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[mendonca]

There is a new blog post up, if that helps make this little exercise slightly fruitful.

[Kyzrati]

A bump will temporarilly place this thread at the top, where casual baywatchers may spot it, bringing fresh interest and discussion.

While I wouldn't advocate random bumping, it definitely does bring more hits to X@COM and increase awareness. Apparently a fair number of casual Baywatchers don't really look past the first page of topics or so, since on normal days when the this one has fallen low I only get a few hits from Bay12, and on days there are new posts, I suddenly get an extra 20-30+ hits.

Maybe Areyar is just looking to get my attention, too, to "create" some news Okay, here's some news:

For anyone who hasn't checked it in a while, I have a maintained Version Roadmap on the FAQ, so you can see what future versions will include (and where progress on the next release currently stands).

There's also some bad news for X@COM coming down the pipe: I'll be going on a three-week, no-computer vacation soon, so there won't be any progress. Too bad I probably won't have time to put up a video of the new additions before I leave, either, as I've ended up spending my time working out some internal issues and setting up a VM so I can finally run the game through a memory debugger and do some proper debugging.

I've been meaning to ask you guys what kind of message coloring you'd prefer for the message log (separate window that opens, listing all the actions/events that have taken place). There's no inline coloring (generally looks too messy)--it'll be one color per line. There are lots of possible schemes. Two main categories are 1) color based on whether performed by a friendly/enemy unit or 2) color based on type of action. Doing a mix of the two might be a little complicated and difficult to understand. Here's a general list of messages I've been implementing (or still need to implement), to give you an idea of what possible messages you might see:
-basic actions:
   shoot
   get
   drop
   prime
   load/unload
   inventory move
   kneel/stand
-spotted enemy
-smash movement
-destruction of props/cells
-cell/prop explodes
-explosive detonates
-melee knockback
-melee knockback causing target to smash through Cell/Prop
-ally fires weapon
-neutral fires weapon
-enemy fires weapon
-unit hit by projectile
-unit caught in explosion (only if takes damage?)
-unit knocked/falls unconscious (could be two different things)
-unit regains consciousness
-unit killed
-unit catches on fire
-unit burns (fire damage)
-throw item
-unit falls
-unit damaged by fall (knowledge if self-controlled only)
-unit succumbs to fatal wounds
-panic
-use psi
-mind controlled

The style (incl. color) of a given message, and the message content itself, are already entirely controlled from external text files, so they're easily modified.

So far I'm leaning towards a type-based categorization using terminal green for most basic actions, a brighter green for important actions (like shooting ), red for bad stuff, bright red for really bad stuff (death...), and other colors w/shades for other groups of actions such as purple (?) for morale/psi-related.

[Tarran]

Here's my opinions.
-basic actions: -Something basic, light green, like you suggest.
   shoot
   get
   drop
   prime
   load/unload
   inventory move
   kneel/stand
-spotted enemy -Bright red.
-smash movement -What does this mean?
-destruction of props/cells -What does this mean?
-cell/prop explodes -Yellow
-explosive detonates -Yellow
-melee knockback -Dark cyan
-melee knockback causing target to smash through Cell/Prop -Bright cyan
-ally fires weapon -light green
-neutral fires weapon -bright cyan
-enemy fires weapon -bright red
-unit hit by projectile -bright purple
-unit caught in explosion (only if takes damage?) -bright purple
-unit knocked/falls unconscious (could be two different things) -bright cyan
-unit regains consciousness -Yellow
-unit killed -dark purple.
-unit catches on fire -orange or yellow
-unit burns (fire damage) -orange or yellow
-throw item -green
-unit falls -dark cyan
-unit damaged by fall (knowledge if self-controlled only) -bright purple
-unit succumbs to fatal wounds -dark purple
-panic -bright purple
-use psi -bright green
-mind controlled -bright purple

As you can tell, it is highly Dwarf Fortress based. Honestly, I like the set of colors DF uses. Also, I would prefer if it were possible to color based on who's hit, your enemy or you.

[Kyzrati]

-smash movement -What does this mean?
-destruction of props/cells -What does this mean?

"Smash movement" is the term describing movement by strong units that can crush walls, roll over fences, destroy/crush objects by moving into them, etc (like tanks and huge aliens).
"Props/Cells" are the internal names for the pieces that make up the environment. (In the original game they were just called tiles.) Cells refers to mostly floors and walls, and props are objects that can be placed in spaces like furniture.

Also, I would prefer if it were possible to color based on who's hit, your enemy or you.

Definitely possible (and it makes sense), as internally those are different message types, even though they would have the same content.

A lot of your suggestions look similar to what I was thinking. We'll see what others think, and once I have all the messages ready, I can actually test it out. I'd be done already, but I've been slowed down by having to figure out a way to deal with the massive number of destruction messages that can result from taking entire houses down etc. It's nice to see messages for destroying specific objects with a single shot, but unrealistic once there are hundreds at a time; I'll have to group them when necessary so it becomes more of a summary like "Heavy damage to suburban house, zone A3."

[Mephansteras]

Hmm. I keep getting errors when trying to download the latest version.

[Kyzrati]

Hmm. I keep getting errors when trying to download the latest version.

The server containing the demo is down right now. It's been acting up a lot lately, and the company running the server is, I think, migrating the data to a new HDD at the moment. Send a mail to my gmail account (xcomrl) and I'll email you a copy

[Kyzrati]

ARISE!

*casts resurrection*

Sheesh, getting a necropost warning for my own game thread means I need to pick up the pace. Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been working mostly on internal engine stuff lately (and before that, Cogmind, which I'm sure most of you know about or have even played), but I've finally got a couple of new posts up, and a new release to boot. Read all about R6 "Bleeping Good Time".

Tarran, you'll be happy to know that for now the log is colored very much along the lines of your suggestions (DF-style-ish).

Full changelog:
* TMP: Message shown while grenade prime input mode is active
* TMP: Score and combat log output to colored html file
* NEW: Variable anatomy supported
* NEW: Combat/action message log
* NEW: Partial UI sounds (testing Inventory/Log/Msg sfx)
* NEW: Narrow-width fonts for Inventory, Combat Log and messages to improve readability
* NEW: Larger window support (1280x960)
* MOD: Improved interface feedback message system
* FIX: Activating fullscreen mode no longer crashes if desktop resolution insufficient
* FIX: Can fire up/down stairwells, and target enemies on them, without destroying the stairs

[Aklyon]

Hello again!

[Silleh Boy]

Ever since trying Cogmind, i've had my interest in this piqued.

Time to finally give this a shot and see how horribly I do!

Edit: Well, I didn't do too horribly with those few games I played.
Apart from the one where I lost half my soldiers to bad luck dealing with a Plasma using Muton on a rooftop.

My impressions thus far are that the controls are a little odd, but, having buttons for every firing mode as opposed to selecting to fire and then cycling through them does speed things up, so it's unexpected but not really an issue.
It's very nice looking for a roguelike, the effects are nicely done and don't get in the way.
The first guy could do with his pistol being equipped in his primary hand and his stunrod in his offhand - i've no idea if the pistol'll kill anything though as he got vaporised on the first turn both times I played.

I'll need to play again later now I have a better idea of what I'm doing and how things handle, to get a real impression, but, it looks good and has a lot of promise from what I can see so far.

[Scelly9]

Let me just make something very clear: SQUEEEEEEE!*

*Very masculine Squee

[Urist McDonalds]

when i download the game and run it, it just opens and closes so fast i can't see anything

[ggamer]

Let me just make something very clear: SQUEEEEEEE!*

*Very masculine Squee

squeeeeehhh. I guess.

No, but really, i am SO DAMN PSYCHED FOR THIS!

[sambojin]

I didn't realize that you could have a non-contructive bump for a free indie project. The more people that see it, the better.

Kyzrati has finished up with Cogmind (for now) and is doing up the UI for X@com, doing font styles and dynamic loading of such things. He's also making it slower. Then he'll make it quicker again. This shows an immense amount of progress I think, considering the game is font based and will probably need all kinds of speed tweaks down the line.

(non-constructive post was non-constructive, but vaguely informative. It also bumped it up about 3 threads. Yayyyy, my work is done).

[Kyzrati]

No, but really, i am SO DAMN PSYCHED FOR THIS!

What a coincidence, ME TOO!

Really, I've been itching to get more done on this, just been so busy lately and then ended up sidetracking myself with coding some essential internal stuff.

I recently went back and watched my own videos and got even more excited, and I can't wait to get more gameplay elements in there. Many of the next few versions will have to be focused on updating the UI, but they'll at least be accompanied by some new gameplay elements. I'll start with morale mechanics, after which I should make the scenarios a little easier since morale issues are going to do a number on your ability to effectively combat alien forces... Other features planned for the next version can be seen on the roadmap.

My impressions thus far are that the controls are a little odd, but, having buttons for every firing mode as opposed to selecting to fire and then cycling through them does speed things up, so it's unexpected but not really an issue.
It's very nice looking for a roguelike, the effects are nicely done and don't get in the way.

Thanks, still lots of room for improvements, being in alpha and all. The commands will be improved later as well, including a way to enter every single command with the mouse, if that's your thing.

The first guy could do with his pistol being equipped in his primary hand and his stunrod in his offhand - i've no idea if the pistol'll kill anything though as he got vaporised on the first turn both times I played.

I'll need to play again later now I have a better idea of what I'm doing

Sounds like so far you've only tried the default ARRP mode. Once you've got the controls down, don't forget to check out the other scenarios!

The pistol isn't all that useful, since most of the aliens you're facing are much better than what you'd normally meet when you're using pistols in X-COM. I just gave him a pistol for the hell of it. The stun rod is actually much better, if you can manage to get next to an alien...

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to reply to this one:

when i download the game and run it, it just opens and closes so fast i can't see anything

If the game is actually starting up then closing immediately, the engine is probably encountering some error on your system. Check the end of the run.log file, as it probably shows what went wrong.

[Tarran]

Tarran, you'll be happy to know that for now the log is colored very much along the lines of your suggestions (DF-style-ish).

Oh wow I actually contributed something to the(a?) project. Hooray!

...

Anyway, nice to see this continuing again.