Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

Okay, this is the moment you have all been waiting for, or maybe it isn't. At any rate, I finally found myself the time to wrap up SubTerra II. This is the Release Candidate, which means that unless something goes seriously wrong, it counts as the official release in a week or two.

More rocks! More gems! More devilish puzzles! Meet the glue block, that sticks to you. The conjurer, that creates other things. The electric wire, used to open or close portals. The golem, that lays dirt everywhere. And the gravity switch, that turns the entire level (and screen) upside down.

http://crystalshard.net/subdown.htm

Thanks to Stewboy for a multitude of levels, and to everybody else who contributed or was so supportive of SubTerra I. Enjoy, and comments welcome.

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[Last edited by Radiant! at 12-28-2006 12:09 AM]

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

I... um... am not that good with the original version...

Do I need to finish the first one before trying this?

But I am downloading...

-- Tim

PS. Oh, when I installed it, it says it couldn't find the readme file. Are you still working on that?

____________________________
The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

Darkmatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-16-2005
IP: Logged

And Subterra lives!

Merry late Christmas Radiant! Just firing it up!

EDIT: And the game dies when I hit the level selection screen....wha?

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[Last edited by Darkmatt at 12-28-2006 03:12 AM]

Turkey
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 09-27-2006
IP: Logged

Same here - the game crashes when trying to play after player selection.

UrAvgAzn
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 468
Registered: 04-15-2006
IP: Logged

I'll have to try this sometime. Now I feel bad that I haven't been that active in SubTerra, but once my main computer is back up (still trying to resurrect it from a serious crash) I'll try to make some levels. But while we're at it, your 'Message Forums' link on the Subterra Download page leads you to here which tries to lead you to here which is a dead link. You should change that old drod.net/forum link to http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=17 which is the current link. I think I'm kinda scaring you now, though.

Keep posting,

IMPORTANT EDIT: Okay, so I realize it isn't a dead link. But when you're on the redirect page, it doesn't redirect you, it just keeps reloading the page. You can only get here by click HERE on the redirect page. So It should still be fixed.

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

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[Last edited by UrAvgAzn at 12-28-2006 05:31 PM]

Kevin_P86
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 535
Registered: 06-28-2005
IP: Logged

Yes, the game crashes when going to the level select screen, and the "Play Subterra Laptop" found in the folder created in Start -> All Programs links to "Subterra.exe \H" instead of "SubTwo.exe \H". It also isn't clear what the \H switch does - the game seems to run the same running the game normally or with the \H...

____________________________
+++++[>+++++<-]>[>+++>++++>+++++<<<-]>.>+.>-------.<++++.+++++.

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

Tim wrote:
Do I need to finish the first one before trying this?

No, it's just a new game with different objects. However, if you're not that good at such games I'd really appreciate having your opinion on the tutorial. Please play through the first few levels and tell me if anything is unclear.

There is no readme file. Do you need one?

Darkmatt wrote:
EDIT: And the game dies when I hit the level selection screen....wha?

Gah! I suppose that's why it's a release candidate. Stupid little bug, fixed now.

UrAvgAzn wrote:
I think I'm kinda scaring you now, though.

No problem, I speak HTML

My redirect code goes like this. It works fine in my browser, weird? I've removed the space in "1; URL" maybe that'd help?

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=17">

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Radiant, do you want me to post this on the Spidwerweb forums, or do you want to do it yourself?

Edit: Okay, I ran it, and I noticed a few things.
The very first time I started it, it crashed as soon as the Crystal Shard part completely loaded. The next times it worked fine. Then I entered my player name, that worked fine. When I went back to the player configuration screen via the menu, the player was gone and I had to re-enter the name. I think ST2 wasn't actually saving the player cfg file or something, that's why it crashes as soon as I finish a level, and I have to start again. (I looked at the Data folder afterwards, and sure enough, there wasn't a cfg file in sight) (Hmm, just a thought, could this have something to do with not having administrator priveleges?)
(Edit: I managed to move the folder to somewhere that I did have priveleges, and it works fine now.)

I looked at the Credits & Thanks screen and.... wow, did I really make that many levels?
The cheat codes seem to have changed, too...
I was also under the impression that you had some different music.
Another thing, when I went to Start Game and pressed enter, it showed the level selection screen briefly, then went straight to the only levelset, as opposed to waiting until I press Enter.
Also in the levelset level selection screen, I noticed I could move around, up and down etc even when there wasn't a link between levels.

Oh, and when you upload future releases, is it possible to include a zipped version as well as the installer? Because I don't have administrator priveleges on my computer, and I have to ask my dad to install anything, and I don't want to keep bugging him every time there's a new version.

Oh, and good job with the new graphics .
Some more bugs:
In ST1, you could click on a level and the player would go straight to it, you can't do that in ST2.
The first time I went to View Demo, it showed a very small level with just one gem and a red exit, I collected the gem, even though the gem limit was 10, went to the exit and it went straight to Demo Mode.
And I notice the Demo Mode has the exact same problem that the ST1 Demo Mode has... it tends to skip. It might be showing a level, saying "SubTerra was brought to you by...", then it skips to another level, with the next message, and half a second later it skips to another level with a completely different message, skipping quite a few in between, I suspect.

And what's all this I hear about A Tale Of Two Kingdoms? Is it a new game you're planning?

Edit: Something else I just noticed, in the Credits & Thanks screen, the underlined text doesn't show y's, p's, q's etc properly.
Yet another edit: What is 'Fortytwo' a cheat code for?
Also in the Credits & Thanks screen, just a small typo, "Everyone who's been enthousiastic".

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[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 12-28-2006 11:27 PM]

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

Radiant! wrote:
There is no readme file. Do you need one?

Well... I'm not the one who wants a readme file, but at the end of the installation, I selected "view readme file", and your installation thingy wants to show me one, then says something like "readme file not found".

[Edit: Ik zie dat het alweer weg is... ]

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[Last edited by Tim at 12-28-2006 10:01 PM]

Darkmatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-16-2005
IP: Logged

Alright! It starts this time. Awesome.

Any reason why most of the hive tiles (That's what I call them. It's in "Return to the Hive".) have a white background instead of black? Also, the scrolling in the first line of levels is, how I put it, stupid. I really wish it was fixed.

The rest looks quite fine. Any additional features I should look forward too in the future?

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

The Stew Boy wrote:
Radiant, do you want me to post this on the Spidwerweb forums, or do you want to do it yourself?

No, I'll announce it. I'll give it a few days until it's no longer a release candidate.

And what's all this I hear about A Tale Of Two Kingdoms? Is it a new game you're planning?

It's a new game that is almost finished

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Hey Radiant, I happened to notice that my level Door-to-Door ended up on the last row of levels, when in my opinion it's actually quite an easy level. Is that because it came in late?
I've reached rank II (34 levels solved) and am still going strongly, probably because a quarter of the levels are mine so I know how to do them. Even so, some of my levels are hard. For example, Oops is simply driving me mad.
Edit: Make that rank III.
Edit: Also Radiant, out of curiosity, why'd you name my Slimeys level Valhalla?

Edit: Radiant, will there be a separate Hall of Fame for ST2? I'm already at Rank IV.

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[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 12-29-2006 08:54 AM]

UrAvgAzn
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 468
Registered: 04-15-2006
IP: Logged

Radiant! wrote:
No problem, I speak HTML

My redirect code goes like this. It works fine in my browser, weird? I've removed the space in "1; URL" maybe that'd help?

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1;URL=http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewboard.php?BoardID=17">

Ah yes, thats much better. I've had a lot of mess-ups with spaces on some of my HTML documents.(Err, </p> )

So far, this is pretty good! Looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time with SubTerra now. But I have noticed a few things. When you are going down the west 1-space-wide corridor in Barriers and Barricades, the view is so that you cannot see your character, its one space too far up. Not a major problem, but certainly something that should be fixed. And this SubTerra doesn't like to be minimized either. Intentional? And The Tale of Two Kingdoms looks extremely promising. PM me if you ever need a tester, because I'd be honored to test one of your games.

Keep posting,

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

The Stew Boy wrote:
Hey Radiant, I happened to notice that my level Door-to-Door ended up on the last row of levels, when in my opinion it's actually quite an easy level. Is that because it came in late?

Yes. When the easy-hard scheme was done, I filled some gaps with the late levels because I didn't feel like reworking anything, so I just made it one column wider.

Edit: Also Radiant, out of curiosity, why'd you name my Slimeys level Valhalla?

Because the slimey graphic has changed to a warrior. Valhalla = warrior heaven.

Another thing, when I went to Start Game and pressed enter, it showed the level selection screen briefly, then went straight to the only levelset, as opposed to waiting until I press Enter.
Also in the levelset level selection screen, I noticed I could move around, up and down etc even when there wasn't a link between levels.

Yep. That happens in ST1 as well. If there's only one levelset, the game auto-selects; and it'd be annoying if your little man could only move along the 'paths'.

UrAvgAzn wrote:
When you are going down the west 1-space-wide corridor in Barriers and Barricades, the view is so that you cannot see your character, its one space too far up.

That's the first-row scroll bug mentioned above. Easy to fix, I'll do that tonight.

Darkmatt wrote:
Any reason why most of the hive tiles (That's what I call them. It's in "Return to the Hive".) have a white background instead of black?

Not really, I just changed it because I felt like it. I wanted different "special walls" but never got around to do that.

Also, the scrolling in the first line of levels is, how I put it, stupid. I really wish it was fixed.

Okay.

The rest looks quite fine. Any additional features I should look forward too in the future?

No, unless you have any specific requests

Not a major problem, but certainly something that should be fixed. And this SubTerra doesn't like to be minimized either.

I know, I know. This is a really annoying bug that I've been unable to fix because it doesn't occur on my system.

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Another suggestion I have is to put more save disks in the Supaplex levels - they're driving me crazy. Took me at least a dozen attempts to get one of them.
Edit: Yay - Rank V - when's the ST2 hall of fame going to be available?

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[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 12-30-2006 07:38 AM]

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

Will do.

Do people think the tutorial is clear enough?

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

Radiant! wrote:
Will do.

Do people think the tutorial is clear enough?

First of all, thankyou so very much for taking the time to finish ST2. It's so rare these days to play such an enjoyable game. Also, congratulations to Stew Boy for creating so many great levels. Really shows mastery of the game.

As for the tutorials, I reckon they're fine though easier than ST1. In fact the game itself feels easier but maybe that's because I've already completed ST1 (though not all in hard mode). It does seem to be easier to get hard mode completion in ST2 though. I'm currently on 33/17 (level II) without really trying too hard.

Finally, there are still a few bugs as you probably know. The scrolling doesn't quite work and I get frequent crashes which seem to tie in with another app trying to display something. My BB disconnected just now and so the "redial" box appeared. That killed ST2 ("Unable to initialise screen. Try rebooting.").

All said though, I realise this is an RC so great work so far! I'd appreciate it if you could post once the scrolling bug is fixed. Hopefully I won't lose my progress neither if I install the latest version.

Thanks for a great game

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

File: Patch1.zip (190.9 KB)
Downloaded 52 times.
License: Other

Thanks

The scrolling bug should only occur in the tutorial levels. I'll upload a fix tomorrow. No, you won't lose your progress

The crashes are probably related to the task switching bug? On several computers (but not mine), SubTerra crashes when the computer switches to another task (e.g. when you press alt+tab, or when some other application grabs the focus, which they're not supposed to do but there you are).

Hm, this might work... please check if the attached patch solves the taskswitching problem.

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[Last edited by Radiant! at 12-30-2006 05:05 PM]

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

That *nearly* worked. Tabbing away doesn't crash the game. Switching back to it however doesn't work. I just see a blank Windows style erm... window but it doesn't seem to want to switch back to full screen gfx mode. If only this was the good old days I'd say you're not calling interrupt 0x10 on switch back but I guess XP doesn't to things that way any more

Just had an idea... going to try using compatibility mode.

[EDIT]

Ok, still doesn't work. Music comes back on but yeah... seems to try to run it in a window. I've had similar issues when trying to quit the game. All I get is a blank window and have to CTRL ALT DEL it.

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[Last edited by Syntax at 12-30-2006 05:45 PM]

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

File: Patch2.zip (190.9 KB)
Downloaded 51 times.
License: Public Domain

Okay, patch 2. Please try again.

Now that we're on the subject, does anyone know a link to the source code of a game that uses DirectX and that, well, works? I'm not looking for a tutorial, I've seen plenty of those. It's just the specifics of task switching that fail in my code.

(Incidentally, this patch fixes the scroll bug)

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

Same again I'm afraid. Haven't checked out the scrolling fix though, but switching crashes it.

I also don't know of any decent DX links :/

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

Radiant! wrote:
Will do.

Do people think the tutorial is clear enough?

Well, at least I could finish the tutorial levels this time

I did wish the munchkin explanation was a few squares before it. I thought I could die by touching it.

And I still don't know what the most eastern scroll in the last tutorial says, as it doesn't fit the screen...

(Not that the tutorial helps that much for the rest of the game though... I'm stuck on many of these...)

In the help there's a part where it says "**** WRONG".

And do I understand the market shops turn into clouds (but not block generators) when you can leave the room?

Oh, and if you only pressed "Next" button in the installation, you still get that "no help file found" message...

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[Last edited by Tim at 12-30-2006 08:22 PM]

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Tim wrote:
And do I understand the market shops turn into clouds (but not block generators) when you can leave the room?

Not when you leave the room, rather when the exit opens. So you've got to be careful in how many gems you collect if you still need the shops.

Darkmatt
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-16-2005
IP: Logged

Okay, now for some level problems. Sorry if I sound rude, this game is destroying my stress shock absorbers.

"Spring", a level I hate (Why does the last part have to be 5x as hard as anything I've faced in this level? Is it even possible to do that part?), doesn't have a different gem quota for the two modes. That equals... I'm forced to do Hard Mode.....after awhile of frusturation I cursed at this level, and stopped playing. Not fun.

"Avoid"'s beginning is just stupid. I died 30 times trying to get the button presses down right. And the rest of the level is cake, except for that hugely stupid part that causes me to REALLY eyeball my character. (It gets worse half-way when the screen is shaking. Now my eyes hurt.) And even then, I still die, and die, and die. In fact, that part should come LAST instead of first. Since the rest of the level is not so complicated and is actually tolerable!

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[Last edited by Darkmatt at 12-30-2006 11:44 PM]

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Darkmatt wrote:
Okay, now for some level problems. Sorry if I sound rude, this game is destroying my stress shock absorbers.

"Spring", a level I hate (Why does the last part have to be 5x as hard as anything I've faced in this level? Is it even possible to do that part?), doesn't have a different gem quota for the two modes. That equals... I'm forced to do Hard Mode.....after awhile of frusturation I cursed at this level, and stopped playing. Not fun.

"Avoid"'s beginning is just stupid. I died 30 times trying to get the button presses down right. And the rest of the level is cake, except for that hugely stupid part that causes me to REALLY eyeball my character. (It gets worse half-way when the screen is shaking. Now my eyes hurt.) And even then, I still die, and die, and die. In fact, that part should come LAST instead of first. Since the rest of the level is not so complicated and is actually tolerable!

Seeing as both of those levels are mine maybe I should give some hints. For Spring, well, you're right, the gem quota is the same for both modes, that needs to be fixed. Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't notice. And yes, it is possible to do that last part.
Avoid is hard, I guess. I find it useful to pause and figure out exactly what route I should take. Perhaps a save disk between the first two areas would be helpful?

Radiant, seeing as I don't have copies of those levels anymore, could you please fix those things, or at least send me the levels?

Edit: Also Radiant, apparently you don't accept PM's, should I send you an email?

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[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 12-31-2006 12:57 AM]

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

I've fixed easy gem quota for Spring, and added a few save disks to Avoid. Darkmatt, thank you for your feedback.

(Huh, I don't accept PMs? That's weird. Should work now)

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[Last edited by Radiant! at 12-31-2006 12:59 AM]

Jeff_Ray...
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 962
Registered: 05-16-2005
IP: Logged

Do you remember my levels I made to contribute for Subterra 2? The author name is 'Jeffrey Maher'. :/ Are these levels in?

____________________________
I make Let's Plays too!
Click here to find out my LPs' progress, and find out what I plan to tackle next!

Currently playing:


My Holds:
-Completed:

-Work in Progress:

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

The only level I could see that was made by you was Still A-Mazing. There are several that I haven't uncovered yet, though, so some of those may be yours.

Edit: Radiant, how on earth are there 100 gems in We All Fall Down? It's impossible to do on Hard Mode.
Edit: Yay, Rank VI.

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[Last edited by The Stew Boy at 12-31-2006 06:21 AM]

Radiant!
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 24
Registered: 04-11-2005
IP: Logged

Jeff_Ray... wrote:
Do you remember my levels I made to contribute for Subterra 2? The author name is 'Jeffrey Maher'. :/ Are these levels in?

Still A-Mazing is there. I don't recall what other levels you made (nor can I find them on a forum search), but I did leave out a few levels that were very small (smaller than one screen), too similar to another level, or simply a random smattering of objects.

The Stew Boy wrote:
Edit: Radiant, how on earth are there 100 gems in We All Fall Down? It's impossible to do on Hard Mode.

No, it's quite possible Read the hint boxes carefully. There's a legacy object there.

The Stew Boy
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 247
Registered: 05-10-2005
IP: Logged

Oh, right... never thought of using the slime to make gems. It was right under my nose, too.