User:Threkk

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This page is related to Summer of Code 2013
See the list of Summer of Code 2013 Ideas



This is a Summer of Code 2013 student page


Description

threkk - Improve configuration and behavior in mainline campaigns

I have been reading about the project, and at first, I would update the current AI with the new capabilities of the engine. After that, I would increase the engine with new behaviours if needed, but after seeing the effect of the previous changes.


IRC

threkk

Questionnaire

1) Basics

1.1) Write a small introduction to yourself.

I'm a 4th year CS student. I have been programming since I was 14 years-old, but never nothing too serious. I spend lot of time playing videogames, so a project like this looks awesome for me. I've been using *nix based OS for 7 years, and most of the software I use is open source.


1.2) State your preferred email address.

threkk<at>gmail...

1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?

threkk

1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?

For me is a posibility to participate in deep on a real project. It is also an oportunity to join two of my passions: programming and gaming, while collaborating in an open source project.

1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?

Currently I'm in the 4th year of Ingeniería Informática (CS) at Universidad de Sevilla, in Spain. During this four years, I've been working with databases, data structures, algorithms, compilers, regexp, software engineering and electronic's stuff.

1.6) What country are you from, at what time are you most likely to be able to join IRC?

I'm from Spain, and during summer I could join IRC in any moment of the day.

1.7) Do you have other commitments for the summer period ? Do you plan to take any vacations ? If yes, when.

Maybe a trip during 4 or 5 days, but nothing more.

2) Experience

2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?

Nothing important, most of them personal projects.

2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)

Yes, in small groups in university projects.

2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?

No, I don't have participated before.

2.4) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.

No, I'm not.

2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?

Yes.

2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?

I would say hardcore, I spent sometimes too much time playing.

2.5.2) What type of games?

I've played many different games, since the most classic like Mario and Space Invaders, to the most recent like League of Legends or The Witcher. In the field of strategy games, I've played Warcraft 3, Imperium 2, Pretorians, Total War... Currently, I'm playing the last Fire Emblem.

2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?

I prefer the experienced, but for my is very important the sportmanship.

2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?

The story is very important for me, because is that hooks you, but a nice story can be ruined by a disastrous gameplay.


2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer.

We do not plan to favor Wesnoth players as such, but some particular projects require a good feeling for the game which is hard to get without having played intensively.

No, I didn't know it existed until I saw it at GSoC page. But I'm going to start playing asap.

2.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for GSoC. If you have gained commit access to our repository (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.


3) Communication skills

3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.

I have a fluent English, spoken and written.

3.2) What spoken languages are you fluent in?

I speak Spanish (my mother language) and English fluently. I also speak French and some Japanese.

3.3) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.

I have participated in various gaming communities, and I know how... rude they can be.

3.4) Do you give constructive advice?

At least I try.

3.5) Do you receive advice well?

Yes, indeed, if don't know how to do something, I recognise it and look for advives.

3.6) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?

I think.

3.7) How autonomous are you when developing ? Would you rather discuss intensively changes and not start coding until you know what you want to do or would you rather code a proof of concept to "see how it turn out", taking the risk of having it thrown away if it doesn't match what the project want

It depends on the project. I can work at my own, and after that, look where I reached; but my experience in group projects tell me that it's important to establish an objective and some basic guidelines before starting working. In the end, it saves work.

4) Project

4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?

I selected it because this year I have had a lot of AI subjects at university, and I would like to proof myself.

4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.

4.3) Why did you choose this project?

All the AI projects looked interesting for me, but this maybe a little bit more.

4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".

I must discuss with the developer team before I can establish a timeline.

4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can

4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?

As I said before, experience working in a serious group project.

4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?

A good environment and the sense that the work isn't completed yet.


5) Practical considerations

5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?

  • Git (used for all commits)

Yes

  • C++ (language used for all the normal source code)

More with C than C++, but yes.

  • STL, Boost, Sdl (C++ libraries used by Wesnoth)

I have worked a little with sdl before.

  • Python (optional, mainly used for tools)

Yes.

  • build environments (eg cmake/scons)

A little.

  • WML (the wesnoth specific scenario language)

No.

  • Lua (used in combination with WML to create scenarios)

Yes. 5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?

For developing in Java I usually use Eclipse, and for C base projects XCode or Visual Studio. On top of them, I use SublimeText as my main development tool with the terminal, because they allow me to work faster and easier than with an IDE.

5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?

Java, python, haskell, javascript and I think C, but nobody is never fluent in C.

5.4) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail. If you are willing to do so, please do list a phone number (including international code) so that we are able to contact you. You should probably *only* add this number in the application for you submit to google since the info in the wiki is available in public. We will *not* make any use of your number unless some case of "there is no way to contact you" does arise!

I wouldn't mind to talk with anyone. My skype user is the same as the IRC.

This page was last edited on 22 April 2013, at 12:47.