Beta, Just Die Already!

[Robert Kosek]

You're a simple freighter pilot, flying a short 9-5 route to put food on the table for your family. One day you accidentally bump a corporate executive, that you didn't even know was in your path. You learned this when he screamed "Just die already!" into the comm channel, and fired a torpedo at you. Being a pacifist, and unarmed in the first place, you did the only thing you could do: began fleeing like a maniac.

Okay... enough plot for a simple arcade game. :P

Sorry, but the missiles are currently dots, but are colored so you can distinguish among them. My only reccommendation to you is to, duh, not get hit. The missiles are a bit slow, but it can get quite hard later on. Beware that the missiles start in random locations around you, and random distances, and random types, but there are always three to start off with. Don't forget that your spaceship has a reverse. :P

All I ask of you is that you:
[list=1]
Report bugs
Report system configurations
Comment on the playability, balancing and so on.
[/list:o]

Otherwise it's 100% free and currently closed source. When I release a final version I will then release the game as open source under the MPL 1.1 for you all to read yourself.

What didn't make it in? Two main points: the highscores and an online highscores listing. But that's alright, I'll add those later. :D

Because the game pauses when you get blown to pieces, I suggest that you alt+tab and brag about your scores, especially if you start breaking 1,000. Currently you will see debug information on both the right and left hand side of the screen, but they will disappear should you disable the "showfps" option. Because I haven't thought of a way to show life graphically that actually looks decent, I'll add it in later, it's just a counter currently. Points also needs a better counter, but I'll handle that in a subsequent version. Don't forget to try different standard resolutions, 800x600 and up to about 1280x1024 tops, and double check that there aren't bugs in things like the credits.

Download it now! (http://thewickedflea.com/download.php?f=setupJDA.exe)

http://upload4.postimage.org/1204417/screen001.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1204417/photo_hosting.html)http://upload4.postimage.org/1204425/screen003.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1204425/photo_hosting.html)http://upload4.postimage.org/1204428/screen004.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1204428/photo_hosting.html)

For those with graphical skills, as you can see I could probably use a spaceship graphic, along with graphics for the missiles. All they are are rendered top-down alpha transparent PNGs. If you wish to help just let me know, and I'd be glad to have the assistance.

[Robert Kosek]

I caught a difficulty in the Interceptor, red dot, AI and have corrected it. This bug made the most deadly missile into a kitten... A new version is uploaded as well as a patch (http://thewickedflea.com/download.php?f=jdaPatch.rar).

[cairnswm]

Cool :)

[Traveler]

Sounds good. I'll have a look at it this game this weekend.

[Robert Kosek]

I've released a minor patch with tweaks to the interceptor (red) missiles. They should now be quite deadly. There is a minor exploit I can't figure out how to eliminate in their AI, but for the moment I'll move to the rest of the issues at hand. Primarily feedback for things like your score, shield integrity and perhaps a better damage effect. Also in this patch is a slight adjustment, by request, to make the starfield scroll faster ... but if you go out of "space" it ain't my fault. I'll fix the finite starfield when I figure out where the code went wrong.

As usual you may download the full download (http://thewickedflea.com/download.php?f=setupJDA.exe) or patch (http://thewickedflea.com/download.php?f=jdaPatch.rar).

I'm a little disappointed in the lack of feedback though, as I'd like to know what you all think about it beyond just 'cool'. I've had enough downloads, they are tracked quietly, to know that I should have more comments then I have right now.

By the way ... I dare you to beat my highscore (thus far) of 329 on hard.

[Traveler]

Ok, as promissed I've given this baby a go and here are my findings.

The menu works good. Although a backgroundimage to spice it up, wouldn't hurt.
Upon starting the game, I needed a few seconds to realize what to do. After pressing the up or down keys nothing appeared to happen. When the missiles started to move in, I realized I was indeed moving. It was only then that I noticed that the background was scrolling, but only at a real slow pace. In any case way to slow to give a sense of movement.

Also, although this is more of a graphical issue, I thought the stars in the background were way too small. It might help if you used individual stars moving at there own speeds. Ie, smaller stars in the back, moving at slow speed, while larger go in the front moving faster. You could also play a bit with nebulas, and perhaps even planets to make the whole scene a bit more interesting.

Another thing that I haven't figured out yet is how to evade those missiles. Even at easy I dont get a score like yours. My best so far is 134. Is it possible to evade them long enough for them to run out of fuel, or something like that?

To be honest, it got a bit dull for me after a while. Perhaps you could introduce new events after several minutes. Asteroids perhaps, with the option to crash rockets into, or some ufo's flying around, for you to shoot at to get some goodies.

The last thing I noticed was the inability to start the game for a second time. The first time I had the sound turned off. I'm not able to play again with sound, because a FA occurs immediately at startup. Quite odd. :?

In any case, its a good start, but gameplay could benefit from a few additional features, as currently it does get a bit boring after a couple minutes.

Hardware:
Laptop 1,73ghz 2mb l2 cache
1GB ram
radeon x700 128MB vram

[Robert Kosek]

Okay, first about the error. Is this the latest patched version I released just last night, or an older one? Also is the error either 'Could not initialize Asphyre' or a problem such as 'Error loading track %s, error code "X"'? The latter gives me something to go on, but I skimped on the initialization debug code.

Missile evasion is largely just turning and either going forwards or backwards. There's a debug key in there, numpad 5, that stops you instantly which would help, but it really isn't designed in. A good hint would be that the missiles are a bit slower to turn than you are, but that the interceptors are the deadliest of course.

I may or may not implement the idea with the star layers, I've done it before, but I'm not sure I'll continue with this concept much further then getting something stable and perhaps a little more polished. This was sorta a rewrite so that I could close the project out right, instead of just dropping it when some folks were watching it.

This is actually my first non-vaporware/non-stealthware/released project that I've done, so I'm pretty impressed that it is as good as it is after only a week of work on it. The idea behind this kinda died out on me after a little bit, it is boring after all, but I decided it was simple enough to give it a fair go and finish it off. I'm going to be moving late next month, so I'm also trying to shape it up and release it fully as MPL 1.1 licensed so others can learn from my good parts and mistakes.

[Robert Kosek]

Alrighty, build number 6 (release 2) is now online via the same download links as above. You can either install a fresh copy (http://thewickedflea.com/download.php?f=setupJDA.exe) over the old, or extract the patch (http://thewickedflea.com/download.php?f=jdaPatch.rar) overtop the old copy. Keep in mind that you will lose your current settings due to changes in the XML file's format.

Changes:
Updated the interceptor AI a little
Difficulty tweaks
Now music can be deactivated.
Debugging/Logfile. Paste it in your post if you encounter an error.

You can get your average framerate from the log after shutting the game down. Most errors are logged (jda.log), but since I haven't taken the time to make the logfile universal through the project, I cannot catch each and every error. Please try it with the sound and paste any error codes in the log, then see if the game will run without the music.

I forgot to mention it, but F11 is "shuffle" the music and F12 is to take a screenshot.

VSYNC is off for the moment, so framerates should be high. I would appreciate seeing your average framerates if you don't mind.

The starfield may scroll a little faster now, but I really haven't made any tweaks to it whatsoever. That may be something I do in finalization which should happen next week.

[Huehnerschaender]

Hi Robert,

1. I really need a radar :)
2. Enemy Missiles should be able to destroy themselves when they collide, this would give some more gameplay (try to MAKE them collide)
3. Gimme more visuals! I need explosions and such stuff :)
4. You own ship is too big. It is impossible to avoid missiles which come out of the direction you are flying in.... When you see them you are hit!

Nice little game!

Greetings,
Dirk

[Huehnerschaender]

Oh,

I just started it again to tell you the FPS I get (102 constantly, which is quite a little low in my opinion).

I can start the game ONCE, every further attempt gives me an access violation.

When I reinstall the game it works one time again.

Should be some problem with the settings I guess....

Greetings,
Dirk

PS:

System Specs:
P4 HT (disabled) 2,8 Ghz
1 GB RAM
ATI X800 Pro 256 MB AGP 8x
Win XP



EDIT:
ErrorLog-Dump:

JDA 1.0.2.6 Game, Begin.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading settings.
Video Mode: 800x600, TRUE
Error reading fonts.
Error reading Images.
Error capturing keyboard input.
Error capturing

[Robert Kosek]

Wow, that's pretty critical errors right there. And I think I just figured out what was going on, too. Try the patch now, please, and let me know if that fixed it. (Note, the full download is updated as well.)

I thought of the radar suggestion, but right at the moment I'm not sure how I would write it into operation. I am well aware that the game is not very optimized, it runs at an average of 105 for me to 85 depending on what apps I have running. The primary part I can optimize is the drawing phase, since I do some dynamic things with colors that I really don't need to do.

A bit of evasion advice: Don't thrust while turning. Because the missiles ONLY react to your VELOCITY, not your facing, you can make a rapid direction change without them hitting you. Reds do avoid this problem a little, but then again they're the tougher ones. :D

The difficulty in making the missiles collide and explode is in both the spawning code, they'd collide instantly, as well as the missiles aren't really smart enough to avoid each other. Velocity is changed by facing, not true thrust, and I think changing the thrust direction for every missile that is too close might be a bit frantic for the reactions. Not sure though. Explosions are easier, but with the way I've coded them, maybe it isn't such a good idea. (Although I just had an idea on how to do it before the missiles get smashed by the garbage collection routine.)

I also really am not a good graphic artist, so the ship is a placeholder until I decide either to remake it or unless someone volunteers. Frankly I cannot draw a space freighter worth beans. :?

[Huehnerschaender]

This is a code snippet from IronStrike, which draws the units on my radar...

Very simple, isn't it?



for i := 0 to ISUnits.Count-1 do
begin
ISUnit := ISUnits[i];
if ISUnit^.Life > 0 then
if Distance&#40;Player.PosX, Player.PosY, ISUnit^.PosX, ISUnit^.PosY&#41; < 450 then
begin
if ISUnit^.Faction = Player.Faction then
RectColor &#58;= $4400FF00
else
RectColor &#58;= $440000FF;
MyCanvas.FillRect&#40;Bounds&#40;&#40;RadarMiddleX + trunc&#40;ISUnit^.PosX - Player.PosX&#41; div 10&#41;,
RadarMiddleY - &#40;trunc&#40;ISUnit^.PosY - Player.PosY&#41; div 10&#41;,
3,3&#41;, RectColor, fxAdd&#41;;
end;
end;


Just cycle through all your rockets, decide which color you want to have the dots on the radar (in your case kind of missiles) and draw them.

In my case I scan all units (friends and foes) which are within the radius of 450 gameunits from players position.
Then I calculate the position (Unit.PosX - Player.PosX, same with PosY) and add the value to the middle of my radar. The values are divided by 10 to make the 90 pixel big radar show 900 game units...

I think you can use this nearly the same way.

Hope this helps to get a radar soon :)

Greetings,
Dirk

PS: I am at work right now and can't test your new upload. I will do it when I am home again.

[Robert Kosek]

I'm going to do it non-standard though. I won't tell you how, because I think it'll look cool. Can't do much about it today, I have a dentist appointment, but I'll work upon it later or tomorrow.

I hope I fixed it. I referenced the canvas and images prior to their initialization which seemed to work on my PC, but I figured that it'd be safer if they just were in the right spot, you know? :roll: