About the latest version of the game

action9000 · **Reply #720 on:** December 05, 2009, 03:01:01 PM

Okay, guess what...
IT WORKS!

I'm able to save games automatically when you quit the game, as well as after a short period of time (protection in the event of a crash or force-quit).

Loading games works beautifully, restoring everything nicely.

I'm just cleaning up a few visual things now before I release the next version, but I'm calling this one "done" for now.

Coming soon:
A more sophisticated client/server network

action9000 · **Reply #721 on:** December 05, 2009, 03:52:12 PM

Okay, I'm going to call v0.23 finished at this point!

Anyone is welcome to try out the latest version, v0.23, by downloading it here:
[EDIT] Please see the next post for the new link!

[/EDIT]

As for the new stuff, here's the list!

1) Completely changed the landscape/terrain engine for the game. The landscape, which used to be from one file, is now broken up into an 8x8 grid for a total of 64 mini-files. The result is that we have a ton more control over things like detail levels and only drawing what we see. This improves control over performance and load times, big time. We also changed the textures for the landscape.

NOTE: Only the "very low" detail option is available at this point. I'm willing to manually post up the other detail levels if people are interested but I haven't programmed in a way to change it in-game yet - you have to edit the code manually to change it. I chose "very low" for the release to reduce RAM requirements and load times.

2) Shadows are now functional on both the terrain and the characters. The position of the shadows do update in realtime based on where the "sun" is in the sky.
NOTE:
The lighting on the dinosaurs is backwards: what's light should be dark and vice versa. I know what has to happen to fix it but the procedure is causing big problem at the moment. I will talk to Razzie, our modeller, about this.

ANOTHER NOTE: The sun does not move in this game. I tested it by moving it manually but there is no day/night system in the game yet.

3) Introduced a functional save/load system. You can choose a game to load from the character select screen. Just click a portrait of the dino on the screen and click the arrow in the bottom right to start!

If there are no saved games, hatch a new dino, type in a name and click in the bottom right of the screen to start!

The game automatically saves your stats and location every few seconds, as well as an autosave when you quit the game. The in-game saving every few seconds seems to be slightly buggy, not always saving. It works most of the time but as far as I can tell the save when you Quit the game does work properly....as long as you Quit the game and don't just click "Main Menu".

There is also an issue if you make more than about 10 save files..they go off the screen on the character select screen. I haven't put in a "scrollbar" system yet to handle that situation.

4) Fixed some bugs where the game could crash if you went back and forth in the menus enough times.

I know, there are some issues with this release. Mainly, I wanted to demonstrate the save/load feature, as well as the new landscape. Don't mind the things like the floating tree. I know it's there. I'll deal with it when the landscape's shape is more finalized.

Enjoy!

action9000 · **Reply #722 on:** December 05, 2009, 04:24:41 PM

Hi, I just found a problem in the zip file that makes it unplayable. I'm just uploading another one now, bear with me...5 minutes!

I'll also put the arrow on the character creation screen.

Sorry about that!

[EDIT]
Here's the latest version, complete with the arrow fix and the "object doesn't exist" fix.

http://www.lbtserver.2myip.net/Members/Act...lbtrpgv023a.zip

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #723 on:** December 05, 2009, 04:55:09 PM

If you go off the edge of the game where the water just ends out of no where, you begin losing oxygen. But then if you get back on land it still registers you're underwater and you die!

I was like "Oh no!" It took me so friggin long to get over there and then I died.

action9000 · **Reply #724 on:** December 05, 2009, 04:57:46 PM

Haha I know.

If you leave the "World", the game doesn't behave properly. This goes back to something I've mentioned a few times in this topic:

Eventually, there won't be an "end of the world" so it's not an issue.

I should mention, too:
The only way to delete a saved game is to open the "Save" folder where you copied the game to and delete the .lbt file with the name of the character you want to delete.

Mumbling · **Reply #725 on:** December 05, 2009, 05:49:29 PM

Love the .lbt files

Updated the website

Thanks for the update Tim, will play asap!

raga · **Reply #726 on:** December 05, 2009, 07:42:31 PM

I was working on the next chapter for my fanfic but its break time now, I'm off to see if I can break your new features!

action9000 · **Reply #727 on:** December 05, 2009, 09:24:27 PM

You probably can; they're not very hacker-proof yet if you want to really try breaking it, especially my save/load game feature.

Glad you like the .lbt files, Iris.

Paradise Bird · **Reply #728 on:** December 05, 2009, 09:53:46 PM

You will have to add better landscapes.

action9000 · **Reply #729 on:** December 05, 2009, 10:36:51 PM

On the to-do list. All this stuff takes a ton of time!

Belmont2500 · **Reply #730 on:** December 05, 2009, 11:19:55 PM

well here's what I thought about V0.23

now one thing I really had a problem with was the readme because it was the readme for V0.22 instead of V0.23,what gives.

so first I must say I really like the character selection screen, it blew me away but who the heck knows how long that was gonna last because when I got into the game, I wasn't that impressed,personally as cool as the new map editing software is I prefer the other one better,it had more detail and stuff and the tree was up in the sky so that glitch remains,the adventures log is blank and there's no way to save at anytime(at least not what I've seen),I liked the breath meter alot and the characters themselves looked a bit better then before, but really I feel you should've polished V0.23 a bit more before releasing it,but it was still great,as the LBT Online game is a work in progress.

raga · **Reply #731 on:** December 06, 2009, 02:37:38 AM

I noticed the tree too, its a bit odd. Oh and was there supposed to be a previous save already there?

OOC: 750th post!

Mumbling · **Reply #732 on:** December 06, 2009, 02:46:26 AM

@ Belmont

The map editing software is pretty hard to handle. I got to take a look at it myself and there's just no nice way yet to make it perfectly beautiful. With the previous map editing program we'd get problems later on, it namely could not make canyons and caves and the like.

The tree in the sky was mentioned by Action. He'll work on that.

action9000 · **Reply #733 on:** December 06, 2009, 02:58:22 AM

as for the old map: it was prettier but we pushed it as far as it could go: it was never going to be any more detailed than that. That was the limitation.

The new one requires more advanced skills to use effectively but it will give us what we *need* to finish the game. I'm still learning how to use it and I know it looks like crap right now. that's why this release took so long to come: I spent the last 2 months researching how I could make it look prettier and I was unsuccessful.

as for the readme file...okay I was lazy, I know that. I didn't think the game had enough new content to bother rewriting. I'll do it for v0.24 when things will be completely different.

The previous save.. I forgot about it but it also helps to demo how the feature works so whatever.

JitteryDragon · **Reply #734 on:** December 06, 2009, 03:11:37 AM

Okay, wow. I only just recently took a look at this, and I have to admit I'm impressed with how dedicated you are, as well as how much work you have put into this project.

Now, I'm not that much of a LBT fan to be into an Online RPG, but I realize that this is an excellent community tool...

And on that note, I would like to offer you my support, if so desired. My skills are modeling, animation, mapping, and texture making. So um... yeah. This probably isn't the right place to ask, but uh... yeah.

Just so you know, I have a lot of other things I do in real life, but the main reason I want to offer my support is to improve my own skills.

Paradise Bird · **Reply #735 on:** December 06, 2009, 08:18:49 AM

Quote from: action9000,Dec 5 2009 on 09:36 PM

On the to-do list. All this stuff takes a ton of time!

Youy can get some inspiration looking at the sights in Canada.

Mumbling · **Reply #736 on:** December 06, 2009, 08:52:24 AM

Quote from: Paradise Bird,Dec 6 2009 on 02:18 PM

Quote from: action9000,Dec 5 2009 on 09:36 PM
On the to-do list. All this stuff takes a ton of time!
Youy can get some inspiration looking at the sights in Canada.

I don't think he lacks the inspiration, but the lack of skill with the program he uses (just new).

I got some new stuff for the game which I'll hand over to tim soon.

Paradise Bird · **Reply #737 on:** December 06, 2009, 09:01:34 AM

Alright then. Is this editor made by all of you or was it provided? Actually I know of a few ways we can do this faster but I'm pretty sure it will be costly not because of the software but the rights to use it in the construction of the game.

Mumbling · **Reply #738 on:** December 06, 2009, 09:28:46 AM

Tim bought the software a while back.

Kor · **Reply #739 on:** December 06, 2009, 10:34:21 AM

Is it some software like some game engines that are not to much to buy and they let you give the game away or sell it if you want?