Diggr release v11.10.23: now with sound support

[itkachev]

Diggr v11.10.23 released today!

Changes:

• Procedurally-generated sound.
• Procedurally-generated music.
• A modified score system: scores are now normalized to 1000 points. (1000 points is roughly the minimum needed to win the game. This should make scores more meaningful.)

Download it from http://code.google.com/p/diggr-roguelike

Try it out and let me know. (Especially the Linux version.)
 
Thank you!

[getter77]

Procedural music AND sound eh?  How interesting....can't think of many projects out there attempting the same.  Congrats on another swift release and yet again new surprises.   

[Chex Warrior]

I was skeptical at first, but after getting a smoke machine and then some glue nanobots I realized how cool this game really was. Then my friend started complaining about being cornered and beaten to death by a charizard and I knew this was the game for me. Very enjoyable itkachev, I hope you continue to work on this. Just one question: Is there anything in particular I have to do to make the music/sound play? I hear nothing for some reason. (Win7 64bit)

[itkachev]

Just one question: Is there anything in particular I have to do to make the music/sound play? I hear nothing for some reason. (Win7 64bit)

Nope, it should work out of the box!

It's probably a Win7 peculiarity. (I tested it on Vista.)

Just in case, you might want to check your firewall settings. On Vista, there's a dialog that pops up about 'allowing network access', and you probably need to press 'unblock' to get the sound to play.

(The network access thing is just the game communicating commands to the sound player on the same machine, so don't worry about spyware.

I'll try it on a Win7 machine and see what I find. Thank you for the feedback!

[Chex Warrior]

Hm, well my firewall is off and I still don't hear anything. Regardless I'll continue to try this game out!

Edit: Well i got some more things to report/comment on: First I love the backstory haha. Second, inventory and item manipulation is a bit akward, IMO there should be some key shortcuts to automatically use each slot in your inventory -maybe just customizable keybindings. Secondly, and this is just something I thought of, it would be awesome if some of those monsters said things during play(squirtle and charizard come to mind). Lastly, I've been having some trouble understanding how to attack with certain weapons, the targeting system is a bit strange -again customizable keybindings would be great. Particularly the flamethrower -am I supposed to not be able to attack monsters immediately adjacent to me?

Anyhow, I'll continue to report bugs/whatever for me and my friends.

[itkachev]

Hm, well my firewall is off and I still don't hear anything. Regardless I'll continue to try this game out!

Edit: Well i got some more things to report/comment on: First I love the backstory haha. Second, inventory and item manipulation is a bit akward, IMO there should be some key shortcuts to automatically use each slot in your inventory -maybe just customizable keybindings. Secondly, and this is just something I thought of, it would be awesome if some of those monsters said things during play(squirtle and charizard come to mind). Lastly, I've been having some trouble understanding how to attack with certain weapons, the targeting system is a bit strange -again customizable keybindings would be great. Particularly the flamethrower -am I supposed to not be able to attack monsters immediately adjacent to me?

Anyhow, I'll continue to report bugs/whatever for me and my friends.

About the sound: I tried it here on a freshly-installed 32-bit Win7 netbook, and sound works out of the box. (After I clicked the 'unblock' button on the firewall popup dialog.) Strange that it doesn't work for you. Sound also works on my 64-bit Vista system, so I guess it isn't some weird 64/32 bit bug.

I'll try experimenting with settings more.

About the customizable key bindings -- good idea. Actually, it might even be better to let the user 'tag' certain items for quick access. This should be easy enough to grasp and shouldn't clutter the list of keybindings too much.

About targeting -- yeah, all ranged weapons have a minimum and maximum range, so, for example, flamethrowers and shotguns don't work on targets that are right next to you.

I'll make this more obvious in the next release. I agree that it's too confusing as it is now.

[Legend]

About targeting -- yeah, all ranged weapons have a minimum and maximum range, so, for example, flamethrowers and shotguns don't work on targets that are right next to you.

Personally, I think it makes sense to be able to hit targets close to you with a shotgun.

[itkachev]

Personally, I think it makes sense to be able to hit targets close to you with a shotgun.

Yes. But in this case game balancing logic takes priority over common sense: the shotgun is the most powerful weapon in the game, and needs some flaw to counterbalance its awesomeness.

[Legend]

Am I to understand that this game would let me blow the head off of pokemon or set them aflame with a flame thrower?

[itkachev]

Am I to understand that this game would let me blow the head off of pokemon or set them aflame with a flame thrower?

Not really. It's not a pokemon-themed game, there are only 3 pokemon-flavored monsters out of more than one hundred.

[Kyzrati]

Yes. But in this case game balancing logic takes priority over common sense: the shotgun is the most powerful weapon in the game, and needs some flaw to counterbalance its awesomeness.

Limited ammo and slow reloading are more common flaws for a shotgun than a minimum range.

[itkachev]

Limited ammo and slow reloading are more common flaws for a shotgun than a minimum range.

I've opted out of implementing a realistic time model in Digger. Instead, there's a simple alternating-turn game mechanic, like in traditional board games. "Slow reloading" wouldn't really work here.

[Darren Grey]

Reload every other turn is slow enough, and is how DoomRL balances shotguns.  Another common mechanic with shotguns is low accuracy.

[itkachev]

Reload every other turn is slow enough, and is how DoomRL balances shotguns.  Another common mechanic with shotguns is low accuracy.

In DoomRL that works because DoomRL has a 'real' time/speed model. In Diggr, forcing the user to press a button and skip out every other turn by waiting is clumsy.

Not sure what you mean by 'accuracy', but in Diggr all weapons are characterized by just one number, the 'attack' score.