DSB Version 0.60

[Sophia]

What's new:

- Changed monster projectile damage to match new research in CSBwin
- Fixed a crash when an object is destroyed while being viewed by the "eye"
- Fixed a visual glitch causing ceiling pits to appear open when the above pit is closed
- Added dsb.ini option AtariPointer to get a cyan mouse pointer
- Added dsb_get_caster() to return the current spell caster
- Moving the mouse after a successful melee attack will now cause the pointer to come back
- dsb_hide_mouse takes an optional parameter of true to allow the above behavior
- Chained messages can now be given a limited number of times they will work

Download it here

[Qwerty]

Good work! ...but there is no dsb.ini and I have to copy from previous version to play window mode.

[Sophia]

Updated the zip file!

[Joramun]

I can't seem to download files from your site, Sophia !

Undercover DM developer

[lenochware]

Great work!
Is there any TODO, so we can see things planed for future?
Sorry if that was discussed before, but - is source code of this project available?
It would give a chance develop engine even if maintainer lost his interest... See RTC - another very nice engine, but it seems dead now, as far as I know...

[Sophia]

I can't seem to download files from your site, Sophia !

I'm hoping the problems were intermittent. The download seems to work fine now.

Great work!
Is there any TODO, so we can see things planed for future?
Sorry if that was discussed before, but - is source code of this project available?
It would give a chance develop engine even if maintainer lost his interest... See RTC - another very nice engine, but it seems dead now, as far as I know...

My todo list tends to change depending on the priorities of the people currently actively using DSB: I want to develop things that will be of maximal interest to the community. So, essentially, if you want to see something, feel free to ask for it.

As for the source code, most of the useful source code (that is, the Lua code) is already available. I don't usually distribute the source code of the core engine, mostly because I have no desire to figure out how to make it build properly on any configuration but my own, but also to maintain some degree of editorial control over what "DSB" is. I'll release it as-is if I ever decide to completely stop maintaining it, though.

[ian_scho]

I'll release it as-is if I ever decide to completely stop maintaining it, though.

That shows respect to both your own creation and the community - i wish more of us could do this!

[lenochware]

As for the source code, most of the useful source code (that is, the Lua code) is already available. I don't usually distribute the source code of the core engine, mostly because I have no desire to figure out how to make it build properly on any configuration but my own, but also to maintain some degree of editorial control over what "DSB" is. I'll release it as-is if I ever decide to completely stop maintaining it, though.

Okay, thank you. I think that scripting is always somewhat limited, but I understand that your want keep control on the project.
I didn't look at the scripts yet, but I definitely want try it, so I start reading docs and forums here.

It's probably off-topic but I will ask about one of my beloved idea:

When I played DM, I was never sure if shield in left hand is doing something. So I thought about new way of shield implementation. Randomly, after monster attack, it would cancel this attack and show message (maybe in place where information about hit damage appears) "You block the attack with the shield!" or something like this.

Also shield could be damaged by monster attack and eventually destroyed (after you look at the shield there would be info: "30% off" for example.
Also damaging of weapons (but without decreasing of their power) could be interesting, because there is usually a lot of useless weapons (clubs, swords) in DM.

Do you think that this is possible with lua scripting?

[Sophia]

I think that scripting is always somewhat limited

I don't agree with this assertion. Scripting is limited only by what and how much the core engine exposes to the scripting language. The vast majority of DSB's mechanics are written in Lua, and anything that is written in Lua can be overridden by scripts, of course.

Do you think that this is possible with lua scripting?

Yes, all of it is completely doable.

The part about blocking a monster attack could be a bit messy because the monster attacking function (monster_attacks found in base/monster.lua) is somewhat monolithic and you'd probably have to copy and paste and override the whole thing rather than being able to hook into it or override some smaller function. However, that function is written in Lua and is entirely available to you, so you certainly could hack around in there if you were so inclined.

If you have any further questions, or want a hook into something added in 0.61's base code to make your work easier, feel free to ask.

[lenochware]

Yes, all of it is completely doable.

Cool! I tried make some testing level, which is very nice and easy with the editor, and also look into some scripts a little bit - I have a good feeling about it.