Not long now 'til the next version. The wait'll be worth it...
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Not long now 'til the next version. The wait'll be worth it...
Hey Arbiter
Just put the link to your page into your signature. So I dont have to go to the first post every time I want to look at it.
Well good look with your improvements.
CU
Nah Misanthrop, that'd be a good idea, and arbiter isnt into those kinda things ;)
Hay arbiter, what with behemoth's departure 'n all, is sentience still going ahead as you had planned ?
Oh yes, it's still going ahead as planned.
Behemoth's only left VB-world because he doesn't have a readily available internet connection any more. He still only lives 15 mins from me.
Oh, go on then - I'll put the link in my sig...
Mr Stapleton
So this is what you do at the back of the room at work
And we always that you were downloading porn!
*busted*
:p
Mr. Low
Please learn to spell my name right.
And no, I only work on Sentience at home. When I'm in the back room at work, I am downloading porn.
I hope you've downloaded the game and had a look!
Sorry
Had me plums in my mouth again.
I'll stick to manc pronuciation.
Havn't had a look at it yet but I'm good at breaking things so I'll download ASAP
arent they all the same? those programmers :rolleyes:
Hey people!
The latest version is uploaded and good to go!!!
Loads of fixes and bog loads of new features. Some minor cosmetic improvements and vast improvements in functionality!
Just over a 3mb download, insignificant even on a 33.6k :)
You can now:
Attack other units by running into them
Attack buildings
Make your buildings run off
Build buildings!
Wipe out other players (kill their HQ)
Choose your faction you wish to play as.
Great!
Still needs improvements to the GUI, any suggestions gratefully received. Should be much more stable, but if you come across any faults then please let me know.
It's really getting there now guys!
Cool as!
I await your responses eagerly!!!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Hey all you guys (and girls and undecided)
I've just read your 12 pages of posts and I think what you're doing is incredible. Now I can play TBS games and call it "work"!
Is it true that you only use DX for sound? Whoa... tough...
(PS since I posted to this thread do I get my name in the credits? :p )
Thanks for the diversion!
DesPlesda
Hi DesPlesda,
Thanks for the vote of confidence! :cool:
Yeah, it's true DX is only used for sound. When I started on the code, I looked at DX and figured it was beyond me at that time, so I did the graphics routines using the API.
When I came to coding the sound, I realised I couldn't do it properly with the API and found I could do it very easily in DX. So I used that.
I was buggered though, if I was going back and changing all the graphics routines to DX when they were sufficient as they are. The next game we write will use DX all the way through.
I'm far from the worlds best programmer, but I am getting better.
Well, as for getting your name in the credits - I think you'll need to post a little more in order for that... ;)
The people who've got their name in the game/credits are those who've posted replies relating to how the game could be improved or who've been rooting out all the bugs. If you post coherent suggestions and detailed bug repots, then you too will join those who are in the game.
Well, let me know what you think...
Then what the **** is my name doing in the game ?Quote:
Originally posted by Arbiter
Well, as for getting your name in the credits - I think you'll need to post a little more in order for that... ;)
The people who've got their name in the game/credits are those who've posted replies relating to how the game could be improved or who've been rooting out all the bugs. If you post coherent suggestions and detailed bug repots, then you too will join those who are in the game.
:)
I'll take a look...
It seems to be missing a few graphics files ...
b5 and b6 ... or b6 and b7 or something ...
But the game still loads, and doesnt centre in the screen or take entire focus etc. It just sits in the top left..
NOOOOO!!!!!!!
*sob*
It worked for me. I checked it.
****.
Let me have a look.
It looks like the files are there. I don't see a problem with it.
There is nothing above b5, and it shouldn't be looking for them.
Did you kill the old version, or extract this over the top.
This zip contains everything, so you can extract it somewhere else entirely...
Come on, people!
The latest version of the most impressive VB game ever (well nearly) is available for download. Here's the advertising blurb from my last post...
And I still do await your responses (and eagerly as well) . Please take a look!Quote:
Loads of fixes and bog loads of new features. Some minor
cosmetic improvements and vast improvements in functionality!
Just over a 3mb download, insignificant even on a 33.6k
You can now:
Attack other units by running into them
Attack buildings
Make your buildings run off
Build buildings!
Wipe out other players (kill their HQ)
Choose your faction you wish to play as.
Great!
Still needs improvements to the GUI, any suggestions gratefully received. Should be much more stable, but if you come across any faults then please let me know.
It's really getting there now guys!
Cool as!
I await your responses eagerly!!!
Excuse me but im rather fond of craft ;)
Anyway ill have a good look over the weekend.
I'll abuse, misuse, try to break and generally put sentience thru its paces :)
Thanks PlenderJ.
I appreciate you looking - 'cos you normally give sensible suggestions.
I couldn't duplicate that fault of yours, I even downloaded it fresh onto an old 166, where any errors are magnified 'cos it's so slow.
Worked like a dream.
PS - someone wanted some info about how craft works in another thread. Time to go and do your 'knight in shining armour' routine.
You;d think if someone wanted info on craft they'd ask me ...
oh well ... u dont happen to have a link to the thread do u ?
Well, I pointed them in the direction of your home page, it's up to them now.
Anyway....
Does no one have anything to say about the new version of Sentience?
It's great! It's funky! It's cool!
Everyone should have a look and a play.
Please?
Erm, if you had that link you said you were going to put in your sig so that I knew where to download it from, I would.
[yes, yes, I could go ALLLL the way back to the first post, but I'm suffering from RSI and 'Allo 'Allo is on the telly]
So, where's the game?
D'OH!!!!
Sorry.
It's in my sig now...
*psst* use [url][/url] tags
[URL=http://www.btinternet.com/~bstap]DOWNLOAD SENTIENCE HERE[/URL]
Yes , very impressive behemoth ;)
Behemoth,
Happy now?
Leprechaun,
Well, did you have a look over the weekend? Did ya, did ya?
Arbiter
I took a look last night. I'm getting a "subscript out of range" error every time I start a second new game (the first time is fine, the second time, "subscript out of range")
Also, after getting this error the first time, regardless of whether I crash out or exit gracefully on subsequent executions, the resolution is not reset.
When you right click to bring up a building menu, and don't clikc to remove it, you have to right click twice on the next building to get the menu. So you right click on building1, the menu appears, then you right click on building2, building1 menu disappears, building2 is selected, but no menu until you right click again. It's kinda annoying.
The "Menu" button at the bottom of the screen seems a little iffy. Click once to bring up the options, then anything between 1 and 6(!) clicks to get rid of it. Couldn't see any pattern with it.
Finally, and I guess this is just me, but I haven't a clue what to do! How do you make mechs (or whatever they're called)? How do you move? The whole UI is a little confusing (especially in the factory), and it's not clear what each option does. I know this in beta, but most of the people here have been using it for a while - as a beginner, I didn't stick with it very long due to ignorance of what to do.
Its really difficult to keep up with different peoples "abilities" as it were. Its not even really at a beta stage, we're just error trapping and debugging with the help of you lovely people all the way through. You're all doing a great job - keep it up.
mpgalvin
I'm sorry you're having trouble working out what to do. It's really difficult for us to build and design this, and provide instructions as well. Obviously Arbiter & I know what's going on, but I suppose it all could be a little more intuitive.
Bear in mind, I'm not in front of a copy of the game now, but the gist is...
Basically - to build a mech, you need to:
Mine the relevant resources for the components (this is doine by an RMV or remote mining vehicle - however, this is not necessary during testing as the components don't actually cost anything at the moment :)
Next, construct the components. This is actually done at the factory, but the build queue can be accessed through the industry tab in the main menu. Every mech NEEDS a chassis, torso and a reactor. The weapons, armour etc are all optional...
Next, go to mech construction (the construction yard building). Select New mech, then the relevant components for the mech, (remember it MUST have a torso, chassis and reactor - it also must have a build location - this will normally be your construction yard, but later in the game, you may have numerous yards...) When the mech is designed, the cancel button changes to save, and you can save and exit the screen. Next turn, the mech will have been built at the relevant location.
Like I said, I don't have a copy of the game in front of me, but thats about the size of it. Give it a try. It's quite fun...
Hi mpgalvin,
Thanks for looking.
Behemoth's got the instructions pretty much right. Once you 've added some components to the build queue, you'll need to skip the next few goes (so the components can be built). About 5 turns should do it.
PS - to move a mech once it's built, use the numeric keypad...
We are looking at building in a tutorial system, but that's fairly low down on the list of priorities at the moment. The UI is a bit clunky at this time (right clicking twice etc), because we were concentrating on getting it to actually do stuff - we'll look at making it do stuff well later on.
Also, I didn't want to put too much time into the UI at the moment as I'm hoping people will provide feedback as to what they want it to look like.
As a work around to your res' not coming back, exit the game after you finish a game to avoid the SOOR's. This will be fixed in the next version. ;)
Is there anything you'd like to see in the game. Anything that you'd think "Well, if I was righting a turn based strategy, I'd include...."
If I was writing a TBS, I'd want good spellings...
:p
lol
Was trying to do three things at once. No excuse for poor speeling though.... ;)
Besides. The spelling's right - it's just poor grammer. All these are righting Sentience.... :rolleyes@:
Right, had another look, and now that I know how to build mechs, why, it was much more fun :)
Anyway, one small thing: I like the auto-centering for the main screen, and assuming you programmed that yourself, it goes a little wonky when you can't move to the position you elected.
Lordy, that makes no sense at all, does it?
Now, say, I press right to move right. I can't, but the screen still scrolls right and shows a big expanse of nothing.Code:X - mech
| - land
+ - edge of "screen box"
~ - water
|~+~~
|+~~
X+|~
|~+~~
| ~+~~
| ~+~~
Is that better?
Edited because my ASCII art sucks.
Heya arbiter + behemoth.
Sorry for taking so long ; but it was a formula 1 weekend, so ya know :)
Anyway, here's what I collected last night :
Im still looking at the game tho.Code:Game screen scrolls too much when object moving off-screen
"ARE YOU SURE" when quitting looks gay
Map looks nice though
Autopilot doesnt do anything ?!?
Move unit can never move to destination
In mech design, all parts should be displayed on mech view
Eg. If the player only selects a reactor, then a reactor should
appear on the screen. Then if they select something like
armour or a body, then the reactor shouldnt be visible anymore ...
Same too for guns or chips or whatever.
More reactors needed
Fusion, Fission, Fossil, Solar
Infinite movement should be allowed (ie. an option for it)
Res should be restored after game exits ; or crashes.
Could be done by Sentience.exe being a small little app
that changes the res and then runs mainApp.exe
which is the original Sentience.exe
The small app then checks for when the mainApp.exe
process has terminated, and then restores the original res.
Game (c / sh)ould start with a/multiple mech(s)
Is the credits button supposed to do something ?
I do like the new main menu etc.
- jamie
Guys!!!
Thanks for your comments - I could kiss you both!!!
I thought no-one was going to comment anymore, I thought you'd all got bored.
You're right, the ARE YOU SURE screen does look gay. I'll pretty it up shortly.
Autopilot has recently stopped working and I don't know why. It worked in the last version. Damn!
When you click move and then select a destination, the autopilot is engaged (if it can get there). The autopilot button is to turn it off and on. If the autopilot is on, the mech cannot be moved manually.
Not sure what you meant about the mech design screen. The selected component remains in the relevant component box so you can tell what the mech has on board.
Good idea for returning the res. I'll look into doing that.
More reactors are on the way. If you want some more, you can always add them yourself using the script. Failing that you can change the value to give you huge amounts of power which will, in effect, give you infininte move.
I'll upload the spreadsheets that I create the scripts from when I get home. To make a script simply save the worksheet as a CSV, delete the first line (column descriptions) and rename to the script name. Easy.
The credits button is supposed to display the credits. I've just not written that functionality in yet...
The problems with map screen autocentre are due to the game originally being written for 1024*768. When I rewrote it for 800*600 the map screen changed size to fit on and the number of squares displayed decreased, cocking up the autocentre. I'll fix that for the next release.
Did anyone have a play with multiple players and attacking each other etc? Destroying buildings and killing all the other players?
I'll resolve the faults tonight if I can (especially the pathfinding - I'm really annoyed about that!) and upload a quick fix. This will take the form of a 300k zip containing the new Sentience.exe
You simply need to copy it over the top of the old one to get all the new goodness.
Has anyone had any problems with it crashing besides starting a new game after finishing an old one?
The last few versions would appear to be quite stable.
In relation to that mech design screen, I meant that if you say go into the mech design screen, go to create a new mech, and then only add a reactor, a reactor should be displayed in the view area.
Then if you select a few chips, they should be put on there too.
Then legs could go on. This probably wouldnt obstruct the chips or reactor.
Then if you put a body on the mech, the reactor and chips wouldnt be visible (unless you're an eccentric mech designer).
I suppose you could do it in layers.
Starting at layer0, which would be internals, going up to layern would be the armour or something.
You would simply draw things on top of one another.
Koz if you think about it, thats all obstructions are in reality...
- jamie
The images for the components are displayed in the area for that component.
At the moments, a lot of the graphics are merely teh black square with a red question mark in the middle, and that's only because Behemoth's not pulled his finger out and drawn some more piccys.
I'm struggling to motivate him to work at the moment. :p
I think I'll spend a bit of time prettying up the screens tonight as well.
Nah you still arent gettin' me :)
Like, when you click on what legs you want, and the select what upper body you want, they appear in the middle of the screen.
But they're the only things that appear.
Ya follow ?
Yeah, I get you now.
I originally experimented with having certain comonents in the main screen, but I just couldn't get it to look right.
If you want to send me a screen shot of what you think it should look like then we can discuss changing it to that...
Why not go for something along the lines of Cyberball, where you have the main picture as it is, and then boxouts showing the various components?
Of course, for that to be even faintly usable each component would have to be uniquely identified (perhaps an upgrade number in the corner or whatever)
Just my tuppence worth.
Hey, what about if you had in-game pictures for each body, legs, weapons, whatever (chips and reactors don't need this I think :p ) ?
It's be cool, instead of a general-purpose image, even if it varies only with the body.