Just fiddling with the Engine,

[Rob Janes]

I'm just making some tweaks to the engine to fit my own needs, so far it's pretty simple, it stores (5) strings that get updated during the HandleData for Map Messages.  It works well, it let's 'system messages' get displayed as text on the map as oppose to cluttering up the chat.

Next will be (Map) chat appearing above a characters head in a chat bubble.

I must say, I'm thoroughly impressed with this engine, the spell system is wonderful and the code is very clean and well commented! Kudos Robin!

[Rob Janes]

I've added a new "Who's Online" list, where it shows a ListView with Small Head Icons, similar to games like 'Graal' online, I'll make it so you can double click a player name and open an instant messenger style chat window next, should be done within the next 30-40 minutes, I'll post a screenshot then as well.

Was fairly easy to do, added SUpdateUserList and SClearUserList handles, and updated the SendWhosOnline list to be called anytime a player logs in or out and rather than sending it to an individual player, it sends the data to everyone connected and updates their user list.

[Devogen]

Any reason not for a transparent chat box?

[Rob Janes]

Wasn't something I really considered, Would require the use of Alpha Blending but I don't imagine it would be that difficult to do.  I may ultimately make a seperate 'Chat' window altogether with various chat channels similar to my other online game, people tend to like having various chat tabs, so I'm not really sure how I'll go about having the chat 'appear' in a finish product.  But good idea nonetheless ;)

Aside from the instant messaging style chat, I'm just quickly adding in a 'Rain' and 'Snow' system cleverly using ' and * as rain and snow flakes and having them randomly draw (as text) across the screen depending on the weather.  Saves a ton on the FPS versus using an image (unless I cracked and went with particle weather)

[Rob Janes]

Attached is a screenshot of the snow, using "*" and "'" for rain, it simply has a Public Type of a Droplet that stores the String, X and Y location of the Droplet, and then uses a timer to move the droplet.  Simple and very effective!

See Video!
V2ZrtKBJCew

[Jeff]

wow, that's pretty cool.  Hope you make some more good stuff!

[Rob Janes]

Thanks

I'm sort of just toying with the engine still creating features that I would like to see if I develop a game using this it.  I don't mind sharing the source for certain features if people want it, or if anyone has a suggestion on a feature to add, perhaps I'll create it and share it with the community.

Cheers

[Anna Comnena]

Hey did you actually make or work on Artifact? I played that a long time ago (maybe 2004-2005), and I liked it, except every time I'd log off the next time I'd play my town was in ruins!

Cute method using a string for weather effects.

[Rob Janes]

See new Video of the Instant messaging system, still a WIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJmpXbc0yRk

Also, as for Artifact, I was involved as an Administrator and developer for quite some time, and later purchased Samu Games and it's products from the original owners (David and Doug)

[shado360]

Hey there! It looks really good so far, I have a question though, as I'm tweaking Origins too. I see that you were able to put the health and spirit/mana bars on the screen, how did you go about doing this?

Thanks for your time,
Païn

[Rob Janes]

I changed the Health and Spirit bars to Picture Boxes (they are images by default).  Make them picture boxes that overlay picScreen and then change the source accordingly to reference your new Pictures rather than the old images.  Easiest way to do this, delete imgHPBar and delete imgMPbar, create 2 Picture Boxes over the top of picScreen and call them "imgHPBar" and "imgMPBar". Viola! Success!

[shado360]

Thanks, Ill try now.

Thanks again,
Païn

[shado360]

Worked great! Thanks so much.

Thanks,
Païn

[shado360]

I found something…... not so "beneficial" XD, is this:

>! 

[Rob Janes]

What happens is that you have the numbers inside of the imgHP picture box,
Do the following, set the labels inside lblHP and lblHP to Alignment 'center'.

Then, in the HandlePlayerHP function in modHandleData,

Add

  frmMain.lblHP.width = frmMain.picHPBar.width

AFTER where it says frmMain.picHPBar.width = Int(((GetPlayerVital(MyIndex, Vitals.HP) / HPBar_Width) / (GetPlayerMaxVital(MyIndex, Vitals.HP) / HPBar_Width)) * HPBar_Width)

Then do the same for lblMP in HandlePlayerMP :)  Basically you want to set the lblHP and lblMP width to the width of the picture boxes whenever the size of the picture is changed.

[shado360]

First of all, thanks for being so helpful, second of all, Sorry for being so naggy :(, but look what happened:

>! 

Sorry,
Païn

[Rob Janes]

Ah I see,
Change the code to

frmMain.lblHP.width = frmMain.picHPBar.ScaleWidth

Use ScaleWidth on the second part,

[Rob Janes]

Attached is a new screenshot showing the new 'Chat' window.
Alpha Blending is a tedious pain in the arse from my experience, though I'm sure it could easily be done.  To replicate the effect and not decrease performance, I've created a walk around by putting the txtChat on a new form, that new form (border style none) moves into the proper position on frmMain resize, so it always keeps the chat in the proper position.  It uses windows API for setlayeredwindowattributes to make the whole form just a little transparent giving it a nice professional feel.

Note, this means it'll only operate on Windows XP or newer, so sadly, it renders my program moot for anyone on older operating systems, which, in 2011, I pray to god people are atleast on XP.

Screenshot

[Aldur]

So does the main game window lose focus when you are sending a message? That seems like it would be a little annoying.

[Rob Janes]

It does however, given the 'style' of game I want to portray and appeal to the more 'casual' gamer, it'll fit in nicely with the finished product.

[JSchilli1]

You're a very clever programmer! Nice work!

-JS1

[Rob Janes]

I spent the last 45 minutes or so getting the basics in for a guild system.

At the moment you can use /createguild or use the UI to create a guild (costs 10,000 Gold).  You can then use the "Guild" window to see who's all online, promote/demote/dismiss players.  Right now, it's nothing more than a glorified array of players, there is a guild.dat file which houses NumGuilds = X, and then GuildX.dat represents the data for each guild such as who the guild leader is, and the rank of each member (to a maximum of 30 members).

The goal is to have a guild 'perk' system which will allow guilds to have perks like faster leveling for it's members etc. (Horray for mimicking already successful ideas)

Screenshot!

[Rob Janes]

I also tweaked the weather engine so that snow now falls a bit slower than rain, and rain also falls in a more diagonal direction, so it looks like it's a windy rain.

[Rob Janes]

See Attached Screenshots for the New Guild System!

[turbocookie]

That is awsome, i will definatly use this :) Maybe allow guilds to choose a guild colour? the text of their guild under their name can be that colour