Alpha 6.2 Release!

Happy new year!

As usual check the download page.

ALPHA 6.2 CHANGES
-----------------

Much better simulation, bug fixes and a couple of goodies.

FIXED BUGS
1. (Crash) ESC might crash the game.
2. (Glitch) Simulation timer wasn't checked properly.

OPTIONS
- new: "Synchronous Simulation" (enabled by default)
  If on, the simulation on the nearby districts runs while you are playing in your district.
  That means when changing district you probably won't have to wait at all.
  Disable this option if the game feels less responsive or sluggish, especially on low end computers.
- "District Simulation" by default up to FULL to take advantage of the new sim feature.
- Limited reincarnation turned off by default (was on).

GAMEPLAY
- Stench killer : nearby stench killer odor is now visible to living players (pink circle), so you can easily see where you or AIs used the sprays (its rare but yes the AI does spray).
- New Action: Recharge battery powered items - equip the item and bump into a powered generator, recharge 1 hour worth of battery.
  Careful not to drop items out of battery you want to recharge later, they are still discarded!
- Difficulty: doesn't factor in Districts Simulation option anymore.
- 1 new unique NPC and its errr "theme song".

AIs
- Martial artists not interested in melee weapons.
- Civilians: More likely to use stench killer and improved use logic.

DEATH
- Post-Mortem: failed achievements tease.
- "Tip Of The Dead".

DATA
- Stench killer power/duration increased to 3h (was 1h) and double uses to 40 (was 20).

Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!
 

End of post.

Alpha 6.1Christmas Release!

HEY YOU!
Check the download page! Report bugs!
It's been a long time, hasn't it?
Well first things first, the download and then the explanations.


This one is zip only, no installer.


Changelog.

ALPHA 6.1CHRISTMAS CHANGES
--------------------------
This version is a 6.0 bugfix.
Computer died. Lost sources to 6.1 but retrieved 6.0.
That means forget 6.1 changes including the infamous armor bug!
Let's pretend 6.1 never existed.

FIXED BUGS
1. (Engine) Player long-waiting was sometimes not interrupted when attacked.
2. (Manual) Incorrectly mentioned 3 skill levels.
3. (Reincarnation) Difficulty was not updated when switching sides (remember difficulty is divived by life number).
4. (Undead) Starting a new game as Zombified Male prevented you from starting new games as Female Zombified.
5. (Crash) Crash on Win7 with DirectX gfx engine when minimizing/switching windows.

GAMEPLAY
Actors
- 2 new unique NPCs.
Death
- Dead people always drop their ammo and food.

INSTALL
- All game user data now located in the game installation directory rather than user documents.
- Removed installer, the game ships as a zip.

Merry Christmas!
And remember, die with a smile!

WE NEED TO TALK
 First sorry for the obvious lack of update, activity and most of all sorry for not answering emails and not following up on the java test.

Reasons being:
- I have a job since June or so and as you may guess it is time consuming.
- My goold old trusty computer died and took with him alpha 6.1 to the grave.

So I thought I would find the time and code a little something this christmas for you guys.
I thought I made a backup of the 6.1 project, but unfortunately I didn't and got 6.0 instead. No biggie, 6.1 was a minor update and had the infamous armor bug. So I started anew and here is 6.1christmas. Its a bugfix version with a couple of NPC.

RS future is unclear. It depends on how things go for me, the position of the stars, the moon cycles, and whether Cthulu finally comes back or not.

Voilà mes amis. Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas! Happy Braineating!


End of post.

Need Linux Mac Windows testers

Test closed, thanks to all testers!

Hopefully something nice will come out of it!

I have some secret evil plans for Rogue Survivor.
I need testers to download and run a small java program.

You have Linux, Mac or Windows.
32 bits or 64 bits.
Desktop or laptop.
Whatever.
Mac users don't have to run a virtual windows machine or compatibility mode, just run your Mac natively.
The procedure:

1. Download test-rs.jar here: removed
2. Drop it anywhere you want, it doesn't install extract or install anything so it doesn't matter.
3. If you know you have Java 1.6 or are on Mac, go to step 5.
4. Get java here or here.
   
5. Double-click on the jar you downloaded in step 1.
6. Post a comment here stating your OS and what happened.
7. ????
8. PROFIT!

I'll keep a record of tests done here. Ideally I'd like at least one tester for each OS.


-

OS	win !	fail :(
Linux 32	ww	-
Linux 64	wwww	f3
Win XP 32	wwwwwwwwwww	f1 f7
Win XP 64	-	-
Win Vista 32	www	f4
Win Vista 64	www	-
Win 7 32	www	-
Win 7 64	wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww	f2 f5
Mac ???	www	f6

The fails.

1. Text missing
2. Toggling out of fullscreen = black screen
3. Can't toggle out/exit fullscreen (OpenJDK)
4. Failed to initialise the LWJGL display. 
5. Toggling out of fullscreen..
6. Nothing worked. (Leopard 64bits).
7. Notebook.

Thank you.
End of post.

Facebook & Bugs & Fans Stuff

FACEBOOK
Created a facebook page for the game.
If you are into this kind of things, it is there:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rogue-Survivor/173271429395039

BUGS
...had to show up, didn't they?
Remember to post them on the "report bugs" page.

FANS STUFF
Spanish fan Rubeus translated the alpha 6.0 manual some time ago and I didn't have the time (ok I fucked up) to add the link as agreed. Sorry for the delay!
So get the translated manual on the "fans stuff" page!

End of post.

Alpha 6.1 release!

Check the download page.

Minor release, nothing major.

I'll get very busy very soon so I'd thought I'd release a little something now rather than a bit more later.
Couldn't find the time to implement the various requests from the poll. I'll have to rewrite the AI engine and write a quest engine so it will take some time.

The changelog:

ALPHA 6.1 CHANGES
-----------------
Minor update.

FIXED BUGS
1. (Engine) Player long-waiting was not interrupted by attacks through exits.
2. (Manual) Incorrectly mentioned 3 skill levels.
3. (Reincarnation) Difficulty was not updated when switching sides.
4. (Undead) Starting a new game as Zombified Male prevented you from starting new games as Female Zombified.
Various typos ingame & in manual.

INSTALL
- All game user data now located in the game installation directory rather than user documents.
- Config : select game font - limitations :
  - style is ignored.
  - the ui DOES NOT adapt to font settings, so changing too much will mess up the interface.
  - so yes, this is a rather limited and useless option. doh.

GAMEPLAY
Map Generation
- New building : Warehouse, filled with crates.
Map Objects
- New object : Crate - break them to loot random content or use them as mobile barricade.
Melee
- Disarm : when fighting in melee attacker/defender has a small chance to disarm opponent on a succesfull hit/defence (5%).
Skills
- Martial Arts increase chances to disarm opponent.
Death
- Dead people always drop their ammo and food.

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Removed Exit/Cancel binding, ESC is the universal exit key.

MOD
- Skills.csv : Martial Arts 3rd value = disarm bonus.
- New gfx for crates.

KNOWN BUGS AND GLITCHES
- Asymetric FoV.

Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!

 End of post.

Poll results & the future

POLL
Thanks to everyone who voted and commented!
The top three:

1. 66% more content
2. 36% better living AI
3. 35% quests/missions

I heard you guys and will work on these points in priority. I still have ideas on my own to do ;-)

THE FUTURE & MY EVIL ROGUE SURVIVOR UNRELATED SCHEMES
As I said in a comment, I'm working on a serious job opportunity.
This means I'm busy.
Very busy.
I'm sure you understand I need to make a living.

Currently I have little free time to spend on RS or any other thing really.  Everything not job related is on hold (yep the flash thing too not like, anyone seems to care :p)
But.
This job should allow me to work on RS in quiet periods. Right now is a busy period.
So, keep the faith.
Blast zombies.
Eat brains.
Or murder innocent bystanders for food.


End of post.

Poll: What would you like for Rogue Survivor?

See poll on the right panel.

Blogger automatically considers some comments as spam, don't worry if your comment doesn't appear, I check the spam box regularly and put comments back here.

Clarifications:


A. "Just keep at it!"
Means keep doing it as opposed to open source.

F. Better living AI

Should have made separate votes for Soldiers, Civilians, Gangs, CHAR and player followers AI etc... If you want a particular living AI improved over others, precise it with a comment. I. More content (items, buildings..) Also includes Skills.

End of post.

Donation page added

I added a "Donate" page where you can donate via PayPal.
Look at the top of the blog in the page menu.

Some of you expressed the desire or willingness to donate,  so why not?
I put a disclaimer on the donation page to remind you what a donation is and what you can expect from it.
I won't play the poor sad puppy or salesman tricks on you to get more donation money.
Just give what you want, if you feel like it!

End of post.

New roguedjack Flash blog

http://roguedjackflash.blogspot.com/

That's the place to go if you want to know what the hell I'm doing with Flash while every decent chap knows I should be working on Rogue Survivor (bastard me!).
There are already a couple of gameplay screens to lurk at.
I'll keep this blog Rogue Survivor related.

"OK. BUT"
Don't worry, again either :

1. I go back to Rogue Survivor in the near/mid future.
2. I release the game as Open Source, so anyone can improve it.
3. Some game company has a lot of money to loose and hire me to make a Virtual Rogue Survivor 3D Multiplayer Wireless Surround Turbo.Unlikely eh?

End of post.

You've got mail

I'll take time to answer mails and look at comments and troll-spam the fans forum.
I also must try Grand Rogue Auto.

"ROGUE SURVIVOR?"
For various reasons, RS is in neutral gear since January. That's bad news I know.
The time that was spent on RS is now spent on learning Flash, because I need the skill.

"FLASH?"
I'm writing various game prototypes while learning. Prototyping with Flash is really easy and fun. I strongly dislike writing UI code and Flash makes it very easy to implement an interface and go straight to game mechanics and AI. Some real games might come out of it. Simpler than RS but with original and interesting gameplay and very unlike your average Flash game. I think I'll make a blog about them.

"OK. BUT ROGUE SURVIVOR?"
I'll try to come back at it later. Hopefully it is not dead, but you shouldn't expect frequent releases as before.
Letting this game die would be a shame, wouldn't it?

Ok. Time to check the mails.

End of post.

Hey me!

I'm a bit busy, sorry if I don't post or answer emails.
In the meantime have fun, study hard at school, brush your teeth and eat brains.

End of post.