and which would then produce the mission code, at least as far as ncbs is concerned.

**

I thought of a similar idea recently and illustrated it after reading another topic.

Sort of like this?
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mrxak

I'd say both ideas would be useful, but the initial one would be the higher priority in my mind.

Ephialtes

Yes, that would be a good idea, but I don't know about the implementation.
Work on the program is progressing well. I don't know when a beta will be finsiihed, but it's still a few days off.

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Ephialtes

Well, I have some good news. I believe I could adapt it to read.rez files as well, though I would need to be told exactly how .rez files work. I would also need someone to compile the RB file for me, as I don't have a version that can compile Windows apps (also, I'm on a demo, so I would need somenoe to compile the app for Mac too)

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Azdara

This would be a really usefull tool, it could really cut down beta times. Of course you would still need to beta test for all the other little niggly things, but it would be nice to be able to simply check the missions and such, and have any dead ends pointed out.

However, I do graphics, not programming. I would have little use for this currently, but it is a GREAT idea.

Good one Eph, and good luck eh?

~A~

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Ephialtes

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara:
**

Good one Eph, and good luck eh?

~A~

**

Thanks

Also, it's going to take a tiny bit longer, as I have just realised I have to account for outfits, crons, and ships as well, due to all these having effects on the ncbs. However, the mission part is doing well, and is nearly finished. (It also recognises the operators Fxxx, Axxx, and Sxxx), I will soon be implementing auto-aborting missions as well.
What I want to know is would people like to be able to manually set and clear ncbs?

(Edit) Oh no, I've just realised that I have to account for contribute and require bits as WELL, more work for me(/edit)

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(This message has been edited by Ephialtes (edited 01-09-2004).)

Jonathan Boyd

Quote

Originally posted by Ephialtes:
**Thanks:)

Also, it's going to take a tiny bit longer, as I have just realised I have to account for outfits, crons, and ships as well, due to all these having effects on the ncbs. However, the mission part is doing well, and is nearly finished. (It also recognises the operators Fxxx, Axxx, and Sxxx), I will soon be implementing auto-aborting missions as well.
What I want to know is would people like to be able to manually set and clear ncbs?

(Edit) Oh no, I've just realised that I have to account for contribute and require bits as WELL, more work for me(/edit)**

You also have to account for ranks, systems and spobs because they can all be used. Anything which used a BITEC for example would require modelling of repeated spobs in multiple systems with different visbits, with misns auto-completing as successful if the destination planet suddenly vanishes/switches to another system as a result of visbit changes. In fact, do a search for BITEC and BORC to see the horrible things you'd have to correctly model.

Have fun :^)

Edit: oops and nebu can be used too.
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(This message has been edited by Jonathan Boyd (edited 01-09-2004).)