Playtesting Conflux II

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 12:37 pm

So far the .a version worked pretty fine for me - has some nice new graphics in it - the priests symbol looks magnificent, for example. I experienced one timer problem though - but only in a certain area ("free entry") - game crash after moving a little in there. There's no save game but I can try and re-do it maybe with the same effect. I can give you my logfile and saved games, maybe that helps - let me know. But it's not the same problem as last time because it did not come up afterwards again...

Regards, PitD

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 2:17 pm

yes, i hadn't had that problem in the free entry area the whole time i played it normally, but i accidentally ended up there yesterday much later in the game and i got the crash....
Not repeatable, so don't know exactly what is causing it...

Post by **Zyx** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 3:22 pm

Cows: you must use the latest version of CSBwin! (96L right now I think)

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:02 pm

96m with the beautiful tapping sound!

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:15 pm

well, concidering I did not have CSB for windows/linux prior to this I had to dowload it and I got the latest version I could find from Christophes site which is 96. Still I have this error. I even re-downloaded it just now.. no dice.

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:31 pm

Maybe one of the files does not fit to the others? What files do you use beside the .zip from Zyx?

Regards, PitD

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:37 pm

Just to double check, are you launching using the .bat files that set up DM or CSB, rather than clicking on the 'csb.exe'?
Conflux is similarly set up by replacing these files, i believe, not anythign on the root (that's what i did, playing using a replaced DM set up)

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:38 pm

nvm.. if I did some actual reading once in a while I would find that the newest files are not on christophes site. I read the stickey post and found it. Works fine now.

moo

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 8:19 pm

I posted CSBwin Version 9.6n.

The Atari code used 16-bit integers for most things.
You could not save if a database was bigger than 32767
bytes. The monster database exceeded that. I believe
that means there were 32000/16 monsters. That is
2000 monsters. Or an average of 125 per level. Hmmmm.
That is a lot of Hack-an-Slash.

=============================================
Version 9.6n
--Allow databases to exceed 32767 bytes.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 12:06 am

I posted Version 9.6o.

============================================
Version 9.6o
--Mor fixes to allow databases to exceed 32767 bytes.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:40 pm

I've just tested the tapping of walls on an illusionary wall, and it knocked!
Anyone else get this?

Post by **Zyx** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:59 pm

Happens to me too, ankhbearer.

Post by **Zyx** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 7:09 am

More requests!

1) When editing a level, you show the number of each monster. Could you also show the number of monster generators for each kind?

2) In finding object: could you add the search for monsters?

3) In finding object: could you add the search for scrolls containing a given word?

4) In finding object: could you add the search for texts containing a given word?

5) In finding object: could you add the search for a given decoration? (wall or floor, no matter the function of the actuator)

6) You can give negative hitpoints to a monster. (By the way, could you use that as a feature to create immortal monsters?)

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:01 pm

1) Carded
2) Carded
3) Carded
4) Carded
5) Carded

None of these things seems difficult at first glance.
But I wonder. Would it be wise for me to provide
a dump to an ASCII text file? Then you could search
for whatever you please without asking me to change the
program. Another advantage is that such a dump might
prvide the foundation for conversion to RTC or some other
clone. If someone wanted to write a conversion program I
could work with them to make the dump complete and
easy to parse. For ConfluxII we would have a large file.

6) Carded. It should always be positive.

We can make the maximum hitpoint value be a special
case meaning invulnerable.
Do people want me to attempt this? It would be a non-backward
compatible feature....old designs with the maximum would
be broken.

Post by **Zyx** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:27 pm

For practical use, it would be best if the search is integrated into the CSBuild. The main goal when you make such a search is to find the item and modify it.

6) I don't think this would affect old dungeons. If you put the maximum hitpoints in CSBuild you would have obtained a negative value. So nobody did it. Anyway Dungeons done with DMute never put over 10 000 HP, I think.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 6:33 pm

6) OK. I will limit the HP to 65534. 65535 will
mean infinity and can never be decremented.
I don't guarantee that the runtime engine will
get this right on the first try. But I will attempt it.

Post by **Lunever** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:45 pm

Zyx is probably right that an integrated search would be more comfortable, but I'd like to see an ASCII dumb in addition very much, because if one day there was conversion from/to RTC possible that would be absolutely fantastic, and it seems that such a dumb might be a first and necessary step toward such a conversion tool.

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 7:28 pm

Paul, I was working with CSBwin today and found, that the function "Finding a lock that was operated by a key" did not work properly - it was missing out at least one place I knew of that was operated by the key I was searching for. I tried it directly afterwards in CSBwin... shall I provide details via email or can you look at it without further comments?

Something else in that regard: It might be practical to be able to either look for anything that is activated by a certain object (as already provided by the small checkbox below the "find object" option) or only for those who still are active . In general, when searching any object and finding more than one I would like to be able to chose one from the list, so that CSBuild goes back to normal mode (from the find mode) and stay in the level of the object I selected (like the windows explorer search), maybe simply activated by the "enter" key or a double mouse click.

Regards, PitD[/b]

Post by **Zyx** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 7:57 pm

If you were editing a savegame, did you check that the pushbutton in question (the one not detected by the "find" menu) was not disabled, which is what happens after one use for the "once only" actuators?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 8:06 pm

Some details would make my job much easier than trying
all the possibilities myself.

"Are still active"? I thinkwe are on different wavelengths
here. It certainly does not find any inactive actuators. So
I need details or an example here, too.

How about if you can select one and immediately go to
the editor for that actuator? Don't know if that is reasonable
to implement but it seems like maybe what you want.
Else I could simply switch to the proper map level.

PicturesInTheDark · Post by **PicturesInTheDark** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 8:44 pm

Zyx, Paul: The keyhole I was talking about was definitely active, I tried it afterwards with CSBwin - the door opened with the object that I searched for in CSBuild before.

As for the searches: What I want to be able to do is choose one of the items out of the group of those found and directly go to the level it's on. So if I'm looking for, say, Boots of Speed in DM I want to choose the ones in the spider room in level 12, press any button or the mouse and then see that level in CSBuild, not having to start at level 1 and then looking using the page down key if possible.

Regards, PitD

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:14 pm

Beowuuf send a conflux savegame that caused a lot
of problems for CSBuild and caused a hang in CSBwin.

The hang was due to a pressure pad at 12(2,23) ..I think..
that had a pad that opened a pit on the same cell after zero
delay. So when the pit opened the pad was released causing
the pit to open causing the pad to release causing the pit to
open causing the pad to release causing the pit to open
causing the pad to release.....well, you get the idea. This
is a 'bug' (if you want to call it that.....it could be called a
bug in the design) in the origian Atari code. I fixed it.

Release CSBuild 0.816 and CSBwin 9.6v4

===========================================
Version 0.816
--Tolerate Missiles and Clouds when checking objects.
--Decode Missile Timers in 'View Active Timers'.
--Do not use Timer types 24, 25, 60, and 61 in clone discovery.

===========================================
Version 9.6v4
--'Wiggle' objects on a pit only when the pit goes from a closed
to an open state....not when it is open and then set open again.

Lubor Kolar · Post by **Lubor Kolar** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:29 pm

What about source code? I tried to download it but it's pretty old and does not run Conflux II dungeon. Thanks.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:04 pm

I must admit i have done the same style of thing with teleporters and wall triggers in the past - where an effect is instantaneous like teleporting to a teleporter to a teleporter etc back into itself in a chain, or if a trigger firing an effect that generates an effct back at the original square (a graphical toggle, for example).

If this CSB version is managing to avoid this pitfall all together, then many thanks indeed!

Out of interest, what are type 24 and 48 timers?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:47 pm

Lubor: Source for CSBwin? Producing the official source
release is a great pain. How about I post my private code
just for you and you keep it private? Then, after ConfluxII
has been tested for a couple of months I will try to release
a version 9.7.

Beowuuf: Timer 24 controls the clouds. Like the poison
cloud or fluxcage. I don't know about 48 off the top of
my head.

Lubor Kolar · Post by **Lubor Kolar** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:20 pm

Paul Stevens wrote:Lubor: Source for CSBwin? Producing the official source
release is a great pain. How about I post my private code
just for you and you keep it private? Then, after ConfluxII
has been tested for a couple of months I will try to release
a version 9.7.

If it is possible, I promise I'll keep it secret. If you want, you can mail it to me at lubor dot kolar at st dot com, thanks.