Lost: Scrolling time (?FPS?)

[everfornever]

http://truimagz.com/Games/Lost.htm

(The TESTING realm)

Hi guys, well I just got done finishing up my scrolling for lost, I tried alot of different methods from tile to super tiles to gotoandstop tiles. But the way i have it now seems to work the best, I'm actually surprised at how well it's running (considering the graphics, and all the attach/remove movie clip actions) But then I have a nice comp so I'm asking for FPS if you can give it.

I know it's gonna lag down a bit more when I had hit detection on the world border, but it's going to be art based so I think I can get away with only a 15 pxl thick line, maybie 18 so i dont think it will slow it down to much.

I havent yet decide on how I want the full map to look so I havent added that hit detection yet, there is some on the enemies, well the ogers, no hit detection form oger to oger though. And I also revamped my mages, see what ya think. I also decided against the target system.

Player health is disabled for testing, enemy health is alpha'd, not sure how I want to show it, but you can still kill em right now.

So any FPS would be great, tell me if ya start to lag and how many enemies you had on you when you did ok.

Thanks again guys. =) (phew.... long post)

(I really appreciate you guys taking time to help me, you all have already been so wonderfull, and so friendly, thanks)

[Pazil]

Pretty sweat...BUT. I actually need some help for myself. About the online thing...I'm making a game, that will be totally online, not an RPG, but like this thing where you just join, and then you just play in 2 teams, seeing who lasts the longest. Pretty much like Battlefield, except 2D. I need help with the online part, how do you join a game, how do you make sure it scrolls right and all that stuff. I really need your help with that. By the way, awsome game.

[everfornever]

I'm not to the point of making it online yet, but when I do I will post all the info for doing, or at least how I did it. I usually try to post source code for everything I do (even though it is not always the best, as I am not that great of a coder myself)

How did it scroll for you? I am trying to round up as many enemies I can till it starts to lag, takes about 5-6 on my comp. I'd like to know the avg so I know how to lay out my enemies on each level.

[The_Terminator]

On my horribly decrepit computer, it runs only a little roughly with one enemy on the screen. But few people will be using a computer as bad as this one, so I'd say you've done a pretty good job so far. At least until you add in more intense combat....I can't tell you the FPS myself so...Good luck.

[mr_malee]

if your using the method i think you are, bitmapData. Thats probably not the best way, it works but could be improved much more. Think about this:

keep any moveable object within one movieclip. (scroll that movieclip)

keep your static gfx in another movieclip

create 4 areas, scroll these areas. Whenever an area is out of bounds re-draw the correct portion of the land into this area.

you could always make your game tilebased

[XareoX]

nice game it works well on my computer but when the enemys hit me my health wouldnt go down or is this just a demo of what the scrolling is going to be like.
Well the scrolling ran smoothly the graphics were grate when the thingy attacked me my speed when down (another grate touch to the game).

Well your making your self one fantastic game there have seen much of these in a long time keep it up =).

[everfornever]

Ok I jumped my scrolling map up to a wapping 26 mb, (this sucker looks beutifull, it's at 100% export, wait till you see this baby) and I am still able to scroll it with this method, I think I even got a little better scroll. (27949 kb compressed).

I got water in here now too, movie water with ocean sounds. the way I bult my map I can use attach/remove clip on it, it's only in a small section, and no enemies are near, so no need to worry about lag on it, it's nice. give me till this afternoon to post it.

[everfornever]

I worked out a new map to go with this awesome scrolling I got going on...

Here are some pics, for those who remmember the old map, and those who haven't yet seen it.

Hit detection has been applied also, pretty nifty.


This first picture is of were the old cave used to be, it's now an entryway to a somewhat castle'ish setting, there will still be a cave type level 2, but it will lead into the town as stated in the previous quest RPG.



This second picture is of the bottom corner of the map, were you can see a bit into part of the town by looking over the wall.



This picture here is of the new starting point, it's a beachy type of thing, with water, the water is animated with masks and I plan to improve it's affects later on, but for now it's good enough to move on.



This picture is to show you the high detail in the new map, see the Trees... and the grass....



The Test realm is live with the new content for anyone who wants to check it out, the quest guy is still in the mid left corner, but no quest yet.

http://www.truimagz.com/games/lost.htm

CHEERS!

(be aware the new map increased file size from 2.6 mb to 24 mb, way worth it though)

EDIT: I published the swf with some of my map pieces set to export in first frame, this is going to kill my pre-loader, I am fixing it now and re-publishing it.

I just tested it on a friends comp, looks like the map detail is going to have to come down a bit =( works great on my comp but his lags horribly with just enemies, and seems to jump around alot also.

I guess no matter how good of a scrolling technique ya got, 26mb is just to much for flash to handle =( I cut it to 3.4 =( still looks good but lacks that tight gleemy richness

[mr_malee]

i'd say 2.6 was pushing it for an online flash game, 24mb is way too much, if i was going to download 26mb i would expect something exceptional.

have you look into patterns? that would greatly reduce filesize. I don't just mean splitting your entire map into sqaures, i mean taking a pattern of grass and re-using it, same with water and rocks. Basically you could have 3 middle patterns which are seen more often and seamlessly join up then have your edge patterns which join up two different ground types

[XareoX]

like marlee said 24mb is to much and most people wouldnt wait that long to play it if they had dial up. i wonder how big the file size is going 2 be when you have finished 100mbs?? well try and compress it more =).

[trogdor458]

it looks "pattern" like as is anyways, better save up the space where you can

and if you're using the hitTest method on a world border (unless your map is non-square, i would suggest using something else), i dont think the size of the line will matter, it tests a point againt vectors right? therfore, no matter how big it is, it'll still take up the same amount of computing power...right?

to re-use tiles, you dont have to go to a tile-based map, just place em where you want

[renderhjs]

ever tried compressing the graphics or design them as tilesets,- seriously get a grip of that serious problem,- hardly anyone is willing to test just a demo or a even bigger game once finihsed with such filesizes.
And if the game in the end is that big,- think of a way to devide the loading times like dynamic maps and sprites loaded from external files into the engine. But I am sure (guessing from the screenshots and earlier views I took) that the game can reach a file size of ~ 3-7 MB with decent compressions and smart resuse of graphics (aka sprites/ tiles).

And just to prove that there is an art into compressing games take a look at this:
kkrieger 97 kb (97,280 bytes of disk space) a complete game with an awesome engine wich can almost compete with the doom3 engine
read here for some info on who they archived the smal file size
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.kkrieger
download it here:
=http://212.202.219.162/http://212.202.219.162/

[XareoX]

yes i agree add loading bars on like the quests and that so you dont haft to wait so long to load a good example of that is dragonfable.com they used preloaders on each quest and on entering new areas.

[trogdor458]

and if you dont want that, theres streaming (im sure the comp can load everything in your general area very fast, then it loads as you play

[everfornever]

Yes I have knocked the map down to 3.4 mb, it compresses at about 2% of that, total game file size right now is sitting right around 4 mb.

I am going to take your guys advice and see what I can do, I think in the mean time I will just keep detail to a minimum and map size low, i can always do lzone/load walls lots of game have zone walls


I definetly agree with you guys about the tile thing to, basically thats all I do in my vector program, then I export it and break it up in flash, I am going to try and make some maps in flash with the tiles.

I just use alot of alphas and gradients in my maps to blend them , thats why I have yet attempted it, but I think after this level is done that is how I am going to build my maps.

Thanks guys

[everfornever]

LOST: STATS

Well aside form the huge map problem things have went well today, I got the map, the hitTests and now all the stats done. and Im at 4 mb

Everything you do increases a stat by a certain amount, from stealthing by enemies, to dodgeing attacks, taking dmg, and even just hitting something, all the stats listed in player sheet will now update as you play depending on what you do.

The higher your stats the better stealthing youll be , dodging, hitting, and of course your health and armor.

The bonus to your stats will be displayed in the combat log, but if you miss it, your character sheet keeps a log. So you can look at any time to see what they are.

The ogers are tough, you gotta use your special moves, and if ya get low health stun em and use stab to build rage real quick and use invigorate to heal yourself. You have +50% o hit a stunned target and if you stealth while there stunned then it's 100% to hit.

The mages your better off slicing.There immune to stun, and have a higher stealth detection.

This will give you a real feal for the game now, with player health and mob health and stat progression, it gives you a reason to actually think out the enemies and come up with tactics =)

THANKS GUYS.. btw player health and enemy health are now active. I'm prolly also going to lengthen the time the combat info stays up so you can see the numbers from those big hits

The stat sytem is based on a 1K top end, since there are no levels stats is how you grow, and armor and weps to0, but a str of 40 really aint much if ya know what Im getting at.

[XareoX]

r u going 2 upload it yet?? and you could also disable the right click menu =)

[everfornever]

I thought I did, let me check it to make sure.

I already found a few bugs with the stats, I fixed them though, going to repost now, the stealth agro range was being increased as your stealth deception went up as well, so even though you were less likely to be seen you were seen from farther away, I fixed it.

Also int was going up way to fast, taking any spell dmg increases your int but the shadow guys do a cloud so I forgot that its a soaking type of dmg not a one hit per, so int was flying up there, doesnt matter so much for now, you cant resist there cloud, but later on a high int like that will throw the game for a loop whe I add other casters.


OK its posted and the stats should be working good. let me know xereox

The stats are capped in a way also, like as you stealth by an enemy your wis goes up, which increases your stealth ability (so does cha) but once your stealth rank is so high that the enemy can not see you no matter what you stop recieving points for stealthing by them, say with dex and your dodge chance, once your dex is so high the enemy can not hit you anymore you stop gaining dex points for dodging, you can still get them for hitting him, but not for dodging, same with armor and constitution, once the enemy no longer does damage on hit you stop gaining constitution points (which raise your health and armor) you always gain str points for swinging though, and dex.

Once this level is done I will make it so that the tooltips reflect your STR bonus to your dmg. I am also going to add a character ability book that show you your stealthrank, spee resist and stuff like that, but for now you can only see the base stats, not the reflective ones.

[XareoX]

Here heres the disable right click code:

Stage.showMenu = false;

and its to hard to kill the enemy for me make the enemys health lower or something =)
but other than that fantastic.

the abilitys are neat to.
Im going to play the game a bit longer and try and kill one of those things =).

[everfornever]

Remmember the Ogers will be dropping health potions, worth 100 health a click, so that will balance it out, right now I agree that without the potions killing more than one Oger is pretty damn hard.

Have you noticed how you can stealth by an oger and your wis will increas, and eventually once it's high enough they cant find you anymore =)

thats how all the stats work....

there are no levels/exp bars in this game, you advance by improving your stats...

So later on in the game you may need to find a weeker minded enemy to practice stealthing on to improve your stealth rank to get by a certain enemy....

Or if you have been playing stealth/ambush alot you may find later on your armor/con is to low or your dodge chance is to low and therefore need to find lower dmg mobs to build those stats on..

Its a much better system I think than grining 50 enemies to get a level and a slight stat inscrease.

This way you are always advancing and your character reflects your play style more.

I'm going to add the potions tonight, give a few hours, I'll post again when its done