Below is Ian Reed's announcement he posted int he audiogames forum...
Hi all! It's been a while since my last release. I've been quite distracted with my day job and with Aprone's swamp and Dentin's Alter Aeon but now I'm refocused on Tactical Battle. I've been working hard on new features for map creators and even spent an entire week of vacation plus the surrounding weekends just working on updates to the game. There's been an email chain going on between a few map creators and myself. There are some exciting maps in the works using themes from Star wars, Star Trek, Modern military, zombie horror and RedWall Abbey. There's been a complete rewrite of the point system and I've added new damage types, structures, regions, stackable units and a new movement system to name a few. I've also created a mailing list for those who really want to be in the know. Some of the benefits of joining the mailling list are: 1 Access to developer versions of the game so you can try out map creation features without waiting for the next full version. 2 Find out about the latest features so your maps can take advantage of them. 3 Let me know which features you'd like to see implemented and help me decide how to prioritize them. 4 Access to the latest maps and the ability to give feedback to the map creators to help shape the final outcome. To subscribe to the mailing list you can use the form in the "Joining the community" section of the BlindAudioGames.com website or simply send an email to: [email protected] with the word subscribe in the subject line. All in all this is a huge release for map creators. If you have some existing maps and need help converting them please join the mailing list or email me at [email protected]. I don't want all the new changes to stop anyone's maps from getting converted to the new system. As always you can download the latest version of the game at http://BlindAudioGames.com It includes: 1 Updated versions of my Getting Started maps. 2 A brand new Conquering Redwall Abbey map series by KeyWasFull. 3 Austen's Kingdom at war maps converted to the new system. If you find issues in Austen's maps let us know, but be forgiving. He had to do some major conversions to get them into the new system. KeyWasFull plans on adding more sounds for his maps but is suffering from a recent hard drive crash and a loss of most of his sounds. Here's the complete list of changes for Tactical Battle version 1.10: 1 names of units to be defeated in the victory conditions can now include underscores. 2 Removing the defend_enabled flag from default map flags now removes the defend skill and also no longer crashes when the AI runs. (obsolete now) 3 Added a no_self_cast flag for skills. This can be used on skills that have the friendly flag but are not meant for the caster to use on themselves. 4 Added a "fly" flag for effects so you can add an effect to a unit to allow them to fly while the effect lasts. 5 Added a remove_effects= flag on skills that works just like the effects= flag except that it removes effects rather than adding them. 6 Effects that deal end of turn damage and are applied to units rather than tiles will now cause the damage as expected. (obsolete in the old system though the new system works correctly as well) 7 Added new flags to skills that allow you to hint to the AI at how the skill should be used. The flags are ai_heal, ai_buff, ai_curse, ai_tile_curse, ai_attack, ai_defend and ai_move. 8 Fixed a bug that would crash the game if the AI used a skill that resulted in it's own death. 9 Fixed a bug where the game ignored the no_movement flag when it is on an effect applied to a passive skill. 10 Made a huge re-write to the point system. Level creators can now create their own custom points rather than being restricted to the old hard coded HP, MP, and AP. 11 In the new point system there are no hard coded skills such as move, attack and defend. These are now more customizable by the player so that you can have units who can not attack or move for instance. 12 Implemented a death flag on effects which is used in the new point system. 13 Implemented a hide_old_points flag in the map defaults file to remove all the hard coded points and abilities from a new map. (now obsolete) 14 Added the ability to set flags for a skill while in the unit file, this is primarily used to alter how much damage attack does or it's range on a per unit basis as the attack skill is now treated as a normal skill in the new point system. 15 Added a map flag called music that let's you set the music for that map. Music files can be placed in the "Music" folder of your map pack. 16 Added a skill flag called move_self which is used to support the non-hard coded move skill but can also be used to support teleportation skills. 17 Added a Default unit flags.txt file. 18 Added a new key= flag for skills that allows you to set a hot key for using that skill when your cursor is over a unit. This only works if you are using the hide_old_points flag on your map. The revised getting started maps use this to map hot keys for all the skills. 19 In maps using the new point system you are now required to move to each tile along the path to your final destination. This will allow for tiles that have negative effects or terrain to cause damage to you as you first step on to them. The blaze effect now causes damage to you when you move on to a tile with the effect. 20 To make moving simpler in the new movement system you can use the shift + arrow keys to move one tile in any direction. Map creators can determine which skill uses these keys by setting the move_keys flag on a skill. 21 Fixed a bug where pressing J or K to cycle through units while in the map editor for a map that had no units for that team would cause the game to crash. 22 Added a self flag for skills that can only be cast on yourself. 23 Added a brand new damage type system. This allows you to say that a bash skill does physical damage while a fireball does fire damage and then give units armor that may defend against physical but not fire and so forth. 24 Made it so you can have 2 maps with the same name as long as they aren't in the same map pack. This makes it easier to just copy and paste a map pack and get started editing maps. 25 Added the ability for each map pack to provide it's own user guide. 26 Separated the original user guide into a main menu user guide and one specific to the getting started maps and made heavy updates to the map creation section of the user guide. 27 Added the ability to toggle a unit's team by pressing shift + T when in the map editor. 28 You can now press shift + S to move your cursor back to the last unit who performed an action. This is very useful when attacking an enemy 3 spaces away as you press shift + B to jump right back to your archer. 29 Added the ability to add structures to maps and updated the in game map editor to let you place structures by pressing S to choose one and spacebar to place it. 30 Added the ability to stack structures or units by setting the units_pert_tile= or structures_per_tile= flags in the default map flags file to something higher than 1. 31 Also updated the in game map editor to support placing stackable units and tiles. 32 Added tab and shift + tab to toggle through units and structures on the current tile. 33 Added an impassable flag for units and structures that stop non flying units or structures from entering their tiles. 34 Added a summon= flag for skills that allows a skill to summon a new unit or structure to the target tile. 35 Added an opposing_forces_can_share_tiles map flag to allow opposing forces to occupy the same tile when stackable units or structures are enabled. 36 Added a splash_range= flag to skills to specify how far the splash damage and effects reach. 37 Added splash_effects= and splash_remove_effects= flags to skills so that the splash can cause or remove effects. 38 Added self_effects= and self_remove_effects= flags to skills so you can have a skill that causes or removes an effect from the caster instead of the target, such as an exhaustion effect on the caster when they use a powerful skill. 39 Added a point_splash_restore= flag to skills to match the point_splash_inflict= flag. 40 Added a point_step_cost= flag to terrain so you can make it cost more movement or actions to move on to that terrain. 41 Added point_step_inflict= and point_step_restore= flags for units, passive skills, effects and terrain. 42 Added a few more AI hint flags for skills, which are ai_uncurse, ai_unbuff and ai_summon and additionally made the AI intelligent enough to use them. 43 Added a sound= flag for effects and added the playing of effect or terrain sounds when moving a character. Also added playing of tile effects sounds when moving the cursor. 44 Added F3, F4, F5, F6, and F7 for announcing all sorts of information. Replaces the old C and I keys. 45 Changed a number of keyboard shortcuts to free up the letter keys for map creators to use with skills and to change cycling keys to use the shift key for reversing rather than consuming 2 keys. 46 Added F11 and shift + F11 to adjust music volume without going to the audio settings menu. 47 Updated code so that if a music file fails to load it does not crash the game. Also updated code to not try and load the desktop.ini file when it exists in the sounds or music folders. 48 Separated the keys that cycle through structures from the ones that cycle through units. 49 Made it so sounds from one map pack would not override those in another map pack. 50 Added F8 key to replay the map intro. 51 Adjusted format of Units, skills, effects and terrain files so flags can be specified on separate lines for better readability and editing. 52 You can now press shift + T to move your cursor back to the last unit you performed an action on. This is the opposite of shift + S, added earlier and allows you to quickly jump between the source unit and target unit. 53 Fixed a naming conflict bug related to skills and points that had similar names but still unique ones. 54 Added the ignore_max dynamic skill flag for letting skills restore points passed their normal maximums. 55 Fixed a bug where AI would use skills that restored points to units that could not benefit from the points. 56 Fixed a bug where AI would attack a unit that could not suffer that type of point damage. 57 Added the terrain_limit= unit flag for limiting unit movement to certain types of terrain. 58 Added first letter navigation for all menus in the game. 59 Added regions to the game as well as the ability to place them in the map editor. 60 Added the ability to do block placement in the map editor by first marking one corner of the block with the M key and then going to the other corner of the block and pressing shift + space bar. 61 Added a no_skills flag for effects that stops the affected unit from using any skills. 62 Updated the music and sounds for the 5 getting started maps. 63 More heavy updates to the main menu user guide for all the previously mentioned features. 64 Started cleaning up code from the old system which makes it so only maps using the new point system will work in Tactical Battle 1.10 and later. That's a lot of updates. I plan on getting my next releases out before waiting so long. And remember, you can always join the mailing list to find out when developer versions of the game are available. I hope you all enjoy the updates and I'm excited to see some new map creators join the mailing list! Ian Reed ianr's Website Thumbs up 2 arqmeister 2012-02-02 03:03:47 list of 2 items Moderator Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2010-12-19 Posts: 1,438 User Karma: 20 list end Sounds cool, could you please provide a link to the download Thumbs up 3 ianr 2012-02-02 05:18:13 list of 2 items Galaxy stranger Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2012-01-29 Posts: 60 User Karma: 4 list end Sure thing. Here's a link to the website with instructions on running the game and a link to the download. http://BlindAudioGames.com I recommend that link because it has instructions on getting the game to run properly. I was going to include a direct link to the user guide and download but the forum does not like me posting more than one link. Ian Reed ianr's Website Thumbs up 4 SLJ 2012-02-02 10:41:56 list of 2 items outbackstranaut Offline list end list of 4 items From: Denmark Registered: 2007-05-25 Posts: 2,417 User Karma: 31 list end [wow], sounds really interesting. I'm gonna take a look at it. SLJ's Website Thumbs up 5 Dark 2012-02-02 15:38:54 list of 2 items Chief defenestrator Offline list end list of 4 items From: The Ivory Tower Registered: 2005-12-16 Posts: 9,610 User Karma: 140 list end Hi. I've just finished a battle on the first map, and thus far i'm impressed. It's one of these very simple little ideas that has absolutely great potential to be a really interesting game, and though the game certainly needs more sounds, the ones you have and the music are pretty good already. it took me a little while to get used to the fact that all units, spells, attacks etc only work horizontally, including things like healing touch, but once I got this things were great. As to the game, one rather basic feature I would like to see is the ability to see on the map the hp of friendly and enemy units, and the ap of your units. This could even be atmospheric, eg "The evil boar is slightly injured" and thus add more to the game's overall feeling and illustrating the war aspect. For ap, it got a little irritating hitting u and having to go through "So and so has zero ap" to get to whichever unit had ap left, indeed you might considder having the n key switch betwene your units one at a time, sinse if their ap was shown on the map it would speed things up very much sinse you could then just flick through the units until you got to the one you wanted to move. I'd also suggest you think of a slightly more catchy name than "tactical battle" as well, though that would depend upon what you wanted to do with the plot. other than that, it looks great thus far and has many possibilities, sinse there are so many different factors you could play with, different classes and spells, different terrain types that affect unit movement, ---- eg rough ground that took more ap to traverse, missions and experience, collectable items on the map which you could move a unit to and pick up (though obviously that unit would then have to get back to safety without being got by the enemy), etc. I'll be very interested to see where this one goes, and if your looking for story text and plot perhaps I could help there too. Let your dream begin, Let your darker side give in, to the power of the music that I write. Help me make the music of the night. Thumbs up 6 stewie 2012-02-02 17:24:10 list of 2 items Business monkey Offline list end list of 4 items From: somewhere Registered: 2009-10-18 Posts: 495 User Karma: 0 list end Hmm. I've reached battle 3, but it's very very slow due to the fact every single movement action is talked about at great length. Maybe you could add an option to the settings menu where you could set the level of detail. don't display enemy actions, display only attack, display only movement, display all. maybe Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. stewie's Website Thumbs up 7 Dark 2012-02-02 17:31:06 list of 2 items Chief defenestrator Offline list end list of 4 items From: The Ivory Tower Registered: 2005-12-16 Posts: 9,610 User Karma: 140 list end I'm not sure stewee, myself I thought that the text was about right. Possibly if there were more than about 10 units a side all having a go some sort of brief option would be needed, but I'm less convinced of that thus far. Still, if it were an optional settings file then everyone could please themselves. Let your dream begin, Let your darker side give in, to the power of the music that I write. Help me make the music of the night. Thumbs up 8 tward 2012-02-02 18:02:35 list of 2 items Entombinator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2011-12-30 Posts: 661 User Karma: 27 list end I just downloaded and tested the game. I must say good job so far. As Dark said above it is a simple little idea that could have a lot of potential, and is the sort of thing right up my alley. I definitely think there needs to be a way to check the status of specific units rather than pressing u and getting the state of all units at once. It might work if you continue to have maps of three/four units, but I imagine as the game grows we'll want to be able to check the status of any specific unit on the board. Another suggestion is maybe you should expand the map size. An 8x8 map is good for short little games like the game is now, but if you are thinking of any kind of campaign modes etc something like a 100x100 would be better because you could add a lot of elements like hills, forests, rivers, etc that would drastically change the tactical situation. Last of all, I've got a question. According to the documentation it says I need DirectX 9 and .NET 4.0. I was just curious to know by DirectX are you using SlimDX for .NET applications or are you using Microsoft's Managed DirectX? I have both installed on my laptop, but was curious to know which API you were currently using for the game as Managed DirectX is deprecated, but SlimDX is quite stable, and a very good DirectX API for C#.NET and VB.NET. Sincerely, Thomas Ward USA Games Interactive http://www.usagamesinteractive.com tward's Website Thumbs up 9 arqmeister 2012-02-02 18:38:17 list of 2 items Moderator Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2010-12-19 Posts: 1,438 User Karma: 20 list end Really nice job so far. As mentioned, more sounds are a must in my view. For example with archers, i think there should be the shot of a bow followed by the arow making contact. This is just an example, but it would still be cool to see things like that used. Thumbs up 10 Aprone 2012-02-02 18:48:15 list of 3 items Aprone Moderator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2010-10-29 Posts: 2,404 User Karma: 156 list end If I'm not mistaken, Ian is willing to accept sounds from people who have them. We don't all benefit from a huge sound library or a dedicated sound guy. I totally agree with the bow pull and arrow hit, I just don't have sounds for either to pass along to Ian. I'm enjoying the game so far. I lost my healer on mission 2 so I'm starting over. - Aprone Please try out my games and programs: Aprone's software Thumbs up 11 ianr 2012-02-02 18:49:31 list of 2 items Galaxy stranger Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2012-01-29 Posts: 60 User Karma: 4 list end Hi Dark Thanks for your great feedback. Regarding the output of HP and AP. You can currently press the U key to have the remaining AP of all your characters announced. It will not announce any unit with 0 AP. When on any friendly or enemy character you can press I to have all their unit information announced. It first announces HP, then AP. You can hit F to get the positions of all friendly units and e to get the positions of all enemy units. These keys could be changed to announce HP as well. Pressing N to rotate between your units that still have AP is a very good idea. I'll be sure to add that feature. My concern about announcing a units HP and AP when moving your cursor to a square is that I announce tile effects afterward and I didn't want to put too much information before that. That said, most tiles do not have effects on them and the only effect I currently have for a tile is Blaze which I could indicate with some sort of fire sound. So I can probably add AP and HP to the announcement when you move to a tile. Regarding the name. I absolutely agree. Unfortunately I don't have storyline and I'm not sure exactly where I want to go with it. I think there are a lot of possibilities to expand the game and even to make different games that run in the same basic engine but with different stats, themes and storyline. I wanted to get the game out there to see if there was interest in it before I lost interest myself. I initially had an idea about a larger game where you would hire mercenaries of different classes that would gain experience and you would take on contracts for defending towns or escorting merchants. This would cause you to have to make decisions about how much money to spend keeping units employed and how to split them up between different missions. You would want to have larger groups to handle a mission but splitting up your units to cover multiple missions at once could gain you more income. I left out experience and the larger game idea realizing that I could do this simpler version and get it out there for people to play and expand it into a larger game later. If you've got plot ideas I'd love to hear them. You can email them to [email protected] or post them here. Thanks Ian Reed ianr's Website Thumbs up 12 ianr 2012-02-02 19:00:22 list of 2 items Galaxy stranger Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2012-01-29 Posts: 60 User Karma: 4 list end Hi Stewie On that third battle there are 12 enemy units so it does take a while. I think making options to control what output is given is a good idea as different people could configure it the way they want. I'll put some more thought into this. Also you've probably noticed that you can interrupt the speech output while it's your turn, just not during the enemy's turn. Hi Tward I intentionally kept the map size small because I wanted people to be able to keep most of it in their heads. I think I would get lost in a 100 by 100 map. I had thought about doing a larger strategy type game where you could move groups of units on a higher level 8 by 8 map and when they come into contact with enemy groups they would fight in the current type of 8 by 8 tactical battle. I believe it's managed DirectX. I was not aware it had been deprecated. I'll have to look into that. I hope my instructions for installing are actually correct. I link to DirectX on the website but I don't have a machine that lacks DirectX or the .NET Framework so the instructions are not tested well. Ian Reed ianr's Website Thumbs up 13 Dark 2012-02-02 19:32:41 list of 2 items Chief defenestrator Offline list end list of 4 items From: The Ivory Tower Registered: 2005-12-16 Posts: 9,610 User Karma: 140 list end Hi Ian. Just as a moderation point, please don't double post on the forum, sinse it makes things rather untidy and makes your replies harder to read. If you write an initial post, then want to add to it, say taking into account other people's comments, please just use the "edit post" link to add later comments to your earlier message. Okay that over, there are some very interesting thoughts her.e I knew about all the keys you mention accept the i key, that is a useful one. If the ultimate plan (as I hope), is to have many more tile affects, you ar right that keeping track of these in one go could make for a long message while navigating the map. however, if there was were keys to cycle through your units and through the enemy, hitting I on each one to see it's status wouldn't be too difficult. i'd hate to see complexities and different terrains and tyle affects missed just for fear of having too much speech. other sorts of damage such as ice, perhaps magically created brambles that block the unit and are harder to move through (ie they cost more ap to move over that tyle), as well as doing minimal damage, perhaps a marsh which effect which has the increased ap cost but no damage etc. There are lots of possibilities, it just depends upon what terrain you want in the game and what units, so I'd myself prefer to leave this as open as possible. As to tom's point about wanting larger maps, myself I actually don't agree. I see this far more as a game where you put more time and trouble into managing a smaller number of in game units with their own strengths and weaknesses, than a game where you manage hundreds of less complex units. Afterall, in a game like time of conflict, the units can only really do a couple of things, attack, scout etc and have very few hitpoints. here, I see it much more as a game where you independently command a small force with distinct strengths and weaknesses, and need to use them in concert against similarly unique enemies, even more especially if things like missions were added. the largest map size I could see working would be a 20 x 20, and that only when you had perhaps 20 units of your own. As to plot and campaigne mode, to be honest the system currently reminds me far more of a strategic rpg battle system than something in a stratogy setting. I'd therefore myself prefer something where you had a specific story and goal in mind played out on a large world map, with intermitant turn based battles against groups of wandering monsters or agains the enemy forces, interspurced with bouts of exploring the map, finding items and uncovering the plot. The current system is more than capable of supporting characters gaining experience and improving their skills in damage or range, not to mention having new ones. one fun idea indeed might be to combine stratogy and rpg with a mercinary theeme, so that you are a knight on a quest, but need to hier mercinaries to help you. As you progress across the larger map you could find money or items, or information about the quest, and with this money could hier other characters by visiting inns up to a maximum party size, however your characters could be of different xp levels, and the longer they reamined with you the more experienced they got, ---- though you could also dismiss them and replace them with others to customize your group. Of course ultimately the plan would be to get to the final confrontation and defeat some sort of nasty army. one thing I like about a world map is that you could vary monsters and battles according to the terrain. for instance, in a forest there would be lots of wolves, boars etc, and lots of trees blocking streight lines as well as obstructions like brambles, where as mountains would be more open and have rocks and rivers with enemies like trolls and goblins, ---- maybe even special tyles like scree or loose stones that could have chance of a stun effect on your character. If you need help deciding upon an overall story, or writing dialogue etc, let me know, sinse I'd be glad to help there and do have at least some experience in that area. I don't know why, I just personally saw the system far more as like a battle in an rpg than a military stratogy game. Let your dream begin, Let your darker side give in, to the power of the music that I write. Help me make the music of the night. Thumbs up 14 Aprone 2012-02-02 22:44:58 list of 3 items Aprone Moderator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2010-10-29 Posts: 2,404 User Karma: 156 list end I'm happy to say I've now beaten the first and second missions without losing anyone. Missions 3 looks like it will be quite a challenge, so after I run some errands I look forward to giving it a try! I'm very happy with the game so far, and I agree that it has loads of potential. I think I agree with Dark on the idea of a smaller map and team size. You really don't even need maps larger than the current 8x8, or at least not much larger. Making the most from your small team, and making the most from your limited space seems to be a huge part of what makes the game fun. If this were about commanding 30 units on a huge battlefield, it wouldn't seem like the same game to me. If Ian decides to go for a larger game and map idea then that's totally fine with me, I'm just sharing my opinion. smile I know it's only a cosmetic thing, but it would be nice if a key let you rename your people. I think that would have helped me keep track of which person was where. I'll hear that a wolf is attacking one of my good warriors but can't recall which name went with which warrior until it's my turn again and I can check. If I had named the people my own names, not only would I instantly realize who was being attacked, I'd probably care more too! Not to mean I don't already care, but for example if you'd named your people after friends or family, you seem to get more into the situation when they're lives are on the line. Once again, excellent work on the game Ian. - Aprone Please try out my games and programs: Aprone's software Thumbs up 15 keyIsFull 2012-02-02 23:08:06 list of 2 items Judge of the day Offline list end list of 4 items From: where you can't find me Registered: 2010-05-24 Posts: 1,836 User Karma: 21 list end hmm, does anyone know how to fix this problem? I have an error when I start th game. --------------------------- --------------------------- An error has occurred. Please notify the game creator of this error. You can copy the entire error to your clipboard by pressing control + C. System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format. at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal) at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info) at System.Speech.Internal.SapiAttributeParser.GetCultureInfoFromLanguageString(String valueString) at System.Speech.Synthesis.VoiceInfo..ctor(VoiceObjectToken token) at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis.BuildInstalledVoices(VoiceSynthesis voiceSynthesizer) at System.Speech.Internal.Synthesis.VoiceSynthesis..ctor(WeakReference speechSynthesizer) at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.get_VoiceSynthesizer() at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SpeakAsync(Prompt prompt) at System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer.SpeakAsync(String textToSpeak) at TacticalRPG.HM.SpeakAsync(String text) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\HelperMethods.cs:line 88 at TacticalRPG.GlobalState.set_Caption(String value) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\States\GlobalState.cs:line 15 at TacticalRPG.LockedMenu.Enter(World ent) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\States\LockedMenu.cs:line 16 at TacticalRPG.StateMachine`1.EndChangeState() in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\StateMachine.cs:line 52 at TacticalRPG.StateMachine`1.Process() in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\StateMachine.cs:line 32 at TacticalRPG.Form1.GameLoopTimer_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Data\Dev\Mine\Worthy\TacticalRPG\TacticalRPG\Form1.cs:line 62 at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) --------------------------- OK --------------------------- Weirdly, I have oher errors when runing kitchensinc and GMA games as well. for GMA games, it's always that there is a corrupted game.dm file. witno error code or anything. For kitchens inc games, it always seys that one of the files was corrupted and t contact jim kitchen. This leads me to believe it's something with my computer. I am running windows vista. If anyone can offer help, I'd appreicate it I like to sleep, Sleep is good, This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world! Follow @keyWasFull on twitter for humorous facts and game updates! hope to see you there! Thumbs up 16 Aprone 2012-02-02 23:29:15 (edited by Aprone 2012-02-03 00:49:42) list of 3 items Aprone Moderator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2010-10-29 Posts: 2,404 User Karma: 156 list end Key, I had this same error until I installed the direct X 9 link Ian has on his site. I thought I already had DX9 but after doing that everything worked just fine. ADDED: Well I thought I was doing well in mission 3. I had the enemy down to only 5 units left before I lost my first person. I hadn't realized that caster units have a finite amount of mana so when my healer ran out I knew I was doomed. The people began falling like dominoes each turn until I was wiped out. I need to revise my approach, and I should have noticed that the mana didn't regenerate. That was a mistake on my part. - Aprone Please try out my games and programs: Aprone's software Thumbs up 17 keyIsFull 2012-02-03 00:54:35 (edited by keyIsFull 2012-02-03 01:14:55) list of 2 items Judge of the day Offline list end list of 4 items From: where you can't find me Registered: 2010-05-24 Posts: 1,836 User Karma: 21 list end hm thx aprone. BTW the error with the gma games and kitchensinc was fixed. I had switched my system locale to japanese because I thought I had a japanese tts installed, and once I realized I didn't have one, I ddidn't bother switching it back. Edit: trying to update directx doesn't work. I installed the setup that your web site links to, Ian, but it just says that I have a newer version, so no need to update. I'm not sure what version I have because it doesn't appear in programs and features. I like to sleep, Sleep is good, This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world! Follow @keyWasFull on twitter for humorous facts and game updates! hope to see you there! Thumbs up 18 Jabberwocky 2012-02-03 03:47:44 list of 2 items Galaxy stranger Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2009-05-18 Posts: 57 User Karma: 2 list end Key, you can check what version of directX you have by typing dxdiag into the run dialog. I haven't had time to try this game, but it sounds like something I would like. I know what I'm doing this weekend. Thumbs up 19 tward 2012-02-03 04:08:57 list of 2 items Entombinator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2011-12-30 Posts: 661 User Karma: 27 list end Hi, There were two different components to DirectX 9. There is the unmanaged libraries, I.E. the libraries for C/C++ applications, and the managed libraries for C# and Visual Basic .NET. Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with the standard C/C++ libraries, but do not come with the Managed libraries because Microsoft officially deprecated them in 2006. If you want the managed DirectX libraries, which is an extra component, you have to install them manually. That's why people are getting those errors because they are confusing the standard DirectX 9 libraries with the managed DirectX 9 libraries. Two totally different things. Now, as to the issue of managed DirectX vs SlimDX I highly recommend upgrading to SlimDX for the following reasons. Microsoft deprecated the managedDirectX libraries in 2006 because they were buggy, and at the time they were launching the XNA Framework for the XBox and Windows Vista. DirectPlay, DirectSound, etc were scheduled to be deprecated and replaced by newer DirectX libraries so they got rid of the managed DirectX components. The managed DirectX libraries only still ship with the runtime and SDK for backwards compatibility only, and is for .NET 1.0 and 1.1 applications and was not meant for something like .NET 4.0. That's why some open source developers got together and created there own .NET DirectX libraries called SlimDX. Unlike Microsoft's version it is fully up to date, and is constantly being maintained and updated on a six month to yearly schedule. In addition to all the older DirectX components like DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectSound, etc it also has .NET libraries for XAudio, XAudio2, XInput, X3DAudio, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 11. Everything you need for a brand new system running Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8. Right now they are using .NET 3.5, but I hear a .NET 4.0 version is on its way soon. So SlimDX is far and away the better solution than Microsoft's version. Sincerely, Thomas Ward USA Games Interactive http://www.usagamesinteractive.com tward's Website Thumbs up 20 ianr 2012-02-03 06:07:26 (edited by ianr 2012-02-03 07:02:00) list of 2 items Galaxy stranger Offline list end list of 3 items Registered: 2012-01-29 Posts: 60 User Karma: 4 list end Thanks for the comments. I should mention that I haven't play tested the third battle enough to know if it's beatable without losing any units. So don't go too crazy if you can't beat it that way Aprone. Having said that, it may be quite possible. I'd like to hear the best outcomes people have on that one. The renaming characters idea is a good one. Originally when I had a grander game in mind the ability to name all your characters was definitely something I wanted but as I went with something smaller I wasn't sure if people would care. Sounds like they do and it should be easy to add. arqmeister, I think adding more sounds would be great and make the game more immersive. If anyone has sounds and is interested in working to flush out the sounds in the game please let me know. KeyIsFull, in your last post it sounded like you fixed the errors with GMAGames and KitchenSink. Did your changes also fix the error with TacticalBattle? I'm not sure why you're getting this error. Offhand I would guess that it has something to do with the default SAPI 5 voice setup for your system. I am testing with Microsoft Anna and eSpeak, though eSpeak has given some strange behavior at times. Microsoft Anna always seems to work fine so if you have this on your system I would try changing windows to use it and see if it fixes the problem. If not, as others have mentioned it is possible you need the managed DirectX dlls. I have uploaded v0.02 of the game which just includes the managed DirectX dlls that I am using. This may fix problems for some users. You can get that version from the website. tward, thanks for the info. For the time being I want to get people up and running with what I've got. I'm leaving on a week long trip tomorrow and won't be able to do any coding during it. When I get back I will consider switching to SlimDX and working on some of the other good suggestions. Whether I switch or not will probably depend on how close the managed DirectX libraries are to SlimDX and therefore how smooth a transition it will be for me. Do you know how close the 2 APIs are? I should still be able to respond to the support email address and on this forum during my trip. Thanks everyone for all the feedback. Ian Reed ianr's Website Thumbs up 21 keyIsFull 2012-02-03 11:15:42 list of 2 items Judge of the day Offline list end list of 4 items From: where you can't find me Registered: 2010-05-24 Posts: 1,836 User Karma: 21 list end No, when I switched my system locale back to english, it fixed GMA games, and probably kitchens inc, but not tactical battle. I will get this version 0.2 and check it out though. I like to sleep, Sleep is good, This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world! Follow @keyWasFull on twitter for humorous facts and game updates! hope to see you there! Thumbs up 22 SLJ 2012-02-03 13:19:11 list of 2 items outbackstranaut Offline list end list of 4 items From: Denmark Registered: 2007-05-25 Posts: 2,417 User Karma: 31 list end Hi. Sure I'll check out this game as soon as possible. Tward: I have a question about your information regardingthe Direct X: How do we install the visual basic components if the program says it's already installed like on Keys computer? SLJ's Website Thumbs up 23 Aprone 2012-02-03 15:16:42 list of 3 items Aprone Moderator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2010-10-29 Posts: 2,404 User Karma: 156 list end Arg I'm so frustrated with myself! I would have beaten mission 3 without losing anyone but I made a mistake. I usually do my attacks first and finish up by doing any healing before I end my turn. Right near the end I forgot to heal 2 of my guys who were in critical condition. I hit end turn and they were slaughtered, thus dooming the rest of my team as well. The strategy was working wonderfully but required every one of the units to be playing a part. The loss of even 1 would have doomed me but I lost both. Grrr! How are others doing on the 3rd mission? Is it only me who is having this trouble? - Aprone Please try out my games and programs: Aprone's software Thumbs up 24 tward 2012-02-03 16:38:33 list of 2 items Entombinator Offline list end list of 4 items From: United States Registered: 2011-12-30 Posts: 661 User Karma: 27 list end >From a programming standpoint SlimDX and Managed DirectX are similar, but not >exactly the same. It also depends on which API you are using. For example, SlimDX DirectSound is similar but not exactly the same as the DirectSound wrapper from Microsoft. After getting familiar with the documentation you should be able to convert your code to SlimDX with only minor changes in code. On the other hand if you were to upgrade to XAudio2, the new audio API for Windows 7, that would be a complete rewrite because the API is totally different from DirectSound. As far as the question about Visual Basic components I don't see the relationship here. Tactical Battle is an application written for the .NET 4.0 framework, and has nothing to do with the older VB 6 components. So I guess I'm just curious to know what you are trying to do with them. Thomas Sincerely, Thomas Ward USA Games Interactive http://www.usagamesinteractive.com tward's Website Thumbs up 25 csm120 2012-02-04 00:01:11 list of 2 items Shades of newbie Offline list end list of 2 items Registered: 2011-09-22 Posts: 18 list end I must say that I love the game. One thing I'd add is the ability to turn off the coordenents. I'd rather hear sounds for the tiles. I also love the 3d positional audio! I would also like a hotkey for ending a turn. That's it for now, but I'm loving this so far. Thumbs up Posts: 1 to 25 of 154 Pages 1 2 3 . 7 Next You must login or register to post a reply AudioGames.net Forum ? New releases room ? 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