Subject
How small can C-evo be?

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: The current package size is about 2.1 MB. That's already pretty small compared with similar games. But is that the end? The minimum possible? No, not by far, because this package obviously contains a lot of "dispensable" stuff! So how much smaller could the package become, without making compromise about the rules of the game or the AI compatibility, and with little compromise only in the other fields? : : In the first step, we can simply reduce the distribution to the content of earlier versions such as 0.12, which means : - remove the sound : - remove the AI development kit : - remove the sample game : This already brings us to a package size of 968k. (The sounds alone make about 1 MB of data.) : : The second step could be to replace the textures, the city improvement icons and all the start screen graphics by a special monochromatic version. Now the game looks a bit "pale", but the package size has reduced to 818k! : : The third step is still possible without any modification to the sourcecode: We : - remove the useless background image from the start screen : - drop the screenshots in the manual : - reduce the graphical opulence of the nations from "Nation2.bmp" and allow them no more than 3 private pictures per Nation - just like the Nations from "Nation1.bmp" have : Now we have an installer of 759k, wherein the executable is still the same as in the "official" package. : : Now it's getting harder. We're saving less bytes now and they hurt more. And we need to modify the sources. Step 4 includes: : - removing the macro management : - removing the AI tournament feature : - removing the random AI selection feature : - removing the manual search feature : - removing the PNG support : - removing the AI debug message feature : - no more "charcoal drawings" in the manual : - main manual page without icons : - all new advances are told with the small book image (without picture in it) : - supervisor can no more create units : - only 40 city names per nation : - one texture for all ages : - no welcome message : - jungle/forest becomes forest alone again, as in version 0.14 : This package still contains all nations, all standard city and unit graphics, the complete manual text and even the map editor. Installer size: 698k! You can try the result <a href="http://c-evo.org/files/cevopale.exe">here</a>. : : Steffen : : PS. Don't worry, this is not the new philosophy for future versions... :

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