[VB5] Heartless Victory - Show No Mercy [source & exe]

[drivenbywhat]

Hi everyone. This is a game I've been working on for a few months now. It's a strategy card game like Magic The Gathering or Duel Monsters (yugioh). However, it's not as complicated as those games, nor does it have graphics.
The game is fully functional and free.

It's a 1v1 game that can be played on a single computer or it could be played through a LAN or internet connection.

Please read the instructions on how to play the game. If you don't, you'll be lost as what to do. The learning curve is small when compared to similar games. The instructions are just 9 pages long. The instructions for other games like this are around 60 pages long.

------reason for releasing the source-----

I was thinking of releasing the source and so I have! I thought about it and decided that I really couldn't take the game any further with my skills. I also thought it would be a good example for someone to look at if they wanted to do a similar game. The game also uses winsock, so if anyone wants to learn how to use it, take a look at the source.

I have commented the code as much as possible so there shouldn't be too many problems seeing what each piece of code is doing.

Things I would like to see improved on the game if you choose to run with it:

#1 - The ability to make a "game server" so people don't have to give out their ip addresses to someone so they can host a game.

#2 - Be able to send all game updates in one shot instead of 8.

#3 - Give the cards pictures!

[Mariuswb]

Very nice, mate.

I own you hard! 8-)

[drivenbywhat]

LOL. Wasn't I owning you before you got disconnected? Too bad more people won't try out the game. Hopefully that will change when I get www.download.com to upload my game to their site.

[Seismosaur]

Wow, looks cool. But, i can't err, get it to work. .

[drivenbywhat]

Seismosaur, how come it won't work? Are you getting any error messages? Also, what Windows version are you using? 2000, XP or Vista?

[Seismosaur]

Seismosaur, how come it won't work? Are you getting any error messages? Also, what Windows version are you using? 2000, XP or Vista?

I don't get any error messages, I'm running on XP, it's just that non of the buttons/tabs work X.X

[drivenbywhat]

Hmmm, I think I know what the problem is but you're throwing me off when you say that none of the tabs work. You definitely should be able to switch tabs. Do you actually mean that just in the GAME tab, none of the buttons work? If that's the case, then the problem is that you didn't choose a game option. Go to the OPTIONS menu and click OFFLINE. This will enable the OPEN button for both players. When you click open and open your deck, more buttons will be available for player 1. Afterwards, you click END to make the buttons available for player 2. Then, every time either player clicks END, all the buttons will be available for the other player. Let me know if this worked for you or not.

[Seismosaur]

Hmmm, I think I know what the problem is but you're throwing me off when you say that none of the tabs work. You definitely should be able to switch tabs. Do you actually mean that just in the GAME tab, none of the buttons work? If that's the case, then the problem is that you didn't choose a game option. Go to the OPTIONS menu and click OFFLINE. This will enable the OPEN button for both players. When you click open and open your deck, more buttons will be available for player 1. Afterwards, you click END to make the buttons available for player 2. Then, every time either player clicks END, all the buttons will be available for the other player. Let me know if this worked for you or not.

No, i mean i can't make a deck. The deck tab isn't working. :S

[drivenbywhat]

The DECK TAB is not working? So when you double click on any cards, nothing happens? Have you also tried clicking the green plus signs? How about the SAVE, CLOSE & OPEN buttons in the deck tab? Do they do anything for you? Are they greyed out or just don't do anything?

PS - If anyone else has tried this program, has this happened to you?

[Seismosaur]

The DECK TAB is not working? So when you double click on any cards, nothing happens? Have you also tried clicking the green plus signs? How about the SAVE, CLOSE & OPEN buttons in the deck tab? Do they do anything for you? Are they greyed out or just don't do anything?

PS - If anyone else has tried this program, has this happened to you?

Nothing does :-\. Except the game tabs at the top. But the stuff that you use to play it don't function for some reason, and i'm trying to figure out what i keep doing wrong...

[drivenbywhat]

Hmmm, at this point, I'm not sure what is wrong. Your the first person that has had this problem. After all, if you click on the CLOSE, OPEN & SAVE buttons in the DECK tab, it should either give you a msgbox or a dialog box to save/open your deck. You're saying nothing happens when you click on them. By nothing, I assume you mean the program just stares back at you without anything new showing up. I've attached the most recent EXE to this post and maybe that will work for you. If it doesn't, I don't know what the problem is.

[Seismosaur]

Hmmm, at this point, I'm not sure what is wrong. Your the first person that has had this problem. After all, if you click on the CLOSE, OPEN & SAVE buttons in the DECK tab, it should either give you a msgbox or a dialog box to save/open your deck. You're saying nothing happens when you click on them. By nothing, I assume you mean the program just stares back at you without anything new showing up. I've attached the most recent EXE to this post and maybe that will work for you. If it doesn't, I don't know what the problem is.

Something must've happened with the .exe (unless this is new) because when i opened this one, it starts in a window promting you to build the deck, the other one didn't.

Edit: Half of the deck/game tabs is blocked by the end of the form, so i couldn't see them. Whoops .

[drivenbywhat]

Yes, this is the latest version of the game. I originally had planned to make the DECK tab be the first tab to show but when I compiled the program, I had the GAME tab showing first. So, did it work for you?

[Seismosaur]

Yes, this is the latest version of the game. I originally had planned to make the DECK tab be the first tab to show but when I compiled the program, I had the GAME tab showing first. So, did it work for you?

Yep, and i am now OWNING myself in it :P.xD. Seriously, cool game.

[drivenbywhat]

Great. Glad is working for you. Just in case, I'm going to replace the the original file with the new one so no one else has this possible problem. Well, when you get the hang of the game & you have your 50 cards like you want them, let me know so we can have a game together. I haven't done a whole lot of testing with the online version except with myself.

If you have any of the following messengers, you can IM me at:

MSN = drivenbywhat@hotmail.com
YAHOO = drivenbywhat
AIM = xnetuserx

[drivenbywhat]

New beta version 011. Fixes the glitch that allows the game to continue after the duel is over. Also, changed the description of the special cards ARMAGEDDON & SOUL TRANSFER to reflect new changes.

[Mariuswb]

Nice update

- Marius

[drivenbywhat]

Just when you tested the latest update, there is another update! Version 013 improves the gameplay by:

fixed some program errors

fixed the bug that let certain cards not require any
summoning costs when they were required

added new special cards

damage scale was changed

integrated a help tab

added ability to restore an online game

limited sacrifice to 2 per turn

changed summoning costs of certain cards

[drivenbywhat]

Version 014 has been released. The following is updated:

fixed some program errors

fixed damage scale

fixed summoning costs

added sounds

removed popup reminders & replaced with textbox

added a card description in game tab

gameplay was changed a bit

instructions were updated

[Mariuswb]

Gonna test out v014.
Sounds nice!

- Marius

[drivenbywhat]

Version 015a is out. It contains the following updates:

fixed program error when summoning cards with intro and those
cards weren't highlighted in hand

damage scale was changed

master was changed to require any 6 cards on the field
instead of 5 attack cards

bug in direct button that wouldn't allow direct damage to opponent
because attack card wasn't in first slot is now fixed

added game compatibility checker

synch button was added to avoid game resets if p2
set their side after the 1st update from p1.

disabled ability to use storage during first move for p1

storage now allows 2 cards to be stored per turn

fixed bug that let the game still continue afer it was over

[drivenbywhat]

New version (really a patch) 015c:

fixed summoning costs for p2 for level 5 cards

fixed some counters that were not updating

fixed damage scale for p1

special cards added - soul stealer, abyss, davido, resuscitation, selfishness, invigoration

special cards modified - soul transfer, preventive

[drivenbywhat]

My game is now on www.download.com! They check for viruses & spyware on the programs that are submitted to them. This should help a lot of you decide to download the game. Here is the link: http://www.download.com/HEARTLESS-VI...ml?tag=lst-0-2

The version on download.com is outdated. It took them a whole month to upload my game. I just submitted the new 015c version and it's expected to be on the site by 11 SEP 2007.

[singularis]

Please add images for the 'cards' just to make it look a bit better. The dull text puts me off.

[drivenbywhat]

I know the game is somewhat more boring without images. At first I wanted to keep the program size small. Then I didn't want the form's size to be too big. Adding pics to the game tab would dramatically increase the size of the program & form size. Not to mention more code to add.

At this moment, I don't know if I'll continue work on the game. I'm actually thinking about releasing the source so people could improve on it, like adding pics, lol.

[drivenbywhat]

The source for the game is released!

[Paul M]

Just one problem is the user friendliness of the game. A card game i have always likes them and one of the best examples are the yugioh and pokemon card games. You need to have pictures and maybe some animations. The user on your game could spend 5 minutes reading everything before making a move (if he/she were new to the game) just thought i would let you know

[drivenbywhat]

Hi Paul.

I understand your concerns with the user friendliness. However, everybody needs to read the rules to any game they haven't played before. That's universal. I try to make it as simple as possible by just having six pages of instructions. Games like yugioh & magic have very thick manuals to learn the gameplay.

I have also acknowledged that the game would look better with pics. It's in my first post on the thread. It asks people what to add to the game to make it better if they choose to continue the program, since the source is available.

I stopped working on the game back in August but perhaps I'll resume work on it in December and try to include the improvements.