Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
I can conceive of making it such that we can select and preview tiles for each LTM combination, instead of just adding a fixed number to the base tiles. If we did it for all possible combinations (2^number of items), that'd take up a lot of space, but if the quest designer only uses a few LTM items, the set could be substantially reduced. Of course, implementing such would take some work.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
I suppose making Link's tiles selectable would be another change I can do. making the LTm's fully flexible would be the best course of action, come to think of it more.
Some other stuff
6. New screen flag: Secrets disable timed warps. basically, when a secret is triggered on a screen with this flag enabled, any time warp set up for the screen will be automatically nulled. This is mostly a custom boss convinience, as it will allow the user to assure that whatever happens after a boss is 'hit' won't be interrupted by the time warp.
7. THE MIDI BUG HAS BEEN FIXED Don't ask me how, don't even ask me why the bug occured at all. All I can confirm to everyone was that it was indeed an Allegro problem.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by jman2050
I suppose making Link's tiles selectable would be another change I can do. making the LTm's fully flexible would be the best course of action, come to think of it more.
YES! do that! it would simplify everything regarding the Link Tile Modifier
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
While on the topic of Link, would it be possible for making another set (2 or 3 sprites, depnding on normal or BS animation) for the other side direction? The walking sideways tiles go right in the set, so how about walking "left" tiles? :shrug:
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
That's part of the plan for the Link Sprite modification.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
One thing I've always wanted to see in the Link tiles department is a second frame for classic Link's upward walking animation...flipping that one tile just looks plain ugly, even in the classic set.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by jman2050
I suppose making Link's tiles selectable would be another change I can do. making the LTm's fully flexible would be the best course of action, come to think of it more.
Some other stuff
6. New screen flag: Secrets disable timed warps. basically, when a secret is triggered on a screen with this flag enabled, any time warp set up for the screen will be automatically nulled. This is mostly a custom boss convinience, as it will allow the user to assure that whatever happens after a boss is 'hit' won't be interrupted by the time warp.
7. THE MIDI BUG HAS BEEN FIXED Don't ask me how, don't even ask me why the bug occured at all. All I can confirm to everyone was that it was indeed an Allegro problem.
You fixed the MIDI Bug! Quick! Send me that alleg41.dll! That bug is too darn annoying. :P
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
First of all, good work thus far on Beta 1 and 2. To clear my name however.
Yes, I did do something extremely stupid about 2 or 3 years back with a Dark Natlon post, It was semi-related to my brother in all reality, but I was the fuel. I was young and dumb back then, to which I have cleaned up my act greatly. A wierd conspiracy theory was started saying that I was PM coming back in a different form(new user). The reason that got started is because I happened to use the same avatar by accident. I did mess with BigJoe a bit about it. Other than being banned about 3 years ago with the Link Hylia one, I have not been temp banned or in trouble in any way. I would not dare flame anyone in GD, thats just an invitation to be banned. Awhile back when BigJoe made his strong armed moderators post in GB, I came out and told them that I had to make this account because when my Link Hylia account was temp-banned, they never returned me back to an unbanned status. I was told to pick one account or the other. I picked this one because for once, I actually was doing something productive on the forums(i.e ZC Beta Testing). I am not banned now either, I just have to use a faulty computer while my other is being fixed. So I'll apologize for not helping very much as of late, but I stated above whats going on. Its kinda hard for me to test on this computer, but I should finally be back at full steam on Monday or Tuesday. I up for third party programming to help out anyway I can, I just don't think its likely that anyone will ask me to help now though. I am all open to helping out with ZC anyway I can.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Eh, to be honest i could care less what happened 2 or 3 years ago... don't know how DN feels, but I would tend not to take activities outside of ZC into account when dealing with the beta testers.
Oh yeah, and another change
8. The first iteration of a new ZQuest feature: Preview Mode
Tired of setting up combo cycling and placing secrets, closing ZQ, opening up ZC, testing out the screen, finding a small bug, closing ZC, opening ZQ, and making that quick fix, wasting 3-5 minutes on a problem that should've taken 10 seconds to fix? Then Preview mode is the feature for you. When enabled in ZQ, it allows you the chance to see the effects of the more dynamic elements of a quest screen. made an elaborate system of tiered secret flags? Simply enable Preview mode, press 'S', and see the secrets trigger right before your eyes. Set up combo cycling for an elaborate boss? Enable Preview mode, press C, and watch the combos animate and cycle through each other, checking to see if it was done correctly. tired of having to go to the tile warp/side warp menu every time you want to check a warp? Go into preview mode, press 1 or 2 (for tile and side respectively) to easily warp between screens. Wanna easy way to test timed warps? Simply enable preview mode, press 3, and on screens with timed warps defined watch it cycle to the next screen without pressing anything. Wanna check your animations, secrets, and combo cycling again? Press 'R' to revert the screen to it's original form. Finally, 'F' will freeze the animations, allowing use of 'A' to advance frame by frame. 'Q' and 'W' also work, allowing you to see the changes to combo properties and walkability in real-time.
It's still somewhat rough, and only operates using the keyboard keys. Eventually, I want preview mode to become more functional as well as have a more usable interface. The goal regardless is to minimize the amount of time spent switching between ZC and ZQ when building your quest, allowing you to focus all your play-testing on balancing, progression of game play, and flow of execution.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Should I release the beta soon or fear being torn limb from limb by anticipation? You decide ^_^
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
One word: sweet!
As you say though, it would be nice to have it not solely based off of keyboard keys - one problem there being that we then have to memorize what they are. When you are in preview mode you lose the ability to edit, right? Perhaps you could then overlay the combos and the thing at the bottom of the screen with buttons to press. Another idea would be to turn that bottom thing (we should name it so I can refer to it concisely) into a listing that reminds the user of what all the usable keystrokes are so they don't have to memorize them. Like:
R - Revert Screen
S - Trigger Secrets
F - Freeze Animations
...
Or if we use buttons:
[Revert Screen] [Trigger Secrets] [Freeze Animations]
Either way would be really helpful.