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2626
General & Off-Topic / Re: Introduce Yourself!
« on: July 14, 2016, 05:00:22 AM »
Welcome, Shadowfury333!
I was always big on RTSs myself, but making a game and having a family at the same time sucks away pretty much all free time, so no play for me... TA and SC were always great, though
. Last I played was about 5 years ago when I introduced Supreme Commander to some students I was mentoring, and we had a lot of fun playing that on the net for a while. Even then we could only play so many games because a single match could stretch on for hours. Hadn't heard of Zero-K before!
Do stick around! It's gotten a little quiet around here this month, but that's because I was on vacation for a while and it pushed back the next release--normally we'd have some new toys to play around with by now
I'm a software developer by tradeAlso "seems to be a custom here"
I was always big on RTSs myself, but making a game and having a family at the same time sucks away pretty much all free time, so no play for me... TA and SC were always great, though
. Last I played was about 5 years ago when I introduced Supreme Commander to some students I was mentoring, and we had a lot of fun playing that on the net for a while. Even then we could only play so many games because a single match could stretch on for hours. Hadn't heard of Zero-K before!Do stick around! It's gotten a little quiet around here this month, but that's because I was on vacation for a while and it pushed back the next release--normally we'd have some new toys to play around with by now
2627
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #48 [Alpha 9] [Seed: Flying Lap]
« on: July 13, 2016, 05:49:52 AM »
So yeah, the seed name once again had me starting out considering the possibility of a speed run, but the right parts seemed elusive (okay I didn't try very hard ), and instead it ended up being a "real-time fast combat run" where I don't really think and just use whatever items are closest and take the first exits.
The first half of the game went really fast--the exits were practically jumping out at me. I had started out with a lot of propulsion slots in case I could start flying, but that didn't pan out and I ended up with legs most of the time. Legs and lots of heat sinks.
Then once I reached the upper Factory, the run started to slow significantly, like as much time in -5 as all depths before that, and a matching time at -4. It was obvious that I was getting into some dangerous situations that could easily end the run if I didn't at least watch where I was going
The -4 layout in this seed is especially tough, starting you out in a large dead-end region where the only way out (without tunneling) is a thoroughfare that passes right by two garrisons. I scouted the route with a bunch of drones.
...and expected things to get hairy. They did.
I managed to spear them all to death, rebuild from scratch, and jam both garrisons
While continuing the search for an exit, I still had to push through that thoroughfare, encountering multiple patrols at an intersection and thought I might be doomed:
But they all gathered close to the reactor and I hit it with my Fusion Cannon
Another stash of drones there on the floor confirmed the location of an exit around the corner, and I called a few of them over as I made my escape with lots more mad robots on my tail, and only 206 core remaining.
Unfortunately it didn't lead to Research (I really needed an evolution...); I was in no condition to start a branch run. Oh well, should've guessed that's where that particular exit would lead (high chance of a Sentry-guarded junction exit being connected to the caves).
With drone allies I survived a little longer than I otherwise would have, but this third patrol ate my lunch. I did spear a few of them to death first
Anyway, that's what I get for playing rather recklessly while still mega jet lagged and ready to fall asleep at any moment!
), and instead it ended up being a "real-time fast combat run" where I don't really think and just use whatever items are closest and take the first exits.The first half of the game went really fast--the exits were practically jumping out at me. I had started out with a lot of propulsion slots in case I could start flying, but that didn't pan out and I ended up with legs most of the time. Legs and lots of heat sinks.
Then once I reached the upper Factory, the run started to slow significantly, like as much time in -5 as all depths before that, and a matching time at -4. It was obvious that I was getting into some dangerous situations that could easily end the run if I didn't at least watch where I was going
The -4 layout in this seed is especially tough, starting you out in a large dead-end region where the only way out (without tunneling) is a thoroughfare that passes right by two garrisons. I scouted the route with a bunch of drones.
...and expected things to get hairy. They did.
I managed to spear them all to death, rebuild from scratch, and jam both garrisons
While continuing the search for an exit, I still had to push through that thoroughfare, encountering multiple patrols at an intersection and thought I might be doomed:
But they all gathered close to the reactor and I hit it with my Fusion Cannon
Another stash of drones there on the floor confirmed the location of an exit around the corner, and I called a few of them over as I made my escape with lots more mad robots on my tail, and only 206 core remaining.
Unfortunately it didn't lead to Research (I really needed an evolution...); I was in no condition to start a branch run. Oh well, should've guessed that's where that particular exit would lead (high chance of a Sentry-guarded junction exit being connected to the caves).
With drone allies I survived a little longer than I otherwise would have, but this third patrol ate my lunch. I did spear a few of them to death first
Anyway, that's what I get for playing rather recklessly while still mega jet lagged and ready to fall asleep at any moment!
Spoiler: Score: 9,648 (click to show/hide)
1602628
General & Off-Topic / Re: Introduce Yourself!
« on: July 12, 2016, 02:21:57 AM »hard to turn a blind eye that cities and dungeons are poorly, let's say, designed.Quite true. Really it feels like it was purely done with an algorithm without any design at all, though technically they did do some of the latter on top of the former. May as well have gone all the way at that point
Ah yeah, I guess I was thinking back to recent conversations with my dad, having just returned from visiting family. But I'm in a similar position, having had lots of issues from a young age. Theoretically surgery might solve some of them, but then not all surgery is successful, and can even make things worse, or cause other problems, so may as well let the body deal with things as it can and work around it. Fortunately I've never had any back issues, though, because those are the worst--hard to get around that... good luck with it!Quotethe human body simply didn't evolve to live for so long at full capability!Maybe, but I'm really youngit's more about healthcare in my country (operation is neccessary but getting it is pretty hard).
I have some questions and small issues, but I'm leaving home now, I would be back in few days. Thanks for nice welcome, KyzratiYep, and as always feel free to ask away when you can
2629
General & Off-Topic / Re: Introduce Yourself!
« on: July 11, 2016, 08:08:43 PM »
Hey Ved, nice to see you here
Working at excavation sites sounds fun. Too bad about the health issues... the human body simply didn't evolve to live for so long at full capability! I've got so many activities I can't do any more, but just have to keep finding new and different ones I can
Daggerfall is already pretty far into procedural territory! Though yeah it's too bad the dungeons aren't randomized each run, instead being generated and set during development--with some extra work it would've been possible to get the algorithm to generate dungeons that fit within their parameters while still being different for everyone. Maybe it was too processing intensive at the time, though, since they're 3D dungeons and it was the 90s...
Working at excavation sites sounds fun. Too bad about the health issues... the human body simply didn't evolve to live for so long at full capability! I've got so many activities I can't do any more, but just have to keep finding new and different ones I can
Daggerfall is already pretty far into procedural territory! Though yeah it's too bad the dungeons aren't randomized each run, instead being generated and set during development--with some extra work it would've been possible to get the algorithm to generate dungeons that fit within their parameters while still being different for everyone. Maybe it was too processing intensive at the time, though, since they're 3D dungeons and it was the 90s...
2630
Announcements / Proximity Alert: Developer Approaching!
« on: July 11, 2016, 07:48:33 PM »
I'm back! (original vacation notice)
Well, sort of.
Physically I've finally returned to my home office, though due to jet lag it'll be a little while before I'm ready to do proper work on Alpha 10. I hadn't slept for 46 hours before last night, when I crashed for 12 hours, so maybe that'll help reset my bioclock. Until then I'll be taking care of other residual effects of being away for a month, i.e. life stuff (including my hopefully final X-ray to confirm my shoulder is now healed).
By the end of the week I hope to have at least one new UI feature ready, but it's best to avoid doing too much work at first because when not at peak efficiency the chance of mistakes is higher, and the effort is often wasted because it introduces problems/bugs I have to spend time fixing later down the line, something I learned the hard way in my early years of programming
While on the road I made this:
"ASCII mode, for when you truly want to Be The Cogmind"
And also posted to the blog a big write-up on Inventory Management. It's mostly a review (and some analysis) of the available UI features that are related to inventory management, though at the end you'll find a quick mockup and discussion of the "full inventory" mode we were talking about on the forums some months ago:
Another thing I kept up was the biweekly FAQ Friday event over on /r/roguelikes, where I talked about Cogmind's Time System and Achievements and Scoring. There you can read about how some other roguelikes handle these things as well.
I have some big news coming up, but have to wait a bit before announcing it. (No it has nothing to do with Steam, just to get that out of the way)
Well, sort of.
Physically I've finally returned to my home office, though due to jet lag it'll be a little while before I'm ready to do proper work on Alpha 10. I hadn't slept for 46 hours before last night, when I crashed for 12 hours, so maybe that'll help reset my bioclock. Until then I'll be taking care of other residual effects of being away for a month, i.e. life stuff (including my hopefully final X-ray to confirm my shoulder is now healed).
By the end of the week I hope to have at least one new UI feature ready, but it's best to avoid doing too much work at first because when not at peak efficiency the chance of mistakes is higher, and the effort is often wasted because it introduces problems/bugs I have to spend time fixing later down the line, something I learned the hard way in my early years of programming
While on the road I made this:
"ASCII mode, for when you truly want to Be The Cogmind"
And also posted to the blog a big write-up on Inventory Management. It's mostly a review (and some analysis) of the available UI features that are related to inventory management, though at the end you'll find a quick mockup and discussion of the "full inventory" mode we were talking about on the forums some months ago:
Another thing I kept up was the biweekly FAQ Friday event over on /r/roguelikes, where I talked about Cogmind's Time System and Achievements and Scoring. There you can read about how some other roguelikes handle these things as well.
I have some big news coming up, but have to wait a bit before announcing it. (No it has nothing to do with Steam, just to get that out of the way
)
2631
Ideas / Re: Invert option for hold-shift mouse panning
« on: July 11, 2016, 07:32:11 PM »
Whoops, not sure how this post slipped by without me noticing xD
No problem, I'll put it in the options.
Shift-panning was originally added as is since this is how it works in strategy games, which was where the original feature request originated, from a player who wanted it to work like that. That said, the implementation is technically more akin to art programs in that the cursor is locked to a given map position (for increased precision), rather than continuing to scroll towards a border.
No problem, I'll put it in the options.
Shift-panning was originally added as is since this is how it works in strategy games, which was where the original feature request originated, from a player who wanted it to work like that. That said, the implementation is technically more akin to art programs in that the cursor is locked to a given map position (for increased precision), rather than continuing to scroll towards a border.
2632
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #48 [Alpha 9] [Seed: Flying Lap]
« on: July 09, 2016, 08:51:57 AM »
I'll be back soon . Wonder if I should try this one with an actual speed build...
. Wonder if I should try this one with an actual speed build...
2633
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #47 [Alpha 9] [Seed: Welding Warlock]
« on: July 07, 2016, 12:02:30 PM »I just wonder if I could've found some way to wear that lrn. sensor if I might not have died.Ha! I was thinking the exact same thing while looking at your list
I often end up in a similar situation, favoring combat over intel, though still carrying around spare parts for the latter... It's usually better to go all in one way or another, and focus on your strengths. In your case you were half-combat, half-speed, and that's an especially challenging way to play.
Propulsion and Utility are the safest first evolutions, for sure. You can wait on Power for a while as long as you carry spares to slot them in immediately.
2634
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #47 [Alpha 9] [Seed: Welding Warlock]
« on: July 07, 2016, 10:05:20 AM »
Welcome Xanthos! Things sure can fall apart quickly, and a big part of survival (really in almost any roguelike) is accumulating enough experience to predict situations like that before they occur, though of course there some you might lack the intel to fully analyze and end up fighting for your life
2635
Everything REXPaint / Re: Zooming issues in REXPaint
« on: July 03, 2016, 08:47:07 PM »
@gumix: Yep, same engine, same issue. Changing the dimensions requires a restart. The alternative is to have an external script (or something...) that can be run to shut down the program and restart it with the new settings, but that's kinda messy.
@Qydra: Excellent! You'll find lots of features and explanations that are only in the manual, since the in-RP help is pretty minimal. Especially check the hotkey list towards the end, since that will give you an idea of functions that aren't listed in the F1 menu which might do something you need.
@Qydra: Excellent! You'll find lots of features and explanations that are only in the manual, since the in-RP help is pretty minimal. Especially check the hotkey list towards the end, since that will give you an idea of functions that aren't listed in the F1 menu which might do something you need.
2636
Everything REXPaint / Re: Zooming issues in REXPaint
« on: July 03, 2016, 04:58:07 PM »
Dragging to resize isn't possible due to the architecture, no. And there's no bug there--it's working as designed. To see more of an image at once, use a different canvas size (possibly combined with a smaller font, if necessary), which you can set in the options menu (F2). As it indicates, restarting RP is required for a canvas size change to take effect. (Also know there are multiple methods for scrolling around images to see different sections of them.)
2637
Everything REXPaint / Re: mini-REXSpeeder for C++ v2
« on: July 03, 2016, 08:58:33 AM »
That's what I do . And it has the advantage of providing positional data as well. So now we have 8 extra layers for that!
. And it has the advantage of providing positional data as well. So now we have 8 extra layers for that!
2638
Everything REXPaint / Re: mini-REXSpeeder for C++ v2
« on: July 02, 2016, 09:09:37 PM »
Right, I wanted to keep .xp files to the bare minimum of data so they're really flexible. It's basically like building a roguelike where the font you use is independent of the game data itself. Of course, as one user has requested it would be nice to have a variable amount of space in the header for optional meta data, but I don't really want to mess with the structure, so it continues to remain as it was years ago...
2639
Everything REXPaint / Re: mini-REXSpeeder for C++ v2
« on: July 02, 2016, 06:05:28 PM »Ok, and how do you go from an integer index to a location in an arbitrary-sized sprite sheet? If the index is 300, it means very different locations for a 14x30 sprite sheet or a 100x200 sprite sheet...Good question. My intent would be to keep it as it is now, simply handled in row-major fashion. Using the current layout as an example: 0-15 on first row, 16-31 on second, and so on.
Also, my guess is the future UI would likely always have a width of 16, but with an arbitrary height accessible via vertical scrolling.
Really though, these are UI/editing considerations without any real impact on what is stored/read from an image, instead only determining how you might want to lay out a spritesheet itself, and interpret the indexes in the end-use program.
2640
Everything REXPaint / Re: mini-REXSpeeder for C++ v2
« on: July 02, 2016, 04:16:55 PM »Even if the rationale was future compatibility with arbitrary-sized sprite sheets,This is an eventual goal. The current restriction to 16x16 spritesheets is again only a UI limitation, and there is nothing internal to REXPaint that limits it to 256 characters. In Cogmind for example, the same underlying system uses hundreds more values than CP437 to mix multiple spritesheets together, they just can't be edited in RP itself.
So later on (with a more advanced UI), users would be allowed to specify as large a spritesheet as they want--it's actually the most requested feature so far since REXPaint's introduction
. This wouldn't have any impact on the specification, though, because images don't carry any spritesheet data, merely an integer index independent of whatever font is chosen.
2641
Everything REXPaint / Re: More layers than four?
« on: July 02, 2016, 03:37:32 PM »On behalf of library maintainers everywhere, thanks for removing the maximum layer count in REXPaint!Correct. In fact, there has never been a 4-layer limit in images! That was merely an editing limit in REXPaint, since the UI as designed couldn't list more than 4, but the file specification has always included a "# of layers" value which could be anything you wanted, for example for those users who might actually generate .xp images through some other means.
I tried to load a file with 50 layers (which I made with REXSpeeder), and it didn't crash. One seems to be unable to edit any layer past the ninth, though.
All I did was make it so that it's possible to list 9 layers in the REXPaint UI. More is fine as far as the image is concerned, but it's kinda pointless to allow it in RP until you can actually edit that many
2642
Competitions / Re: Weekly Seed #47 [Alpha 9] [Seed: Welding Warlock]
« on: July 01, 2016, 07:50:26 PM »
Haha, I predicted where I was going to die, even while still in wonderful condition, and sure enough I died there:
I was going for a straight shot to the surface, and aside from getting side-tracked in the Lower Caves for a bit, everything was going pretty well... then I suddenly found myself in -4 surrounded by four garrisons in close proximity. I really should've retreated and found/made another route, but I was in a hurry and decided I'd just try to blast through whatever showed up. That worked for a while, but in that kind of situation, reinforcements were too quick to arrive and I was eventually overwhelmed. Really should've gone another way
That spot I was standing on turned into a massive battlefield and I lost all propulsion, which was the biggest problem since I didn't have spares. As usual I may have still survived even then had I jettisoned parts and retreated quickly, but I'm stubborn (stupid) like that and usually try to fight it out anyway...
I was going for a straight shot to the surface, and aside from getting side-tracked in the Lower Caves for a bit, everything was going pretty well... then I suddenly found myself in -4 surrounded by four garrisons in close proximity. I really should've retreated and found/made another route, but I was in a hurry and decided I'd just try to blast through whatever showed up. That worked for a while, but in that kind of situation, reinforcements were too quick to arrive and I was eventually overwhelmed. Really should've gone another way
That spot I was standing on turned into a massive battlefield and I lost all propulsion, which was the biggest problem since I didn't have spares. As usual I may have still survived even then had I jettisoned parts and retreated quickly, but I'm stubborn (stupid) like that and usually try to fight it out anyway...
Spoiler: Score: 9,796 (click to show/hide)
2643
Everything REXPaint / Re: RLTK (Rogue Like Tool-Kit) now supports REXPaint
« on: July 01, 2016, 04:13:53 PM »
thebracket is correct in that there would never be support for Unicode, as the point is simply to use basic integers for sprite sheet indexes.
Literally minutes after you made your RLTK post today I released 1.03 including this!
I honestly can't see any reason for more than that, but if that layer number starts changing, it's a trivial fix - so I'm sure Pyridine or I will implement it.The specification includes an indicator for the number of layers in the file, allowing nearly unlimited layers (in theory, since you can't edit that many in RP). And just yesterday I added optional support for up to 9 layers in RP itself because already a number of users have asked for more than 4
Literally minutes after you made your RLTK post today I released 1.03 including this!
2644
Everything REXPaint / rex_sprite, Node.js module for loading and rendering .xp files
« on: July 01, 2016, 11:05:31 AM »
This has been around for a couple years, but I recently noticed the original disappeared from GitHub, and the developer hasn't been around for a while in his regular hangouts, so I recovered it via the Internet Archive and threw it up on my own server for safekeeping (and simply access!).
rex_sprite, by chiguireitor, is "a Node.js module for loading and drawing REXPaint sprites."
rex_sprite, by chiguireitor, is "a Node.js module for loading and drawing REXPaint sprites."
2645
Everything REXPaint / Re: RLTK (Rogue Like Tool-Kit) now supports REXPaint
« on: July 01, 2016, 10:16:05 AM »
Hey thebracket! I'll add it to the resources page, too.
2646
Everything REXPaint / Re: More layers than four?
« on: July 01, 2016, 09:33:31 AM »
Oh sure, that's an official part of the next release, and I'm just releasing these experimental executables incrementally . I don't like to do new proper versions purely for a couple new features, but actually this layer change is pretty big so I should probably do a 1.03 for it.
Edit: I just went ahead and made 1.03 official on the downloads page (no real need to get it if you already got the updated .exe, though).
. I don't like to do new proper versions purely for a couple new features, but actually this layer change is pretty big so I should probably do a 1.03 for it.Edit: I just went ahead and made 1.03 official on the downloads page (no real need to get it if you already got the updated .exe, though).
2647
General Discussion / Re: Welding Torch and Plasma Cutter
« on: July 01, 2016, 08:39:45 AM »
Welcome and glad you're enjoying it--good to have some fresh players coming in even while development is on this month-long hiatus
I see your other discussion here.
I see your other discussion here.
2648
Everything REXPaint / Re: More layers than four?
« on: June 30, 2016, 05:36:21 PM »
Hahahaha, so true... I hope the 125% increase will keep that time at bay for now
2649
Everything REXPaint / Re: More layers than four?
« on: June 30, 2016, 02:31:06 PM »
Done!
Just drop this .exe into your current copy of REXPaint and it should Just Work. (No official release for this yet--same version number.)
Update: I just made this available as 1.03 on the downloads page.
It is fully backwards compatible with existing images, and probably all the libraries contributed by others (assuming they implemented them to specification). More info from the updated manual:
And a demo:
Happy REXPainting!
Update: I just made this available as 1.03 on the downloads page.
It is fully backwards compatible with existing images, and probably all the libraries contributed by others (assuming they implemented them to specification
). More info from the updated manual:Quote
Extended Layers Mode
----------------------
While a single image may include up to nine layers, normally only the lowest four of those will be listed in the Layers window. To view more than that, click the 'E' or press Ctrl-Shift-l to toggle Extended Layers Mode, which will cover the Info window but allow as many as nine layers to be listed at once. If you're using hotkeys for layer control, those will still work as usual even if those layers are not currently visible in the list.
An '*' appears at the top right of the Layers window if an image contains more layers than currently listed, or it will instead show the layer number if a non-listed layer is currently active.
And a demo:
Happy REXPainting!
2650
Everything REXPaint / Re: More layers than four?
« on: June 30, 2016, 11:42:03 AM »
It's a useful feature that would obviously help more than one user out there, so I'll use some downtime today to get it in there. I've more or less finished adding the foundations for it, but next comes all the testing and making sure it plays nicely with all the other layer-related features (it currently crashes a lot, so it's obviously not done ).
Also, I'm not adding it in a hackish way--it'll be full-featured support for up to 9 layers.
).Also, I'm not adding it in a hackish way--it'll be full-featured support for up to 9 layers.