ekolis / stars-nova Goto Github PK

Describe the feature you'd like to see
All mod files, savegames, etc. should be stored as JSON instead of XML.

Benefits
JSON is easier to read and write than XML due to the lack of close tags. We can use JSON.NET to serialize/deserialize data without having to work with XmlDocuments and such.

Describe alternatives
YAML maybe? I dunno...

Additional context
One concern I have is that JSON is not quite as well supported when it comes to tooling as XML, perhaps because XML I think is older.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
The old setup project is not compatible with Visual Studio 2019. We will need to replace it.

Benefits
Allow users to install the game.

Describe alternatives
Need to investigate what options we have.

Additional context
N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
An option in game setup that causes fuel to be measured in kT, rather than mg, so it affects the mass of ships and thus fuel-laden ships would consume more fuel to move. This is the way it worked in early versions of Stars! but it was changed at some point. This option would also need to disable automatic refueling from starbases, since you might not actually want to load up on fuel.

Benefits
Hardcore rocketry nuts will be happy!

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Describe the bug
the planet stats window is missing part of the stats

To Reproduce
colonize a planet and the only stat added is the population

Expected behavior
stars had tooltips for mining amounts and pop growth

Actual behavior
those UI elements are missing.

Screenshots
all your screenshots are belong to us.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the bug
Items that should be racial tech are available to all races

To Reproduce
In this example I managed to simultaneously research Croby Sharmor(an Inner Strength tech) and Shadow Shield(Super Stealth) simultaneously, but it seems to apply to all racial tech as in the menus I also have Heavy mines(Space Demolition) and Super Mass drivers(Packet Physics)

Expected behavior
racial tech is for those races only

Actual behavior
everyone seems to get racial tech(Note only components, not ship hulls)

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
We currently have five different types of files generated for various pieces of game state and player commands. However they are not named consistently, which will cause problems with services such as PBW. They should be named consistently, similar to FrEee, using the format GameName_TurnNumber_PlayerNumber.foo. Oh wait, each turn gets its own folder already. Still, player numbers rather than names will make things much easier for PBW! But should we cater to that or write our own service?

Benefits
Make it easier to configure the games on PBW. Also, if each turn gets its own filename then you can easily roll back to a previous turn; the old files are not overwritten.

Describe alternatives
Get Fyron to modify PBW to handle these files that are named after empires? Write a new PBW service? Use Stars! Autohost instead of PBW?

Additional context
N/A

Describe the bug
See screenshot. Oddly this does not prevent the game from compiling or running...

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open Nova in Visual Studio
2. Search for NovaGUI.cs in Solution Explorer
3. Open it

Expected behavior
The form designer appears

Actual behavior
Errors (see screenshot).

Screenshots

Additional context
N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
In Stars! you can share tech but it's tedious because you have to repeatedly gift ships and hope your ally gets lucky when scrapping them. I'd like to do something a bit simpler. SJ suggested giving a trickle of research points when advanced ships orbit an ally's shipyard. That seems reasonable but not overpowered!

Benefits
Make tech sharing less tedious.

Describe alternatives
5% osmosis per level difference per turn?

Additional context
Need to decide what limits how much tech can be shared - don't want to share thousands of research points by stacking up ships!

Describe the feature you'd like to see
What it says on the tin :)

Benefits
Don't lose track of your/enemy ships!

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
An option at game setup to toggle fuel generation between "starbases generate infinite fuel" (current behavior), "fuel can be mined from planets like a resource" (old versions of Stars!), and "both".

Benefits
More options are fun!

Describe alternatives
Could make it two checkboxes and prevent the game from being started if both are unchecked...

Additional context
N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
When zooming the map using the mouse wheel, the zoom effect should be focused on the cursor.

Benefits
It's more intuitive IMO.

Describe alternatives
Maybe we should make it an option. Do we have an options dialog yet?

Additional context
There is code in the Event Horizon GUI to do this. Not sure what the implications are of incorporating that code into a GPL project, though... can we dual license it? Does EH even have a license yet?

Describe the bug
The game will allow the existence of empty fleets

To Reproduce
extant examples appear to be former colonization fleets

Expected behavior
At end of turn the game should delete empty fleets and make a news log item

Actual behavior
No known method of manually deleting the empty fleets seems to exist. The game spits out errors whining about them every turn during generation.

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
A library for ship designs, like FrEee has, that can be stored outside of a savegame and be reused in multiple games.

Benefits
Avoid having to redesign the same ships every game.

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
Need to remember to prevent the player from building locked components/hulls that they don't have the tech or race traits for!
The library should go in My Documents\Stars! Nova.
The designs can appear as research results same as components and hulls.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
The game should have the capability to store multiple sets of components and/or deltas in a folder structure for use with various mods. Creating a game should prompt to choose a mod, defaulting to the stock Components.xml.

Benefits
Players can play modded games without manually replacing Components.xml.

Describe alternatives
We have two options:

1. SE4 style wholesale file replacement mods (mod contains a Components.xml which replaces the stock file)
2. Dominions style delta based mods (mod contains add/remove/edit commands)

Additional context
One concern I have is syncing mods from a game host to players. A basic implementation of a mod in Nova is much smaller than a FrEee mod, meaning that auto-syncing by storing the mod in the game state file might be feasible - however this could change if we start including things like graphics. Manual syncing like FrEee could work in that case; maybe with a checksum to make sure the Components.xml is up to date (but don't crash if it doesn't match, just warn the player!)

The Next/Previous buttons on the news feed work, but the "Go To" button is always greyed out.

** Describe what needs to be improved. **

Even the Common project contains a reference to System.Windows.Forms because it contains save file dialogs of all things. These sorts of references should be moved into a WinForms specific project. And business logic should be moved out of the UI layers when appropriate, into Common or someplace like that.

Perhaps we could also reorganize the different projects into a smaller number; I'm not convinced that we need six of them!

** Describe how this change could impact the quality of the code. **

It would improve separation of concerns and make the code more understandable.

Describe the bug
I'm not sure how many places this happens but I know at least one.

It seems to be calculating total YearsToCompletion by adding up the YTC of each item. BUT items with <1 YTC get truncated to 0 YTC, thus when it adds them up it sees the total as 0 YTC. In this example the system has 61 resources, total needed is 75. Thus the actual YTC is 2.

What else does this? I'm not sure since I can't look at the code. But things I've seen where the math has behaved in unexpected ways:
Mining on planets seems to give less than it feels like it should I've seen planets just not produce anything even with 9 or more mines.
Population growth, well, there's a side request here, but it feels like pop growth isn't getting rounded properly.
Ships will decelerate due to running out of fuel one turn BEFORE they run out of fuel.

Describe what is missing
reading the components.xml file I don't see any of the Mystery Trader techs listed.

I had to look them up on gamefaqs since I can't remember stats from memory. anything marked (MHM note:) is commentary I added to it. I attempted to fix any typos in the FAQ I got this from.

4. Appendix A: All items from the Mystery Trader

All items will be displayed with mineral and resource costs at all tech 26 without bleeding edge. If people have the costs for these items at the levels when they get them (without miniaturization and without the double cost of bleeding edge) you can email them to me ([email protected]) and I will include them in the next version of this FAQ.

4.01) Mega Poly Shell
4.02) Multi Contained Munition
4.03) Hush-a-Boom
4.04) Multi Function Pod
4.05) Enigma Pulsar
4.06) Multi Cargo Pod
4.07) Jump Gate
4.08) Alien Miner
4.09) Genesis Device
4.10) Langston Shell
4.11) Mini Morph
4.12) Anti Matter Torpedo

4.01) Mega Poly Shell (Armor)

Tech required: Ener 14, Const 14, Elect 14, Bio 6.
Cost at all 26: 9 I, 3 B, 3 G and 34 R.
Mass: 20 kt

Armor strength: 400
This part also acts as a 100dp shield, 20% cloak, 20% torpedo jammer and a 80/40 ly scanner.

4.02) Multi Contained Munition (Beam Weapon)

Tech required: Ener 21, Weap 21, Elect 16, Bio 12.
Cost at all 26: 4 I, 24 B, 4 G, 24 R.
Mass: 8 kt

Power: 140
Range: 3
Initiative: 6

This part also acts as a 10% cloak, increases torpedo accuracy by 10% and a 150/75 ly scanner.
This weapon can also bomb planets (2% colonists killed, 5 installations destroyed) and lay 40 standard mines/year.

Note: This is the description of the tech browser. However this item acts as a 10% jammer and so I think the 'increases torpedo accuracy by 10%' line should read 'jams torpedoes by 10%'.
(MHM note: acting as a jammer makes more sense anyways)

4.03) Hush-a-Boom (Bomb)

Tech required: Weap 12, Elect 12, Bio 12.
Cost at all 26: 1 I, 2 B, 0 G, 2 R.
Mass: 5 kt

This bomb will kill approximately 3,0% of a planet's population each year.
The bomb will destroy approximately 2 of a planet's mines, factories, and/or defenses each year.

4.04) Multi Function Pod (Electrical device)

Tech required: Ener 11, Prop 11, Elect 11.
Starting Cost: 5 I, 0 B, 5 G, 15 R.
Cost at all 26: 2 I, 0 B, 2 G, 6 R.
Mass: 2 kt

Cloaks any ship up to 30%, acts as a 10% jammer and maneuvering jet.

4.05) Enigma Pulsar (Engine)

Tech required: Ener 7, Prop 13, Const 5, Elect 9.
Cost at all 26: 6 I, 7 B, 5 G, 19 R.
Mass: 20 kt

Adds 1/4 square of movement and provides 10% cloaking.

Fuel usage vs. warp speed: (estimated)
Warp 1-5 Free
Warp 6: 50%
Warp 7-9 : something between W6 and 10...
Warp 10: 100%

This engine can travel at warp 10 safely. It's battle speed is 10.

4.06) Multi Cargo Pod (mechanical device)

Tech required: Ener 5, Const 11, Elect 5.
Starting Cost: 12 I, 0 B, 3 G, 25 R.
Cost at all 26: 5 I, 0 B, 1 G, 10 R.
Mass: 9 kt

This pod increases the cargo capacity by 250 kt, provides a 10% cloak and 50dp of armor.

4.07) Jump Gate (mechanical device)

Tech required: Ener 16, Prop: 20, Const 20, Elect 16.
Cost at all 26: 0 I, 0 B, 38 G, 30 R.
Mass: 10 kt

This device allows a ship to jump to planetary stargates. The range and weight limits are determined by the destination stargate.

4.08) Alien Miner (mining robot)

Tech required: Ener 5, Const 10, Elect 5, Bio 5.
Starting Cost: 8 I, 0 B, 2 G, 20 R.
Cost at all 26: 3 I, 0 B, 1 G, 7 R.
Mass: 20 kt

This module contains robots capable of mining up to 10 kt of each mineral (depending on concentration) from an uninhabited planet the ship is orbiting. The ship must have orders set to 'remote mining'.
This module also acts as 30% cloak, 30% jammer and half a maneuvering jet.

4.09) Genesis Device (Planetary)

Tech requirements: Ener 20, Weap 10, Prop 10, Const 20, Elect 10, Bio 20.
Starting Cost: 0 I, 0 B, 0 G, 5000 R.
Cost at all tech 26: 0 I, 0 B, 0 G, 5000 R.
(The tech browser will discount for additional levels, but the Genesis device will always cost you 5000 resources)

This process gives a planet a new birth. All traces of civilization are eliminated as the planet revitalizes itself into an entirely new world.

Note: This process will destroy all mines, factories, defenses, the starbase and all population on the planet. However the environmental factors (gravity, temperature and radiation) and the mineral concentrations will be randomized again. The AR race is immune to this process. As they live in orbit of the planet they can survive the process (they can also build the genesis device even though it's a
planetary installation).

Hughes ([email protected]) writes this about it:

Yes the AR is immune. Very annoying when they get the capability to do
this. If they have a really large mining fleet it can be even more
annoying . Mineral concentration only drops after the turn change(big
bug) so if you have a sufficiently large fleet of miners it is in
entirely possible to mine 100,000 kt of each mineral off a planet each
time a genesis device is used.

4.10) Langston Shell (shield)

Tech requirements: Ener 12, Prop: 9, Elect 9.
Cost at all tech 26: 4 I, 1 B, 3 G, 9 R.
Mass: 10 kt

Shield strength: 125 dp
This shield also provides 65 dp armor, 5% jamming, 10% cloaking, and a 50/25 ly scanner.

4.11) Mini Morph (ship hull)

Tech requirements: Const 8.
Cost at all tech 26: 8 I, 2 B, 2 G, 28 R.
Mass: 70 kt

Fuel Capacity: 400mg
Cargo Capacity: 150 kt
Armor Strength: 250
Initiative: 2

This hull needs 2 engines, has one slot for 3 general purpose items, 2 slots for 2 general purpose items and 3 slots for one general purpose item.

4.12) Anti Matter Torpedo (torpedo)

Tech requirements: Weap 11, Prop 12, Bio 21
Cost at all tech 26: 1 I, 6 B, 1 G, 30 R.
Mass: 8 kt

Power: 60
Range: 6
Initiative: 0
Accuracy: 85

Note: this is a great item to transfer biotech with! Also look at the range of 6 and the mass of 8 kt.
/gamefaqs

Now there are graphics for them. but I think the equipment graphics were actually pulled directly from Stars anyways.

Describe what is missing
In Stars! there were load and unload cargo orders. Nova has an unload order that doesn't work and you have to manually transfer.

How did it work? these were waypoint tasks.
Example:
you could tell a ship to fly to your HW(in this example Memnon) then assign as that waypoint task: Load Cargo, then the cargo picker box appears and you select population is what to load.
then fly back to Posterior and drop cargo (drop cargo should also prompt you to tell it what cargo you want to drop)

Describe what is missing

I can't figure out how to delete a component from a design. It can't be dragged back to the component library and right clicking and double clicking do nothing. I assume this was possible in Stars!?

Screenshots
N/A

Describe the bug
one of the special mining components lets the ship do orbital terraforming

To Reproduce
build the ship and put it orbit of a planet that isn't 100%

Expected behavior
it should slowly change it towards 100%.

Actual behavior
it doesn't actually do anything.

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
Upgrade this game from .NET Framework 4.x or whatever it's running under now to .NET 5.

Benefits
Not much benefit for players, might improve performance slightly if we're lucky, but it would mean we can use all the cool new C# 9 features like record types, nullable reference types, enhanced pattern matching, and so on.

Describe alternatives
It's .NET 5, not really many alternatives there besides maybe switching to .NET Core 3.1, but that's entirely supplanted by .NET 5 anyway. Mono or Unity, perhaps?

Additional context
One potential problem is, if I'm not mistaken WinForms apps targeting .NET 5 will not run in Mono, so we could be losing Linux/Mac compatibility until someone fixes that or a future version of .NET makes WinForms cross-platform.

Describe what is missing

The launcher window has no icon, and thus a generic icon is displayed in its title bar and in the taskbar.

Screenshots

Describe the feature you'd like to see
Racial traits should be defined in a mod file like components are - ideally using abilities like in FrEee,
but they could always just be hardcoded effects with moddable amounts.

Benefits
More flexibility for modders; we can add new racial traits without requiring players to use them in their games.

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Every time I've tried it the cargo(population) has not moved on the next turn.

Describe the bug
there are hulls designed for using mining robots

To Reproduce
attempting to slot mining robots into them is impossible

Expected behavior
"Robot Miner" slots should allow use of mining components

Actual behavior
I can't slot anything in them

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
A "library" for storing ship/base designs between games (possibly also build queues?) See the implementation in FrEee.

Benefits
You don't have to redesign your ships from scratch every game.

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
Anywhere a ship design is visible, you should be able to right click a component and get a report on it.

Benefits
Make the game mechanics less mystical.

Describe alternatives
Double click maybe?

Additional context
Need to figure out everywhere in the game that ship components are displayed... Also maybe those "Base Cargo" things that seem to be giving freighters free cargo space...

Describe the feature you'd like to see
There's already a "saved queue" feature, right? Well why not store it outside of the savegame and put it in a library?

Benefits
Players don't have to recreate their build queues every time they start a new game.

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
It should go in My Documents\Stars! Nova.

Describe what is missing

What it says on the tin. For instance, the "base cargo storage" ability of the freighter hulls. Should say "Base Cargo Storage: 70kT" or whatever.

Screenshots

N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
Cloaking will now work as an asymptotic function. You add up all the cloak ratings of all your cloaking devices, divide by your ship's mass (including any cargo it might be carrying, of course), and feed it into the function. The function will map a 100% ratio to 50% cloaking and an infinite ratio to 100% cloaking. I believe this would be an arctan function, similar to population growth or the Star Trek TNG warp scale.

This will be an optional rule which can be toggled in game setup.

Benefits
Cloaking as it stands is problematic: bigger ships are better at cloaking than smaller ships, because they have more hull slots and mass. This proposal will fix that. It will no longer be beneficial to install armor to improve the cloaking of cargo ships, and smaller ships that install one cloaking device will be better cloaked than larger ships that install one cloaking device.

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Describe the bug
Load an intel file and the GUI crashes. Probably related to #40 fix.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open the GUI
2. Load a savegame (intel file)

Expected behavior
The GUI is displayed.

Actual behavior
Error: null reference exception

Screenshots

Additional context
N/A

Describe the bug
Attempting to create a Beam Weapon in the component editor results in an error message saying "Beam Weapons" not found. The actual property is named "BeamWeapons" with no space.

A workaround is to save as something else then manually edit the xml to set the property to "BeamWeapons".

Describe the feature you'd like to see
When you quit the game (close the main window), you are unceremoniously dumped back to the host screen. You should be prompted to save your turn.

Benefits
Players would accidentally lose their progress less often.

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Describe the feature you'd like to see
A view mode that displays an opponent's known sensor radius as compared to the cloaking of one of your fleets, planets, etc.

Benefits
Makes it easier to plot a course without being detected.

Describe alternatives
Could instead show sensor radius without cloaking at all times, but I think it would be more useful to display based on the cloaking of a selected object when one is selected.

Additional context
As proposed by Suicide Junkie :)

Describe the feature you'd like to see
A modular battle system that lets you run plugins or even shell out to another process to resolve battles.

Benefits
More options!

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
In single player we could give the player the option to control the battles, but in multiplayer it would have to be automatic and generate a replay.
MEF can be used for the plugin side of things.

Describe what is missing
Stars! would show the next level's results in green, and subsequent results in other colors. Nova only shows the next level's results.

Screenshots
N/A

Describe the bug
Something about a single threaded apartment, I don't have the exact error message handy...

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Delete the graphics path setting from Nova.conf
2. Load up a game

Expected behavior
User is prompted for a graphics path

Actual behavior
Crash

Screenshots
Sorry, I don't have one handy...

Additional context
N/A

Describe what is missing
Ships default to traveling at warp 0, so issuing a waypoint mysteriously fails. They should default to traveling at their cruise speed (optimal speed for regular engines, free speed for ramscoops) like they did in Stars!

Screenshots
N/A

Describe what is missing
The about box needs an up to date copyright date and build date.

Screenshots

Describe the bug
penetrating scanners should update planet data

To Reproduce
they don't update data of any planets inr ange

Expected behavior
A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

Actual behavior
The erroneous behavior that you observed.

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
What it says on the tin :)

Benefits
Make stats easier to find

Describe alternatives
N/A

Additional context
Need to figure out everywhere that ships are displayed. And starbases!

Describe the feature you'd like to see
I'd like to be able to toggle players between human and AI on the host console.

Benefits
Useful for if a player wants to take a break from a game, or for testing.

Describe alternatives
N/A.

Additional context
N/A

.NET Core is the future of .NET, so it would be nice to port this game to that platform.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
The ability to pan the map, say, by dragging one of the mouse buttons.

Benefits
Make it easier to navigate the map.

Describe alternatives
We can do it with any of the three mouse buttons, maybe make it configurable? MMB might be inaccessible on a laptop.

Additional context
N/A

Describe the bug
The order seemingly doesn't get executed

To Reproduce
give a fleet a waypoint task to "scrap" and generate a turn

Expected behavior
the fleet should get scrapped

Actual behavior
nothing happens

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the bug
It's spelled "Antertherals" (note the extra "r")

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1.Open the Antetheral.race file in a text editor.

Expected behavior
Plural name is spelled correctly.

Actual behavior
Plural name is misspelled with an extra "r".

Screenshots
N/A

Additional context
N/A

Describe the bug
I started a new game (default settings) and when I look at the research screen all I see as expected results is a bunch of stargates.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start a new game with the default settings.
2. Open the research screen.

Expected behavior
Clicking a tech area shows what I can unlock by researching it.

Actual behavior
Clicking a tech area shows a bunch of stargates as expected results, or nothing at all.

Screenshots

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Describe the feature you'd like to see
Replace the WinForms GUI with something more modern.

Benefits
The GUI will look nicer, it will be easier to style it and use modern UI conventions, and we might even be able to add support for additional platforms such as Android by using certain frameworks.

Describe alternatives
Some possibilities:

• WPF - kind of outdated, limited to Windows
• UWP - somewhat outdated, limited to Windows 10
• Avalonia - cross platform but designer support is lacking last I checked
• Unity - very powerful and cross platform but it will take some getting used to
• Xamarin - cross platform, might be obsolete now that we have MAUI
• MAUI - cross platform but I seem to recall it doesn't work on Linux even though it supports Android, go figure...

Additional context
blah blah

Describe the feature you'd like to see
A more modern UI designed in a framework such as Xamarin, Avalonia, or Unity, using modern UI paradigms rather than the cluttered mess that is the current UI.

Benefits
Making the game more user friendly will attract more players, I guess?

Describe alternatives
We have several options for the UI - Xamarin, Avalonia, and Unity. All of these are cross platform and the first two use XAML while the third is more geared toward 3D games but could be adapted.

Additional context
We should keep the old UI around for diehard fans who actually like it.