About the latest version of the game

[Malte279]

Sorry, my bad. Failed to check. Conedrin it is

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

What happened to your computer?

Power pack up and died on me, and it's battery drained all night while I was asleep. Now I've got to wait for a new power pack from Dell.

I like Buzz Conedrin. That's got my vote.

[action9000]

Let's call him Buzz Cubedrin 

I like Buzz Conedrin. That's got my vote.

Haha works for me.

[Nimrod]

Hey Tim. Maybe you could reupload the newest version of the game? The file in yousendit has been expired.

[action9000]

Hey Tim. Maybe you could reupload the newest version of the game? The file in yousendit has been expired.

Yep, sure thing. The link should work again now.  

Sorry about this, driveway won't let me upload anything anymore so I'm using whatever I can to get files around these days.

[Kor]

I wonder if LBTL would let you use his server for that.

[kanganix]

nice work action ^^  

[action9000]

Glad you're liking the progress for far!

Just letting everyone know what I've been working on:

I cleaned up a couple more little things with the graphics.  I also got rotation working on the map, so you can see which way you're facing on the map now.

I'll be working on the Join game screen/functions now, to make sure multiplayer is working properly with the latest changes to the game.

[Kor]

I didn't know you could have multiple folks in 1 game.  I thought you'd not implement that til later.

[action9000]

I didn't know you could have multiple folks in 1 game. I thought you'd not implement that til later.

Technically yes, it does work right now.  
I don't think internet play works unless you're simulating a local area network (LAN) by using Hamachi or similar tool.  I do have multiplayer working on my home network though!

I'm just testing it right now, as a matter of fact.  Looking good!

Players are able to see each other move and can talk to each other in a simple text chat system.

This is when my networking theory training in college is paying off.
Mostly I just wanted to see if I could get it working and sure enough, it works beautifully.
I'll refine it more once the game itself is more developed but I'm sure we'll be just fine with the multiplayer stuff.

As you can imagine, coding multiplayer is very complex and will require a lot of dedication and testing, as well as a lot of care when writing the code to make sure I'm sending absolutely everything we need around the network, in the right order, to the right computers, without losing any data, without slowing down the game and without overloading any buffers (which seems to crash the game almost instantly ).  It's already pretty tricky and it's going to get a lot worse!

The only bugs right now that I've seen are
1) Multi-line chat sometimes inserts an extra character or two onto the end.

2) The network doesn't share the angles of the players yet, just their positions, meaning that if I turn my cube, you don't see me turning.  You only see me moving if I move.  This isn't so much a bug, as just a feature I haven't coded in yet.

3) When the client (the player joining the game, not the host) leaves the game, the client's game doesn't close properly.  The game crashes to close for an unknown reason at this point.  Not a big deal really, since the game was being closed anyway but it's just weird.
The host is not affected, the game continues normally and the host is able to leave the game properly whenever they want.

4) The Join Game screen isn't very pretty and the process of entering the computer you're connecting to and your name isn't very clear or brilliantly designed yet.

I'm just getting the game polished and cleaned up nicely before I start working on anything else new.  The next release should hopefully feel really solid and high-quality throughout its presentation.

[kanganix]

hey action i will say you are almost there just a couple steps  

[action9000]

Okay everyone, welcome to.....
The Land Before Time RPG, v0.161  

Well well, what did we do this time?  Lots, actually!  Lots of little stuff to clean things up but all of it is worthwhile:

New Stuff:
1) Added an in-game menu. When you press ESC, instead of just closing the game right away, it opens a menu, giving you a number of choices.  All the graphics related to this menu are from Mumbling, so big thanks to her! *hugs*
This menu's skin/style changes depending on where you are in the game.  We're going to expand on this idea a lot but for now, you see a treestar when you're on land and some bubbles when you're underwater.

2) The ESC button also has other purposes now. Aside from just opening the menu, it also can be pressed to close any open screen, such as the character stats or the fullscreen map.  I find the use of the ESC button feels very natural now.  I hope you all feel the same but please let me know if you don't!

3) Added rotation to your character on the full screen map. The map now shows which direction you're facing at all times.  I apologize that the arrow graphic sucks. If anyone wants to draw me a better one, I'm more than happy to use it!

4) Changed the setting up of your graphics/resolution when you first run the game.  Instead of just throwing you a bunch of numbers, I set up two screens:
Basic Mode and Advanced Mode.
In Basic Mode, all you have to do is pick a quality setting of Low, Medium, High or Very High and you're good to go!
In Advanced Mode, you get access to a large list of resolutions.  I improved the organization and the options available here to hopefully cater to everyone's needs.

As for what Basic Mode actually does...not very much. Here's how it actually works for anyone interested:
Low quality: 640x480, 16-bit colour.
Medium quality: 800x600, 32-bit colour.
High quality: 1024x768, 32-bit colour.
Very High quality: 1280x1024, 32-bit colour.

If you can't use any of those resolutions with your monitor nicely, I suggest going to Advanced Mode to choose the resolution you wish to use.
It just occurred to me that in the future, the screen could ask the player if they're on a desktop or a laptop so the quality options give them resolutions that best suit whatever kind of computer they're on.  For now though, this is what you get.

***If anyone wants/needs a resolution that isn't on that list in Advanced Mode, please let me know and I'll get it on there!

5) The graphic quality choice screen is now fullscreen.  Mumbling commented that the window that comes up for you to choose your graphic settings wasn't centered very well on the screen and the math was annoying to get that working so...I took her advice and just made it full screen.

6) Fixed multiplayer.  It now works properly again, better than ever.

7) The Exit button on the Graphic Settings screen actually works now.  Pressing ESC closes the Graphic Settings screen as well.

8) Changed the instructions from a .txt file to a Word Document file, with text bolding and better organization.

9) Added text values of your current HP and Stamina to the bars at the top-left of the screen. Eventually there will be options on when you see these numbers but for now they're just always there. (lol @ Always There )

10) The code should run slightly faster now, reducing the system requirements a tiny bit.  I removed two functions that I found out were causing more trouble than good, so I cleaned that up.

11) Cleaned up everything I (We, since Mumbling helped me find lots of stuff ) could find.  What you should see in this release is a very complete-feeling program with (hopefully) very few things that seem unpolished.

Known issues:
When you click the Options or Main Menu buttons on the in-game menu, the text appears behind the menu graphic.  This wasn't the case before I made the graphic transparent so I don't quite know what happened.  I didn't even notice that until after I uploaded it.
[EDIT] Fixed in v0.161.

Hope eveyone enjoys and not too many bugs come up in this one.  If there's anything that you don't like, please feel free to let me know!

And for anyone who cares, we're up to 5220 lines of code now, breaking 5000 for the first time in a GoF release!

[Mumbling]

Think I found a serious bug, though I'm not sure if I should call it a bug. The two not working options in the in-game menus (main menu & options) can give some problems. If you click either of them, hold your mousebutton and move your mouse arround... There can happen 4 things: Nothing, the text will fade away, the game will be resumed and the in-game menu disappears or the game crashes. Not sure what it is but it's annoying

I've only had the game crash of it once. So maybe that wasn't 'normal'

[Coyote_A]

8) Changed the instructions from a .txt file to a Word Document file, with text bolding and better organization.

Some people(Like me) don't use office applications and even don't have them installed, so that isn't much of improvement. How am i supposed to read the readme file now?
BTW, i believe  that there must be a "restart" menu function, that will allow players to pick a different character or even change the server without closing the programm.

[Kor]

That is pretty fast since the last version.  Hope you are not overworking yourself.    Thanks though.  Remember to give yourself time to do other things, relax and have some fun.    

[Mumbling]

BTW, i believe  that there must be a "restart" menu function, that will allow players to pick a different character or even change the server without closing the programm.

If you click Main Menu in the in-game menu screen you will go back to the original menu where you can choose host game. It just isn't functioning yet.

[action9000]

Think I found a serious bug, though I'm not sure if I should call it a bug. The two not working options in the in-game menus (main menu & options) can give some problems. If you click either of them, hold your mousebutton and move your mouse arround... There can happen 4 things: Nothing, the text will fade away, the game will be resumed and the in-game menu disappears or the game crashes. Not sure what it is but it's annoying

I've only had the game crash of it once. So maybe that wasn't 'normal'

Simple reason for that:
I was lazy when I coded the menu.

While the left mouse button is held down, the program still tracks your mouse movement.  The menu code says "if the left mouse button is held down and your mouse is over the quit button, close the game".  This is what's happening.

Some people(Like me) don't use office applications and even don't have them installed, so that isn't much of improvement. How am i supposed to read the readme file now?

Don't you have anything on your computer that can read .doc files?
Open Office may be useful for you since there are so many .doc files around the world.

What I'll do though, is save it as an .rtf file, which can be opened in WordPad, for the next release.

If you click Main Menu in the in-game menu screen you will go back to the original menu where you can choose host game. It just isn't functioning yet.

This is correct.  I tried to get it working in this version but was running into so many problems that I just ignored it for now.  Hopefully it will work soon.

[action9000]

Once again thanks to Mumbling, we're getting a few more little things cleaned up which apparently I totally missed in the last release.  
I'm not sure when I'll release a new version but it will be when we get some nice new features working, probably talking to an NPC.

[Mumbling]

De nada

[action9000]