Omnimaga

Omnimaga => Discontinued => Our Projects => Ash: Phoenix => Topic started by: squidgetx on January 01, 2011, 07:51:05 pm

Title: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 01, 2011, 07:51:05 pm
Happy New Year everyone!

Attached is the demo of Ash:Phoenix that I've been working on for the past 3 months :)

Please read the readme for installation instructions (basically, just send everything in the zip to archive) . The game is close to 200k in size, but practically 1/2 of it is empty data. This means that the game will not get any larger, so be prepared for a nice, super long RPG in the final release.

The demo spans the beginning of the game through the first boss in the Wastelands, so after you beat him, there's not much else to do save restarting.

Special Thanks to Quigibo, Runer112, and the rest of Omnimaga staff/admins along with everyone else who's supported me with this project so far :)

(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/ashdemo1.gif)(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/ashdemo2.gif)(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/ashdemo3.gif)(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/ashdemo4.gif)

Please discuss/report any bugs and game imbalance issues in this thread. I am especially concerned with the battle engine and your thoughts on how easy/hard the battles are :)

Known issues: if you die, the game may glitch badly. In other cases, the game will act as if nothing had happened. So...don't die :) Also, although I believe I've fixed this bug, visiting the shop MAY PROBABLY will cause a crash. Also, I know I misspelled "solely" in the opening sequence

This build is outdated, the current build can be found here (http://ourl.ca/8585/168351)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 01, 2011, 07:57:59 pm
Awesome! This goes on my computer now, for testing Tuesday or Wednesday! :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Happybobjr on January 01, 2011, 08:03:18 pm
doesn't work on my wabbit. 84+SE Rom is on 2.53MP
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 01, 2011, 08:05:22 pm
Happybobjr: How so? Does transferring the files cause wabbit to crash? (in that case you need to transfer them all in groups of 5 or 6)

Also make sure EVERYTHING is in archive
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Happybobjr on January 01, 2011, 08:08:20 pm
ok, thanks
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 01, 2011, 08:41:48 pm
Just put this on my calc and I am loving it!
I did notice that if you try to unequip something when you don't have anything equipped there, the game freezes.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: AngelFish on January 01, 2011, 08:50:56 pm
Wabbitemu is saying the file format is invalid for me and that it's being passed invalid arguments  :(
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 02, 2011, 01:13:00 am
Btw I love the screenshots O.O. I just noticed you added them now. Awesome!

I hope I can get it to work when I actually try it. :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: SirCmpwn on January 02, 2011, 01:21:57 am
Nice title screen, I used the color version of this for a custom magic card.  I'll take look at this when I get my calculate back, I look forward to it.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: TIfanx1999 on January 02, 2011, 08:54:56 am
Well, I've been playing a bit and here are my notes so far:

In the intro text it says: sometime later, you awake. I believe it should be "awaken".
A delay could be added in name entering menu. It moves kind of quickly. Other menus seem the same as well.
I don't care for the non-uniform text spacing in in-game text and menus. It seems really odd to me.
Verified that Ram still clears when you talk to the shop owner.
The intro sequence looks really nice. =) The graphics are pretty and detailed as well. However; as good as the grayscale looks when still, it blurs a lot when in motion and is kind of distracting. It also seems that the character moves a bit slowly. Maybe updating the screen less would help?
I talked to the Sage in town and choose the tranquilize spell, but I can't seem to get it to work. Is there a way to equip it/ does it need to be equipped? I can't seem to do any damage in battle either. =(
This test was done on my TI-83+ SE. I'll load it on my old Black one later and try as well. Grayscale seems to act a bit better on my old model too, so I'll give you my input on that when I test it later too.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 02, 2011, 10:07:43 am
I did notice that if you try to unequip something when you don't have anything equipped there, the game freezes.
Woops.
In the intro text it says: sometime later, you awake. I believe it should be "awaken".
A delay could be added in name entering menu. It moves kind of quickly. Other menus seem the same as well.
I don't care for the non-uniform text spacing in in-game text and menus. It seems really odd to me.
Verified that Ram still clears when you talk to the shop owner.
The intro sequence looks really nice. =) The graphics are pretty and detailed as well. However; as good as the grayscale looks when still, it blurs a lot when in motion and is kind of distracting. It also seems that the character moves a bit slowly. Maybe updating the screen less would help?
I talked to the Sage in town and choose the tranquilize spell, but I can't seem to get it to work. Is there a way to equip it/ does it need to be equipped? I can't seem to do any damage in battle either. =(
This test was done on my TI-83+ SE. I'll load it on my old Black one later and try as well. Grayscale seems to act a bit better on my old model too, so I'll give you my input on that when I test it later too.
Delays and stuff can be added, ok.

Yeah, grayscale is kind of annoying. I think I'm going to have to mess with the map engine a little bit to get that to work.
And, dammit, the shop still doesn't work >.>

What do you mean by non-uniform text spacing? The menus are drawn with the normal TI-OS text routines (non-uniform spacing), but the NPC engine uses uniform spacing (4px per character)

Did you equip your weapon? You can't use moves until you have the corresponding weapon for it. I probably should've made that a bit clearer...

@Qwerty...that's really weird. I can't figure out why that might be...Does anyone else have this issue (maybe make sure you have the latest build? I noticed it was updated on Friday)

Thanks for your input guys, I really appreciate it :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: ztrumpet on January 02, 2011, 11:21:22 am
This is awesome!  I can't wait to put it on my calc.  Thanks squidgetx! ;D
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 02, 2011, 04:30:47 pm
Oddly enough, the time I tried the shop, it didn't crash at all, but after I finished the dialogue with the shopkeeper, there as a rectangle that got left on the screen that went away after I moved.

Also, when I chose 'Stab' in the tower it presented me with the take this spell (yes or no) dialogue a second time.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 02, 2011, 04:43:15 pm
Oddly enough, the time I tried the shop, it didn't crash at all, but after I finished the dialogue with the shopkeeper, there as a rectangle that got left on the screen that went away after I moved.
This is what *should* happen (although i don't know where that rectangle is coming from either...but it's quite a lot better than a RAM clear). Now I am twice as confused...why would it work on some calcs and not others?
Also, when I chose 'Stab' in the tower it presented me with the take this spell (yes or no) dialogue a second time.
O.o
that shouldn't be happening but I can't think of...wait...
stab is move #1...and the npc command for yes/no box is 01....aaaaahhhh...i think that is a minor bug in the npc engine..I must not be compensating for the offset of the "learn move" command....although I feel like I had....

Does anyone else have this problem with any of the other weapons/moves?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 02, 2011, 04:44:59 pm
Well I'm reloading the beta onto my calc to see if that was a fluke or not.

Edit: Yep, same thing happens.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Hot_Dog on January 02, 2011, 07:36:47 pm
WOW WOW WOW, I can't wait to try this!
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 02, 2011, 09:00:58 pm
I gave it a little go didn't get too far, but I noticed that you move a little slow, is there a way to speed it up? Maybe add a run feature or something?
I've got to say, the graphics are amazing in this game, good job :D
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 03, 2011, 08:08:43 pm
Oddly enough, the time I tried the shop, it didn't crash at all, but after I finished the dialogue with the shopkeeper, there as a rectangle that got left on the screen that went away after I moved.
This is what *should* happen (although i don't know where that rectangle is coming from either...but it's quite a lot better than a RAM clear). Now I am twice as confused...why would it work on some calcs and not others?
Allow me to confuse you further.

After battling and going to the shop, crash.
After taking the dagger twice because of the NPC engine glitch and selling one in the shop, map glitches.
Sometimes randomly, though seemingly only after I take a weapon, go to the shop and talk to the guy, crash.

I hope this is somewhat helpful.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 04, 2011, 07:43:47 pm
Oddly enough, the time I tried the shop, it didn't crash at all, but after I finished the dialogue with the shopkeeper, there as a rectangle that got left on the screen that went away after I moved.
This is what *should* happen (although i don't know where that rectangle is coming from either...but it's quite a lot better than a RAM clear). Now I am twice as confused...why would it work on some calcs and not others?
Allow me to confuse you further.

After battling and going to the shop, crash.
After taking the dagger twice because of the NPC engine glitch and selling one in the shop, map glitches.
Sometimes randomly, though seemingly only after I take a weapon, go to the shop and talk to the guy, crash.

I hope this is somewhat helpful.

x.x

I'll take a closer look at this after the Cage Match is over, but it sounds like I must be using bad pointers in some routine somewhere...I'll have to print out the shop code and look at it closely <_<
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 05, 2011, 02:43:01 am
Good luck Squidgetx. On a side note I shall try this soon.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 05, 2011, 03:04:03 am
I put it on my calc so I might have time to try it at school during off time or something. Although I probably won't because I'll be too busy working up the guts to ask a certain girl out, but anywho. So far I'm really impressed with it :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: SirCmpwn on January 06, 2011, 06:39:39 pm
I dropped this on my calculator, and would like to give some feedback.  Some of it may seem negative, but I tried to give some possible solutions as well.
-Walking is very slow.  This could potentially be fixed by scrolling two pixels at a time, which would still look good and be much faster.  Are you running in Full mode, except when using DispGraphr?
-The quality of the opening images (and the map, too) could be drastically improved with 4 level grayscale, which would take up the exact same amount of memory.
-Every time I went to the shop my calculator turned completely off and cleared RAM.
-Once, when leaving a battle, the screen glitched and all the tiles were wrong.
It's a great start, and I look forward to seeing what you do with this!
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 06, 2011, 07:13:15 pm
Thanks for the feedback.
-Walking is very slow.  This could potentially be fixed by scrolling two pixels at a time, which would still look good and be much faster.  Are you running in Full mode, except when using DispGraphr?
I am not using Full, but he is walking at 2 px per frame. I am planning on changing it to 3 or 4 though to fix this.

-The quality of the opening images (and the map, too) could be drastically improved with 4 level grayscale, which would take up the exact same amount of memory.
Unfortunately I use pt-mask() for drawing almost all of my tiles so 4 lvl gray is not really an option. Also it is difficult for me to convert 4 lvl gray images to a format that I could use on my calc. Also, the added routine would take up some extra space in the app that I can't really afford. So unfortunately, we'r stuck with 3 lvl :P
-Every time I went to the shop my calculator turned completely off and cleared RAM.
>_>
-Once, when leaving a battle, the screen glitched and all the tiles were wrong.
This seems to happen fairly randomly. I am not sure why, but I'll try and look into it.
It's a great start, and I look forward to seeing what you do with this!
Thanks :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 06, 2011, 07:13:42 pm
Yeah I suggested the speed thing too.
Personally I like the art style the opening images are it but I guess 4 level would look great too :)
If you read back a bit you will notice that he knows about the shop.
Hmm, wonder what happened there.
Yeah I agree, this is an epic start :) can't wait for more squidgetx

A question I have is, how hard would it be for you to compress some of the Appvars into one? So we don't need to fill up our appvar screen with them.

Oh, and I really like how the story style is too :) great game squidgetx :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: SirCmpwn on January 06, 2011, 07:15:29 pm
Thanks for the feedback.
-Walking is very slow.  This could potentially be fixed by scrolling two pixels at a time, which would still look good and be much faster.  Are you running in Full mode, except when using DispGraphr?
I am not using Full, but he is walking at 2 px per frame. I am planning on changing it to 3 or 4 though to fix this.

-The quality of the opening images (and the map, too) could be drastically improved with 4 level grayscale, which would take up the exact same amount of memory.
Unfortunately I use pt-mask() for drawing almost all of my tiles so 4 lvl gray is not really an option. Also it is difficult for me to convert 4 lvl gray images to a format that I could use on my calc. Also, the added routine would take up some extra space in the app that I can't really afford. So unfortunately, we'r stuck with 3 lvl :P
-Every time I went to the shop my calculator turned completely off and cleared RAM.
>_>
-Once, when leaving a battle, the screen glitched and all the tiles were wrong.
This seems to happen fairly randomly. I am not sure why, but I'll try and look into it.
It's a great start, and I look forward to seeing what you do with this!
Thanks :)

Sounds good!
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 06, 2011, 07:22:54 pm
Hmm, wonder what happened there.

I don't even know >.< I suspect that I am using a bad pointer somewhere, though I haven't been able to find it yet. I haven't been looking too hard though recently (cage match)
A question I have is, how hard would it be for you to compress some of the Appvars into one? So we don't need to fill up our appvar screen with them.

Easy, but only later on in development. The item and move database appvars for example, will definitely be merged together later, but I can't merge them now because I don't know how many more moves/items I will need to add. This pretty much could apply for every appvar-once I know for sure that I've finished entering ALL the data, I can (and will) attempt to merge them :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 06, 2011, 07:27:30 pm
Hmm, wonder what happened there.

I don't even know >.< I suspect that I am using a bad pointer somewhere, though I haven't been able to find it yet. I haven't been looking too hard though recently (cage match)
A question I have is, how hard would it be for you to compress some of the Appvars into one? So we don't need to fill up our appvar screen with them.

Easy, but only later on in development. The item and move database appvars for example, will definitely be merged together later, but I can't merge them now because I don't know how many more moves/items I will need to add. This pretty much could apply for every appvar-once I know for sure that I've finished entering ALL the data, I can (and will) attempt to merge them :)
Ah ok sounds good :)

also, completely did not see that ninja there until now x.x

EDIT: sometimes when coming out Kinley's house you appear on the sign instead of in front of the door
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 09, 2011, 10:49:29 am
@eeems:...that's a weird bug...

IMPORTANT:
To all the people complaining about the grayscale: where does it bother you most? Does it bother as much, say in the Tower or in the Wastelands?

The thing is, I can't find a way to make it look better. But I have noticed, that at least for me, it is way less annoying in the Tower and the Wastelands because the tiles there are generally darker with less parts that have a lot of gray. I think that if I simply redid a lot of the tiles to make them generally darker (for example the floor tiles in both the town and the shops, and the wall tile inside houses), it would probably look a lot better. Of course, this would mean a slight decrease in the quality of tiles, but I think that overall it would be much more enjoyable. What do you guys think?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 09, 2011, 12:55:28 pm
Yeah, I got stuck between two buildings too where I couldn't go anywhere but back in or onto a spot that made it so I couldn't go anywhere else. :/

Personally I like the tiles the way they are, although with movement they do distort a little.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 09, 2011, 01:07:36 pm
Have you tried using a interrupt for the grey? It could help.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 09, 2011, 02:09:05 pm
Apparently grey scale doesn't play well with interrupts :/
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 09, 2011, 02:24:01 pm
That's odd, cuz even with Axe 0.4.7, DispGraphrr works in an interrupt for me.
And to my knowledge, DispGraphr hasn't conflicted with interrupts.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 09, 2011, 02:28:07 pm
I haven't actually tested this myself, but I had a "lecture" ( :P ) from Runer112 about how they can conflict with each other.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 09, 2011, 02:31:34 pm
afaik, 3lvl grey works in an interrupt, but 4lvl grey might not (though I haven't tested the latter). Main problems are that
1) Not too sure how much space I have in the app to add a whole interrupt routine and
2) L2 is already in use :-/ It would be practically impossible to relocate it :(

I like the tiles as they are too, but the distortion has increased with increasing the moving speed. You can't see them properly at all unless you stand still, but the problem there is that people tend not to spend time just standing around in an RPG :P
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Runer112 on January 09, 2011, 02:52:58 pm
You can use both DispGraphr and DispGraphrr in an interrupt, and both will work just fine. However, the code that was executing before the interrupt activated probably will not work fine. It is very likely that this would cause corruption, and possibly a crash.

At least for now. I'm looking at the grayscale routines and seeing if it's possible to make them work with interrupts.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 10, 2011, 07:44:15 pm
Loading this on my calc now. (Hoping it works on the Nspire)

EDIT: Crap it doesn't. :( It freezes on the candle image, after about 2 seconds and some random pixels appears at the top of the Nspire screen. I get worried since Axe 0.4.7 that Quigibo started using undocumented instructions...

EDIT 2: Nvm it works now. Required 2 RAM clears in a row...

I'm watching the intro and it looks nice so far. Only issue is that lowercase m and w characters look weird sometimes and the next letter can be hard to read if it's a i. Otherwise it's pretty nice.

Also name selection key detection is too sensitive, you might want to use Getkey instead of direct inputs for it.

EDIT: Also grayscale looks pretty great on the Nspire. One question, though: during the fade in effect, do you change the contrast? Because on some calcs contrast levels are lighter: make sure when it's done that contrast is reset to that level, not a fixed value, else the game will end up either too light or too dark.

Another suggestion for the menu would be that when you cancel in Bag, it returns to the root menu instead of exiting. Else it will be annoying to always have to open it again. Walking also definitively needs to be faster, although I saw in another post that this was fixed.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 10, 2011, 08:06:59 pm
This project is as-of-now still under development with Axe 0.4.6 due to the changed line routines in 0.4.7, and that for some reason all my hackish methods of extending the code limit don't seem too friendly with 0.4.8 anyway :P

I think Art of Camelot mentioned the name screen being too sensitive. I'm thinking about replacing it with a custom-input kind of thing though, where you can type normally on the calc instead of using the arrow keys :)

The fade effects do not change contrast, which I think is pretty neat :)

Also I am going to change the NPC thingy so that it is not monospaced; similar to what I did in the text routines in The Psyche

Btw, in the main project thread I posted a screenie of the new walking speed and what the shop looks like, for those that want to see it
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 10, 2011, 08:12:44 pm
Ah ok. As for input I guess it might be a good idea, although I like the old skool console RPG feel of your name input screen. Also nice about the fade effects :D

Anyway keep up the good work on this! :) Nice sprites by the way. Also now I notice some grayscale flicker when scrolling but it is not too bad in some areas.

EDIT: Question, tho, how do you actually attack monsters? In a fight, I had no attack move :/, plus enemies killed me instantly.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: TIfanx1999 on January 10, 2011, 08:39:16 pm
Gonna test some more on my BE tonite. SE isn't working atm anyway... =(.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 11, 2011, 04:06:08 pm
Ouch, sorry to hear. What happened to it? ???
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 11, 2011, 07:38:31 pm
enemies killed me instantly.
D:

In order to be able to attack monsters, you first need to get a weapon.
Spoiler For how:
Talk to the king in the palace, then go into Kumaso Tower to choose a weapon
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 11, 2011, 07:49:56 pm
Is it just me, or is leveling not possible in this beta?
I equipped the weapon, but my EXP never increased when I won a battle.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 11, 2011, 07:58:35 pm
 <_< ..............

Announcing an impromptu release of demo beta 2 :D

I hope that the shop has been more fixed, though I can't guarantee anything. Also this version has the new walking speed which should make it a bit more enjoyable. i haven't yet added the delay in the name menu though :P

I also fixed a lot of random bugs and stuff, including the leveling one (which is a pretty big one I seem to have missed o.o) I haven't fixed the NPC glitch with the dagger yet though. Normally I wouldn't release again so soon and with still many things incomplete, but i really need feedback on the battle system in general, so I decided that a patched version is necessary.

Enjoy!  :P The zip contains the app (prefixed with Z since it's a dev version...you'll have to deal with it for now) and the only modified appvar, the move database one.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Ashbad on January 11, 2011, 08:24:59 pm
what I got in wabbit was, well... interesting  :o
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Eeems on January 11, 2011, 08:25:41 pm
I'm not getting that, did you make sure all the appvars from the first one were sent as well?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Ashbad on January 11, 2011, 08:26:28 pm
oh, appvars?  lolwut? :P

ok, my bad ;)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 11, 2011, 08:26:33 pm
Lol, I think you're missing the rest of the files :P Check back on the first post, send everything in that zip to your calc except the app and _theta_AshMoD to your calc, then send the new stuff (the app and _theta_AshMoD) to your calc
edit; super fail ninja
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Ashbad on January 11, 2011, 08:28:33 pm
oh, okay, looks a tad bit more normal now :)

Wow!  the title screen and cutscenes are quite beautiful, I must say! :D
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: c.sprinkle on January 12, 2011, 12:30:42 pm
I love this! It's really extensive and has tons of different things to do. Can't wait for the next release.

Side note: I'm glad IVP doesn't have magic; the code for everything here at the same time must be really complex.  :P
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 12, 2011, 08:39:02 pm
Thanks. Yeah, the code is fairly complicated <_<

After running some tests today, I've concluded that some of the routines in my NPC scripting system do not work properly :( so I will go about figuring that out tomorrow. So far, it seems that you can only choose the dagger, staff, or knife/katana and actually get a weapon :P which is really annoying because my archer animation is really cool :P

I'd get a screenshot of it but wabbit keeps crashing :(

edit: also, i added a poll about the name screen, but didn't feel like doubleposting :P Vote/discuss please! Thanks. Also, I fixed all the bugs up there and am wondering if I should make another release so soon <_<
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 16, 2011, 03:34:28 pm
*sneaks a bump :P

btw, has anyone managed to finish the demo? I need a gauge on the difficulty
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 16, 2011, 03:59:19 pm
I didn't because I got busy and couldn't figure out how to equip weapon and armors, so when I went on the world map to fight enemies I would miss all the time and die in one hit :(

EDIT: Wait nvm there's another demo out already. ALso I missed the post about how to get a weapon. You should probably put that in the intro because I couldn't find any info about this during the intro (no NPC would mention I need to go to the King) X.x
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 16, 2011, 05:02:10 pm
So I just ran some quick diagnostics and tests on the battle engine: apparently you and your enemies are dealing damage in the 1000s D:


There is something....very wrong here lol
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: c.sprinkle on January 16, 2011, 05:03:57 pm
Ick. That sounds painful.  ;)
I hope you work out the bugs.  :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 17, 2011, 05:16:17 pm
Woah, does this happen in the new version?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on January 17, 2011, 06:38:28 pm
I got pretty far, found a few bugs.
The double "take dagger" option is still there.
When you level up to level 6, item drops from the monsters are way too frequent, something like 3 out of every 4 battles. The item drops show up at the very top of the screen.
Also, you can one hit KO anything at level 6 (used a dagger).  For some reason, also when I leveled up, I learned Stab again, so I had 2 stab options.  The new one doesn't work, the old one works fine.

Anyways, it's alot better than the first demo, very playable.

I have a question about where the end is:
Spoiler For Spoiler:
I got the key by killing the band it in one hit b/c of the damage bug, and I talked to the king.  How do I get him to move? He says he'll unlock the back gate, but I can't find a way to the east pass.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 17, 2011, 06:45:52 pm
That's where the end is :P Later, I'll code in a script for the king to "unlock" a door in the palace, through which you can move on.

Thanks for pointing out the item drop bugginess, as well as the move learning thing. Did you say that the new one didn't work though? That shouldn't be happening.

I'm still working on fixing up the battle engine currently, and I've fixed those other bugs. New (and hopefully final) demo release will come out when that's done :P Then I'll start spriting/scripting/mapping the rest of the game
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on January 17, 2011, 08:29:45 pm
No, the "new" one is just stab again, so I have two stab options, and the 2nd one doesn't work.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 17, 2011, 09:18:38 pm
What happens if you try and use the second stab option?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on January 18, 2011, 02:07:09 pm
It always misses.
Like in the first demo.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 19, 2011, 07:45:49 pm
That's really weird...but I also noticed another bug with the move-learning thing, and hopefully fixing that will fix that one.

Any other bugs, anyone?

update wise, there has been no new progress so far (only a bit of optimizing and testing to find out what is wrong with the battle engine) <_<

edit: reminder to please vote on the poll, and maybe discuss your opinion too :) I should add that there is virtually no size difference between the two.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 24, 2011, 04:33:52 am
Sorry I didn't have time to try it yet. I really need to find some to try some programs I downloaded. X.x

I just catched up on staff projects now. :P
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 26, 2011, 04:27:52 pm
Du-dudu!
Ash:Phoenix Demo 3rd Release

Changelist:
Fixed that annoying shop bug that caused RAM clears
Fixed other annoying shop bug that made selling anything except for stuff in the first slot impossible
Fixed other annoying shop bug that made you sell all your stuff if you sold the first item in the slot
Fixed NPC convo bug that would prevent getting weapons in Kumaso Tower, and in the case of the dagger, get it twice
Fixed bug with battle engine that would trigger only after talking to NPCs with conversations over 40 characters
Fixed bug with battle engine that triggered only on lower level opponents because of a divide-by-zero
Adjusted some enemies' stats
Small cosmetic changes (shift stuff around by a couple of pixels)
Changed a few tiles to make gray look slightly less horrendous (it still is annoying in the main town though)
Added scrolls to the engine (but you can't get any in the demo)
Fixed bug with item gaining where the item gained would appear on the top of the screen
Made frequency of item gain lower
Changed Wasteland map to make it a bit more...chaotic.
Added the Eastern Pass area, complete with 3 new enemies and new tiles. Get there by talking to the king after defeating the robed bandit
Fixed bug with level up system where you'd gain way too much after leveling up
Made the skill learning system work if you don't have an empty moveslot
Fixed bug with level up system where you'd learn the same move over...and over..and over again every battle
Added a stat change after you choose your weapon and class
Fixed bug that allowed enemies to select a 5th move...when they only have 4 moves
Added fake wordwrapping and variable-spaced font to NPC engine
Fixed bug with save file and dying
Centered/adjusted "Victory" dialogue box
...and some other stuff

And with all this stuff added, the app's total change in size is....42 bytes smaller XD

(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/ash13.gif)
(http://img.removedfromgame.com/imgs/ash14.gif)

Enjoy! This build *should* be bug free! :D

Edit: and, of course, it's not XD. Check this post (http://ourl.ca/8585/168351) for the newest build
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: shmibs on January 26, 2011, 06:57:15 pm
umm... wabbit is refusing to recognise any of those appvars and TiLp crashes upon an attempted transfer
EDIT: and GFM is refusing to group them as well...
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: FinaleTI on January 26, 2011, 07:18:00 pm
Just tried it on hardware, and it's pretty awesome.
It still seems to glitch when you die.
I died, then checked my stats, and they were the 'New Game' stats, but my name was blank. Talking to Kinley brought up the healing screen, then I was thrown into a glitched battle, were the whole screen was glitched. Running away threw me into a glitch map, upon which I quit.
I just tried it again, and the stat, and item reset occurred, as well as the blank name, but I didn't encounter the glitched battle or map.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 26, 2011, 07:42:42 pm
umm... wabbit is refusing to recognise any of those appvars and TiLp crashes upon an attempted transfer
EDIT: and GFM is refusing to group them as well...
<_<...
Not sure how I can help, maybe try *gasp* TI-Connect? Also, maybe try sending the files not all at once (I know on wabbit you can't just drag and drop all the files, otherwise it crashes)

Edit: I just downloaded the new wabbit, and it gives me the following error message: "A problem with Wabbitemu prevented the file from being sent" If this is what you're getting, then try downgrading to the last version (I think the one released Dec 31)

It still seems to glitch when you die.
...
Crud. I guess maybe $8000 is quite as valid a safeRAM area as I had thought...

If anyone wants to take a look at the code to help me out, it's here (http://ourl.ca/7706/168152)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 26, 2011, 09:29:19 pm
ok, after a lengthy irc discussion runer and I have figured out the dying bug.

I actually fixed it in the new version, but your old save files are still bad. To fix, go talk to kinley and save, and you'll be good.

Actually there is another bug too with dying and saving that is less serious but I will post a patch for that tomorrow
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 27, 2011, 01:08:11 pm
Woo, triple posties.

Anyway, of course there would be another bug. Here's demo 3.1 :P If you already loaded v3 on your calc, the only files you need to resend are Ash.8xk and thetaAshTD.8kv
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on January 29, 2011, 10:25:29 pm
Downloading new version now, so I can try it later along with the 16 other project releases on my computer desktop I haven't played yet. :P (I sense I'll have a 3 month backlog again, lol)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on January 30, 2011, 08:05:32 pm
The new update is fantastic, I love the new area and enemies.

Few bugs:
You learn "Stab" again for your 3rd skill, and the old stab doesn't go away, so I have 3 skills, 2 of which are stab.
Whats the door in the eastern path for that's in the middle of the area? It leads to a weird area.

After I reach level 10, enemies die after one spin strike hit, a bit unbalanced.
Why do you have the skills list scroll, if you can only have two skills at a time? I sometimes overshoot the menu, choose the ---- attack, and miss, which is a bit annoying.

Other than that, amazing game, even better than the last! Good work!
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 31, 2011, 07:16:52 am
Thanks for the feedback.
The 2nd stab thing is a bug i just found myself a few days ago, and it can be easily fixed. You are supposed to learn your first non-weapon move at that point. The extra slots available during battle are for non-weapon skills-the idea is that you can have up to 4 moves that will remain constant independent of your weapon, and two that are dependent upon your weapon. So later on, you will be able to get multiple weapons and learn moves for them as well if you want. So maybe at one time, your first two moves are Stab and Slash, but if you equip a bow they will change to whatever archer skills you have thus far learned. In this way it's also like you are 'gaining experience' with each weapon as you use it and that is how you can learn better skills with said weapon

The door in the eastern path just marks the end of the game thus far

You learned spin attack at level 10?? I should probably fix that... But the fact that you one-shot all enemies with that is OK, its a third tier move against enemies half your level :P



Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on January 31, 2011, 06:36:31 pm
Actually I think I learned whirlwind at level 10 or 11 or 12, and spin attack earlier.
Something like that.

Is the king supposed to have a bunch of empty text when you talk to him after getting the key?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Ashbad on January 31, 2011, 07:46:48 pm
Squidget... this is looking awesome... This is by far kicking Dying Eye's ass, and I thought that was one hell of a RPG...

Keep it up...
/me faints with being so impressed
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on January 31, 2011, 09:22:40 pm
qazwsx: yeah, he does because it's "skipping over" the text it would normally display if you didn't have the key. While I could try to make it faster, it might mean a flicker in the grayscale during the skip. I'll see what I can do about it. Also this makes it clear that the move learning is a little broken... I'll get right on that, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Ashbad: thanks man. (although dying eyes is literally one tenth the size of this lol)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on February 03, 2011, 12:27:30 am
I think this is some asm issue, but sometimes when I quit, I go to manage memory, and theres some weird variables take look like they take up crazy amounts of ram space, like Y1- 52368, or something like that.
When deleted, calc crashes.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on February 03, 2011, 05:50:52 pm
<_<...

I'll have to take a look at that, though I don't think that anything in the program would cause that (maybe i'm writing one too many bytes into user RAM?)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: qazwsx988 on February 03, 2011, 09:48:43 pm
Idk, I saw it in another program- the 4 level grayscale video.
Maybe its a flash app problem.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on February 07, 2011, 05:54:01 pm
This is hopefully the last prebeta release. Please report any bugs ;D though I have done my best to make it so that there aren't any. Also, hold MODE while cutscening and you can skip it. Additional changes include a subtle addition to the xp system that is hard to notice but will be more obvious as you get to higher levels, as well as shaving 1k off the total game size (thanks Runer)

The next release will be the complete beta. I'll tidy up any in-game event bugs and stuff and we're finished :D
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on February 13, 2011, 08:34:00 pm
Reuploaded the file, since it was lost earlier. Also, I guess I'll go back to the old way of inputting your name? (Earlier custom input was ahead in the poll so I went with that, but now arrow keys/2nd is ahead). :P
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: TIfanx1999 on February 13, 2011, 09:23:29 pm
Will check the new pre-beta in the next day or so. =)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 15, 2011, 04:22:43 am
Nice to see the ol' fashioned RPG name input in :D

Also I'M glad this is still progressing. You really did a good job on this so far. I'm gonna try the new version later if I have time.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: ben_g on May 16, 2011, 02:10:27 pm
This is definitely the best game on my calc :D, Good job  :thumbsup: !

however, I found 3 bugs:
 - When you enter the dark cave in the pass, Sometimes when you enter a fight, the calc freeses. I had to pull a battery to recover.
 - The screen didn't show the game anymore, but just random gray, white and black pixels. I don't know when this has happened, as my friend was playing it on my calc when this happened. Pressing [clear] solved this.
 - When I was walking around in the town you start in, The game crashed, and random crap apeared on the homescreen, and the cursor kept moving down (I had the same bug once in one of my axe games, so maybe it's a bug in axe itself). Pressing [clear] solved it too.

The game is still great, I just wanted to let you know there are some bugs.
btw: I usually got a lot more bugs while programming, so this is still very wel done.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on May 16, 2011, 03:11:46 pm
This is definitely the best game on my calc :D, Good job  ;D(http://www.omnimaga.org/Themes/default/images/gpbp_arrow_up.gif) !
Why, thank you :)
however, I found 3 bugs:
 - When you enter the dark cave in the pass, Sometimes when you enter a fight, the calc freeses. I had to pull a battery to recover.
This is the door that you found in the middle of the field, right? In the demo, that area is not yet coded, so walking around in there would cause bugs as you discovered.
- When I was walking around in the town you start in, The game crashed, and random crap apeared on the homescreen, and the cursor kept moving down (I had the same bug once in one of my axe games, so maybe it's a bug in axe itself). Pressing [clear] solved it too.
That happened to me once I think. So far I can't track down the cause...
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: ben_g on May 17, 2011, 03:45:04 pm
This is the door that you found in the middle of the field, right? In the demo, that area is not yet coded, so walking around in there would cause bugs as you discovered.
Yes, It was that area. Sometimes, when walking around in that area sends you back to the door you came from, but when you try to walk back to the palace, you'll end up at the same door again. also, there are monsters of level 255 someware. It enters fight mode as normally, and when you try to run, it says 'failed' and you will die, but if you attack the monster, you'll end up in an area with horizontal lines where you can't move.

But as this is still a demo, and as the area isn't coded, bugs can occur indeed.

I can't wait until the first full release, or the next domo :)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: turiqwalrus on May 17, 2011, 05:46:55 pm
with the latest demo, I had a few 'small' problems(one of them made me have to delete my save D:)
1) after fights, the character is replaced by pixels static. This persists until you flee a battle.
2) When pixelated, if you change area, the coordinates are messed up permanently D:. this caused me to delete a file after I got trapped OUTSIDE the city :P
3) this one's minor, but I would be happy if you could change your weapon after you make your choice ;)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on May 17, 2011, 08:33:12 pm
with the latest demo, I had a few 'small' problems(one of them made me have to delete my save D:)
1) after fights, the character is replaced by pixels static. This persists until you flee a battle.
2) When pixelated, if you change area, the coordinates are messed up permanently D:. this caused me to delete a file after I got trapped OUTSIDE the city :P
This has been fixed :)
3) this one's minor, but I would be happy if you could change your weapon after you make your choice ;)
You'll be able to procure additional weapons and skills later on in the game
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: Happybobjr on September 19, 2011, 06:29:25 am
spam ???
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: guy6020665 on February 13, 2012, 10:31:44 pm
- When I was walking around in the town you start in, The game crashed, and random crap apeared on the homescreen, and the cursor kept moving down (I had the same bug once in one of my axe games, so maybe it's a bug in axe itself). Pressing [clear] solved it too.

This happened in one of my axe programs a while back, i think it was caused by a cursor accidentally going off the range that the calc likes and so it acts funny, one time i tried typing in stuff just to see what happened, it typed some things completely unrelated to what i had pressed and then ram cleared.

I think this is some asm issue, but sometimes when I quit, I go to manage memory, and theres some weird variables take look like they take up crazy amounts of ram space, like Y1- 52368, or something like that.
When deleted, calc crashes.

Again had this issue in one of my old axe programs, not sure what caused this one though. I do know that the version of cuberunner i currently have on my calc creates variable vector u which apparently takes up 45k ram in order to save the normal/hard and grey/mono settings in game

Edit: I was so focused on typing possible things to solve stuff that i forgot to say omg wow O.O
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: mushmoom on February 13, 2012, 10:46:10 pm
WOW
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 13, 2012, 11:26:13 pm
Necropost, much? ???
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on February 17, 2012, 09:08:51 pm
Necropost, much? ???

Lol. I should get back to work on this sometime, hmm? Maybe when swim season ends...(late March)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 17, 2012, 09:10:53 pm
I agree, I was actually wondering if this died or something X.x. Hopefully nothing else get in your way after the swimming season x.x
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: nxtboy III on February 18, 2012, 12:16:46 am
I like the graphics. This is in 3-lvl gray, right?
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on February 18, 2012, 11:33:28 pm
Yes, 3 lvl gray but there's nothing stopping me from making it 4lvl gray (which I think I am doing in my reboot)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 18, 2012, 11:38:05 pm
4 level might be nice, but the problem is that in the first demo it ran at about 8-12 FPS, and the grayscale already suffered from it (for decent grayscale, it has to be refreshed about 25 times a second at regular intervals), so I think 4 level would look too flickery, unless you ran DispGraph^rr commands 3 times in a row or something in the same fashion as in Reuben Quest.
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: squidgetx on February 19, 2012, 12:12:18 am
That's true, but when I look at my old tilemap routines I cringe haha. I haven't yet coded it, but I think I should be able to get some huge speed gains over what I had before, especially because now the tiles won't be masked. (For some reason all my old tiles were masked and displayed with Pt-Mask, when I really only need the character sprite to be masked)
Title: Re: [A:P] Demo Release/Discussion
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on February 19, 2012, 12:15:11 am
Oh ok well that's good to hear. I wasn't sure if it could be improved much since you seemed already very good at Axe back then, seeing some of your other stuff :P

And lol at the masking part. I'm betting you'll double the speed by not having them masked O.O