At this moment the Floris Expanded Mod Pack is savegame compatible with native games (altough you'd need to make a small adjustment by removing the Floris npc) and older versions of the pack. This has a good and a bad side:
Good: You don't need to worry if you're coming from an older version or even native: it's always compatible. You don't need to start a new game when a new version comes out.
Bad: The source code is a total mess at some points, making it much harder to maintain and add new features.
The main reason the pack has been savegame compatible for all this time, is that I personally wanted it. I had a very old native savegame which I wanted to keep on playing with this pack. With the latest versions this became much harder due to the many added scripts. So I finally decided to let my own objection go. This leaves the question: what do you want? Do you want to maintain the savegame compatibility, or don't you care much for that? That's the question for this poll:
Can we drop the savegame compatibility, or should we maintain it?
Now, before we start voting, let me get one thing straight: 2.4 will be savegame compatible. This is for the future, for version 2.5 or later.
To help you make a good decision, I'll try to answer some questions you might have over here:
If more questions pop up, I'll try to answer them. I hope you can now make a good decision.
Good: You don't need to worry if you're coming from an older version or even native: it's always compatible. You don't need to start a new game when a new version comes out.
Bad: The source code is a total mess at some points, making it much harder to maintain and add new features.
The main reason the pack has been savegame compatible for all this time, is that I personally wanted it. I had a very old native savegame which I wanted to keep on playing with this pack. With the latest versions this became much harder due to the many added scripts. So I finally decided to let my own objection go. This leaves the question: what do you want? Do you want to maintain the savegame compatibility, or don't you care much for that? That's the question for this poll:
Can we drop the savegame compatibility, or should we maintain it?
Now, before we start voting, let me get one thing straight: 2.4 will be savegame compatible. This is for the future, for version 2.5 or later.
To help you make a good decision, I'll try to answer some questions you might have over here:
Q: If you drop the savegame compatibility, will I have to start a new game with each new update?
A: No. There will be one major overhaul of the code to clean things up for 2.5, after which most future updates should be compatible with that one. It is possible that we'll add/do things in the future that might require another overhaul, but we'll try to minimize those.
Q: Why would you - as the coders - want to drop the savegame compatibility?
A: Most users will never have had a look at the code and just play the mod. But the people who did have a look, can probably concur: the code is at some points a big mess. Take for example the items. We've added a fairly amount of new weapons. But they were added over time. To maintain savegame compatibility, we couldn't just add them in the middle of the code to the rest of the weapons: they had to be added at the end of the file. This has happened several times, so there are now weapons spread over dozens of places.
Say - for example - that you'd want to add a new feature that should affect only the two-handed swords. In the code you can easily implement a range saying 'start with this item and end with that one'. But they have to be grouped together for that. It is possible to say in the code 'start with this item and end with that one, but also look over here, and here, and here, and here, and...' but at a certain point this becomes so hard and complicated that it's not very doable.
This is just one example, there are many more places in the code that can't be changed because that would drop the savegame compatibility.
Q: Will the submods still be useable once you guys drop the compatibility?
A: Unless the authors of these submod update their mod to the latest version, the answer will be no. Most submods are changed troop trees - be it changed in the text file or the source code. If we drop the compability, the order of these units will change. Since the source will reference to certain ranges of units (for example, we tell the source which units are mercenaries for hire in taverns), things might get a bit strange when the game finds other units due to this submod.
Q: I'm playing a Floris game for several months now, and when you drop savegame compatibility I can't update to the next version! Can you build - besides the official version - a savegame compatible one?
A: No. That would require us to make a second source code ánd maintain it with every new version. Even tough that would of course technically speaking possible, we won't have time to do that. It's very unfortunate for your old savegame, I understand your feelings, but we're not going to create two different source codes. One is much work already, let alone too. What you can do, is install this mod twice: an older version for your older savegame, and a newer one for your new games.
Q: Can you make a version with all the code but without all the graphical enhancements?
A: This has actually nothing to do with the issue in this poll. Regardless if it's savegame compatible or not, I can create such a version. But that takes of course time: I can't say when I'll spend time to make this and maintain it (this doesn't require a second source code tough, in contrary to the previous question).
A: No. There will be one major overhaul of the code to clean things up for 2.5, after which most future updates should be compatible with that one. It is possible that we'll add/do things in the future that might require another overhaul, but we'll try to minimize those.
Q: Why would you - as the coders - want to drop the savegame compatibility?
A: Most users will never have had a look at the code and just play the mod. But the people who did have a look, can probably concur: the code is at some points a big mess. Take for example the items. We've added a fairly amount of new weapons. But they were added over time. To maintain savegame compatibility, we couldn't just add them in the middle of the code to the rest of the weapons: they had to be added at the end of the file. This has happened several times, so there are now weapons spread over dozens of places.
Say - for example - that you'd want to add a new feature that should affect only the two-handed swords. In the code you can easily implement a range saying 'start with this item and end with that one'. But they have to be grouped together for that. It is possible to say in the code 'start with this item and end with that one, but also look over here, and here, and here, and here, and...' but at a certain point this becomes so hard and complicated that it's not very doable.
This is just one example, there are many more places in the code that can't be changed because that would drop the savegame compatibility.
Q: Will the submods still be useable once you guys drop the compatibility?
A: Unless the authors of these submod update their mod to the latest version, the answer will be no. Most submods are changed troop trees - be it changed in the text file or the source code. If we drop the compability, the order of these units will change. Since the source will reference to certain ranges of units (for example, we tell the source which units are mercenaries for hire in taverns), things might get a bit strange when the game finds other units due to this submod.
Q: I'm playing a Floris game for several months now, and when you drop savegame compatibility I can't update to the next version! Can you build - besides the official version - a savegame compatible one?
A: No. That would require us to make a second source code ánd maintain it with every new version. Even tough that would of course technically speaking possible, we won't have time to do that. It's very unfortunate for your old savegame, I understand your feelings, but we're not going to create two different source codes. One is much work already, let alone too. What you can do, is install this mod twice: an older version for your older savegame, and a newer one for your new games.
Q: Can you make a version with all the code but without all the graphical enhancements?
A: This has actually nothing to do with the issue in this poll. Regardless if it's savegame compatible or not, I can create such a version. But that takes of course time: I can't say when I'll spend time to make this and maintain it (this doesn't require a second source code tough, in contrary to the previous question).
