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Memory management questions

Discussions of the development process of the game.
r0tt3nj4ck
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 5:42 am
android_version: 4.3

Memory management questions

Post by r0tt3nj4ck »

Hello.

I love this game.

When you out decide to profitize this game, the only thing you should sell is skill points.

Now my questions.

Beware : the subject of my questions involve knowledge gained using software simultaneously while playing this game. That is as much as I care to explain :)

Why do you allocate so much memory for everything ingame? Every stat / item / whatever has a memory reserve of 4.5bil each. Seems excessive to me. Inventory items maybe since legit players use 1k items. But no legit player is gonna have 65535 skill points let alone 255. See what I'm asking? I know people have a lot of ideas about content and I see how you are all approaching development so I don't expect direct implementation. But just some feedback if one of you care to explain. If it intrigues any of you I could give more direct feedback. As a player of a different sort ;) I do have a rather unique insight into your game
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ctnbeh13
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Re: some specific questions.

Post by ctnbeh13 »

Greetings r0tt3nj4ck,

Welcome to the official forum for Andor's Trail! Please feel free to peruse the many excellent posts provided by our community here. This might help to bring you up to date on some of our key fundamentals. Glad to hear that you are enjoying your game play experience. Many volunteers work to achieve that desired result for all who take a moment to give Andor's Trail a try.

For starters, this is an open source project to develop a game that is currently free, and intended to be as long as it's under the direction of its creator and author, Oskar Wiksten.

In my opinion, IAP's (in app purchases), are predominantly becoming the normal, or at least common methodology used to generate revenue for a vast number of games appearing on the Google Play Store, as well as the Amazon Appstore. I personally find the majority of the apps and games that implement IAP's to be doing so unethically by exploiting human weaknesses as understood by applied psychology. That's my view on the matter, and I'm thankful to be a part of something here that is completely detached from such schemes.

I believe that I understand from your post that English is not your native language, and that you desire for us to be aware that you run software to analyze and provide certain information to you that you find interesting while Andor's Trail is running. As this is clearly promoted, described, and advertised as an open source game, there is nothing hidden, nor cryptic about what project participants may be up to.

When you state "Why do you allocate so much memory for everything ingame?", are you inquiring as to why the potential memory reserve values are at a maximum range that you don't either believe are necessary, or understand the inclusion of?

Forgive me if I am in error regarding my understanding of a portion of your post that seems to be intentionally vague, but if you have specific questions, to which you desire specific answers, please direct them accordingly in the future. It would be a disservice to you for me to respond based on assumptions.

If you feel that I have insufficiently addressed your inferences, please submit your direct inquiries to one of our administrators by PM.

Thanks again for your praise and support.
One of even fewer...
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Zukero
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android_version: 8.0
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Re: Memory management questions

Post by Zukero »

Note : topic moved

I guess you are using a tool similar to scannmem to inspect the memory allocations.
However, I don't get what a memory reserve of 4.5 bil could mean.

We are using integers for most numbers (i think java has no short support).
Items, like map and all resouces, are all loaded in memory at game startup.
We could optimize that using some form of lazy loading, but there is quite some work to do to have that.
Items in the inventory are stored as pairs item pointer -> item count as integer.

Glad you enjoyed the game and welcome to the forums.
Lvl: 78, XP: 8622632, Gold: 271542, RoLS: 1, ElyR: -, RoL: -, ChaR: 1, GoLF: 1, ShaF: 1, SRoV: 1, VSH: 1, WMC: 1, GoW: 1
HP: 71, AC: 301%, AD: 38-47, AP: 3, ECC: 50%, CM: 3.75, BC: 101%, DR: 2
r0tt3nj4ck
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 5:42 am
android_version: 4.3

Re: Memory management questions

Post by r0tt3nj4ck »

English is my only spoken language.
My post was meant to reveal my use of memory altering software. I have a level 4 char with all 4 lvl up points on attack damage, and an unspent skill point awaiting level 5.he also has 2 rings of lesser shadow and 2 life stealer swords ( albeit one for now due to lack of skill )
I also have a level 384 toon with I think 10k points on every skill ( even the skills with limits like combat speed) this particular toon taught me that the exp needed for next level up must be a bell curve lol.

As for my question : every thing in game is a "long" when some things could/should be either "bytes" or "shorts". Bytes for stat points l, skill points, skill levels, etc. Make inventory slots shorts and warn people not to go over 32767 items. Or make it an int?
I'm so glad someone speaks java ^^

As for my in app purchases remark : high praise must be given to the individuals who are piloting this project. To have amassed this kind of cult following and NOT monetize it speaks volumes to your character. I hope it stays free forever. How can I help?

--edit : double posts merged

So upon looking over the quest editor page: the you remind me of the babe, what babe? Quest showed me that my characters Jerith ( the level four with the 2x rols/2x rol) and Ludo (level 3xx) are playing the right game. I used to make RPGs with RPGMakerVX so this seems eerily familiar lol. My only remaining hurdle is if I dump a bunch of my time into this game will any of my content be implemented?
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Zukero
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Re: Memory management questions

Post by Zukero »

We have absolutely NO PLANS to ever try to monetize this game.
Even the site admin refused to even think about using a donation system to help pay for the servers....
This is an open-source project, and if for some reason the game ever takes a direction that the community doesn't like, we can fork it !

Back to your questions :

Limiting to 32767 items is not a good idea. Many players have reported having over 10K of a single item, so that limit would be way too small.
Using bytes for numerals in the code introduce way too much complexity for a very small gain (code harder to read, casting costing CPU cycles here & there...).
Most numerals are Integers or ints, not longs.

As for how to help, there are many things you can do :
#1 - Visit the forum often, learn about the game, help the newbies and submit your ideas.
#2 - Test the game and report bugs here. We consider each & every one of them seriously.
#3 - Create content : maps, quests, items... whatever. I cannot guarantee that it will be introduced in the game, but if it's polished, fits into the game, and is well received by the community here, the chances are very high. Best way is to start discussing a rough idea here, and use the feedback from this great community.
#4 - You know Java ? Go to github, fork Oskar's repository, and get started ! I will try to compile all the posts I already made about setting up a build environment to update the wiki, and/or give the instructions here.

edit : removed false statement about shorts...
Lvl: 78, XP: 8622632, Gold: 271542, RoLS: 1, ElyR: -, RoL: -, ChaR: 1, GoLF: 1, ShaF: 1, SRoV: 1, VSH: 1, WMC: 1, GoW: 1
HP: 71, AC: 301%, AD: 38-47, AP: 3, ECC: 50%, CM: 3.75, BC: 101%, DR: 2
r0tt3nj4ck
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 5:42 am
android_version: 4.3

Re: Memory management questions

Post by r0tt3nj4ck »

It's late and I had a long shift. I will probably lose my interest in this thread but expect others :) . Gnite.

Upon further consideration: I will take you up on your very generous offer of compiling your resources for setting up the build environment. If it involves a certain free one highly promoted by area universities then I am familiar already ;)
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Oet
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android_version: 4.1 - Jellybean
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Re: Memory management questions

Post by Oet »

Totally off-topic (yet so close to the actual topic):

While browsing Active topics, why is there a Mr. Green ( :mrgreen: ) next to the topic of this thread? :?
Oet:
Lvl:80|XP:9214538|AP:3|HP:291|AC:351%|AD:51-68|CHS:20|CM:0|BC:135%|DR:1
WA:1|HH:1|Do:1|CS:2|CL:1|QL:3|CE:1|IF:6|Reg:1|WP:1S:1|AP:L:1|FS:DW:2|S:DW:1
RoLS:2|ELYR:1

Last updated 22/01-14
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Zukero
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Posts: 2028
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:56 am
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Re: Memory management questions

Post by Zukero »

r0tt3nj4ck wrote:Upon further consideration: I will take you up on your very generous offer of compiling your resources for setting up the build environment. If it involves a certain free one highly promoted by area universities then I am familiar already ;)
I bet it does, if you mean the one with something hiding the sun.
I am working on a contribution guide to AT. Should be published soon (gimme a week max. It could even be ready tomorrow).


Oet wrote:Totally off-topic (yet so close to the actual topic):

While browsing Active topics, why is there a Mr. Green ( :mrgreen: ) next to the topic of this thread? :?
I don't see it, but when you create a topic, you can select its icon. Maybe that's what jack did...
Lvl: 78, XP: 8622632, Gold: 271542, RoLS: 1, ElyR: -, RoL: -, ChaR: 1, GoLF: 1, ShaF: 1, SRoV: 1, VSH: 1, WMC: 1, GoW: 1
HP: 71, AC: 301%, AD: 38-47, AP: 3, ECC: 50%, CM: 3.75, BC: 101%, DR: 2
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Oet
Posts: 219
Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2013 5:03 pm
android_version: 4.1 - Jellybean
Location: Sweden

Re: Memory management questions

Post by Oet »

Zukero wrote:I don't see it, but when you create a topic, you can select its icon. Maybe that's what jack did...
I don't have that option? :o But here's a screenshot of Mr green :mrgreen:
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Oet:
Lvl:80|XP:9214538|AP:3|HP:291|AC:351%|AD:51-68|CHS:20|CM:0|BC:135%|DR:1
WA:1|HH:1|Do:1|CS:2|CL:1|QL:3|CE:1|IF:6|Reg:1|WP:1S:1|AP:L:1|FS:DW:2|S:DW:1
RoLS:2|ELYR:1

Last updated 22/01-14
r0tt3nj4ck
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 5:42 am
android_version: 4.3

Re: Memory management questions

Post by r0tt3nj4ck »

I'm awesome. He is there to let everybody know.
Click me for a look at my gift to the Andor's Trail Community...
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