[KappaWing]

Whats the ship table limit, either number of entries or size, for the latest nightly build of the SCP?

[chief1983]

Not sure, but it should probably be added here.

[karajorma]

130 ships

If you can find/build an Inferno build it's 250.

[General Battuta]

This is an absurd question, I'm sure, but I do genuinely mean it out of curiosity: why aren't all builds Inferno builds? What's the primary disadvantage to them?

[Mobius]

This has been discussed many times. Boosting the limit is one hell of a task for coders to do and, if I remember well, causes problems with Multi(right?).

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Breaks multi and if I recall pilot files.  That's why theres a separate directory for inferno pilot files. 

[General Battuta]

Ah, very clear. Thank you!

I'm sorry I hadn't seen any of these discussions before.

[TrashMan]

The pilot files thing by itself is insignificant.
It's the multi breaking that's the problem.

[Topgun]

why not malloc it?

[karajorma]

And just how's that going help with the multiplayer breakage?

[Goober5000]

The pilot files thing by itself is insignificant.

The pilot files thing by itself is incredibly significant.  Why do you think 3.7 has been delayed so much?

[Mobius]

Breaks multi and if I recall pilot files.  That's why theres a separate directory for inferno pilot files. 

Yes. If that directory doesn't exist you get a memory error.

[TrashMan]

The pilot files thing by itself is insignificant.

The pilot files thing by itself is incredibly significant.  Why do you think 3.7 has been delayed so much?

Singificant? Why? cause it breaks older pilot files?
Oh ,worries me! My medals are all gone and I'll have to make a new pilot.*
Really tragic. Not like I had to do it a million times already.

Guess I'm not that attacked to my pilot files.




*unless of course, you're reffering to something incredibly difficult from a coders perspective. but since INF build are out there and working, I'd say that's taken care off.

[Goober5000]

Do you have Asberger's or something?  Because honestly, you seem to have no common sense.

[blowfish]

The pilot files thing by itself is insignificant.

The pilot files thing by itself is incredibly significant.  Why do you think 3.7 has been delayed so much?

Singificant? Why? cause it breaks older pilot files?
Oh ,worries me! My medals are all gone and I'll have to make a new pilot.*
Really tragic. Not like I had to do it a million times already.

Guess I'm not that attacked to my pilot files.




*unless of course, you're reffering to something incredibly difficult from a coders perspective. but since INF build are out there and working, I'd say that's taken care off.

I think there is quite a misunderstanding here.  The FACT that it breaks previous pilot files is insignificant, but the improvements that will be made to the pilot file code will be VERY significant.

[Goober5000]

I think there is quite a misunderstanding here.  The FACT that it breaks previous pilot files is insignificant, but the improvements that will be made to the pilot file code will be VERY significant.

The improvements will be significant, yes.  But there's far more to it than that.

For instance, the ship limit determines the size of the scoring struct, the campaign status struct, the multiplayer packet struct, and a host of other things.  Every time it changes, the pilot file gets completely corrupted.  Which means your pilot would break (and possibly crash the game, though taylor has mostly taken care of that) every time you loaded a mod with a different number of ships, or even a new ship TBM.

This essentially means the entire pilot file has to be redesigned.  And we figured, while we're doing that, we may as well fix the design flaw where your pilot stats get hosed every time you switch mods in the middle of a campaign.

Taylor has gone a long way toward fixing all these flaws, but there is still quite a bit of work left to be done.

[redsniper]

Hey yeah, I was just wondering the other day: Why does Inferno get special treatment? I mean, I understand that they have a frakton of ships, thus need a build with a higher ship limit, but why did the coders make a special build in the first place instead of just telling them to deal? It's sort of been my observation that the coders' stance is something like "If you can't make do with all these nice things we gave you , then too bad. Code it yourself or do without." Which I have no problem with, btw.

Actually, in the time it's taken me to type this, I've realized that I'm pretty sure many of the prominent coders are also on the INF team, so... yeah.

[Goober5000]

Not really.  Someone recognized the need for a build with higher limits, but one that would STAY at higher limits, with no jumping around.  It breaks compatibility with just about everything, but we thought that was tolerable if it remains separate and clearly distinct from other builds.

It was just called the Inferno Build because Inferno was the most well-known campaign that used it.  But other campaigns have used it too.

[karajorma]

TBP is a good example of that. They simply have users switch builds if they want to play a campaign that needs anything after the 130th ship.