QuestRL 0.1.2 released
Pedro Gomez-Esteban
early and often" has always been a piece of advice I've heard in this
group, so here goes. This version is still not really playable, only a
show of slowly-growing-little-features. I haven't yet reached the state
where I go crazy adding content.
For those too lazy to read the changelog, the most exciting new things
in this release are the fact that now monsters "remember" the most
interesting thing they've seen and try to chase it (yes, the player is
often the most interesting thing...yum), it's now possible to use the
Tracking ability to track monsters down, and modules now have
minimum/maximum fame requirements. There are a bunch of internal
changes and little display improvements, as well as bugfixes, but those
aren't very important or noticeable.
As an added bonus, besides source and windows binary, I am now
releasing a Mac OSX binary as well.
Like I said, not much yummy new stuff, so I won't even post a
screenshot. As usual, you can see the blog of the game at
http://questrl.blogspot.com, and now you can also see the game's
helpfile system in html (with screenshots) at
http://personales.ya.com/eldomir.
File goodness:
Source: http://personales.ya.com/eldomir/QuestRL0.1.2_source.zip
Windows: http://personales.ya.com/eldomir/QuestRL0.1.2_win.zip
Mac: http://personales.ya.com/eldomir/QuestRL0.1.2_osx.zip
If you're not sure wether to get source or not, you don't - get the
binary version instead. That way, you don't need to worry about which
version of python you have or anything else, it should just work.
Now, for the changelog of this version:
Interface
* The message window now makes messages dim as they get pushed
back.
* The message window now holds seven messages instead of five.
* It is now possible to quit during the game by closing the main
window (if necesary, the game will be saved).
* When the user enters a string, it is highlighted yellow and
stored in the message buffer after it's entered.
* Whenever possible (with items/beings), choice lists now show the
symbol and color of each element, next to the choice (i.e, "+ ~ a
torch" instead of "+ a torch").
* The information window (which shows long text such as
descriptions) now has word-wrapping.
* The key to save and quit in the main game is now "s", to avoid
hitting it by accident when using ESC to get out of menus.
Engine
* The requisites to load a module are now handled by a special
file, modulename.req. This way, to check the requirements only this
file has to be loaded instead of the whole module, making startup time
much faster.
* Since getting Field-Of-View (FOV) is processor intensive, now the
game uses caching. It will cache the FOVs of the level for later use.
* Monsters now have a primitive memory: if they remember something
very interesting, they will try to reach the place where they saw it
last, instead of going for something they can see that is less
interesting. This makes them able to chase the player quite well.
* Each tile now has a "track" reference, to the last being that
passed through it, the direction they left, and the "strength" of the
track, which fades with time. This track can be checked with a new
ability (see Content changes), and will eventually allow monsters to
track the player.
Content
* There are now two kinds of maps: Underground maps (dark
everywhere) and Overground maps (lit everywhere).
* Modules now have requirements of minimum/maximum fame to join,
which are set in the editor.
Bugfixes
* When the display gets a string, it now accepts backspace to
delete characters (duh!).
* Portals now check that a being is standing on them before they
let the being cross the Portal.
* Light sources now behave properly when doors are open/shut.
* Walls can now only be seen when you're on the right side of them,
if they're lit by a light source.
As for the wish-list for the next version, I do have a few wishes:
* Mapping of the keyboard. This way, Dvorak users won't have to worry
about compatibility issues, and laptop users will be able to compensate
for the lack of a numpad in whichever way they like. This feature will
be a bore to do, but the sooner the better.
* Welcome-screen when you start a module. Right now, you need to hit
"q" to see your quests and what you're supposed to do to win the
module. There should be a screen that tells you this before you even
start, so it's obvious what the goal is.
* Weapons. No need to say more.
* Monsters will be able to do what players can do now: track. This way,
it'll be damn hard to get away from a big one.
* Stealth should allow players to lock/unlock doors without the key, if
the lock isn't strong. Right now, Combat is important, Magic quite
less, and Stealth is very useless. This must change.
* Health and Magic should recover with time, slowly. Right now they
never do.
If you've read this far -- I would hug you if I could ;)
--
Pedro
[Quest RL -- http://questrl.blogspot.com]
Lochok
"Pedro Gomez-Esteban" <que...@gmail.com> wrote in message
The game is looking good - the UI especially. I like the color scheme. At
the moment, I'm going to stick to using the standard Console but that looks
good.
This is a wee bit nit-picky... but How do you process the Keyboard? The
character will only move one spot a keypress and lazier rl'ers like myself
generally hold down the key to travel longer distances with less bother. I
don't know Python or PyGame so I don't know whether its possible.
Keep up the good work!
Lochok
Antoine
Lochok wrote:
> "Pedro Gomez-Esteban" <que...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> > Even though it's only been a week since I released 0.1.1, "release
> > early and often" has always been a piece of advice I've heard in this
> > group, so here goes. This version is still not really playable, only a
> > show of slowly-growing-little-features. I haven't yet reached the state
> > where I go crazy adding content.
>
> the moment, I'm going to stick to using the standard Console but that looks
> good.
>
> This is a wee bit nit-picky... but How do you process the Keyboard? The
> character will only move one spot a keypress and lazier rl'ers like myself
> generally hold down the key to travel longer distances with less bother. I
> don't know Python or PyGame so I don't know whether its possible.
It's possible.
A.
Pedro Gomez-Esteban
> The game is looking good - the UI especially. I like the color scheme. At
> the moment, I'm going to stick to using the standard Console but that looks
> good.
>
> This is a wee bit nit-picky... but How do you process the Keyboard? The
> character will only move one spot a keypress and lazier rl'ers like myself
> generally hold down the key to travel longer distances with less bother. I
> don't know Python or PyGame so I don't know whether its possible.
>
> Keep up the good work!
>
>
> Lochok
Oh yeah...it's very easy to do. I just never got around to do it yet -
I'll have it working for the next version. Thanks for the feedback!
--
Pedro
[QuestRL - http://questrl.blogspot.com]
Terry
your last version to work, but the mac binary worked.
Let's see.... I kept getting the message, "both hands are full" or
something like that when I tried to pick up the goblin corpse, but I
couldn't figure out how to clear one of his hands.
Pedro Gomez-Esteban
> It looks like you are putting some good work into it. I couldn't get
> your last version to work, but the mac binary worked.
>
Thank you! I wonder why the last version wouldn't work...do you mean
the source? If you're running OSX, do you have pygame, pyObjC and
python 2.4 or higher?
> Let's see.... I kept getting the message, "both hands are full" or
> something like that when I tried to pick up the goblin corpse, but I
> couldn't figure out how to clear one of his hands.
Yeah, that's a part I should make less confusing - you need to stow
something away. Since you have a backpack (probably in one hand), wear
it (select the slot you want to wear something on (back) then it'll
show everything you have that fits there, select the backpack). Then,
back at the inventory screen, highlight the other item (I think it's
probably a torch) and hit 's' to stow it away (should show that on the
tooltip), and you'll store it inside the backpack. I am very aware of
how convoluted this is - I just haven't gotten around to figuring out
how to make it simpler.
By the way - you can loot the goblin corpse without picking it up. Walk
up to it, hit ',' to pick up, but when you highlight the goblin corpse,
hit '+' to choose it instead of 'return', and you'll be able to see
its contents.
Thanks for the feedback, by the way :) The more I get, the more I feel
like working on the game. By the way, although this week is being
frantic, I have managed to put two new things in the game already -
when scrolling through the module selection screen, you now see details
of each module (what it's about, what the main quest is, etc.) so you
have more information to choose. And, there are now melee weapons in
the game. There's still a long way to go until the next version, but
I'm making slow progress.
Terry
> the source? If you're running OSX, do you have pygame, pyObjC and
> python 2.4 or higher?
I am running python version 2.3.5. I'm not sure if I have pygame and
pyObjC. I'm not really a python person.
Antoine
Pedro Gomez-Esteban wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback, by the way :) The more I get, the more I feel
> like working on the game. By the way, although this week is being
> frantic, I have managed to put two new things in the game already -
> when scrolling through the module selection screen, you now see details
> of each module (what it's about, what the main quest is, etc.) so you
> have more information to choose. And, there are now melee weapons in
> the game. There's still a long way to go until the next version, but
> I'm making slow progress.
Well, progress is the main thing... I've been putting quite a few hours
into building the GUI for PGuild. The pgui system takes a bit of
getting your head around but I'm basically there now. At least, it's
functional - still looks like crap though - must put aside some time to
do an attractive and coherent visual theme...
A.
Pedro Gomez-Esteban
Well, when I last tested versions, it only worked with 2.4+. That was
back when I used curses, but I don't think it would be different now.
It definitely needs pygame and, in OSX, PyObjC. In general, I wouldn't
use the source version unless you want to look at it, or are running
something other than Windows/OSX (where the binaries seem to be working
well), so you don't have to worry about dependencies.