Alternate Reality X

I was in the middle of debugging the encounter system.   I knew I added tons of new code to try and match the dungeon the best I could.  Like, parry, being knocked down, knocking down a monster, having your weapon knotted out of your hands or the encounter.  I spent a couple of months getting the encounter code working and adding in all the special monster code like the thief stealing, devourer sucking up your items.

As I was debugging I was also playing the dungeon and noticed that some times an encounter flees but the old ARX system.  Once a fight starts it is to the end and no encounter will flee.  So I started to look into the code to see why an encounter flees.  After I found the code and figured out what makes an ecounter flee,  my next step was when was this code called.   After researching that I locate default code of onLoad, onSurprise, onPreAttack and OnDeath code.  I have that many of these function have 1 - 6 different sections of codes based on the encounter.  Some encounter have thier own routines while most of them use a shared routine.  So I started coding all these routine into the game and that is where the flee came into on the onPreAttack code,  it has 6 different routine that is used and two of them have a check for flee in them.  So like a thief, he is more likely to flee after stealing from you or if he loses to many hit points.   There are a few that are designed to not flee at all,  fight to the death.

When I started I located a monster data where someone mapped out some of the variable of the monster.  So I've been able to map almost all of those variables and have implemented them into the ARX system. The encounter routine is very advanced.  Over the last couple of months, I've implemented parry, dodge, spell casting (you, encounter), drinking potions, knock down, being knocked down, loosing weapon, stunned and many more features.

Now the flee code is in the game with all the default code.

During this process, I found other areas of the game no FAQ gets correct.  You can lose alignment for several reason that is not mentioned.  Like,  stealing from encounter will cause you to lose alignment, but if you go ahead and kill that encounter and alignment of the encounter doesn't matter you will lose even mose alignment, or kill the encounter that belongs to a guild that you belong to, you will lose 2 mood points on top of the alignment lose.

As I write this and research what I'm writting I see that there are a few onLoad features that are missing.  Like no monsters has an alignment of 255 but in the binary file the Knight has a 255, but it is changed on the load routine to reflect what is going on with the game at the time.  Have to implement this code.

Getting to know all the ins-and-outs of the encounter routine.  Getting really close to having almost all aspects of it implemented in the ARX system.  The game is really starting to feel like playing AR the dungeon.  More like the Dungeon then the City.  The fight routine in the dungeon is so far better than the city so, I'm basing the entire fight routine on the Dungeon.

I've been working on gettings all the lyrics sync'd up to the music and in The City the song 'Thoreandan'.  This songs has multiple verses and it plays them at random.  I've implemented this features into the Lyrics system.   After each verse it can select at random another verse to start playing.  Each verse defines a verse number.  Then at the end of a verse there is a command to tell it to pick a random number with starting and ending values.  This is all defined in the Lyrics text file definition.   This is working out pretty good.  I'm having to create an entire "Advance Music Play" to get Alternate Reality to work correctly.   Between the Lyrics to music and the intro, it is a complete system to be able to show text, fade in, fade out text, or Fade in/out Textures, or Animations.  Its doing well and pretty happy with this new system and how it is working.

I went through the Chapel code and found that it was only started.  So went through the dissambely code and completed it and the Sancutary code with it.  The Chapel is now code complete,  with the two gifts you get if you are granted to go into the Sancutary space.   Getting better and better at understand and reading 8-bit 6502 assembly.   I've not looked at assembly code in almost 30 years.  It is nice the ARX project is more than just remaking a game.  I've never written a game before, my area has been always business software and/or operation software.  I never knew Opengl code and 6502 assembly.   It has been a learning curve on both area of the game. 

Also, went through the retreat code and fixed several areas where it didn't match the Dungeon code.   Like you can't get a room when carrying a corpse, Friendship was not matching the friendship code in the Dungeon. Also, changed the fatigue and hp grain to match the Dungeon instead of just random values.  I think I got the entire MOOD system that the DUNGEON used working in the game.  Many areas check the mood and effects the outcome based on your mood.   Only thing I've not located is how your clothing changes your mood.  I think it should, if wearing you are wearing rags,  your mood changes vs wearing some kind of dragon skin.

• Fixed - Added missing aspects of the Retreat in the Dungeon.  Mood was not being used.  Friendship was not being saved, for later greetings.
  If friendship falls to low you get a different greeting and that was missing.
  Converted Retreat to the new Module system so time  changes while sleeping and visiting.
  Fatigue gained by sleep is reflected by your mood.  The more mood the better the sleep and more rest you get.
  HP gained by sleep is reflected by your mood.  The more mood the better the sleep is.  All this reflects the dungeon code now.
  Updated the Friendship system to match the dungeon.  Frienship changes based on what type of room you select for sleeping. ARX was just adding 1 or subtracting one depending on the room.  Things change based on old friendship and room.  Sometimes you can have more than a plus 1 on adjustments.
  if carrying corpse, "THE RETREAT" "Thou art welcome here, but thy deceased friend is not! Please have it wait outside!"
• Added - Chapel is now code complete along with The Chapel Sancutary.

I've been working on getting lyrics sync'd up with the music for all the songs in the City/Dungeon.  It requires a ton of patience to get this done.   Also, while doing this I need a way to easily play songs.  So I created a new menu item called "Media Player",  when you go into it, it will show you all the songs of the game.  You can play each song of the game.  It is truely like a media player,  you can select multiple songs and the player will play each one back to back.  You do have an option for "Loop" and "Random".   On Random, it is what it says, it will play the songs in random order.  The Loop, will keep playing the songs until you stop the media player.

The media player has a "Pause", "Stop" and "Play" button.  The 'P' is play, 'S' is stop and 'O' is pause.  Other keys are  'R' to active random, 'L' to active looping.   You use the up/down keys to move up and down in the list of songs.  To select a song you hit "SPACE BAR" and then will leave an "*" indicator beside the song to indicate it is selected.  Select all the songs you wish to play and once your done just hit 'P' to start playing your Alternate Reality Play List.

So, why do I call it a media player.  It is more than just play music.  So each songs has a definition of which type of sequence it can play.  The full intro songs plays the entire Atari 8-bit City intro sequence.   Most of the other songs plays the flying through space sequence.  Several songs from the bars plays the bar sequence.

Check out the Youtube video of the entire re-creation of the City 8-bit intro sequence.  All of the animation has been re-created and non of it is just playing a movie clip.  I think it came out pretty good and it is not trying to be an emulation so there are differences and I wanted it to be a bit different because I was not trying to copy the original down to every detail. 

It really has been a really long time since I really did any king of blog update.  I took 2 months off to take a break,  I was doing some work for a MineCraft mod called MineColonies.  I added a bunch of new features that I thought was valued and bug fixes.  I'm back now and in full steam.  I've been finishing up many features that were almost completed.  I'm COMPELETY CODE COMPLETE on encounters and all their special routines.  Finally finished with the disassembly of the original 8-bit dungeon and converted their theory of what they do into the ARX code.  All this code is a completely written new. I looked at the code and saw what they where trying to do and wrote completely new routine to end up doing the same thing.  Of course this is not an emulation so they are slightly different but will leave you thinking you are playing the original game.  This process took some time to go through all those monsters and disassembly all that code.  All of the 8-bit dungeon, 8-bit city and 16-bit city encounters are in the game.   The way encounters spawn follow the 8-bit dungeon version or the 16-bit version.  You can select that when you start a game.  There are many options you can select to mix and match 8-bit style and 16-bit style together. 

Best part is now the DEVOURER is complete and after so many items in your inventory the DEVOURER will start showing up and will suck up items that you carry just like the original game.  So watch out.

I've completed the the entire spell system,  the 8-bit dungeon spell system is the best way I've seen in many years.  It is so generic and can handle anything.  With the limit RAM they had, they came up with a great system.  The Special Event system will handle anything,  curses, spells, picking up and item, dropping an item and etc....    I've took the time to conver the 16-bit city spells into this system and what didn't fit, had special code for them.  Since the guilds either where 16-bit city spells or 8-bit dungeon spells.  I had to change the guilds to support the combined spells from both systems.

I've completed the combat system.  I think it is pretty complete and pretty close to the s8-bit dungeon system.   Like, Spell casting from player or encounters, being knockdown.  Weapons being knocked out of your hand, Parry, being stunned and etc...  I think I got most of it. 

I fixed the vault code for the dungeon.  It was not completed correctly.  There is a variable that I've never located on the internet and it is (what I'm calling) evil acts.   In the code, these act are not reversable.  Once you do them they affect who you are and are not changable by good deeds.  When you steal from the vault or trick encounters this variable increases and when it gets to high the guard will try and take you to the "POKEY".  So watch out if your not good.

I've started going through all the music and sync up the lyrics to the music.  This is a long process since we are just playing a music file and not playing musical notes.  I've rewritten the lyrics code again, rewrote it once for Java and OpenAI libary and now I made it into classes to be easy to add new things to it in the future.  The following songs have been completed, doesn't include ones previously completed.  Armor, Goblin King, Troll King, Evil Guild, Good Guild, Into the fray (End game music).   I'm working on waves at this moment, very long song.

Put in a new minor addition to the game,  The original Atari 8-bit game had a key click for the keyboard when in the menu system.  I've added this so when you are in the menu system, the key click sound will be played.

The few things I know that are missing to have the city code complete are achievements, 2-handed weapons.  Of course testing.