About the latest version of the game

action9000 · **Reply #280 on:** February 25, 2009, 01:16:59 AM

Your wish is granted, DarkWolf!

I just got NPCs appearing on the map nicely.

The code I have will also work for NPCs that move around since the map graphics get their location from wherever the NPC is at that exact moment. Here's a screenshot of the map in my latest work:

Now I just have a question:
How do we want to handle the locating of NPCs? Do we want the name of the NPC to show up on the screen if you mouse over it? How do we want to handle whether or not the player knows the name of the NPC? Do we want to show the names of NPCs at all on the map? I'm leaning towards "yes" but I'd like some opinions first before I start plugging that feature into the game.

Any thoughts are welcome!

Kor · **Reply #281 on:** February 25, 2009, 01:50:25 AM

one has to consider making things easier on the player I would say.

action9000 · **Reply #282 on:** February 25, 2009, 03:03:53 AM

Okay, here's something for everyone right before I go sleep.

This isn't much of an update but I found some important bugs to fix so I figured I might as well release this now.

Land Before Time RPG v0.185
NEW STUFF:
1) NPCs now appear on the map.

2) Fixed a camera bug where clicking the mouse caused the camera to move a bit.

3) I don't know if this bug was present in the releases I posted here, but I fixed a water-related bug that I was getting on my system.

Kor · **Reply #283 on:** February 25, 2009, 10:47:46 AM

Thanks for the hard work.

kanganix · **Reply #284 on:** February 26, 2009, 05:09:36 AM

Hey guys i just finish a beta loading screen for the TLBT RPG game do you want to see it

the loading screen 1

Link: http://fc84.deviantart.com/fs42/i/2009/057...by_Kanganix.jpg

the loading screen 2

Link: http://fc26.deviantart.com/fs43/i/2009/057...by_Kanganix.jpg

ah i hope you like it even our game maker action

Kor · **Reply #285 on:** February 26, 2009, 11:14:36 AM

I think it looks neat. Did it take long to do those?

action9000 · **Reply #286 on:** February 26, 2009, 12:47:49 PM

Those are cool, kanganix!

If you don't mind, could you post up the pictures after you saved them to png or jpg in photoshop?

Coyote_A · **Reply #287 on:** February 26, 2009, 01:57:57 PM

Quote from: kanganix,Feb 26 2009 on 12:09 PM

Hey guys i just finish a beta loading screen for the TLBT RPG game do you want to see it...

I like the second one better.

kanganix · **Reply #288 on:** February 27, 2009, 04:30:16 AM

Heres my finish product the loading screens

Link:Loading screen for the game.zip

i hope you enjoy

action9000 · **Reply #289 on:** February 27, 2009, 07:23:03 PM

Awesome, thank ya!

action9000 · **Reply #290 on:** March 09, 2009, 07:40:21 PM

Just wanted to let everyone know what's happening!

I already posted this part in the "What is this Game?" topic, but...

Quote

Okay, I made some changes to the networking code.

The following changes will appear in version 0.19:

Instead of everyone sending and receiving data about your location thousands of times per second, it now only sends data 12 times per second (once every 5 game frames). I have been watching the network activity on my home network and it's so low, it's showing no network usage at all. This should vastly improve reliability when playing over any distance.

There is a downside to this though:
Because we're not updating locations as often, movement for other players will appear jerkier.

The fix to this will be to write some "prediction" code. I could in theory estimate where the other players will be and just draw them in the new location, keeping the game looking smoother for the most part. This will take a long time to get working properly though and it's low priority since it's entirely for looks only.

Here's my plan:
That value of "5" (sending data every 5 frames) is very easily-changable.
In a version in the near future, I will let the host choose, in the options menu, the number of frames between network updates. This will allow players to reduce the value to zero or 1 for LAN games and to higher values for more stable performance over long distances. This will actually be simple to impliment, I could have it in for the next version.

Eventually we could even maybe use latency times to estimate an appropriate value so all this will be hands-off and reliable, no matter what, but I'll get back to you on that.

Just now, I also fixed a multiplayer bug where the player's cube didn't disappear when they left the game. It now disappears properly.

I'm just working on getting some multiplayer stuff cleaned up a bit. From there, I'm going to go work on the Flying ability.

DarkWolf91 · **Reply #291 on:** March 09, 2009, 07:57:27 PM

Awesome! Good to hear that you're finding solutions. Keep up the great work

NaNaNa · **Reply #292 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:21:51 PM

Wait is everyone already playing betas of this game?

action9000 · **Reply #293 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:34:38 PM

Quote

Wait is everyone already playing betas of this game?

Sure are, mate!

To be fair though, they are extremely early betas and not too interesting.

The latest version can be found here
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...pVnMwVWxjR0E9PQ

This is 0.185 so the network stuff isn't fixed yet. I'll have v0.19 up, hopefully in not too long.

raga · **Reply #294 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:38:54 PM

you probably mean an online beta, you can do online games (me action and darkwolf did the first online game yesterday) but it dosen't work very well, and never with more than two players. Fixes to the problems we were experincing are explained in action's post earlier today.

action9000 · **Reply #295 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:40:43 PM

If you guys are willing to test the latest updates with me, that would be awesome! It's looking good, minus some chat text bugs. I want to see if it works as well online as it does over my home LAN.

DarkWolf91 · **Reply #296 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:44:09 PM

Well, I'm up for it. I' think I've got a few minutes to spare

action9000 · **Reply #297 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:47:41 PM

Okay cool! I'll post the link up here in a couple of minutes.

Meet ya on hamachi?

DarkWolf91 · **Reply #298 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:48:29 PM

Yeah, sure, sounds like a plan.

action9000 · **Reply #299 on:** March 09, 2009, 08:49:10 PM

And the link:

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...1YUlGOFJFQlE9PQ