Version 0.6

An upcoming game about Electricity, Magnetism, and Cephalopods
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testtubegames
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Version 0.6

Post by testtubegames »

Bug Fixes! New Features! Shined and Polished!

The much anticipated (by me) update is here. After working my way down the long (and ever-growing) list of bugs/suggestions from version 0.5… it is time…

The Electric Shocktopus v 0.6
(Grab it on Humble)

Changes:
-Basically, see the whole struckout list from the previous version.
-No longer in ‘development build’ mode
-Secret levels work
-No* more memory crashes (YEAH!)
-Less lag. By a significant amount.
-Can change level titles in-game
-Auto-checks for new updates to the game
-File tree for user-made levels
-Some minor movement/control changes for Shocktopus
-Electric field more accurate (aka the ‘volcano level’ works)
-Download Feel-Bad-Friday levels into the game automatically
-Add in an ‘author’ to the level as part of the title-field: [The Electric Shocktopus-“TITLE; AUTHOR”-epa23sfanpaonew…]
-Change the control scheme, if you’d like

So. Quite a few changes.

Known Bugs/Suggestions:
-Animate the Lessons
?-Sporadic non-saving of level progress
-Robo-yeti animations don't pause
-Change behavior of 'escape' button. aka if edit-window is open, close that instead of jumping to menu

-Author section easier to read
-More electricity mis-haps: now Crate Path (and levels like it) are broken
-Rearrange the user-levels *in game*
-Titles bigger / more legible
-Positive charges moving in current? Hm.
-Problem with loading Stargate's level 'Charged Shanty'

-Move-tool for the editor
-Fade the menu from the level
-Voltmeter and Electric Field meter

-Rearrange some of the game levels based on what I learned at Boston FIG
-Play through to make sure e-field changes haven't broken any levels...

Last Edit: 10/26
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testtubegames
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by testtubegames »

Some notes about this version:

About that File-System...
Levels you made used to be stored in ‘PlayerPrefs’… which sat in one place on your computer, independent of where the game was. So if you had 10 versions of TES on your computer, they’d all access the same ‘PlayerPrefs’ and the same user-made levels.

Now the levels you make live in text files in the game’s folder itself. So each of the hypothetical 10 versions of TES would have a *different* and independent set of user-made levels.

Buuuut: the first time you run an instance of the game (when its level-folder is non-existent), it will load all your levels from ‘PlayerPrefs’… which will have been set by whichever instance of the game you ran last.

Moral of the Story: If all goes right, when you load up version 0.6, it should have all your levels from 0.5 loaded in.



Also, I’ve added in a feature where you can automatically download and load in levels that I post on a server. At the moment, I’m thinking of putting up each of the Feel Bad Friday levels, though I could always expand that feature to include more levels in the future.



I changed a couple things about how the Shocktopus moves. I imagine they won’t be noticeable unless I mention them, and they don’t interfere with any current levels. One big one is that you are able to move much smaller distances than before. (Now a quick tap left won’t make you as prone to hit nearby spikes.)

Also, the physics of the electric fields changed slightly. In order to fix the problem that Random came across in that Volcano level, I found that I needed to change my algorithms for finding the E Field. The most noticeable part is that it takes slightly longer to load levels, though I can probably improve that. It didn’t affect most levels, though, unless (a) they contained a lot of pos/neg conductors, or (b) they had a *lot* of charge. So level 15 (the sushi maker) needed to be changed slightly. And I had to change all of the pos/neg conductor levels.

I don’t think this will change many of your user-made levels too much. At least I hope not. For the most part, you shouldn’t even be able to tell.
A Random Player
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by A Random Player »

First impressions:
New style! Bolder level-menu border, main menu buttons changed a bit.
Teehee, server levels won't replace my levels. Actually quite a nice message to have.
Testing... Level 41 (? the one with a circle of currents in the middle, first one in third page). It froze, so far been about 2 minutes. Restarting TES...

Will continue to update.

Testing an old simple level test (only some blocks, a gun, some mag). Muscle memory when trying to get out resulted in clicking settings twice.
I think my level-editor level's stars were lost.
As of now, I don't immediately see how to move editor levels.
Trying the boss fight. Loading was rather quick. Paused, noticed translucent pause bar, but Mag Yeti is still moving.
Now level 31 (not 41) loaded quickly, successfully.
Trying to beat Sushi Maker... Trying to get the last star. Gee, thanks (lack-of-) hint.
...Oh wait, nope, it is possible. lol
Third star in 17 (The Shield) also possible.

Back to the editor...
Trying the server copy of Binary. Opened settings by mistake, hit Esc, was sent back to the menu. Perhaps let it close the setting window the first time?
In addition, in Winter Wind the author section was a bit hard to read. (Maybe add a border to the text? Might be too big though)
Ooh those bomb-blocks changed a bit.

Edit: Forgot the mention the obvious changes I noted: Thumbnail change, level editor now allowing more than 3 pages.

Um.. is second star in Crate Path still possible? First star in Juggling is. Which, actually, the only physics change should be when there are conductors, right?

Edit: testing editing. Ooh new random generation (I just got Tentacle Maelstrom).
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by testtubegames »

Great, Random, thanks for the free-flowing feedback. I've noted a bunch of it down in my to-do list above.

The thing that stands out most, of course, is the fact that Crate Path doesn't work. The changes I made to fix levels like Volcano unfortunately broke that level. (I had to think for a bit whether this was really a problem, or whether it fixed a pre-existing problem. Yup, it's a problem.)

I've got a couple blog-posts coming about the difficulties I've run into with the electric fields. And it looks like I'll have another twist to add to the story :)

Basically, in order to fix the conductors-problem (of Volcano), I had to set the boundary to be at zero volts (instead of dynamically chosen to match the electric charges present). In order to not affect the level too much, I had to move the boundary really far away, then. Which I did. (Hence the longer loading times. The levels are now actually bigger.) And all was well.

But looking back at it, I realize I forgot to move the side that is along the z-axis (into the screen). I forgot that the 3rd dimension is treated differently in the code. So basically, you can imagine that all the charges in the level are sitting just 7 tiles above a grounded conductor (that's sitting behind your computer screen). This is what limits the distance of the electric field that you get in levels like Crate Path. I didn't notice the problem because, unlike the other axis, this one doesn't cause a noticeable deflection in the direction of the fields. It just changes their strength.

So anyway, another hurdle there. I needed to optimize it, anyway, to cut down on the new, longer loading time. So, hey, may as well make the levels even bigger. Right?

...

Ah, and as to your question of rearranging the levels. You can do that if you dive into the text files. It's not something you can do in the game itself quite yet. (That'll come, but I figured I'd do a quick-and-easy fix for now.) Check out the readme file hiding in the user levels to see how you could rearrange your levels.
NealCruco
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by NealCruco »

I'll update this post after I spend some more time with the game...but one thing I can say right now is that I lost my progress for every single user-made level. Also, I'm not a fan of you shrinking the titles of the levels. They used to take up the entire height of the title area, unless they were too long for that. In that case, the game would size the titles appropriately so the would fit in the box while still being as large as possible. Is that behavior not possible any more?

Edit 1: I figured that going through all my levels again would give me some good feedback on v0.6. It did. The controls feel more "sticky". Of course, I expected this, and it'll help in tight spaces, but it'll take getting used to. I completed 4A4C without much difficulty, and while I haven't beaten 756C, B4C5, or 8D2A yet, I've played them long enough to get a feel for the new mechanics.
Your changes to the electric field broke 4348 and 4349. You know the puzzle on the right, the one you said felt more dependent on luck than skill? Well, it can't be done now. Without the guns, there's no problem, but when in the center, Shocktopus doesn't respond to the field quickly enough to avoid the guns. The rest of each level was fine, though.

Edit 2: Andy, I just took a closer look at the new currents, and they appear to be made up of protons. That's a problem.
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by Stargate38 »

Why won't 0.6 load this level? It's stuck at the "Charging" screen:

Code: Select all

[The Electric Shocktopus-"Charged Shanty"-eNrtmk2OgzAMhe/C2gucX3GWUbe9QLtDc/cJFUmZEmJHQhUQuwGq9MtTGz2eUoURrlMap1Yq9IQEAlqYNNRQpjwgU4nWwTJXocT7RvMkbf3Et1ZpNpMauiKY1AJXRpeKFPyhSuBr5fKArPo8JM/rl742/zqXetlX5uP4Zhy7Zwc/t9DG7t69Lo9w8WYAZ0M3SJ2nsAfEz3MNzoe5KA/kYCQkbj2ZW7HKgTXOrlAFtiTwXJ04BkUyFBHj2vYS16crBXpx8DgWxqEYEM1QiDhSHHkwR8bARAnMr5cx+WZ7cqQVopYQd3/Z3W6jDeRIL0QtkYJcSZDvZ1Ux7LFNLz7fZcEhy46DL11iuOsGw92B3ziI8rSyKBxGoTVb+01ji2MupJCi2zQX3djYLf3efbDyH0zqSs5ubDMZGXuN15+D0xAxd50CN9zi4ztTl9Jm3bWm+hDYfu76/QNfi/XJ]
I made it in 0.5.
I LOVE your Gravity Simulator! :)
A Random Player
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by A Random Player »

Suggestion:
Can you add a move region tool for the editor? When I was making The Ocean, I moved a significant fraction of the level one block to the left (the beach area) twice. I did it essentially like this (pseudocode):

Code: Select all

for col in [0..12]:
  for row in [12..24]:
    level[row, col] = level[row, col+1]
So yeah.. that took a bit.
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by testtubegames »

NealCruco wrote:I'll update this post after I spend some more time with the game...but one thing I can say right now is that I lost my progress for every single user-made level. Also, I'm not a fan of you shrinking the titles of the levels.
Hmm... is the progress still getting erased? I think I can understand why it *was* erased when the update happened -- the new star system is incompatible with the old (connected to the changes from the new file-tree). But it should be remembering your progress now?

As for the titles, I'd really like a way to make them look nicer. I'll give it some more thought.
NealCruco wrote:Your changes to the electric field broke 4348 and 4349.
Yikes - sorry to hear that! I'm working on the fix for it. In trying to improve the E-fields (and fix that 'volcano' bug) I made it so the fields decrease a bit faster than they should when you're far away. Hence the problems.
NealCruco wrote:Andy, I just took a closer look at the new currents, and they appear to be made up of protons. That's a problem.
Well, my original inclination was to have them match up with 'current' convention... since when you're talking about the right hand rule and all - you care about the 'positively' defined current. Which is of course not really how currents flow. I made a decision back in the day that, since this is a video game, I could just have the positive charges moving (hey, maybe in this abstract tube on the screen, it's a plasma of protons being propelled!). But now that I'm drawing it more like a wire... maybe you're right...
Stargate38 wrote:Why won't 0.6 load this level? It's stuck at the "Charging" screen:
Ah, thanks for finding that bug. I'll get it fixed in the next version. Strange.
A Random Player wrote:Suggestion:
Can you add a move region tool for the editor?
Sounds reasonable. I'll see what I can do. (Also annoying is when you just want to move a switch... but to do so you'd have to redraw *everything* it's connected to... so maybe I'll try to fix that, too.)
NealCruco
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Re: Version 0.6

Post by NealCruco »

Don't worry, my progress is being saved now. I was just irritated that it was erased when I updated. But sometimes that happens.
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