Januery 2011 update

Hello all,

If you are using Mission-X, then you probably know that build v1.20 has gone final, and it seems that it is working quite well, so far.
I currently working on making some aspects work better as a result of simmers feedback.
The issues I added so far, but not published yet, except for testers, are:

• Added option to map the Hot Key for the Image map to F8..F12, so you will have more options to customize the way the route image will popup (if it is included in the mission ).
• Added Option to disable Auto Load under "Load widget", since some Mac users had an issue with this feature. Basicaly it disables the "double click" event on a file name.

Features/Issues that I'm working:

• Started implementing the save options, to include more information.
  As of this writing, Objective data and inventory data, is written to the save file.
  I need to add some other info to make loading more consistent and start testing this process.
  
• SOUND:
  Now this is a major feature, that might not get into the current builds ( v1.21 ), but I already tested it on all platforms and it seems to work just fine, if you place the additional library in the correct place.
  Currently I use the FMOD library to implement sound, and I hope that some of the designers will use this feature to better immerse the simmer.
  A short anecdote: When I tested the feature under X-Plane, I used two mp3 files. "We are the champions" by Queen and "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.
  It was fun to hear both songs playing in the background while flying in x-plane. I was starting to think of an option to build a playlist feature into the plugin... ok I was not but still it is tempting.
  
  
  

Future Features:
One of the things that I was asked for was a Career option.
Interesting as it sounds, this is not a trivial aspect.
First: The designer need to decide how many missions he/she want in a career ( this can be a dynamic number ).
Second: How does he rate each mission. And what are the restriction "Rank" for a career mission. This way you will have to accomplish mission 1-5 in order to receive Rank 2, and only then you can load/start career mission 6-8.
Third: What are the "Ranks/Title" a simmer will receive.
Forth: How exactly do we store the information and use it in each new mission we load. This will effect the load mechanism process, since some missions are not allowed until you reach certain rank.

I have already wrote a draft for the way I can implement it into the plugin, But I currently waiting for feedback from the requester.

Pros for the suggested implementation are:

• any designer can create his set of career missions, and in every new career a simmer will start from scratch, but his/her progress will be saved separately for each career, so nothing is lost, and rank is not shared over other careers mode.
• Any designer can change the ranking method in order to add more missions to the career. Meaning, designer can control the career mission and ranking by only updating the career file.
  

Cons:

• All information is saved in files. It is starting to become more and more complex to  handle all the info.
  I believe I should start and think of implementing an embedded DB like SQLite into the plugin. I have already done some tests on it during the early development phases of Mission-X v1.20, the only thing I need to decide is when and how should I start this switch.
  

That's it for today. If you have anything to comment please do.

Regards
snagar