Event Code Revision
While not certainly the most interesting of topics, the event code has been completely rewritten. This was one of those necessary changes albeit a big one. I had some extra time this weekend and while attempting to add events I grew incredibly frustrated. Previously events were written in such a manner that every action button had it's own chunk of horribly difficult to navigate code which was then further split into two chunks of equally horrible to navigate code.
I've improved upon the design considerably (though I'm sure I'll eventually find faults with this one too :P) so that each event is stored into an object I defined. This object has several tiers starting at the very top for locations, then action buttons, then the button events, and then any sub events that spawn from those. It was a bit complicated to code but it was worth it. While there are still a few kinks in it, I can add an event often with a single line of code (basically linking to the text file our events are stored in). If I need to add a bit more functionality to the event, such as making certain events a jailable offense, I can do so with an additional line or two very easily. I can continue to add special functions to these events that could later apply to any future event instead of simply copying and pasting line after line of code for each event.
Event Editor Revisions?
Some time after the next public release, I'll likely rework the event editor vastly to take advantage of this new functionality. I think it will make the creation of events more fun for people (and the team) as it will give even greater functionality to the editor. People will be able to define action buttons, tie in other events, etc.
End of August Still Right?
Don't worry, there will still be a release at the end of August :p. After I get the kinks out of the system (tomorrow) I'll resume adding events. Just be wary that this release at the end of August is going to have an insane amount of bugs...unless you are brave you may want to wait until the first fix comes for it.
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Meh...bugs? I don't care about bugs. What I care about is CONTENT, and it sounds like there's a lot coming...
ReplyDeleteLots and lots of content...
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I just finished the new event code (which works awesomely ^_^) and now I'm in the process of transferring a bunch of stuff from my notes to the game :D
ReplyDelete@Shin Majin
ReplyDeleteAh, but what happens when the bugs prevent you from accessing said content...? =P
I do also need to state that the amount of content is not AS much as I'd like, somewhere between .20a and .30a levels but all of Pornicle will be completed and there will be areas to explore beyond it.
ReplyDeleteI hope people will enjoy it, if you feel there's not enough content when the next version comes out it's not like I'm going to stop adding content or something :p
I'm actually thinking of shifting my development model slightly to be a strange 3 month cycle of One month open public releases, one month of private development (with a private version wherever I stand after that month) followed by another month of private development. I'll rinse and repeat this process throughout the game's life cycle.
Those that have been kind and reported bugs / submitted things will get to enjoy the private release, everyone else who simply wants to play can enjoy the month of public development.
My reasons for private development are to keep things interesting, I don't want to do bite sized chunks all the time so I feel doing so roughly 25% of the time is a good medium I'm comfortable with. During the private development periods I'll be driven toward making new stuff rather than fixing old stuff but that doesn't mean I won't add new things during public development cycles.
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ReplyDeleteit would be nice if i could go to sleep and wake up at the end of august...
ReplyDeleteLet me tell this one for the staff ; Don't push yourselves, take your time & make it well.
ReplyDeleteMany of us are waiting for the "new" pornarium, but don't let us trouble all of you.
Take it easy and see you later.
Yay getting rid of copy pasta!, next I'll have to get you going with code contracts BWAHAHAHAHA!
ReplyDelete*Schemes evilly to make Tacoking a better coder*
@leeter: Indeed!
ReplyDeleteActually, I have another question then :p. Is there any way to store a huge collection of my custom objects and call upon a set instance of that object if I need? I'm sure there is but I lack the knowledge to describe it well. The way I do it now works great, but it could use some additional work. I'm not quite ready to save / load each event as a separate file yet but that will come soon (I could easily make them a serialized xml file, but I don't want to do that just yet) :D.
@Tacoking: not sure I follow, ideally you would cache what ever you load so you don't have to load it from file again.
ReplyDeleteI sort of wish my event engine code was more developed or I could show you what I would do... *makes note of what to complete this next weekend*
if you want I can finish that and I'll put up Another source/binaries drop this weekend and you can take a look. But I will say this... you should never need to reload it from file each and every time, it's wasteful, and unless your doing active editing... slower than it needs to be.
Don't drive yorself too hard, look at the hormone cortisol, proven to reduce immune strenght, and is released in response to stress:
ReplyDeleteIE: drive yourself too hard/lots of stress = you get sick (also known to cause cancer and heart problems in long term(10-year)doses