Source Code Question Options

[Shalom]

This is more of a general programming curiosity question but it should still fit into this forum.

What would you guys (the development team) be able to do with the mod if you had the source code of the Generals Game? Is the source code like a be-all-end-all master key that would allow you control over every single aspect of Sage or would there still be engine limitations that are impossible to remove no matter what? Would you be able to implement functional ships or add more than 3 weapons per unit with such a tool?

I know this is a theoretical question and of little actual use since EA will likely never release the code and it cannot be legally acquired otherwise, but I am really curious just how powerful access to the source code would be.

[Hanfield]

Well I can already foresee hardcoded limits being removeable, but general engine mechanic reworks will still take a lot of effort - and besides, the navy, in the current meta, is almost impossible to balance, for you'd have to rethink the entire game design to incorporate it, design proper maps for it, etc...

[Shiro]

Maybe we would be able to fix the broken pathfinding routine. Maybe we could add more than 8 drivers per bike. Maybe we could add more things like propaganda, more buttons for the sidebar, more upgrade slots etc. It's all a big maybe. But we would definitely try.

[Shalom]

Maybe we would be able to fix the broken pathfinding routine. Maybe we could add more than 8 drivers per bike. Maybe we could add more things like propaganda, more buttons for the sidebar, more upgrade slots etc. It's all a big maybe. But we would definitely try.

Thanks for removing my accidental double-post Soraz.

So, there is no general rule that having the source code of the game will give you unlimited powers (provided adequate resources and time is available) to remove the hard-coded limitations of the engine? Does it depend on a code by code basis?

[Hanfield]

Well, I reckon that modifying existing things would be a fair bit easier than creating brand new logic from scratch, be it generic or extremely specialised and single-purpose - it would be entirely new territory for the rest of the devs

[XAttus]

At this point it would be very hard to change core engine mechanics without causing things to break, even if we'd have the source code. However it'd certainly open up more cool possibilities, some of which have been said by people above.

[Graion Dilach]

I'm gonna say the following from my experiences with the inners of the YR engine through Ares (asin reverseengineering), so they may or may not apply to Generals, BUT.

How I would expect that code to look at is a giant monolithic engine with one strict coding layer abstracted to inis, so it would probably take a good while for one to even get accustomed to the codebase. Expanding constant values will probably be easy (like say the upgrade limit, but not like the three weapon limit*), the difficulty of adding new things however would probably differ on a case-by-case basis. I'd assume things which has no graphics/physics involvement would be simpler than things which do. Things like fixing pathfinding wold probably still be a really complex task, simply because pathfinding is known to be among the most difficult task ever - it is among the weakest points of OpenRA and even the devs there will acknowledge that.

*Stuff like targeting, attacking, retaliation, turret code and possibly a lot of others would probably need to be adjusted for expanding the weapon list, the difficulty of this task within the theoretical ZH source code becames intermediate-to-high just to isolate and find all these elements and update them properly.

NB: I think even if EA would want to release the code, it couldn't because of the file format handler relying on propriety formats like DDS and MP3 and I doubt the ones within ZH would be free readers.

[Emin96]

I think there would be definetely possibility to remove mismatch, lags and technical errors.
Mismatch, lags and technical errors are priority problem which ruin this beatiful game.
Aaah yeah! i forget also net code would be get updated for better online experience
I wonder if EA ever release this source code. Maybe if much people annoy EA with this maybe they will rethink to add source code to public
Its 10 years old game they abandoned game and its online servers, i dont know whats hard to release source code and fix forever this problem.
But yeah its EA!
Sorry for my English