I’ve made a start on coding the save game feature and so far it’s working as expected. Might be a few weeks before I am able to release a version for people to try it out though.
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Alternate Reality X – Display timing issues
I recently posted on the 8 bit Atari Age forums and some of the regulars there who’ve responded to my AR X posts over the last couple of years reminded me of an often mentioned issue which I’ve still to fix. This is the high speed which the City and Dungeon gate counters spin around. I’m not currently timing the speed with which different computers should display things on the screen which means some people find this very frustrating as it’s way too fast.
Along with the save game facility I’ll aim to fix this problem in the next release. I know what SFML commands I need to look at to help with this and once I’ve worked it out this will hopefully help me to be able to tackle others features such as encounter animation and on screen timed song lyrics.
Exams
I’ve been on a course this week and will be sitting a couple of exams so there won’t be any updates this week. Should be all finished by the weekend though.
Alternate Reality X – Save games
Lots of people have asked me to include a save game option in the next release of ARX. I’m really surprised as I expected players would be looking for other features first before they would want to save characters. Anyway I think I’ve come up with a fairly good way of providing a save game option in the next release which will allow players to save their characters AND load them into future versions of ARX. I can’t guarantee this but I’m going to give it a good try.
The next release will allow you to save and load into one of 10 save game “slots” similar to the original Dungeon game.
Alternate Reality X – Currency Exchange at the D & P
My 10 year old son started enjoying the wonders of Alternate Reality last night for the first time. He’s seen me playing the original games and working on Alternate Reality X plenty of times but yesterday he downloaded version 0.41 of ARX from the website and started playing through what’s there. He quickly got sucked into the game but was a bit frustrated once he realised there are some features missing. In the meantime he’s keen to try the originals.
One of his complaints was that he could not trade the gems and jewels he found from encounters for silver so I thought I would put that into the game next. I’ve added the “Currency Exchange” menu to the Damon & Pythias shop so you can now trade in gems and jewels as well as convert silver and copper to gold to lessen your load ( for a fee of course ). I’m away at a conference for a few days but will add the similar functions to the City banks on my return.
Stone of the Citadel – Fixing for a first release
I’ve still got a few display problems to fix due to changes in the way the latest SFML 2 build handles displays and OpenGL. Now that I’ve worked my way through all the changes in the much larger code base for Alternate Reality X this should be fairly easy.
Alternate Reality X – Release 0.41
I’ve finally uploaded release 0.41 of Alternate Reality X to www.crpgdev.com – it’s only about 4 months late! Finally tackled some of the work on the City taverns and I’ll try and totally finish these for release 0.5. Tavern features still missing are buying rounds and friendship levels which determine whether you get help when you’re down and out or get refused entry to certain taverns. I’m also keen to add a save game facility as many people are asking for this.
Anyway here’s what’s included in this 0.41 release:
- City Courier healer bug fixed
- Use food packets and water flasks
- Buy food and drink from City taverns
- Basic recording of hunger, thirst and alcohol levels added
- City Tavern jobs and memberships now available
- Updated city map with correct signs and Arena walls (many thanks to Dalimar who did this work)
- Added Trolls and Goblins palaces
- Added Dungeon Chapel placeholder and music
- Added fountains to Dungeon
- Mini map and full screen map no longer slow down frame rate due to SFML 2.0 library
- “Use” command now works during encounters
- Mercenaries / Paladin guilds in Dungeon no longer crashes
- No longer crashes when using the secret doors in the outer City walls to move from one map side to another
- Mini map now displays during encounters
- Lots of code reorganisaion behind the scenes
Feedback as always appreciated.
Alternate Reality X – Working towards 0.41
I now feel I’m back into the swing of coding for my long sterm Alternate Reality remake project. I’ve now completed moving it over to use the latest version of the SFML 2.0 media library and I’m pleased with the results such as the automap display now displaying instantly.
I’m now working towards releasing a new version of ARX. This so far contains bug fixes, a few new placeholders for shops / modules such as the Dungeon Chapel and pretty much the full Troll / Goblin ring quest. I’ve also added in the Dungeon fountains and have made a start on adding more features to the City Taverns. It also features an updated City map provided by Dalimar with all the shop door signs now in place and the Arena walls using the pillar texture. You can also move / wrap from one side of the City map to the other using those secret doors – instead of appearing “outside” the map as in previous versions.
Hopefully have this mini release which I’ve marked as version 0.41 out in another week or so.