AGS 2.56a RC1 available for testing

[Pumaman]

evilspacefart: it's a beta version, the template it not included - just copy it across from 2.55

eVOLVE: oops... well spotted. I'll get it fixed.

[evilspacefart]

doh! I forgot about that. thanks

[auhsor]

I think the template should be included, cos a few people have had trouble with it. Or maybe there is a reason for its lack of presence.

[Privateer Puddin']

i brought this up at mittens

[Gilbert]

Hmmm In my opinion It depends. As beta versions are meant to be for testing purpose only, so it's not for everyone in the public. By downloading and using a beta version you should be absolutely sure that you know what you're doing yourself (that bugs could remain, backup old games and such and such etc., of course I don't mean final releases are bugless).

However, the main problem is that most users, when they make their games, just want to use whatever version is the newest, as they think that newest versions must be betterest, that imposes a danger that they use a buggy version for making their game, and there are rare circumstances that (though it's really rare, but happened before) they made their games in a broken version which the produced cant even be converted correctly to work for a bug fixed version of the engine released later.

So I think that the files in a beta release should not be complete, so not to encourage people to really make a game with such versions.

Of course, leaving out the template files won't stop much people from doing silly things (updating game files without backup), but at least it's done its best to prevent (you won't be able to create a new game with it unless you know what you're doing).

If you're the one who know clearly what you're doing and is willing to test a beta version, you can copy the template from an older stable version already, so you can "fix" this problem yourself (unless of course, that the file format had changed and using an old template won't work).

[Pumaman]

Aye, the reasons for the template not being included are twofold:

1. it decreases the size of the beta zip file, which saves time and bandwidth.

2. more importantly, it discourages people from using beta versions. However, it's probably not the best way to do this, since generally most people will want to start a new game with a beta to test its features, rather than using their existing game.
Maybe I will include it in future betas... depends on whether I remember really

[Gilbert]

Maybe when you use a beta version and load a game created with previous version, Add a "update game file?" dialog with the warning:

WARNING: You are using a beta version of the Editor to load a game create by a previous version of AGS, Pumaman would not be responsible for any problem possibly caused by this act, either your game files are all broken, your computer explodes, your dog eats your hand, or you just dies.
It's recommended that you backup your game files first.
If you still want to load the game, click "load game anyway", otherwise, click "cancel" to get out of this mess.

[Cancel]  [Load Game Anyway]

[Pumaman]

Good idea Gilbert, I'll look into it.

Anyway, 2.56a is now released, so discussion can continue there.