2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress

[Dark Nation]

Here's the changes so far for ZC 2.11 Beta 1:

1. Fixed Gleeok's hp (was too high).
2. Fixed the bug where slashing (or using the hammer or wand) on one side of the screen could affect things on the other side of the screen.
3. Made the game data dynamic (for security purposes).
4. ZC no longer writes it's temp files to the root of drive C. Now, it stores them in the same directory that ZC is housed.
5. ZGP.DAT is now called QST.DAT.
6. The tile format has been reworked. At the moment, the change should be transparent to the user. However, this change will allow for new tile formats in the future (256-color tiles, 16-bit tiles, true-color tiles, etc.).
7. The bug with ZC not remembering the correct quest dir has been fixed (it would change whenever you switched directories to load a quest file in ZC).
8. The bug where ZC would only look in the quest directory to find a quest has been fixed. Now, it looks at the location where the save file says that the quest is located.
9. The quest loading progress box no longer shows the percent done for the tile reader. This makes quest loading somewhat faster.
10. Sprites now have a Z variable. This allows for expansion for new enemies (and other things) that will be able to jump and fly. Although a few enemies already do this (tektites and peahats, for instance), the calculation for them is faked. The new method makes jumping/flying easier to do from a programmer's prospective.
11. Eyeball combo calculations are only done when an eyeball combo is encountered. This should speed up screen rendering by a few fps.
12. The year has been fixed in the title screens.
13. The key name display in ZC key dialogs has been fixed.
14. The wrong text background in the ZC key grabber has been fixed.
15. Fixed the issues with the mouse jumping to the wrong location when when you move off the ZQuest window in scaled windowed mode.
16. Fixed the bug where SPC files would stutter when paused instead of going silent.
17. Fixed the bug where enemies don't drop clocks anymore.
18. Fixed the bug (oversight?) where you couldn't adjust Link's walk style (2-frame or 3-frame) in ZQuest.
19. Fixed the bug where some older quests would freeze on the starting DMap.
20. Fixed the bug where some of the enemies would be wrong in old quests.
21. Fixed the bug where double-clicking a combo in the master combo list would only edit the combo if it were on the first combo page.
22. Fixed the bug where deleting a screen was not counted as a change in ZQuest, so ZQuest would not ask to save if that was the only thing done before exiting.
23. Fixed the bug where non-MIDI songs would stutter if the game were paused (with the 'F3', 'F4', 'p', or 'a' keys).
24. Fixed the bug where selecting 'Stop tunes" from the Etc menu wouldn't uncheck the 'Lost Woods' option.
25. Music playing is stopped now when MIDIs is selected from the Quest menu.
26. ZQuest can now play the alternate music types that ZC handles (mp3, ogg, spc, it, xm, s3m, and mod).
27. Renamed 'Play MIDI' in the Etc menu to 'Play music' to correspond with the above change.
28. Fixed the year in the end game credits.
29. Fixed the tile import/export.
30. Now, changing the title screen for ZC causes it to reset so that the correct title shows immediately. Before you had to either wait for the title to cycle through once or manually reset the game.
31. Alternative music now continues to play while the game is paused (with the p key, not the Start button).
32. Fixed the bug where the Triforce init settings weren't being saved by ZQuest.
33. Fixed the bug where the Triforce init settings weren't being used in ZC.
34. Fixed the bug where a DMap Intro on the starting DMap could freeze the game.
35. Misalignment arrows now show up on disabled screens.
36. Pasting a map screen now causes the color to change immediately (before, you had to switch screens and then return to see the correct colors).
37. The 'Heart Container' room type is now called the 'Red Potion or Heart Container' room type.
38. There is a new List Combos Used (shortcut key is `) under the Tools menu. This will show you a list of all of the combos used on the current screen.
39. Deleting a screen now counts as a change, so ZQuest will ask about saving when you try to quit after doing a screen delete.
40. Panel 4 now shortens the room string when displaying it so it doesn't run into the combo scroller.
41. The Catch All caption and value now match up with the other captions and values in panel 4.
42. The room types are now alphabetized.
43. The screen palette dialog now has a dropdown list of the screen palettes with the palette names instead of a numeric entry box.
44. The < and > keys (you have to hold the shift key down) will now flip through the 256 possible screen palettes.
45. Changing the message more x and y variables now counts as a change in ZQuest.
46. When deleting a message string in ZQuest, the scring is shortened so it will fit in the confirmation dialog.
47. When deleting a message string in ZQuest, the End Game string value is updated if necessary.
48. Fixed the bug where there would sometimes be random characters appearing at the end of a message string in panel 4 and in the confirm string delete dialog.
49. The DMap number in the Edit DMap dialog titlebar is now correct (before, it was 1 number too low).
50. Going to the MIDI editor now stops music playback in ZQuest.
51. If a screen doesn't have a message string associated with it, it is now shown as (None) instead of (none) on panel 4, to make it match up with the other items there.

[ShadowTiger]

Here's the changes so far for ZC 2.11 Beta 1:

10. Sprites now have a Z variable. This allows for expansion for new enemies (and other things) that will be able to jump and fly. Although a few enemies already do this (tektites and peahats, for instance), the calculation for them is faked. The new method makes jumping/flying easier to do from a programmer's prospective.

Sprites? Does this include items? ... Whatever. My main concerns here with the enemies are that I've noticed that that when you stun a creature that's jumped into the air, it stays hovering in the air, and its shadow doesn't move either. Does this mean that the tektite (Or other) will fall to the level of its shadow when stunned?



Thank you for the bug fixes. :) We look forward to testing a new version produced.

[bigjoe]

Sweet, so beta testing is still in business.

I'll have to get off my ass and organize these forums. (Well, technichally, I'll still be ON my ass.. but , uh, you know...)

Oh, and btw, please make enemies drop clocks again x_x A good clock animation is woe in a quest where you cant find them.

[Dark Nation]

Actually, with the Z variable, it can. As it is now, jumping is approximated by modifying the y variable based on a timer. The shadow's position is calculated based on the Y position and the timer. When you stun the creature, it's movement is simply paused at whatever X and Y position it's at. In the new style, the shadow is kept in memory and the creature's position is modified during movement based on the Z variable. When stunned, it would be fairly trivial to make the creature drop to the ground_y location (where the shadow is). Granted, that could be done now (in a backwards manner), but the Z variable makes this easier.

And, yes, it includes items. So, it could be possible to have hearts floating to the ground like in Z3.

[Dark Nation]

17. Fixed the bug where enemies don't drop clocks anymore.

[Jigglysaint]

Actually, with the Z variable, it can. As it is now, jumping is approximated by modifying the y variable based on a timer. The shadow's position is calculated based on the Y position and the timer. When you stun the creature, it's movement is simply paused at whatever X and Y position it's at. In the new style, the shadow is kept in memory and the creature's position is modified during movement based on the Z variable. When stunned, it would be fairly trivial to make the creature drop to the ground_y location (where the shadow is). Granted, that could be done now (in a backwards manner), but the Z variable makes this easier.

And, yes, it includes items. So, it could be possible to have hearts floating to the ground like in Z3.

And it would be neat to have things like keys fall from the sky like in the Gameboy Zelda games.

Falling bombs couldn't hurt also(no pun intended).

[bigjoe]

Yay, now I don't have to worry anymore. You just have no idea how much little things like that get to me...Thanks!

[Dark Nation]

18. Fixed the bug (oversight?) where you couldn't adjust Link's walk style (2-frame or 3-frame) in ZQuest.
(nam)

[*b*]

woo hoo! Z variable! I don't really get it, but it sounds important

I'm not sure if these are related, but since you're messing with the temp files ZQuest makes, could you make it so that ZQuest can store a bunch of temporary files? (for more than just one undo, and so the previous action isn't lost when you change screens)

[Dark Nation]

That's an entirely different matter. Temp files are just the files that ZC and ZQuest create temporarily when loading a quest. But, I'll look into it.