Alpha 3.21!

Here it is.

Changes:

ALPHA 3.21 CHANGES
------------------
FIXED BUGS
- Bunch of random player skills upgrade. Nice but not intended.

ALPHA 3.2 CHANGES
-------------------------
Bug/exploits fixes, gameplay and balance, noticeable AI improvements for acceptable CPU cost.


FIXED BUGS
- Crash: Giving stackable items would crash the game in certain situations.
- Crash: CHAR Guard AI attempting Shout action while they weren't allowed to.
- Crash: Attempt to fix DirectX error D3DERR_DEVICELOST. A stab in the dark since I can't test the fix myself, tell me if it works.
- Correct difficulty rating in post mortem and hi scores.
- AI considered only the top item in item stacks.
- AI wasn't switching weapon when out of ammo and no reload available.
- AI now resets directives and orders when has no leader.
- AI sensors memory incorrectly used global game time rather than local map time (this affected simulation only).
- Sleeping now illegal if not enough sleep points spent (fixes exploit).
- Equipping an item with batteries now spend one energy unit as you turn it on (fixes exploit).
- Trackers out of batteries were still working.

GAMEPLAY
Followers
- Choose the upgrading skills for your followers.
- New order : Drop all items.
NPCs
- Civilians & Police have a 75% chance to upgrade on mornings on their own (player followers have 100% chance).
Food
- Food has a best-before date, nutrition value is divided by 3 when expired.
- Eating expired food can cause vomitting.
- Army rations no more stackable, but they last longer that groceries.
Dying
- Dead people don't drop all their items, some can be destroyed.
Items
- Dropping an useless item (tracker or light out of batteries) discard it (destroy it).
- Items with batteries are not automatically equipped.
- Ranged weapons can jam when you fire (insert curses here).
Undeads
- Undeads level progression back to 3.0 rate (faster).
- Invasion event will progressively spawn hi level undeads (if undead evolution option enabled).
- Zombie Lords now assault breakables too (like Neophytes and Disciples already do).
- Zombie Lords and Disciples will not appear before Day 7.
- Scents life time increased A LOT - Zombies will chase living a lot longer.
- Some undeads smell distance increased.
Breaking
- Breaking fences drop planks.
- Breaking stronger objects drop more planks.
Firing
- Firing accuracy penalty is now given if tired (big penalty) or stamina bar not full (light penalty) (was if running).
Other Bad Guys
- Rebalanced "those guys".
- 2 new items carried by "those guys", one of them is very useful against them.
- Can find two special items in CHAR Offices if lucky (one new, one old). Good reason to visit them.
National Guards
- National Guard leaders now bring one special item after a certain time (was previously carried by "those guys").
- National Guard only comes before Day 10 - no National Guard after that.
- National Guard squad size reduced.

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- New actors icon when they have 3h or less left before becoming hungry/sleepy (green icons).
- Expired food has an icon in inventories.
- Removed cheat keys. Sorry guys.
- Changed some messages.
- Updated manual.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- A couple of new graphics (items, icons).

OPTIONS
- Increased default Starving Zombification.
- Increased default Max Undeads.
 
AI
- Several specific CivilianAI improvements :
  - New : Close door/window behind them.
  - New : Close doors and barricade windows near them before going to sleep.
  - New : Map exploration. 
  - Mod : Trade only for interesting items, but will still trade anything with the leader.
  - Restricted use of flashlights (again).           
  - Improved Firing logic when in contact with enemy.
- Fleeing AI try to close/barricade door/window between them and the enemy.
- Fleeing followers prefer to flee toward leader.
- NPCs leveling up try to choose usefull skills (they still have to choose from 3 random skills like you).
- AI only interested in ammo items compatible with carried weapons.
- AI only interested in expired food if lacking food.
- AI will use blue pills more often.
- CharGuardAI and SoldierAI now use Fight or Flee logic (less stupid melee deaths).
- Soldiers and Gangs explore the map too.
- All undeads -except Skeletons- explore the map.


Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!

End of post.

Alpha 3.2 Progress

Urgent bug fixes, balancing and CivilianAI improvements.

AI vs CPU : Fight!
I have to keep the AI code as simple as possible. Better AI often eats more CPU. The game will crawl if I do decent pathfinding and proper planning for all the actors. I want the game playable on low end CPUs such as mine ;)
I can do simple improvements that eat little CPU time, but you shouldn't expect "good" AI from 100+ actors.
I will reserve better AI for unique NPCs and player followers.

Simple AI  improvements
One of the AI improvement in 3.2.
Civilians will try to secure the room they will sleep in, as demonstrated in these screenshots.

Release?
Soon. Bug fixes are urgent, I can't have the game crashing left and right.

End of post.

Bugs

I hate them. I'll do an Alpha 3.2 to fix those bugs.

Known bugs in Alpha 3.1:

1. (Crash) AI attempt an illegal Shout action.
2. (Minor) AI sometimes won't take food while still having an inventory free slot.
3. (Crash) Giving stackable items sometimes crashes the game.
4. (Minor) AI doesn't switch weapon when out of ammo and no reload available. 
5. (Minor) Follower AI keep following directives/orders when fired.
6. (Minor) Difficulty rating always shown as 100% in post mortem and hiscores. 
7. (Exploit) Can always sleep for one turn.
8. (Exploit) Using then unequipping trackers is a free action.
9. (Minor) Trackers out of batteries are still working. 
10. (Crash) D3DERR_DEVICELOST exception. 
11. (Minor) Soldiers/Gangs don't flee when tired.

Report any other you might find, I'll update the post.
It's much better if you can provide a screenshot or a crash log if there is one.


End of post.

Alpha 3.1!

Get it.

Changes:

 Alpha 3.1 changes
-----------------

INSTALLER
New safe and easy to use installer.
Remember to uninstall your previous version with the old method (see Game FAQ on the blog if you have problems).

FIXED BUGS
- Graveyard shows correct starting skill.
- Can't give items to sleeping people anymore.
- Breaking a stackable weapon does not break the whole stack (eg: crowbars).
- Actors activity when moving to a bed was incorrectly set to "Sleeping".
- Order : barricading max was barricading only once.

GAMEPLAY
- Humans HP increased to 15.
- Loud noises can wake up nearby sleeping actors.
- People dying from starvation can turn into zombies (option).
- New skill : Light Sleeper, increase sensibility to loud noises.
- New items : Ammo items.
- New action : Reload weapons.
- New action : Shout, try to wake up nearby sleepers (default key S).
- New command : City Information, shows city layout (default key I).
- New command : Messages log, view more recent messages (default key Shift-M).
- New order : Guard (position).
- New order : Patrol (zone).
- Exhausted actors have a chance to collapse (forced sleep).
- 1 new ally.
- 3 new enemies - for middle and late game.
- Some undeads evolution slowed down.
- Disciple HP slightly weakened.
- Scents duration increased (undeads using smell tracking will chase longer).
- Trackers items now have batteries (eg: cellphones).
- Long wait interrupts more often.
- Starting Food and Sleep points of civilians randomized.
- Achievements.
- 1 Easter Egg to find.
- Rebalanced items Shotgun and Crossbows.
- Rebalanced skills Light Eater and Awake.
- Increasing civilians increase difficulty rating rather than decreasing it.
- More items variety in Parks.
- A rare but very useful item available in late game.
- Various minor changes.
- As a result of changes, early game is MUCH easier, difficulty is more progressive and fighting is more viable.

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Removed "pull" in "push/pull", some people expected to be able to pull on their own tile.
- Scoring and Difficulty shown in game.
- "Sunny" weather changed to "Clear".
- Batteries displayed as hours left.
- Player Sleep/Food points also displayed as hours left until Sleepy/Hungry.
- Graveyard shows options modified.
- Switch place command default key Control-S (S rebinded to the new Shout command).
- The game prevents you from wasting food and meds when you don't need them.
- Updated manual.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- 3 new musics.
- Access to graphics and music files - no "official" content modding support yet, this will come later.
  *** Warning : Looking at the resource files will spoil the game secrets for you ***

OPTIONS
Bunch of new options to control the gameplay.
- New option : Zombification rate, control chances of living victims zombification.
- New option : Starved Zombification, control chances of starved livings turning into zombies.
- New option : Reveal starting district, yes/no.
- New option : Simulate while sleeping, yes/no.
- New option : Allow undeads evolution, yes/no.
- New option : Day Zero percent of undeads.
- New option : Daily increase of zombie invasion.
- Max number of undeads limit raised to 300.
- Rebalanced default settings.
- Rebalanced difficulty computation.

AI
- Improved AI use of cellphones.
- Improved AI use of lights.
- AI make use of the Shout action to wake up nearby sleeping friends when seeing enemies (that includes your followers).
- Improved AI fight or flee logic (yes again).
- Improved AI item management (yes again).
- Changed Cautious vs Courageous directives effects.
- As a result of changes, Civilians should be more slightly competent in melee fighting and followers more useful as fighters/guards/mules.


Have fun!
And remember : die with a smile!

End of post.

Alpha 3.1 Progressaar III

(...Continued from previous post)

What the hell? That tard shouldn't have followed me tilll there.THE RAIN WAS SUPPOSED TO ERASE MY TRACKS!... Why?... Ha! I'm sure he smelled those two idiots instead. Damn them. I should have walled them alive.Whatever. Come in, I'm waiting for you!

aaaAAaa! Get out of my way IDIOT! He's chasing me! WHAT? I feel so sleeeeepy! AAAaHAHAA!! ME SLEEPY? LUCIA HELP ME!! LUCIA!! FRIEND! ?!? DAMN I HATE PEOPLE IeeieeeeeeeEAezpaiepzkepakrhmhgh H. .. mh;ghM................

Graveyard

ROGUE SURVIVOR alpha 3.1
POST MORTEM
Alison Collins was a woman and a civilian.
She survived to see day 3 hour 03.
Alison Collins's spirit guided her for 39 minutes 30 seconds.

> SCORING
She scored a total of 4831 points.
- difficulty rating of 100%.
- 4506 base points for survival.
- 325 base points for kills.
- 0 base points for achievements.

> ACHIEVEMENTS
Didn't achieve anything notable. And then died.

> DEATH
Killed by zombie master zombie master79 in Shopping District@3-2 at Grocery@6-34.

> KILLS
  11 skeletons.
   1 zombie.
   2 zombie masters.

> SKILLS
Started with Leadership.
1-Leadership.
1-Light Sleeper.
1-Agile.
1-Light Eater.

> INVENTORY
- 20 light pistol bullets.
- a pistol (equipped).
- 12 light pistol bullets.
- a pistol.
- 20 light pistol bullets.
- 20 light pistol bullets.
- a hardened leather jacket (equipped).

> FOLLOWERS
She was doing fine alone. Or everyone else was dead.

> EVENTS
- day 0 hour 00 : Woke up in Business District@2-2.
- day 0 hour 00 : Sighted first woman.
- day 0 hour 00 : Recruited Lucia Steward.
- day 0 hour 01 : Sighted first skeleton.
- day 0 hour 02 : Sighted first zombie.
- day 0 hour 02 : Killed first skeleton.
- day 0 hour 03 : Killed first zombie.
- day 0 hour 05 : Sighted first man.
- day 0 hour 06 : Learned skill Light Sleeper.
- day 0 hour 06 : Lucia Steward learned skill Strong.
- day 0 hour 06 : The weather stayed Rain.
- day 0 hour 07 : Sighted first man.
- day 0 hour 07 : Sighted first zombie master.
- day 0 hour 08 : Killed first zombie master.
- day 0 hour 13 : Entered district Shopping District@3-2.
- day 0 hour 13 : Visited Shopping District@3-2.
- day 1 hour 06 : Learned skill Agile.
- day 1 hour 06 : Lucia Steward improved skill Leadership to level 2.
- day 1 hour 06 : The weather stayed Rain.
- day 2 hour 03 : Bikers raided the district.
- day 2 hour 06 : Learned skill Light Eater.
- day 2 hour 06 : Lucia Steward learned skill Carpentry.
- day 2 hour 06 : The weather stayed Rain.
- day 2 hour 07 : Sighted first zombiefied man.
- day 2 hour 07 : Sighted first ***SPOILER***
- day 2 hour 07 : Sighted first zombiefied woman.
- day 2 hour 09 : Follower Lucia Steward was killed by ***SPOILER***!
- day 3 hour 03 : Died.

> CUSTOM OPTIONS
- difficulty rating of 100%.
- Simulate when Sleeping : no.

> R.I.P
May her soul rest in peace.
For her body is now a meal for evil.
The End.

Alpha 3.1 release?
Alpha 3.1 should be released before the end of the week, possibly as soon as tomorrow.


End of post.

Alpha 3.1 Progressaar II

(...Continued from previous post)

Ok now your turn. Try to heal those wounds while you're at it. And do NOT drop blood on the sheets and mattress. I HATE that. I dragged this bed all the way here just for YOU. Understand? Now sleep. I'll shout if I see a Big Bad Zombie.

Great. Zombies tards. Look Lucia, would you distract them while I'm searching for food. Be useful for once. There's a cop. He's undead but he might be still a cop somewhere in his roting brains. Try to negociate or something. Yes with your body if you need to. Bye. See you around the corner.

I knew it. Lucia you were useless till the end. From Sleepy to Undead. Idiot.

Got some ammo and food. The shotgun ammo is useless now but might come handy when I find a shoty. For now I'll reinforce the shop entrance.

 Haha. That stupid cop traded some planks for a bunch of munitions. Thank you sir. I feel like Bonnie. Or was it Clyde? Anyway I got guns and ammos. Those zombo tards can come haha. Lucia? Where are you? Haha.

(Continued...)

Alpha 3.1 Progressaar

Progress + (quick'n'dirty) AAR = Progressaar.

New command : City Info

Looks bland but that's a beginning. More stuff to go there in future versions.

New command : Message Log

Useful is you missed something.


The Wonderful Adventures Of Alison "Me First" Collins and her friend Lucia "Sleepy" Steward

I order my friend to guard me while I sleep. I suddenly wake up. The little blonde panics. She probably saw something in the south or east rooms. My friend Lucia is sleepy and too tired to see far enough. Anyway it was just a skeleton, quickly dispatched.

I dragged the bed under the rain into our improvised shelter. There are two other people in the grocery shop. I saw them eying our precious food so I walled us in. Survival of the fitest. I care only about Lucia. She's sooo sleepy. Always was. That's why I'm in charge here.

Listen Lucia. You're sleepy. I'm ALMOST sleepy. We can't be both sleepy at the same time, can we? So you guard ME. Just patrol our little room while I sleep. Please don't make noise unless it's really important. I'm a Light Sleeper you know. What? Those two people behind the wall? Ignore them. You don't need them. I'm your only friend you know. Now shut up. I sleep.

(Continued...)

Alpha 3.1 progress II

(...Continued)

New orders

Guard me while I sleep.
She can shout to wake me up.

..And I guard her while she sleep.

End of post.

Alpha 3.1 progress

Progression is progressing.

New options

New start (Reveal starting district option)

Cops

Guarding my sleeping mate.
I can shout to wake him up.

Copsinashop

(..Continued)

FAQ FIX FUK FAR

FAQ
I started writing a Game FAQ page. The link is right above, under the banner.
Read it, it could save your life, make you win the lottery and find a (better) girlfriend!

FIX
I tried 5 different fixes for the minimap bug.
Not a single one did anything.
I now officialy hate Intel graphics cards, managed directx, black textures, graphic streams, byte buffers, lock flags, pool flags and usage flags.
I guess I'll have to write a shader just for rendering the minimap.
But that would work only on some Intel cards that have pixel shaders.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-014257.htm 

I'll start working on that later.
I'll do all the gameplay stuff for the next version then look at this problem again.

Special thanks to Andrew R and austin richardson for testing the super secret fixes!

FUK...
...The installer.
Yes ClickOnce from Microsoft I'm looking at you. I'll use a simple zip next time thank you.
I'll add something in the FAQ to manually remove the game. But be prepared to remove files into some stupid folder you probably never heard of (a super secret cache) and edit your registry. Lots of fun.
Sigh.

FAR
Well not quite. But 3.1 progressing.

End of post.

Minimap bug fix - Round 2

Thanks to players who sent report and tried the super secret fix.
Turns out this one didn't work.
I know where the problem comes from, its the graphics cards (intel I hate you) and the way I create/write in the minimap texture.
Don't worry I have other tricks to try. I'll send another fix to the brave volunteers soon.

End of post.

Minimap bug fix!

Yeah! A fix!...


not really...


Ok. Got your attention?

If you have a minimap bug :

1. Try the fixes in the install readme.txt.
Remember to reboot between each fix.

2. If it still doesn't work, mail me with these informations:
- laptop or desktop?
- your win version (XP, win7...) and 32 bits or 64 bits?
- your desktop resolution?
run dxdiag command and tell me:
- your directx version
- your gfx card model (shown in the "Display" panel).

I'm extremely frustated by this bug and can't fix it without people reporting.
Also I might ask your to try some other stuff, like a super secret bug fix version ;)

Thanks.

Other (abandonned) projects

While players are bravely playing (and testing!) alpha 3 and are dying left and right, let's have some fun at my expense instead...

An history of Fail
I had started some other games/projects. Problem is I stopped developing them, for various reason (bored, "what's the point?" state of mind...). Amateur game developpers know this feeling.
Just for curiosity I explored my projects archive.
Here are some projects in all their abandonned glory...

* BotLife

Idea: AI Bots running around doing stuff. Later to become an artificial life project: evolve bot shapes and brain.
Enviroment : Java, JME and jmephysics.
Status :Abandonned (too ambitious, no fun)

* Ancient Powers

Idea: Strategy game set in ancient times. 
Enviroment : C#. 
Status :Abandonned (badly designed gui bites me back, gui was worse than Rogue Survivor!).

* Mastermind

Idea: Play mastermind solo or vs a computer. 
Enviroment : C#. 
Status :Abandonned. Well somewhat completed but who would like to play that? (I made it for an ex-gf ^^)

* Various projects I can't run again or even recompile...

> Why the fail?
- Too ambitious right from the start.
- Technical annoyance with libraries and whatnot.
- Perfectionist state of mind : if I don't like it, don't release it => no one to share it with => no motivation => no progress => fail.


End of post.

Alpha 3!

It's out, see download link.
Remember to uninstall the previous version!
Here's the readme:

ROGUE SURVIVOR
==============

> INSTALL

- Run setup.exe to install the game.
- Launch via the desktop shortcut or the start menu.
- When you first run the game it will create a Rogue Survivor folder in your documents folder.
  Typically on Windows XP:
  "My Documents\Rogue Survivor\\"
  This folder will contains your saves, grave files, screenshots, configuration and manual.

> UNINSTALL
- To uninstall the game, uninstall as any application in Windows.
- You can then delete your Rogue Survivor game folder create during installation.


> PROBLEM : GAME DOESN'T START OR CRASHES EARLY!
If the game doesn't start or crash when you start a new game try the following steps one by one.
Restart your computer after each install.

1. Update your DirectX installation.
   Download "DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer" from Microsoft here:
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en
  
2. Update your .NET Framework.
   Download ".NET Compact Framework 3.5 Redistributable" from Microsoft there:
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e3821449-3c6b-42f1-9fd9-0041345b3385&displaylang=en
  
3. Update your .NET Frmakework part 2.  
   Download "Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1" from Microsoft
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en
  
4. Update your graphics card drivers.


> PROBLEM : I WAS AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER AND THE GAME CRASHED!
Disable your screensaver.


> OTHER BUGS
If you tried the previous solution the game still crashes it should show you a game log.
Please follow the instructions and send the log to the email below.
You can also send the last save file.
You can also contact me if you think you spotted a bug that didn't crash your game.


> CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSION
Check the readme in the docs folder of your game installation for a detailled list of changes.


> CONTACT
roguedjack@yahoo.fr


> CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSION

Alpha 3 changes
---------------

FIXED BUGS
- Stacking items in full inventory works properly.
- Dropping items on full ground inventory try to stack then remove oldest item.
- Post mortem on more than one page works correctly.
- Barricading when there is someone there is not allowed.
- Undeads now correctly see Army as enemies.
- Fixed a rare crash in map generation caused by bad rng.
- Attacking a door don't bypass the barricade anymore.
- Various typos.

GAMEPLAY
- Give orders and directives to your followers.
- Weather : sunny, cloudy, rain and heavy rain.
- Scoring with difficulty rating based on game options.
- Hi Scores table in game and in a text file.
- New action : Wait for one hour, can be interrupted.
- New action : Give items to someone.
- Smaller maps by default, more action.
- 2 new events.
- Zombie Invasions grow larger as time passes.
- Some undeads can level up by killing.
- 7 new enemies, both undeads and alive.
- Some undeads actively try to break everything in sight.
- Skeleton speed increased to 1.
- CHAR Guards now warn once before attacking.
- New item type : lights, increase your view distance.
- New skill and item type : Bows.
- Sleeping now keep sleeping until fully restored.
- Food items are less nutritive but more common.
- Light Eater skill also decrease hungry threshold.
- Awake skill also increase sleep regeneration speed.
- Ranged weapons have an efficient range.
- Firing while running gives penalties to hit chances.
- Much less district exits, some neighbouring districts might even not be linked at all.
- Various new items.
- Various map generation, items, actors, skills and rules balancing.
- As a result of changes and default options, this should be a harder game.

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Look at the map and manage items directly with the mouse, no more Look/Inventory mode.
- Dying goes back to the main menu rather than exiting.
- New action : Abandon game, kill yourself.
- Abort district simulation if it is taking too long for your liking.
- Keyboard should be more responsive.
- Added missing elements in manual.
- Added a hint section in the manual for beginners.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- 2 new musics.
- National Guards and CHAR Guards have names and are dolls like civilians.

OPTIONS
- Enable/Disable animations delay.
- Control accuracy of district simulation.
- Enable/disable NPCs death by starvation.
- Smaller maps by default (75x75) but bigger city (4x4).
- Option screen shows difficulty rating.

AI
- Improved civilian AI items management.
- Improved civilian AI fight or flee logic.
- Improved civilian AI follower behavior.
- Improved civilian AI sleep behavior.
- Improved civilian AI run logic.

Have fun!

---

End of post.

alpha 3!?

Alpha 3? What the hell?
Well I decided to rename Alpha 2.1 to Alpha 3. I think it's worth it and its not a patch on alpha 2.

I'm putting the final extra touches with extra final testing. I'll post a gameplay video too.
Since people are actually playing my game I have to make it as clean as possible.

I handcuffed myself to stop adding features so I can release it ^^

So it could be out soon (a couple of days) or very soon (a few hours).

UPDATE:
Short gameplay video up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_hZCkLihtc
I spotted a minor bug in the graveyard, it's not important at all, I'll fix that in the next update.

Here's the official change list as it is now:
---

Alpha 3 changes
---------------------

FIXED BUGS
- Stacking items in full inventory works properly.
- Dropping items on full ground inventory try to stack then remove oldest item.
- Post mortem on more than one page works correctly.
- Barricading when there is someone there is not allowed.
- Undeads now correctly see Army as enemies.
- Fixed a rare crash in map generation caused by bad rng.
- Attacking a door don't bypass the barricade anymore.
- Various typos.

GAMEPLAY
- Give orders and directives to your followers.
- Weather : sunny, cloudy, rain and heavy rain.
- Scoring with difficulty rating based on game options.
- Hi Scores table in game and in a text file.
- New action : Wait for one hour, can be interrupted.
- New action : Give items to someone.
- Smaller maps by default, more action.
- 2 new events.
- Zombie Invasions grow larger as time passes.
- Some undeads can level up by killing.
- 7 new enemies, both undeads and alive.
- Some undeads actively try to break everything in sight.
- Skeleton speed increased to 1.
- CHAR Guards now warn once before attacking.
- New item type : lights, increase your view distance.
- New skill and item type : Bows.
- Sleeping now keep sleeping until fully restored.
- Food items are less nutritive but more common.
- Light Eater skill also decrease hungry threshold.
- Awake skill also increase sleep regeneration speed.
- Ranged weapons have an efficient range.
- Firing while running gives penalties to hit chances.
- Much less district exits, some neighbouring districts might even not be linked at all.
- Various new items.
- Various map generation, items, actors, skills and rules balancing.
- As a result of changes and default options, this should be a harder game.

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Look at the map and manage items directly with the mouse, no more Look/Inventory mode.
- Dying goes back to the main menu rather than exiting.
- New action : Abandon game, kill yourself.
- Abort district simulation if it is taking too long for your liking.
- Keyboard should be more responsive.
- Added missing elements in manual.
- Added a hint section in the manual for beginners.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- 2 new musics.
- National Guards and CHAR Guards have names and are dolls like civilians.

OPTIONS
- Enable/Disable animations delay.
- Control accuracy of district simulation.
- Enable/disable NPCs death by starvation.
- Smaller maps by default (75x75) but bigger city (4x4).
- Option screen shows difficulty rating.

AI
- Improved civilian AI items management.
- Improved civilian AI fight or flee logic.
- Improved civilian AI follower behavior.
- Improved civilian AI sleep behavior.
- Improved civilian AI run logic.
---

End of post.

alpha 2.1 = less annoyance

For sure I added new features in alpha 2.1.
But more importantly for the players it will be much less annoying to play:

• Use the mouse to look at the map and handle items, no more look/inventory modes.
• You can disable the delay in animations.
• You can control the amount of district simulation, from 0% to 100%, and it is set to very low by default - much less waiting when changing districts.
• The game won't exit when you die anymore, just go back to the main menu.
• Long Wait command, wait for 1 hour - no more spamming "Wait", also the long wait command interrupts when something important happens.
• Fixed all reported bugs (and few more).

End of post.

PS: Alpha 2.1 isn't out yet

File download hosting

Added megaupload as an alternative download site.
Should be better for people who have problems with gigaup... or people who can't be bothered to google translate the instructions from French ^^

AI

Some words on the AIs in Rogue Survivor. 

Constraints
A strong design choice was to have a lot of NPCs (non-player character) running around. I wanted chaos and interaction. 100+ NPCs on maps is the norm in RS. A lot of NPCs are updated almost each turn. Roguelikes are fast paced games and it is not acceptable to wait 1 second between turns because the 100 fancy AIs use A*, reinforcement learning and whatnot. I also wanted zombies to behave like zombies, and citizens to behave like citizens.
To sum up:

• Fast processing.
• Recognizable and typical behaviors.

Past Experiences with implementing AIs in games
In other game projects I tried to used fancy stuff like Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, Planning etc..
Problem is they don't really work or are overkill and you have little control on the decision process. I read a bunch of game AI papers. Most of the time AI researchers are using complex techniques to evolve or design simple pacman-level AIs. So much effort for -excuse me- so ridiculous results.
I had much better results with very simple rule-based AIs and it is faster too. Interesting AI doesn't necessary need complex AI. Note I did say interesting not good. It's a game, you want interesting and amusing NPCs, not competitive NPCs.
Lesson learned. KISS : Keep It Simple Stupid.

Basic algorithm

Straightforward rule-based stuff, not even a FSM and not even an AI engine.

1. Sense the environement with Sensors.
2. Scan a list of rules (trigger -> Behavior) until a behavior propose a valid action.
3. Execute the proposed Action.

That's it. The "intelligence" resides in :

• the use of the Sensors  : they interpret the environement into useful percepts.
• the relative complexity of the Behaviors : they might check for additional conditions or call other Behaviors.
• the ordering of the rules : do this (eg: flee the zombie) instead of that (eg: try to get the item next to the zombie) and the NPC will appear to be clever.

Example AI : CivilianAI (actual code screenshots)
AI used by the hopeless citizens roaming the streets.
They try to survive just like you and they currently have 16 rules to do so.

From the most important one:

...To the least important one:

Some rules are more complex, using percepts computed by the sensor and apply filter on them to get only revelant data.
For instance:

BehaviorGrabItem is more complex too, it checks additional stuff on item, in particular if the NPC really want this item:

Conclusion
So as you can see it's not rocket science. Behaviors and rules aren't even objects, there is no rule engine etc...
But it gets the job done quickly both for me and the player. Those AIs are going to die anyway, and probably out of the player sight, so do you really need fancy stuff? I think not.
Would I do the same for my next game? Yes sir! The only change I would consider is encapsulating behaviors and rules into objects, and better algorithms (A*  pathfinding...) if I can allocate more CPU time.

End of post.