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You've lost me now Kedabloke.Quote:
Originally posted by kedaman
my bad, was out of resources :p ok windows fault. lucky you can blame on it.
Anyways, the "course-plotted" algoritm seems to malfunction, i tried to move it to a place and it jumped 10 squares to the left on it, then when i tried to move it back it discovered the water area as if it had walked on it.
It found it and walked there the first time but wouldn't go back? What water squares? What are you on about? Got a screenshot?
First it had me register fm20.dll and that file wasn't on win98, that's weird because it worked the first time. Next i couldn't load my save file, it said it was wrong version :confused:
What the hell is fm20.dll?
I don't use that.... :confused:
I have no idea but that's what it wanted. the thing was in xp's system folder so i just registered it :p Anyways, your game put a odd signature on my savefile and didn't recognize it later :eek:
when i exit the game the screen size doesnt revert back to the original resolution
Bwahahahah more bugs ;)
Oh yeah, craft's updated too :)
There's a nice feature.
If you fly down right, and goto the second set of co-ordinates on bottom left of screen. Then when you see the very badly drawn space station, put pointer over it and press 'd'.
Then put pointer over lables. Mmmmmmm ;)
And happy birthday by the way.
Have a good one :)
I built, moved, then tryed to park a sensor chip building tingy, and I got a script out of range error. I tryed to use your couse plotting thing on a whooping map, and a 500X500 map, and both times I got an overflow run-time error. This time around, I could move my first rmv. What is up with the fact that the energy seems to be reversed. It seems to be -my income - my outgo on the energy (income=20, outgo = 6 is -14 to energy). You can only select the top chip for the mechs. The rest are off the bottom of the screen. What are the terraform pods?
I also think that having the map files would be good, along with an editor. The best idea for the format would be to have 2 picture files. One for the terrain, and one for the resources. Then have the editor combine them into one file, and possibly compress them if there bitmaps. To help reduce the size, you would probly want both the files in gray scale, unless you have more then 255 terrain types or resources (which I know you don't). You may even want to let the maps include a system like Starcrafts for the units, and possibly include a map scripting system (like the triggers). Although I know this is way ahead of where you are, just thought I wouldlet you know some ideas.
If you want, I would be nice enough to make a simple editor for it. Although I will be gone for one week in one week, then I start school again in 3 weeks. :(
By the way, this thread grows too fast, around 50 posts in 2 days. It makes it very hard to keep up to date on it.
I got a subscript out of range when i clicked once on Components at the begining of a game. I got a screenshot now, The fog of war isn't suppose to be white right? Also there's white blended background on each building. The laser turret i'm building left of little rock with green on top of it (btw is it something i should slurp eh?) isn't visible, it flickers sometimes, but it's not visible. Why is one of mechs sitting there (the one to the left) all the time, i put it on slurp-AI. How do I know how much they have slurped? How do I get more Energy? I got -28 right now.
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=468990
This looks like a really cool game even though I only discovered this post now I would like to be a part of it need any help? if you do e-mail me at [email protected]
Is arbiter asleep or summin ?
Arrrghhh!!
Cool, lots of comments - right let's answer them...
Gaming,
No idea about the subscript out of range, I'll try and duplicate it.
I'll sort that overflow when I get chance. I'm debating whether I should limit the searching or use bigger variables... Hmmm.
That energy's just a silly thing. Rats. Thanks for pointing it out.
The terraform pods will provide you with funky bonuses when you discover them. They don't at the moment though. I'm still trying to compile a list of bonuses they can bestow - anyone got any ideas?
Thanks for the offer on the map editor, I may get back to you on that.
Kedadude,
The components thing will crash first off. This is a known bug - I've done nothing on that screen for months, I guess I should tidy it up some.
Ok, the flickery turret is because I added the animation engine to the game, but as 29 frames of the auto generated buildings are blank it's going to be largely invisible. When Behemoth does some graphics for them, this will no longer happen.
The graphics have gone bonkers. They do that every now and again - I have no idea why. I'm planning a workaround for that.
The slurper ain't moving eh? Did you remember to set its slurping priorities from the context menu? If it has no priorites, it won't go anywhere.
You get more energy by building reactor buildings. As there's no cut off on energy at the moment you'll never run out and it will have no ill effects. This is for a number of reasons, mostly testing.
All,
Thanks for your support guys, keep the comments coming!!!
By the way arbiter, I got bored earily today, and started work on the editor. It was nearly finished after 7 hours. I could use some code that you have delopved and some pictures to respersent the resources so I can finish it. Also, to keep the size down (below 100K at the time) I have a compression rotine. So if you do use my map editor, you will have to add a class to your game. I figured you wouldn't want map files exceeding 494K (this would be the appox size of the largest map (500X500) when I add in the resources. With compression, they shouldn't be much bigger then 163K. That is around 67% compression rate(better then winzip, which is around 65% :))
On the terraform pods, I found out what they did half an hour after posting, when I ran across one. I may have some ideas, but I want to know what yours are first, to help me better my ideas.
With the script out of range, that hasn't happened seince I posted that. Now, all it does is flicker a little, then disapper. It only lasts for about 1 second, so I woun't be able to get a screen shot.
My God.
You must have been chronically bored to spend 7 hours working on a map editor.
I'm interested in seeing how you've recorded the resources as there are about 7 or 8 resources per square, all of varying amounts.
Tell me what you need to finish it and I'll either send some stuff across to you or plug it in myself. It'll be in about 8hrs time though as I'm in work at the moment.
I'd also like to see the compression you're putting on the picture files. It would have to be a non lossy compression wouldn't it? Is it one you wrote yourself or did you whip it from somewhere else?
If you whipped it from somewhere else then I wouldn't use it. Sentience is all 'home coded'.
Behemoth and I are going to thrash some ideas around, probably in the comms forums. If you wish to chip in then that's where we'll be!
The compression is around 90% home made. I had to take parts of the arglohin from elsewhere. It does include a modules (1 funtion, 12 varibles/declares) from somewhere on vbworld. It is the fileinfomod. I use help insure that the file is compressed. I have attempted to modify the parts that I did take, to make them heavily unquie. And, I am not using pictures. I discovered that text was a lot easier. And, at the point of writting this, I have not added in any of the code for resources, but from what you said, this will be harder then I expected to add in.
To finish it, I need the code to create the mapfiles that you use in your game. At this point I just randomly set the tiles (works, but looks ugly). I could also use the code to figure out what type of the terrain to place (which file to get it from). Currently, It takes a random one from 1777.bmp, or if it is water, uses 1000.bmp. This also looks somewhat ugly. But hey, it works.
Sentience currently stores the map data in with the save games (which are binary files).
I think it would be best if I send you the type declarations for the map details. That way you know what you're working with. I'm somewhat confused as to how you're managing to write a map editor without a definitive list of the way the game holds the map data.
Must take some real talent... ;)
It is called guessing, I figure out the most likely ways to hold the infomation, then I use that. Basicly, I just do it the way I would. If you wish to send me the infomation, send it to [email protected]
And while you're at it, send me the entire source ;)
And take a look at Craft, I've my own implimentation of the Streamtext yokie. Might be of intrest to you.
No-one's getting any code.
Especially not lunatic Irishmen!
I'll take a look at Shaft when I get home. What Streamtext yokie? You mean the text on the select player screen?
Chances are yours is going to be much better than mine, mine flickers after a couple of paragraphs.
You need to come up with a better name than 'craft' - it's toss.
What I meant by "code" was "the type declarations for the map details".
I was talking to Plend. ;)
He's been haranguing me for the source to Sentience for ages.
He'll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers! :D
Regarding the streamtext yokie, I dunno how well it works for paragraphs.... I havent tested it on that much text yet.
Anyway here's the src ;
VB Code:
And it would be called as so :
VB Code:
About the name.... Well yeah I suppose the name's not great.
But that doesnt really matter. All that matters to me is putting a load of good code together and seeing what happens ;)
lol
That is a nice way of putting that you will never give him the code. ;)
That can be arranged :eek: ;)Quote:
Originally posted by Arbiter
I was talking to Plend. ;)
He's been haranguing me for the source to Sentience for ages.
He'll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers! :D
The code's practically the same the as mine except that mine converts '_' to CrLf's and '¬' to Tabs so you have basic text formatting.
i.e. WobbleText "First Paragraph._ _¬Indented second paragiraffe"
At least mine has a proper name ;)
'Cos of course that's essential seeing as only I can view Sentiences code and live. ;)
I really need to fix these bugs that were uncovered. I've got loads to do :(
Good job everyone, thanks for finding them all.
Has anyone played against a computer player yet for any length of time?
Has anyone won?
You should implement cheat codes instead of not implementing features, you could have a console in which you type in them, one code would for instance make all map visible, one would let you have unlimited resources and let all units move unlimitedly and so on... I'm still missing the feature scrolling the map by mouse, not clicking on those evil scrollbars(get rid of them)
Hmm, I have no idea why Jamie would like to have your source hehe ;)
I dunno it just gives me a warm cuddly feeling inside when I have someone's source code ;)
I have attempted to play vs an AI, they only problem is that it always locks up my comp after 10-30 turns. I also suck at micro-managagin. I wish you had something like a governer that you could put on to control parts of the game. Where you could set one up, then set options that would make it so it would automaticly start reasearch, acoulding to how you set it up. With the pods, you may want to make one that increaces how fast you research, increases damage, decreases damage taken, incesases you resources, gives you a techonalgy. You may also want to put in nagitive ones, but set the randomization to make they rare. Like maybe have one that decreases the hp to all near by units to 50%, and maybe another that sets it to 100%.
Code:
Map Variable
Type StdResTemp
BaseMetals As Single
precious As Single
gems As Single
Diamond As Single
fossil As Single
Fissionables As Single
End Type
Type maptemp
Explored(7) As Boolean 'Which players have explored this square
Land As Boolean 'If the square is land or not
LandPic As Long '(not used in a map editor)
offset As Byte '(not used in a map editor)
Road As Boolean 'If the square has road on or not
Building As String 'Details of the building on the square
unit As String 'Details of the unit on the square
Type As Byte 'Mountain, forest etc see below
StdRes As StdResTemp 'See above
MainLand As Boolean 'Can't remember what this is for :rolleyes:
IEB As String 'Ian Encoded Binary value of square
End Type
'Map Pieces
'0 Mountain
'1 Forest
'2 Dirt
'3 Marsh
'4 Grass
Play vs AI locks machine?
Crap, must be getting stuck in an infinite loop. Shouldn't do that though...
Anyone else have this problem?
We're debating whether we should have a governor or not, 'cos If you assign governors and use the units AI models then you're basically a computer player...
Seems a bit pointless...
The editor should be easy to update to that format. I figure I could reduce the size of the mapfiles by around 33% if I could figure out how to save the lines I draw at runtime. :( When ever I need it, it woun't work. But when I don't want it, it always works. :(
Basicly, if I want it to save the lines, it doesn't, if I don't, it does. Anyone know why that is?
Where are the pictures for the roads? They should help me by making it show on the main screen.
Gaming,
It's what's known in the North of England as... Sods Law!
Oh, and there are no pictures for the roads currently. I merely draw a brown line.
Behemoth's on the job though...
I think it could also be called a variation of morpies law (I know I spelt it wrong). You got the code to help me? It ends up I have to rewrite all of the save and loading codes, the rest should be fine once it is updated. I figure I might as well upgrade it to pictures (I figure that a base of 16,777,216 should reduce the map sizes a little)
Gaming,
You lost me there. What code to help you? What fish?
Who let the dogs out?
Code to save pictures drawn at run-time. Cause when ever I need it, my code never works. By the way, do you want to see what I have so far?
Absolutely!!!
Is it small enough to post on here for everyones viewing please?
Saving pictures at drawn at runtime?
Surely you can just SavePicture? Or have I missed something?
For me, SavePicture only saves picutres loaded at run/disgin-time.
With the editor, the save/load functions no longer work, the resource editor (right click) never did anything, except pop up the box. You must have DirectX8, the common dialog to run it, and, ofcouse, the vb runtimes for 6.0. The zipped EXE is 329KB, and the zipped code is 13KB, so I can only post the code.
Well, post the code then my friend. Let us see the delights of the map editor!
Well, here it is. Aside from what I listed in my last post, you should need nothing except VB. ;) Well, now it is down the page about 10 posts.
I get a directdraw error as soon as I run it.
Boooo...
What verson of directx do you have? What screen res you using? What map size are you using?
If you have the wrong verson of DirectX, it may cause this.
If you are using too small of a map on the screen res it will cause this.
If you are using a small map, with a large res, unmaximized it may cause this.
If you have DirectX8, try using a 1000X1000 map.
FrmEdit error log
Line 26: Property Picture in picWater had an invalid file reference.
Line 36: Property Picture in picTiles had an invalid file reference.
What pictures did you use?
1000.bmp
1777.bmp
Place them in the same folder as the vb file and it should work, or just change them.
Got it working.
Nice.
It's taking shape that.
Right, forget about the resources, Sentience can allocate those automatically.
Saving the map - there are two options.
Either save as a bmp or save as a binary.
Saving as binary is easier, saving as bmp gives an automatic preview of the map.
Good, not having to worry about the resources will make the map a lot smaller. How about buildings?, mechs? Saving as bitmap will be easy, if I can get it to save the lines I draw, which, as I stated earier, refuses to work.
If you get a chance, can you attempt to find out what the Mainland is for?
One more update. This time it is the exe though. You will need the 1777.bmp and 1000.bmp files from Sentince to use the exe now.
Damn, fixing that X pos was too easy.
I have found a few bugs:
1) You can set the land mass% to above 100%, and it does less then 100%
2) If you set the Contient Seed to 99999999 it will crash the game (it goes into an infinte loop, or close to one)
Thanks Gaming,
1) Yeah, I'll trap setting it above 100%. This figure is only approx though, you'd never get a planet that was 100% land. I also need to trap its lower value to about 20% I reckon.
2) Yeesh, I'm not surprised. I'll trap that as well. Less than 1000 I reckon. No-one's going to want more than 1000 continents even on the big moma of maps.
Also, if you want to move over into the comms forum for discussing the map editor then it reduces the number of posts in this thread and means we don't get confused/confuse other people.
Ta muchly!
Back from the encampment! Some of the activites s*cked, like the 50 kilometers raid that lasted 2 days and we had to sleep only 3 hours that night, from 6am to 9am. But I met a lot of girls :D
Anyway...
I tried changing the fog of war image. It should work, right? But it doesn't! White doesn't appear transparent. Weird, heh?
Pods: They should sometimes affect the nearby units, like healing them, making them invisible, giving them free components, abilities and anything a mech can have :p. They should also do stuff like exploring terrain, increasing the resources in the surrounding terrain or change it somehow - like planting trees. They could also contain creatures (remember it's a planet which is being terraformed). And there could also be a very rare pod with a mech which uses only the most expensive components :p
The map should be saved as 256-colors BMP, I'm sure you won't have any problems with that - unless you need more than 256 terrain features. The main advantage is that with the right palette (like, water appears as blue) the bmp would be a preview of the map.
Btw if you go 24 or 16 bits the result will be pretty much the same hehe :p
YAY!!!
It's Jotaf!!
I was beginning to think you were dead pal...
So, tell us all about the fun you've had!
Right, FoW:
*Top left pixel must be white
*White bits must be 'white' and not 'nearly white'
Righty-ho boys and girls!
I've uploaded the latest patch to the game. No new functionality added, just fixed most of the bugs that have been flagged.
New file is SenPatch. It's only 300k or so, so it's not a big download, but there's nothing new to play with.
If anyone can find bugs in this version then please let me know - it should be the most stable one to date!
Next version is due in a week or so and should include special projects and a little diplomacy (sending messages to other players and the like).
In the version after that, we should have a map editor thanks to Gaming_World and maybe even a bit of a manual courtesy of PlenderJ.
Thankyou all for your continued support!
Ok, it works now - don't forget to put it in the next update ;)
What do you think of the pod ideas? I'm thinking of some more right now. Some of them could be bad, like exploding or containing hostile creatures! Just give me some time.
Btw, have you considered putting me in the "concept and design" section? :)
The encampment... the activities and games could have been better. But the whole idea was to make a big encampment without any help, so they couldn't buy any expensive material like those used in cool games like paintball, climbing big walls, slide, rapel, bungee jumping and all that kind of stuff :)
But yes the girls were cute and I still think that the portuguese ones are better :p
(I could write 10 pages about them, are you interested? :) )
Anyway, a lot of cool stuff happened... we were in the first position in our sub-camp and could have been the first in the whole camp... oh and I was made a knight - the old way! It was done by a priest and according to the ancient rules, the king, priests and knights are able to make other people knights - so I'm officially one!!! Cool, heh? ;)
I also noticed that the girls looked at me more often when I was in the beach without my glasses... hehe gotta switch to contact lens someday soon :p
Cool, and overflow. I set all the values to maxium number of 9s. Looks like you need to tap the X and Y to 32767 max. The editor is tapped to 818 though, beacuse each of the save tiles is 40X40 so people can tell where one tile starts and the next ends (along with the comp), and to help redude memory usage. If I wanted, I could increase it to 819. ;)
Jotaf me old bean!
I've copied your pod ideas to the comms forum. Let's discuss the ideas in there - it's confusing the hell out of me trying to work out where everything is... :p
I want to try and keep this thread for new releases of Sentience, bug reports and comments about the game and discuss ideas and stuff in the comms forum.
See you in there!
Gaming,
I don't think I've put any traps in on any of the fields, I need to get on with that at some point.
Hehe :)
Just give me a link or something! :rolleyes: