Rabscuttle
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* The change to Ctrl-5. In 3.0 it always waits for the next multiple of 30, whereas in 2.0 if there was no spawn clock it did nothing. If I'm optimising and waiting for an overly long serpent to die, I used to be able to wait at the edge of the room, hold down ctrl 5 and it would wait only until the snake died. Now I have to be careful and make sure I don't hit 5 too many times.

* Cut-scenes. Are my fingers cold and dead? Then why have you pried control away from me? Ok, they're not that bad, but is there some way of speeding them up? Going through that library is fracking boring.

* Undo no longer cuts off speech. I liked having a simple way of shutting characters up when replaying a room.

* Was released on a Monday, somewhere around noon.

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[Last edited by Rabscuttle at 04-03-2007 02:53 AM]

TripleM
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Point 2: Pressing spacebar rapidly speeds up a cutscene. You'll have to press it for each room, so it'll still take a few seconds to get through all those rooms, but at least its much faster.

Point 3: No, no, I love the new way In JtRH I'd be going through a room, make a mistake and instantly push undo, and I'd completely lose any speech and have to restart the room to see what happened. You have spacebar again to cut that out, so it works both ways.

eytanz
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Just to clarify the use of spacebar:

- If you're in a cutscene, spacebar fast forwards it.

- If you're not in a cutscene, or if you are in a fast-forwarded cutscene, spacebar turns off speech.

If you want to catch up to speech you missed (or skipped), you can see a log of all past speech in a room by double-clicking Beethro's portrait. Double-clicking a speech line will replay the voice.

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[Last edited by eytanz at 04-03-2007 03:26 AM]

zombieP
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One minor thing for me... I don't think the 'lock room' button is editable. I have the left shift key assigned to 'undo last move' and it locks and unlocks the room everytime I hit it...

NiroZ
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eytanz wrote:
Just to clarify the use of spacebar:

- If you're in a cutscene, spacebar fast forwards it.

- If you're not in a cutscene, or if you are in a fast-forwarded cutscene, spacebar turns off speech.

If you want to catch up to speech you missed (or skipped), you can see a log of all past speech in a room by double-clicking Beethro's portrait. Double-clicking a speech line will replay the voice.

What I'm not liking is that so many features are undocumented. Also, the help files are full of spoilers and are not concise. If it was concise, or had no spoilers I wouldn't mind so much, but both? Please!

I'm also no very happy with

zombieP
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The guide recommends going to the unc-samacallit at the fork, avoiding the library altogether. After the demo ended I had to restore to try the library...

eytanz
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zombieP wrote:
The guide recommends going to the unc-samacallit at the fork, avoiding the library altogether. After the demo ended I had to restore to try the library...

Hmmm... I think that was supposed to be fixed at some point, I guess it was left in by mistake.

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eytanz
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NiroZ wrote:
I'm also no very happy with

Click here to view the secret text

×water skippers. I want my diagonals dammit!

I think the problem you have is with , not with A wraithwing would produce the same effect.

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WyattSmee
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Other very very minor things. I imagine some people love trivial 1-move solutions for scoring purposes, but I find them a bit annoying (probably because I wasn't first through the area ). And I've noticed several in the game so far. Also I hope the F7 move-counter-disappearing-on-Restore thingie gets changed. Erm but that's probably a bug isn't it? Nevermind. Everything else so far for me is peaches! Thanks for the fine entertainment.

Maurog
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I am annoyed by the 1-move solutions too, but trust in the spider to tag them all soon. *looks at Schik expectingly*

The one thing that disappoints me a bit is the move counter remaining a rough yellow number in the corner, which looks like an unofficial feature. A 5-digit counter box as part of the clock interface would really rock, the feature is used by a lot of people after all...

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Alneyan
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The floors in the demo. That's about the only thing I don't like, but I *really* can't stand these floors (my eyes cannot, in any case). The rest of the room theme is fine, but the floors could compete with Fun Park in the 'stop playing every five minutes because of watery eyes" department.

So, 1) Can the floor tiles be modified in the demo? I only care about them and won't mind a graphical inconsistency. 2) Are all floor tiles in TCB similar to the ones in the demo? Can they be hacked to pieces?

Mine own poor eyes and my headache thank you in advance.

Briareos
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Alneyan wrote:
The floors in the demo. That's about the only thing I don't like, but I *really* can't stand these floors (my eyes cannot, in any case). The rest of the room theme is fine, but the floors could compete with Fun Park in the 'stop playing every five minutes because of watery eyes" department.

I found that they were okay with daylight, but playing at night with just the light on the huge contrast between alternating city tiles really is an eyestrain...

____________________________
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b0rsuk
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Most fonts in general are pretty ugly, except perhaps for scroll and start of level fonts. The most annoying thing about them is the rough edge, looks like no antialiasing was used. In-game help is also somewhat hard to read, and the fonts are too big for my taste.

Also, as far as the demo goes, the puzzle part of the game is quite watered down. You spend a lot of time walking around with no puzzle in sight. Combined with fact that DROD can't be bothered to implement even simple walk to or run(walk several squares in one direction unless something happens), it can make a tiresome impression.JTRH demo was much more interesting in this aspect, it was mostly 3 levels of intense puzzle solving. I think there are fewer puzzle rooms in TCB demo. This is really not my problem, because it's not in my best interest to sell the game. Just a thought.

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[Last edited by b0rsuk at 04-03-2007 11:09 AM]

NiroZ
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b0rsuk wrote:
Also, as far as the demo goes, the puzzle part of the game is quite watered down. You spend a lot of time walking around with no puzzle in sight. Combined with fact that DROD can't be bothered to implement even simple walk to or run(walk several squares in one direction unless something happens), it can make a tiresome impression.JTRH demo was much more interesting in this aspect, it was mostly 3 levels of intense puzzle solving. I think there are fewer puzzle rooms in TCB demo. This is really not my problem, because it's not in my best interest to sell the game. Just a thought.

I'd have to agree with that. Escaping the slayer made a brilliant conclusion to the JtRH demo. When I finished the TCB demo, my reaction was 'Is that all?'

Alneyan
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Briareos wrote:
I found that they were okay with daylight, but playing at night with just the light on the huge contrast between alternating city tiles really is an eyestrain...

That could be a factor. I don't have much daylight and my screen is pretty dark, so that I can go on a computer binge without getting a miserable headache in the process.

Unfortunately, it seems there is no easy fix - DROD 2.0 excepted, of course.

WestCabaretDrive
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I like the cutscenes and the undo-not-cutting-off-speech; and the general non linearity.

Only thing that annoys me is I don't like the text bubbles that tend to obscure important things on the screen (especially when they're explanations of how things work; couldn't they go on the edge of the screen out of the way?)

Tahnan
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WestCabaretDrive wrote:
I like the cutscenes and the undo-not-cutting-off-speech; and the general non linearity.

Only thing that annoys me is I don't like the text bubbles that tend to obscure important things on the screen (especially when they're explanations of how things work; couldn't they go on the edge of the screen out of the way?)

Well, you can always just stand still and wait for them to finish.

The point about how there's little puzzling in the DROD demo is an interesting one. On the other hand, the demo does nicely showcase some really excellent dialogue, so perhaps that will draw people in just as much as some rather difficult-to-maneuver rooms as we had in the beginning of JtRH.

Thy Dungeonman
Level: Delver
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Well, I'm still in the middle fo the unctuary, but I've read up on the new game elements and played with them in the build editor, and I have this to say:

Non-combat Drod has been SIGNIFICANTLY improved, and has a lot of puzzle potential. But I'm kind of disapointed with the monsters. Some of them are cool, but none of them have an AI that we haven't seen before.

stigant
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I think it would be nice (also for chat) to have a separate window for text when in windowed mode, or some sort of text box that you could drag around when in full screen mode (I guess that would be a window...) Incidently, if it gets in your way, you can turn dialogue text off in the settings page.

none of them have an AI that we haven't seen before

True, but there's a certain limit to the complications that you can reasonably introduce without making things confusing. Consider WW's, serpents and goblins. These are really pushing the envelope for what is easily understandable (by an average human). Most of the suggestions I've seen on the feature request board for new AI behavior just become too complicated to predict and track.

On a (admitedly slightly different albeit) related note, there are a number of new game mechanics that add to the complexity of all monsters rather than a single monster with a new AI: pressure plates for example, or adders, for another example. I think that these elements will keep us working a lot harder than a couple of new AI mechanics would. Add to that rotating arrows etc, and you've got a lot to think about on any given room.

____________________________
Progress Quest Progress

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[Last edited by stigant at 04-03-2007 08:27 PM]

Thy Dungeonman
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Actually, just thought for a second. I stand corrected
The purple cloak guys DO have a new AI, in that (I think, haven't played with it that much) they attempt to have a line of sight with you.

It's similar to my Archers idea...

AlefBet
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Alneyan wrote:
Unfortunately, it seems there is no easy fix - DROD 2.0 excepted, of course.

You mean other than a mod to the city style? I assume you're talking about the colors issue. If you're talking about the variable lighting effect, I expect that disabling alpha would clear that.

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Alneyan
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AlefBet wrote:
You mean other than a mod to the city style? I assume you're talking about the colors issue.

Aye, my problem is mostly with the colours of the tiles of the City style (stark white against midnight dark). Of course, these tiles appear in virtually every room in the TCB demo, AE/JTRH holds included.

I'm still trying to find a way to mod the City style and/or to grab the original files for another style; I'm making some progress, but I haven't figured out if I could just replace *one* picture (the offending tiles) or if I needed a whole new style.

AlefBet
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Alneyan wrote:
I'm still trying to find a way to mod the City style

Try dropping a CityFloor.png in your Data/Bitmaps directory. I think that ought to work.

and/or to grab the original files for another style;

While Caravel didn't jump through a lot of hoops to make that hard, making it easy wasn't necessarily a priority either, since those media are rights-reserved.

I'm making some progress, but I haven't figured out if I could just replace *one* picture (the offending tiles) or if I needed a whole new style.

I could be wrong, but I think that you can replace a single file. If you try it out, share your experience .

____________________________
I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

++Adam H. Peterson

Alneyan
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I love you.

I certainly hadn't expected things to be that simple, but it Just Works. If you also want me to pledge my firstborn to you, do you know where the definite list of files and their sizes is? I cannot seem to find it, so it must be right under my eyes.

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[Last edited by Alneyan at 04-03-2007 10:37 PM]

AlefBet
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Alneyan wrote:
do you know where the definite list of files and their sizes is? I cannot seem to find it, so it must be right under my eyes.

I'm not near a DROD dev machine right now so I can't give you a list right away. But the naming convention should be basically the same as for JtRH mods, except replace "StyleN" at the beginning of the name with "City" (or whatever). And most images are fine as long as their dimensions are easily divisible by 22 pixels. I wouldn't suggest replacing CityTiles.png, though -- most of the graphics for the City style have been moved into GeneralTiles.png to make creating new styles easier (anything not styled will use the GeneralTiles sprites instead). I also wouldn't suggest replacing GeneralTiles either -- there are a lot more graphics in GeneralTiles for TCB than there were in JtRH and modular modding is a much better way to customize that.

____________________________
I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

++Adam H. Peterson

Alneyan
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In my DROD installation, I only have a few pictures in Bitmaps (cursors, logos and the like), so my own pictures cannot supersede the ones from Caravel. Near as I can tell, putting a CityTiles.png there just overrides the built-in picture, which rears its ugly tail again as soon as I move my CityTiles.png out of the way.

This might not be *very* clean, but I'm willing to live with some shuffling around of files, so long as I don't need to see the real CityTiles again. Thanks again!

AlefBet
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Alneyan wrote:
Near as I can tell, putting a CityTiles.png there just overrides the built-in picture, which rears its ugly tail again as soon as I move my CityTiles.png out of the way

Are you sure you put a "CityTiles.png" in that directory? As near as I know, that probably wouldn't affect much, except maybe the water edging. Or are you still thinking of "CityFloor.png"? I think replacing "CityFloor.png" ought to be completely harmless. Same with any of the other "City*.png"/"City*.jpeg" files. It's only the game tiles file "CityTiles.png" that I would suggest not messing with.

By the way, I think you can actually alter the game tiles for the City Style specifically by using modular mods if you like -- so, for example, if you find you don't care for City Style trapdoors or bridges and you know the right .tim entries, you can create a modular mod (a .png file with the sprites and a corresponding .tim file) that either replaces them in GeneralTiles (which would affect all styles that don't have their own) or just in the City style, depending on how you edit the .ini file. I haven't actually done it, but I think it was designed so that you could. Just FYI.

____________________________
I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

++Adam H. Peterson

Alneyan
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Sorry, that *was* CityFloor.png . Looks like it's time to head off to bed for me...

zex20913
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Thy Dungeonman wrote:
Actually, just thought for a second. I stand corrected
The purple cloak guys DO have a new AI, in that (I think, haven't played with it that much) they attempt to have a line of sight with you.

It's similar to my Archers idea...

There are at least 3 monsters with new AI.

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UrAvgAzn
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Err... Fegundos? What do they do? I kinda don't like them. Oh, and hot tiles. I dislike it that you can't turn your sword, but it does add some puzzle potential. More later, gotta eat.

Keep posting,

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Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
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