GearHead2 v0.401

[Joseph Hewitt]

I've just uploaded GH2 v0.401 to the web site. Mostly, this release makes the arena campaign and tactics mode more playable. Here's the list of changes:

- Movement system thrust to complexity ratio increased (movement.pp)
  Because computers take up a lot of space, and now both sensors and ECM can take up multiple slots, and also because I'll be enforcing the slot limitations in mecha engineering, I decided that movement systems should take up less room. The thrust points and cost of all movement systems (except wheels and tracks) have been increased by 25%. The mecha designs have been altered to reduce their thruster totals by 25%.

- When cycling weapons, only weapons of appropriate range used (targetui.pp)
  This makes switching weapons from the targeting interface so much more convenient. In addition, this feature has been added to GH1.

- Basic attack command will try to pick best weapon for target (pcaction.pp)
  The basic PC attack procedure uses the AI weapon selector. There is a slight bug: this only works if the PC has a target already, so the first time shooting at a given target the weapon selector will use the weapon with the longest range, just as now.

- Should no longer try to aim at models that have left the map (targetui.pp)
- In SDL mode, can press shift + dirkey to run (pcaction.pp)
- Only active player mecha appears white in ASCII mode (vidmap.pp)

- Time remaining indicated in tactics mode (arenacfe.pp)
  This has also been ported to GH1.

- Active mecha now indicated in tactics mode (glmap.pp)
- New pilots join arena unit without mecha (gh2arena.pp)

- Turning now uses smooth rotation (glmap.pp)
  Requested by KK; if you don't like it, I'll add a config switch to turn it off.

- Fixed exploitable tacticsmode bug (arenaplay.pp)
  I'm surprised none of you figured this one out yet. It's a bug which would have allowed you to complete any mission with no risk whatsoever.

- Characters indicated at start of tactics turn (arenaplay.pp)
  Just like in Farland Tactics! You know, my wife goes through Japanese tactics games like she was eating popcorn.

- Combat anims now use correct altitude (glmap.pp)
- Can assign pilot for mecha from view mecha menu (gh2arena.pp)

That's it. If you've been waiting for improvements to the tactics mode before you began playing, try these out. Let me know what you think. My next tasks are to add computer stores to the RPG campaign, add some more GH1 mecha to GH2, and after that prepare for the overhaul of Mecha Engineering and the backpack unit. Fun fun fun.

[Tung Nguyen]

In this version or the last, in Arena mode, is there any way to customise mecha setups outside of combat? I might be missing something really obvious, or should I just do it in combat instead?

[Joseph Hewitt]

No, there's no way to do that yet, which is why I say I need to overhaul the backpack unit and do my Mecha Engineering changes. Right now the backpack doesn't work at all if the gameboard doesn't exist. I need to modify things so that it'll work in the gameboard-less realm of the ArenaHQ.

I'm thinking for mecha engineering, which normally costs time and mental points, maybe in ArenaHQ have it just cost cash instead.

Look for this in an upcoming release...

[Anticheese]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

I'm thinking for mecha engineering, which normally costs time and mental points, maybe in ArenaHQ have it just cost cash instead.

Agreed, but could you also have Mecha Engineering act similar to Shopping when you install components? (Components get cheaper with more skill)

--

Suggestion: Online play for Arena Mode

Think about it, it makes perfect sense! Arena mode is just battling so minimal backend is required, All you need is a matchmaking server and a way to transfer actions to the opponent(s).

[macksting]

The degree of skill could change the cost of the upgrade drastically; for instance, a low skill could cause you to pump a lot of money into the fix, while a high skill could make for a quick, painless installation.

Or it could just cost a static amount.

[Joseph Hewitt]

High Mecha Engineering skill will lower the cost of the modifications, as well as prevent parts from being destroyed in the process. I've been thinking about adding a cost to mecha engineering in the form of repair fuel; in the Arena campaign, this will be paid in cash.

A high engineering skill should also prevent any of the bad side effects that may take place with Mecha Engineering, such as increased component weight or an increased chance of malfunction.

There's going to be a lot of work getting the backpack unit to play nicely with arena mode, because many things in the backpack depend on the existence of the gameboard. I think the best way to handle it may be instead of passing the gameboard to the backpack, pass the entire campaign structure instead.

Quoting: Anticheese

Suggestion: Online play for Arena Mode

Good idea. That would work well with tactics mode. Now all I need to do is learn how to write an online game, or find someone who does...

[Tung Nguyen]

GearHead is turn-based, so SDL_net with TCP connections would be the easiest way to go. The real work would be in:

1. Separating interface from game state changes.
2. Defining a text-based protocol for clients and the server talking to each other. (IMPORTANT)
3. Getting real-time chat working in what is otherwise a single-threaded game.

I stress text-based protocols, because they're easier to debug.

As for data over the network, you probably want to send the whole game state in a big blob from the server to the clients at the start of the game, and then just send changes in the game state from then on.

Links:

SDL_net docs
Tutorial: Using SDL_net

Beej's Network Programming w/ BSD sockets

Last one's background info. Even if C isn't your thing, the first few chapters are worth reading. In fact, the whole thing is fairly interesting stuff.

[Omai]

Eep! I seem to have found a bug in GH2 arena mode.

When I try to hire a character for the first time, the game goes into an infinite loop. I used gdb to find the spot: line 485 of gharena2.pp, in the procedure StripAllMecha. I guess Mek never become equal to Nil?

I'm using GNU/Linux, and I compiled the game for ascii mode with fpc version 2.0.4 [2006/08/20]. Everything else seems to work okay so far.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Expletive deleted. Okay, then, without opening a new thread... I've just uploaded GH2 v0.402 to the site. The only change is that the aforementioned bug has been fixed.

Thanks for the bug report, Omai.

[Gonbow]

I'm having a bit of trouble playing GH2 and it seems to fall under two program-related aegis and one of learning curve;

1) SDL GH2 runs incredibly slow, with a good second+ lag between a mouse-click/keypress and the attendent result on my screen. Yeah, I know I may not have a top of the line computer, but if my computer can run Neverwinter Nights without problem most of the time, I thought it'd be able to handle this roguelike... is there anything I can do to increase the performance speed?

2) ASCII GH2 has some visual problems, like the lack of auto-scrolling in combat and the clipping of long text during character generation. (Great, my mom was a what? Etc).

3) Last but not least... g'damn I keep getting my butt kicked in the opening combat! Even with 5-6 mecha piloting and 5-6 mecha gunnery, I've yet to win a single one of the initial battles in Campaign mode. (I tried the Arena mode and won a few because I could get a decent mecha that doesn't die to one hit, but that didn't last, then my character was dead afterwards =/)

[Epsilon]

Quoting: Gonbow

SDL GH2 runs incredibly slow, with a good second+ lag between a mouse-click/keypress and the attendent result on my screen. Yeah, I know I may not have a top of the line computer, but if my computer can run Neverwinter Nights without problem most of the time, I thought it'd be able to handle this roguelike... is there anything I can do to increase the performance speed?

SDL GH2 also runs really slow on my computer and I can run NWN on maxium settings. GH/GH2 is really performance-intensive, suprisingly. I've got an Athlon XP overclocked to 2.14GHz and GH2 is still fairly slow in SDL mode.

[Tung Nguyen]

Quoting: Gonbow

1) SDL GH2 runs incredibly slow, with a good second+ lag between a mouse-click/keypress and the attendent result on my screen.

I stopped using the mouse entirely. There is extremely heavy lag under the Linux OpenGL version when the mouse is moved, so I disabled it using NOMOUSE in gearhead.cfg.

Quoting: Gonbow

3) Last but not least... g'damn I keep getting my butt kicked in the opening combat! Even with 5-6 mecha piloting and 5-6 mecha gunnery, I've yet to win a single one of the initial battles in Campaign mode. (I tried the Arena mode and won a few because I could get a decent mecha that doesn't die to one hit, but that didn't last, then my character was dead afterwards =/)

The Wraith has MV:-8, which is only just bearable if you have Mecha Piloting 5+ and the Born to Fly talent. Add to that the natural bonus provided to airbourne mecha, and that only puts you on par with the average pilot in a ground-based mecha.

I've found in the original GH that Mecha Piloting < 5 can still win battles (while taking damage), but in GH2, Mecha Piloting < 5 means you're swiss cheese. Exactly on 5, and you should be able to win in combat, or at least a fighting chance.

[Joseph Hewitt]

The SDL mode slowness thing confounds me. It seems to change from computer to computer... My laptop, for instance, has great trouble running Neverwinter Nights on anything but the minimum settings. It runs GH2-SDL perfectly fine. Updating your drivers may help.

I'll fix the problem with the biography display in ASCII mode.

Do you think I should decrease the difficulcy level of the early game? I could do this by scaling back the skill level of NPC pilots on low difficulcy levels.

[Anticheese]

How about difficulty settings?

Some like a challenge and others like a tutorial.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Good idea. Since the difficulcy scaling code is mostly centrally located, that should be an easy enough change to make. The difficulcy level should probably be stored when a campaign is started, and then printed in the victory file.