Review of red team's campaign "The cafeteria"

Red team's campaign "The Cafeteria" is about mafia life. Player has to manage little mafia group, leaded by "godfather" Rocco who has couple of men. Amount of men depends on difficulty level (there are three levels available). Unfortunatelly I wasn't able to play the whole campaign as third scenario gives runtime error. (I tried restart, reinstall Wesnoth 1.6, changing languages and so on, nothing helped.) Thus my opinion bases on gameplay of first two scenarions and brief review of .cfg-files.

What I liked:
1) Strong story with logical storyline, something different from others Wesnoth campaigns.
2) Graphics is nice enough and stylish, supporting story pretty well.
3) Used some features of BfW which blue team didn't use (and that's a pity)- adjusting difficulty level with amount of men, using captions in messages.
4) Various goals- not just killing enemies, but also collecting certain amount of money.
5) All used units are new, created for this story.

About what I didn't care so much:
1) Maps weren't very interesting.
2) Player has only two types of units to manage- hero and non-hero.
3) The objective of 2. scenario is "Punch Wobernard in his remaining teeth or gather 200 gold", but looks like only way to win is to collect 200 gold. This "Punch..." is confusing, scenario's attribute victory_when_enemies_defeated=no. Also it is not written in mission objectives that player loses if enemy collects 200 gold- so very likely player has to lose once before he gets aware of winning-losing conditions.
4) Sometimes story tends to be "too strong" for sort of tender-hearted persons. For example, may-be rape as objective had to leave only into hard-mode. (Yes-yes, killing people is also bad and wrong, I know :) but still I think R-rating is not too much here.)
5) Units range is too long- therefore there is no point to group units or consider how to move units from longer perspective. Maps are too small if units can reach from one corner to opposite corner within just two moves.
6) Lack of WML-coding- no special events, no bonuses, no carrying units between scenarious.

Final conclusion: result is better than I predicted on Monday, but story is better than gameplay itself. As much as I know, nobody from blue team didn't manage to the last scenario, so it seems to be just buggy.

Cory Doctorows business model

Cory Doctorow is a journalist and a science fiction author from Canada. He promotes liberalizing copyright laws and has published his books under the Creative Commons licence. In January 2003 he published "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", allowing readers to distribute it freely for non-commercial purposes, create derived works wasn't allowed. In March 2003 it was re-released, but this time under licence which allows derived works (but still for non-commercial purposes). Later novels have been published under the same licence. In parallel with print versions digital versions have been published without charge. Business benefit for him is at first free promotion. His works are widely and freely distributed, reviewed by many readers, so he is well-known and therefore paper versions are sold better than it would be without free digital copies. In fact he sells his novels as well as giving for free. Also we have to take into account that Doctorow is also co-editor of very popular tech blog BoingBoing (which produces very good income as well) and proponent of the Creative Commons organization- this is not just business stuff but ideology, world-view in general ("branding" if you want). Activity in one field supports others and vice versa.

Some thoughts about Wesnoth campaign-building

Project Battle for Wensoth has a large community forum, divided to threads for different topics like strategies, support, development etc. These forums are, as they usually tend to be, a bit scattered. Usually forums aren't the best way to start studying of anything, but these are pretty useful if you are already familiar with Wesnoth and want to find solutions to problems you met or just to get fresh ideas. But you can find (or why not to write?) some "summary-type" postings as well, like this one.

Some quite random thoughts concerning to campaign-building, what can be better (as my speciality is WML these are mainly related to coding):
The best way to get familiar with WML is to play different campaigns and if you find some technical aspects to be interesting then immediatelly check the WML-code (and remember it as example). Also this is good way to get ideas for your own campaigns.
Help and WML documentation in BfW forums shold contain examples as much as possible. Examples of certain features would be convenient. Right now because help in Wesnoth site is pretty laconic, so less skilled campaign-builder have to search for real uses of described tags anyway. (It means Google is still important source of information, even if you have found respective topic in Wesnoth site.)
After changing campaign .cfg-file you have to restart the Wesnoth program because it caches missions, and this causes changes you have made won't affect without restart. It makes test-process time consuming and is just annoying, it would be very nice if this could be changed somehow.
I missed for WML-validator a lot. I found several topics in Wesnoth forums where were discussed about creating that tool, but looks like all those projects are still "under construction". Good thing is that very likely there will be WML-validator soon.
The main way to balance forces is to adjust incoming. Therefore I think it needs an extra attention carrying money between scenarious as it can easily disbalance well tuned (single) scenario. From that perspecitve it is safer to keep bonus ratio low (or not to give bonus at all- then you can test and balance each scenario independently of others).

And one more, a bit personal thing- as distinct from recommendations from forums I think that too much of dialogues are not good at all, I think the dialogue should contain only useful and necessary information, otherwise it gets boring and works as pointless waste of time (without possibility to interrupt it before getting to play). It seems to me that dialogues longer than 5 sections won't be read through, so if you have anything to say, do it in first 5 section :)

Battle for Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game. I'm not very familiar with role-based strategy games, at first glance it looks like "Heroes of Might and Magic" for me. In this game you are acting in a land called Wesnoth. You have a hero who has to fight against the enemy, for that he can build up (or has already) his own little army. This needs money, to get money you have to conquer villages. Different units (soldiers in your army) have different abilities and weaknesses, the player needs to consider more or less carefully, which units to produce and which units to use in a battle.
The goal of the game may vary in campaigns, but usually player have to destroy the enemies' leader(s) and the player's own hero must survive and/or reach to some point on the map. In general this is up to the developer- it is possible to set any sort of event as the winning (or losing) condition. Usually the length of play is limited by the maximum number of turns. It is possible to define different difficulties of play, for example developer can specify that at "easy" level you get 40 turns and can create 5 types of soldiers, but at "medium" level you have, let's say, 35 turns and 3 types of soldiers available.
Also it is possible to play online against other players.
I have to admit this game isn't too addictive for me, but I'm not a big gamer anyway. For me the most attractive and interesting property of the game is the possibility to create your own campaigns with any goal and tactics you want to or can implement, create your own items and characters with a unique look and behaviour. Due to this an active community of users has formed who are developing the game and missions (forum).

FSF and OSI

Open Source Initiative (OSI) is an organization promoting open source software (homepage). Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization supportig free software movement (homepage).
Although they seem to have similar aims they are addressed to different aspects of software: "open source" is a development methodology (definition of Open Source is here), "free software" is a concept which means the freedom to run, study/discover, change and distribute software (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html). Access to the source code is a precondition for these freedoms, thus the concept "free software" contains also openness of the source code, but "open source" itself does not say anything about the price or other commercial aspects, "open source software" can be commercial software, but neither free nor open source software can't be proprietary software. Distribution and modification of proprietary software is restricted, you have to get permission for that. "Free software" does not mean "free download" (i.e. price 0), the differences are explained here.
Thus OSI promotes open source deveopement as a practical (business) solution, FSF promotes freedom (as ethical category) of using and developing software.
Software for 0 cost, but with non-published source is not free nor open source software.
Both organizations have set up a licence approvement process- licences approved by FSF complying with free software definition (as this is described above) while licences approved by OSI meet the criteria of openness of source code (for more specific description see http://opensource.org/docs/osd.
The lists of licences approved by OSI and FSF are available at http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical and http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses.
Numerous licences have approvement of both, thus being free and open source software. Here is the table provading the comparison of licences approved by these organizations.

Basically we can conclude that OSI is aiming at companies' needs while FSF is focusing on developers' and practitioners' interests.

3. Õpimaastik

Praktiline tegevus, mille jaoks tahaksin kasutada sotsiaalset tarkvara, on kursuste ja treeningute organiseerimine. Valisin selle tulenevalt mu reaalsetest vajadustest.

Kirjeldus:
Koos käib grupp inimesi, kes harjutavad keeglit või õpivad hiina keelt või harrastavad muud ühistegevust. Kuna grupp on väike, siis peab ta treeningute ajakava olema paindlik, kuna treeningut pole mõtet teha kui juba paar inimest ei saa tulla. Grupil on ajaveeb, kus on kättesaadav kõik asjassepuutuv info ja mille kaudu toimub grupi töö organiseerimine. Peale selle on seal ka niisama teemakohane suhtlus- võistluste tulemused, arutlused, kuulutused jne. Enamus postitustest on sellised, milliste lugemine pole pakiline, kuid nt teadeanded treeningu ära jäämise või teisele ajale tõstmise kohta on sellised, mis peavad kindlasti jõudma õigeaegselt iga osaliseni. Selliste teadete märkimiseks tuleks kokku leppida mingi tunnus, nt kasutada silti "NB!" või alustada postitust sõnaga "Oluline!" vmt. Mingi tarkvaraline agent peaks jälgima ajaveebi ja sellise tunnusega postituse laekumisel saatma sms-i osalistele, kuna kõik ei pruugi olla osalised ei pruugi piisavalt tihti bloogi postitusi/e-kirju lugeda.
Kas on olemas selline veebikeskkond, mis suudaks saata sms-i, seda veel ei tea, kuid üks võimalus on teha mobiiltelefonile rakendus, mis jälgiks grupi ajaveebi RSS-voogu ja "NB!"-ga algava postituse laekudes saadaks kõigile telefoniraamatu kontaktidele, mis on näiteks grupis "Õpilased", sms-i selle postituse esimese 140 tähemärgiga (kuna selline on 1 sms-i pikkus). Postituse pakilisuse hindamine (kas on vaja sms saata või mitte), jääb puhtalt selle autori otsustada. See rakendus peaks olema 1 inimese telefoni installeeritud, keda võib selles kontekstis nimetada "õpetajaks" (kuivõrd tema kaudu toimiks antud juhul infoedastus). (Tehniliselt võib see muidugi ükskõik kelle telefonis olla, kuid rollijaotuse seisukohast tundub loogilisem, et vastavat infot saadab välja kursuse/treeningu organisaator.)

2. Õpileping

Sotsiaalsete keskkondade põhiprobleemiks mu jaoks on üle jõu käiv infohulk, mistõttu võib väga lihtsalt kahe silma jääda vahele jääda postitus, mida kindlasti oleksin tahtnud näha. Sama omaduse teine avaldumine on, et "müra" on palju- kulutan palju aega postitustele, mis võinuks vabalt ka lugemata jääda. Ka ajaveebid, mida jälgin, sisaldavad rohkem materjali kui ma läbi vaadata suudan ja vajan. Mind aitaks, kui olulised postitused oleks märgistatud, eriti olulised võiksid endast ise märku anda (vastandina sellele, et mina lähen lugema oma jälgitavaid keskkondi ja leian need olulised postitused). Arvan, et enamus inimesi ei jälgi pidevalt sotsiaalseid keskkondi, vaid teevad seda periooditi, nt loevad neid ainult nädalavahetusel või loevad ühel päeval ühte keskkonda, teisel päeval teist jne. Nii võib maha magada mõne teate, millele oleks tahtnud kohe reageerida.
Käesoleva kursuse raames loodan avastada mõned vahendid või meetodid keskkondade sisu filtreerimiseks või ka ise mõne lihtsama teha (vt järgmine postitus, "Õpimaastik").

Kursuse eesmärgiks sean vähemalt ühe neist saavutamise:

• loon ise mingi praktiliselt kasutatava lahenduse, mis nopiks keskkonnast välja olulised sõnumid ja toimetaks need adressaatideni (e-kirja või paremal juhul sms-iga) või
• võtan kasutusele mingi olemasoleva vahendi jälgitavate keskkonda sisu filtreerimiseks ja/või agregeerimiseks (võib-olla sobib selleks Yahoo Pipes, mida olen märganud, kuid mitte kasutanud)

Juhul, kui valin ise mingi vahendi loomise kasuks, siis väga tõenäoliselt proovin kirjutada Pythonis Symbian platvormi mobiiltelefonidele mingi rakenduse, mis teavitaks ajaveebi jälgijat olulise postituse laekumisest. Selline programmeerimine ei paista küll sotsiaalsete keskkondade kasutamise moodi (ja seega läheb kursuse teemast välja?), kuid loodan et nendele keskkondadele rakenduse/komponendi kirjutamine kvalifitseerub natuke ikka selle kursuse teemaks...
Juhul, kui valin teise eesmärgi, on vahendiks ilmselt mõni Yahoo Pipes-laadne rakendus, mis võimaldab erinevate keskkondade andmeid töödelda. Selle leidmiseks on põhivahendiks ilmselt Google (mis kindlasti juhatab mind kõikvõimalikesse blogidesse).
Kavatsen mingil määral tegeleda mõlemaga (esialgne probleem on ju sama).

Hindamisel proovingi mõõta, kui "käegakatsutavale" tulemusele ma jõudsin- kui oman selget arsaama, mida ja kuidas kasutada ühe eelnevalt nimetatud eesmärgi realiseerimiseks (või on juba midagi kasutusele võetud/realiseeritud), on hästi. Kui oman ettekujutust, kust lahendust otsida ja mis on võimalikud vahendid, on rahuldav. Kui olukord on sama mis praegu, siis on halvasti.