This week I've been keeping a to-do list of stuff I've been working on. This might become a regular thing, so I can say something more specific and detailed than "oh I worked on new events for a while". Here's this week's progress (the crossed-out items are the ones I got around to):
code up stub encounters (descriptions + basic location code) for:
humbabaumu-demons- bone vipers
nature spirits- rock demons
asakku- lesser demon
- concrete snake
code up stub locations (descriptions + basic location code) for:
mining barracksobelisksstanding stones- glades
- alchemy shops
flare stacks- abandoned factory building
- ganzer fortress
- vortex
- swamp thicket
- shoals
- abzu fountains
add location data to currently-existing locations:
machine shopsfarmsgiant dragon skullsthe hell gate
make some misc treasure encounters:
bubblesold bonestreasure pileswow figure out why these aren't despawning on use
set up proper parametric, npc-containing locations:
tree (dryad, unicorn, nature spirit)- cave (dungeon, ending w/ ??? random npc)
- vortex (dungeon? teleporter?)
- factory building (multiple npcs in different sections + maybe dungeon also??)
- machine shop (hamar-tabal, flame demon, gargoyle, etc)
event code additions:
- adding new event code: respawning resource node, harvestable with button press, tracked with a local var
- system status message style (e.g., 'encounters have respawned and all resource nodes have been refilled')
- choice options locked by item requirement, showing the item requirement, and visible even if unavailable
Also I've been working on map generation a bit, so the maps now look... a lot less barren and uniform. Here's another sneak peak.
For NEXT week... I don't think I'm going to be able to finish a reasonable amount of gameplay stuff in a short period of time, and so in the interest of not stretching out this part of the map update (you know, the one that actually contains all the stuff I've been working on for the past four+ months) for another four months, I'm gonna focus on fixing the absolute most important bugs and trying to have the update ready next week. (Incidentally for $4+ pledgers there's a post on the patreon about which of three different polls under consideration I should actually post, so if you've got opinions you should go over there to check it out.)
The todo list for THAT looks like this:
- no more failed map generation
- mysterious infinite loop
- 'no such factory region' failure
- 'tunneler boxed in' failure
- 'disjoint map graph' failure
- at the very least: recognize failed map generation; rerun until generation succeeds
- map serialization fixed
- clean up map data after generation / before gameplay to make savegame serialization easier
- pc location / demo shop being placed
- tunnels/stacks not so clogged with encounters
- draw map sprites for throne/grotto sections
So hopefully in a week's time I'll have all that done and be ready to post all this stuff. Finally!
When I saw this post I suddenly remembered that once upon a time you talked about mantises having arms but no hands.
They kinda sorta do have - well, not hands, but a touchy part. See a scheme here (459x200): http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/mantids/images/biolog1a.jpg
Photo (929x622): http://www.easttennesseewildflowers.com/gallery3/var/albums/Insects_II/Copy_of_Praying_Mantis_close_2.jpg?m=1348908746
I don't know, I just thought it would be interesting to know.
Hurray for the new sprites and a ton of other things.
Oh yeah, the issue isn't 'hands' exactly so much as... branching grasping parts. Fingers and/or toes, basically. All the scenes so far assume you'll have grasping hands and spread feet, since all the animal nodes so far provide those, so adding stuff like [CENTIPEDE] or [MANTIS] or [SPIDER] which have a single tapering limb would require me to add a new limb tag, plus write in variations for every scene where fingers or feet come up. (It's kind of inevitable that some of that happen, just from the amount of TF stuff I want to add -- if "arms that are writhing snakes" is a TF option, that's _also_ gonna require some new limb tags, so at that point why not also support insect limbs. But that's fairly low on the priority list, so who knows when it'll happen.)
(Wait what, you can get snake arms?)
I understand, yeah, accounting for so many different types of everything just has to be a massive pain. Good luck with that. I just had to be a pedant about arthropod legs.
If it's any consolation, you probably will be able to modify worm scenes to centipede scenes.
You'll be able to! One of the planned nodes is `[SNAKE]»headed` (name still under consideration), which will let you get things like medusa hair or a prehensile snake tail or snake cock... but then there's the question of what happens when you put the node on your arms or legs, and "arms become snakes with snake-heads for hands" is kind of the obvious option. I already need to add in, uh, multi-naga support? A naga with multiple tails, which is currently achievable but has no special features. And once that's in, then the leg option could be your legs being turned into big snakes, kinda like Gwyndolin in Dark Souls, to get a multi-naga type. (That might also overlap some with any future octopus/squid type, or tentacle support generally.)
...and that's a good example of how there's always more body options to add support for. There's a reason a lot of other games are like "no nagas or centaurs because it's too hard to code for"! Thankfully/regrettably I've decided to aim for as much body customization as possible.
Know what I remembered again, I remembered that bug when having goat horns on a snake head swapped "hiss" attack for a "bleat". And had "bleat" in scenes. No idea if that was fixed.
There really are two options: perpetual development or a line regrettably/thankfully drawn somewhere between a centipede with snake legs and a dragon with tentacle wings. I don't think you need my opinion on how to proceed, so, yeah, thank you for your work! I really look forward to that release.
Oh yeah, I'll have to check that out. I vaguely recall realizing the attacks issue at some point but never fixing it, so I guess time to actually fix it.
Pretty good for a newbie like me. I’ll try to follow on your instructions and will update here on the
response from my Website.
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