This week, I've been doing quite some efforts in bringing a few key features in game:
First of all, music fade in and fade out are properly working again, and are used in the most dramatic areas of the introduction story.
I also completed the forest entrance map, and finally, after some effort on putting the required infrastructure in shape, added Map particle objects, and used them to improve the look of save points.
(You can also watch a particle effect when healing at the spring, btw.)
This is a key point as it will permit me to go further in using them for better map and battle effects, for instance.
 |
| Trees, squirrels, butterflies, and particle effects! |
Also, another key thing that finally went in game, is the addition of the very first game map enemy, thus permitting the very first battle to happen:
 |
| First battle, Kalya will help you with the basics. |
Note that the forest background is WIP, any improvement on it is welcome, btw. ;)
To avoid high-level grinders, I also a level cap system (currently set to lvl 6) telling the players when they have reached the current maximum level. this will prevent people from going too far, before the rest of the content has reached the repository.
Fighting on level 1 should not be easy at all, and you'll have to find a way to at least reach lvl 2 before being ready to deeper in the forest. (once I've added it ;])
I also made a slight change on the collision computation in the map editor. Now, the map editor will consider a collision area passable if a passable tile is put over an unpassable one on the ground level. This will permit the addition of bridges, for instance, without the need to tweak collisions out of the editor scope.
Stay tuned ;)
Cool! Nice that you saved Allacrost :)
ReplyDeleteHi Matt!
DeleteNice to see you around. :)
(Have you got a g+ profile btw?)
I hope you'll enjoy what's being prepared.
Best regards,
Hi, I followed your blog for a long time now and finally run the new code (startings one month ago or so). Really looks (still) nice.
ReplyDeleteHowever, three comments so far:
1. For me it feels, that since one of your commits in the last two weeks or so, the game runs much slower (still playable for me but not so smooth anymore). Maybe it has something to do with your map particle effects. Did you or someone else face the same problems?
2. Still some bug in the battle mode. When I target an enemy with Bronann and the girl kills this enemy before, I'm not able to finish the battle, since for Bronann in the next rounds I cannot target a new enemy. Furthermore, the game crashes after some forth and back in the battle menu. I think this problem is old but I thought it is already fixed. However, maybe I find some time to have a look in the code by myself.
3. Did you thought about some thing like a quest log? I really like this in other games, especially, when the number of side quests increase. If you think this is a good idea, I can start programming something for this.
I thought about rejoining the project since a few month, maybe I finally can find some time (if this is preferred by you and your team ;) ).
Nemesis from the Allacrost project.
Hi nemesis!
DeleteNice to see a white wolf from Allacrost around.
I'll try to answer to best possible:
1. I'll need the commit in question. I don't doubt what you say, yet, it might as much be a question of bad coding or bad scripting, or even both. I know some profiling would be good, yet, I won't go into that without having the necessary features in place first, at least, as long as the game is playable ;)
Could you find it, I would be very glad to have some info about it.
2. The battle bug should be gone with this commit (note that it only *should*):
https://github.com/Bertram25/ValyriaTear/commit/6e5f58fb1976a2321a95dc4383433122fbfa773e
I tried the exact scenario you told with it and I was able to finish the battle.
What is left and still lacking is that if you target the monster while another character kills it, you're still able to finish the command, whereas you should go back to the skill selection when the monster is dying instead. I'll fix that in a few days I guess.
3. About your collaboration, whatever the feature or bug is, I'm glad you're around and you are welcome in the team. Yet, could you tell us a bit more about it (make some lightweight specs about it - It can be just a few lines)?
What I'd like you most to do is to open an issue on github with the tag 'comment & feedback', explaining how you want to make that.
The only rule I'd like you to keep in mind is that it must be **simple**, nice looking and **intuitive** for the user. So no plethora of options, no GUI cluttering, and no extra key fiddling, is the way to think, IMHO. (The shop mode is a little bit bad in that area for instance.)
Don't worry, you've got all the time you want to do it. ;)
Feel free to fork Valyria Tear on github, and have a look at it, if not done already
I think I'll have to make hack conventions rather shortly to help in all that, but here are the vital ones:
- Tabs are accepted for now, but I'll change all that using a tool to use 4 spaces instead somewhere in the future.
- Never use: using namespace std; in new file, and remove them if you have the patience, since it's a very bad practice and is bad for the compile time.
- Never use: the defs.h file, use class x; ect at the beginning of your include file instead. The defs.h file is bad for compile time, and bad for the unlinking of the editor and the engine for instance, and last but no least, it shall perish somewhere in the future.
- Never include the big video.h if you can only include image.h, for instance.
The rest can be commented case by case, I guess. :)
I will open an issue for the third point on GitHub.
DeleteRead it and answered.
DeleteSpeaking of which, I fear we might have to keep the equip menu, as I can't come with something smart yet. I'll give it more time to think about it.
Also, sorry, but I can't add you as a collaborators on github, both as a user repo or an organization repo. Simply, because that would give you push access, something I'll retain under my evil dictatorship. ;>
Anyway, github permits you to create pull request from your repository.
The best way to do it will be to create a branch from master
make commits there, and add it remotely.
Then you can create the pull requests, and we can discuss it.
I can help if you're unsure about that.
Best regards,
Regarding the performance issue. It is only visible when I run the program in windowed mode, not on fullscreen. So I think it has something to do with OpenGl.
DeleteHowever, when I remember correctly, it was not the issue before even in windowed mode. I will try to find the commit where everything was smooth the last time. ;)
Once I have found it, I will start an issue on GitHub.
"Furthermore, the game crashes after some forth and back in the battle menu. I think this problem is old but I thought it is already fixed. However, maybe I find some time to have a look in the code by myself."
ReplyDeleteSorry, skipped that. Interesting, Could you open an issue on github and add how you do it? Thanks in advance.
I war trying to reproduce the effect. The first time I was facing the same problem, but in any later battle everything works fine. So I didn't open an issue yet. But I will keep my eyes open. ;)
DeleteOk, np. Anyway, I've got a second patch for the battle code making the command menu a bit more smart when speaking updating the enemy target and not stuck the player with ghost enemies. I'll push it asap.
Delete