We need a Daimonin Launcher. This is mainly so mouse jockeys can use addon packs easily.

The launcher would open a window. The window would have various switches and things so the player could set the command line switches to his preference. There would then be a large, friendly button to click which would launch the client (or the updater in fact).

The launcher would have profiles. So you could set the switches the way you liike and save a profile. Then next time you run the launcher you need only click the profile to launch dai with those preset switches.

The switches currently are:

  -a, --account=STRING : login to the named account
  -A, --addon=STRING   : prepend named addon pack to PhysFS search path
  -h, --help           : display this help and exit
  -l. --local          : show a local server in the server list
  -n, --nometa         : do not query the metaserver
  -p, --pass=STRING    : use this password when logging in to an account
  -s, --server=NUMBER  : connect automatically to the specified official server
                           0 - your local server (if running)
                           1 - the main server, which is best for simply playing the game
                           2 - the test server, which is best for testing new content (maps)
                           3 - the dev server, which is best for testing new code (features)
  -v, --version        : output client version number and exit

These won't go away, but more may (will) be added later. When first run (and when next run after an update), the launcher does a quick ./daimonin --help to get this info. It then parses this to work out the possible --server values, creating an appropriate dropdown list with the reults.

ATM --version returns the x.y.z as a single 15-bit number (xxxyyyyyyzzzzzz IIRC) but this will be added to --help too. The launcher translates this back to x.y.z so it shows the version of Dai in the title bar.

The launcher window is something like this:

_____________________________________________________________
| Setup  Profile                                              |
|_____________________________________________________________|
|            ________________              ________________   |
|  account: |________________|  password: |________________|  |
|            ________________________________    __________   |
|  addons:  |________________________________|  (__Browse__)  |
|  +----------------------------------------------+   _____   |
|  |                                              |  (_Add_)  |
|  |                                              |           |
|  |         LIST THEM HERE AS YOU ADD            |           |
|  |                                              |           |
|  |                                              |           |
|  +----------------------------------------------+           |
|                                                             |
|  server: |DROP-DOWN LIST|   show local: |X|   no meta: |X|  |
|                   _______________________________________   |
|  other switches: |_______________________________________|  |
|                                         _________________   |
|                                        (__PLAY DAIMONIN__)  |
|_____________________________________________________________|

The launcher would be platform independent (ie, Java). It wouldn't actually be part of the client code base, but an optional project_tool.

EDIT: Edit window mockup.

The game exe would use default settings. Then there is a interface where you can make profiles, change settings, etc. run separately- not quite just for brackets.

I imagine in future, when the project grows more complex, we might have to consider having a single Daimonin 'wizard' where the user can customise/download sound, custom gfx, video settings, mods, etc. IMO this is a good start. Although the widget client had something similar in the past, but it wasn't maintained.

@smacky: what I meant, was to make this a part of the program after launching it but before logging in.  Similarly we should have graphic/sound settings editable before logging in (they currently are not)

just seems like these switches shouldn't need to be command-line.

If I ever have time, I could do this, having had practice with the (Java) Map Checker.

I don't want to hold anyone else up, though

(Just post here if you're going to do it so effort is not duplicated.)

I mentioned this elsewhere but this is the proper spot to bring up a need in my opinion. This game isn't going to draw a lot of new players if someone doesn't create a client to run daimonin on smartphones. My android is more than capable of running the game if a suitable client was created
and creating an app for smartphones would grab the attention of youth worldwide.