Please email any Bugs/Comments to patrickostema@hotmail.com Or ICQ me at 39088772 August 14, 2001 I got a website? Oh yeah I got a website. Brand spankin new one too! Check out http://home.kc.rr.com/megalodonsoft This website will remain here, but It won't be updated or anything. C ya! June 25, 2001 Oh yeah I forgot I have a game and website to manage:) Ok here's the good and the bad. Bad news first of course. The engine won't be done by the end of june, but probably mid July. Good news is that I have been working on and improving the Engine. I even added a "lock" ability in the game so you can make certain planes only accessable to people with the key to it, kool eh?:) See ya around. You can always email me if you have anything to say for example to hurry up:) C ya around. ~Patrick May 31, 2001 Whoops! I know I said I would have it done by now, but I've been really busy with personal things(Sorry!). I actually have completed all the programming that needs done for the Entire Engine(Map editor, Tile Engine, and Item Editor). All I gotta do now is make a demo map. This being the final release and all I want it to be the best I can possibly make it so I can show off all the nifty stuff I've been working on. I even got Potions to work now! Yay! I'm not sure on a final release date or anything but It should be done by the end of June. Thanx for sticking around=-) ~Peace May 10, 2001 Well I just couldn't do it. Me work on a project for over half a year and then when it comes time to release the final version I release a pile of crap. No way. So what I've done is reprogrammed the map editor using DX Windowed Mode(Took me a good bit to get used to how windowed mode worked) and now it works 10X better, and on top of that doesn't crash every five seconds. Less stress on the CPU too since there's no longer a memory leaking .dll being used. I've got the map editor finished, but I've decided to rerelease v1.6.9 with a whole new(good this time) demo map and all that stuff. I'm not quite sure when this will be released, but probably sometime in May. If anyone is still around I'm glad you're here=-) ~Laterz Seis de Mayo, 2001 Well I figured it out. Number one the transparent blit .dll is for use on OS's 98 and up(I have 95) and number 2 it's only designed for 8 bit bitmaps. Oh well, I guess it's bad timing to learn this after I'm done releasing the final version eh? Next time I'll just stick with DX=-) Seis de Mayo, 2001 Hey peoples. I released v1.6.9 which will be the last release, but I'm not very proud of it as the map editor is now basically trash because the transparent routine craps out every five seconds making you save and restart. This was my first actual Visual Basic game project(and it shows) and I've learned alot on the process. I remember version 1.0, haha all you could do was walk, not even nonwalkable tiles then. I plan to eventually start a new from scratch project that will be kinda like an online version of the Megalodon Engine, except I'm gonna redo the entire structure of it to use class modules to eliminate the massive laggage caused by the UDT's. I have no Idea when I'm actually gonna get this even to a releasable state, could be 2 months, could be 8. Anyway This will probably be my last post here for a while, about programming at least. I really enjoyed working on this project and I hope I helped a few people along the way. C ya around. ~Patrick April 25, 2001 Hey people. I'm still alive, I've just been real buy with things lately and haven't been able to do much work on anything. I want to announce that 1.6.9 WILL be the last release for the Megalodon Engine as I see it unethical to keep working on a project thats having significant problems due to my overuse of UDT's. Don't fear though, I plan to make a new and better ONLINE RPG based of the Megalodon Engine interface which will hopefully be much more resource efficient and have better cycling speed. Just to let you know the work on this project will take me a long time and it may be months from now before I even get an Alpha version of it ready to release. I have 1.6.9 of the Megalodon Engine complete as much as it's going to be, but I still have to make a sample map for it. That's all for now, sorry for my temporary abscense. I will continue to be busy with many things until the end of the school year and maybe beyond so if things slow down for a while that's why. Thanx for your patience. ~Laterz April 16, 2001 The past couple of days I've been trying to optimize the code by eliminating all the UDT's I've been using and replacing them with class modules. After a ton of restructuring and stuff like that I've realized that with all the code it would take forever to do this. Here's what's my plan though. For a while now I've been thinking about making an online version of my engine. I've decided that after I release v1.7 which will have sound that I'm going to quit work on that Engine and start on what's eventually going to be a online RPG based on the old engine except with the class modules for increased speed that I was talking about earlier. It'll probably be a month or so before I start on it though because I still have to release v1.6.9 and then v1.7(will be the same as v1.6.9 except with music). ~Patrick April 14, 2001 Wazup everyone. I got rid of those little annoying bugs I was talking about earlier, most of em at least. I also changed around the Map Editor a little and took off that bottom part that advertised the website and all that because it was just taking up room and covering up the windows taskbar which was getting annoying. I got pretty much everything done and working for v1.6.9, but it may be a while before it's released because since there's now multi map support, the demo's gonna take alot longer to make. Also I think I'm gonna wait for my friend to make me a few more tiles and sprites and stuff for me. ~C ya laterz! April 11, 2001 Hey again, I had the day off school so I had some time to work on the Engine. I can't believe it but I already got the Multiple Map Support Working! There are still a few minor bugs in it, but I know what they are and know how to fix em, just too lazy to do it today. That's freaky, I've essentially finished version v1.6.9 in a single week! Then again I have alot of little things I still have to tweak around and get working better, but besides that I'm pretty much done. ~C ya April 11, 2001 Wazup peoples. I got the Tile Layers as well as the Dead NPC Item Dropping working=-) The next thing I'm going to add is the Multiple Map Support. This is going to probably be a long and tedious process simply to the fact I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but don't doubt cuz I'll be giving it my all and I'm not gonna stop till I get the SOB to work hehe. That's it for now. ~Adios April 8, 2001 Woohoo!!! I just finished and released version 1.6.8. If you liked the last version you're gonna love this one and vice versa, if you hated that last version you might like this one. This versions updates include Fighting Animations(Tip: hold down the attack button don't tap it repeatedly anymore), New Tiling system and Tiles, and Damage indication including a Health Meter! Stop wasting time reading this and go download it! Enjoy! And like usual if I screwed up the Zip files just let me know and I will reupload them right when I get the message. ~ Have Fun with it! April 4, 2001 I can't believe it, but I actually have 90% of everything I stated below completed! I actually have it all complete, but I have to go back and change a few minor things around. You're gonna love the next version, it's like a brand new game!, new tiles, new sprite graphics, and maybe even new objects, WOOHOO!! Version 1.6.8 might be released as early as this weekend if everything goes well(which it usually doesn't, but we can hope=-) Again I haven't done much testing of it and there will probably be a billion bugs I find when I go to make the demo, but it should be out no later than 2 weeks and as soon as this weekend. ~ Thanx for stickin' around! March 29, 2001 Woohoo! I got the sprites Fighting Animations done! They kinda suck, but at least they are done, maybe later I can get a sprite artist to help me out too(I need one badly). I also fixed a few bugs in the game while doing this. Next I plan on first fixing the combat as it is extremely screwed up and unbalanced right now, and get that back to semi normal conditions. Then I'm going to make some sort of combat damage indicating system, but I'm really unsure so far how I'm going to go about doing that. And Finally after I get these tasks done I'm going to redo the tile system and give it an X axis so no more having all the tiles in the boring old straight line(I'll implement my friends excellent tiles when I do this to show em off=-) After I get all this exciting stuff done I will be ready to release version 1.6.8(that is after I make a demo map which usually takes a few days cuz I like to give them some sort of corny plot instead of nothin at all). That's all folks! ~Peaceout March 27, 2001 I just spent 2 hours fixing a rather annoying bug and I'm about to go insane from lack of sleep but it's ok=-) I work 5 days this week so that doesn't help much either. I finished the West Facing fighting Graphics and all I have left is to do the East then I'll be done with that finally. On a good note with graphics though a talent friend of mine is making some very attractive tiles for me so the next release won't be all icky looking like the last ones have. I'd show some of em to ya, but I haven't asked him yet if I can release them. So from now on He'll have the copyrights to all the tiles and such so if you want to use those in your own personal game you'll have to talk to me then I'll talk to him to make sure it's ok(should be fine). When you see the tiles you'll see why I'm saying this cuz they are purty darn good and I don't think he would want someone claiming his work as their own. Might be a few days before the next update(I'll be swamped with school and work till Saturday probably). ~ C ya March 26, 2001 Wow, that's four updates in a row, incredible. I guess that week straight with no programming made me a little fiendish=-) Anyway I got the North facing Fighting graphics done for all the sprites. Only got the East and West graphics left to do(yippy!). After I get those done I'll probably start on the hit damage point indicator system I talked about earlier. That will probably take a while no doubt. And after I get that Done I will probably do rebalancing in the Combat system(needed badly) and then do some adjusting to the Tile system. Sound like a plan? I hope so. ~Adios March 25, 2001 I've started on the Fighting animation and have got all the sprites South fighting graphics done(they suck but finished none the less). One problem I have is that they always will animate fighitng in the same speed, nomatter what the speed of the character is(I could change this but it looks real bad because it either animates real fast or real slow, so I just decided on a predetermined speed). I'm thinking of having the amount of damage be displayed on a number that kinda pops up and fades away above the sprite being attacked, but with some NPC's having extremely fast speeds, this could rack up alot of numbers very fast therefore blurring them all out. Oh well, I'll think of somehting. ~Laterz March 24, 2001 I actually did something today I can't believe it! I worked on a better health indicator. It's now fully functional and has a bar that indicates the players health as well as the number of health points placed over the middle of the bar. Pretty spiffy. The problem still remains that I need an artist to draw sprites/tiles/everything for me because my drawing sucks. If anyone wants to help out or knows someone that would possibly like to help email me please. Or if you just want to just send some things in sporadically that's kool also, I'll take anything, HELP!!! March 23, 2001 Yes I'm Alive!! I've been gone the last week and a half on spring break vacation. Sorry about not posting my abscence in advance. I haven't done any work on the Engine at all or anything, but I have added a new website to the links section. I'm not real sure what I'm going to do to the Engine next, probably will do some reconstructing to the Combat engine as it pretty much sucks right now. Anyway See ya later!! ~Patrick March 10, 2001 Well it just wouldn't be one of my projects if it didn't have a bug in it=-) Anyway if you downloaded the Game Engine or the Item Editor before 12pm CST redownload them because I was informed of a Colorkey bug that was causing some problems but with the help of the community(thanx=-), got it fixed. Anyway if you were experiencing any problems with white boxes appearing around the sprites and items in the Engine, that is fixed with this update. Gotta love me and my bugs=-) ~Thanx for your support! P.S. I darkened the tileset a bit so it no longer causes temporary blindness to the player. If you want the darkened tileset just download it here and place it in your Map Editor and Engine direcotries. March 8, 2001 I did it! Woohoo! After about 2 months of waiting it's finally here. Download em while they're hot folks=-) There is a bug with the transparent blits in the map editor that needs working on, but I'll just have to save that for the next version. Email any bugs/comments to the address above please. Thanx for stayin with me through these slow and troublesome times=-) Enjoy!! ~Patrick P.S. I just realized this and I shoulda put it in the Readme but oh well. Anyway you CAN talk to the Monster NPC's. They can't attack as long as the text box is displayed, but the second it is turned off(you quit talking) it's open season on you. Just thought I would point this out.. March 7, 2001 Yay! I've pretty much completed v1.6.7 of the Engine. To tell you the truth I have completed it, but I want to go over it a few more times to make sure there are no bugs that I've missed. Just to keep all you guys out there happy I've uploaded a Screenshot from the demo of v1.6.7. I'll probably release it tomorrow, but if not, definately this weekend. Have a good one. ~Peace March 4, 2001 Wow, two updates in a row can ya believe it!? I did a little work tonight and got a few things working better. I implemented the code so now Equipping Armor/Rings actually effects the players attributes along with a few other things. As of now the Potion Item is still unusable and will probably remain that way until the release after this one(this is just due to the fact I'm lazy and want to release v1.6.7 within this decade=-). That's pretty much it. ~ Adios March 3, 2001 Yippy! I actually got a quite large amount of work done on the Engine today. I got the pathfinding and AI combat working much better so now the NPC can alternate following and attacking where before It could only do one or the other. It's been well over a month without an update and I'm sorry but I have had alot going on lately. I'm expecting to release v1.6.7 within march at sometime though. I've still got some bug testing and minor things to do, but for the most part it is finished. So expect v1.6.7 out sometime this month, I would expect sometime wihtin the next 2 weeks actually. Thanx for putting up with my slowness! ~Patrick February 23, 2001 Yay! I actually got a little bit of work done on the Engine today. I've been working alot with the AI Pathfinding mostly trying to get it to function half way decently. Here's a kinda funny screenshot of an earlier version of the Pathfinding AI(All those NPC's started off as one NPC too, hehe, whoops) Don't worry I already fixed that bug so no more massive spawnings of baddies should occur=-) (make note of the "should"=-) That's all for now, maybe I'll get a little more done later tonight after work. ~Peace February 19, 2001 I'm Alive!!! Sorry about the scarcity of updates recently. I've been busy with alot of things as usual. Here's the scoop with what's going on. I've got the "state" system working alot better as well as redone many things in the structure of the Engine. Got the start of a basic patrolling/following sub written. Doesn't sound like I've been doing alot but I have actually. The reason is I've done alot of restructuring of the code to make it more efficient. My goal is so when I release the next version it will be "optimized" to its fullest ability so I don't have to go back and fix bugs from the last version(like usual) just to be able to start work on the next version. Hopefully This week I will have more time to work on it, but who knows. ~Laterz February 11, 2001 Hewo! Been real busy with alot of things lately. Sorry about the lack of updates. Last night I got the start of the Enemy AI coded. So far I've implemented the basic AI attack(including strength, speed, A/DSkill, armor) Still need to program pathfinding, following, and implement NPC Range of View. That's all folks! ~ C ya February 2, 2001 Buenos Dias. Got a new equation for the attack damage implemented today. That's pretty much it so far, though I may do a little more work tonight. As of now the User Attack sub is pretty much complete. However I haven't even started on the NPC or AI Attack system yet, yeah..... that's the fun part is getting that SOB to work. Well C ya later people. ~Patrick January 28,2001, Hey people, Got the base of the Attack sub written so far. The next release may be a while from now just to let ya know due to the fact I don't wanna do a half ass job on the combat system and just have to come back and fix it later. So I plan to do alot of tests and different methods before I put anything in concrete. I also work 5 days this week which is very unkool and will make it even harder to do work on the engine. Most of the time is spent in constructing the Combat system won't even be programming, but pondering ways to get it to work realistically. Wish me luck! ~Hasta Luego January 24, 2001, Hola! I haven't done any work on the Engine since monday. I might be able to work on it tonight though. I've had a load of homework lately on top of my Job and haven't had much time to even eat and sleep let alone work on the Engine. On monday I did discover and Fix a bug in the Map Editor that was rather substancial(has to do with Merchant NPC) to let you know once you open the Merchant Setup screen make sure you click the ADD NPC button to exit or else all the information will be lost and bad stuff may happen. Other than that everything is working so far, I've got all the variables coded into the map file, now all i have to do is get them to do something in the Tile Engine=-) hehe that's the fun part. Probably won't be able to do any work again on the Engine until sunday, but hopefully I will get something done tonight. ~ Laterz January 22, 2001, Oh the fun. Last night I decided I was gonna go for it and implement Combat in the next coming release. So far It's going along very well(though I've done little to nothing so far=-) I've got the idea layed out in my head of how to program it, now all I have to do is get it to work in the real world(that's the fun part=-) Here's a little JPG of the newest verion of the NPC Manager. Take a peek if you wanna. ~Adios January 21, 2001, Last night I redid the NPC Manager a little and instead of making Immobile a type of NPC, I just made it a checkbox option(sounds simpler right?) It will probably be a while before the next release due to the fact, I'm going to put alot more improvements/upgrades in from now on, instead of just adding 1 thing and making a new version=-P. ~Buenos Noches January 20, 2001, Yeehaa! With alot of hard work, waiting, crashing, and unhappy faces, I finally got the the FPS restraint to work. However the I must give a special thanks out to everyone that helped me and especially DiscoStew(the author of RPG-Creater) for he is the one that supplied me with the code that finally worked. Also implemented a new type of NPC last night, the immobile NPC, name pretty much speaks for itself=-) Thanx to all helped me!! ~C ya January 19, 2001, I've been home sick the last couple of days. Done a little work on the Engine, but overall not much due to the fact I feel like poo. All I've done is optimized things a little(I attempted to add a FPS restraint, but due to the fact that either I typed in the code wrong, the code doesn't like me, or I'm just a fool, It no workyed. Either way after about half a billion trys and crashes, I gave up) I'm not real sure what I'm going to implement next. There's many things, such as: Music, Sound Effects, Combat, Multy Map Support, Scripting Engine(save that for later probably), More tile layers/More tiles in general, More types of NPC's/options, tons of good junk. All I've done so far really is a little optimization though thanx to that meanie god of FPS' that hates me. ~Hasta Luego January 15, 2001, YAY! Finished and released v1.6.6 today! Due to a new maskless transparent blit Sub MAKE SURE YOU ADD "Msimg32.dll" TO YOUR "C:\Windows\System\" DIRECTORY OR THE MAP EDITOR WILL NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY!!! Anyway Enjoy and Let's all take a moment to look back at how far we've come as a people... It's a long ways, but the problem is we still have a long way to go. As long as racism exists in the heart of even 1 person, we must oppose it. Only through love can you destroy hate. Martin Luther King Jr. had this love, may he live in our hearts forever... P.S. If there are any bugs or anything I messed up on, let me know please=-) January 14, 2001, Wazup peoples. Pretty much finished v1.6.6. Implemented the drop and pick up item feature in the engine with no bugs(that I know of) Still got a few things to do before release though(double check everything because I never fail to find a bug after I've already released it) and do a few things with the Map Editor. - Laterz January 11, 2001, Howdy. Got a good deal of what's going to be v1.6.6 done today. So far it inludes updates to the Map Editor and Tile Engine. Basically the "Item" system is going to be the main focus in v1.6.6. So far I've updated it so Items can be displayed or set on the map ground.(using the map editor). Have yet to implement the "Pick up" or "Drop" feature yet. Will probably get that done this weekend, hopefully.any |
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Please email any Bugs/Comments to patrickostema@hotmail.com Or ICQ me at 39088772 August 14, 2001 I got a website? Oh yeah I got a website. Brand spankin new one too! Check out http://home.kc.rr.com/megalodonsoft This website will remain here, but It won't be updated or anything. C ya! June 25, 2001 Oh yeah I forgot I have a game and website to manage:) Ok here's the good and the bad. Bad news first of course. The engine won't be done by the end of june, but probably mid July. Good news is that I have been working on and improving the Engine. I even added a "lock" ability in the game so you can make certain planes only accessable to people with the key to it, kool eh?:) See ya around. You can always email me if you have anything to say for example to hurry up:) C ya around. ~Patrick May 31, 2001 Whoops! I know I said I would have it done by now, but I've been really busy with personal things(Sorry!). I actually have completed all the programming that needs done for the Entire Engine(Map editor, Tile Engine, and Item Editor). All I gotta do now is make a demo map. This being the final release and all I want it to be the best I can possibly make it so I can show off all the nifty stuff I've been working on. I even got Potions to work now! Yay! I'm not sure on a final release date or anything but It should be done by the end of June. Thanx for sticking around=-) ~Peace May 10, 2001 Well I just couldn't do it. Me work on a project for over half a year and then when it comes time to release the final version I release a pile of crap. No way. So what I've done is reprogrammed the map editor using DX Windowed Mode(Took me a good bit to get used to how windowed mode worked) and now it works 10X better, and on top of that doesn't crash every five seconds. Less stress on the CPU too since there's no longer a memory leaking .dll being used. I've got the map editor finished, but I've decided to rerelease v1.6.9 with a whole new(good this time) demo map and all that stuff. I'm not quite sure when this will be released, but probably sometime in May. If anyone is still around I'm glad you're here=-) ~Laterz Seis de Mayo, 2001 Well I figured it out. Number one the transparent blit .dll is for use on OS's 98 and up(I have 95) and number 2 it's only designed for 8 bit bitmaps. Oh well, I guess it's bad timing to learn this after I'm done releasing the final version eh? Next time I'll just stick with DX=-) Seis de Mayo, 2001 Hey peoples. I released v1.6.9 which will be the last release, but I'm not very proud of it as the map editor is now basically trash because the transparent routine craps out every five seconds making you save and restart. This was my first actual Visual Basic game project(and it shows) and I've learned alot on the process. I remember version 1.0, haha all you could do was walk, not even nonwalkable tiles then. I plan to eventually start a new from scratch project that will be kinda like an online version of the Megalodon Engine, except I'm gonna redo the entire structure of it to use class modules to eliminate the massive laggage caused by the UDT's. I have no Idea when I'm actually gonna get this even to a releasable state, could be 2 months, could be 8. Anyway This will probably be my last post here for a while, about programming at least. I really enjoyed working on this project and I hope I helped a few people along the way. C ya around. ~Patrick April 25, 2001 Hey people. I'm still alive, I've just been real buy with things lately and haven't been able to do much work on anything. I want to announce that 1.6.9 WILL be the last release for the Megalodon Engine as I see it unethical to keep working on a project thats having significant problems due to my overuse of UDT's. Don't fear though, I plan to make a new and better ONLINE RPG based of the Megalodon Engine interface which will hopefully be much more resource efficient and have better cycling speed. Just to let you know the work on this project will take me a long time and it may be months from now before I even get an Alpha version of it ready to release. I have 1.6.9 of the Megalodon Engine complete as much as it's going to be, but I still have to make a sample map for it. That's all for now, sorry for my temporary abscense. I will continue to be busy with many things until the end of the school year and maybe beyond so if things slow down for a while that's why. Thanx for your patience. ~Laterz April 16, 2001 The past couple of days I've been trying to optimize the code by eliminating all the UDT's I've been using and replacing them with class modules. After a ton of restructuring and stuff like that I've realized that with all the code it would take forever to do this. Here's what's my plan though. For a while now I've been thinking about making an online version of my engine. I've decided that after I release v1.7 which will have sound that I'm going to quit work on that Engine and start on what's eventually going to be a online RPG based on the old engine except with the class modules for increased speed that I was talking about earlier. It'll probably be a month or so before I start on it though because I still have to release v1.6.9 and then v1.7(will be the same as v1.6.9 except with music). ~Patrick April 14, 2001 Wazup everyone. I got rid of those little annoying bugs I was talking about earlier, most of em at least. I also changed around the Map Editor a little and took off that bottom part that advertised the website and all that because it was just taking up room and covering up the windows taskbar which was getting annoying. I got pretty much everything done and working for v1.6.9, but it may be a while before it's released because since there's now multi map support, the demo's gonna take alot longer to make. Also I think I'm gonna wait for my friend to make me a few more tiles and sprites and stuff for me. ~C ya laterz! April 11, 2001 Hey again, I had the day off school so I had some time to work on the Engine. I can't believe it but I already got the Multiple Map Support Working! There are still a few minor bugs in it, but I know what they are and know how to fix em, just too lazy to do it today. That's freaky, I've essentially finished version v1.6.9 in a single week! Then again I have alot of little things I still have to tweak around and get working better, but besides that I'm pretty much done. ~C ya April 11, 2001 Wazup peoples. I got the Tile Layers as well as the Dead NPC Item Dropping working=-) The next thing I'm going to add is the Multiple Map Support. This is going to probably be a long and tedious process simply to the fact I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but don't doubt cuz I'll be giving it my all and I'm not gonna stop till I get the SOB to work hehe. That's it for now. ~Adios April 8, 2001 Woohoo!!! I just finished and released version 1.6.8. If you liked the last version you're gonna love this one and vice versa, if you hated that last version you might like this one. This versions updates include Fighting Animations(Tip: hold down the attack button don't tap it repeatedly anymore), New Tiling system and Tiles, and Damage indication including a Health Meter! Stop wasting time reading this and go download it! Enjoy! And like usual if I screwed up the Zip files just let me know and I will reupload them right when I get the message. ~ Have Fun with it! April 4, 2001 I can't believe it, but I actually have 90% of everything I stated below completed! I actually have it all complete, but I have to go back and change a few minor things around. You're gonna love the next version, it's like a brand new game!, new tiles, new sprite graphics, and maybe even new objects, WOOHOO!! Version 1.6.8 might be released as early as this weekend if everything goes well(which it usually doesn't, but we can hope=-) Again I haven't done much testing of it and there will probably be a billion bugs I find when I go to make the demo, but it should be out no later than 2 weeks and as soon as this weekend. ~ Thanx for stickin' around! March 29, 2001 Woohoo! I got the sprites Fighting Animations done! They kinda suck, but at least they are done, maybe later I can get a sprite artist to help me out too(I need one badly). I also fixed a few bugs in the game while doing this. Next I plan on first fixing the combat as it is extremely screwed up and unbalanced right now, and get that back to semi normal conditions. Then I'm going to make some sort of combat damage indicating system, but I'm really unsure so far how I'm going to go about doing that. And Finally after I get these tasks done I'm going to redo the tile system and give it an X axis so no more having all the tiles in the boring old straight line(I'll implement my friends excellent tiles when I do this to show em off=-) After I get all this exciting stuff done I will be ready to release version 1.6.8(that is after I make a demo map which usually takes a few days cuz I like to give them some sort of corny plot instead of nothin at all). That's all folks! ~Peaceout March 27, 2001 I just spent 2 hours fixing a rather annoying bug and I'm about to go insane from lack of sleep but it's ok=-) I work 5 days this week so that doesn't help much either. I finished the West Facing fighting Graphics and all I have left is to do the East then I'll be done with that finally. On a good note with graphics though a talent friend of mine is making some very attractive tiles for me so the next release won't be all icky looking like the last ones have. I'd show some of em to ya, but I haven't asked him yet if I can release them. So from now on He'll have the copyrights to all the tiles and such so if you want to use those in your own personal game you'll have to talk to me then I'll talk to him to make sure it's ok(should be fine). When you see the tiles you'll see why I'm saying this cuz they are purty darn good and I don't think he would want someone claiming his work as their own. Might be a few days before the next update(I'll be swamped with school and work till Saturday probably). ~ C ya March 26, 2001 Wow, that's four updates in a row, incredible. I guess that week straight with no programming made me a little fiendish=-) Anyway I got the North facing Fighting graphics done for all the sprites. Only got the East and West graphics left to do(yippy!). After I get those done I'll probably start on the hit damage point indicator system I talked about earlier. That will probably take a while no doubt. And after I get that Done I will probably do rebalancing in the Combat system(needed badly) and then do some adjusting to the Tile system. Sound like a plan? I hope so. ~Adios March 25, 2001 I've started on the Fighting animation and have got all the sprites South fighting graphics done(they suck but finished none the less). One problem I have is that they always will animate fighitng in the same speed, nomatter what the speed of the character is(I could change this but it looks real bad because it either animates real fast or real slow, so I just decided on a predetermined speed). I'm thinking of having the amount of damage be displayed on a number that kinda pops up and fades away above the sprite being attacked, but with some NPC's having extremely fast speeds, this could rack up alot of numbers very fast therefore blurring them all out. Oh well, I'll think of somehting. ~Laterz March 24, 2001 I actually did something today I can't believe it! I worked on a better health indicator. It's now fully functional and has a bar that indicates the players health as well as the number of health points placed over the middle of the bar. Pretty spiffy. The problem still remains that I need an artist to draw sprites/tiles/everything for me because my drawing sucks. If anyone wants to help out or knows someone that would possibly like to help email me please. Or if you just want to just send some things in sporadically that's kool also, I'll take anything, HELP!!! March 23, 2001 Yes I'm Alive!! I've been gone the last week and a half on spring break vacation. Sorry about not posting my abscence in advance. I haven't done any work on the Engine at all or anything, but I have added a new website to the links section. I'm not real sure what I'm going to do to the Engine next, probably will do some reconstructing to the Combat engine as it pretty much sucks right now. Anyway See ya later!! ~Patrick March 10, 2001 Well it just wouldn't be one of my projects if it didn't have a bug in it=-) Anyway if you downloaded the Game Engine or the Item Editor before 12pm CST redownload them because I was informed of a Colorkey bug that was causing some problems but with the help of the community(thanx=-), got it fixed. Anyway if you were experiencing any problems with white boxes appearing around the sprites and items in the Engine, that is fixed with this update. Gotta love me and my bugs=-) ~Thanx for your support! P.S. I darkened the tileset a bit so it no longer causes temporary blindness to the player. If you want the darkened tileset just download it here and place it in your Map Editor and Engine direcotries. March 8, 2001 I did it! Woohoo! After about 2 months of waiting it's finally here. Download em while they're hot folks=-) There is a bug with the transparent blits in the map editor that needs working on, but I'll just have to save that for the next version. Email any bugs/comments to the address above please. Thanx for stayin with me through these slow and troublesome times=-) Enjoy!! ~Patrick P.S. I just realized this and I shoulda put it in the Readme but oh well. Anyway you CAN talk to the Monster NPC's. They can't attack as long as the text box is displayed, but the second it is turned off(you quit talking) it's open season on you. Just thought I would point this out.. March 7, 2001 Yay! I've pretty much completed v1.6.7 of the Engine. To tell you the truth I have completed it, but I want to go over it a few more times to make sure there are no bugs that I've missed. Just to keep all you guys out there happy I've uploaded a Screenshot from the demo of v1.6.7. I'll probably release it tomorrow, but if not, definately this weekend. Have a good one. ~Peace March 4, 2001 Wow, two updates in a row can ya believe it!? I did a little work tonight and got a few things working better. I implemented the code so now Equipping Armor/Rings actually effects the players attributes along with a few other things. As of now the Potion Item is still unusable and will probably remain that way until the release after this one(this is just due to the fact I'm lazy and want to release v1.6.7 within this decade=-). That's pretty much it. ~ Adios March 3, 2001 Yippy! I actually got a quite large amount of work done on the Engine today. I got the pathfinding and AI combat working much better so now the NPC can alternate following and attacking where before It could only do one or the other. It's been well over a month without an update and I'm sorry but I have had alot going on lately. I'm expecting to release v1.6.7 within march at sometime though. I've still got some bug testing and minor things to do, but for the most part it is finished. So expect v1.6.7 out sometime this month, I would expect sometime wihtin the next 2 weeks actually. Thanx for putting up with my slowness! ~Patrick February 23, 2001 Yay! I actually got a little bit of work done on the Engine today. I've been working alot with the AI Pathfinding mostly trying to get it to function half way decently. Here's a kinda funny screenshot of an earlier version of the Pathfinding AI(All those NPC's started off as one NPC too, hehe, whoops) Don't worry I already fixed that bug so no more massive spawnings of baddies should occur=-) (make note of the "should"=-) That's all for now, maybe I'll get a little more done later tonight after work. ~Peace February 19, 2001 I'm Alive!!! Sorry about the scarcity of updates recently. I've been busy with alot of things as usual. Here's the scoop with what's going on. I've got the "state" system working alot better as well as redone many things in the structure of the Engine. Got the start of a basic patrolling/following sub written. Doesn't sound like I've been doing alot but I have actually. The reason is I've done alot of restructuring of the code to make it more efficient. My goal is so when I release the next version it will be "optimized" to its fullest ability so I don't have to go back and fix bugs from the last version(like usual) just to be able to start work on the next version. Hopefully This week I will have more time to work on it, but who knows. ~Laterz February 11, 2001 Hewo! Been real busy with alot of things lately. Sorry about the lack of updates. Last night I got the start of the Enemy AI coded. So far I've implemented the basic AI attack(including strength, speed, A/DSkill, armor) Still need to program pathfinding, following, and implement NPC Range of View. That's all folks! ~ C ya February 2, 2001 Buenos Dias. Got a new equation for the attack damage implemented today. That's pretty much it so far, though I may do a little more work tonight. As of now the User Attack sub is pretty much complete. However I haven't even started on the NPC or AI Attack system yet, yeah..... that's the fun part is getting that SOB to work. Well C ya later people. ~Patrick January 28,2001, Hey people, Got the base of the Attack sub written so far. The next release may be a while from now just to let ya know due to the fact I don't wanna do a half ass job on the combat system and just have to come back and fix it later. So I plan to do alot of tests and different methods before I put anything in concrete. I also work 5 days this week which is very unkool and will make it even harder to do work on the engine. Most of the time is spent in constructing the Combat system won't even be programming, but pondering ways to get it to work realistically. Wish me luck! ~Hasta Luego January 24, 2001, Hola! I haven't done any work on the Engine since monday. I might be able to work on it tonight though. I've had a load of homework lately on top of my Job and haven't had much time to even eat and sleep let alone work on the Engine. On monday I did discover and Fix a bug in the Map Editor that was rather substancial(has to do with Merchant NPC) to let you know once you open the Merchant Setup screen make sure you click the ADD NPC button to exit or else all the information will be lost and bad stuff may happen. Other than that everything is working so far, I've got all the variables coded into the map file, now all i have to do is get them to do something in the Tile Engine=-) hehe that's the fun part. Probably won't be able to do any work again on the Engine until sunday, but hopefully I will get something done tonight. ~ Laterz January 22, 2001, Oh the fun. Last night I decided I was gonna go for it and implement Combat in the next coming release. So far It's going along very well(though I've done little to nothing so far=-) I've got the idea layed out in my head of how to program it, now all I have to do is get it to work in the real world(that's the fun part=-) Here's a little JPG of the newest verion of the NPC Manager. Take a peek if you wanna. ~Adios January 21, 2001, Last night I redid the NPC Manager a little and instead of making Immobile a type of NPC, I just made it a checkbox option(sounds simpler right?) It will probably be a while before the next release due to the fact, I'm going to put alot more improvements/upgrades in from now on, instead of just adding 1 thing and making a new version=-P. ~Buenos Noches January 20, 2001, Yeehaa! With alot of hard work, waiting, crashing, and unhappy faces, I finally got the the FPS restraint to work. However the I must give a special thanks out to everyone that helped me and especially DiscoStew(the author of RPG-Creater) for he is the one that supplied me with the code that finally worked. Also implemented a new type of NPC last night, the immobile NPC, name pretty much speaks for itself=-) Thanx to all helped me!! ~C ya January 19, 2001, I've been home sick the last couple of days. Done a little work on the Engine, but overall not much due to the fact I feel like poo. All I've done is optimized things a little(I attempted to add a FPS restraint, but due to the fact that either I typed in the code wrong, the code doesn't like me, or I'm just a fool, It no workyed. Either way after about half a billion trys and crashes, I gave up) I'm not real sure what I'm going to implement next. There's many things, such as: Music, Sound Effects, Combat, Multy Map Support, Scripting Engine(save that for later probably), More tile layers/More tiles in general, More types of NPC's/options, tons of good junk. All I've done so far really is a little optimization though thanx to that meanie god of FPS' that hates me. ~Hasta Luego January 15, 2001, YAY! Finished and released v1.6.6 today! Due to a new maskless transparent blit Sub MAKE SURE YOU ADD "Msimg32.dll" TO YOUR "C:\Windows\System\" DIRECTORY OR THE MAP EDITOR WILL NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY!!! Anyway Enjoy and Let's all take a moment to look back at how far we've come as a people... It's a long ways, but the problem is we still have a long way to go. As long as racism exists in the heart of even 1 person, we must oppose it. Only through love can you destroy hate. Martin Luther King Jr. had this love, may he live in our hearts forever... P.S. If there are any bugs or anything I messed up on, let me know please=-) January 14, 2001, Wazup peoples. Pretty much finished v1.6.6. Implemented the drop and pick up item feature in the engine with no bugs(that I know of) Still got a few things to do before release though(double check everything because I never fail to find a bug after I've already released it) and do a few things with the Map Editor. - Laterz January 11, 2001, Howdy. Got a good deal of what's going to be v1.6.6 done today. So far it inludes updates to the Map Editor and Tile Engine. Basically the "Item" system is going to be the main focus in v1.6.6. So far I've updated it so Items can be displayed or set on the map ground.(using the map editor). Have yet to implement the "Pick up" or "Drop" feature yet. Will probably get that done this weekend, hopefully.any |
