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The Burgomaster
Available for Windows, Linux, and macOS [database entry]



A dark plague is consuming the town. One doctor is left to learn the truth, and try to find a cure.

Created for MAGS, in May 2018 ("Rats").
Story and graphics by Blondbraid.
Scripting and audio by morganw.




*** Includes recreations of the works of medieval painter Albertus Pictor, which may be viewed inside the church ***

I have been working on my entry together with Morganw and HandsFree about the black plague and the rats spreading the disease.

Unfortunately HandsFree was called into action elsewhere, but here is the entry from Blondbraid and myself.

The Burgomaster



Download from Game Jolt
Alternative download link (Windows)
Alternative download link (Linux)

Generally, this is when you have an Explorer window open, looking at that location, and that is locking the file.
If you just close that window, it should be okay.

The settings are now independent of editor version, and get upgraded to the next version (so what you set in 3.4.2 doesn't affect anything older). You can find the user.config file by running this at a command prompt:

Code: dos

dir /b /s %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\AGS\*user.config

Just delete it to reset the settings, although if you can send me a copy I'll double check what the settings are doing.

Is panel layout also saved to that config file?

...I may have confused it with the overall window positioning, so possibly not.

I think one of the panels is flagged as a main one, and if that is in a strange position it can make the others go wrong. The settings are now independent of editor version, and get upgraded to the next version (so what you set in 3.4.2 doesn't affect anything older). You can find the user.config file by running this at a command prompt:

Code: dos

dir /b /s %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\AGS\*user.config

Just delete it to reset the settings, although if you can send me a copy I'll double check what the settings are doing.

Of course they are... even if you didn't ask for one, if it's granted then it's for everyone (we're all in the same ship here, it leaves dock at the same time...) Even if some decide to throw their paddling boat in the water before time.

With that amount of nautical reasoning, I'll take your word for it.
I think you must be spending too much time in the pool...

Oh cool for the extension

The first post wasn't updated, so I wasn't sure if the extension was for everyone or not...

I borrowed some motives from a famous medieval artist, can anyone guess which one?

Is it Albertus Pictor?

Testing as well but is it worth (if feasible) having an editor setting to switch between old and new in case something unexpected pops up later?

Hmm... no. :/
It would be possible to restore the old one from the git history if something goes wrong. Then figure out how to make a switch in the engine.

I've found that switching between the engine builds can leave characters in a different position after walking, with the old pathfinder moving the character further (which was then causing a bounds check to fail). I probably need to re-test without the smooth scrolling module, but the difference in player.x was enough to cause me an issue.

I just had the same problem, but it was because the direction I chose from the auto-complete list was eDirectionDownRight, when I actually wanted eDirectionRight. So the loop number was always invalid, as I have no view/loop for facing diagonally.

It sounds quite similar to this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_apps-insider_other-insiderplat_pc/171341-build-have-so-many-bugs/60064892-1b85-4e85-a207-176c3b858468
Potentially, since it is affecting winsetup too, it is new automatic display scaling features which is breaking it.

If you search release notes for this version of Windows, it includes:

“Advanced scaling” has been added under Display and allows you to enable “Fix scaling for apps”

...so I'd probably try to find where you can fix the scaling for the game and winsetup, and try again without the XP compatibility mode.

using the built-in crossfade for any type of audio is going to keep the channel pointer valid?

Surely this.

Will have to test by trying to play a lower priority clip, because I don't think we should rule out getting null as the return.

The next thing I'm looking at (next month) are the templates and a test game, so I'll try and start with audio tests (since that was also the bit of the ScummVM port which I was looking at). I'm not sure if the behaviour that is confirmed is just for music tracks, but if max channels actually reserved each channel, what happens when it is greater than 1? Are we saying that music is special case, or that using the built-in crossfade for any type of audio is going to keep the channel pointer valid?

bx83, could you try defining a global audio channel and use that across both rooms? That should rule out pointing to the wrong channel as the problem.

I think to keep the the script pointer pointing at what you asked to be played (so you can set its volume etc), it would have to move what is playing to the crossfade channel, and then starting playing what is faded in on the (hopefully) original channel. So perhaps this channel is always id 2?

I don't think you can stay on the same channel if cross-fading, since you are playing two streams at once.

I think you are referencing a different channel sometimes, because you are storing the channel pointer in room_FirstLoad(), and then using it a later when the music may be on another channel. Setting max channels to 1 doesn't guarantee you are using the same channel again and again, just that (any) one channel will be available to use.

I think the biggest issue is probably the Windows licence for a server, which wouldn't be cheap to purchase outright, and still isn't cheap to get on a VM that you pay as you use. It might be worth looking at something like Vagrant, so the pre-requisites are automatically setup, anyone can download it to build, and then have somewhere to upload the build artefacts back. It wouldn't be continuous testing/building, but it would it would be server-less (and so free).

I think in the long run it would be good if all templates used the same assets, so it is more clear where differences in coding are linked to how the interface works. So I would say, don't use 'Default' and use something more representative of the mechanics that it implements ("Sierra-like" in the absence of a better description).

I wasn't sure what the overhead of creating the array was (I was looking to run this entirely in a script module, and so have no state to permanently store an array), so in the end I've defined case statements in a macro (all on one line), where each case returns an AudioClip. This seems to workaround it (when I import another AudioClip, I also add a case that returns it, and I just generate a random number to randomly get one).