Release OpenTyrian in the repo

[kuru]

How did you decide on the score multiplier for the different difficulty modes? Won't that water down the results? Should we focus on normal difficulty instead?

 

[TrashyMG]

How did you decide on the score multiplier for the different difficulty modes? Won't that water down the results? Should we focus on normal difficulty instead?

How does anybody decide on anything? Well I needed to address the difficulty level somehow, I didn't want to have skeezix add 12 different entries on the c4all site just for one game.. If you wish to explain how the scoring scaling waters down the results then I could do something about it. Lets see what others think.. Should I disable C4all only to Normal mode?, if not do I need to scale the multipliers back or increase them? let me know also If I modify these should current scores be reset?

 

[kuru]

Based on that one has to guess the difficulty increase when comparing normal to easy I think that it can't be fair or accurate, no matter in which direction the "plus" goes.

Confining the compo to only one difficulty setting eliminates any scaling erros and puts players on an even field. 

Asking others if the scale is appropriate will give you a better result, as there are more guesses, but it would still be incorrect.

OK granted I don't know which of the game elements are influenced by the difficulty setting. But even then you would have to decide on how much each of those  elements each contribute to the actual perceived difficulty, which, of course, is subjective all over.

Since you know your scale you could just revert every score submitted back to the original.

nevermind, easy and hard scores are useless then.

I hate this editor.

 

[TrashyMG]

I can easily lock out the C4ALL version to be normal mode only.. I'm just not sure what to do with the current high scores..

 

[kuru]

If the scores have been saved after scaling and there is no record of the initial values in combination with the difficulty setting they would all have to be wiped.

If there are normal mode scores recorded or reconstructable, those could be saved and the rest discarded.

 

[TrashyMG]

I've got a new PND ready to go that limits the comp4all version to only allow you to select Normal difficulty on the single player arcade mode. I'm waiting for Skeezix to change some server side things to prevent the old PND from being used to send inflated scores up. Just waiting for us to be online the same time to coordinate pushing the changes at once.

There is no record of what difficulty was used, so scores may need to be wiped..

 

[TrashyMG]

New PND has been uploaded, please update as the old PND will not work for score submission anymore. I'm sorry if the scores get erased, this update ensures scoring is fair as it seems the multipliers I used could inflate score numbers quite a bit. 

 

[kuru]

Cheers Trashy! I produced a few 'unkown' highscores before I noticed the update - and the game crashed at the start of asteroids 2 - but I updated and it's looking good now.

I must say, this compo4all project is a great idea. And now with a game that is more aimed at my generation I'm already involved. So thanks to Skeezix, too!



edit: Hitting Shift+g in the difficulty selection screen will show hard difficulty

Edit: yeah I missed the first bonuse level... good score lost, meh!

Edit: My final level score was over 140k, isn't it saved, too?

Edit: So per episode one it's only possible to submit 9 scores I guess.

 

[TrashyMG]

Looks like Milkshake will need to fix the c4all website again.. but it's collecting data properly.

 

[kuru]

Doesn't save my final score. Shouldn't  it? Have bonus levels been taken into account?

 

[TrashyMG]

On that end of episode summary seen it uses a score multiplier based on difficulty(Not my design) and some other odd things like the price of the weapons and items you finished the game with... Not sure if I should include all that.  Bonus levels should still push up a score like any other level on completion.

There are a few things I need to bug fix, I'm not sure why but there is a point in episode 4 that won't allow you to pass continue even after destroying the object that keeps you there.. when compiling the same source for the PC I'm not having that issue.. The source is a big mess because this game was moved from Turbo Pascal to C, it's not the cleanest code to look through... Another thing I'm also concerned that many of the episodes are unplayable without a little more firepower, the base weapons are not beefy enough.. I may look into starting people off with a little more on Episodes > 2

 

[Monkfish]

Another thing I'm also concerned that many of the episodes are unplayable without a little more firepower, the base weapons are not beefy enough.. I may look into starting people off with a little more on Episodes > 2

this was a concern of mine also as when i'm playing the "normal Open Tyrian" (not C4A version) i like to play through arcade from the very beginning so that weapons carry over from the previous episode, this has a compound effect by the later stages of the game. obviously this would be unbalancing in the Competition Version but its good that you're thinking of other ways to balance it.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well I figured out(sort of) what was causing the issue with episode 4 not being able to progress properly, for some reason compiling on my desktop with a cross-compiler seems to be the cause.. When done with the codeblocks PND it  seems to fix the issue.. I suspect floating point math gone bad and the compiling tools on the PND are newer.. And maybe it will solve the issue with ICE EXIT level rendering properly.. I need to  revisit with my new executable..

The code is so convoluted it's not funny, I tried a few methods to start off the higher episodes with more firepower, but it seems there are quirks no matter what I do.. I tried increasing weapon power, but that seems to be tied with the amount of lives making everything way too easy. I then tried starting off with a better ship and weapons.. this causes the score counter to not move until the cost of the weapons are paid off and this is in arcade mode.. I can't find any good solution without rewriting a ton of the game.  

I think what I will attempt to do is make it so that finishing an episode will unlock the next, but then lock the prior episodes as well. Your weapon and scores will continue on.. This I believe to be the best solution and it prevents people from going back to an earlier episode with better weapons.

I have a busy few days coming up, so won't be able to work on my level unlocking scheme.. Hopefully by the end of the week though.

 

[Monkfish]

I think what I will attempt to do is make it so that finishing an episode will unlock the next, but then lock the prior episodes as well. Your weapon and scores will continue on.. This I believe to be the best solution and it prevents people from going back to an earlier episode with better weapons.

You probably thought of this already, but is there a way you could inherit the weapons from a previous episode but also zero the score when starting a new episode? Although from reading your previous post it seems like this might cause the score to grind to a halt until the cost of the weapons inherited has been paid for.

also check your PMs

 

[TrashyMG]

There is a function that totals your ship items, I may be able to use it to zero back the score properly.

It will take a bit of work to truly balance the game out.. In a few days I'll have the chance to look into it again.

 

[Moridian]

Episode 1 and 3 is fine starting from scratch. Episode 2 and 4 can be a pain to start from scratch, though it is possible. Fun dusting off those old Tyrian skills atleast

 

[kuru]

Do you guys play with the d-pad or do you connect a mouse, like in the olden days?

 

[Monkfish]

Do you guys play with the d-pad or do you connect a mouse, like in the olden days?

Wierdly i switch between D-pad and nubs depending on how much mobility i think i need during the level, i havent used a conventional mouse in about 12 years. i use a wacom for my desktop PC, its fun for games like C&C as well as Photoshoping/GIMPing

 

[kuru]

Meh, I wish my nubs would work! Sadly they completely seized to function as of late.

The great thing about playing with a digitizer is that you don't get that cramped mouse hand, a pen is much more comfortable. 

 

[TrashyMG]

I need a few opinions on my next comp4all release.. I have an experimental build that will allow you to carry your score/weapons to the next episode.. It will force you to start at episode 1 and continue on to the next episode in order.. this way I can eliminate having 4 episodes on the c4all server.

So once you finish the game(complete all episodes), should I have the score/weapons reset? or should I allow you to go through the episodes again with what weapons and score you have and do another play through? Currently by default it's the latter. I still need to find a proper way of resetting the game if we want the former. 

I've also disabled some cheats that I missed, I hope this didn't inflate any scores.