Follow up from reddit thread



  • Reddit Thread

    If you can integrate something like Blockly, you'll vastly expand your audience.

    It's a visual programming language that translates directly into JavaScript. It runs in the client's browser, though the blocks can be saved on the server. If were to disable the client-side javascript input entirely (only support code via blockly) you would eliminate a fair slice of the copy-n-paste issues. Folks would have to take screenshots, and manually "write" the scripts themselves...

    Good luck.



  • It looks great 🙂



  • Hmmm... such concepts needs a lot of fine tuning though like comments (for example insert pictures to clarify context way easily, good organisation, good documentation about the tool itself). But for basic programming it would be still great 🙂



  • I think Blocky would help expand the game's audience if it were an option, but I don't think it's a good idea to require it as the only option.

    A good reason to include Blocky as an option is that many potential players don't know JavaScript well enough to write an AI in it. Every programming competition has something called a "barrier to entry" a.k.a."How much work does it take to write something that's functional?". In the context of Screeps, a minimally competitive entry would need to be capable of mining energy, transporting it to the spawn, and fighting enemies. The lower the entry barrier, the more people are willing to try it. I think adding support for Blocky would make it easier for someone, without knowing much about JavaScript, to write a basic AI that works.

    I don't think it would be a good idea to limit people to using only Blocky. From my perspective, as someone who develops their AI directly on the website, it's a lot easier to type JavaScript than drag-and-drop programs. Blocky slows down copy-pasters, but it slows down everyone else too, which can be a problem in a "real-time" game. Personally, I would never use Blocky to write my code.



  • kek. is funny, dat someone @ google actually thought that this idea has merit. As a novelty, maybe.. As a serious tool, no way.



  • As a TRAINING TOOL it's amazing. My 7 year old daughter had Anna and Elsa skating around in some pretty intricate patterns thanks to http://code.org/frozen.

    It's not for heavy lifting, no.

    In other words, "you're right, this saw makes a terrible hammer".