Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kamani]

So... what about the End I added to the function at the end? Shouldn’t that have saved it?

[IndigoFenix]

It isn't setting the flag on the Go To event itself, so that event won't save.

Saving works from a "bottom-up" logic: whenever an object is saved (converted into data), it checks each of its "children" to see if they were edited and need to be re-evaluated, and if not, it just uses their old data.  This happens every time you exit an object editing menu; if you had to save the entire object the world builder would run much slower.  Though it does result in bugs like this when I mess something up.

[Kamani]

Okay. Makes sense.

[IndigoFenix]

I'm still trying to work out this bug - it's more complicated than I expected but I think I'm starting to understand.  It seems that, in certain circumstances, navigating the gate finder can overwrite room data, causing all kinds of issues - I suspect this is what was causing your random rollback issues earlier.  It seems to work okay if you make a full world save to the server before setting gates, though this is naturally not an ideal solution.  I'll get this fixed this as soon as I can.

[Kamani]

Oh. Okay. I’ll wait for a fix to work. Would rather not run into this by mistake.

[IndigoFenix]

That was a difficult bug to figure out.  But it's fixed now.

I tested it by making a minor variation of the swap tiles that change when they are jumped on instead of when they are checked.  It felt more natural, I guess?

There's no real system for forking and merging packages, though that's something that might be worth looking into.  If you want to claim them and repackage them as your own, that's fine.

[Kamani]

Oh good. Now I can go back to work (once the miserable exams are done).

I am used to puzzles when you click on them, so this seems more natural to me, but how can you do a jump check? I don’t really know.

On package forking: It would be highly appreciated by me. The delete/claim as own is kind of dubious, since someone could use someone else’s content and not credit them (probably by accident, but still rude).

[Kamani]

Exams are done! I can get back to BoundWorlds again. In all probability, this means more questions, but I am approaching the point of actually being done. The boss fight will probably be a nightmare to work out though. Thankfully, it should be worth it, so, that is okay.

[IndigoFenix]

Boss fights can be tricky to make, but they are also (in my opinion) the most rewarding once you get them working right.  (Techniques are key.)  I'll answer any questions you have.

[Kamani]

Yeah. But I still have two more floors to do I think before the final boss. I think I figured out how to do my original plan for a different type of tile puzzle, so that might turn out well.

[IndigoFenix]

The hardest part of the next big update is done and out.  Variables have been reworked to allow smoother, neater, stackable variable modifiers, for use in status effects and equipment.

A status effect is simply a sprite, ideally with "effect" checked although it is not required.  Status-effect related settings are under the "Host Effects" menu.  The most important of these is the "Modifiers" list, which lets you create a modifier for any variable and set additive, multiplicative, or "add multiplier" which stacks additively with other modifiers and multiplies the base value when applied.  (So if a sprite is hit with two effects, each with, say, a _speed add multiplier of 0.25, their speed will be raised to 1.5 times their normal value.)

These modifiers can also temporarily overwrite a variable by setting "priority" to a value greater than zero and putting the desired value in the "set" field.  The variable will be overwritten if the priority is greater than or equal to the sprite's current priority for that value.  The "Set Temporary Variable" event for techniques interacts with these as though it had a priority of 1.

To apply an effect, set the effect sprite's _host variable to the desired host sprite.  Effects will automatically set their position relative to the host.  I'm going to add an event to apply an effect directly, currently you have to create the effect in a function and then set its _host, basically the way poison worked.

Items can also be given modifiers which work the same way when equipped.  You can still only equip one item at a time, but multiple equipment slots are planned.

I've updated the spider venom to utilize the new system as an example; instead of draining _hp in its update function it now reduces _hp_regen by 0.025 (making regeneration negative and thereby dealing damage) and also cuts _speed in half.

I've also added an _atk_multiplier variable that just multiplies all base hitbox damage, since it's been in demand.  I do intend to make proper melee weapons though.

[Kamani]

Ooh, cool! Effects should come in handy for future projects, and now I can improve items like the sword.

[Kamani]

So, an important question about partitions on persistent items: I create them normally, and can set them once normally (from being unset), but if I change them from there, bad stuff happens, right? I want to avoid this, but I do have some persistent items that I want to have partitions.

Edit: In addition, if a partition on a persistent item is not set, then will checking if it is 1 return as true or false? Unset variables act kind of oddly sometimes, so I want to check.

Edit: How do I say If (variable) is not equal to (whatever)? I don't know exactly how that would be written in this system, so...

[IndigoFenix]

You can change persistent items after creating them, but changing the "price" field can have odd effects on existing player's inventories.

Basically the game will try to keep all players' total inventory "value" the same.  So if you increase the price, items will disappear from player inventories to compensate, and if you lower the price, the reduced value will be converted into sparks.  An item with zero value, if its price is increased to a non-zero number, will vanish from all existing inventories.

You can add new partitions after creating an item with partitions without any problems, but you can't change the bit count of an existing partition, or reorder them, after making them persistent, without messing up existing player's "saved" data.  (If you try, you will be asked if you want to delete all player's data for that item).

Spoiler: Technical Info (click to show/hide)

Persistent item data is stored as a binary string, and the partitions are used to save and load that string into an in-game object.

Let's say I have an item with 3 partitioned variables: a one-bit (0-1), four-bit (0-15), and three-bit (0-7).
A player plays the game and the item is saved with the one-bit variable as 1, the four-bit as 7, and the three-bit as 5.
Their saved binary string for that item will be:
10111101
Which is interpreted as such when loaded: (1)(0111)(101)
Or: 1,7,5 - the correct values.

If the four-bit value was then changed to 3-bits but player data was not deleted, their binary string would remain the same, but it would instead be interpreted as:
(1)(011)(110)
Or: 1,3,6
Which would be the wrong values, messing up their saved data regarding that item.

You can, however, add new partitions after the existing ones; if no data is there they will be "filled in" as 0 when loaded.

All other properties - graphics, title, description, effects, even the names of partitions - can be changed without problems; player inventories will automatically update with the new properties.

Unset variables are always equal to 0.

Not equals is written as !=

[Kamani]

Oh, I thought you meant you couldn’t change partitions once set. Oops. Makes sense.

Okay. Thanks.

Okay. Thanks. That should make of statements easier.