kdrnic

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Viewing 57 posts - 1 through 57 (of 57 total)

  • kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Hello from Brazil! #8851

    Hello, welcome!
    Nice to meet a fellow Brazilian around here.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: How does OMF stack up to other beat em ups? #6734

    Nowadays the genre of this game is more typically called “fighting game” rather than “beat’em up”. To quote “Beat ’em ups are related to but distinct from fighting games, which are based around one-on-one matches rather than scrolling levels and multiple enemies”, although it seems the distinction was often minded way back then.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: DOS Game Club code pong #6669

    The baton is free again, I added coloured messages and (silly) traps.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: DOS Game Club code pong #6667

    I am taking the baton a bit, to document the new OWv2 support, and some minor things.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: DOS Game Club code pong #6661

    Merged Jaycie’s changes, so the baton is free once again!


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Beginner programming advice for DOS? #6249

    Hello,

    If you intend to program in C for 32bit DOS I cannot recommend a combination of Allegro 4.2.2 and DJGPP highly enough.

    It is a nice and well tried library of game routines, with graphic modes, image loading, keyboard mouse and joystick input, sound both WAV and MIDI, etc i.e. all you need for a game.

    I have made several games with it in several states of unfinishedness.

    One advantage is that both gcc and Allegro 4 are also available for modern Windows and Linux, so you can build applications that work on both a modern OS and on DOS.

    The main issues I found with this are A) debugging in DOS sucks B) the executable size with Allegro is a bit a large (over 1 megabyte).

    If you decide to play with Allegro and need some pointers you can find me on the IRC channel.

    Cross-compile Allegro 4.2.2
    Latest DJGPP as cross-compiler


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Aircraft textures #3470

    Here a DOS program for you to play with:

    Link

    It uses my TAPEGRO framework

    Use backspace to loop through the model files


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Aircraft textures #3468

    Managed to get a similar point cloud now:


    bin = ReadFile("fokker.rb");
    _idx = 256;
    _offs = 0;
    var signed = true;
    var short = true;
    var endian = false;
    var old_buttons = 0;
    function Loop(){
    ClearToColor(screen, 0);
    _idx += dpad[0].x * 0.1;
    _offs += dpad[0].y;
    var idx = Math.floor(_idx);
    var offs = Math.floor(Math.abs(_offs));
    var pressed = buttons[0] & (~old_buttons);
    old_buttons = buttons[0];
    if(pressed & BUTTON_A) signed = !signed;
    if(pressed & BUTTON_B) short = !short;
    if(pressed & BUTTON_X) endian = !endian;

    //for(var i = 0; i + idx < bin.length; i += 3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs){
    for(var i = 0; i < 128; i++){
    x = bin[idx + i * (3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs) + 0 * (short ? 2 : 1) + (endian ? 0 : 1)];
    y = bin[idx + i * (3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs) + 1 * (short ? 2 : 1) + (endian ? 0 : 1)];
    z = bin[idx + i * (3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs) + 2 * (short ? 2 : 1) + (endian ? 0 : 1)];
    if(signed){
    if(x > 127) x -= 256;
    if(y > 127) y -= 256;
    if(z > 127) z -= 256;
    x += 127;
    y += 127;
    z += 127;
    }

    dx = bin[idx + i * (3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs) + 0 * (short ? 2 : 1) + (endian ? 1 : 0)];
    dy = bin[idx + i * (3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs) + 1 * (short ? 2 : 1) + (endian ? 1 : 0)];
    dz = bin[idx + i * (3 * (short ? 2 : 1) + offs) + 2 * (short ? 2 : 1) + (endian ? 1 : 0)];

    x += dx / 256;
    y += dy / 256;
    z += dz / 256;

    var t = 256, s = 3;
    x *= s;
    y *= s;
    z *= s;
    x -= t;
    y -= t;
    z -= t;

    var c = 0xFFFFFF;
    PutPixel(screen, x, y, c);
    PutPixel(screen, x + 256, z, c);
    PutPixel(screen, y, z + 256, c);
    }
    TextOut(screen, "IDX : " + idx, 256, 256, 0xFFFFFF);
    TextOut(screen, "OFFS : " + offs, 256, 256 + 8, 0xFFFFFF);
    TextOut(screen, "LEN : " + bin.length, 256, 256 + 16, 0xFFFFFF);
    TextOut(screen, "SHORT " + short + " SIGN " + signed, 256, 256 + 16 + 8, 0xFFFFFF);
    TextOut(screen, "ENDIAN " + endian, 256, 256 + 16 + 16, 0xFFFFFF);
    }

    Attachments:

    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Aircraft textures #3452

    heh, how you managed the result so quickly?
    I tried this code but didn’t get good results:
    link


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Aircraft textures #3447

    I’ve made you a .ZIP of the .RB files mentioned:

    RBS.ZIP


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2793

    oh! ctrl to override will be very useful!


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2782

    I don’t think either keeping an useless unarmed soldier or just firing everyone after triaging is fun, so I will just keep the mod on.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Things in X-COM that don't make much sense #2779

    Oh also – the game is like Counter-Strike, in that the spotter has an advantage over the spotted; the offensive over the defensive; movement over entrenchment.

    Although I think this is a reasonable decision, in that it changes the “flavour” of the game. IIRC JA2 had the opposite emphasis.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Picture attachments aren't working #2778

    2 years later…


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2774

    Another night mission – no casualties.
    Lost my fear of the dark.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2773

    Had a successful night mission – no casualties on my side.

    Seems no electro flare is too many.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2771

    I enabled the mod which forces psi to require line of sight. I wished for a mod that just disabled the aforementioned “telepathy” when the last aliens remain or X turns have passed; but this should let the game continue enjoyable.

    “female III” fell prey to this mission, in which I abused the laser rifles’ terrain destruction capability, laying lots of “suppressive fire”, very effective.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2768

    I just attempted a mission where the aliens could use psionic attacks – very unbalanced, they could attack every member of the team even without any visible…

    According to the wiki:
    “It should be noted that once you pass Turn 20, or if there are only 1 or 2 aliens left on the map, all of your squad members and their locations are revealed to the AI. This means you can expect a steady stream of psionic attacks after that turn if there any of the remaining aliens are capable of Psionic attack.”

    Apparently the only defence is just getting rid of the sucessfuly attacked soldiers.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2767

    Here is the most recent battle.

    I recorded with OBS, but then it was a pain to crop and try and edit the video, and also I wouldn’t be able to embed it anyway, so in the end I picked a couple frames and made it into a “slideshow” GIF.

    The highlight of the clip is when I perish in battle.

    The Personal Armour was of not much use in the end I think?


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Things in X-COM that don't make much sense #2766

    Indeed – so far the aliens seem to mostly employ the stun launcher, I am not sure if I’ve seen explosives


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2764

    I meant record a video of the screen, to be specific.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Things in X-COM that don't make much sense #2763

    You start with unarmoured soldiers armed with standard rifles, so you really are no better than the regular military or an armed civilian.

    Maybe we need to assume there is no military – world peace has been achieved prior to the start of the game.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2760

    I began ARMORing (sic) my soldiers – and also keeping some veterans in the base, while sending rookies to serve as scouts in the missions.

    I have also researched alien grenades – In the last mission, where Canageek and I scouted, one was very useful in clearing a path to the UFO, allowing the enemy to be promptly sniped.

    For my next post, I think I will capture the screen with some tool, to make cool GIFs.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Things in X-COM that don't make much sense #2759

    I think that the guys blocking each other is reasonable gamedesign, you can already make a 2-deep line by having the front man kneel and the other stand behind, like real armies – recalling the British army lines by Lord Wellington defeating Napoleon’s columns mentioned the other day by voxel.

    The civilians are indeed peculiar – it would be funny if the civilians could behave differently depending on the area. Picture rednecks going on an alien-hunting rampage, alien bodies piling up on the back of a pickup truck… there could be the option to arm the population, with the downside of their inaccurate shots being more dangerous than the aliens…


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2758

    Sure, if you are keen to be the next Lost In Service B-)


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2738

    RIP Tijn II

    died spotting aliens exiting the UFO who were promptly gunned down


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2737

    I just had my first mission without casualties – although “female III” was stunned.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2732

    Just like in the gif, but for different reasons, vede bit the dust…

    But otherwise the mission was very successful.

    This female soldier which I was unable to name due to our lack of female presence, and who I sent in to the heat of battle without a weapon, also perished.

    In the midst of it Tijn had to apply a large dose of stimulants to revive rnlf. I am considering renaming Tijn kdrnic for this feat.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2731

    vede showing the importance of using smoke grenades


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Programming & File Size #2729

    I also refer you folks to this tweet
    this tweet


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2728

    In a fresh new battle, it all seemed lost as toasty was an early loss to a quick-drawing alien bastard…

    Tijn however, scouting tile by tile sacrificed himself to save the day.

    One floater that proved resistant to bullets had to be dealt two rockets from bitrot – earning him a promotion.

    They seemed to try and avenge the fallen comrade though, as two rocket blasts stunned both vede and sorceress in succession. dollarone quickly ran to their aid, medkit in hand, but it was unnecessary since the last alien was killed as he was nearing sorceress’ unconscious body.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: The KDRNICIAN experience #2722

    A new UFO downed, team sent to crash site…

    voxel II fell prey to sorceress’ friendly fire!

    Also rnlf III died, to no one’s surprise


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Programming & File Size #2716

    To note, DOSBox, the MS-DOS emulator which is needed to run many of those old games and comes packaged together with many GOG games, is 24MB (standalone Windows version) – a large size mostly because it requires a lot of functionality, emulating many different hardware configurations.

    XCOM for MSDOS, installed, weighs around 10MB, I imagine people from GOG when packaging didn’t want the user to have to go through the installation process from a disk that doesn’t exist, so it is packaged preinstalled.

    OpenXCOM, the opensource port to run XCOM on modern systems is itself 16MB (standalone Windows ver).

    Indeed, most of a modern game is graphics and audio – I see nothing wrong with that, but if you find offence there is usually “RIP”ed versions around on torrent sites, which remove the music, lower the quality of texture files to improve compression, and often remove videos and cutscenes – saving considerable space. Those are an alternative if you are particular about disk space.

    One downside of increasing compression to reduce file sizes is increasing asset loading times – most players much rather spend more time downloading or installing than waiting for the game to load.

    The thing with doing a NES game – and I have attempted so myself – is that the work to do anything is phenomenal, easily say 10-100x times the work to do the same for a modern platform.

    As an aside, the largest NES game is Dragon Quest IV, at 1MB, already quite huge considering the limitations of the platform.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: A roguelike or roguelikes – specially Crawl #2647

    Many, maybe most, of the games in this club pail in comparison to their more modern continuations… that ought to be no excuse…


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Polygons of Terror #2005

    I am not sure how undeserved it is – it may be 1 year before Tomb Raider, but Tomb Raider is more solid altogether, and it likely didn’t build knowingly on FtB’s failures. It is maybe a Bubsy 3D/Mario 64 situation (both also 1 year later though).


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Polygons of Terror #2002

    Yes, FtB and the two platformers mentioned are all by Delphine, and that is a running theme of those.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Polygons of Terror #2000

    Since spooky old polygons are being mentioned, one that cannot be avoided is Fade to Black, a very unique game from 1995. It is the sequel to the more famous Flashback, itself following Another World, but it is a 3D person game rather than a cinematic platformer.
    It doesn’t really hold up though – very bad controls, something which plagues so many of those early 3D games.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: On DOSBox, Mac OS port, engine remake, etc. #1994

    I tried emulating the 3DO port in RetroArch with the 4DO core, however unfortunately the sound is very poorly emulated, and sounded horrible. Attached is a comparison of MS-DOS and 3DO – there seems to be minor changes in art, like the shape of the car, the face of the character and some highlights on the chair. DOS screenshots are upscaled to 320×240 to give correct aspect ratio. 3DO screenshots have some artefacts from emulator scanlines.

    Attachments:

    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: First impressions #1030

    This blogger talks about his memories of HoMM, throughout games I to IV. He touches the topic of the art style well.

    IMO the apogee of the art seems to be II, which improves over I. The graphics in III seem to look great in the world map, but in the battle screen they look copy-pasted together, and the background doesn’t really fit. Plus, the shading was softer in I and II, meanwhile in III it is clear that the left side army has shadows in one direction and the other side has shadows in the other.

    It seems HoMM II has the same art director, but different artists.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: First impressions #1022

    With the town UI, I wish there was an option to automatically recruit certain units as they are ready. It would help the late game


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: My impressions so far #844

    Finally got Heist Almighty.
    Did all the missions I could find, failed some, got the multipliers except the one which needs the very tricky jump to the island, and had x7. Then did all the kill frenzies, and still had to do some car dock selling.

    Attachments:

    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: My impressions so far #843

    I didn’t know about F6, I was using DOSBox’s Alt+Pause.

    Once you break the box, will it be reboxed if you don’t pick it up? I assumed that if you break the box and don’t pick it up, it could disappear after a while.

    The frustration is in that one hour you may well fail to proceed to the next level, and you can’t save also, so I’d say it is too big of a session.

    What did you do to get points? Even with a x6 multiplier I couldn’t find anything too safe to increase the score at any decent rate.

    A user that joined the IRC late yesterday suggested that a strafing button would be a great solution to the aiming problem, which I agreed to.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: San Andreas #838

    Is the game’s title really a pun? Grand theft auto is a legal term used for stealing a car.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Succession Game! #482

    In january 2000, a 2 year old Kdrnic, a descendant of the loved 30s figure, becomes mayor of Dossington, despite protests regarding the minimal age for taking office, or being able to properly communicate for that matter.

    2000
    —-
    -Free clinics are again reinstated, and health department funding bought to 100%. The mayor expresses a support for universal free healthcare, to the chagrim of the pesky liberals who had removed this ordnance.
    -Fire department funding is also bought to 100%, to increase fire safety possibly.
    -A new area known as the Highlands is created. It is thought with the increased health spending, the residents of this area will live long.
    -The Dossington Tank Museum is inaugurated in the Highlands, to display the most interesting tanks of the world wars.
    -In August, the military asks to place a base on Dossington. The mayor accepts considering his duty for the country. Unfortunately, they can’t find suitable land for it…
    2001-2002
    ———
    -The Highlands are further developed
    2003
    —-
    -The residential zone of Windy Bottom is expanded
    2004
    —-
    -A solar plant is built at the Highlands, due to increased demand and power transmission issues
    2005
    —-
    -A terrain elevation is lowered near the Redneck 97 airport, and nearby commerce rezoned to light, in an effort to avoid plane crashes at terrain and buildings
    2006
    —-
    -Highlands further developed
    2007
    —-
    -New solar plant built, to accommodate demand
    -A plane crash starts a fire near the Henry Kissinger bridge, but firefighters put it down. The bridge is renamed the “Firefighters of Kdrnic bridge”
    2008
    —-
    -Another solar plant installed, due to continuing demand
    2009
    —-
    -Since capacity of existing plants remains at ~100%, 2 more are built identically, next to the most recent one
    -The Glorious Persecution against the opium of the people takes place: 5 churches are bulldozed, recalling the revolutionary efforts of the 30s

    Population: 65740 sims
    Treasury: 10801 simoleons
    Income: 4069 simoleons
    Approval: 65%


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Succession Game! #481

    I’ll take the next 10 years


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Succession Game! #463

    It is wan’s turn now


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Succession Game! #459

    * The fire department is reorganised to run more efficiently, saving 50% of its budget for better uses.

    Doesn’t the fire department funding directly affect the chance of a fire? This must be reverted ASAP by the next mayor, least Dossington burn to the ground!


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: My experience with SC2k #445

    Some remarks on your points:

    1. It seems commercial should be the one you try to separate and have the highest land values. Both residential and industrial zones nearby seem to lower the value of commercial, and I think the distance to residential doesn’t affect commercial as much as industrial growth

    3. Underfunding fire departments directly increases the chance of a fire (less prevention) so ideally you keep that at 100%

    4. I prefer having lower taxes and saving money gradually over several years, for refunding power stations

    5. Sea and rail affect industry demand, road and airport affect commerce demand


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Growing a city to may 2017 #442

    Did you play in hard?

    Taking bonds is a trap, it is better to save funds in advance of having to refund power stations, and perhaps switch to coal or oil…


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Growing a city to may 2017 #429

    See if you have a toastopo.bak in your folder – when saving, Sim City 2000 seems to copy the old save file to a backup one


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Succession Game! #420

    1925
    —-
    -Three churches were bulldozed in Old Town. I believe it is the low value caused by the nearby heavy industry that makes them settle there.
    -Taxes were lowered to 5%
    -The city now offers free clinics and forbids public smoking
    -Windy Tops/Micropolis connected to main powerlines, as it seems it is the best place to grow

    1926-1927
    ———
    -Industrial taxes raised a bit
    -Pollution ordnance removed
    -Windy Tops and Micropolis developed a bit

    1928
    —-
    -Connection to Lister added
    -Another church bulldozed
    -Some residential added

    1929-1930
    ———
    -Yet another church bulldozed
    -Some more zoning

    Population 16150
    Treasury $1216
    Income $693
    Approval 54%

    I’d say it is a bit hard to grow without an overarching plan, and perhaps conflicting goals, but it does mimic real political succession

    Attachments:

    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Succession Game! #418

    I claim the next 5 years


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Growing a city to may 2017 #417

    I was aware of the terrain leveling, although they are rather costly and sometimes explode nearby buildings

    I feel starting with a flat map is a bit boring, or cheaty


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Hard is… hard… but how hard? #406

    The manual.pdf, from the game’s folder, says:
    Whenever you start a new city, you have the choice of three
    difficulty levels, easy, medium and hard. The differences
    between the levels are:
    The amount of money you start with. In an easy game, you
    start with $20,000. A medium game gives you $10,000. In a hard
    game, you start $10,000 in debt, with a bond issue to pay back
    when you can and interest to pay every year.
    The national financial model. Your city is located somewhere
    in SimNation. The growth of your city depends on its surround-
    ings—rich, financially healthy neighbors are good customers
    for your industrial products and, bring their money with them
    when they visit your tourist attractions. In easy games,
    SimNation is in a boom cycle. In medium games, the national
    economy is stable. For hard games, SimNation is in a recession.
    The external industrial product demand. The easier the
    game, the more demand for the products that your city’s
    industries can produce.
    The propensity for disaster. The harder the game, the more likely
    is it that your city will be host to a disaster. Choosing No Disasters
    in the Disasters menu prevents disasters at all difficulty levels.


    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Disaster! #402

    89 dead.

    Attachments:

    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Disaster! #400

    The fire burnt the whole city, but a park… yet only 89 dead.

    Attachments:

    kdrnic
    Participant
    in reply to: Disaster! #398

    I was building this city very sustainably, even calculating maximum expenditure to be able to replace the power plant… suddenly, earthquake and fires everywhere.

    It is as if the city is made out of matches…

    I think I will refrain to playing with disasters disabled from now on.

    Attachments:
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