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Web frontend and supporting services for lance.blue
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123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106{ "head": { "title": "FAQ" }, "questions": [ { "q": "What is this?", "open": true, "blocks": [ { "p": [ {"a": "lance.blue", "href": "https://lance.blue"}, " is a way to play MegaMek online against other players on the ", {"a": "Atmosphere", "href": "https://atmosphereaccount.com"}, ". Log in, find an opponent, and play a match!" ] } ] }, { "q": "Why did you make this?", "blocks": [ { "p": [ "MegaMek is amazing software, but it's hard to get started with. You need to convince players to download local software, configure settings, and join matchmaking servers. All of that friction gets in the way of actually playing BattleTech." ] }, { "p": [ "The site is also an experiment in social gameplay backed by ", {"a": "ATproto", "href": "https://atproto.com"}, ", the data layer underneath the ", {"a": "Atmosphere", "href": "https://atmosphereaccount.com"}, ". This means that you can log in with your ", {"a": "Bluesky", "href": "https://bsky.app"}, " account, find other players, and join games - and all of your game data is stored on your server, and can be reused by other applications." ] }, { "p": [ "For example, if we issue you an achievement, other sites could display it. Maybe someone else builds a better mechlab interface or camo designer. A BattleTech tournament organizer could run their own bracket, and you could use your ", {"a": "lance.blue", "href": "https://lance.blue"}, " account to log in and play. It could totally change how we think about online gaming." ] } ] }, { "q": "Why is it so slow?", "blocks": [ { "p": "The MegaMek codebase uses Swing, a Java frontend framework that is not even a little bit designed to run in a browser. The entire Swing interface is run in the cloud and streamed to your browser, which adds some latency." }, { "p": "Future development could include supporting local MegaMek clients, writing a new lightweight browser-native frontend, embedding MegaMek in WebAssembly, or other approaches." }
] }, { "q": "Will you do Alpha Strike/MekHQ/StratCon?", "blocks": [ { "p": "Maybe!" }, { "p": "All units, rules, and gameplay modes in the standalone MegaMek binary should essentially work today. They just need to be incorporated into the match metadata and launching system." }, { "p": "Unit design and force construction are good candidates for a non-Swing, web-native interface. However, the goal would still be full interoperability with the MegaMek suite." }, { "p": "Campaign play is an eventual goal, but the social features available to Atmosphere apps mean that they would look quite different. It could mean persistent forces like on a MekWars server, or it could mean something entirely new." }, { "p": [ "If you're interested in these or other features, please follow ", {"a": "@lance.blue", "href": "https://lance.blue"}, ", ", {"a": "the lance.blue blog", "href": "https://lance.blue/blog"}, ", and ", {"a": "lance.blue on Tangled", "href": "https://tangled.org/lance.blue"}, "!" ] } ] }, { "q": "What does it cost to run, and who pays for it?", "blocks": [ { "p": "Pettifogger absquatulate quockerwodger, brabble nudiustertian skedaddle. Vellichor gongoozler mumpsimus cattywampus zarf." }, { "p": "Borborygmus winklepicker taradiddle, crapulence halfpace snollygoster. Flibbertigibbet apricity bibliopole widdershins gallimaufry." } ] }, { "q": "Who developed lance.blue?", "blocks": [ { "p": [ "This site was developed as a solo project by ", {"a": "@permadeath.com", "href": "https://bsky.app/profile/permadeath.com"}, ". They've been a MegaMek player for well over a decade, and a BattleTech fan for even longer." ] }, { "p": [ "The majority of the codebase was developed using various Claude models. It is all available on ", {"a": "Tangled", "href": "https://tangled.org/lance.blue"}, "." ] } ] } ]}