Build 43: First Coat of Wax

[weasel]

As things are drawing up to release, things are getting pretty tight very fast. Build 43 is mostly graphical and 'ease of use' changes, though there was a few gameplay changes as well. See the full changelog after the jump, of course.

I drew up a calendar for the coming month and I realized that between all my events (PAX, BeerFest, GDC) I only have 8 working days left on the clock. I have to get cracking!

Roger's been making some music progress and Greg did an awesome job of nailing down the new introduction graphic today. Pretty soon I won't be getting any more sleep.

It's come to my attention that there's some bugs in the server comms when it comes to doing things like saving your levels. If you are in the middle of an epic build, SAVE OFTEN. It's first on the list for B44!

[weasel]

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

- Fixed a bug where if Nitrogen exploded near a structural bond, it would dislodge everything near it. This bugfix will obviously only affect replays where this situation occurs.
- The character now has a trapezoid for feet, instead of a box. This will make it harder to get stuck in little holes and no more glitchy-sticking to wall corners. The actual area of the box that touches the ground hasn't changed, so this will only break replays where edge-sticking has occured.

ART UPDATES:

- When loading a level, replay, or editing a level, the game will now skip the intro graphic. It may pause at the main menu for up to 3 seconds while it attempts to verify the version number, but will move on immediately when this task is complete.
- Removed transition effect on the notify boxes (lens-swap)
- New intro! Fancy and shiny and awesome!
- The editor cursors now have an outline and are a bit sharper, for precision work.
- The aiming reticule is now updated and looks less like a sword you are swinging around.

EDITOR UPDATES:

- Supercopy didn't work with anything that contained Iron. Fixed.
- Made an error in bond drawing show a proper error in the debug box instead of crashing the editor.
- Pre-baked the grid texture to make it go dreamy-fast.
- There was a slight glitch where you had to move the mouse after releasing the button when drawing, before things would take effect. Fixed!
- When moving walls with grid-snap-to enabled, it now snaps the grid to the top left corner of the wall instead of the center of the wall. It will snap where the top left corner used to be if the wall piece is rotated.

GENERAL CHANGES:

- Replays will stop playing upon selecting a new level now (was supposed to be fixed in b41 but I guess I missed a few spots)
- Pressing your defined reset key should now work when you have the victory or gameover window open (this used to work but it got disabled again at some point)
- Trying to re-enter the editor after a Locked-edit-failure will no longer load the level.
- Logging in/out now only shows a confirmation message if there was an error of some sort. Trying to cut down on the number of dialogue boxes.

OFFICIAL LEVELS:

- I've started populating the official level list. This isn't to say they are final or will even be included in the end product - I just wanted to start fleshing them out there. Here's what I have so far (Bold were updated in this release):

Trial 01:
Trial 02:
Trial 03: 706 SwingSets
Trial 04: 620 Mine Shaft
Trial 05: 701 Palindrome
Trial 06:
Trial 07: 615 Descent
Trial 08:
Trial 09: 739 Shepherd
Trial 10:
Trial 11:
Trial 12:
Trial 13: 735 Rig the System
Trial 14: 747 Venture
Trial 15: 657 Overcomplicated

Tutorial 1: 696 Collecting and Jumping
Tutorial 2: 622 Firing
Tutorial 3: 710 Nitrogen
Tutorial 4: 690 Hydrogen
Tutorial 5: 699 Single Bonds
Tutorial 6: 633 Double bonds
Tutorial 7: 630 Ghost Bonds
Tutorial 8: 689 Carbon/Iron intro
Tutorial 9: 632 Wall-Jumping

[Linkzcap]

Woo, you can move after the victory screen!

Edit: When you die though, you get fireworks and a "Well done young protonaut!" screen.

Also, you can't save a replay if you die after you won... which is kinda bad.

Also, you didn't fix the bug that I mentioned a few builds ago...

When you are sliding down a bond towards a nitrogen, when you die no message pops up: http://www.protonaut.net/?level=770

[weasel]

Woo, you can move after the victory screen!

Edit: When you die though, you get fireworks and a "Well done young protonaut!" screen.

Also, you can't save a replay if you die after you won... which is kinda bad.

Also, you didn't fix the bug that I mentioned a few builds ago...

When you are sliding down a bond towards a nitrogen, when you die no message pops up: http://www.protonaut.net/?level=770

There is no "Death" screen for the tutorials yet, so I just have the victory one slapped in there.

The replay is saving - just the popup doesn't inform you until you hit one of the sidebar buttons like "help". This is fixed for B44.

Also, I wasn't able to reproduce your bug before - but I was with this new version you linked! thanks. I'll look into that. EDIT: It was caused because you "got" the nitrogen just as it killed you, so you both won AND lost at the same time. I changed up the code so if you die, you can't possibly win, therefore bug fixed. :) Thanks!

[Azxs12]

You shouldn't be able to publish you level if you didn't test it.

Edit: All replays have a tick discrepancy!!!!!!

[portgoose]

Most replays are borked...

Also, I get this when I try to change if one of my levels is published:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /f5/protonaut/public/browser/index.php:8) in /f5/protonaut/public/browser/index.php on line 45

[weasel]

You shouldn't be able to publish you level if you didn't test it.

Yeah you should. Just because you suck at playing the game doesn't mean the level isn't any good. Have you looked at the "top levels" list and seen a lot that are impossible?

Edit: All replays have a tick discrepancy!!!!!!

Only ones that had exploding Nitrogen near ghost bonds, and ones where you jumped near a corner of a block. :colbert:

Not *all* of them, just most of them. :P

[weasel]

also, browser error is being worked on, known issue :)

[OfficiallyHaphazard]

I would like to see "levels beaten at least once" tab.
That would give makers a reason to beat their own level.

[weasel]

I would like to see "levels beaten at least once" tab.
That would give makers a reason to beat their own level.

Have you clicked on the "New levels" tab?

Only shows levels with at least 1 win; removes from the list any level you've voted on already; sorts by rating (descending).

[OfficiallyHaphazard]

Have you clicked on the "New levels" tab?

Only shows levels with at least 1 win; removes from the list any level you've voted on already; sorts by rating (descending).

Problem with that is that I keep seeing levels I have played but don't particularly want to vote up.
It would be nice if there was a No-op vote.

[weasel]

Oh right. lol. Yeah, today is voting day on my to-do list. :)