-A pilot profile selector right in the launcher, Via a drop-down box. (Select \"none\" to use the in-game selector)
-An UPDATE CHECKER (not sure how I will do this yet, or even if I can, but I want to try)
-A \"TweakUI Powertoy\"-ish interface for configuring every single obscure command line parameter ever included in D2X-XL... (This will take a while to get done. Don't expect 100% coverage in the first release, but I WILL get there)
-A tracker status checker -- attempts to ping / listen for tracker before you run D2X to see if it is up and if it can be seen through any local firewalls / etc.
Note that some of these features may be too difficult for me to implement... but they are planned thus far.
My question is this -- Which development environment would everyone like me to use?
Visual Studio 2005:
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+ I can make a MUCH BETTER interface with this suite's form editor.
+ I can access network features and stuff much more easily, and thus potentially have more features than I would in VB6.
+ Anyone on the Linux side with DOTGNU Project installed will *probably* be able to run it with some tweaking. Not sure on this though.
- Anyone who wants to use it will have to download and install the 75MB Windows update for the .NET Framework 2.0; this effectively eliminates the possibility of Dial-up users taking advantage of the launcher.
- Probably won't work on Windows 98.
Visual Basic 6.0:
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+ Will work on any version of windows, W95 thru XP and higher.
+ Simpler code, easier to debug and maintain.
+ Simple enough, that it will probably run on Linux just fine for WINE users.
- Harder to implement network features, may rule out some design plans
- Not so perty interface capabilities w/o spending tons of time on it
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
- W98/W2000 users may be required to download the 1MB vbrun60sp5.exe \"Visual basic runtime library\" from Microsoft. Not sure about WINE users.
I will make a decision by FRIDAY MARCH 3. The poll only runs until then. Up until that point, I will be researching the networking avenues of coding and planning the interface.
Let me know what you think.
Also, feel free to post feature requests or related ideas here.