Hello everyone,
oh boy I guess I'm overdue for a devlog.
Thanks to L[one]r for helping me out posting the devlogs when I couldn't.
Time is running at an amazing speed these days - at least for me it feels that way.
(If you don't pay attention - woops! There goes the afternoon, the week, the month, the semi regular devlog posts - not again!)
Anyways let's talk about some new changes in 1.7.2.
You might be aware that we want to get Soldat on steam (soon - please!)
If we are on steam we might want to use their updater.
There is an issue with how Soldat is currently loading user config and downloaded maps etc.
It's all mixed with the original installation files, which means once we apply an update all your precious mod and config work is gone (no bueno!).
This isn't exactly a new issue and people have figured out how to avoid this issue by backing up their old install and copy pasting the changes on top of it for example.
With an autoupdater this gets a bit trickier so the idea is to split custom modifications/downloads from the original files.
An update would replace the original Soldat files and the mods would be left untouched and still be applied on top.
That's the idea and that's what I have been working on.
To implement this properly every place Soldat touches has to first load from the user config folder and if things are missing from the standard installation (this is only one way how it could be done - it could change but the result is the same).
Now Soldat isn't exactly written in a way that makes this change easy (surprised? anyone? want some spaghetti? here you go) so I've been busy cleaning up the code a bit.
Mainly separating the GUI stuff from the rest of the stuff.
And reducing dependencies all around the code.
It's not done yet though.
You might ask yourself - GUI stuff? Why GUI? Didn't you say config and map loading?
Well you got me kinda. Everything is a bit mixed up so loading files actually changes stuff in the GUI as well (like bubblegum Soldat code sticks together - this bubble gum is connected to 20 desks, i'd like to see an image of that).
I will get better soon.
Besides that updater advantage, we will be able to make the whole Soldat folder read only.
There will be no need for installing in a special folder: Bye "C:\Soldat" - Hello "C:\Program Files (x86)\Soldat" (if you wish so).
Where will the new config/downloaded maps be saved then?
In %appdata%\Soldat of course, just like we did in the past with our *cough* anticheat *cough* (pending).
So if your username is "Arnold" you will most likely find the config files in "C:\Users\Arnold\AppData\Roaming" (or just write %appdata% in explorer).
There will be a button for navigating to that folder from the config.exe, so you don't have to remember it (it's neat - only best technology in Soldat).
Some files will be saved in a different folder (downloads for example) because - let's just say there are some reasons nobody except your admin cares about.
All you need to know that there will be buttons to get there in the config (billions of buttons, you will see, this is Soldat after all).
Ok cool and all but what about, uhm, my portable installation on my 133 floppy disks?
Glad you asked. We will still support a portable installation. Open the Soldat folder and add a .config folder and Soldat will save stuff there.
There will be an option to do this in, you guessed it, the config program (probably more buttons here as well - button technology 5000 - pending).
Ah and people suggested that we shouldn't forget to put Soldat on
itch.io,
gog and
humble - damn right! We want those players too!
I know that itch and gog have their own updater as well so if you already use them it would be great if that worked too.
Besides that I'd like the improve our current installer + updater so if you use the portable version you can update without playing copy paste ping pong.
More time to play less busywork.
Now enough explanations and more info about the community side of things.
nosejj was kindly extending and updating the Soldat wiki.
He also worked on the manual part in the wiki.
The manual in 1.7.1 is actually the same one as in 1.7.0 (oops - I mean we totally fooled you with that one, didn't we) so it needs an refresher.
There is also some work going on into changing the layout and style of the manual but I'm not that much involved in that so someone else might write about it or link to the post on the forum.
Now look at the wall of text. Glad you read all of it (you did right? right? man i really hope you did, maybe I should add pictures or something - it works for clickbait)
Thanks for caring and sticking with Soldat - tickle me again for another devlog.
Until then cya!
