Saturday, November 27, 2010

Alpha 5 release!

This time it's true.
Get it on the download page.
If you want to unlock all the reincarnation madness go to the options in game.

ALPHA 5 CHANGES
---------------
Two new HUGE features : undead mode and reincarnation.
You can use or abuse the reincarnation feature... or not. Its up to you.
There are also some modifications to gameplay, balance and AI.

FIXED BUGS
- Subway small maintenance room will not overlap platform anymore.
- Post-mortem option "simulate when sleeping" shows properly.
- Attacker icon won't display in odd places when the attacker is out of map (eg: zombie bashing from another map).
- Long names in HiScore table are now truncated.
- Actors who can't talk cannot shout either (eg: undeads).

GAMEPLAY
New : Play as an Undead!
- Choose your race from Skeleton to Zombie Master.
- All undead rules apply to you, so know your abilities and limitations.
- You can see living and zombie masters scents - if ability.
- Scoring comes mostly from killing, no achievement to reach.
- Difficulty rating as undead is opposite to difficulty as survivor.
- No access to the city map.
- Does not get notified of events.
New : Reincarnate!
- When your current character dies you get the choice to reincarnate or not, if the option is activated.
- Continue playing in the game world as you left it.
- After dying you can choose between different reincarnations avatars :
  - Random Actor.
  - Random Living.
  - Random Undead.
  - Random Follower (of yours).
  - Your Killer.
  - Your Zombified Self. 
- You loose everything related to your previous character (scoring, memory etc...).
- Reincarnation as living can be limited to civilians only (an option, on by default).
- Reincarnation as undead can exclude zombie rats (an option, on by default).
- Reincarnation can exclude avatars in the sewers (an option, on by default).
- Some rare reincarnation unique places or actors are forbidden.
- Difficulty value for scoring is divided by each successive reincarnation.
Map Objects
- Iron Gates (subway, hospital, prison) are now breakable but are very resistant.
- Large fortifications are now opaque.
Trading
- Followers are always willing to trade with their leader, even uninteresting or silly deals.
- Gangs can trade with friends.
Leading
- Relaxed faction leadership restrictions a bit, so civilians can be lead by anyone friendly (eg: civilians led by cops or army).
Items
- Item batteries duration and stench killer capacity increased.
Ligthing
- Flashlights improves FoV only if it is dark (in other words, they are useless during the day).
Map Generation
- Shops might have a window.
- No zombie start in the subway.
Event
- Zombies do not spawn in subway anymore.
Zombification
- Zombifieds keep one level of a random skill of their ex-living form - skill which might now be useless to them.
Actors
- Undeads may stumble while jumping and loose action points (eg: ZMs).
- Rats have the "Small" ability which allows them to slip through any objects except closed doors.
Pushing
- Pushing is a loud noise.

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Undead : view scents.
- Undead : status line show "Field Of Smelling" range (FoS).
- UI does not display stats irrelevant to your current avatar (eg: food for zombies).
- Reincarnation screens.
- Leaders have a "L" icon.
- NPC/objects in action messages will show up as "someone/something" if when not visible to the player.
- Refugees and Midnight Invasion event won't pause the game anymore - this get annoying after a while.
- Updated the manual.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- New gfx : scents icons for undead mode; leader icon.
- 2 new musics (well one is a sfx actually).

OPTIONS
- Difficulty : Show separate difficulty for undead mode.
- New option : Max number of reincarnations allowed (1 by default).
- New option : Allow to reincarnate as zombie rat or not - as they are numerous and quite boring to play (no by default).
- New option : Allow to reincarnate to the sewers or not (no by default).
- New option : Restrict livings reincarnation to civilians (yes by default) - some actors like char guards are not meant to be played, but can be fun
- New option : Permadeath - delete saved game on death, doubles difficulty rating (off by default).
- New option : Death Screenshot - automatically takes a screenshot of your death (on by default).
- Default Zombification up to 100% (was 80%).
- Default Max Undeads up to 100 (was 90).

AI
- Followers : when Guarding or Patroling, mimick leader cellphone usage.
- CivilianAI : desperate starving civilians will push objects around and attack barricades in the hope of finding hidden stashes of food.
- CivilianAI : now interested in stench killers and will use them.
- ZombieAI : reordered behaviors to give more priority to following ZM.
- ZombieAI : ZMs and evolved Zombifieds can and will push objects in various situations.
- ZombieAI : do not attack objects and barricades on sight anymore.
- Soldiers & Civilians will now build large fortifications too.
- Tuned Fleeing logic.
- Updated living AIs to handle being led by the player.

KNOWN BUGS AND GLITCHES
- Asymetric FoV.

A NOTE ON REINCARNATION
Playing as a civilian survivor is still the main focus of the game.
If you play a non-civilian leader, keep in mind non civilians-AI are pretty much limited.
Some living actors do not need to eat, but most have to sleep.
The ability the play other actors has been tested but is not guaranted to work 100% fine yet.
Feel free to report any bug or oddity you might find when playing a non-civilian.
With all this being said...

...HAVE FUN!!
And remember, die with a smile!

End of post.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Alpha 5 - From Disciple to National Guard

JUMPING FROM BODIES TO BODIES
One of the test runs I made.
Started as a survivor, got killed and zombified.
Reincarnated as my zombie, luckily a Neophyte already.
Killed enough people to get promoted to Disciple.
Eating poor weaklings left and right.
Facing my first serious enemy : a National Guard.

Hello, you look tasty in green.

Like the good blood thirsty abomination that I am now I promptly rush him and we duke it out.
Stop poking me with that gun!

I prevail and make a new friend in the process.
See private, it's not that bad being undead.

I get cocky, don't wait for the night to get more tactical advantages and get what I deserve.
Sorry for your pal dudes, listen I ggrgrrlkggrlkgrg

I choose my killer again as reincarnation and discover life as a Private.
Wait!? What? Who? When?

I perform my duty and hang out with the squad.


Hey Sgt what are we doing here!?... Why don't you answer?

Upgrade time!
Sgt, help! What is that screen!?... Why don't you answer?

You can upgrade when playing a living NPC as you would as a civilian survivor.
If you happen to be a leader, your followers will upgrade too of course.
You can build yourself a nice high level biker gang for instance.


AI
The Civilian and Zombie AI also does get a couple of improvements. Some of the standard tactics might not work anymore. Or they might. But not really. You'll find out.

ROTTING BRAIN
Mine. I seem to keep missing letters and whole words in my posts recently.

End of post.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Fans Forum!


Since RS has no forum yet Survivor Johny 1337 created a forum to discuss all things Rogue Survivor.


http://roguesurvivor.proboards.com/



Thanks to Johny!
Go there and register. I'm sure you guys will like a proper place to discuss the game.
I will lurk over there and laugh at your pathetic deaths.
what? i die stupidly too in my videos? errr it was all for show of course...




End of post.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Alpha 5 - MOAR!...

...About the Undead Mode and Reincarnation.

UNDEAD MODE
You can pick all the standard undead models, except rats - skeletons are silly enough to play.
Keep in mind you have no skills and you can transform as NPC zombies do by killing people.





REINCARNATION - OPTIONS
You can set options related to how reincarnation.
Disabling rats reincarnation is handy, as there are a lot of rats and they are quite silly to play. So you won't get spammed with them as possible avatars.
Max numbers of reincarnations is a way to limit yourself or disable this altogether with setting it to zero.
Each reincarnation will decrease the difficulty used for computing for this character. Eg: your first life will be 100% difficulty, but if you reincarnate the next one will start at 0 points and score only 50% of base points. This is a way to avoid some stupid cheating, like using past lives to make the following ones easier and scoring big.

REINCARNATION - CHOOSING AN AVATAR
When you die you get a set of typical avatar selected for you to reincarnate in.
Here I played survivor Tony Austin. He got killed by a zombie, got zombified in the process and had a follower alive at that time.
So I get the full set of candidate avatars to choose from.


You can image fun play mode and challenges if you restrict yourself to a set of options:
  • Succession game : take control of your followers as your band members die horribly one by one.
  • Killer game : take control of your killer.
  • Till the Last Survivor : take control of a survivor, you loose the game if there are no one available, which could happen.
  • The Equalizer : take control of the opposite side and try to do your best for them.
Just ideas ;)

I intended to allow the player to reincarnate anywhere in the world but it is not practical. I would have to simulate the whole world which would not be a sane thing to do. So instead it is just limited to the district you were in.

End of post.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Alpha 5 - the other big new feature




UPDATE: mmh the screens weren't clear enough it seems so let me detail this feature.

REINCARNATION
When you die...
  • You get the choice to reincarnate or not.
  • Your dead character still gets its post mortem etc... and for all intent and purpose you can consider the game lost.
  • You then control a random existing NPC in the current game world (= you take control of a previously AI controlled character). You have almost no control over this process, so you first character is still the most important one for you.
  • Your score is resetted, you loose your memory etc...
  • Continue playing in the game world as you left it.
  • So you can in theory continue to play indefinitly in the same game world.   
  • Reincarnation in a living body is limited to civilians.
  • You can get funny reincarnations as a zombie rat, as the Sewers Thing (if lucky!)...
I think the ability to continue playing in the same world if you want to is nice : visit old places, take revenge, switch sides...
You can still die normally of course.
Play as a classic roguelike  with permadeath (and noreload) or explore the world through various characters...
Its new, its fun. You can use it or not.

End of post.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Alpha 5 - big new feature


If screens > words Then Post(screens); 

BRAINZ! (1) 
RAGE @ CARZ :X (2)


HI! BRAINZ? :) (3)

ME WANT FRIEND U! (4)
FRIEND NOW :) (5)
HI! ME COM WIF FRIENDZ! (6)
Translations:
  1.  Start a new game as undead.
  2. Remember, some undeads can't jump, open doors etc... The red "glows" are scents, as undead you can smell living scents and zombie masters scents. The freshers the scent, the more visible.
  3. Bash doors, run after people to try to eat them. Great fun.
  4. Followed some poor girl in a basement thanks to the scents. I plan on turning her in...
  5. ...and it works. Maybe she will follow me.
  6. My little horder breaking into a CHAR Office.
PLANS FOR THIS FEATURE
I have just started developing this feature. Thanks to the design it was quite easy to implement, a couple of hours of work. Lots of bugs lurking probably.

One thing I can say for sure, it radically changes the gameplay. Its like having another game altogether!

I don't plan on making the player undead special. You are just one of the undeads and have to "survive".
Its really frustrating fun to get randomly killed early by cops :p

Rogue Survivor will still focus on the living survivor gameplay and this mode is meant mostly for fun or a new challenge.

End of post.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Alpha 4.3 release!

Get it in the download page.
People who could not run the game at all should give it another try. Remember to run the new configuration program!
ALPHA 4.3 CHANGES
-----------------
Mostly a HUGE bug fix and a couple of new sweet features.
Everyone who got crashes should be able to play the game and get sound now!
Fix the crash bug for Win7 and some other configs!
Config program to choose between different Video and Sound engines!


FIXED BUGS
- Some people couldn't run the game at all because of Managed DirectX crashing.
- No music on some computers.
- Modding some items stacklimit down to 1 crashes a new game.
- Rapid Fire taking two turns.

CONFIG
- Run "RSConfig".
- Video :
  - Managed DirectX : default, but might crash on some computers.
  - GDI+            : slower and a bit less good looking, but safer.
- Audio :
  - Managed DirectX : default, plays the mp3 files, but might crash or get no sound on some computers.
  - SFML 1.6        : plays the ogg files.
  - No Sound        : if all else fails, at least it won't crash...
 
MODDING
- Pills stacking limit can now be changed properly.
- All melee weapons can now be made stackable, except uniques.

GAMEPLAY
Pushing
- New Action : Shove people around - kick survivors out of your base or rush through zombies.
Weather
- Rain has a chance to put out fires (eg: burning cars).

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Updated manual.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- Musics in ogg format for SFML audio support.

KNOWN BUGS AND GLITCHES
- Asymetric FoV along walls.
- GDI+ : some differences from default Managed DirectX rendering.

Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!
End of post.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Alpha 4.3 progress & release date

Video & Sound config
Added SFML as audio engine, and No Sound just for safety.
The game should now be playable on all Windows systems and configs... Right!?
If GDI+ is a pain in the ass I'll see if I can get an OpenGL rendering engine implemented.

Two new sweet features
Implemented two new features. I keep them secret until release...
They are nothing revolutionary and they were easy to do but Rogue Survivor fans will like them I'm sure :)

Release Date & Plans
Expect a release in a few days.
Then, if all goes well,  5.0 on the horizon with something big.
I'll also try to update the site to make it better.

End of post.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Alpha 4.3 new rendering mode & Interview

Working on Alpha 4.3. Yep.

Video & Sound engine config
RS uses Managed DirectX for rendering. It runs fast and is nice, but has the interesting side-effect of crashing the game on some computers... and the audio API  can't render MP3s on some computers...

RS will now include setup program to allow you to choose different rendering or audio engines.



Managed DirectX is the best but less reliable.
GDI+ should work for everyone but is slower, especially on Windows XP as it does all the rendering in software on this OS. At least more people should be able to play the game!
I had the bright idea to abstract rendering into an interface since the beginning of the project so it took me only a few hours to code the GDI+ engine.

Despite sharing the same interface in the game, Managed DirectX and GDI+ renders things slightly differently.
Catch the differences!

GDI+  
Managed DirectX
There's only one choice for Sound, but I'll add at least one more engine for people who have no sound.

Blog Interview
For hardcore fans I did an interview about the game for a blog: read it there. You might learn stuff. Or not.

End of post.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Need tester(s)...

Allright, let's try something else.

If you have the following bug and are willing to test a small executable (691kb), mail me. I'll send you the file with instructions. I need to be sure where the problem comes from, this will help me greatly.

THE BUG
You either always have the bug and can't start the game, or you don't.
The game crash soon after starting.
The game log looks like this:

0 init main : starting program...
1 init main : date : xxxxxxx
2 init main : game version : alpha 4.2.
3 init main : creating main form...
End of post.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Bug Hunt!

Need your help guys for fixing an extremely annoying crash bug.

THE BUG
You either always have the bug and can't start the game, or you don't.
The game crash soon after starting.
The game log looks like this:
0 init main : starting program...
1 init main : date : xxxxxxx
2 init main : game version : alpha 4.2.
3 init main : creating main form...
THE HUNT
 If you have this bug, please follow these steps.
  1. Download ASoft .NET Detector X here: http://www.asoft.be/prod_netver.html
  2. Extract somewhere and run it, it tells you what .NET versions you have installed.
  3. Copy all the text in the textbox and post it there + your OS version (eg: Win7 64 bits).
  4. Feel warm and fuzzy inside for helping fixing a bug.
End of post.