Experimental 'Speed' Release

[Paul Stevens]

Several people have expressed various opinions about
how fast they like the game to be played. So I made
a new "Speed" menu to allow the player to control the
various parameters. An experimental executable is at

webpages.charter.net/pstevens1
CSBexeXY.zip

It is only the executable. You will have to supply the other
files. After any discussion I will decide what to change an
whether to release it officially.

PAul

[FoxBat]

Nice, I especially like the extra ticks - off option. Not quite sure what player clock does though.

[Paul Stevens]

Well. I can try to explain.

Let us say you set the speed to VERY slow. Now the clock will tick
every 15 seconds. If you move forward it will be 15 seconds before
you can move again. If you press the forward button before then it
will sit in the queue waiting for 15 seconds to expire.

The 'Player Clock' option causes the clock tick to occur immediately
if there are any player actions in the queue. So that you can cause
clock ticks manually. This is how I played an entire game in less than
twenty minutes. Time goes by very slowly, allowing you to react to
monster movements and not make mistakes. But you can speed the
game up when you wish by making some sort of move. I used the F1
key as a 'no-operation' move when I wanted time to go by without
actually doing something.

At any rate, you can try it with and without the 'Player Clock' and see
which you prefer.

PAul

[Antman]

This is great!!!! But are you allowed to use it in The Race? I guess no, but I can hope. I put it up one or two levels in speed.

Second try at posting, something went wrong.

[Paul Stevens]

Well...I made sure that the speed you use is recorded in the
"Recordnnn.log" file. So we can see what you have done.

I think perhaps you do not understand how this works. Setting
it faster just makes the game time go faster. It may take you
less 'Earth-time' to play the game but it will take more 'game-time'.
And the race time is measured in 'game-time' units.

If you want to finish the race in record time it would be wise to
set the speed to be slower so that you can get more done in the
same amount of 'game-time'.

Another way to look at it.....Setting it faster is equivalent to slowing
YOU down. And setting it slower is equivalent to speeding YOU up.
That is how I finished the game in 19 minutes.....I set it to 'Glacial'
with 'Player Clock' so that it apperared that I was superhumanly
fast on the keyboard. (I also glued several pieces together.)

I just lost my hard-drive on the machine that contains
CSBWin. I may have to reinvent some of this stuff.

As far as the race is concerned I think it is OK to do whatever
the game allows.

PAul

[FoxBat]

Oh, so with extra clock ticks you could almost play like it's turn-based ;)

[FoxBat]

Er with player clock I meant :)

[Paul Stevens]

That is exactly right. If you set it on other than 'Glacial' there is
still some realtime aspect. But 'Glacial' is about 15 seconds.

[Antman]

I find it easier on the higher speed because their in no delay when I'm moving so I don't end up ramming into walls so I actually end up going faster.