First release "candidate"

[Bertram]

Hi all,

This is not entirely true, since I don't see this version as a candidate but rather as a good preview of the job done.

A first windows installer can be found here.

For the linux ones, you'll still have to clone the repository to be able to play the game.

I'm taking the opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the best for the year coming.

The development effort on fixing the needed gliches here and there and bringing new features will have to wait a few days, before taking its full shape again.

Best regards,

Yohann

[qubodup]

FYI: The link spawns

Sorry, we are unable to scan this file for viruses.

The file exceeds the maximum size that we scan. Download anyway

(just pointing that out in case you want to avoid this in the future, which for example should be possible by using github.com's gratis file hosting options.

[Bertram]

Hi qubodup,

The dowload facility of github has been deprecated on december the 11th and will be disabled in something like 90 days if I got it right.

So, unfortunately, it's no more an option.

Best regards, and all the best for the new year coming.

[Zabin]

Hey Bertram,

I played through your game yesterday (thanks for the Christmas present ) it took me 2-3 hours and I must say good job! I really like how you used Saphy's Tall grass as an in game object, thats amazing! I have to write her and let her know about this, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to see it in game. I'm happy I helped you get that into your game Anyways, good job mapping the forest. I also liked the trigger puzzle you have in the caves. I made it to the second part of the cave where there is a giant rock blocking the door so I figured that was the end of what you've made so far.

I think everything you've done so far is great! I haven't notice any bugs, the only thing I have to comment on in regards to what might need changing code-wise is kinda my own opinion anyway but I figured I'd mention it. You probably know about this, when you use a potion with one of the characters their next move the option is still on the potions instead of reverting back to attack. I just got into the habit of clicking "f" and accidentally used a potion when I didn't mean too. Which is no big deal because the monsters gave plenty of drunes, so I had abundance of potions to waste. Good job with the balancing, I think I got up to lvl 7 or and had noticed the damage increase every lvl up.

Thanks for such an epic game Bertram, you too Roots and everyone else involved :-]

[Bertram]

Hi Zabin,

Thanks for the nice comments and for the playthrough!

I'll still be fixing a few glitches in the same story point release along with keeping up development of it all thanks to the help
of Ikarus, Codergreen and Roots,
so I hope to still fix other points according the forest mapping and all.

I'll take in account what you've told here:
- For your cursor problem in battles, I remember some RPGs are proposing a game option called usually cursor memory.
Why not adding it as an option?

- As for the word, it is 'items'. We renamed it to make obvious we're speaking about items and equipment since it's on the same level.
Note that in the latest git, you can equip both from the items menu and from the equip one which can seem redundant on the paper but is quite useful
when you're dealing with your overall items in game.
I guess we might rename the one equip or use according to the items you've selected?

I'll discuss that with Ikarus since he's the one the most involved in the menu changes so far.

Best regards and the best for the year's end.

[Bertram]

Hi qubodup!

What do you think of dropbox? Is it a good stuff to make things downloadable?

[Zabin]

I edited out the second thing I mentioned in that last comment because I just finally got around to double checking what I thought was a mistake and everything looks correct to me now.. I think somehow I managed to get the cursor on "remove" and was accessing the inventory under that option. I couldn't get it to do that again so everything is perfect!

About the first thing I mentioned, yes a menu option would be nice

[shirish]

@zabin, there is more to the game then the second cave. You need to work out the puzzle and a sound should stun you and take you a bit ahead in the game. Won't give it away because I also took some time to figure it out, you'll figure it out as well. If not PM me

[Roots]

@zabin, there is more to the game then the second cave. You need to work out the puzzle and a sound should stun you and take you a bit ahead in the game. Won't give it away because I also took some time to figure it out, you'll figure it out as well. If not PM me

Took me some time to figure it out as well. And once I figured it out, it then took me more time to find all the "triggers" required to set it off. I really think there needs to be a little more explanation on this map, Bertram. The plaque on the wall alone isn't enough of a clue. The early game shouldn't be this difficult to figure out. I recommend that if the player reaches the rocks before they collapse, a dialogue should come up between Bronnan and Kayla that makes the puzzle a little more obvious.

[Zabin]

I gave it a go and thought about the clue for a minute and figured it out. Like Roots said though when you get to that rock maybe another little dialogue between Bronnan and Kayla mentioning the same clue on the plaque would be a good idea.

I thought the ending of this release was pretty good

[Bertram]

Hi all,

I also liked the trigger puzzle you have in the caves. I made it to the second part of the cave where there is a giant rock blocking the door so I figured that was the end of what you've made so far.

Oops, my mistake, I didn't realized you stopped at that point on a quick read of your post. Thanks to Shirish to put you out of confusion. For you and everyone to know, I've been trying to make super-obvious you've reached the game current end by adding a 'to be continued' fade out animation. I hope it will make clear to everyone that you can keep searching until you've seen this.

I recommend that if the player reaches the rocks before they collapse, a dialogue should come up between Bronnan and Kayla that makes the puzzle a little more obvious.

Like Roots said though when you get to that rock maybe another little dialogue between Bronnan and Kayla mentioning the same clue on the plaque would be a good idea.

Ok, let's add a short explanation when Bronann and Kalya are seeing the big block. (Will be part of my next commits).

to find all the "triggers" required to set it off

Eh eh. Thanks for not spoiling.

I thought the ending of this release was pretty good

Thanks a lot!

Regards,

[Bertram]

@qubodup (for everyone to know about).

Just created a dropbox account. the download links should be much easier to use now.

[IkarusDowned]

Hello guys! This is IkarusDowned (or just Ikarus), just wanted to say thanks for checking out the build!
Aaaand I've looked at some of the feedback posted here, so I tried to find some things to make the menu a bit easier to understand with the new item -> use/equip change and such. Nothing earth-shattering, but I hope it helps with some of the useability.

There should be a couple "new" items in the next push from me to the master branch, so I'm gonna keep in you all in a bit of suspense.

... ok not so much suspense. I couldn't take it and i wet myself from the tension.

Here's a couple screen shots.

as you can see, I've added a little blurb at the bottom when you are at the category select location; that bottom space was feeling lonely.

Next up, a couple shots from the slightly modified Party window:

and last up...

...ok this one you'll have to wait

let me know your thoughts and feedback!

[Bertram]

I, for one, love it

EDIt: Maybe a bit more vertically centered and it's perfect.

[Zabin]

Hey Ikarus, good work adding the new text to that bottom space. The text "Select an item to Equip or Use", it's good to see the word "use" when your at that category. I know it's obvious but it's nice to see that. Good job.

[IkarusDowned]

I, for one, love it

EDIt: Maybe a bit more vertically centered and it's perfect.

I couldn't find a way to center-allign the text, but if you want me to just move the text over a bit, thats no problem

Hey Ikarus, good work adding the new text to that bottom space. The text "Select an item to Equip or Use", it's good to see the word "use" when your at that category. I know it's obvious but it's nice to see that. Good job.

thanks! Yeah, its really super-obvious--but thats what would make it annoying to spot if I didn't know ahead of time glad to see you like it

[Roots]

I believe you can center align the textbox within the GUI window vertically, but you can't vertically align the text within the textbox. If I am correct about that, if you size the textbox so that it's only as high as it needs to be to fit the text and then vertically align it, that should fix the problem.

Feel free to work on the GUI code to add functionality that you need. I know that it's missing a fair amount of features that I would like to see it have. It's located at src/common/gui.

[Bertram]

Hi,

Feel free to work on the GUI code to add functionality that you need. I know that it's missing a fair amount of features that I would like to see it have. It's located at src/common/gui.

Or not if it has to block this addition for too long.
I guess you're using a textbox there to display the text, is that simply a direct TextManager->Text() call?

[IkarusDowned]

at the moment its just a TextManager->Text call. I can switch it to a text box if that is more appropriate.

[Bertram]

Hmm, I just thought that if you're using a custom member to display this text.
Changing its position without breaking something else should be rather easy.

[Roots]

In general, you should try to avoid using TextManager->DisplayText() because it has to re-render the text on every draw call. The reason some of the existing code does this is because it was written before we had a nicely working GUI system in place. You can either use a TextBox object, or you can create a TextImage object from the text. A TextImage is just like any other image and you can perform all the same common move/draw operations with it. The TextImage is simply an image that is created when you give it a text string that contains the rendered text (the rendering is only done once when the image is created, instead of on every draw call).

[IkarusDowned]

In general, you should try to avoid using TextManager->DisplayText() because it has to re-render the text on every draw call. The reason some of the existing code does this is because it was written before we had a nicely working GUI system in place. You can either use a TextBox object, or you can create a TextImage object from the text. A TextImage is just like any other image and you can perform all the same common move/draw operations with it. The TextImage is simply an image that is created when you give it a text string that contains the rendered text (the rendering is only done once when the image is created, instead of on every draw call).

ok, fantastic. In this case since the blurp is constant, i think i can just create a single TextImage and hold onto it.

Question about performance in the case of text that changes based on update cycles: should I use a TextImage and re-create when needed, or stick with TextBox in this case? Intuition tells me a TextBox is better...

[IkarusDowned]

Also roots,

TextBox seems to write with the Position at the bottom left corner, and grows upwards.
how does one get the text to always start in the top left of the maximum fixed area of the text box?

[Roots]

I don't think that there will be any performance difference between TextImages and TextBoxes. One very useful feature of a TextBox is that you can set "ownership" of the GUI object to a MenuWindow. This hides the TextBox from view automatically when the owning window is hidden, and you can specify the coordinates of the TextBox relative to it's position in the window, instead of the absolute position on the screen. Then as you move the window, the TextBox and any other GUI objects owned by that window automatically move with it. If you go with a TextBox though, note that there are multiple display modes for the text and you'll probably want to go with the "instant" mode that doesn't animate the text, but just renders it all once and display it.


I can't recall the specifics of the implementation off the top of my head to answer your questions. But to find the answer, you can try the following:

1) Read http://www.allacrost.org/wiki/index.php ... Engine_GUI on the Hero of Allacrost wiki (this documentation is outdated, but should still tell you all the important things you need to know
2) Read the comments in the class definitions for TextImage and TextBox classes. They are in src/engine/video/text.h and src/common/gui/textbox.h I believe. The class definitions should be extremely well commented and the public API is there for you to see too
3) Run the code through doxygen to generate documentation. All of the files contain doxygen-style comments so you can always regenerate this information.

[IkarusDowned]

EDIT: I'm editing out this post because I'm a moron missed the "Text" in SetTextAllignment, and couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. Thanks for the check!