Connecting pits

[Kjurtyl]

If all went well, I have commited a few changes to the cvs that should in theory enable connecting pits to appear with the proper tiles. I don't consider this task finished (there's a few glitches related to sinking cubes.) But think of this as a test-run for me and cvs commands. :)
Post any bugs/problems in this thread.

I've commit the changes for DaFalcon's benefit, considering his levels set uses them extensively.

In order for this to work, you should have a new set of tiles in your tiles folder (3 to 9.) Those must also be part of the project in PB in order to compile properly.

-Kjurtyl

P.S. : Hopefully I didn't break anything doing this.

[Pazolli]

Thanks for submitting your work Kjurtyl. Unfortunately CVS won't automatically submit new files that appear in your "working copy" of the code to the CVS for you. This prevents against hidden files (such as the ".DS_Store" file) or individual files (such as the ".pbxuser" files) from appearing on the CVS simply because a user's computer creates them. Hence to get a new or newly located file (like those tiles you mentioned) "registered" with the CVS you must use "cvs add".

In your case to add the tiles is a pretty simple procedure. Go into the Terminal and type "cvs add " (the space is important) then go into the Finder select all the tiles you want to add and drag them all to the Terminal window. Press return and follow the instructions. Then commit your changes to the CVS as you did before using:

cvs commit -m "Your Message Here"

Without the tiles you mentioned the build is broken (don't worry, it gets broken all the time the experience you gain in committing the changes yourself is much more important), so it would be appreciated if you could make the above changes ASAP. If the changes are not made by the time I wake up I'll clean up the CVS so it is workable again and that may mean conflicts (which are much more trickier to deal with) may occur when you try to restore your changes.

Also when you do submit the new tiles don't worry about removing the old tiles from "waiting", I'd like do that myself.

Good night,
Mark

[Kjurtyl]

I had added the files, just forgot to re-commit...

Regardless, it should now be done.

-Kjurtyl.

[DaFalcon]

Great! What are the worst problems associated with sinking cubes in connecting pits? Do you need some new graphics?

On an unrelated note, I'm going over to a comic book store for Free Comic Day and I'll see if I can find any copies of DarkHawk, the comic hero who inspired my own screen name.

[Pazolli]

Thanks Kjurtyl,

Your work in implementing the tiles is most impressive. I'm sure we'll be able to get improved sinking up and working sometime soon (though it's not a top priority at the moment since the connecting tiles still look very cool as is). In the mean time might I suggest you consider helping us out with Custom Level Loading (see here (http://64.246.17.165/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79)).

Thanks again,
Mark

[Kjurtyl]

Thanks for the help offer DaFalcon, unfortunately, what remains to be done with this task is mostly programming tweaks since you've already provided most if not all the images needed. Right now I need to modify the update msgs send by Hooptie to update the surrounding tiles after the sinking action has been done depending on the tile's neighbours. Uhh... well programming stuff basically.

I'll be sure to let you know if it needs more graphics.

As for custom levels loading, it appears as the natural next step. I'll take a look and see what I can do.

-Kjurtyl

[DaFalcon]

At first I thought that the graphics would have to be re-configured mid-game once you sink an ice block, but after thinking about it, I realized that isn't necessarily the case. When you sink an ice block, you aren't changing the structure of the geography, only covering up part of a pit. So the surrounding pit graphics really wouldn't be affected. If you want to make this change and make the pits change in-game, I'm sure it'll still look good (if not better), but realistically, the connecting pits only need to be calculated when a level is designed. Now, if there were some way to *create* a pit in-game, that'd be a different story :-)

[Kjurtyl]

Actually,

During my testing of the connecting pits code I put in, I realized that you are, in fact, changing the geography of a level when you sink a cube. I've seen it happen when your sprite moves near one of the pits surrounding the filled pit, they would change (in)appropriately as Hooptie told that area to update itself.

Also, Hooptie distinguishes between a filled pit and a regular empty pit explicitly, they are two different tile types.

In effect, before I put in some extra changes in the code, the connected pit tiles would disconnect if you filled some of the pits surrounding them. It was a nice effect, but not without its graphical glitches.

If you made a 'pit drilling' action for a sprite,
I see it as very possible to create a pit "real-time" through a drilling alien.

The problem as it stands today, is that the pit below the filled ones should show part of the ice cube that fills the upper one, otherwise it looks "flat".

Hope that clears any misunderstanding.

-Kjurtyl

[DaFalcon]

Whoops, I forgot about a bunch of those problems that I was thinking about back when I created the graphics :-) Well, I'll be happy to see it all in action once the "programming stuff" is done :-)