Mote is a work in progress and it is expected that bugs will come to light. Before you report bugs, please check the list of Known Bugs and the FAQ and follow the guidelines below before filling out a Bug Report.
If so, unless it manifests itself in a new way or you have additional information not mentioned in the full bug report then please don't inform us again.
If so, how? If you are unable to reproduce the problem by any set sequence of actions it is possible that your hardware or other system software is at fault. Please produce a backtrace with gdb or another debugger showing the point at which the problem manifests itself.
Please see Chapter 2 for more information about this topic. Please check the versions of libraries you have installed- if you have older libaries please upgrade them and try and reproduce the problem. If the presence of newer versions of the dependencies cause problems then this is a bona-fide bug; please inform us. We shall always try to support the latest libraries, but may avoid beta releases of libraries for bug reasons. If we are avoiding a library for a particular reason, it should appear on the Known Bugs list.
These include SIGNAL 11 being recieved when compiling, and such things as the kernel failing with an OOPS error from time to time. These generally indicate bad hardware is resident in your machine and causing the Mote problems.
By this point it is likely that you have found a bug. Please note the precise symptoms and effect of the bug on the Mote session. Does it cause a segfault or allow a degraded session to keep running? Is it avoidable? Once you have a complete description of the bug, see if you can think of a way to fix it. If you can, fix it yourself! If none of these things are possible, please produce a backtrace showing the problem and continue.
Please create a new (plain-text) e-mail with the word "Bug" somewhere in the subject field and fill the body as follows (each item as a separate paragraph):
A suggested classification for the bug (for example Ignore or Serious). This just saves a little time for the configuration manager as it is likely that no-one will initially know as much about a bug and its impact as the person who discovers it.
A brief description of the bug including symptoms, conditions causing a manifestation and the eventual outcome of the procedure suffering the bug (outright crash or incorrect output for example). Please include the version of Mote this bug applies to.
As much technical detail as you can muster about an instance of the bug occurring. This would include debugging backtraces, code identified as containing the bug or (even better) an example program or precise sequence of actions that will cause a bug manifestation. Core dumps or other large binary files, will not be appreciated! If you really must provide such information, place a link to a copy stored on the WWW somewhere.
If possible, a suggested solution, or a patch file (as context diff if possible) fixing the problem.
Any other information you believe is relavent.
The above information is specific to bugs in the Mote code itself. Should a bug be found in documentation, please provide chapter, section and paragraph identifications and some context to help us identify the problem. SGML file names and line numbers are also acceptable, as are context diffs against the source. Futher information regarding reporting documentation bugs will be added as the documentation effort matures.
There are several types of bugs in this section: Ignore indicates issues that are known but are being ignored for the time being to concentrate on more important things. Intentional indicates features that may appear to be bugs but are in fact an essential part of the game. Serious denotes actual bugs that will be resolved quickly, and Minor indicates annoying but unimportant bugs that will be fixed only when nothing else is pressing, or a peice of missing functionality is added elsewhere in the game.
Bug Type: Intentional
Bug ID: --
Description: It is possible to fly through planets etc. This is because there is no collision event (stop and take damage) to fire when the ship hits. You will see "Bang! (fire collision event)" printed to the standard output You will see "Bang! (fire collision event)" printed to the standard output.
Bug Type: Ignore
Bug ID: --
Description: The controls are jerky and unresponsive when the game is run unaccelerated . Due both to low framerates at the current time and the lack of analogue control emulation for key control. Until an abstract control class capable of handling joysticks and tracking devices is provided piloting the ship will always be a hit and miss affair.
Bug Type: Intentional
Bug ID: --
Description: The left and right views are the same as the front view. Positioning the targeting cursor on the side views is difficult and since the views model is being re-thought the side views have been disabled for the time being
Bug Type: Intentional
Bug ID: --
Description: The ship doesn't stop when I turn the engines off! The mechanics of the game engine are designed to give moving objects inertia. In zero gravity conditions (all of the Mote universe at present) this inertia keeps unpowered objects (like your ship with the engines off) moving until they collide with another or become powered once more.
Bug Type: Ignore
Bug ID: --
Description: Shiptool does not compile immediately yet if the compile is made to be successful it crashes before displaying a ship. Unfortunately, shiptool is very old and shall shortly be replaced or heavily re-written. If you are having build problems merely commenting out the Makefile line that reads make -C tools will solve this issue.
Note To Reviewers: This section is probably best generated from SourceForge's bug tracking system, should you wish to keep it when we actually have some bugs to track! This section will be an Appendix in the Big Book Of MOTE along with the FAQ. I probably need to figure out a quick way of marking up the bugs without all the associated cruft of the segmented list.
Further questions will be added when they get asked frequently enough!
Question: What is Mote
Answer: Mote is an extensible 3 dimensional space trading and combat game designed to be both massively multiplayable and speedy enough to provide a slick single player experience.
Question: Who is it being developed by?
Answer: See About The Developers for further information on the special people who make Mote possible
Question: What is Open Source?
Answer: Open Source reflects the ideal that software should be "free" in terms of both free speech and free beer! Basically, in addition to the executable software and documentation you would get with a regular commercial application you are encouraged to obtain the source code for the application as well. You are free to change and redistribute the code as you wish so long as your changes are also covered by the license the original code was distributed under. In Mote's case this is the GNU GPL. More information on this topic may be obtained from Opensource.org. We chose the GPL license since we believe software such as Mote should be free enough to allow the user community to contribute changes back to the original developers (us) and enhance the experience for other users or even take the development in an entirely new direction should the fancy take them. We hope you feel the same way!
Question: If it's free how do you make any money?
Answer: The simple answer is that we do not make money on the software itself (though the GPL does permit the sale of "value added" physical products such as printed manuals, t-shirts and fluffy toys). We may also fund the use of the Mote test game servers (when they go online) by selling advertising within the game or possibly charging subscriptions. For the time being Mote is only possible because people give their time, expertise and computer facilities for free to the project. Mote owes these numerous people a great amount.
Question: When is it coming out?
Answer: As we are non-commercial concern Mote will be "released" when it is ready. You can bring this date forward by Joining The Project. That said there is an informal deadline of early 2001 for a simple fly-and-shoot demo of the Mote graphics engine but this is entirely dependent on user contributions and the circumstances of the core developers.
Question: When does the story take place?
Answer: Far, far into the future. This is so we may invent entirely implausible "technologies" for use in the game with impunity!
Question: How will ships be controlled?
Answer: Currently the only means of controlling the ship is the keyboard and an extremely dubious joystick interface. See the documentation for the Mote command for more details. As the developement effort progresses an abstract interface for writing control methods will be produced and users will be free to devise their own means. Additionally the game itself will eventually allow the purchase of "intelligent agents" to perform various control tasks.
Question: Can I land on planets?
Answer: Not presently, but a means of docking with/landing on objects is definitely planned for the game.
Question: What kind of ships can the player pilot in the game?
Answer: Everything from hardcore military units to weedy shuttlecraft. A full listing of the ships may be found at the Mote website and in the ships/ directory of the source tree.
Question: Can I hire crew members?
Answer: Crew members are classed as "intelligent agents" which are essentially cleverly written game extensions designed to perform a specific task. You will most certainly be able to hire them once the game itself is started. At the present time only the game engine is operation so there is no need for crew.
Question: What kind of gameplay can we expect?
Answer: All games in Mote will be defined as extensions written in the Perl language. It is intended that a roleplaying universe adapted for massive network play (much like Ultima and Everquest but with finer toys) and a universe entirely run by AI for single player gaming will be developed. Other possible games include entirely mission based single player games with a complex storyline (much like the popular first person shooter games) and combat orientated multiplayer games with very small game universes. I tweaked this one a bit, all. It used to read "what kind of multi-player..."
Question: What is a dynamic universe?
Answer: Essentially, every action in the Mote universe will have a consequence that may not always be forseeable. For example, shooting up mining concerns will have the direct consequences that you will become both rich from scooping up the contents of your victim's craft and highly unpopular with the forces of law and order. An indirect consequence is that manufacturing will suffer due to lack of raw materials and you will be unable to obtain the necessary powerful new ship to explain your position to the hordes of irate policemen anxious to "interview" with you! This design choice ensures the game will be both stable (as excessively violent or stupid players will quickly be destroyed) and exciting (as unexpected things cannot be stopped from happening by any set means). This should ensure the game remains entertaining.
Question: Can I buy space stations?
Answer: Since space stations are similar to ships you will eventually be able to buy, take control and build them assuming the rules of the current game permit it and you have sufficient funds. In practice it is likely that only very experienced players and government entities will be able to obtain exclusive ownership of such large objects. At the present time the lack of a playable game universe makes this question somewhat moot.
Question: Can I take control of / destroy planets?
Answer: Though the game infrastructure necessary to permit these actions isn't ready yet we don't see why not. Taking control could be accomplished by buying every facility on the planet's surface or building your own on an uninhabited planet. Destruction will probably require a hitherto unknown weapon that may only be found in the mysterious Rim of the galaxy...
Question: Will people be able to run their own servers?
Answer: The software is free, so the only overhead is the cost of the hardware and connectivity you will require to run your machines. It is expected that the Mote server only component will run on relatively modest hardware, permitting small groups of users to quite easily start a server on a spare machine.
Question: How do I write an extension?
Answer: Since we are between extension languages at the moment (currently an unholy combination of Scheme and Perl is in use) and the Mote APIs themselves are not necessarily stable or complete it would be unwise to try. When the Scheme is removed it should be possible to write basic extensions (HUD modifications etc).
Question: Ah. When is the Scheme going to disappear?
Answer: Soon. Basically all the Scheme does is to indicate which models to load and defines their properties. Once the Perl is stable this will be removed.
Question: Is there a plan or "development roadmap"?
Answer: As Mote is a Free Software project there is no especial plan other than those in TODO Listing and the current traffic on the mailing lists.
Question: How do I get involved?
Answer: If you have skills in documentation, C++, OpenGL, 2D and 3D graphics, sound programming, music composition, testing or even just a constructively critical bent, you will be invaluable to the project at some point. See Joining The Project for more details.
Question: How do I edit ships with the shiptool
Answer: Unfortunately you cannot- shiptool is merely a model viewer and has no mesh or property editors to allow modification of ships. The currently supported route is to use LightWave or Blender to generate Lightwave Object files *.lwo and convert these to Mote's internal format with ship-conv.pl. You may then of course view them with shiptool
Question: What does "mote" stand for?
Answer: Nothing that we know of. If you think up a good recursive acronym, please let us know.
Question: Who inspired the effort?
Answer: Edwin Brady, with assistance, suggestions, beer and blueskying provided by many others.
Question: What license is Mote distributed under?
Answer: The game engine itself is distributed under the GNU GPL and it is expected that the technical portion of the documentation shall be distributed under the Artistic license. However, due to the high proportion of original artwork in Mote we are currently in the process of finding/defining a license for artwork that will both protect our artist's rights and support fair use (in the copyright sense) of this work. Once this issue is resolved a paper shall appear in the design notes section describing and justifying the decisions made. Shortly afterwards the documentation will gain its two licenses and the addition of an (optional) mote-nonfree entity set.
Note to reviewers:: All respect to James for thinking up some more questions, but I think these need dividing up into subsections (eg gameplay faq, technical faq, misc faq "who is edwin's secret wife" faq etc). The current format is a little incoherent IMO.