[CANCELLED] By the Sword: Conspiracy

Started by TerranRich, Wed 23/10/2002 19:29:09

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TerranRich

I should change skill to difficulty level. Quest for Glory IV used a "Skill" setting, so I just borrowed that idea from them. I guess difficulty would make more sense. Also, 100 is hardest, and 1 is easiest. The higher the skill level, the harder the game, but the more rooms and features you get to see. The lower the skill level, the easier the game, but the less you see out of the game.

There are many big differences later on in the game. I won't spoil anything, but people should try two very different skill levels with the final game. :)
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

remixor

I really like the difficultly level thing (although that's got to be a bitch to beta test--wait a sec, I signed up to beta test.  crap!), but I think perhaps you should separate it into several graduated levels instead of a percent.  I wasn't really sure what I should put in, so I sort of chose one at random.  I don't know how many subdivisions you have, but I'm sure there aren't 100 of them.  Perhaps you could have 5 (or however many) difficulty levels from which to choose?
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Kweepa

Another RON game!

Nice work so far.
There's a lot of subtle humour in there, and some nice reactions. I was impressed when

Spoiler

I picked up the antigrav unit, then looked at the computer, and he said, "oh it's just the antigrav unit I got from behind those barrels".
[close]

Really adds to the atmosphere.

Why is Ron's portrait not smoothed, and why does he not have a background?

Also, how did you do that "loading" screen?

Cheers,
Steve
Still waiting for Purity of the Surf II

GarageGothic

QuoteIt seems I might have to re-think the force field frequency puzzle thing. You're right, it is a very large range. Maybe a smaller range? Because the closer you get to the right frequency, it's supposed to disrupt the forcefield more and more. I'll reduce the range by a large amount and re-release it.

Well, I suppose you meant the static to be more intense the closer you get to the frequency? The thing is that it isn't really visible, I couldn't tell the difference. Especially since it takes so long to use the communicator that it isn't really possible to do before and after comparisons. Maybe some sort of dial to turn would be a better interface - and you could add a sound, so the pitch gets higher the closer you get to the right frequency or something (6 different looping tones wouldn't add much to the file size).

I've been looking forward to this game, but that puzzle almost turned me off it. I'm looking forward to cheat my way past and get on with the game.

Pet Terry

#64
Duh! Call me stupid, but I can't solve those puzzles :P In the lounge room I've tried:

Spoiler
Blue
Red
Grey
Pink
Yellow
Orange
...because that's the most logical way according the ice cream menu :)
[close]

And about that paper pieces puzzle...

Spoiler

I'm not sure if the number is 976W8ZH97J ? I've tried putting that in first room's console and to the second console... I don't know. I even tried to read the paper upside down, but it didn't work...
[close]

I can't remember which skill level I chose... I think it was 100, but I'm not sure :P
<SSH> heavy pettering
Screen 7

big brother

#65
Has anyone noticed that  the main sprite becomes larger in size when he walks (particularly in side view)?
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remixor

Probably just a slight sprite scaling problem.
Writer, Idle Thumbs!! - "We're probably all about video games!"
News Editor, Adventure Gamers

GarageGothic

#67
I noticed it mostly in the behind view, when going from standing to walking. Actually I think it's a Poser problem, depending on how the camera is set relative to the body parts.

Example: If the camera is set in a fixed distance to the part closest to the camera, when the character walks towards the camera, his foot will be closest, and due to perspective, his body will become smaller than when he's standing normally. If, on the other hand, the camera was set in a fixed distance to the hip, you wouldn't see any difference in height.

But yes, of course it could be fixed by scaling.

Edit: Thinking about it, the side view shouldn't have this problem - that might be related to a different camera distance being used for that view.

Edit2: Talking about rendering and such, am I the only who thinks that more attention could be paid to lighting the backgrounds? They seem very bright and flat, which is really a shame when you've gone through the trouble of building it all in 3d. I suppose it works ok for a space ship full of fluorescent lights, but if you have different locations later on, maybe you should work on some more atmospheric lighting setups.

TerranRich

#68
EVERYBODY: I've discussed this with Vel, and I am going to change this in the re-release of the demo: The voicechip number is 5-G. The voicechip BIN number is the number on the piece of paper. I realize now that it's too confusing to bother with, so I'll have Ron automatically enter in the "5-G" part on his own.

As for the forcefield puzzle, I'm going to make it easier to keep trying different frequencies. Instead of having to open up the inventory, then interact with the communicator, I'll just have it keep asking you for a new value, until you get it right, or enter 0 to cancel. I will also reduce the range of frequencies a lot so that it is easier. I realize that I made it way too difficult.

As for the skill level, there are points in the script where it checks for a random value, like "if SKILL<50", "if SKILL>=75", or "if SKILL>80", but yeah I could change that so that there are five different tiers of skill levels. This will mean redoing the entire first chapter whenever the skill level is checked, but that's okay. It will also mean writing out a list of features for each skill tier, what rooms will and will not be shown, what characters will and will not be present, etc.

So the code you entered in the lounge terminal doesn't work, Petteri? The following:

Spoiler
blue, red, white, violet, yellow, orange
[close]

SHOULD work, and worked for me.

As for the bin number on the piece of paper, that is randomly generated each time you start a new game, so whatever you type down can't be verified. :P

Finally, as for the walking views, I just noticed that the side walking views look larger than the still walking views. I will have to re-render all those animations in that case. Oh well. :P
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

remixor

Quote from: terranRICH on Sat 18/10/2003 18:46:41As for the skill level, there are points in the script where it checks for a random value, like "if SKILL<50", "if SKILL>=75", or "if SKILL>80", but yeah I could change that so that there are five different tiers of skill levels. This will mean redoing the entire first chapter whenever the skill level is checked, but that's okay. It will also mean writing out a list of features for each skill tier, what rooms will and will not be shown, what characters will and will not be present, etc.

I didn't mean that.  I meant you could just have five tiers and in the script itself, those could be equal to maybe 20, 40, 60, 80, 100.  There would be no need to adjust the script but it would be more manageable for the player, I think.  Obviously you have better insight on what values to use; I was just giving examples.  If this doesn't work for some reason, though, never mind ;)
Writer, Idle Thumbs!! - "We're probably all about video games!"
News Editor, Adventure Gamers

Timosity

Just out of interest, I had the same trouble as Petteri, where do you find the code '5G' I couldn't find a reference anywhere for it.

Spoiler

Is it actually possible to finish this demo, I think I have done everything, I've even unlocked the pod, but it tells me I have no reason to leave the ship even though I know I'm heading for a star, and I've seen the hologram. I also can't use the release button as the bug I mentioned earlier.

Another little thing I noticed earlier with the messages, on the easier level, in the room where the ice cream note is lying next to the guy, if you get the note then try to search the guy it says something like, there is something in plain view to the right of him, when you already have it.
[close]

As for the difficulty levels, as remixor said, you don't have to change all the code, all you have to do is have, say 5 buttons labeled Easy - Hard and when you choose one it just sets that value to 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and bingo, problem solved

TerranRich

When you look at the viewer in the main bridge, does Ron say that you have to get off the ship? If not, then you didn't attempt to alter the course of the ship.

Ron's face doesn't have a background because I messed up his portrait and didn't bother to fix it. I will fix it, however, in the future.

Tim, I'll fix that message in the re-release, I must've overlooked that. Thanks. :)

It might not be able to finish this demo, but the re-release should be fixed.

I'll re-do the skill levels for the finished version, but not for the re-release. You'll have to deal with 1-100 for now. :P

The "5-G" code can be found in the intro. Players WERE expected to pay attention, but from this point on I'll have it done automatically, don't worry.

The lighting on the ship is supposed to be flat. This way, once you see the outdoor rooms, you'll be amazed at the refreshing difference. :) Chapter 2 is meant to be a refreshing change of scenery.

Anything else? :)
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

TerranRich

WONK!

The re-release has been...released!

DOWNLOAD HERE!!!

I fixed every single bug and error mentioned above and on IRC except details to be fleshed out in the final release.

Enjoy! (And yes, it's still 18.6 MB large, sorry.) :P
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

Timosity

#73
Ok, I finished it, well I think so, cause it just crashes at the end with an error that says something similar to 'unable to load room37.crm, check that it's in the game folder etc'

Spoiler
There are still most of the same errors:
the chair at bottom left at the table in the captains quarters, if you walk to that corner your feet are way below the base of chair and you are still standing behind it.

the top menu still dissappears on quite a few occasions:
*if you look at an inventory item, while the picture is on the screen, if you then move the mouse outside the picture and click, the picture dissappears and doesn't return to the inventory, thus causing the menu gui to still be off.

(the best way around this is to disable being able to click outside the picture, so you always have to go back to the inventory)

*when you restore a game it is still missing, I had this problem once and it was to do with saving a game rather than the retore part, but I don't know how you've done it.

*after you press the open hangar button it dissappears

*after you disguard the voice reader thingy it dissappears

(this probably happens on other occassions aswell, just check every inventory item you interact with and make sure you return to the inventory after the messages are over, and if not make sure you turn the menu gui back on)



also if you play the easy version and you already have the icecream code, and you interact with the man on the ground, it still says it is in plain view but it's not cause you already have it.

some less important things, there seems to be a lot more waiting time after, and in between display speech's (you can probably adjust the text speed, but that doesn't speed up the wait command, and I was playing at nearly full speed) and the text was so small it was hard to read, even in full screen mode (maybe it's a temp thing casue of the ttf font bug)
[close]

The other stuff seems fixed.

Is there an end to the demo or does it just end when it tries to load the missing room?

TerranRich

That's it, Tim! You've finished the demo. ;D

Errors:
base of chair in captain's room: forgot to fix that, sorry, will do
could you explain the menu disappearance a little more? which menu disappears? the inventory or the pop-up gui?
i think certain inventory interactions cause the inventory gui to disappear, and that's on purpose. i'll change them
interact with man should be different: forgot about that, too, sorry, will do later

Well, I was told that not having the lo-res speech font be enlarged would look better. Guess it doesn't, sorry

Also, the waits between displayspeeched are on purpose. it's supposed to play like a movie, where there are dramatic.....pauses. :P

And yeah, it just ends when you get that missing room error. I didn't think it was imperative to have a real ending, since it's just a demo. :)
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

Timosity

Quote from: terranRICH on Fri 24/10/2003 15:25:49could you explain the menu disappearance a little more? which menu disappears? the inventory or the pop-up gui?

It's the pop-up gui at the top of the screen that disappears. (so you can't access the inventory, or other menu's at the top of screen, unless you press TAB, F5 etc)

eg. if you look at an inventory item, you get a big picture, if you then move the mouse outside that box and click, the picture goes and so does the inventory gui (which is supposed to happen) but you've just not turned the pop-up gui back on.

This seems to be the case every time you leave the inventory window, when you HAVEN'T clicked on the bottom right button to exit it.

eg. after you throw away the voice reader thingy, you have performed the action from within the inventory, but you never return to the inventory (so at the point that action is complete you just need to add GUIOn(pop-up);)

It is also missing when you restore a saved game, even if it was on when you saved it.


(so what happens is, when you turn on the inventory GUI, you've turned off the pop-up GUI, but the ONLY time it gets turned back on is when you click the bottom right button of the inventory GUI)

I hope that's clearer.


Quote
Also, the waits between displayspeeched are on purpose. it's supposed to play like a movie, where there are dramatic.....pauses. :P

I thought that might be the case, that's fine

Quote
And yeah, it just ends when you get that missing room error. I didn't think it was imperative to have a real ending, since it's just a demo. :)

Yay, I finally finished chapter one.


Just play the game, look at an inventory item, move the mouse outside the boundaries and click. Then try to access the pop-up gui, then everything will be clearer.

Good luck

~Tim

Sockmonkey

terranrich-

The character animations are wonderful. Might I ask what software was used to create them?

http://www.sockmonkeygame.com

"Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room." -Sir Winston Churchill

TerranRich

Tim: Ah, okay, that's clearer, thanks. I'll have to check that out and fix those instances. Thanks :)

As for the saved games, that's an AGS bug, because I use the default AGS GUI for save/load games. I'll report it to CJ. :)

I really don't know what to do about the clicking-outside-the-closeup-GUI problem. Maybe I should report that one to CJ while I'm at it.

Sockmonkey: I used Poser for the people and Bryce for the backgrounds. I'm redoing everything in Poser 5 because of its new renderer, so watch out for the final version! :)
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

Ciro Durán

Quoting from a message earlier in this thread (posted about a year ago)...

Quote from: terranRICH on Fri 01/11/2002 04:57:20
And yes, I do believe I can finish it in 2-3 months' time. I am working very hard on it, getting all the kinks out now before I run into problems later. Once I work out a system of using true/false flags for certain situations and determining whether or not the player did something or figured out something, then I'm sure everything else will be quite easy.

At the most, I figure 5-6 months. Still not that long, I hope. :)

lol... guess we all estimate our times wrong :)... I saw the intro and it's impressive, terran, your game looks quite pro with the rendered images... good work :D

TerranRich

Wow. Yes, I am still working on By the Sword, although it's tough beccause of school and work and homework and stuff.

I made a brand-new web site, still being worked on, at www.rain-day.com/harbinger

I am STILL re-doing the characters as well as teh graphics for the first chapter. I really don't know when this game will be finished. No more deadlines, though; it'll be finished when it's finished. :)

The demos aren't uploaded yet, but they will be in good time.
Status: Trying to come up with some ideas...

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