Wesnoth on J2ME

[jmibanez]

I'm currently working on an implementation of Wesnoth targetted on the J2ME MID profile (MIDP or midlet) for a school project (translation: Java-based, runs on mobile devices such as cellphones and PDAs). I'm almost done with most of the client-side midlet (and some of the graphics stuff have been a PITA to kludge to the limited constraints of the profile).

I'll probably be able to release code before January 2006. The implementation sucks at the moment because:

1. It is purely multiplayer, as I don't see how I can possibly support the heft of an AI engine nor of a WML scenario parser in-midlet;
2. There is almost no animation;
3. Terrain hex graphics don't "mesh" with each other-- I simply blit the terrain hex without adding in the "in-betweeners";
4. No music-- yet;
5. I had to reduce all graphics assets by a quarter of their size (i.e. 36x36 instead of 72x72);
6. For now-- partly for implementation simplicity and partly due to lack of time-- I've had to drastically limit some of the game's aspects:
   • I've only included the elvish units
   • There is no recruitment nor recall; however, all players start with the same number and types of units:
     • 1 marshall (leader)
     • 3 elvish archers
     • 2 elvish fighters
     • 2 elvish shamans
     • 1 elvish scout
   • Multiplayer games are strictly kill-the-leader and kill-all-opponent-units
   • There is level advancement and AMLA, but if you lose, you also lose all your units; if you win, your previous units get recalled
   • I've only included 5 terrain types for now (I could probably include more)

It could be possible to include AI in the system, as part of the design includes a gateway to communicate between J2ME clients. The gateway/game server does all of the arbitration -- it calculates the attack results, etc. Maps are also downloaded off the gateway in the form of a byte array.

Suggestions and various ideas are welcome. I currently have a semi-working system. Like I've said, I've already coded most of the midlet and I'm starting on the server portion.

(EDIT: Edited some points; added others)

(EDIT#2: Emphasized Java on the first paragraph)

[Disto]

This is pretty cool, but can you actually specify J2ME is java so people like me don't have to go and have a look on google.

[jmibanez]

Edited the post.

I'm currently worrying about the network layer. Particularly, I'm writing the whole shebang from scratch, and so it won't interop with Wesnoth's multiplayer networking code without huge changes. However, it should be doable-- have some sort of proxy code that translates between my protocol and Wesnoth's

If you want to test it, just drop me a line. Currently, I've only tested it on the phone emulator that comes with the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit (WTK), and that isn't even close to being a good approximation of an actual deployment.

[Tux2B]

Would anyone know how to compile Wesnoth for PalmOS?

[torangan]

You know that there's already a port of Wesnoth to PDAs like the IPod?

[Tux2B]

I don't think there is a version of wesnoth on palm computers.

[freecraft]

There is wesnoth for some kind of PDA's !

Since I have NGage, I would like to receive your port to my mailbox. Cya.