[Discontinued] Ethereal FAF Client 1.0

Wow this client can do EVERYTHING!!! Except actually play games

@askaholic That is true, but who like rushing these days I have 3 month to finish this as mush as possible before i leave to army for a year

is it possible to integrate some of the features of the lobby mod that makes it clearer what the teams are and what the balance is like?

@derpfaf Yes, but it will be done as custom modification that made by client itself. It should be embedded into patch intead

I wish you good luck. It is really hard to rewrite a client from scratch and you have a long way to go.
My advise for you would be:

• Keep in mind that if this project succeeds it gets big (FAF Client has 83642 loc only the core project) and that you will need a good clean architecture
• Try build a minimal valuable product first (get it to launch custom games and download maps and mods) and make sure it is stable. Building all java client features is hard, there are many idiotic features it has. And ppl always wish for more features.

Nobody cared for all the features the java client had, most ppl stayed with the py client. Java client was received as unstable, since it broke many times. That was mainly the lack of testers/ users and that in game development and patching everybody tested with py client and therefore broke java client. And also there was active development on the java client where as the py client just stayed the same. And ppl just like what they are used to.

@axel12 Thank you! Yeah, i am not going to implement all features that official client has at the moment. Mostly just curious and making some notes.

Lets digress a little from the client, what do you think about GW?

Note that this is just ideas rn

I know that faf already has a relatively ready-made GW server, but I didn't dare to watch it xD, so I only made a visual concept of my ideas. I dont have such server capacities as faf do but i will find something for a few month for testing purpose. The difference is that i will use same faf lobby server and connected in parallel my server with simple logic for interaction with players in GW. Games will be launched as normal global FAF games with SIM mod, that will be created on fly by client itself, and customized lobby. Modificated lobby will prevent connecting strangers/observers to the main teams of the game. SIM mod will spawn the units that the player/general of the battle sent from one side (cant really say is it worth it. You are sending acu or pre build units to battle). I am to lazy to write everything that i have in mind, but i think this two simple concepts will give some thoughts xD

Also, this is simplified concepts, like a lot, i am thinking about much difficult infrastructure for that, like ETA of movements / bases / defenses

Some ready answers:

1. Replay watchable? In theory yes, client will generate the same SIM mod as it did on launch of game (like map generator)
2. Pre made units in game? So in the stage of creating request for battle in zome planet, player will add some units, the cost of units will be paid from the faction resources. Client will generate SIM mod before game launchs that will contains this units
3. How will be zones generated? I have no ideas right now, but i think it is not hard that it looks like.
4. What if the enemy team does not come out to fight in time? They will lose
5. What if no one comes to the fight on time? The battle request will be canceled
6. How will be perform global restart? xD No idea

Everyone likes GW, and it would surely increase the player- and game numbers, but the load of work and commitment that comes with this project is extravagant high.

And even if you have a highly skilled developer(s) - I am sure there is a ton of back load for the current/future Client for fixing or adding features which needs to be addressed first.

I think when the new client is release-ready and bug free with all essential functions working, then a discussion about the GW is more relevant.

@magge Yeah, GW will not be released with client xD Just some thoughts and as notes for future me

The front end is where the current GW implementation needs the most work anyways. A backend server has existed for many years, and although the same is true for a front end written in react, the performance is so bad it’s completely unusable.

@Askaholic Can you shortly write what can do current GW server? I am really have no idea about its possibilities

There is some info linked on the repo: https://github.com/FAForever/gw-backend

@askaholic Oh, thanks! There is too much repos so i didnt see that xDDD

Preview of update process.

Development process began to slow down a lot due to the complexity xD

I am not died

I'm not on your friend list, some nasty bug there. Besides that, looking solid. When do you think people can start using it?

@jip just some update bug I will release in two month +- too much stuff have to be finished

Incoming chat features:

1. /invite user you will be able to invite the player to the channels where you are
2. /kick user* you will be able to kick players from channel where you are a mod (creator of channel). *kick multiple users
3. /join channel
4. /topic text
5. VIP channel with communication with me if i will be online (It will be created automatically)
6. Possibility to watch all existed channels
7. Possibility to create secured channel with password
8. Automatically nick rename if you had problems in begging and not able to see information about yourself
9. UI helper for commands like Discord
   

10. @player mention player
11. /game creates invite to the game where are
12. /map name creates card information about map

Preview of UI chat helper. Also possible to map IRC bot commands if they can send list of commands in private in required format

I think, everyone loved the possibility to loop over matched players during typing at TAB Arrows usable too or select them by mouse

Interactive selection of command on Enter.

Looks like i spent 8 hours on desing, but it is not true. Design took like 5 minutes. xDDDD Good internal logic took most of the time