Mercenary

[scott]

doesn't make sense in game? deep... I sure mercenaries are usually unusual bands of people with unusual users.

I sure there are still lots of the almost good unused units out there.

Promising unused units can be used in mercenary camp during beta stages, more players feedback and maybe more refinement. If still hopeless, the unit is dumped b4 release.

Add a preference for user to turn on/off mercenary hex if they want a serious game.

Maybe you didn't know, but all of the proposed units floating around are not stored anywhere except for the forum. They aren't added to the source code, which is what CVS is (as a slang term).

I think the proposed method here -- throw-every-crappy-unit-ever-proposed-into-one-big-faction,-then-spend-the-rest-of-the-time-picking-out-the-bad-ones -- isn't the most efficient way to run a business. But I could be wrong

I'm not much for IM-speak, but I actually did lol just now thinking about this.

[Dave]

Add a preference for user to turn on/off mercenary hex if they want a serious game.

Hmm...I think I might have to write a rant somewhere in the Wiki about how options are bad, and then have a link to it in my sig or something....

[furyhawk]

PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another. An ancient philosopher, expounding his conviction that life is no better than death, was asked by a disciple why, then, he did not die.
"Because," he replied, "death is no better than life." It is longer."

Ambrose Bierce quotes (American Writer, Journalist and Editor, 1842-1914)

To be civilized is to be potentially master of all possible ideas, and that means that one has got beyond being shocked, although one preserves one's own moral aesthetic preferences.

U all have yr own preferences.

[Gafgarion]

PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another. An ancient philosopher, expounding his conviction that life is no better than death, was asked by a disciple why, then, he did not die.
"Because," he replied, "death is no better than life." It is longer."

Ambrose Bierce quotes (American Writer, Journalist and Editor, 1842-1914)

To be civilized is to be potentially master of all possible ideas, and that means that one has got beyond being shocked, although one preserves one's own moral aesthetic preferences.

U all have yr own preferences.

Philosophy is fine and preferences are nice in the real world, but in coding they're not so great. There's no maintaining of code in real-life, nor are there balancing issues.

Some good examples of how preferences are not universally wonderful in the context of programming are the many games (often FLOSS projects attempting to cater to an unrealistic community) that were never finished and eventually had to be abandoned mainly due to the fact that they attempted to add every preference and feature that they could think of.

[Seiryu]

I thought that wenoth could seperate the trolls, the goblins, and the orcs. they don't look familiar, i meant they don't look friendly each other.
orcs are the bests for wars and attack.
goblins for mountains and defence.
trolls are only goods in caverns and and in the woods.
why can't we balance these groups and then seperate these races and make other factions.

[scott]

Your reasons point to the conclusion that they SHOULD be together. Their diverse abilities make a well-rounded faction. Alignment decisions are not based on fantasy logic, but rather what leads to the best gameplay. A faction that was good only in one terrain would suck. We don't actually care why they're together - explaining stuff like that is for campaign plots. Saurians used to be with the orcs. Now they're with drakes. Go figure.

[Pythagoras]

PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another. An ancient philosopher, expounding his conviction that life is no better than death, was asked by a disciple why, then, he did not die.
"Because," he replied, "death is no better than life." It is longer."

Ambrose Bierce quotes (American Writer, Journalist and Editor, 1842-1914)

To be civilized is to be potentially master of all possible ideas, and that means that one has got beyond being shocked, although one preserves one's own moral aesthetic preferences.

U all have yr own preferences.

Philosophy is fine and preferences are nice in the real world, but in coding they're not so great. There's no maintaining of code in real-life, nor are there balancing issues.

Some good examples of how preferences are not universally wonderful in the context of programming are the many games (often FLOSS projects attempting to cater to an unrealistic community) that were never finished and eventually had to be abandoned mainly due to the fact that they attempted to add every preference and feature that they could think of.

I agree. As a software engineer I have worked on products that are HIGHLY configurable. (Even worse is that they are safety critical) Each configuration option is a degree of freedom, and multiplies the amount of potential bugs to be found. Every combination of options can potentially create some bug/inconsistancy that could never have been foreseen, and to do a full regression test takes forever. In an attempt to please everyone, a product attempts to be a swiss army knife of preferences, and ends up alienating everyone due to the buggyness and half-assed implementation of the product's ginormous requirements..

An ideal software product addresses a small set of specific needs. If other needs need to be addressed, create another project. In short, fork the code and go your own way.

[turin]

Add a preference for user to turn on/off mercenary hex if they want a serious game.

Hmm...I think I might have to write a rant somewhere in the Wiki about how options are bad, and then have a link to it in my sig or something....

Please do. Add it as part 3 to The Wesnoth Philosophy.

[MadMax]

What unused units in CVS are you talking about?

I just looked through CVS, and I didn't see any new unit .cfgs added. Maybe he is referring to campaign-specific units?