I wish I didn't have to make this post, because I don't want to make any drama out of it, but at this moment I feel it's necessary. Starting from now, I will take a break from all Age of Empires related activities, including work on WololoKingdoms. I don't want to go into too many details here, but the basics are that I spend an unreasonable amount of time with developing WK, but especially aoezone, reddit and discord, to a point where it's having a negative influence on my "real life" because I can't control it properly. Those who know me more closely are aware I'm serious about this and that I've been struggling with it for a while, yet I never completly stopped and was always pulled back. So I would ask that, if you see me anywhere, be it a reddit post, a message in discord, watching aoe on twitch or whatever, to remind me of this post.
At least until I've finished my bachelor's (which will probably not be before the end of the year), anything Age of Empires-related needs be off limits for me. No exceptions.
In terms of WK, the installer is not in the best place I could be right now, due to a many changes in a short time without proper testing. If you have some free time, want to help out and have some programming experience, maybe consider if you can help out with development. Setting it up can be a bit annoying but should hopefully not too difficult:
-You need to install the Qt framework, probably best if you use the Qt editor too
-My latest code can be found on my github, or on the aoe2communitygithub once pull request I made is merged.
-The library dlls needed to be able to run it can be copied from the zip that's distributed for installation.
If you want to help out, best talk to Trirem to coordinate things (Thanks again to him at this point for being incredibly helpful with handling WololoKingdoms)
It's mostly a matter of bugfixes and maybe some small changes for features down the road.
Stuff that I'm aware of atm:
-When watching recs of older patches on a data mod based on the 5.7.2 installer, some dark age buildings are invisible. To fix this, the following needs to be done:
* Currently, the gamedata_x1_p1.drs file of a data mod (e.g. Patch 5.7 or ToA mod) is just a symlink to the .drs file of the base WololoKingdoms mod. The problem is that the new .drs file is missing some SLPs it used to have.
* Instead of a symlink, the installer should therefore copy the .drs file to the data mod folder instead, and then edit it to to include the missing SLPs. As a last action, I can upload these missing SLPs somewhere once I get back to my PC in a few days. I will also check what's uploaded to github, I think not all files may have been tracked properly
* Until someone fixes this as a workaround, you can do the following: Install the 5.7 version of WK, and make a copy of the gamedata_x1_p1.drs file in the WololoKingdoms/data folder. Then reinstall 5.7.2 and data mods based on 5.7.2. For the data mods (NOT the normal WololoKingdoms mod!), replace the .drs file with the copied 5.7 version
-The installer can seem to be unresponsive at times. To fix this, please include some "gui->increaseProgress(0)" calls at those spots where the background tasks take a while. Forcing the gui to update in this way should tell windows the program is still responsive and not show it as freezing.
-There are a bunch of small fixes (including support for the hotkeys of siege tower, feitoria, etc.) in the code on my github that aren't in this distributed installer yet. I can also pack these into a last update in a few days.
-There are also a number of issues with locked files and the like when running the installer, especially when upgrading from 5.7 to 5.7.2. Additional checks, try/catches and fixes might be needed here.
It's been a great experience to see something I've worked on come alive in the manner that WololoKingdoms. That will remain with me no matter what. I've met many great people in this community and the thought that I've worked and succeeded to improve their experience like this brings joy to my heart.
As a last thought, should any of you ever feel like or suspect they are in a similar situation as I've described, act sooner on it rather than later. It can be an insidious situation that you don't consciously realize the extent of until it becomes very difficult to deal with. Reach out to friends and family for help and see how you can change your routines to break such a habit. Unless you have a lot of willpower, just deciding on your own that you want to change is probably not going to cut it.
Obviously most of us have procrastinated in one way or another with TV, games or whatever, and that's perfectly normal, but if you ever feel like you're making these decisions unconsciously, you should consider this.
That's what I'm doing now, with asking you to call me out on it should see me around. Hopefully at some point in the future I can come back to enjoy this game and community in a more healthy manner. Thanks everyone,
Jineapple
At least until I've finished my bachelor's (which will probably not be before the end of the year), anything Age of Empires-related needs be off limits for me. No exceptions.
In terms of WK, the installer is not in the best place I could be right now, due to a many changes in a short time without proper testing. If you have some free time, want to help out and have some programming experience, maybe consider if you can help out with development. Setting it up can be a bit annoying but should hopefully not too difficult:
-You need to install the Qt framework, probably best if you use the Qt editor too
-My latest code can be found on my github, or on the aoe2communitygithub once pull request I made is merged.
-The library dlls needed to be able to run it can be copied from the zip that's distributed for installation.
If you want to help out, best talk to Trirem to coordinate things (Thanks again to him at this point for being incredibly helpful with handling WololoKingdoms)
It's mostly a matter of bugfixes and maybe some small changes for features down the road.
Stuff that I'm aware of atm:
-When watching recs of older patches on a data mod based on the 5.7.2 installer, some dark age buildings are invisible. To fix this, the following needs to be done:
* Currently, the gamedata_x1_p1.drs file of a data mod (e.g. Patch 5.7 or ToA mod) is just a symlink to the .drs file of the base WololoKingdoms mod. The problem is that the new .drs file is missing some SLPs it used to have.
* Instead of a symlink, the installer should therefore copy the .drs file to the data mod folder instead, and then edit it to to include the missing SLPs. As a last action, I can upload these missing SLPs somewhere once I get back to my PC in a few days. I will also check what's uploaded to github, I think not all files may have been tracked properly
* Until someone fixes this as a workaround, you can do the following: Install the 5.7 version of WK, and make a copy of the gamedata_x1_p1.drs file in the WololoKingdoms/data folder. Then reinstall 5.7.2 and data mods based on 5.7.2. For the data mods (NOT the normal WololoKingdoms mod!), replace the .drs file with the copied 5.7 version
-The installer can seem to be unresponsive at times. To fix this, please include some "gui->increaseProgress(0)" calls at those spots where the background tasks take a while. Forcing the gui to update in this way should tell windows the program is still responsive and not show it as freezing.
-There are a bunch of small fixes (including support for the hotkeys of siege tower, feitoria, etc.) in the code on my github that aren't in this distributed installer yet. I can also pack these into a last update in a few days.
-There are also a number of issues with locked files and the like when running the installer, especially when upgrading from 5.7 to 5.7.2. Additional checks, try/catches and fixes might be needed here.
It's been a great experience to see something I've worked on come alive in the manner that WololoKingdoms. That will remain with me no matter what. I've met many great people in this community and the thought that I've worked and succeeded to improve their experience like this brings joy to my heart.
As a last thought, should any of you ever feel like or suspect they are in a similar situation as I've described, act sooner on it rather than later. It can be an insidious situation that you don't consciously realize the extent of until it becomes very difficult to deal with. Reach out to friends and family for help and see how you can change your routines to break such a habit. Unless you have a lot of willpower, just deciding on your own that you want to change is probably not going to cut it.
Obviously most of us have procrastinated in one way or another with TV, games or whatever, and that's perfectly normal, but if you ever feel like you're making these decisions unconsciously, you should consider this.
That's what I'm doing now, with asking you to call me out on it should see me around. Hopefully at some point in the future I can come back to enjoy this game and community in a more healthy manner. Thanks everyone,
Jineapple