Author Topic: Mmog with the goal to survive  (Read 16543 times)

Offline Numsgil

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #30 on: April 20, 2006, 08:42:04 AM »
Probably I'm trying to get a job as a programmer at EA (Maxis) after I graduate, using Dariwnbots as my portfolio.

Offline PurpleYouko

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #31 on: April 20, 2006, 08:47:35 AM »
I'm hitting it from a different angle.

I plan to begin programming this kind of stuff as part of my own business. (Which I hope to be able to set up in a couple of years)
I also do a bunch of internet programming when I'm not actually working on my real job as a research chemist.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world
Those who understand binary.
and those who don't

:D PY :D

Offline Welwordion

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #32 on: April 20, 2006, 09:32:20 AM »
Hmm spore sounds quite similar to "Evo search for Eden" for the SNES.

Oh and envy you guys that are good with programming languages, there where so mayn game ideas I had and I never could realize :/ . Well I tried to learn a programming language but I have a bad memory and my motivations is like a sinus finction or maybe more like a Gauß function?

Offline Welwordion

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #33 on: April 21, 2006, 03:06:34 PM »

Offline EricL

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #34 on: April 21, 2006, 03:15:54 PM »
Quote from: Numsgil
Probably I'm trying to get a job as a programmer at EA (Maxis) after I graduate, using Dariwnbots as my portfolio.
If you ever consider Microsoft, I can guarentee you an interview...
Many beers....

Offline Numsgil

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #35 on: April 21, 2006, 03:22:25 PM »
Do you work at Microsoft?

Offline EricL

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #36 on: April 21, 2006, 03:33:39 PM »
Quote from: Numsgil
Do you work at Microsoft?
Do I really have to answer that?  

I did, for a.... long time.   I left 18 months ago to pursue... personal interests.  

Since others will be reading this, let me be crisp lest I get swamped for recomendation requests.  Having seen your code, and your posts and your passion in this space, I feel confident that Microsoft would be interested in speaking with you and I feel confident that my recomendation that they interview you would not be misplaced.  I can pretty much guarentee that will result in an interview trip.  Whether that results in a job offer is up to you.

PS.  Comment your code better and check out hungarian notation as far as sytax conventions....  hint hint.  

PPS.  Resistance is futile.  You will be asimilated.  
Many beers....

Offline Numsgil

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #37 on: April 21, 2006, 03:43:17 PM »
I sort of figured you had/have some programming job.  Most people who know there way around code as well as you do usually do it proffessionally.

Quote
Comment your code better and check out hungarian notation as far as sytax conventions.... hint hint. smile.gif

I try really really hard to be as readable as possible in code.  So I'm working on it   Sometimes it's hard to figure out if something is making the code more maintainable or just harder to read (like my recent discovery of the power of preprocessor directives.  It's either brilliant or hideous.  Perhaps both.  Sublime code)

Hungarian notation I've never been fond of.  I know that's what Microsoft loves, and I understand why, but generally I like variable names I can pronounce out loud.  lWndHnd and things like that take a bit to get used to

What was your job at Microsoft?  CEO?  
« Last Edit: April 21, 2006, 03:43:48 PM by Numsgil »

Offline EricL

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #38 on: April 21, 2006, 04:11:38 PM »
Developers at Microsoft (in systems) spend less than 18 weeks a year writing new code.  The rest of the time is design and bug fixing, often on projects that have 100s of developers working on them.  Sometimes 1000's.  It's not uncommon for a large project to have 100,000 bugs found, tracked, fixed and regressed over the course of a release.  When you are writing code for yourself, it's nice to be dense, to have a lot of code fit on one page, use single letter variable names, not spend the time to write paragraphs about what is obvious to you and so on.  We've all been there.  But when a huge percentage of your time is spent on code others wrote, or you are looking for potential bugs or security flaws and have to be very very clear about exactly what the assumptions are at every line...

DB code has a ton of math in it.  The code itself is fine, quite readable, but complex.  It's hard for someone like me to come along and see what's going on right away.  In production code, its very common for there to be more lines of comments than code in a source module, sometimes by a factor of 5 or more.

You get used to Hungarian, you learn to love it and miss it.  It's not used everywhere and as more projects are being done in managed code and C#, things may change.  But the vast majority of stuff is still C or C++.  There, Hungarian in the norm.

As far as my job, I did a whole pile of difffernt things over the years in groups from Windows to Xbox, mostly designing software and managing software development groups.  I even had a hand in VB 1.0.    Most of my tenure was on Exchange Server in various roles.  It's been a while since I wrote production code, so I'm rusty, but once you learn how to ride a bike...

Send me a resume when/if you are ready.  I'll get it to the right people.
Many beers....

Offline Numsgil

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #39 on: April 21, 2006, 04:22:18 PM »
I may drop you a line in a few months when my schooling's finished.

I haven't thought about the various math much.  It's pretty much an art more than a science.  I just play around with the equations until I have something that seems good enough.  Shot decay is like this.  I'll see if I can better comment some of the more obtuse lines of code.

DB's comment to code ratio is like 1 to 4 in the C++ source.  Most of the comments though are in the random number generator code.  I copied large stretches of comments from "Numerical Recipes in C" to help people see what's going on.

Offline Elite

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #40 on: April 29, 2006, 08:27:37 AM »
How about a MMO set on a ringworld/Halo

It would make for an interesting setting, no?

There is also the oppertunity to scatter ancient structures and devices around the place ...
« Last Edit: April 29, 2006, 08:34:20 AM by Elite »

Offline Numsgil

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #41 on: April 29, 2006, 09:15:00 AM »
That could be fun because you can potentially see 90% of the world at once.

Offline Elite

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #42 on: April 29, 2006, 09:48:58 AM »
Which would you prefer: sci-fi MMO or a fantasy MMO?

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"  

Offline Numsgil

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« Reply #43 on: April 29, 2006, 09:58:51 AM »
Personally I prefer non fantasy settings.  But I'm not much of a fan of sci-fi either when it comes to MMOs.

What about Western (like Wild West)?  Or perhaps Near Eastern (walk the wilderness for 40 years )

Offline Elite

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Mmog with the goal to survive
« Reply #44 on: April 29, 2006, 10:21:39 AM »
Noctis wasn't bad for sci-fi

How about a sort of 'colony sci-fi' (ie. not too far future) coming in slower-than-light ark ships (like Orion - in fact, that's 50s-60s America level of technology) to colonise a new world

You might add in a terraforming aspect too
« Last Edit: April 29, 2006, 10:23:12 AM by Elite »