Exception
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Currently what I have so far. Unfortunately, it's currently an illegal entry because I used a tileset variation that included flipped tiles, something I forgot about. I think it's currently too crowded anyway, so when I deal with the flipped tiles, I'll take the opportunity to clear out some trees/mountains. :D
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Well, you can apply a night/sunset overlay, apply fog, add lighting, shadows (if you really wanted), reflections in water, etc. They can all be done without needing to add more tiles.
The whole point of this contest is to show that there's so more that you can do with the defaults. I wouldn't say it's pointless, as if at least one user can improve the visuals of their mapping by pushing what they can do with EO's map editor at its core based on what they hopefully see here, then I'd be happy.
It's just a suggestion anyway. I'm not expecting anybody to do so. :p -
So, yeah, any discussion to do with [my Content Contest](http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/thread-85607-newpost.html) should be brought here. Submissions too!
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http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/thread-85366-post-944360.html#pid944360
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The Discussion/Submission thread is located: http://www.freemmorpgmaker.com/thread-85608.html
Hello! Recently, things have been looking a bit…uninspired, so in the hopes of helping everybody come up with more and push the boundaries of what Eclipse can actually do, I'm going to host weekly contests in the hopes that maybe the site as a whole can provide inspiration to go beyond what vanilla Eclipse Origins offers.
The "theme" each week will change, may not necessarily be to do with Eclipse/ORPGs, and the content I specify will not always be the same type (we will cover mapping, items, NPC balance, combat balance, etc).
**You do not require any ability to program, draw or compose music**, and I will **never** set tasks that depend on this.
Timeline of events
- I'll announce the rules/limits each Saturday. From then on, you are free to work on and submit your entry.
- The deadline will be the following Thursday. No more entries can be accepted beyond that point. A poll will open.
- The poll will close on Saturday, and the winner would be announced alongside the next set of rules/limits.
The prize? Well, I guess bragging rights can do for now. This is purely for fun in the hopes of improving your skills in the specified area.
**I ask that you please do not post in this thread. I will be creating separate threads for submissions, discussions and voting, and I would like to leave this thread to post only each weeks rules in.**
Hope you have fun!
* * *
**Carim's Content Contest #1**
**Type**: Mapping
**Submission Deadline**: 7th Jan
**Requirements/Limitations**:
* Map must be between 14x14 and 26x26 tiles
* Map must use this tileset, no other tiles are allowed: http://toen.itch.io/toens-medieval-strategy
* At least one edge must be ocean.
* You cannot submit more than 3 maps.
**Example Maps**:
**Suggestions**:
* Post-process your map! You are welcome to add lighting or weather effects.
* This is purely a mapping contest, so you can use any map editor you like. If you prefer to use Tiled/Ogmo/etc, do so.
* The tileset provided is intended for strategy games. You can derive inspiration from visually/functionally similar games such as Fire Emblem, Advance Wars.
* The map size given is small, but this should allow you to display focal points of the map. You're given a strategy tileset, so use elements associated with strategy games (chokepoints, vantage points, kiting, etc.)
* Think about how your map would play if you were to place units around it. If your map encourages turtling, it could do with improvements/redesigns.
Have fun! -
A shame you didn't release the source code…would've made things a bit easier.
Oh well, I can have it decompiled fairly accurately. In order of what I encountered:
* Please don't parse the GUI file like that…you can natively serialise/deserialise XML with .NET* Use WebClient.DownloadFile(Async) to handle downloading your files instead of titting around with Streams and DataBuffer.* Don't use TcpClient to simulate a connection test. .NET has the Ping class (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11800958/using-ping-in-c-sharp)* If you're in need of async functionality, look up TaskFactory (Looks like you're using .NET 4.5, so Task.Run())* Music is silly. It's an updater.* Storing a separate integrity file for folders and files is silly. Just store files and create directories based on the files going in, if it already exists, it'll carry on as normal.* More DataBuffer ickiness. Have your file list serialised to XML! Makes things much easier.* Thread.Sleep(). *grates teeth*. If you need form elements updated and displayed while doing work, you invoke them in a separate thread. Making my CPU spin needlessly for an updater is not exactly…great.* Actually, this whole downloading routine entirely. Use DownloadFileAsync and use the progress changing and completing events to progress things. Makes keeping your form responsive much more easier.
EDIT: As far as the error goes, it looks like you're using a character that the Windows filesystem does not allow. -
edits need 5 characters. there.
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Silverdale ain't an Eclipse game, only reason I didn't include it. :p
EDIT: If I did include it, it'd immediately jump into top 3 amazing tier. Including any other Mirage-derivatives is another matter; most of them would push almost all of the Eclipse games to the bottom. -
So, yesterday, some of us had an interesting topic of all the Eclipse games we've played. Nostalgia was a bit of a factor, but it was interesting to try to place literally every Eclipse game you have played somewhere when you try to compare them all.
I'd like to know where you place them.
I had a better think and rejiggled my (definitely not subjective) list from yesterday.
* * *
Rankings are based on how FUN these games are. Graphics/music/etc are almost a non-deciding factor, only concern is with content.
Tiers are split to contain 10 games each, but are otherwise arbitrary. In general, the lower it goes the more inaccurate my opinions become.
Take it for what you will, and take no offense from it, this just reflects my personal opinion.
Amazing Tier:
1 ] Post Nuke (nostalgia factor may be making this subjective)
2 ] Kirby's Dream World (nostalgia factor may be making this subjective)
3 ] Ambardia
4 ]
= Alure: The Awakening
= Origin: The Legend Reborn
= Aphelion Online (nostalgia factor may be making this subjective)
= The Tower (still not biased)
5 ]
= Lost and 2D
= Avian Classic
= Lostica (nostalgia factor may be making this subjective)
Great Tier:
1 ]
= Aloria Online
= Iron Prelude (still not biased. what are you looking at :>)
= Cinder
2 ] Kryce Online (nostalgia factor may be making this subjective)
3 ] Aegis
4 ] World Life Warfare (nostalgia factor may be making this subjective)
5 ] Eclipse Online Oddysey
6 ]
= Secrets of Majilova
= World of Azure
= SAINT SEIYA BEGINS
Good Tier:
1 ] Crystalshire
2 ] Mario & Luigi: New Adventures
3 ]
= Hero of Athea
= Skywardens
= Veridian
= Deloria
4 ] Realm of the Horde
5 ] Retarded Online xD
6 ] Brink of Time
7 ] Hippapiffapoof
Average Tier:
1 ] ResBaK Online
2 ] Nin Online (Old version, not played a recent version, will likely be higher)
3 ] The Underground
4 ] Prospekt (Old version before revamp)
5 ] City of Illusion
6 ] EverEmber (2015, I consider the old version a practically different game)
7 ] Realm of Darkness
8 ] Wasteland
9 ]
= Pokemon Cyrus Online
= Rise of the Half Blood
Poor Tier:
1 ] Naruto Online
2 ] EmberShard
3 ] EverEmber (old)
4 ] Multiworlds 2D
5 ] Da awsum legend of tales
6 ] Anime of Destiny
7 ] MageWorldOnline
8 ] Euthanasia
Terrible Tier:
not enough to fit here -
**First Impressions**
**Mapping**
Mapping ranges from poor to average. The better looking maps make decent use of the RMXP tilesets using tile variations effectively and keeping maps quite open. The maps that I would call poor feel artificial. They can be massively improved simply by making use of transition tiles, increasing variation in foliage placement and making cliffs more uneven.
The world overall feels a bit too small (addressed in the last Content/Balance sentence), I feel like my character progresses far too slowly while the world around grows far too quickly to keep up at a good pace without grinding. Fixed by either tweaking EXP growth or (unfeasible/unrealistic at this stage, I would expect) expanding on maps.
The minimap could be improved by making the unreachable tiles transparent. This can be achieved by using a junk tile type and just placing that where players can't reach.
**Content/Balance**
Items/NPCs look good, the quests are your typical fetch/kill x quests, but at the very least, they're not tedious. Being honest, I didn't play through enough to find anything unique to this game, so this is purely based off of comparisons to other Eclipse games.
Resource farming seems to be a bit jumpy. This is probably lag correction, but if I start walking/change direction after collecting a resource, it'll warp me back. I don't know if this is a problem with Eclipse or EE as I've never seen this before, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is just EO being EO.
I started off with the magic-based class, and it seems this game suffers from the same problem almost every other Eclipse game does: the AI can be easily exploited. I can farm high level enemies and take advantage of the slow walk speed and just spam spells with little effort. Especially thanks to the lack of lag compensation and slow walk speed, for PvP, there is absolutely zero reason to go for a physical-based class (this is more of an EO problem than it is Everember. Try to address it, though).
With that said, it seems that NPCs don't drop a lot of money, and the second spell for mages costs 200 gold. This is pretty jarring and gives me the impression that I will have to grind a lot to progress.
There is a map that I assume to be a Level 10-13 zone 2 maps away from the starting town. I had no clue about this and just wandered there. This either needs to be further away or telegraphed to low-level players!
**Visuals**
Items/Animations/NPCs are used effectively. The animations appear to be of lower quality compared to the rest of the graphics used and looks a bit inconsistent. Tilesets have been addressed with mapping. I'm not a fan of the game using its own custom border in lieu of the standard.
One thing that _greatly_ concerns me is the GUI: it is Crystalshire's. I don't care if the game is down, but I highly doubt that you have permission from Robin or Rory to use it. If you do not have permission, this is plagiarism and it is inexcusable. At the very least use boxes for placeholders until you can get something better.
EDIT: Sky tells me that you apparently have permission, but I highly doubt that Robin/Rory would do such a thing. I'd have to see visual proof of that.
**Music**
Audio varies wildly. Some is used appropriately, but some are just plain silly. There's a flipping echoey, epic theme playing on a farm, lmao.
One thing that concerns me slightly: I recognise some of the music used, I used it for a previous project. I recall the licensing for those being open source, but requesting that you provide attribution. I saw no such thing in the credits. Please fix that.
**Other Gripes**
The graphics encryption! It's pointless, just inflates the filesize and makes my compter do more work! For what? To protect graphics that do not belong to you?
Now, this is anecdotal experience speaking here, but I imagine this is the cause (or at least, a large part) of your black-screen issues; Past DirectDraw 7 games rarely had this issue, and the ones I can think of that did were those that tittied with the damn graphics in some way.
**Overall**
Overall my impression is average: there's nothing particularly spectacular, but nothing particularly bad either. Once the two attribution issues are addressed, I would be willing to play further to formulate a more concrete opinion of the game.
unrelated © benjo for some reason -
If I had to guess, your icon is a 32-bit per pixel ARGB icon. They're not compatible with VB6.
You will need to convert your icon to 24-bit per pixel. It will also need to be a .ico, no using JPGs or PNGs.
You can use something like IcoFX to make one properly if transparency is needed. Note that you can only mask a solid transparent block, you have no translucency options.
Full disclosure: I knew VB6 had a limitation but wasn't certain, so I confirmed it in 2 minutes by simply typing "vb6 icon invalid picture" into Google. -
I hope this isn't what I think it is.
Please tell me you're not trying to resell somebody else's engine just because you're unsatisfied with it. -
Ooh ooh let's see an old project…
Only counting finished outdoor maps:
30x30 - 3 (2,700 tiles)
60x60 - 42 (151,200 tiles)
30x60 or 60x30 - 4 (7,200 tiles)
120x120 - 1 (14,400 tiles)
In total that makes for 175,100 tiles.
Going by your measurements, that makes for 1,575,900 sq. ft., or roughly 36 acres/0.05 sq. miles. -
"Slime Boss is using a black hole to pull Skyward to him!"
I'll admit, I laughed. :p
* * *
Anyway, how does its AI play out exactly? I can't really tell if there's a sequence or if it's random. If it's the latter, you'll want to make sure it can't stun or HP drain too often otherwise fights can just become RNG dependent.
Overall, functions good. Still needs some visual polish (off the top of my head: summoning animations for monsters, using a bigger boss-like sprite, more animations), but something's there. -
"Spirit: -2216/284"
Might, uh, want to look into that. -
Did you actually install [this](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3247)?
EDIT: why the hell do links not have an underline or at least a different colour to differentiate them. could somebody fix this in the theme, please. -
Exact same problem? It's possible that you'll need to replace the controls (or download a fresh source).
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Actually, Mohenjo, you're right. I'm going "wat" at Zetasis' response (only because there are two things going on here, the first being more pressing. :p)
The first batch of errors refer to lacking SP6.
The "Line 255: Class MSWinsockLib.Winsock of control Socket was not a loaded control class." line
SHOULD be fixed by just installing the runtimes but apparently not, so registering the ocx should work instead.
@Dyrbek, open your Command Prompt **as an admin** and enter the following:
regsvr32 mswinsck.ocx
Hit enter, and that should fix your issue. -
~snip
not worth the tirade.
mods, feel free to remove. -
@'Mohenjo:
> Have you tried deleting that map?
OUT.
* * *
I reduced the maximum maps to 50 when I made my changes. If Sky copied everything, then that'll be the case.
Open your source, in modConstants, look for
Public Const MAX_MAPS As Long = 50
Change the 50 to whatever number you desire. I recommend keeping it to only as many as you need.
Once changed, File > Make Sky Server.exe and save your source.
EDIT: Sky, why the hell is the Map Report listing maps that do not exist? xD
I'm assuming it uses some MAX_MAPS constant set in the Client which doesn't match up to the new one…to which I ask, why is MAX_MAPs neccessary Client-side? :p -
More details would be nice.
What Runtime Error occurs?
If you can run the Server source directly, what line does it error on? -
@'Rob:
> (Full-Screen disabled due to performance issues at 4k resolution)
* * *
That aside, looks pretty good and it's always nice to have more Eclipse projects around. -
Some screenshots would be nice
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Quick unofficial fix-up for the server to whoever wants it and/or cannot seem to get VB6 SP6 installed correctly.
What this does:
* Fixes the damage issue above
* Makes combat run off of the correct stat for defending (this is an issue in EVERY version that is a derivative of Eclipse Origins 2.0 [probably earlier than that, even], I'm surprised it's persisted this long)
* Removal of the account editor tab on the basis that this functionality should be an external editor. It functions like crap (in that it's a ui/ux nightmare), anyway.
* Changed the experience…checkboxes (why?) into a scrollbar.
* Removes all controls used in VB6 SP6\. Should open just fine with a vanilla copy of VB6, no need for additional installations. The tabs are gone, and the ListView for players is replaced with a ListBox. Made the changes accordingly to accommodate this.
* Changed the constants to load a sensible amount of content. Why the bloody hell is it set to 300 maps, players can expand as they need it.
Because it just makes those simple changes, you can use this with a Skywyre v7 client perfectly fine and can just replace your server entirely if you've made no changes to your server. I've only made two substantial changes (one given above), this is just mostly cruft trimming and trying to get rid of the bloody SP6 dependencies.
You may download it here: glaciate.net/sandbox/sp6less-server.zip
Please never make me touch VB6 again.
edit: whoopsies, forgot to make the EXP label update. Just know that it goes from 0 to 10 and it starts off at 1 by default.
edit2: to be clear, this just includes the compiled server and the server source. No client. No server data. You will need to download Skywyre v7 and replace its server with this if you want to use it.
[SKY] Item Editor Not Saving? [RESOLVED]
in Q & A
Posted