Friday, April 24, 2009

Plague 3.31 update

I fixed the mem leak, but I didnt add the cleanup code to the game, just the test environment (Whoops!). This release of 3.31 removes the major mem leaks from the battle scenario as well.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just tried playing a couple rounds of this version. I notice that the survivors aren't particularly brave. I tried starting a game with 20 survivors, and from what I could tell, they mostly just clustered together and did nothing. I think if there's a large group of survivors, they should behave like this:

First, establish who has the best weapon(s). If there's a tie, then select one of the best randomly (preferably the human player, if the human player has a good weapon). This person will be the group leader, and everyone else will follow him.

Second, if the group leader is not the human, have it begin exploring any areas it hasn't explored yet, and have it destroy any hives it has found but not destroyed. If all the hives are destroyed, have it hunt down any remaining zombies.

Also, it was pretty annoying when I was in a tight space and survivors behind me wouldn't let me back up. The code that you use to recognize collisions should tell the survivors to move away quickly and keep moving if someone else is bumping into them, preferably to a distance of at least 1.5 tiles.

One other nitpick is that you can't use numpad keys to set numbers in the options menu. At first I just thought the menu was broken. It took me at least 5 minutes to realize that numpad keys didn't work.

I think the game is pretty fun now. It's only lacking a couple of things like upgrades and a save game option.

Benedict Carter said...

Thanks for the feedback. The gun=leadership thing is a good idea, I'll add this to the TODO list.

The hunt down hives thing is a little more complicated as I havent added a pathfinding algorithm yet (but this will be done).

Survivors should already try to avoid you to keep 1.5m distance - I'll check and make sure this is working still.

Good call on the numpaad thing - this also caught me out a few weeks back, but I was pressed for time so I didnt add in numpad keys (or remember to add to the TODO list).

The save game option is coming, along with upgrades, more weapons, vehicles etc. The thing I'm working on right now is a game-state system so you can go to the options menu at anytime. Saving will come after that.

Anonymous said...

Just to be clear, the survivors were backing up, they just weren't doing it quickly and smoothly enough. I was trying to back away from fast zombies while I reloaded, and the survivors behind me were just getting in the way.

FJGamer said...

The game looks like it will be fun. I was searching for 3D roguelikes, yet all I found that looked good was this 2d development game. Ha.

I'm actually a game developer, as well. I'm not very experienced with Python, however, so I don't think I could really help with your project.

I'm downloading the game now. I'll come back and tell you what I think of it in a few days. Hope you'll keep improving it.

Anonymous said...

Wow. The difference in speed between this version and the last one I played a while back is huge. I was worried that Python might not be able to deliver the raw performance this project needs, and it's awesome to be proven wrong.

I have a serious love/hate thing going on with the new shotgun. It's amazing in the right situation, and gets you killed in the wrong one. So it's perfect. :p

Benedict Carter said...

"I was trying to back away from fast zombies while I reloaded, and the survivors behind me were just getting in the way."

I'll make survivor-survivor collisions an option as an intermediate step, as this sometimes annoys me too.

I look forward to your feedback FJGamer, and you might be able to help, Python reads like pseudo-code.

Hi SanityImparied, yeah, lots of great optimisations from many people have made a huge difference to the speed. I also like the new shotgun as its more distinct from the other weapons. Still doesn't feel quite right though, but I don't want to spend more time tuning it.