NanoBlobs 0.52b

[Argh]

Here ya go.

This is the latest stable beta of NanoBlobs, version 0.52b. I've mainly been working on it to teach myself about some of the more advanced features of the current Spring build, but I think this version is quite fun, and I wanted to let everybody know about its existence.

Is it balanced? Probably not. Are all units operating perfectly, per their roles? No, I think not, although balance is better than with the previous developer release. Please feel free to comment on the current gameplay.

For previous players of NanoBlobs... um, just pretend it's a new game design, and don't tell me how it's not 0.4x... I changed so much that it's not really the same game any more, which is both good and bad.

For people who have avoided it since release, because of FPS lag... please, give it another try, I have done a great deal to reduce FPS lag, including optimizing explosion behavior, using the new custom FX to reduce overdraw issues with smoke, and dozens of other hacks and tricks to give you the best possible gaming experience... while preserving the beauty.

Oh yeah, and I'm at work... so if somebody would be nice enough to make a screenie, I'd really appreciate it

[Argh]

Oh yeah, and let me know of any major bugs, of course

[AF]

I tried getting you screenshots but every attempt to load the mod is failing with crash as soon as the loading screens are done.

[Argh]

Eek! And no error messages? Strange... it's been stable on this end... are you using Spring 72b1, or a newer one?

[AF]

72b1

no error emssages.

Infolog just says Num damage types: 3

[Argh]

Eh? Num damage types? WTF is that about? Linux or Windoze Spring? The Linux version seems to have a number of serious bugs still, it couldn't even handle the previous beta, because it was expecting two "races"

I fixed the most obvious thing, and just cloned out the race (there is a second "side", but it's identical to the first one)... but I don't have the foggiest what this Num damage types thing is...

[AF]

This si the code when runnign 0.72b1 through VS 2003 debugger. I didnt have sprign compiled in debug mode though so I'm not sure of what help it is.

'spring.exe': Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\setupapi.dll', No symbols loaded.
'spring.exe': Unloaded 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\setupapi.dll'
'spring.exe': Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\ksuser.dll', No symbols loaded.
First-chance exception at 0x00525ab0 in spring.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x01bf0000.
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0xbf0) has exited with code 3 (0x3).
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0xaa4) has exited with code 3 (0x3).
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0xfb4) has exited with code 3 (0x3).
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0xb44) has exited with code 3 (0x3).
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0x72c) has exited with code 3 (0x3).
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0xcb4) has exited with code 3 (0x3).
The thread 'Win32 Thread' (0xf1c) has exited with code 3(0x3).

[AF]

As is obvious by now Windows XP hom edition sp2

The num damage types isnt an error, it's at the start fo every infolog file

[Felix the Cat]

Wow! FPS lag seems to be much reduced. However, it's still there, but only due to number of units onscreen - not due to battles.

I must say that with reduced smoke or whatever other change you made, battles are a lot prettier as well. I love the blue explosions!

I have a couple questions and a suggestion. The suggestion first: there's still IMO too much unit spam required - basically what I'm thinking of is the Sheep, where you have to build massive flocks to produce enough resources for a longer game. IMHO if you doubled the buildtime of the Sheep and doubled resource production, you'd minimize the number of units necessary (and thus the number of units onscreen) and leave gameplay untouched.

Questions: what are the roles of the new units? I can see that the TriRook kills stuff and that the MegaSheep are effective as last-ditch base defenses, and the Strider seems to be a nice light assault unit to be used in combo with Square Rooks or on raids, but I've yet to figure out what the Demon does. As far as I can tell it launches missiles which then circle around in the air and/or hit the ground. I built several in a game I just finished against NTai, and as far as I can tell none of them did any damage to the enemy.

[AF]

I went into the mod archive and noticed that the sound files freeze up winamp for me and the dds unit textures look nothign like they used to be, for example the spire rooks textures now show up to em as a pale blue with 2 small bits on it, both of which could hardly make up a spire rook...... I'm redownlaoding, but am i missing something here..... And no loading screens?

[Argh]

Hrmm... looks like a memory-overwrite bug... maybe a straight-up clone of the two races will cause a bug for some users, or something. Wouldn't think so, honestly, but I could just ... here, try this:

In Gamedata, open up Sidedata.tdf... change SIDE1's name to NANO1... save and see if that helps it out... maybe it's overwriting the database of units because names are colliding, or something dumb like that.

I guess the long and the short of it is that I'm at work for 6 more hours, and then I'll blow away Spring, put a fresh build up, and see if I can re-create your bug... I saw a bunch of weird bugs when I moved everything over to the new DEFAULT_UNIT templates- the Lord, in particular, worked fine in SpringSP but had bugs in SpringMP until I sat down and added Commander=1; CTRL_C and COMMANDER and TEDCLASS=COMMANDER; to the FBI...

[Argh]

and no loading screens?

No, it's still very, very beta, really! I have at least two more units planned for the next official version... er, once it's not causing problems. But it sounds like you got a corrupted file, honestly...

@Felix:

Glad that your gameplay experience is better. I am going to be looking at the whole resource issue in very great detail for the next official release, and will hopefully have the ability to remove nanoparticles entirely by then.

I'll talk more about unit balance and other things as I get it polished up, etc.

[AF]

Having redownloaded I get identical results

[Argh]

Hrmm... strange. I dunno what to tell you... I'll try it with a clean Spring install when I get home tonight, see what happens.

[Tobi]

Eh? Num damage types? WTF is that about? Linux or Windoze Spring? The Linux version seems to have a number of serious bugs still, it couldn't even handle the previous beta, because it was expecting two "races"

I fixed the most obvious thing, and just cloned out the race (there is a second "side", but it's identical to the first one)... but I don't have the foggiest what this Num damage types thing is...

It's just that the "extra" stuff is more limited on linux. Like there is no lobby yet. Besides the sound driver (DirectSound vs OpenAL) and some small things all code is identical on windows and linux. Spring on windows without lobby should choke on the same things...

[AF]

I got it workign int he svn build.

Note: It's not possible to build autofacs that work with hordes of sheep, as you end up with an autofac for every sheep in the horde all occupying the same space.

[Argh]

Eh... er... I have hordes of sheep in mine... um... dude... can I see a screenshot? What you're describing doesn't make any sense, nor have I had any problems with NTAI...

[Egarwaen]

I think what he's saying is that you can't select a horde of sheep and tell them to build an autofac, as they all build one autofac each in the same space.

[AF]

The way autofacs dont block like normal factories do means you can plane an infinite number of autofacs in the same position. As a result each autofac blocks eachother and none of them can build.

OTA factories are blocking yet they can open up, why cant you do the same only you open up the entire yardmap nto just the strip down the middle.

[Argh]

Lol... sorry guys, I don't know how I missed that one. It's a big, big "duh"... I haven't shrunk the current Yardmap... I shrank the footprint, but not the Yardmap... oops, will fix that when I get home, should take care of that problem...