Well, it's my turn now.
I have nothing of great interest to say - but I did want to have the 1000th post.
And I've got it.
This has turned into a monster thread hasn't it...
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Well, it's my turn now.
I have nothing of great interest to say - but I did want to have the 1000th post.
And I've got it.
This has turned into a monster thread hasn't it...
Speaking of monsters, whats happened with behemoth ?
He no longer has the ability to come on line quite so often these days.
For the past couple of weeks he's been living with his girlfriend and has no net connection and he's also changed jobs, so he has no net connection there any more.
He's still alive though as we get drunk regularly. He should become a little more active in the near future as he moves back home.
Hmm yeah I've no net connection at home with my g/f.
Thus the reason I'm only online during the day when I'm supposed to be in work or in lectures ;)
Arb,
Congrats with the 1000th post !!
Uhhm, i'm still trying to figure out what the h*ll is wrong with my computer (because you said it has nothing to do with the game)...
What i'm NOT gonna do is a total format, but i'll try deinstalling some apps and cleaning up the regesty (my english still sucks)
Icheb
Well if you're willing to go to drastic measures, you could always just send us money instead...
LOL
Do you really think i have any money to send ?
LOL
:D :) :o :p
LOL ahahha
Just a question...
When will we be able to do something serious again ?
arb : still didn't have the time to do that other test (it appairs Sentience is bigger then one 1,44 mb disk... ;))
Icheb
i still cant get it to work.................:(
Icheb,
Yep, it is a bit big. I'd be interested to see if it works on that other machine though.
And you wish to send money, feel free - but send it me. I'll ensure PlenderJ gets exactly the amount he deserves... :D
Motox,
What's the problem?
If it's out of memory errors then try booting Windows clean (i.e. with no other apps running). That doesn't run Windows and then close the apps, make sure they don't run at all.
There are also two ways of running Sentience, with DC's and without. In the options.ini amend the UseDC's to true or false and try both settings.
Arb,
I think Motox has the same prob as i have...
And, sorry, i still haven't got the time to run it on the other machine :(
D****d school, tomorrow the last day before a week vacation :D
Icheb
Ok,
I'm interested to see if it will work on this other machine of yours as it's a completly fresh build isn't it?
There no other software besides windows installed (remember though, you do need DX7+).
Good luck with it...
Arb :
I'm going to try it now, just repacked it to .RAR and copied to disk.
btw : The comp isn't mine, he's just here for repairs... :D
Icheb
Okey dokey, keep me posted!
i still cant play yet :(
Motox,
Did you try the suggestions in all these posts?
I've come to the conclusion that it's not down to Sentience, it's down to the setup of the machine.
If you've got loads of **** running or the machines not been shutdown in ages or any number of a myriad of reasons then Sentience may have trouble running.
The out of memory only occurs on peoples machines when they are computer literate (i.e. they tend to have all sorts of crap on them/running in memory etc).
On fresh builds it's fine, on 98% of machines it's fine.
I'm no longer spending any more effort making changes to Sentience in order to fix it, because I no longer think it's broke. It's down to the machine it's running on.
I will however continue to provide suggestions as to how you can get your machine to run Sentience. I shall create a troubleshooting doc at some point.
Basically, there will no longer be Sentience releases in order to address this problem as I don't think it's something I can solve by changing code.
Thanks Arb....Quote:
Originally posted by Arbiter
If you've got loads of **** running or the machines not been shutdown in ages or any number of a myriad of reasons then Sentience may have trouble running.
The out of memory only occurs on peoples machines when they are computer literate (i.e. they tend to have all sorts of crap on them/running in memory etc).
BTW : was is directx7 or 8 ?
Icheb
Icheb
DX7. But it will work fine with DX8 (which is what I have on the dev machine).
PS - I'm basically saying that it tends to be the people who know what they're doing with computers and have custom configured their machine that Sentience doesn't work on.
Take for example a souped up GTi with lowered suspension. It can't go over speed bumps. Not because the driver is crap, but because he's customised his car.
Does that make it clearer? :)
yes, thanks
I am not agree...Quote:
I've come to the conclusion that it's not down to Sentience, it's down to the setup of the machine.
I use DX 8 too.Quote:
Originally posted by Arbiter
Icheb
DX7. But it will work fine with DX8 (which is what I have on the dev machine).
PS - I'm basically saying that it tends to be the people who know what they're doing with computers and have custom configured their machine that Sentience doesn't work on.
Take for example a souped up GTi with lowered suspension. It can't go over speed bumps. Not because the driver is crap, but because he's customised his car.
Does that make it clearer? :)
But you are right, i tried it on a standard machine with no upgrades, and it worked fine.
I do remember a few months ago (if remembering correctly) i saw this thread the first time and tested the prog, but did not reply because it worked...
And indeed did i try it on a few more machines with not entirely normal configs and there i got the famous mem error....
Icheb
Hoorayyy!
Right, I'm now totally convinced it's nothing wrong with Sentience. Thanks for proving that Icheb, I can now carry on working happily.
So, now we get down to the important questions.
What do you think of it?
What can be done to improve it?
What errors have you come across?
Is there anything functionality you've always wanted in a game that you'd like to see in Sentience? (Besides PlenderJ's dancing naked ladies :rolleyes: )
PS - did you check the credits? :)
Arb :
I don't have the time at the time to answer all the questions...
I will just give you some details (first impression) because i uhhm, uhh didn't exactly have much time to try it (the person who i was repairing the comp for wanted it back).
I might be able to try it on my Pentium 100... (the only problem with that is this :
1. It has no disk drive
2. It has no cd rom player
3. It's a total wreck
....)
What do you think about a kind of score system worldwide, so that players can compete with eachother (my english indeed is bad) ? (a by internet updated score list for players)
Maybe a bit more use of background sounds in the game it's self.
A screenshot or something else in the credit screen to fill up some empty space, or you need to add more names ;)...
BTW : i liked the credit screen ;) :cool:
I know that all this would cause the game to grow in size very much but i think it's worth it.
Icheb
p.s. I will answer the rest of the questions later... (and give you a time to create a reaction to this... :D :cool: )
<I added this later> :
Maybe the idea of naked ladies is a good one ;)
You can add it in the main menu and the credit screen, maybe with a cheatcode you have to enter first...:p :) :D :cool: :p :) ;)
Icheb,
Thanks for the response.
Well, at least now you know the problem's with the machine and not with the game, you can tinker around with your comp until it works.
Well, that's a very health P100 you have there. You don't need either of the drives to play Sentience (use Direct Cable Connect to transfer it across). :)
A worldwide score system would be nice, but at the moment I don't have any kind of permanent connection to support a site and don't have the experience to create a remote hosted site that can deal with it.
Behemoth however, is a bit of demon with web pages/sites so I'll see if I get him to knock one up.
Nice idea.
Eventually we're going to have background music, but no one's going to download 600mb of atmospheric tunes to test so I've shelved that as very low priority.
As for the credits screen. I do need some more names, but people don't get on there for doing nothing you know. They have to provide a serious amount of assistance to be considered.
Plend's on there at the top 'cos he's been testing it since it was a little nipper, and he's actually provided some very useful comments and suggestions (just look at his bug lists!).
You're on there 'cos you've been very instrumental in tracking down the cause of the out of memory bug (especially since you couldn't even run the game and therefore had no reason to remain interested in the project).
If it's of any use to you when you're playing type [@] (which is [SHIFT] + ['] ;) ) which pulls up a very ugly and half function cheat screen.
Well, when you get chance throw up a list of comments. I'm quite looking forward to these now!
With the scoring system, my dad and I have the knowledge (and books) to create a system like that. I have less experience then him with perl though. I wouldn't mind helping you with that part of the code. And, you have yet to get the map-editor code to me.:rolleyes:
Oh yeah. Ooops.
I can't remember what it is you need anymore.
Could you eMail me (or post in the comms forum) a definitive list of what you want and I'll get it to you as soon as I can.
Ta.
Arb, is Sentience gonna have any special effects/particle systems in the future? It would make battles a bit less boring :)
Jotaf,
I'm not sure at the moment. There's certainly going to be a bit more animation (e.g. whooshing missiles, laser beams etc), but I can't guarantee how good they're going to look.
Also, I don't think I'd be able to implement anything like a particle engine into the framework for a number of reasons. One, I'm not good enough, two, Sentience eats memory and processor power as it is - god only knows what would happen if I try making it do anything complicated!
If you can think of any special effects you'd like to see then let me know (in the comms forum), but there's definately going to be some form of freak weather effects (which have a real effect on terrain, units and buildings... :) )
Icheb,
You had chance to look at the game in any depth yet?
No, sorry...
Have to disassemble 1 comp, repair 2 comps and redesign the place i work :S
I will try to do it asap... but currently (i am sorry to say) it's a bit low on the priority list.
Icheb
No probs - just curious... :)
bollox to that
You wanna step outside and say that Irishman?
Just for all who are interested, work is still continuing on Sentience.
I've spent the last few days hunting down bugs and stuff so its quite a bit more stable.
I'm also working on diplomacy (which you can't see much of at the moment) and also implementing biological creatures in the game.
A friend of mine was looking at it last night and he said it was rather complicated. Do anyone have any ideas how we could make the game less complicated yet retain the depth and scope of the game?
Arb,
As i just entered this thread (and the work on the game) when it was quite complecated allready, i agree with that friend.
You may need to write a kind of guide how to begin with it.
If the more stable version is done, i'm willing to give it a try again.
I did another test on another comp last night, even more polluted then my comp, and the game worked perfectly, i think it isn't down to the memory.
The systemresources of the other comp were 67 %, mine are 45 %.
So maybe that is the problem.
BTW: i've been thinking about something, that friend of me where i tried Sentience thought it was rather boring because there arent much of moving graphics (read : DX7 (or 8) moving graphics).
Maybe it's an idea to par example change the creditscreen to a moving screen (the names moving from one side to another, or appairing and dissappairing.)
(I know it's much work, i just am trying to begin in DX programming 2 days ago, i have not been able to create something nice yet :(.)
Awaiting your response,
Icheb
Well a lot of games allow for complication, but dont force it on the user, by having all those options under n menus, or the user has to click on an Advanced button.
Actually in Age of Empires II, there was a button you could press that added loads of other features to things. The ability to group your armies, to make formations, to make them to advanced things etc. And all you had to do was click on that button to make it all appear....
Something like that perhaps ?
Icheb, you've mispelt "appearing" and "disappearing"
i mispelt more things then only that...Quote:
Originally posted by plenderj
Icheb, you've mispelt "appearing" and "disappearing"
i'm not very good at english but most people can understand me... ;)