Viking Raiders - beta 1.6.3

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MrPlow

Here is my UPDATED beta version [updated with version 1.6.3]

1.6.3 Updates:
-       Added option to turn on a grid when 'G' is pressed when human viking is first highlighted

1.6.2 Features / Updates

-   Added horns / treasure chests
-   Catapults can be destroyed by enemy vikings
-   Fixed collison issues
-   Boats dont ram
-   Boats dont need full water access to move
-   Boats can only be destroyed by Catapults
-   Drunks fight and attack randomly
-   Enemy drunks can be recruited when collided with
-   Boats can be stacked to form bridges
-   Castles can be attacked from the sea
-       CPU (AI) buying decisions more cautious
-       CPU gold depleats but they can collect gold also



1.2 updates/fixes:

- hanging screens resolved
- "men falling out of boats" fixed
- victory screen added
- prices of units added
- bottom panel graphic {still to be completed}


Gameplay features:

- 1-4 player hotseat or cpu
- better CPU player AI
- longboats are better than original (not as restricted)
- more gold at start (may revise this)
- true retro graphic style
- only keyboard version for now

Still to do:
- fix some windows alt-tab issues. (mostly)
- add more sound and music ?
- mouse controls
- plus any other bugs you might spot...


FROM THE ORIGINAL INLAY CARD
------------------------------------------
TACTICS
The following are some tactics that can be tried, and the names of the
people who use them:
The Admiral                        Buys lots of boats ...
Captain Birdbrain               Gets them stuck in the ice!
The Alcoholic                      Seems to encounter a lot of drinking horns and has
                                          more drunken army than sober ...
Temperance                       Uses the catapults to destroy the drinking horns.
Whizz-Kid                          Buys lots of catapults ...
The Traditionalist              Never buys a catapult (too new-fangled!).
The Peace Lover               Keeps out of fights, builds up an enormous army
                                         and waits until the other players have virtually
                                         eliminated each other.
The Miser                          Keeps on bringing back treasure to build up the
                                         Gold hoard ...
The Spoiler                        Stops the Miser by catapulting at the treasure box.
The Bridge Builder            Places boats to make a static bridge, to move
                                        armies across the Fjord.
The Hero                          A drunken Viking who attacks and destroys an enemy
                                        castle ...
The Thinker                      A drunken Viking who gets sobered-up by the enemy,
                                        and joins them.
The Optimist                    Attacks ALL the other players in the same turn.
Three Blind Mice              Three HUMAN players who fight and destroy each
                                        other so that the final winner is the COMPUTER.


Hope you like it...;-)

Any annoying bugs please let me know...

Gary

Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

Ian Price

Excellent. Now all I need is some time :)
I came. I saw. I played.

bigsofty

Vikings and plundering... what's not to like!  =D

I like the retro feel, reminds me of an old computer I used to have, an Oric 1.

The gameplay can slow down a little when you have to move so many units about individually, maybe an option to create a group of units and then move them as one?

It's quite fun to watch the AI fighting each other too.

Well done!  :good:
Cheers,

Ian.

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC.  As potential programmers, they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."
(E. W. Dijkstra)

MrPlow

Cheers Guys,

I have spotted at least 1 bug so far...but nothing that will stop the plundering!

Grouping units hmmm??...noted...but could be a "version 2" feature...

I am thinking of "Rise of the Valkeries" as a theme tune? Yes - No?

This is my first GLB game project.

I notice some wav files dont send a handle back as quick as other wav files...is this a GLB issue? Or wav format issue?



Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

Ian Price

It's coming along brilliantly. There are only two issues that I think could be sorted in nano-seconds.

1. Offer the chance of not moving a character immediately (rather than pressing S or N, say press Zero or something). It's annoying to go through the movement routine for say a boat that you only want to load up and not move).

2. Show the cost of items in the buying option rather than the instructions screen.

Also - WTF are you doing with the game window (in Windowed mode)? It's nigh on impossible to exit without going through Task Manager. What's the correct procedure to exit? ESC doesn't exit. I presume you've used ALLOWESC FALSE - well, please put in a quick way to exit.

Obviously a SAVE GAME option would be lovely, but not pushing for it just yet ;) :P

But other than that, it's doing a really good job of replicating the original game. keep up the good work :)
I came. I saw. I played.

MrPlow

Thanks Ian

Yes, I must be doing something mad for that mode!
:doubt:

I forgot to mention (space bar) skips units ... Doh!


Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

okee

Never played the original but this is interesting
Just a few notes

1. A grid would be nice just to easily calculate the distance you want to move a unit
even just a very feint coloured one.
2. the game doesn't end after you defeat last enemy
3. had a section of land on left that was 2 squares wide, the enemy pulled onto it in a boat
once i defeated the enemy i couldn't get past the empty boat
4 also sometimes when i put a unit on a boat and the boat pulls away the unit is left in the sea

Android: Samsung Galaxy S2 -  ZTE Blade (Orange San Francisco) - Ainol Novo 7 Aurora 2
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MrPlow

Quote from: okee on 2013-Aug-31
Never played the original but this is interesting
Just a few notes

1. A grid would be nice just to easily calculate the distance you want to move a unit
even just a very feint coloured one.
2. the game doesn't end after you defeat last enemy
3. had a section of land on left that was 2 squares wide, the enemy pulled onto it in a boat
once i defeated the enemy i couldn't get past the empty boat
4 also sometimes when i put a unit on a boat and the boat pulls away the unit is left in the sea

Thanks for testing it Okee...

On the grid request - i recall the calculation of the squares was part of the in-game fun.
I actually have a grid that I setup in the development version I could add in but dont know if that adds or takes away from playability....(especially when humans get it very wrong...hotseat games are fun when humans miscalculate)

Item 2 - game not ending .... will add something for that now.

Item 3 - boats - i think are meant to block other players - but others believe they shouldnt I could change that.

Item 4 - strange one, I have to look to see whats causing that...? Did you come in contact with other obstacles when this happened?

Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

Ian Price

#8
Yeah, I had the boat leave a man in the water too - see attached screenie. It was the middle man in the boat - I don't know if this will help identify the cause. All I did was move the boat down from it's original position by 9 blocks straight down.

Can you also make the NORMAL/SPECIAL bar light up when you've selected them?

I also like the idea of a grid. Perhaps they could be optional?


[EDIT] Enemy viking (CPU controlled) moved into water. This isn't a legal move is it? See attachment #2

In the second game I destroyed TWO of my own catapults by hitting 0 fire distance. LOL. You'd think I would have learned after my first loss!! :P

I came. I saw. I played.

MrPlow

Thanks Ian,

Must check out the dodgy CPU swimmer...should not have happened...

On the boats leaving behind men I think I might have solved that one... I allocate seats to each viking...but dont think I was emptying them correctly after the vikings left the boat. So the boat thought it was still full...

Also boats should collide with each other in my current version, as per the original.

I will update the exe later on with fixes.

G




Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

Ian Price

But I hadn't vacated any seats on my boat - I'd only just filled an empty boat...

Anyway, I hope this gets sorted. It's probably something really simple like an array not being updated properly.

BTW I'm not totally against the CPU sending his guys swimming ;) :P
I came. I saw. I played.

MrPlow

I discovered that my while wend loops for keypress events are causing the hang due to no Showscreen activity...
is there an alternative to this?

I dont want to run through hoops and re-create screen refreshes on every loop if i can avoid it...

"Sleep" within the loop doesnt seem to help either...
Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

Ian Price

#12
Yep. Just ensure that you are using a SHOWSCREEN :P

GLB is fast enough to refresh the screen 60+ frames per second on an average pc - there's no reason at all not to use SHOWSCREEN. If this is slowing your game down then you've got more pressing problems.

If you want to reduce keypresses tehn use something like this

Code (glbasic) Select

WHILE TRUE
draw stuff etc.

IF KEY(XX) AND press=0
  do something
  press=20
ENDIF

IF press>0 THEN DEC press

SHOWSCREEN
WEND


This will prevent key repeat, preventing you from going through the key options in one frame or even pressing the same key twice in succession.


I came. I saw. I played.

MrPlow

The showscreen creates a blank black screen when done within my loop?
Comp:
Speccy-48k, Speccy-128k, Amigas, PCs

Ian Price

SHOWSCREEN will only display whatever is happening within that loop, if it's not displaying anything then whatever you're drawing is not in that loop.

Can you share the bit of code to show us what you are doing?
I came. I saw. I played.