Well, it's 1.6. Streamers!
A special welcome to anyone who's come from HappyPenguin - enjoy DROD! It doesn't need a compile, which is good because we're using some fairly new libraries.
Actually, we've been a little concerned about the comments complaining about the difficulty of compiling DROD in Linux. We honestly never saw it coming.
(For those who don't know what I'm blabbering about, Linux applications often come as source code, which doesn't work until you use a program to turn the source code into a working program. This is compiling. DROD comes as the working program, partly because it's quite hard to compile and partly because there's really no reason not to.)
We've had one of our busiest times earlier this week - we were concerned that the sheer amount of people visiting the site would knock us off-line (via Ipowerweb getting angry), but cooler heads pervailed and Matt made the screenshots smaller. Then again, we DID get a lot of visitors. Hooray!
It's been a while since I've said anything here - I much prefer to get updates done and finished, but recently I've started basically getting any changes I do to the site up as soon as they're done. A fair amount's changed, though, which is good.
* The buttons are better - I've used JavaScript to have the loading snap along more gracefully than it did.
* There's been a fair bit of work in squeezing graphics down as much as possible. Stuart's the man to thank for this - he's basically taken a lot of the stuff on the site and squuezed it down to be nice and crunchy. Most of his work's coming up - he's taken some fresh DROD3D screenshots that I'll put up a bit later. It looks snazzy.
* The Game Info section has been fiddled around with - there's now a buffer page that gives small descriptions of each monster, and Eytan went through the Level Description page and gave comprehensive suggestions on how they should be reworded. I might tinker with this a bit more so we can get something resembling a story going, but it's mostly his work. Take a bow, man.
* You'll notice we're naming the levels now. This is mostly for fun, whenever I come up with a 'witty' name for a level I'll add it. Of course, let's make this more fun... come up with a witty name, or trump one of mine, and we'll call the level that instead. We'll include your name right on the page, so everyone can go, "
Wow, that <
you>
is smart! And I don't mean cheeky, either!"
* I played around with the downloads page - it's split into two (soon to be three) sections. It also looks neat. I did this a while ago, but I don't think I told you guys.
* I'm also trying out a link someone sent me that is supposed to protect addresses from spam by concealing them in a vat of numbers. I'm only doing it on the webmaster address and Patrice's (you know, head designer for DROD3D) as a test. If you can't reach me at my webmaster address, try the address in my profile. I'm not typing any of them because it'd just defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?
Think that's all I've changed.
However, there's some exciting stuff coming - Schik's demoing his new baby, the Hold Uploading Thingie, and he's working on some functions so I can plug it in to the download page (remember that third download page?) This will be for completed holds only - it parses the hold file (Schik planned to have a counter saying just how many monsters and rooms were in the hold, which is cool), you can rate its difficulty, anyone who plays it can rate it (and it's dynamic, so you can change your score) and it's probably possible to download them as well.
Heh.
I just keep coming up with ideas for the Eighth article - but we know so little! I've covered everything that we know except the date system, and that's because I have no idea how I'm going to introduce that. Also making a special appearance are several people from the forums (one of whom gets killed by a stray roach). It'll be up as soon as I get over this writer's block.
Also, this is my 500th post, I believe. It's only fitting I use it to announce things.
Anyway, enjoy your DROD, and perhaps I'll see you next week! Look for me in your bedroom, obsessing over your bedside table.
Matt
[Edited by Mattcrampy on 11-06-2003 at 01:44 PM GMT]
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