Survivor - first alpha!

[blahblahblahh]

DP: You are so dead now...

Try it now and you'll find the AI's back in again. RUN, MORTAL, RUN!

(You should now cease contempt at me for the placeholder AI, and instead direct your renewed curses as to the evilness of the new AI towards Dave Blake)

[kevglass]

Just uploaded new exiciting skins, some new changes to sprites and a fix to the walking through walls bug that some of you guys have reported.

Thanks again for keeping up the testing (especially with the big downloads we're getting to now).

Cheers,

Kev

[moonpxi]

ARGH!! I've played it moments after being posted, and it was quite easy, but getting interesting!! Now it is all madness!!!

All in all, I think it's a pretty fun game, and the controls are really interesting. However, I think it would be best to map the "x" key to "s", as it would be easier to shoot down.

Another point is that it's possible to slow enemies down by "forcing" them to get stuck in corners.

The worst nightmare for the player is not when there are a crowd coming from one direction, but from coming from ALL directions!!! It is run and hit then...

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[blahblahblahh]

ARGH!! I've played it moments after being posted, and it was quite easy, but getting interesting!! Now it is all madness!!!

Welcome to Survivor!

All in all, I think it's a pretty fun game, and the controls are really interesting. However, I think it would be best to map the "x" key to "s", as it would be easier to shoot down.

From the main menu there is now a controls menu, where you can redefine any/all keys

The worst nightmare for the player is not when there are a crowd coming from one direction, but from coming from ALL directions!!! It is run and hit then...

...hence my tip on the website: find a weak-spot in the crowd, and try and punch a hole 5 seconds before you need it,  then run through it.

We might need to speed up the player a bit to make this more effective; I think the players are all perhaps a little slow at the moment.

[dsellars]

Just a thought for the future.

What about making movment faster when your not shooting at the same time.

Would then make you have to decied if running was the best thing to do rather than always shooting.

Dan.

[DanK]

After going from the main hall to the garden I was placed outside of the level area and naturally couldn't get in. (I waited until I died and it started me in the level area).

Next I went up a room and then into a secret room, where one of the enemies appeared outside of the level area... I gave up (kinda antsy right now having just got my demo up and I'm having a hard time sitting still/being patient hehe). I like the mouse controlled shooting, I think I'd prefer the asdw keys for movement as they are more popular these days with most games and less likely to hit the keyboard limit that is common for the arrow keys, I realize I can change them but maybe they should by default work as the arrow keys (kind of a primary and secondary keyset), this is probably more a suggestion for after the contest than before since changing your keyset to allow two entries per actino might be more work than it's worth right now.

[TheBohemian]

hey blah³, kev: really nice game!!!

runs fine on Amd Athlon XP2000+/ATI Radeon 9800XT (fglrx)/Gentoo Linux - 2.6.5/XFree 4.3  

and now a note on this:  "Every time you complete a level, that fact is saved to disk in your home (user) directory"

no problem with the semantics but with the technique: The JNLP API defines a PersistenceService. With that you can save application data without polluting my ${user.home}

and @cas: same goes for Alien Flux!

[blahblahblahh]

and now a note on this:  "Every time you complete a level, that fact is saved to disk in your home (user) directory"

Is this different from the java.util.prefs api? Sorry, I may have described what we're doing wrong ( I didn't code it )

They added the Preferences API for this kind of thing, that works for all java apps (not just JNLP) and uses windows registry or linux home directory as appropriate (or more clever things for system-wide settings).

If the thing you describe also works outside of webstart, then we could use it (after the compo) but if not, we probably won't. This game would be impossible to develop and test if we couldn't run it from JAR's without webstart...(although we might just put in all the effort to make a system that tries one then falls back to the other, if that's possible).

[darkprophet]

that can't be good, crashes after loading sequence  :-/

The console is up, but it goes away too fast for me to copy/paste anything.

However, this error occurs before the initial menu comes along:


java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: survivor.renderer.Renderer.getCanvasPeer()Lcom/xith3d/render/CanvasPeer;

     at survivor.game.Game.<init>(Game.java:159)

     at survivor.game.Game.<clinit>(Game.java:49)

     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

     at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeApplication(Unknown Source)

     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeMainClass(Unknown Source)

     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.continueLaunch(Unknown Source)

     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleApplicationDesc(Unknown Source)

     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleLaunchFile(Unknown Source)

     at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Unknown Source)

     at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

And yes, ive tried emptying the jws cache!

[blahblahblahh]

that can't be good, crashes after loading sequence  :-/

Um, kev might be in the middle of updating the webstart.

If not: OS, processor, graphics card please.

NOTE: As of a few hours ago I started getting the webstart crash EVERY SINGLE TIME on me - killing the entire JVM. If I download all the JAR's and run locally, no problem.

Since these are JVM crashes, it could be that I've got a slightly older JOGL etc and Kev has started using a slightly newer build (or ditto for Xith3D) and the JOGL folks have introduced a nasty regression bug. Just before we submit for the compo!

EDIT: looking at file times, one of the core JAR's was last updated at 11:51 pm. so maybe you have a half-corrupted file (yes, webstart is poor in this sense, seems to have problems with atomicity)

EDIT2: ...GMT/BST i.e. about 5-10 minuts before this edit

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[kevglass]

Yep, was in the middle, then screwed it up, should be fine now.

The error you got was directly related to the update.

Kev

[darkprophet]

XP Pro, P4 2.6Ghz, Radeon 9200. Its now officially the 7th in the UK  .

EDIT: this game is getting wayyy too unchallenging , just clocked it yet again, temple that is, next step, the next level!  

EDIT 2: If you are using md2 rather than sprites (which looks like it to be honest), why not just make this into a fully fledged 3d game? just change the camera perspective. Or is that not what you want?

[blahblahblahh]

DP: I'm afraid since this is for the competition and we are only entering one level we can't make it much harder. Be patient; wait for us to release more levels . ( I don't suppose you have any ideas of your own for new levels that would be sufficiently hard? "DP's super-hard ironman level pack" ).

There are some changes to the AI and level now that might make it a bit more challenging for you.

However, we've basically tried to integrate too much all in the last 24 hours, and the balance is no longer there (and I'm hampered in balance-testing by a recurring JVM crash that now looks like it might be because of the sound system)

[blahblahblahh]

EDIT 2: If you are using md2 rather than sprites (which looks like it to be honest), why not just make this into a fully fledged 3d game? just change the camera perspective. Or is that not what you want?

The original game design doc aims for 3 differnet cameras, and to spend 4 weeks trying out different combinations for fun and effectiveness.

But then 4 weeks in we lost our entire renderer and had to start again from scratch, so...lack of time I'm afraid.

[TheBohemian]

uh, oh sorry. I wasn't aware of java.util.prefs.
Funny: Just today I was surfin jcp.org for fun and wondered where the result of JSR-10 (Preferences API) are ...  

but on to the game: call me addicted!
Its fun, it kills me (have to sleep), it kills my mouse (obviously).

btw. the original smash tv supported a 2 player mode. how about that (of course AFTER the compo)?
with jinput linux has support for multiple separate mice ...

[kevglass]

One current plan for after the compo, sleeeeep!

New version uploaded, it should give a good performance kick.

Blah, if you think it might be the sound system, try turning the sound off?

I'm not sure what I'm doing for the future actually, got Mini Adventure to be getting on with too

Kev

[blahblahblahh]

btw. the original smash tv supported a 2 player mode. how about that (of course AFTER the compo)?

I'm itching to plug it in to a GrexEngine server...

But, as Kev said, we don't know what's going to happen after the competition. We really came together just for the short-term (and Kev bravely stepped in half-way through, setting himself up for 4 weeks of crunch-time!) but we all would love to carry on with survivor afterwards (in a perfect world, where we had infinite free time).

with jinput linux has support for multiple separate mice ...

Now,  that would be mental!

[blahblahblahh]

PS: There is a cheat mode.

And no, I'm not giving you any clues .

And I've just noticed that the debug mode is still in there too (groan) which I expect several people have discovered by now (Kev: remember that thing we did when there were no monsters? Seems to be still in my copy of survivor-game/renderer.jar (although maybe I've just accidentally used an old copy))

[oNyx]

Can't change fov in both directions. The other direction should be the... '=' key... duh. Well, there is no '=' key on a german keyboard (it's '0'+shift and that doesn't work).

So what about additional binds on pgup, pgdn, pos1 and end? :>

[swpalmer]

I have severe performance issues on Mac OS X.  The FPS shows about 170, yet it takes several seconds for a keypress to register and change the current menu selection.

yet in the game the movement keys seem to work well.

Though there are massive pauses moving from room to room and I die instantly and an thrown back to the loading screen.

Play is VERY jerky - though movement when nothing is around is smooth, with enemies it is impossible to control.

Entering the name for highscores has the same many seconds to recognize a keypress problem.   Martian Madness had this problem at one point.. could it be the same issue?

[kevglass]

It is the same issue, (large chunks of the same code). It seems to be to do with the use of texture by reference (i.e. GUI overlays) in Xith.

I'm afraid I never got a really good answer from the guys on this one. I reakon I'll be updating Survivor with a bespoke overlay system after the contest submittal.

Cheers for the report as always SW,

Kev

[DanK]

I have the same issue with the menu's being super slow, even though it shows high fps (and the game itself runs fine including the keyboard controls).

[deepFlame]

I haven't read the whole thread. Hope this wasn't mentioned before...

I had a problem with entering a new room. I was going into the new room and the name of the room was displayed as normal. But I didn't go right into it and turned around into the opposit direction. So I could walk around the room I should be in and could walk through walls and stuff but could not get into the room the game thought I should be in.
Hope you understand my point.

[princec]

I can't get consistently smooth gameplay. It periodically speeds up by a factor of 2 and then slows down again. The frame rate never drops below 70fps, and occasionally goes as high as 120fps. I surmise therefore that it's something to do with a hires timer going awry, or its dependent code.

Cas

[darkprophet]

constant 270 FPS from JOGL, thats surprising. The sound did cause me trouble, it kept on cutting up every 2 minutes or so, with a very loud BANG!, then it goes away, 15 secs later its back to normal.

Blah^3, I have many ideas for harder levels, if you want, i could make some, just send me a message about where to download the editor from....etc and il send you the levels. How does that sound?

[Abuse]

There is a bug when entering the 'secret passage' area - if you walk upward as soon you enter the area (back into the door), you can get outside the bounds of the level!

Duno if you can do it in other areas (or infact any area).

[blahblahblahh]

Sound is pretty terrible at the moment; sorry, but I was testing some new sounds. Not sure if we will use them or not yet. I suggest turning it off from the main menu .

SWP: the OS X situation is miserable . But you know what our main alternative is (LWJGL)

[kevglass]

Isn't LWJGL broken on OSX?

Kev

[blahblahblahh]

exactly

[princec]

Only coz no bugger has helped us solve the webstart issue (Swing grabs input from us)

Cas