The Veins of the Earth development feedback BETA 13

[Zireael]

Not coded missing stuff yet but the new version is here  because no classes on 11th!

[Zireael]

I've added level titles today.
That means the only things left on GitHub issues page are thrown weapons (darts, javelins) and assorted optional stuff. Optional stuff being optional, I might just close them just to have all the issues listed cleanly on Bitbucket.

Thrown weapons aren't thrown yet because I can't figure out if I should plonk them via the existing shoot icon or make a separate throw icon and talent.

In other news, got Mount & Blade yesterday for free from GOG.

[Zireael]

I've updated the wikidot page with the equipment list and some info on the silver standard.

Equipment

In the meantime, I'm working on a drow city - with buildings, factions and new NPCs, all procedurally generated.

[Zireael]

Mod of the Year awards @ ModDB are upon us!

Can you VotE?

[Zireael]

Beta 6.5 is out, feedback wanted!

[Zireael]

I've spent the last two days poking incessantly around room generation code.

The result is that room name is finally printed to screen - something which has been envisioned for over a year and what I'd attempted to make work for the last month or so.

[chooseusername]

I've spent the last two days poking incessantly around room generation code.

The result is that room name is finally printed to screen - something which has been envisioned for over a year and what I'd attempted to make work for the last month or so.

Why was it so hard?

[Zireael]

I've spent the last two days poking incessantly around room generation code.

The result is that room name is finally printed to screen - something which has been envisioned for over a year and what I'd attempted to make work for the last month or so.

Why was it so hard?

Because I had self.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true) instead of self.level.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true).

My own fault for not looking carefully enough at how T-Engine sets grid attributes.

[TheCreator]

Because I had self.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true) instead of self.level.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true).

Such errors should be detected during the compilation (or interpretation) phase. May I ask what language is it?

[Zireael]

Because I had self.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true) instead of self.level.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true).

Such errors should be detected during the compilation (or interpretation) phase. May I ask what language is it?

Lua. T-Engine has pretty good error detection, but this one somehow slipped through the cracks...

[TheCreator]

Lua. T-Engine has pretty good error detection, but this one somehow slipped through the cracks...

I'm not a LUA expert, in fact I've never used it, so I can't even tell whether it is LUA's fault or the engine's. Nevertheless, one year, or even one month, because of such a tiny mistake is a terrible waste of time (said the guy who has been developing one game for almost 15 years ).

[chooseusername]

Because I had self.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true) instead of self.level.map.attrs(i-1+x, j-1+y, room_name, true).

My own fault for not looking carefully enough at how T-Engine sets grid attributes.

It's always these small errors that waste your time.  I remember when I did game development professionally, and some fellow developers were clearing out a STL mapping in C++ instead of deleting the entry.  So instead of detecting no entry, and then handling that, it would get a null and proceed to pollute other things with this value.. and crashes ensued.  I blame intellisense in visual studio from getting in the way of people reading the documentation.

[TheCreator]

I blame intellisense in visual studio from getting in the way of people reading the documentation.

Intellisense is a great thing (that is, when it works). If it wasn't there, people wouldn't read documentation either. I mean, documentation is important when you are doing something for the first time, but for repetitive (and trivial) tasks such as clearing a container it is good to have something more tightly integrated with your editor. So I'd rather blame STL for its confusing API.

[Zireael]

That month was terribly busy at uni - I did not have time to code. Next beta should come sometime in February, before next semester starts.

Some things I managed to do:
* fix some spelling mistakes in log
* AI no longer walks into chasms/lava/water
* low Int characters get separate answers in dialogues
* the drow noble house is now named after the actual House that lives in it
* consumables now stack
* in inventory, un-wearable items are highlighted in red; unusable ones in blue

[Zireael]

With the announcement of T-Engine 1.3 beta tests, the next Veins beta is obviously postponed until 1.3 comes out.

That doesn't mean development has stopped, quite the opposite!
* Far Shot and Precise Shot are now implemented.

And the big change:
The sorcerer class and its divine equivalent, the shaman, have undergone significant revision. They both use spell points now instead of spell slots.

The game is now a cross between SRD and Incursion - with some classes working the SRD way and some working the Incursion way. Interestingly, this is what Julian Mensch envisioned for the "full" release of Incursion: Return of the Forsaken.