posted
Google just removed WarPath from the android market because its metadata is 'in violation'
This seems to mean they don't like my description of the game, and while they give some handwaving, they don't explicitly say what it is they didn't like.
Mainly, I think, they just don't like long-winded descriptions, but why give me a 4K text field if they are just going to complain about it?
I appealed it, and maybe they will provide more details as to what they didn't like. Given that the text in question hasn't changed in.. 5 years? Well, I'm not very impressed.
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The last time they did something like this was when they banned me from collecting golden soul donations because they don't allow you to use the WORD 'donation' unless you're a non-profit.
And while I might well BE a non-profit, it's not on purpose :-)
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So there is going to be some keyword they don't like. I do summarize the game as being "Trek meets Hammurabbi" and I think they don't want you to mention the names of any other games in your description. I can sort of see the sense in that, but not really.
I just need them to explain what I need to change.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10772 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
WarPath for android is back in the google PLAY store.
It turns out that what they didn't like, in the WarPath backstory, was the sentence:
"Until the discovery of the Simpson's Chaos Field in 2811" (I paraphrase)
Anyway, since they use the Long Description as a source to be indexed for keywords, they were returning WarPath in a list of results for a search for "The Simpsons" games.
Which is apparently something evil developers do on purpose.
Now, did I even subliminally have the TV show in mind when I wrote that back in 1990 or so? Hard to say, but I'm sure it wasn't on purpose. Still, it always had a nice ring, and this probably explains why.
And funny how my turn of speech ended up sticking "The" in front of "Simpson's"
Anyway, I just changed the inventor's name to Stinson and Google has forgiven me.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10772 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
Now google claims Tairu needs a privacy policy, since it requests various permissions.
Only, it doesn't
Having learned my lesson, I went ahead and added a privacy policy page for Tairu.
I did a little experimentation and the interesting thing about Tairu is it is compiled for sdk 3, which is super old. Apparently, back then, Google went ahead and requested some permissions on your behalf. When I recompile, targeting a min sdk of 4, Google no longer claims I am using any permissions at all. Same code.
Unfortunately, using the newer API also broke the game (font sizes and such went all blooie). So I don't feel the excitement to update it today.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10772 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
I wouldn't mind seeing updates to warpath and tairu. Tairu games towards the end seem to devolve into spending 2 moves to gain 1 move by making a 2x2 square.
Posts: 9514 | From: NY | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
All my android games use the 'new' MIXTER server (linux based) and not the old MIX server (windows based).
So none of my Windows games can connect to any of my Android games.
I think the writing is on the wall that servers should be 'in the cloud' and not 'on your PC' (for modern security software to be happy).
For Android WarPath, there are a lot of differences from Windows WarPath, so even if they were on the same server, they still would not be able to communicate.
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As to not having an android device.... I would never try to sell anyone anything, but I love these:
7 inch Kindle Fire HD, Often on sale for close to $30 (at least for Amazon Prime). List price is $49 at the moment.
Pretty nice casual game/video consumption device. Decent resolution, yet not so high as to slow down the rendering.
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But to the larger question of 'how to play android games without an android device', there are emulators (too slow, in general) and I keep hearing rumours that Chrome (the browser) was going to allow android apps to be run in some sort of frame.
That sounds pretty exciting, but if you're thinking of using that on a normal laptop, without a touch screen... might be difficult, I don't know.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10772 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
Many chromebooks these days can also run android apps, so that's something to think about.
-------------------- SoV: Exalted Devout Oracle | World Developer | The Black Guard Outside is just a prank older kids tell younger kids at Internet Camp Posts: 9514 | From: NY | Registered: Apr 2003
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Windows 10 seems to have just deleted the body of all my emails. I think it happened when I uninstalled malwarebytes, but several reboots have not brought mail back. I see the summary/title, but the body is just blank.
New mail seems OK, but all my 'old' email is gone.
Again, it's not really gone. I'm sure if I search for something, the server will have a copy, but whatever is normally just cached in the reader appears to be gone.
I also have legacy dependencies on:
Flash IE WebBrowser control PHP Perl
I just want someone else to solve those issues, though I probably just have to write off the perl stuff, as it's unlikely I will ever re-learn perl enough to maintain it ;-)
PHP still has a place in my heart though, I hope it never becomes completely unavailable.
New stuff right now will be in Python. But even that, I haven't upgraded since.. 2.7?
It takes a special kind of energy to keep your tools up to date and in compliance with various publishers and such.
I bit the bullet and updated Android Studio for the first time in probably 4 years. It was a big update, and scary with all the deprecated code I depend upon, but not a hassle, and synSpace, at least, survived with multithreaded Lua intact. (my secret fear... once that is deprecated, then life sucks :-)
And, who knows, synSpace might actually turn out to be fun someday :-) I did finally implement the first cut 'landing engines' which are actually an antigravity beam weapon, but if you point it downwards it counters gravity.
Now, I probably won't do this, but it occurs to me how 'easy' it would be to keep track of all the spots where these antigrav beams are operating and then have that affect the physics of nearby objects (so when you come in for a landing, all the nearby trees sort of lift up in the air a bit until you turn the beam off.
I mean, all these little computations depend on a gravity coefficient, and I would just 'modulate' it based on game state.
Likewise you then could really use it AS a weapon (causing target to float off in some direction, I guess).
or a particle emitter whose particles affected nearby gravity, so if you stood next to those particles maybe it would act as an elevator, letting you reach the otherwise unreachable.
But for now, the tutorial (or any starmap that wants to) provides the beam automatically, and you just select it as your weapon when entering the atmo of a planet. Then tapping the trigger provides an upward acceleration (some multiple of local gravity, so the starmap can make it easy or hard, and set the overall gravity of the planet/moon)
Right now, there is no failure, though I added a 'bounce' which is kinda fun. Need to incorporate bounce into the animation system (knees should bend automatically, basically)
Anyway, too bad we're going through tough times at the moment. Hopefully we'll get our act back together within a year or two and stop letting people propagandize us into discontent.
Everyone stay safe against disease in general. Unfortunatly that means diet, exercise, and washing your hands a lot.
rubbing alcohol works just like Purell.
Posts: 10772 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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quote:New stuff right now will be in Python. But even that, I haven't upgraded since.. 2.7?
Python is so easy to write and can use components from C when speed is truly needed. In 2020 I can't think of any reason why anyone would use something that isn't Python other than maintaining legacy code.
Most problem I've had in Python, some other jerk had and posted about on stackexchange.
quote:rubbing alcohol works just like Purell.
So does a couple drops of bleach in a gallon of water at a fraction of the price.
-------------------- SoV: Exalted Devout Oracle | World Developer | The Black Guard Outside is just a prank older kids tell younger kids at Internet Camp Posts: 9514 | From: NY | Registered: Apr 2003
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