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Topics - Edi

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1
Offtopic / Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension
« on: June 23, 2013, 02:10:41 pm »
Hi guys,

I've been away a long time, as my interests have taken me far and wide indeed. A year and a half ago I was helping Illwinter Game Design develop Conquest of Elysium 3. Since November 2012 I've been helping them develop Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension.

The Illwinter page for Dominions 4 is here: http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/index.html

Quote
Dominions 4 improvements

Here's a short list with the most important changes compared to Dominions 3.

  • Teamplay, one pretender and one or more disciples per team.
  • Thrones of Ascension. Claim thrones to gain extra powers and to win the game eventually.
  • Many sprites have been redrawn and the 3d terrain is also improved.
  • Many user interface improvements.
  • Formations like line formation or skirmish formation.
  • Improved random map generation with wraparound maps, caves, rivers and mountain passes.
  • Rivers that can only be passed when frozen, mountain passes that can only be passed by special units and when it's warm.
  • Pierce, slash and blunt weapons have slightly different quirks. E.g. don't shoot arrows at skeletons.
  • Darkness and dark vision plays a more important role. Notably in deep seas, caves and sometimes during assassinations.
  • Range restrictions on magic rituals and items and spells that can be used to boost ritual ranges.
  • Improved network support, turns can be resumed from any computer and turns can be marked as only half finished.
  • Global random events
  • Can build castle improvements like extra towers or extra supply storage
  • Province Defence dependent on the local population and some nations have easier or harder to organize it.
  • Improvements to AI and to modding.
  • Many new monsters, spells, magic items, sites, random events and some nations too.


You can also find more info from these links:
The Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension announcement on the Desura Dominions 3 forum
The Dominions 4 subforum of the Dom3Mods Dominions 3 community
The Dominions 4 thread at Quarter to Three

So, if anyone here was ever interested in Dominions but never got around to buying it due to the high price at Shrapnel Games (who have not been distributing Dom3 since last November), this is the iteration to get. The links above are also the places to ask if you have questions, though I'll be checking in around here too.

2
Offtopic / Conquest of Elysium 3
« on: February 15, 2012, 05:05:56 pm »
Hi everyone,

In case you were wondering where I disappeared off to and why, the reason is in the thread title. I felt I needed to take a slight break from UFO:AI about the last time I posted here, played a couple of other games for a while and was just considering coming back here when Illwinter Game Design announced they were developing Conquest of Elysium 3. I asked them if they'd like my help in beta testing. That was sometime in early August 2011 and right now the game is just a few days from release on Desura. Release date is 19th or 20th, depending on your time zone.

All in all, if you're a fan of turn based strategy and have fond memories of games like Master of Magic or Age of Wonders, or if you liked Illwinter's Dominions series, this game is definitely worth checking out.

There's a dev log discussion thread here, but in order to get an idea of what the game looks like, there are several YouTube videos available. The beta version accidentally leaked out to about a dozen people due to a permissions snafu at Desura, but it didn't turn out to be a bad thing at all, since the videos have generated quite a bit of interest.

Here are the video links:
52 minute overview
Demonologist game
Burgmeister (essentially a hobbit class)
Necromancer


In case anyone likes a text and screencaps AAR/LP, I wrote one playing the Necromancer class and the AAR can be found here:

A Chronicle of the Interregnum

Sadly, savegame compatibility got axed between versions 2.96 and 3.00, so the end of the story is left to the reader's imagination.

3
Artwork / Civilian model - possible trademark issues
« on: July 24, 2011, 12:56:33 pm »
One of the models used in the game may be problematic from an open source point of view, since it has the text "United Colors of Benetton" on the T-Shirt.

That's a registered trademark of a multinational company and I hardly think we have permission to use it in the game. That model should be replaced.

See attached screenshot.

4
Feature Requests / Tweak to uninstallation questions
« on: June 19, 2011, 03:31:42 pm »
When selecting "Uninstall UFO:AI", youget two popup windows:

1) Do you really want to remove UFO:AI and all its data? Y/N
2) Do you want to delete all your savegames and settings? Y/N

The problem? If you misclick, which is easy to do, bye-bye savegames and everything else, since the yes button appears in the same location on the screen, even if No is the default option for the second question.

A better approach would be to have a single popup that worked like this:

"Do you really want to remove UFO:AI and all its data? Y/N"
[checkbox, default value unchecked] Delete my savegames and settings


How the checkbox question/option is worded and default checked/unchecked is irrelevant as long as the default position on it is to keep the savegames and data, because right now burning yourself when updating is far too easy to do.

5
Planning base building is right now a real pain in the arse unless you have memorized the various construction times. It would be very helpful if the building preview float in the base building screen showed the construction time of each building, such as 12 days for power plant, 4 days for living quarters etc. It's not as if the building times are some unknown quantity. There is also plenty of space to add that information.

6
Mapping / [MAP] Hills - Multiple Issues
« on: May 24, 2011, 10:33:40 pm »
There are many, many minor issues with the Hills map. None that actually break the map, but things like entire rooms and balconies becoming impassable when a door is opened, soldiers walking through brick walls, rescue zone located under a harvester's wing instead of in the Firebird etc.

I need to put together a coherent post sometime tomorrow evening, because I need to do some screenshot doctoring to make a proper bug report and highlight all of the places where things act weirdly. However, in order to not accidentally delete the all-important console log of the map info, it is added here as a preliminary measure.

Code: [Select]
2011/05/24 22:45:48 ------- Loading game.dll -------
2011/05/24 22:45:48 not found at '/usr/local/lib'
2011/05/24 22:45:48 not found at 'C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base'
2011/05/24 22:45:48 found at './base'
2011/05/24 22:45:48 tiles: -hills/ +road_1c1 +craft_drop_firebird +craft_ufo_harvester +filler_1s3 +house_11 +house_12 +house_13 +road_1v4 +road_1v4 +road_1v5 +road_1v4 +road_1v5 +road_1h1 +road_1h1 +road_1h2 +road_2h1 +filler_12vu1 +filler_1s1 +filler_1s1 +filler_2s1
2011/05/24 22:45:48 pos: 8 -32 0 -24 -32 0 -24 8 0 24 -16 0 24 -8 0 -8 0 0 -8 -16 0 8 -16 0 -24 -8 0 8 -8 0 8 0 0 -24 0 0 -8 -32 0 24 -32 0 0 -32 0 24 16 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 24 32 0
2011/05/24 22:45:48 tiles: 20
2011/05/24 22:45:49 CM_LoadMap: "-hills/ +road_1c1 +craft_drop_firebird +craft_ufo_harvester +filler_1s3 +house_11 +house_12 +house_13 +road_1v4 +road_1v4 +road_1v5 +road_1v4 +road_1v5 +road_1h1 +road_1h1 +road_1h2 +road_2h1 +filler_12vu1 +filler_1s1 +filler_1s1 +filler_2s1" "8 -32 0 -24 -32 0 -24 8 0 24 -16 0 24 -8 0 -8 0 0 -8 -16 0 8 -16 0 -24 -8 0 8 -8 0 8 0 0 -24 0 0 -8 -32 0 24 -32 0 0 -32 0 24 16 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 24 32 0"
2011/05/24 22:45:51 Rerouted for RMA in   0.0s
2011/05/24 22:45:51 checksum for the map '+hills': 2229896466
2011/05/24 22:45:51 ufo script checksum 2308402585

Screenshots to be added later.

Oh, and props for whoever designed this map despite the issues. That was without doubt the most X-Files map ever, with no civilians anywhere, just empty houses, an alien right at the start and then just the great, looming harvester on a hill above the suburb at night. Never had a mission as tense as that one in terms of atmosphere.


EDIT: Tracker item added

7
Mapping / Rescue Zones - All Maps with Dropship?
« on: May 24, 2011, 10:19:59 am »
Okay, should all maps with a dropship craftdrop tile have rescue zones? As I understand it, soldiers in the rescue zone when a mission is aborted survive and return to base.

However, at least the craftdrop firebird tile in the ufocrash map does not have a rescue zone, since I don't get that message when a soldier enters or leaves the firebird.

Running version ufoai-2.4-dev-1306186842.

Code: [Select]
------- Loading game.dll -------
not found at '/usr/local/lib'
not found at 'C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base'
found at './base'
tiles: -ufocrash/uc_ +craft_drop_firebird +craft_crash_fighter +h07 +h01 +d01 +h01 +h05 +h01
pos: -24 -16 0 -24 0 0 0 -16 0 0 0 0 16 8 0 16 0 0 24 -16 0 -24 16 0
tiles: 8
CM_LoadMap: "-ufocrash/uc_ +craft_drop_firebird +craft_crash_fighter +h07 +h01 +d01 +h01 +h05 +h01" "-24 -16 0 -24 0 0 0 -16 0 0 0 0 16 8 0 16 0 0 24 -16 0 -24 16 0"
Rerouted for RMA in   0.0s
checksum for the map '+ufocrash': 2376407783
ufo script checksum 2308402585
-------------------------------------
Connecting to localhost...
==== InitGame ====
Not enough spawn points for team 0
Created AI player (team 0)
Created AI player (team 7)
Used inventory slots after ai spawn: 0
connection attempt from loopback connection
load material file: 'materials/ufocrash.mat'
added light, ambient=0.476837
Starting the game...

8
Mapping / TODO/Mapping/Crafts Tiles Omissions
« on: May 23, 2011, 07:22:12 pm »
The list of mapping to do issues for RMA maps here has a fairly significant series of omissions in the tables:

The UFO bomber craft is only listed in +city and +farm tables. It is NOT listed n any of the other tables, which is almost certainly going to contribute to bomber tiles being left out of the RMA maps since it will be easy to think all the tiles are done. Should someone with the rights modify that wiki page?

9
Tracker item posted

Long story short, immediately upon loading a battle on the oriental map, I hit an assertion failure in the renderer. Screenshot, ufoconsole log and the savegame in question are all included in the tracker.

10
Bugs prior to release 2.4 / Geoscape Message List in Windowed Mode
« on: May 19, 2011, 01:49:12 pm »
I have the following problem with playing in windowed mode (which is the only mode possible since SDL breaks ALT+TAB and freezes mouse if fullscreen mode is used):

With resolution 1920x1080, which is the native one for my monitor, the topmost message in the geoscape screen is not visible, only the two or three bottommost pixels of it. The reason for this is that the Window bar at the top takes up some space and the message text is hidden beneath that. You can really only view the message after another message pops into the queue. This is, to say the least, highly annoying.

Would it be possible to move the placement of the message list top to one or two rows below the very top of the geoscape screen? This would handily eliminate the problem without needing to add something like a frame for the entire geoscape screen.


11
Offtopic / It's About Time! 16 Years!
« on: May 16, 2011, 12:11:20 am »
16 years! 16 effing years and finally we did it!

Den glider in!
Den glider in!
Den glider in i mål igen!
Vi ska kämpa, vi ska ge,
Alt det vi har!
Vi ska ta guld igen!


Finland: Ice hockey world champions 2011! This is what we've been waiting for! And just to make it all the sweeter, the first time was in Stockholm, 4-1 over Sweden, and now it was 6-1 against Sweden again!

1 AM right now and my shift starts at 8 AM, but I really can't give a damn. Five hours of sleep is going to (have to) be enough and there's an end to it!

Yeeehaaaa! The Lion strikes to kill!

On that note, g'night everyone!

12
Windows / Unable to Compile Game With Muton's Utility
« on: May 15, 2011, 11:25:33 am »
I've done everything according to instructions so far:
- msysGit
- TortoiseGit
- downloaded the source (master branch)
- checked that it's up to date
- have downloaded the all in one pack (MinGW, NSIS, etc)

But when I run Muton's utility, the compilation starts okay, but crashes during ufomodel, always in the exact same spot:

Code: [Select]
---- filesystem initialization -----

Adding game dir: /usr/local/games/ufoai/base

Adding game dir: ./base

Adding game dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base

using ./base for writing

- model 'models/weapons/vhs/vhs.md2'

  \ - # meshes '1', # frames '1'

  \ - writing to file 'models/weapons/vhs/vhs.mdx'

./ufomodel.exe -mdx -overwrite -v -s 0.2 -f models/objects/vegi/md3-grass/grass.md3
./ufomodel.exe -mdx -overwrite -v -s 0.2 -f models/objects/vegi/md3-palm/blad.md3
---- ufomodel 0.2 ----

---- endianness initialization -----

found little endian system



---- filesystem initialization -----

Adding game dir: /usr/local/games/ufoai/base

Adding game dir: ./base

Adding game dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base

using ./base for writing

- model 'models/objects/vegi/md3-palm/blad.md3'

  \ - could not load skin 'palm.png'

make: *** [base/models/objects/vegi/md3-palm/blad.mdx] Error 5
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
---- ufomodel 0.2 ----

---- endianness initialization -----

found little endian system



---- filesystem initialization -----

Adding game dir: /usr/local/games/ufoai/base

Adding game dir: ./base

Adding game dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base

using ./base for writing

- model 'models/objects/vegi/md3-grass/grass.md3'

  \ - could not load skin 'grass.png'

make: *** [base/models/objects/vegi/md3-grass/grass.mdx] Error 5
---- ufomodel 0.2 ----

---- endianness initialization -----

found little endian system



---- filesystem initialization -----

Adding game dir: /usr/local/games/ufoai/base

Adding game dir: ./base

Adding game dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base

using ./base for writing

- model 'models/objects/vegi/md3-canopy/stam.md3'

  \ - could not load skin 'canopy.png'

make: *** [base/models/objects/vegi/md3-canopy/stam.mdx] Error 5
---- ufomodel 0.2 ----

---- endianness initialization -----

found little endian system



---- filesystem initialization -----

Adding game dir: /usr/local/games/ufoai/base

Adding game dir: ./base

Adding game dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Esko\Application Data\UFOAI/2.4-dev/base

using ./base for writing

- model 'models/objects/vegi/md3-canopy/blad.md3'

  \ - could not load skin 'canopy.png'

make: *** [base/models/objects/vegi/md3-canopy/blad.mdx] Error 5
logout

Endtime: 2011.05.15 00:43:56 1
Error 51
Error during ufomodel

System specs:

WinXP Pro SP3, Intel Core2Duo E6600, 3 GB RAM, graphics card Asus EAH5750 Formula (ATI Radeon HD5750).

When I try to read the debug info on the error windows I get, there are some references to AMD type CPU stuff, but I don't what, how or why. I'm using Muton's utility on the default settings so it should have no trouble picking up on what kind of CPU I have.

Furthermore, it builds all the models before those four just fine, but with each of these, it gives me the "could not load skin [filename]" error, gives ufofmodel error code 5.

And unless I'm much mistaken, these particular skins and models are the infamous palm fronds, that have been fixed and reverted at least a dozen times in the past couple of years.

Can anyone shed more light on this? I've attached the full build log from Muton's utility.

13
Feature Requests / Hotkey for enabling/disabling realtime lighting
« on: May 30, 2010, 05:42:53 pm »
Would it be possible to map a hotkey for enabling and disabling realtime lighting? One that would work in both geoscape and battlescape?

With the black model problem of ATI cards and the workaround to it (disabling realtime lighting for the duration of combat in the battlescape), this hotkey would significantly reduce the annoyance of going to options, video options, turn off RTL, go back and then after battle go to options, video options, turn RTL back on and go back (unless you like playing on a transparent geoscape).

Instead of all that, it would take just pressing one key for off and the same key to on again and it would avoid the risk of accidentally clicking GLSL shaders off and then needing to restart the game after re-enabling them.

Pretty please?

14
The old assertion failure crash to desktop bug with Phalanx craft mission pointer not being set has been fixed by geever earlier.

I just encountered another one:

I had sent two stilettos out of their homebase to chase a UFO when another UFO appeared and initiated a base attack. I was going to load a different savegame in any case, so I just set the base defense to auto mission, equipped soldiers and pressed go and then got an immediate crash to desktop with the following error message:

Quote
Assertion failed!

Program: [ufoai-installdirpath]\ufo.exe
File: [ufoai-sourcecodepath]\cp_aircraft.c
Line: 923

Expression: base != aircraft -> homebase

For information on how la-di-da-di-da and so on and so forth

Looks like in the event that a base is destroyed while the aircraft assigned to that base are on a mission, the game has no mechanism for handling the sudden change with unassigned aircraft and then does what computer programs in that situation often do: Crashes and burns like a scout UFO faced with two Stilettos.

The problem could probably be solved by one of the following mechanisms:

  • Base destroyed and aircraft on mission causes a check for free hangars in other bases and immediate reassignment for the craft at large.
  • If the craft has no sufficient fuel to reach the new home base, the craft is destroyed (crash before it can refuel)
  • OR the craft is transferred to the base (it refueled on the way or landed elsewhere and commenced a transport mission to the new destination). In the latter case living quarter space must be checked that it can accommodate the pilot and possible soldiers as well, which probably makes this much more of a headache coding-wise. Unless extra personnel are immediately fired upon reaching the new base and available for recruitment to other bases in the Employees screen
  • If there are no free hangars, either the craft are destroyed or sold and personnel assigned to them fired and available for recruitment in the employee screen.
  • OR there is some other solution that is not obvious to me.
In any case it looks like a complete bitch to do unless you take the shortest route (the nuclear option for unassigned aircraft).

Screenshot attached. No ufoconsole.log available, since the crash information was not generated.

I have created a tracker item here.

15
Mapping / [map] Oriental Big (oriental map object bugs)
« on: May 30, 2010, 03:54:27 pm »
If anyone feels like fixing some objects that appear on the oriental map to fix impassable squares that should be passable, there is a tracker item with screenshots and details.

Since oriental missions are rather common and all of the reported objects can appear multiple times on a given map, fixing these would be a fairly good thing.

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