About me

I'm a 22 french student girl. I'm currently studying computer science and I would like to specialize myself in development. I'm fond of open source things but never took part of an project. So GSoC is, for me, a first step in this world. I'm studying computer science in the University of Technology of Belfort Monbéliard (France). I'm a 3-year student. For the moment, I'm studying very various things (dev, network, ...) but I clearly want to be a dev. You can join me at aline.riss[at]gmail.com and also on IRC with the nickname Akihara. Moreover, I have an irssi server running without interruption so I will always be connected. So, I'm more joinable and, even if i'm not in front of my screen, I will see messages and things like that. I'm generally here at 9am (France - GMT + 2).

Experience

None. It's the first time I will be working on a "real" project. All I have done is school projects for the moment. For example, I developed a graphic interface in order to learn graph theory in a team environment. We were 6.

It's the first time I want to participate to the Google Summer of Code. As I said before, I never took part in any open source projects.

Gaming

I'm a real gamer. I'm between a mid-core and hardcore gamer :) I can play video game without interruption but I limit myself. I play very various games. I really like RPGs in which I can discover a new world but also FPS, very relaxig for me (strange, isn't it?), and also Strategy game for reflexion and the joy of aiming the goal. Generally, I prefer play against AI. But mostly, they are too weak too fast. On the other hand, playing against people is very fun when they are not yelling around.

The reason I can stop myself is the discovering of the environment and also the story. I can difficulty stop myself playing until I know the end. Because of that, I'm attracted to RPG and other game with an unknown world. But I must admit that a good gameplay is very important. Without it, a game isn't a game anymore.

I played Wesnoth some years ago (4? 5?) so didn't remember lot of things but I always played as a single player. But, in order to know the environment, I will play a little until the beginning of the GSoc.

My contribution to Wesnoth

Patches


Patch #	Description	Link
3237	TRANSFORM_UNIT needs a variable renamed	Link
3238	"maximum auto saves" setting seems ignored	Link

I'm currently working on an AI problem: in fact, it seems that a unit prefer to repoison an poisoned unit instead of poison other unit.

Communication skills

I'm daily reading English so I have a good reading comprehension. In written english, I will do my best. I can do some mistakes but nobody didn't understand me.

I think that the player community can be a bit rough as in mostly communities. I have no problem speaking with them. I'm a player too so I can understand what they say and how they feel. I won't be distracted by some rough players.

In the dev community, If I can give some advice, I will. I'm not a specialist but I'm always here to help. If I have an idea, why not submit it? And the reciprocal is right too, even if I'm not agree this it. In this case, we can confront both idea. If I am right, the other person will learn something and reciprocally. I think that it is the magic of team work. Of course, part of them can be useful and others useless. I'm the type of person who will think about it again and again. Finally, I will be able to take the good part of them.

Concerning my behavior when developing, I will say that generally, I need to know the environment (here the game). If I have an idea, I will first search how I can implement it. Parallel, I really like to talk with someone interested in my work in order explain and, why not, improve it.

If I have no idea, I look sources at the beginning.

Then, I will "see how it turn out" so I can have a better idea of what I am doing. I prefer doing it this way before losing time on something which will no work.

Project

Why

I choose a project from the list: "Refactor recruitment algorithm". I'm very interrested in AI algorihtm and how make them more intelligent. It's really interresting. I think that recruitment, in a game like this, is the beginning of everything. And it's also a question i'm asking to myself when I'm playing.

I hope gain some experience from this project , and a view of how dev a game works. I'm very curious about this. And if I'm well integrated, I will stay and continue developing it.

Timeline

First, i will take i few days to know the implementation structure. (1-3 days)

Second, see the current solution and understand it. It's always usefull to know how it works now before changing everything.(1-2 days)

Then, even if I have my own idea, I will probably speak to wesnoth players. In fact, I will need different point of view concerning the subject. I will probably also go to the forum. (few days)

I will begin coding. Of course, the third point is never really closed. It's always usefull to have new argument.

Test & Play

If it goes to the right way, it's ok. Otherwise, I will reconsider the third point.

My idea

I don't know the code structure yet except that it is in C++. I work on a AI once using a min-max algorithm which can be a good start. But I don't think that it is the better solution.i

Practical considerations

When using a PPO language, I like using an application like Eclipse. It's very usefull and I can be faster with it. Otherwise, I simply use vim in a shell. I really like PPO language like JAVA. JAVA is obviously the language I have more experience with. Moreover, I coded in c, c++, python, prolog and I think it's all.

* Subversion - I have my own svn.
* C++ - I developed in c++ some years ago but I will remember since the start of GSoC
* STL, Boost, Sdl  - never used.
* Python  - I know it, used some times.
* build environments - I know cmake but not scons
* WML - no :(
* Lua - neither.

GSoC Akihara Proposal

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