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PCC2 Next Generation
PCC2 Next Generation (c2ng) is the next step in the evolution of PCC2. It is intended to be 100% compatible to PCC2. However, it does away with many self-imposed limitations of PCC2.
Version 2.41.3
This version now comes with ship images and German translation.
Otherwise, this version improves in parallel with PCC2, and receives features that PCC2 got, too. (Actually, nowadays c2ng usually gets new features first.) One major such feature is the ability to filter the ship missions list by group, i.e. "mine laying mission". Another one is that, on the hull function list for a ship, for level-restricted features, c2ng now computes how long it takes for you to reach that level.
Compared to PCC2, the user interface is still a bit rough at some places. On the plus side, it use a more modern graphics library (SDL2) and supports painless full-screen mode.
Let's call it "beta". It is fully playable, but PCC2 is more mature and proven. But if you're brave, give it a try! (As of 2025, the network/SSL code for Windows seems a bit unstable; sorry.)
Tasty Features
- Browsing, loading and saving local and network games
- Browse your hard disk as well as network. Support servers that do not have VGAP binary formats (Nu; right now, read-only).
- Manage multiple turns
- Browse history while playing.
- Manage multiple games
- PCC2 used global variables. This one does not. This is not an end-user feature, but ultimately makes the program more efficient and robust.
- Model/View/Presenter separation with multiple threads
- More fluent GUI. No more "Application not responding".
- Scripting engine
- Controls most of the GUI.
- Multithreaded combat simulation
- We can use multiple threads for simulation and thus (again) offer the fastest and most feature-rich combat simulation ever.
- Meaningful test coverage
- PCC2 has a meager test coverage of around 10%. c2ng currently achieves >50% in the application, >80% in the foundation libraries. This, together with some newer coding styles, gives it a greater stability than PCC2, and some confidence that changing a feature does not break another. A few dozen PCC2 bugs have been uncovered by the PCC2ng port.
- PlanetsCentral / PCC2 Web
- PlanetsCentral now runs exclusively on servers provided by c2ng, in better quality than before. c2ng serves as an architectural blueprint for PCC2 Web.
- SDL2 support
- PCC2ng can be built with SDL2. This makes it integrate more nicely with modern operating systems. Since 2.41, the Windows binaries I provide use SDL2.
What can you do with it?
PCC2ng will install multiple programs (*.exe files). The main program is c2ng(.exe) (replaces the former pcc-v2).
When you start the program, you will be shown a browser starting with "My Computer".
(a) Use the browser to browse to a game directory on your hard disk.
(b) Press Ins to add a network account. c2ng will ask for
- user name
- server type (PlanetsCentral or Nu)
- server address (you can leave this blank)
A new entry will appear representing that account. You can enter it like a normal folder to browse your games; you will be asked for your password the first time you do that in a session. For PlanetsCentral, this will (for now) only show games for which you have used the Set up for online play function on the website, or which you have uploaded.
Use arrow keys and Enter to browse. When entering a game, you will first be asked to define a local directory; you can either control everything manually or let PCC2ng choose one automatically. This directory will keep local history files, for example. After entering a game, you will see a screen with F1/F2/F3 buttons. Use these to select a ship, planet, or base, and view its starchart. This proves that the program shows actual, real game data.
If you have configured PCC2 to make backups of your result files, Alt+Up will show the previous turn. (If you have not configured PCC2 to make backups, do so now.)
Aside from c2ng, you will get a bunch of utility programs that replace the similarily-named utilities from PCC2. When you build from source, you will also get PlanetsCentral servers and utilities.