Messages

I am already a friend with Ryan.

Yay!! 

I do not like playing MP games online, but you can friend me on Xbox Live

So is this why I haven't played Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 with you yet?  Damn you.....   

Yes I understand how tiled games work, I just didn't understand how promotion worked with the merging of all the individual tiles into one long sprite; plus I kept reading your post wrong.

I especially didn't understand why he'd be using CreateFromExistingSprite when I think it should be CreateFromDrawingSurface to make the newly cropped tile.  Wouldn't it be more on the CPU to store it the memory and then remove it for a cropped one?

This:

Code: ags

DynamicSprite* sprite = DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile("tilestrip.pcx");
if (sprite != null) {
  DrawingSurface *surface = sprite.GetDrawingSurface();
  int i;
  while (i<tileAmount) {
    tile[i] = DynamicSprite.CreateFromDrawingSurface(surface, i*16, 0, 16, 16);
    i++;
  }
  surface.Release();
  sprite.Delete();
}

Instead of:

Code: ags

DynamicSprite* sprite = DynamicSprite.CreateFromFile("tilestrip.pcx");
if (sprite != null) {
  int i;
  while (i<tileAmount) {
    tile[i] = DynamicSprite.CreateFromExistingSprite(sprite.Graphic);
    tile[i].Crop(i*16, 0, 16, 16);
    i++;
  }
  sprite.Delete();
}

Would that even make a noticeable difference with, let's say, 500 tiles?

Well then it isn't a tile anymore, they're combined tiles to make individual image strips.  Pretty much breaks all reasons of using tiles in the first place, doesn't it.

Oh, so the images are stored in a text file and then created in AGS?  Otherwise I don't know why you're using CreateFromExistingSprite instead of CreateFromFile.
And if you are creating the image from a text file, you could also use SaveToFile instead of having to recreate them every time you start the game.


If I were to store a bunch of images, in memory in an organized fashion, I would do this:

Code: ags

enum eTileNames {
  ground,
  wall,
  platform, 
  water
};
#define tileAmount 4
eTileNames tileNames;
DynamicSprite* tiles[tileAmount];

//that way you can use
tiles[ground]=whatever...

And if I was using SaveToFile instead, I would change the array to a string and save the filename in it instead of the graphic.
Or am I still way off base here on understanding what you're asking for?

Nelly Cootalot is 640x480 resolution.

Why are you getting a sprite by using CreateFromExistingSprite and storing them?  Are you modifying them?

If you're not modifying them, just use DrawImage without storing them.

I've had this game crashing error twice now.  I'm not sure if the two messages were exactly the same, but they were both memory issues.  This one said:
Error: Out of memory: failed to allocate 69632 bytes (at PP=1004)

I'm not sure if it's my end or the game/AGS itself.

Just because I really enjoy the game and definitely enjoy the challenge, I just gotta say this.... HA!  Beat this score!

Edit: Just beat the 59.1 with a whopping 50.5!!  My goal is to get the impossible 40.0.

Man, on this one game I sunk 5 balls on the first break and couldn't even get under a minute... it was one of the worst aiming games ever, mostly because once I sunk the 5 balls, I was too excited to focus properly.  If I was playing top notch that game, I would have definitely scored less than 50 seconds.

Right on!  I've already started playing it!  Got a high score of 1.08.5.  I can post a screenie if you'd like to see some proof!  

Also not sure what happened in the one game of Time Attack I was playing.  I quickly broke the triangle then a ball hit me.  I was pushed near the bottom center hole and a ball sunk.  A message popped up saying "FAILED! KNOCKED IN A BALL!".  The cue ball is still on the table too.  Weird.

Edit: I figured it out.  It happens when a ball bounces off your ship and into the pocket.  It adds to the opponents side, even though you're in Time Attack. 
Also Beat my score again.  I'm now at 1.06.4.

[Xbox 360:]

Xbox 360: Unknown Quest

I've been playing some Left 4 Dead 2 lately.  Definitely not as addicted to the two games as everyone seems to be.  But I do go online and play it once in a while.

I'm also looking to get some of those challenging achievements like killing a Tank with only Melee weapons.  The whole team gets the achievement, unless they've already done it, obviously.  Or some achievement of creating a team and beating the opponents, but I haven't looked into the specifics of that achievement yet - I'm not quite sure what it's about.

I had real fun with it, until I discovered a trick which made the game really easy,

Yeah I took advantage of that when I was playing the other day too!  lol  I didn't know how he could possibly change it, so I never mentioned it.

I totally agree with having some kind of Royal Rumble mode or timed mode.  So that you literally have to fly through it to sink all the balls under a time limit, with or without the computer players.

AGS will crash if you make it run a single loop more than 15,000 times, just to warn you incase you forsee jumps of that size.

You could always use: noloopcheck  (check it up in the manual)
But just as the manual says, you should never use this unless you actually need a loop to run more than 15,000 times.

Oh my bad, I hadn't noticed that you had created a completed games thread.  Otherwise I wouldn't have been flooding up the MAGS thread with all that ramble of mine.

Anyway, anyone who respects programming, or Non-Adventure games in AGS, or even just anyone who wants to play a fun little game... play this!
Indy games with scripting like this always make me smile.

Great game guys!  I loved every moment of it.  Some amazing voice work too.

Some small issues I've noticed in my quick playthrough, but nothing serious.

Spoiler

-hotspot at the base of the left tree is glowing like it was supposed to be glow for his eyes.  Only a small region too.
-holding the branch while looking at it or the tree will cause the player to go invisible You just fixed it.
-She uses Glowworm in the dialog when she picks it up but it says Glow Worm when you hover over the item (or it was looking at the item).
-interacting items with the grave and acorn on the ground result in "I don't see how that would help." without voice.

[close]

Amber has a great voice, I enjoyed listening to her.
Also I take back my negative feelings of those pre-rendered falling rain, snow and leaves.. they look completely fantastic.

Tick Tock.. Great lines for him, and voice too.

You are allowed to use old stuff.

Without the ability of using any material that's already been used in a completed game, unless you were making a sequel?
Is that the rule?

Because I've got some games I haven't completed with a bad plot but some resources that I wouldn't have any issues with using again.  Perhaps I'll join up if I think of a good idea.

Just give me a little time to work out what the old fashioned way is.

It's a pistol dual at dawn.  Sounds reasonable to me.

If you want the source code, it's available here:
http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/tech/SpacePool.zip (750KB)

Either I've accidentally modified some script, or there's a serious issue with AGS 3.2.0.99 running your game files, it just sits there with the pool table background while playing that lovely music with a blank screen until you hit a key.  Then it loads up the menu, and you can't see the enemy ship at all, even during gameplay.  Weird.

You didn't even use a bloody hotspot (I don't blame ya, I wouldn't have either)... I wouldn't know where to start to add region pixel detection.

Love the new modifications, didn't expect to see them at all - or at least this quickly.  Here's more while I'm at it:
-The funny info boxes about the opponents display too quickly for me to read without quickly skimming them - a press key to continue would be great.
-A beautiful 3.. 2.. 1.. GO! counter after the display box would also be radical.  That way you can get your bearings and have a chance at a good head start.
-You can control the direction of your ship while the opponent info box is being displayed.  Seems like cheating to me.
-Now that you've implemented the stalling ship once you've hit your opponent while having the cue ball, the computer doesn't know to avoid me now.  Or at least not the first guy, he drove right into me losing control and the ball.
-The computers seem to take off quite slowly in most cases.  I just have to hammer down on the forward thrust and ram my way to the cue ball.  Especially at the start up.
On a side note: I love that I can ram them while they're a few pixels away from the ball and cheat my way into grabbing it.  It's my favorite part of the game.   Especially running them into the other balls and momentarily shutting down their ship.  It adds a completely different goal and method other than to just hammer down on the throttle and get the cue ball.
-And to be super picky... the 7 ball looks like a backwards F!!  How can anyone take this game seriously now? 

My favorite graphical element is definitely the randomly rotating lines of exhaust.

Too bad I have to work soon, all these new games are flooding in and I am excited to play them!

Steve, your Space Pool game is the only one I've played so far at this moment, you've got some talent man.
I would love to have my hands on a physics module with balls like that, interacting with each other, that work on uneven terrain like a drawn region.  //hint

There were some slight issues, some you obviously know about, and some that you may not.  And just some suggestions.
-You can knock balls in by pushing opponent's ship into them, you never even need to release the ball to win a game. You shouldn't be able to hit them at all while you have the que ball.  Because you can always throw them off into a far corner before you take your shots, giving you tons of time to slowly crawl over and collect the ball.
-Your ship can still collect the que ball while flashing red and drifting.
-You can't collect the que ball if you're sitting on it once it stops moving, you have to leave it, and then return.
-Leaves a faint AA green quite often.

Great stuff.  Hopefully I'll get around to playing all entries... Dual, when does voting start and finish?

There's a bad error report when you miss the double equals sign with Random, like so:

Code: ags

if (Random(3)=1) {
}

It results in the error message:

expected semicolon after ')'

Definitely not a horrible issue, just figured I'd mention it.

Isn't it supposed to be the power rangers, especially with the yellow and pink having titties now.