Author Topic: Beta 0.801 now out.  (Read 3968 times)

Offline x4000

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Beta 0.801 now out.
« on: April 23, 2015, 08:52:25 pm »
Release notes here: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stars_Beyond_Reach_Beta_Release_Notes#Version_0.801

I'm exhausted and have not had time to do a real writeup or even respond to the last thread about the prior release.  I will, I promise!  It may be too late to really matter, but I'll be trying to get to all of that mid next week at the latest.  I have so incredibly much correspondence to catch up on...

Anyway, this one is out, and the release notes speak for themselves, really.  A lot of things should be less confusing now, and a lot of mechanics that were "broken" were actually just not giving you the visual feedback that you needed to at all figure out how they worked.  And there were also some that were outright broken thanks to regressions sometime between the last time we tested them internally and now.

Lots of stuff cleaned up, anyhow.  The between-turn times are running agonizingly slow right now, and I'm not really sure why.  In some cases it's like 16+ seconds between turns in some savegames.  As you find those, please post them to mantis.  Keith has been investigating that, but it takes time, and I imagine that it will be early next week sometime before he really has all that worked out.  I have complete confidence that we can root out that problem, but if I go mucking about in that part of the code I think he'll slit his own throat. ;)

And anyway, I'm not short on things to do, either.  The performance stuff, some of the bigger bugs that remain, a few areas of content stuff that have come up lately, and so forth I want to get implemented before the blueshirts are in.

You can restart steam to force an update.
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2015, 09:38:38 pm »
just looked at the patch notes and holey smokes I forgot there was natural wonders in this also pretty cool stuff all I need is for temperate lakes to get fixed and ill be a happy bun er rooster.
c.r

Offline mrhanman

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2015, 11:23:41 pm »
I'm really happy with how the game is progressing.  Keep up the good work! 

Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2015, 09:17:23 am »
Thank you!  Still plenty to do, but it's coming along at a pace I'm reasonably happy with.  I am sure looking forward to next week when Keith starts being around fulltime again, though.  Boy he sure did deserve the time off, he had a ton of overtime in Q1 of this year, don't get me wrong.  But there are a lot of things I want to chuck his way (that I know he'd prefer to handle), and the temperate lakes bug and the performance issues are two big ones.
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Offline topper

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2015, 11:01:15 am »
Hi, playing on this patch and liking it so far.

A couple really early things I feel are missing for the beginning of the game.

1. A couple sentence intro on what is this game and what is the player goal, would be helpful for beta players just starting out. Though maybe you want to see what players do without directions. :P
2. Building descriptions and flavor text (do you need help writing these?!?) To the right of the table of info on each building for after you ctr-click it, it would be great to have the summary of what the building does, a few buildings seem to have it already and it is really helpful. "The hospital increases birth rate by XX" is the key info to display by the building picture since that is the point of why you would place the building and the employment/power/crime/trash bits are details that are fine in the table.

These two would make the early picture a lot clearer for me. But I can only have a first impression once and others might be sidetracked by things unless these two sorted out early.

Anybody else have the same feelings? I have a few other things to Mantis as well, but should I even add these 2 as I am sure they will be sorted out eventually?

Offline ptarth

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Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2015, 11:13:25 am »
Feel free to add those two, just so that I don't forget.  An intro for the game is definitely something that is planned (of course), but it doesn't hurt to have it in mantis.  Right now that's kind of The Redshirt Experience in that there's no explanations.  The building descriptions and flavor text (also that for techs and resources) is also on my list, but lower down because it doesn't affect gameplay, just clarity.  If folks wish to help out writing those, I certainly won't say no!  Particularly with the functional bits, those don't take me-specifically to do.
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Offline ptarth

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2015, 11:15:43 am »
The building descriptions and flavor text (also that for techs and resources) is also on my list...If folks wish to help out writing those, I certainly won't say no!  Particularly with the functional bits, those don't take me-specifically to do.

Can we get the format you want them listed in?
Things like Width, formatting codes (color for races for example, etc), active field added to the buildings.xlsx file, ice cream?
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Offline Draco18s

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2015, 11:38:16 am »
The building descriptions and flavor text (also that for techs and resources) is also on my list, but lower down because it doesn't affect gameplay, just clarity.

Think we could get a file dump at some point?  That is, upload all the various (game object) images to the wiki?
That way, on a particular page, we can say "and this is what it looks like."

Offline ptarth

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2015, 11:50:38 am »
The game images are actually all pngs and are in the beta download. We just need to find somebody to upload them and index them.

Not it.

Also, might I offer this for the purpose of developing game text?
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10DrCCKWL-dL5bA7-_L_OFfoQGFN5x3dWpUrHf1BAfK4/edit?usp=sharing
« Last Edit: April 24, 2015, 12:13:48 pm by ptarth »
Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2015, 03:56:55 pm »
The building descriptions and flavor text (also that for techs and resources) is also on my list...If folks wish to help out writing those, I certainly won't say no!  Particularly with the functional bits, those don't take me-specifically to do.

Can we get the format you want them listed in?
Things like Width, formatting codes (color for races for example, etc), active field added to the buildings.xlsx file, ice cream?

If you want to edit them and test them in-game in realtime to make sure that they fit in the right-hand column (that's the big thing), then you can go into RuntimeData/Language/en/a_bionic.xml

If you search for "MapTileLayerType_" you will see that there is a lot of stuff like "MapTileLayerType_Lander1_Name".  That controls the name of the lander.  If you add a line under that called "MapTileLayerType_Lander1_Desc", then it will gain a description.  See "MapTileLayerType_ShoppingMall_Desc" for an example of one done properly.

Please note: whitespace formatting does matter, and if you get odd tabs and stuff in there (like visual studio wants to add by default), it will look super funky.

As descriptions are created, posting them... somewhere... would be useful.  On the wiki perhaps is easiest, just in a temp topic that I can yank from and put into the xml as I go.  Do remember that anything you put in this xml file will be lost when the game updates!  So make sure and have a backup, or pull the stuff out.

Ah, the "in realtime" testing bit: when you are in the game, after you have edited the xml and hit save, hit Ctrl+F5 (or Ctrl+F4, I use these daily but can never keep them straight in my mind -- my fingers remember but my brain does not) and it will immediately update what you see on the screen.  Useful for making everything fit without having to restart the program a million times.

The main color tags I use:

[#ffe178] - what this tech or building is for
[#ff91f9] - alternate recommendations
[#ffffff]
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Offline x4000

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2015, 03:58:21 pm »
The game images are actually all pngs and are in the beta download. We just need to find somebody to upload them and index them.

Not it.

Ahahaha.  Nice. :)

What I will have to do is make a way for the game to export them in one piece, though, because the pngs are split up in ways that are not helpful to your cause, and are in the process of being even more split up.

Also, might I offer this for the purpose of developing game text?
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10DrCCKWL-dL5bA7-_L_OFfoQGFN5x3dWpUrHf1BAfK4/edit?usp=sharing

That works!
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Offline crazyroosterman

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2015, 04:04:18 pm »
I probably will help out with the wiki when I've got some more time unless it involves coding and file formatting and so in which case you'll be safer if I just don't.
c.r

Offline ptarth

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2015, 06:45:09 pm »
I finished with the Resource description descriptions. Looking into the building descriptions.

Current Example:

Shopping Malls are a great way to generate crowns as well as provide employment.
If raw crown output is your sole goal, then Banks are your better bet.  However, banks don't employ very many people.
Part of having population growth is providing housing as well as meals and jobs for your new citizens.

Modified Example
Shopping Malls employment(+++)crowns(+)crime(++)
Shopping Malls provide many jobs.
They produce a small amount of crowns.
They produce a large amount of crime.

Population growth requires employment. So if you need a massive amount of jobs quickly, Shopping Malls are the answer.
As your population grows, you can disable your Shopping Malls to transfer your people to more important jobs.
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Offline Captain Jack

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Re: Beta 0.801 now out.
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2015, 06:51:53 pm »
"Shopping Malls create many jobs."

"Massive number of jobs quickly"

"you might disable your Shopping Malls"

Sorry.  :D

 

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