Refining TEROS

Now all stats are in T_Stat class so it's time to continue developing TEROS. I actually refined it in the plan, not in the source code. It looks like it's ready to kick coconuts. I changed weapon accuracy to more generic attack type accuracy and added a modifier for dodging an attack. This is what creatures do at the moment, but it's not very well defined.

I was thinking of extending creature AI by allowing some player operations for NPCs but then I realized it's better forget that for now. It's wiser to implement a couple of selected features and then look where it went. And as a bonus you get to release a playable version which then could generate feedback in theory.

Teemu continues

I'm now ready to return to Teemu. I have a plan similar as in Kaduria to concentrate on Creature class and close routines in VC when it's done. It's interesting how much uncertain code I have already found to fix. Things like returning zero as magic number etc. Stuff like that is not good if you try to reach zero bug program. It's one of my goals with Teemu to create a game that has no bugs at all.

Working with Teemu is easier than Kaduria, because the engine is quite simple. I'm still trying to think the best way to implement Teemu's role-playing system TEROS with APEWASH stat set. I think it will reveal itself as I'm refactoring the Creature class, because that's where the obvious changes are going to happen.

Victory

Went down some three stairs in a dungeon. Couldn't capture the full error message, because copy-pasting it to Notepad crashed Notepad itself! But I got this:

It looks like JADE has lots of issues, but what the heck, I'm playing it anyway. It's interesting to follow the development of this game.

Bad news

I guess they are bad. Teemu is now in ice, I will possibly continue it when Kaduria's first playable version is ready. There is a lot of stuff to add in Teemu, but I just can't concentrate on two major projects at the same time. I even have difficulties to add some features in Brick Atelier I need in the development of Kaduria (tile append to be exact).

I think Teemu doesn't need that much work and maybe if I keep a distance it will be easier to return and finish the job.

Other bad news is that I'm expecting some problems in my personal life... it may reflect to game development. No, I'm not getting married, that's the worst mistake any roguelike developer can do. I'm just having problems with everyday life, which is supposed to be easy.

Omega source code

I find old roguelike source codes interesting, because I started from C-style myself and then went to C++ which is in many ways better than C and that's stating the obvious. Back then however C++ didn't even exist or it was new to people. In a way it still is today and some people are unaware of its benefits.

Still, there is something great in those old C source codes. It's the way authors forced the game to emerge from that chaos. Despite of number of dangers from using raw arrays and global data. Whereas today authors are much more engine-oriented like myself. However engines are bad as games and sometimes writing a game engine can take surprisingly long time.

That in mind I have really changed my strategy especially in Kaduria and it seems to work. I no longer try to create a "perfect" engine but try to look at how to implement features as fast as possible, while trying to use the game engine's building blocks in the process.

Troll Slayer

I was looking for some small side project to relax between coding sessions of Kaduria. I found Troll Slayer. It was promising (and I guess still is) 7DRL with nice tiles. However the source code is quite difficult to work with. It's taken from some previous project so there are lots of commented out code. Not to mention that the code is pretty messy. I was almost close to abandon the project, but looks like it's something to improve during a long period of time...

At the moment I'm writing a BMP importer for Brick Atelier so I can load Troll Slayer's tiles and start to make them better. It's not a simple task however, because I'm re-writing the dialog class for more consistent style (like all dialogs should have at least Ok button) and also adding a support for viewing the BMP image and also selecting tile areas from it to import.

Meanwhile the development of both Teemu and Kaduria are stopped for a while I guess. Well, at least I'm doing something.

MyWinLocker adventure

Acer was pre-installed with MyWinLocker, a totally useless piece of crap software. Control panel's remove program did not work with either settings (checking/unchecking) and when check the MyWinLocker suite entry was removed, leaving the program still there. I tried to download and run the "tool" from Egistec site, but nothing happened. Well, fuck this. Let's go hardcore. You wanted it, you got it.

1. De-activated all processes related to Egistec.
2. With CCleaner deleted entries in startup
3. Deleted all Egistec folders from Program Files (x86), well the IPS or whatever refused to be deleted so a restart was needed
4. Deleted the remaining IPS folder
5. Deleted start menu folder of Egistec
6. CCleaner windows registry clean up
7. Re-started and hoped that nothing important was broken (while thinking of removing the entire Windows and becoming a Linux user)

Well, I think that was good enough. The program doesn't start and the files don't exist. There could be entries in the registry, but that's ok.