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Messages - DoorKnobHandle

#1061
Everything what Vince said. Nice adaption, though!

Plus, if you jump with UP, the guy gets animated while jumping (run-animation, but it looks good), if I press SPACE he just moves up without moving at all. That's probably a glitch.
#1062
How about playing songs from myspace.com?

Anyways, you're always free to play my tracks (link is in the signature).
#1063
General Discussion / Re: Amn't
Tue 17/06/2008 23:29:12
I like GA (General American) where no matter what you just add huh?... or the classy Canadians with their ey?
#1064
Quote from: Pumaman on Sun 15/06/2008 20:16:14
QuoteGot this when I deleted seven empty GUI buttons one after the other by selecting them through the list, then re-clicking on them and hitting DEL:
You got this with 3.0.1, right? It should already be fixed in 3.0.2.

Yep, sorry, must've missed the fix!
#1065
Got this when I deleted seven empty GUI buttons one after the other by selecting them through the list, then re-clicking on them and hitting DEL:

Quote from: error
Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Version: AGS 3.0.1.35

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at AGS.Editor.GUIEditor.bgPanel_MouseMove(Object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnMouseMove(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseMove(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Can't recreate it now, though.
#1066
For commercial games, yes there are license-issues with mp3. For non-commercial games it doesn't matter. You wouldn't use .jpg with AGS.
#1067
Music in mp3-format should not increase file-size that drastically unless you're thinking of several hours of soundtrack. So, if you can produce good sounding recordings, I'd say, go for the mp3-music. If your mp3s don't sound very good though (bad mic, bad pre-amp, bad mixing, whatever might be the reason), then go for midis.
#1068
It's all possible.

1.) You can play video files in full-screen with the script-command "PlayVideo" (see manual on how to use).

2.) You can use variables to track the player's "good-" or "badness" and then change the game outcome or whatever according to the value (read the bfaq on how to use variables).

Good luck and welcome.
#1069
3 things that would improve your art:

1. don't use ready-made effects/filters, they are easily recognized and, rather than helping make an image look good, make it look rushed and unprofessional (in your post above, I mean the emboss-effect on the bottom-tiles mostly - also most textures, wood and the book, seem to be created artificially?)

2. Use correct perspective (if you don't know how perspective works, ask google or something to get help, your tables and your stairs are especially out of perspective in the shot above)

3. Use correct lighting/shading (you have these torches on the wall, yet they don't seem to cast any light whatsoever, the room looks like it's illuminated by a white, global light - it really should be lit in a yellow/red fashion from the torches and possibly additional white lighting from the ceiling or something - don't forget shadows, they're a great tool not only to add realism but also atmosphere to your scene)

Not really worth a fourth point, but make sure to also pay great attention to your linework (in your newest room, the back-wall with the stairs doesn't line up with the tiles on the ground creating a double line which distracts and reduces the impression of quality).
#1070
Ha, yeah, I already deleted the demo again. It really has major flaws en masse. Like the walking-speed of the characters (newbie-mistake right there), the controls don't make much sense (really, who in the hell uses the keyboard to move around all edges manually and unintuitively, since controls don't work in camera-space, but in player eye-space, meaning the UP arrow doesn't not move the character up, but FORWARD no matter where he/she is facing - especially since mouse controls feature path-finding and thus really save time - necessary due to slow walking, again), awful and incomplete voice acting, awful graphics (textures are boring, level geometry is REALLY low-poly, seems like not much work went into these things, I think in 2001, they could've done better, or went 2D or partly 2D for backgrounds at least), WAY too many dialog-options (there's constantly like, 15-20 things to say - to everybody), bad GUI (using inventory items/switching characters is all really misleading) and bad camera-placing/-acting (you walk into a room and all of the sudden the camera switches to a different place and you're absolutely disoriented, not knowing where you came from or anything).

I remember the full-game to be a lot more enjoyable for some reason.
#1071
Ah, unbelievable, that was quick. Yep, that's it, thanks a lot!
#1072
I've just recalled playing this adventure game years ago, I'd like to know what it's called, maybe some of you can help me.

Hints I can give:

- the name had something like "time", "watch" or "clock" in it and "tower" (no, it's not the "clock tower" series, by the way)...
- it might have been commercial or free-ware
- I think it was 3d characters in 2d drawn backgrounds, this means it can not be THAT old, maybe '99, maybe later
- you were playing a man in some kind of mansion/big house
- the atmosphere was spooky without any blood
- only story-event I recall was standing in a garden and there was a glass-house thingie there and all of the sudden one of the glass walls were broken, nobody knew why

I hope this is enough, maybe I get lucky. I'd love to play this one again, I remember liking it.

Keep in mind that some of my hints might not apply 100% as it's been some time, if you think you have a game that almost fits the description, please post anyways. A wrong guess is no deal. :)
#1073
General Discussion / Re: Problem with mouse...
Sun 01/06/2008 15:28:19
Same problem here. On pretty rare occasions my mouse just jumps into a corner. Happens in games and in the OS equally. My mouse is kinda old as well, I think it's a common problem with older mice...

Nacho: why do you need money for a new mouse? Do you use really special ones? Because new optical mouses can easilby be bought from 15-25â,¬ IIRC. Or are you THAT poor? :p
#1074
@23-down: Heh, thanks a lot for the feedback. The maps are probably the thing that's (graphically speaking) the most behind. I will add lots of stuff there, I will redo the cliffs and add objects (houses, holes, you name it), possibly water and similar stuff, don't worry!

Graphical update:

The old GUI that you were able to see in most old screenshots was never made to stay, really, so I used the last days to whip up a new design in Paint. It's not yet implemented, just a mock-up so far, but I don't want to keep this from you:


The new redesigned GUI - this is still early work in-progress and will change most likely (colors will definitely change on some parts)...

Note that the middle part of the interface (the black space below the currently selected unit's class-name) is not filled yet, I'm still working out ways of how to display the unit's health (better called hitpoints) etc., I like those green wireframes from StarCraft, but I don't want to copy just ANYTHING from there, in fact, I really want to stay away from it as much as possible right now. If anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears. Also, I'll use the space to show possible upgrade-levels etc.
Also note that the resource-icons (currently blue and green minerals) will definitely still change once the actual in-game resources are decided and set in stone.
Oh, the cursor is updated as well and the new GUI effectively takes exactly 60px away from the on-screen battlefield which should raise the frame-rates slightly! :)

Additionally, I can announce that in the near future, I will be able to launch some more news and insight about the different races, (in addition on the former) the story,
the resources (and how to gather them) and additional information on the game-play. And the name of the game is finally going to be changed once the story is established (because I'd like the title to actually reflect the story a bit if possible). Stay tuned and let me know what you think of the GUI.
#1075
Quote from: EldKatt on Tue 20/05/2008 15:32:37
Quote from: dkh on Tue 20/05/2008 14:16:27
Definitely try to play your music on several systems (kitchen radio, bedroom radio, car, whatever), I suspect that if your music sounds good through normal pc-speakers, it should usually be okay for the rest and your problem is the radio.

What? Unless I'm missing something and "PC speakers" nowadays means "kick-ass monitors", I disagree firmly. Most of the stuff people call "PC speakers" or "computer speakers" (though the former, to me, has always meant the little speaker on your motherboard that makes beeps...) are pretty bad.

From my personal experience, if you're going to home-record a track and plug your guitar into a cheap pre-amp and then directly in your normal computer, completely normal computer-speakers (maybe not the cheapest ones of course) are perfectly fine and well enough. Kick-ass studio monitors only make sense if you have the right recording-equipment and expect a certain quality.

Anyways, let me describe two possible ways again (don't think I made myself too clear in my first post) on how to record guitars:

- buy "Pro Tools" by Digidesign (software) in a bundle with an MBox (hardware) and a microphone (350-700€), then use that to simply record your guitar-amplifier (of course, for this, you should also own a rather good amp and a room where you can turn it up and make it sound good etc.) This is the expensive and best-sounding way.

- or buy a guitar-interface. Basically a box where you can plug your guitar in normally and it's connected to your computer and it'll record for you into the program of your choice (such as AA). Those aren't too expensive (150€ upwards or something) and additionally usually offer a ton of digital effects and the like.

Of course, now that you have a recorded guitar-signal, there's a whole bunch of things you can do to it. Overdub, pan, EQ, add gates, add post-FX, harmonize, etc. This is a whole field of science with its own magic. Best to find some guides somewhere and/or play around with settings yourself as much as possible.
#1076
If your stereo-waves (left and right channel) are about equal on the computer and in the program, then it's the radio's panning. Maybe there's a knob somewhere that goes from left to right and it currently is turned more to the left or the right speaker is just broken.

So you plug guitar->fx->line-in (instead of mic-in) of your soundcard? Does that FX unit include a pre-amp? If not, then your signal is not amplified at all (there's a pre-amp behind the mic-in of your sound-card, but that one will suck for recording anything but voice unless you own a very good, dedicated card) and that is not good.

Currently, I use a Behringer V-Amp, which is a cheap FX-unit that does include a pre-amp and this works pretty good in between guitar and line-in. For better solutions, I can also play through my normal amp, place a mic (Shure SM57) in front of it, plug the mic->mic-preamp and then into the line-in of the soundcard.

Hope this helps a bit. Definitely try to play your music on several systems (kitchen radio, bedroom radio, car, whatever), I suspect that if your music sounds good through normal pc-speakers, it should usually be okay for the rest and your problem is the radio.
#1077
Quote from: Ben304 on Thu 15/05/2008 03:53:47
Micromanagement and having it as an essential part of the gameplay is an interesting thing - I find it can deter new players, but on the flip side it does add a lot of longevity to a game as players try to find new strategies/master established strategies.

That's absolutely true, I find it's best described by Blizzards game philosophy of making their titles easy to play, hard to master. This effectively means what you said there above - that you don't HAVE to micromanage your units in the most effective way in order to win, but once you start playing the game a little more, you actually notice the advantage you get from doing so.

Quote from: Ben304 on Thu 15/05/2008 03:53:47
After playing Revelation, which I found difficult first but very enjoyable once I had the hang of it (and sadly short[yeah, level editor, I know]), I'd say this is not a bad thing.

Heh, awesome, another one to play the game. :) Yep, it's real short unfortunately, I'm planning a second version though...

Quote from: Ben304 on Thu 15/05/2008 03:53:47
The idea of the different types of damage covers how you can help specify the units a unit is effective against, which is excellent. I never took into the consideration that you could use this sort of thing against buildings to define your primary base destroyers (silly of me, I know) so it sounds to me that all bases are covered.
I am just very glad that I am not the one trying to program this ;)

That part isn't all that hard actually, I define an enum eDamageType which contains all three possible states and an enum eUnitSize which contains all possible sizes (big, medium, small for example), then assign both enums as variable to each unit, set it according to what unit the instance actually is (on init of unit, a tank for instance gets the medium-size and explosive-type or whatever) and then, in the unit-function that handles dealing damage, I divide the damage-total according to the units that shoot/get hit. :)

Quote from: Ben304 on Thu 15/05/2008 03:53:47
Good work thus far, good luck for the continued development, and consider me one who is rather excited about this project of yours :).
By the way, the graphics look excellent, good stuff!

Thanks!
#1078
Great idea. I'm working on a sketch. I'll post my first reference here, for finding it again later... ;)


Click for full size...

EDIT: edited to follow new posting guidelines
#1079
Check brush settings->spacing. Set it to something smaller.
#1080
Quote from: Alarconte on Wed 14/05/2008 04:21:45
I'm having an orgasm.
It seems like original DUNE 2, and I loved.
My best wishes to your game.
Go forth!

Thanks, will do. :) By the way, I've not played very much of Dune (maybe first 2-3 scenarios), so I can't promise that it'll be very similar apart from the graphics (which mostly appear similar because of the strict top-down perspective and the sand-tiles which most of my screens are on).

Quote from: Alarconte on Wed 14/05/2008 04:21:45
I'nt know if your are already making this, but you have thinked in merge the RTS with adventure-like scenes? (As interactive cut-scenes to make trougth the military campaign)
Or campaing-map with enemy territory selection?

The story-mode is still undesigned. I'll think about different ways of implementing it. It might be a simple picture-background with scrolling text (DUNE-like), might be briefing-rooms (StarCraft-like) and it might be video-sequences (C&C-like) or a combination. Mixing RTS with adventure elements is unlikely at the moment, nice idea though, might be something for a next game with the "engine"... :)

Quote from: Ben304 on Wed 14/05/2008 04:53:08
The game looks and sounds great, and I do not mean to deter you at all - I'm just very interested in the "how"s of what you're working with.

Thanks for the feedback, you're not deterring at all. I appreciate your thoughts and they help me get a clearer picture of what I'm trying to do here too! :)

Quote from: Ben304 on Wed 14/05/2008 04:53:08
How exactly are you planning to implement this? Will it simply be a case of the weapon doing more damage? [...]

Yeah, this is a very important part of the game. The rock-paper-scissors-scheme (by the way, there might be a few more units around that scheme to make it a little less obvious) will be implemented by these unit-factors:

* Damage (as you said)
* Attack frequency
* Moving speed (as you said)
* Attack abilities (ground only/air only/both)
* Price and build-time
* Attack range (some units shoot further etc., there might also be minimal ranges for some units, tank for example)

Let's take your example of one tank vs. a group of marines. Now, first of all, this is very micro (short for micromanagement, meaning: having exact control over your units, like in an action-game almost) comes into play. With bad micro, you would have all your marines (take 4-5) in one group very close to each other approach the tank. The tank would fire and kill most marines (due to splash-damage) with the first shot. Say two marines survive with half hitpoints, they'll be able to come into gun-range and fire a bunch of rounds damaging the tank slightly until the slow-reloading tank fires again and possibly again and that's it. Not much danger there.
If we go through that again, with good micro this time, the attacking player would attack the tank either from multiple angles or simply spread the marines out a bit so they are not running/standing next to each other, this time the tank could only hit one marine at a time. The attacking player would not attack until the marines a very close to the tank, so close that it can't hit the marines anymore due to the minimal attack range. The marines now have a good chance of killing the tank.

Another, shorter example, marines versus the bikes. With bad micro, the bikes would engage the marines in a standing position, without making use of their phenomenal speed. Still, the bikes are infantry-killers, but if there are enough marines and few enough bikes, they might at least take some serious damage. Good micro would mean exactly what you describe in your post (where good StarCraft players will kill zealots with goons simply be letting them shoot once and then move away, because they are faster as long as the zeals are not upgraded), so the bikes would shoot and then quickly move a few tiles away, only to hit again quick, reloading on the way.

If all the factors above are not enough to ensure that the system works, I will also include a damage-type. Much like in StarCraft, there would be "normal", "concussion" and "explosive". Weapons with "normal" damage would give 100% against all units, "concussion" means 100% against small units (marines, workers) and only 50-75% against bigger ones and "explosive" means only 50-75% against smaller units and 100% against bigger ones. Tanks would have explosive damage, meaning big units (bikes, buildings, other tanks etc.) take full damage, but marines (small units) for example would not be damaged as much, in fact they might survive one hit, making them even more dangerous. Bikes would get "concussion" damage, dealing full damage against infantry, but not nearly as much against tanks/buildings etc.

It's my ultimate target gameplay-wise to not allow successful massing-one-unit-strategies.

This is the plan so far. :)

Again, thanks for the continuing feedback, that's very inspiring - keep it coming!
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