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Hi guys!
There are in game pictures for each of the components. Some of them are represented as a big red question mark at the moment, but that's only 'cos we don't have graphics for them as yet.
mpgalvin,
If you want, take a screen shot of the mech design screen and then redesign it to show me what you mean.
Jotaf,
Wondered when you were going to post. Have you checked out the new version yet?
This is kinda the idea that im getting at.
The idea that every component can/should be displayed on the mech design screen.
And I know the drawing is poxy.
I also came across two more bugs (?) :
When loading, sentience changes the res, and that leaves me with a black border around the screen, and a smaller bit in the middle. Sentience takes however a little while longer to show the main menu, so you're left looking at a framed version of windows for a little while. Not a major thing I know.
Went into mech design and selected to create a new mech.
Gave it a torso only.
Then gave it shields, and the designer automatically gave it the chassis. Should it do this ?
- jamie
Errm. No it shouldn't.
If you pick a chassis without the torso, it doesn't draw anything though - it will only draw the image when it has both. That may have been what happened. I'm just going to laugh... err, I mean look, at your drawing now.
HA HA HA HA HA!!
Ok, sorry. Thanks for taking the time to do that.
That's how I had it originally, but its hard to make all the components fit together.
When we come to boat and aircraft chassis' they're going to plug together differently and the weapons would look really odd if they were plugged in like that.
Weapons on a two legged, man like torsed mech would look different to the weapons on a boat.
You with me?
in SMAC *groan* there's never an empty slot - is this a possibility?
Yeah I see what you're saying , but I still think you should figure out a way of doing it :)
If say, you had default positions for all the parts, such that when the user selects them they go into those positions.
A default position for the guns on a two legged + torsoed mech would be at either side.
But then if they selected a, for example, boat related body, then the guns could slide/float on over to their new positions....
I suppose if you had the time, or asked someone else to do it for you, u could do the mech design in 3D.
I think that would look quite cool. If the mech rotated in front of you ...
Just think behemoth, a whole new dimension to play with :)
Behemoth,
Don't know what you mean.
Plend,
Don't get him started. It's hard enough to get 2D images from him!!!
Here's something for you. Design a mech with all the components and take a screen shot. Then, move the squares with the component images in onto the mech image. It's very hard to get it to look good.
I see what you're saying but I really, really struggled to get it looking cool.
Maybe it takes a man like you to do it....
Well you just send the source my way and I'll do that for you :)
go into the unit design screen in SMAC. There is always a unit in there, and you can change it by changing its constituent parts.
Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri ?
yipper!
(like you can't tell...)
Well I wasnt sure when you said it first actually ...
Hairy Bloke,
The unit design in SMAC is nowhere near as sophisticated as ours and therefore it's a little easier. Also, the unit abilities are set to blank when you go in.
Plend,
You'd vomit if you saw the code. There's literally thousands of lines of code and maybe four comments throughout. And one of those is 'Hi mum'.
Well arb, whenever I'm writing an app (which is quite often), I systematically remove all comments.
The only commented stuff you'll find in my programs, is code that I commented out and replaced with something better. I usually keep the old code just in case....
In craft there's comments because I released the src code, and if I can barely find my way around it, what hope would others have :)
Heh I must be the only one here that comments all of his apps :rolleyes:
But I do comment old code too. It also has a little mark saying "Old version of blah blah blah" :)
This way, whenever I wanna release the source code I just pack it with a Readme.txt in a ZIP file :p
(The other reason is that when I look at my older projects, with no comments, I never know how the hell I typed that, and what it does :D )
(As you might have noticed, in my previous post where you read "his apps" you should read "my apps" :p )
Well, I finally got some time to play Sentience :)
It's MUCH better than the other version, and now it doesn't crash everytime I click something ;)
But still, I found some bugs:
* Sometimes I could select things that weren't there, like at the beggining of the first turn I could select the top-left square of the screen. In my opinion, you should reset the selection box's position to -100, -100 every time a turn starts (so it will be invisible anyway)
* I can select the same chip for all 3 slots! :p You should remove the component from the list once it's added to the mech, and put it back when the user selects something else. You should also give a "None" option for chips and that kind of stuff that the user might not want ;)
* When I pressed Alt-Tab to write this, I couldn't get back to the game :)
I also have a couple of suggestioons:
* Save the screen coordinates of each player so he gets back to that place of the map when his turn starts again (like you save his mechs and components). It's a bit annoying, having to center the screen on my mechs every turn!
* Instead of having to click the "Mechs" panel every time I select a mech, "Buildings" everytime I select a building; why don't you make it click automatically? Like, when you select a building, it automatically jumps to the "Mechs" info panel!
Ok, I think that's all. Apart from that, it's great! ;)
I had a quick game this evening, and crashed with a "subscript out of range" while I was moving my mech. I really can't tell you much more than that. There didn't seem to be any obstacles or anything like that - I wasn't at the bottom of the game screen. I just hit '1' and it bombed out.
Perhaps you could write some On Error functions that would at least return the module name when you get errors?
Anyway, I've attached a gif of what I think the mech design screen should look like, but after doing it, to be honest, I don't see what difference it would make. I really have no idea where I was going with this! :confused:
I also have a few suggestions:
* Put the build queue total somewhere on screen. Alternatively, when you click on the factory, and if you follow JotaF's suggestion of auto-clicking on the building window when this happens, show the queue on that list there (just a total would do, so you know if there's anything left on the queue)
* I think the build queue should be a little more intuitive. Knock off an option if it's in the queue (or can't be built anymore if that's the way you're going) Just grey out the option or something, so that I can see that it's available and being built currently.
* I would also second the motion that last selected unit should be re-selected when it's your turn again
WOW, thanks for all the comments guys!!
I'll comment on them all now...
Jotaf,
Glad you like the new improved version.
Selecting the top left square. Yep, that's a flaw. It gets set to 0,0 when it should really be off screen. Thanks for that one.
The reason you can select the same chip for all the slots is that the components aren't removed from stores when you're designing a mech. This is for testing purposes - I didn't think anyone could be arsed building a new set of components to test a mech.
Yeah, the game is non Alt+Tab'able. It was causing problems. I may put that back in, but there isn't really going to be a need for it.
I'll also implement both your suggestions for the next release. Thanks for having a look!
mpgalvin,
Ta for looking matey, and thanks for the comments. You'll be in the game in the next release, along with the others who comment regularly.
Thanks for the image of the mech design screen. Pretty well thought out, but there would be problems with it. Firstly, you only have a single slot torso there. There can be up to four weapons (each with their own ammo type and loadout, and each with their own fire states (the buttons you put under the shield). Also, if you build some of the other chassis, you'll see that the majority of the bottom half of the screen is gone, so he chassis and reactor icons would be crushed. Thanks for going to the trouble of doing that though... :)
I'm not aware of anything that can cause an SOOR on mech movement anymore, I thought I'd fixed them all. If it happens again try and remember the exact things you were doing please.
Not sure what you mean about the build queue. Things can be added to the queue a few times (i.e. build a batch of weapons) so I can't grey them out. Is that what you meant.
Good idea about having a build queue counter on the main screen. I'll have that in by the next version as well. There should be an audio warning when the queue is empty (i.e. everything's built) - I can't remember if I put that in or not...
Well, thanks for the comments guys - I'll slap them in tomorrow night (I can't tonight - I'm going out partying with a load of lesbians - COME ON!!!)
Seems nice ( http://www.vbforums.com/ )
Ok, one more suggestion: what about if the build queue was a panel, like "unit", "mech" and "building"?
That way it would be much better, instead of just a number telling you what's still building.
Imagine that you were expecting one more chip for a mech (something that builds fast), and at the same time you were building other stuff that could either take longer or not.
You'd like to know if that particular component was built, instead of the total number of components being built :)
It would also be cool having all the build component stuf on that panel (add component, delete component...).
Arbiter, this is how I'd approach the layers problem of drawing things over eachother etc....
Thanks Plend,
I'll have a look at this as soon as I can - I don't have VB on my machine at work, I'll need to steal someone elses.
Hey Arbiter, when is the new version coming? ;)
New version will be coming soon.
I'm bed bound at the moment (having just recently come out of hospital) so I can't do an awful lot.
Behemoth has done a lot of work on the unit graphics and I've improved the framework quite a bit.
Should look even more pretty when you see it and be even more stable.
Could be a fortnight though before you see anything.........
Whoa, nearly fell off the bottom then....
I'm going to start working on it again now as I'm a little more mobile.
Expect a new release (with new graphics) shortly...
PlenderJ/All,
Attached is a screenshot of the new mech design screen.
Comments?
Great looking attachment arb :)
was that officially sarcasm?
Oh yeah :)
*lol*
D'OH!
sorry
mhm, nice one :)
[smooth]mmmmmm[/smooth] :)
Glad you like. :)
Plend,
I tried to use the layered effect like you suggested, but it looked a little overbearing on the screen. Too many buttons and clicky bits if you see what I mean.
The idea's nice, but the screen's too complex already without adding checkboxes to the fray.
It may prove useful on another screen though in the future.
You've dashed my dreams, hopes and aspirations just like all the other men have.
[cry and sulk in corner]waaaaaaaaaaaa[wail]ahhhhhhhhh[scream]baaaaaaa[/scream][/wail][/cry and sulk in corner]
*acchem* indeed :)
One of your furry friends in the background there.....?Quote:
Originally posted by plenderj
You've dashed my dreams, hopes and aspirations just like all the other men have.
[cry and sulk in corner]waaaaaaaaaaaa[wail]ahhhhhhhhh[scream]baaaaaaa[/scream][/wail][/cry and sulk in corner]
*acchem* indeed :)
Still, don't cry little Jamie - your input to this game is greatly appreciated and the fact that you've been here since the beginning whilst the other, non-believers, have fallen by the wayside will not be forgotten.
paaarrrrp!
:eek:
Hey Arbiter, if you want my opinion, the second pic you posted is MUCH better than the first one! :p
Hiya Simon me old bean, how's it hangin'?Quote:
Originally posted by chenko
Hey hey im back, And I see ive made it into the names list on the game :D cheers!!
A few pointers:
1.
On the name select screen, Them little logos (whatever they are for)....near the bottom ones, the scroll bar sits out of the bottom of the screen :)
2.
I forgot
3.
When in the game I didnt know how to exit, Also allowing us to have a window would be nice :)
Keep up the work!
Of course you made it into the names list, you've provided some (nearly) sensible comments towards the game. Now - your pointers....
1.
'Them little logos' are actually your faction ideals (i.e. warrior, intellectual, industrial etc) and aren't functioning yet. The bug with the menu falling off the bottom is the same one as in the mech design screen and has been fixed for the next version.
2.
I fixed it anyway - it was only minor.
3.
Clicking the exit button normally does it. If you're in a game, simply resign and you will be brought back to the main menu.
Oh, and we are keeping up the work. It's only recently I've been well enough to begin again, but Behemoth has been busy on the graphics and has tentatively promised me some in the next few days. Should coincide nicely with the next release...
Ian,
You left your mobile at my house, so don't panic. I've used up all your credit phoning Dutch Bondage Goat porn lines - hope you don't mind...
Arbiter: So maybe I shouldn't have given Ian's mom that list of recent calls she asked me for... :D