NLarn 0.7 released

[jaydg]

Hello everybody,

after more than a year finally a new release for NLarn is available.

Things added in this version include

• ranged weapons and throwing of potions with improved and partially automatic targeting
• secondary weapons and weapon swapping
• a monastery in the town that heals and cures
• searching for traps and traps on containers
• coloured messages and help text

The full changelog shows what has been improved and fixed.
The game is available for downloading from Sourceforge for Windows and Linux.

Thank you, Ido, for bringing this dear project back to my attention 

--jaydg

[getter77]

Fantastic, I was hoping this would liven up again on the sly back for ARRP 2011, but this works just the same!   

Given the rather large leap this time around, what's the state of the roadmap looking like going forward?

[jaydg]

Given the rather large leap this time around, what's the state of the roadmap looking like going forward?

I have a lot of plans, but less spare time than I used to have. I guess I'll drop some of the less realistic ideas and continue to finish the really missing features. And I'll definitely stop putting so many items on the todo list for the next release so that the chance of actually finishing something are higher.

[getter77]

Heh, just set aside the crazier things for a rainy day instead of discarding outright.   

Perhaps shoot for monthly or bi-monthly releases then along with the lines of keeping the todo list a tad leaner?   That would also hopefully keep the project in the headlines a bit more visibly and hopefully net some additional contributors since "out of sight, out of mind" is definitely a thing.

[Krice]

Only thing bothering me is the "wrong" or reverse order of message output. New message should be at the bottom, then scroll up.

[jaydg]

Heh, just set aside the crazier things for a rainy day instead of discarding outright.  

Perhaps shoot for monthly or bi-monthly releases then along with the lines of keeping the todo list a tad leaner?   That would also hopefully keep the project in the headlines a bit more visibly and hopefully net some additional contributors since "out of sight, out of mind" is definitely a thing.

I think it might be best to use the model Jeff uses for POWDER: when there are enough interesting changes, release a new version. This way it is ensured that there is something new to try out without waiting eternally for some other features. A bi-monthly release would be nice, but I fear that I do not have enough time to produce something noteworthy in that time span.

Speaking of contributors: I've moved the code to a git repository on BitBucket, which should simplify participating a lot. The repo is hosted at http://bitbucket.org/jaydg/nlarn/.

Edit 03.06.2012: The code is on SourceForge again, see https://sourceforge.net/p/nlarn/git/.

[jaydg]

Only thing bothering me is the "wrong" or reverse order of message output. New message should be at the bottom, then scroll up.

I think this only makes sense if the messages were shown above the map. For my taste the newest, i.e. the most relevant message has to be close to the map.

When I implemented this, I tried to darken the messages according to the age of the message. Messages newer that 5 turns were white, 5-15 turns old messages where gray and older messages were dark gray. Unfortunately it turned out that dark gray on black is something that many terminals do not display properly, so I left everything as it is now.

[ido]

Thank you, Ido, for bringing this dear project back to my attention 

Glad to see the new release finally

[Krice]

For my taste the newest, i.e. the most relevant message has to be close to the map.

There could be an option to reverse that, and even third option to display old school way: only messages that happen during one turn. I somehow feel it difficult to read the messages as it is now.

I think I found a bug. Scroll of enlightenment, it's showing a light circle and revealing level structure, but it looks like it's only following in X direction (or restricted to 0 in Y). The top left corner of the level was kept totally unexplored, because the circle didn't reach that area:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/paulkp/temp/nlarn1.png

[Skeletor]

I like this game, nice to know you're still working on it!

For my taste the newest, i.e. the most relevant message has to be close to the map.

There could be an option to reverse that, and even third option to display old school way: only messages that happen during one turn. I somehow feel it difficult to read the messages as it is now.

I agree with Krice here.

[jaydg]

For my taste the newest, i.e. the most relevant message has to be close to the map.

There could be an option to reverse that, and even third option to display old school way: only messages that happen during one turn. I somehow feel it difficult to read the messages as it is now.

Showing the messages in reverse would take too much time and cause too much pain to implement, but if you and Skeletor think it's worth it I'll add an option to show only the current message.

I think I found a bug. Scroll of enlightenment, it's showing a light circle and revealing level structure, but it looks like it's only following in X direction (or restricted to 0 in Y). The top left corner of the level was kept totally unexplored, because the circle didn't reach that area:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/paulkp/temp/nlarn1.png

Thanks! This is definitely a bug, I've already been able to fix it.

[Krice]

Showing the messages in reverse would take too much time and cause too much pain to implement

How so? Doesn't sound like too much trouble. Is there some problem with scrolling to other direction in the console output system?

[jaydg]

How so? Doesn't sound like too much trouble. Is there some problem with scrolling to other direction in the console output system?

On one hand, the code where the messages are written is disgusting, but that can be overcome. On the other hand, I do not have a really good idea how the messages could we displayed in reverse order.

Given the following example of the current layout

Code: [Select]

current message: a very long line
  that is wrapped
  over and over again
older message: bla bla

How would you display that in reverse order?


The first idea would be to show the last line of the newest message at the bottom of the screen and stack the lines in reverse order above that:

Code: [Select]

older message: bla bla
current message: a very long line
  that is wrapped
  over and over again
I guess this does not make sense, as you wouldn't know where the current message starts and focus on the message pane for a while.


Having the first line of the newest message start at the bottom and the following line above it is even more illegible:

Code: [Select]

older message: bla bla
  over and over again
  that is wrapped
current message: a very long line

That's why I think that showing the messages in reverse order is not easily done. Unless you come up with a better proposal 

[NON]

I struggled with this for my own game, then I realized I much prefer one line message logs.
I find it much more ergonomic since you know exactly where to look, and there is less text on the screen.

Code: [Select]

older message: bla bla
(player does something - old message is cleared)
current message: A long line [MORE]
<player hits any key>
 that is wrapped [MORE]
<player hits any key>
a few times

For very long messages I use pop-up windows.