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Ethics and responsible modding

Discussion in 'Cities XXL Resource Discussions' started by NetPCDoc, Feb 24, 2015.

  1. NetPCDoc

    NetPCDoc Unskilled Worker

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    It has come to my attention that Cities XXL raises a lot of flags showing that the base code comes from an online game ... with a server supplying the virtual ground for the played cities. In its' current form Cities XXL is played OFFLINE in a solo mode; still there is a lot of code in there ... like what one would want to keep a client and server in touch with each other ... but which creates a lot of unnecassary overhead, with redundancy communications between the local file system and the game, for playing in an offline solo mode.

    Which gives the grounds for a moral dilema ... should a responsible modder even attempt to 'clean up' the code to make the game more stable (and thereby enhance gameplay) for playing in an offline environment? or might a responsible modder, taking into account that at some future time this game may be 'upgraded' so that it can again be played in a client-server environment, should said modder leave the old redundancies alone and make mods that conform to playing in both a client-server and an offline environment?

    Should I even mention how much log info is being generated by mods ... that is great from a debugging and development point of view ... but maybe not so good for stability when it comes to actually playing the game? IMO, a single line in a log file indicating that a mod has been succesfully loaded into the game is ok; however generating a line in an ERROR log file every time a mod performs a function falls more in line with pet peeves! Maybe having conditioned logging that the actual player can toggle on or off (as desired) might be considered to be reasonable; however having log entries flagged as "errors" whenever code is doing what it was meant to do, at least in my opinion, is totally unreasonable and definitely irresponsible. Might I suggest that any responsible modder might want to remove the debug/development type logging from "mod code" before uploading a mod to a mod sharing location?

    Enough from me, for now? ... back to assembling bits and bytes into nibbles and words.
     
  2. Kankrelune

    Kankrelune Skilled Worker

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    Originally the game was make for be mostly played online with a reduced solo mode. When the original publisher (Monte Cristo) went bankrupt the online mode has been removed, I personally do not think he will be back a day (unfortunately).

    Oh yes...

    Have fun...

    edit : for modding discussions check here : http://xlnation.city/forums/modding-help-quarter.18/
     
  3. barrakoda

    barrakoda Unskilled Worker

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    He does have a point though. When the game developer decides to release an update, it is likely they will change configs, lua scripts, and other things we go and muck with. The most appropriate way to deal with this is to have some sort of build process and store diffs rather than modified copies of things. A way to sort of combine the pieces like when doing the 'bridge' in cards.
     
  4. bobqwerty

    bobqwerty Executive

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    You can disable logs altogether in globalsettings, but it would be a nightmare to debug it.

    How so?
     
  5. NetPCDoc

    NetPCDoc Unskilled Worker

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    @bobqwerty - how so?

    In addition to all the trace-type info going into the log file ...
    ... it seems like everytime I do something in the game - the game is saving -something- to the hard-drive (presumably whenever or whereever the client-server functions typically would be communicating with each other). A lot of this should only be happening on entering or on exiting the game (especially when playing locally -offline- in solo mode)?!
     

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