July 8, 2011

Grand Rogue Auto 0.5.0 Released


After a whole week battling against my own code, here is the v0.5 of Grand Rogue Auto. 

This new version introduces the new buildings with floors and stairs. As a result, several buildings have been remade to take advantage of this. You will find office towers, mansions and houses with a few stairs, new gang, police and fire stations. More will be added in next releases. Of course, NPC are able to navigate around those buildings (that's mainly why this release was delayed).





For modders a new building editor has been introduced. Note that not all options are working yet (specific lock security and loot value are not yet in place in the code), but it's functional. Most of the options that were added to the Zone Editor in the 0.45 release moved there. Also, notice that the Faction HQ in the Faction Editor points to a building instead of a zone from now on.
Speaking of factions I made some modifications to them too. The police faction will invade sectors taken over by gangs instead of moving randomly. Gangs recruit members a bit faster too. 
 
This version also fixes numerous low level bugs and error that are detailed in the changelog (you can drop and un-equip armors, M/F names are correctly applied and so on). 
 
The main thing about the features I introduced here is that it allows me to morph a building into another without hassle. In other words, it will be possible for factions in future releases to change the look of buildings they invade with little additional code. I have yet to introduces the fast-travel / subway system, nothing prevents me to put that in place anymore, but I don't think you'd want to wait another week just for this feature.

Changelog
  • [MapGen] Buildings can have several floors
  • [MapGen] buildings in the center of a map are a bit larger
  • [Modding] Building Editor added
  • [Modding] Most of the Zone Editor options moved to the Building Editor
  • [Modding] Faction Editor -> the faction HQ is a building instead of a zone
  • [AI] NPC are using stairs to move across the new buildings
  • [GUI] Ability to remove a piece of armor (right-click the armor in the inventory's left side)
  • [Factions] Police and firefighters HQ won't spawn in the outer city
  • [Factions] Factions are recruiting new members quicker
  • [Factions] The police faction try to "liberate" sectors taken over by other factions
  • [World] Modified several buildings to take advantage of the new system
  • [Engine] Ability to morph a building into another easily
  • [Engine] aLife Spy window -> "Teleport to" button added
  • [Engine] The game should be a bit faster to load
  • Fixed : Several low level errors in the code
  • Fixed : Issues causing crashes with non 64x64 maps
  • Fixed : multiple minor errors in the BuildOrder AI code
  • Fixed : various private property issues
  • Fixed : Inverted Male/Female names when creating a new player
  • Fixed : Dropping an armor was not removing it
  • Fixed : Sectors spawning without a road (rare)

24 comments:

  1. Sweet! I am really sad that I am busy with finding job right now, or I would mod the hell out of it! :D

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  2. Yeah I know all about this kind of trouble, I wish you good luck with that.

    I will skip further map improvement for a while (apart the subway) as I really want to put the basics of the missions and news system in place quickly. But I will come back to it later to allow me/modders to put different rooms in each level of a building leading to much more realistic buildings.

    BTW, I may contact you by email at the end of this year regarding my next project.

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  3. This is looking great, good work! I'm really excited to see where this project goes.

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  4. I look forward to any kind of requests from you :).

    I have actually found my job already, it's a Bosh company in my city, I just have to make a lot of stuff to persuade them that I fit for the job :P.

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  5. Yeah Deon!!!

    Congratulations on the possible job, that I am sure you will get.

    Pardon my ignorance but I do not know what a Bosh company is.

    In GRA it is getting better and better and easier and easier to play. I love it so far. The two story homes were great and held lots of valuables. So thats definitely a plus. Also I can't wait for the never ending economic module. Sorry if that is already in.

    Thanks for your hard work Serial and Deon.

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  6. Afaik, Bosch is a German company specialized in electronic components (auto parts, mobiles, tools).

    Yes, there's lot of loot, too much in fact. I will have to balance that or to adjust the risk / reward level. Hopefully, when alarm systems linked to the police will be in place, it won't be a problem.

    The basics of the economics are in, factories produce stuff, shops sell it, and people buy it, but it's inefficient, couriers are too slow, lacking cars or subway, and prices are not dynamic yet. I will come back to it when we reach alpha (0.7). I want to do other things right now (dialogs and missions).

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  7. Hey. Earlier, I was playing it. I was wanted, so I holed up in some house and set it onto Realtime, set it to a sort of slowish speed, and just looked at varying statistics.

    Looking at the CPU use and whatnot, a suddenly noticed brain activity or whatever the white line said it was increased by about 1000% for around five seconds, and then dropped down to normal.

    What could have caused such an odd spike of brain activity?

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  8. Brain activity is the number of NPC thinking at the same time, basically it happens when they finished a task and calculate what they are supposed to do next.

    You'll get spikes every 80-100 turns, that's mainly because NPC aren't put one a turn into the game but all at the same time, so they all "think" at turn 0, then their "go get food / go to work" order gets finished at turn 80, they think again, and so on.

    On a very long game (without saving/reloading) it tends to even out with lower and lower spikes as the NPCs get interrupted to do other stuff and as the timings for such actions are randomized and different from an action to another.

    It's not really a concern as it has little impact on performances (and there is still room for code optimization in that regard).

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  9. Once this gets missions and such this will be a great game!

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  10. And the ability to purchase propety, and to do jobs - I mean, I wouldn't be happy doing missions if it didn't mean I couldn't live in a mansion. Maybe, we'll be able to buy our own property really far out of cities and actualy have our own houses designed by us and built for money.

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  11. Yes, like I already said, buying houses and shops will be added. It will also be possible to buy beds, shelves and stuff and place those wherever you want.

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  12. Sorry, when I said it increased by about 1000% I meant 100%.

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  13. So.. what's in the next version? People still do watch for updates, don't worry :p

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  14. Looks great. Keep up the good work!

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  15. Wow, encountered this project while doing a feature on roguelikes that includes Rogue Survivor for my blog. This looks really cool. I'll likely do a sequel at some point, sort of a "Roguelike Roundup" and will likely feature this game as a part of the article. Downloading the current version now!

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  16. Wow, quite a long time since you last updated, huh? :\

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  17. Come back Serial Kicked we need you...

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  18. Another dead rogue, you don't say?

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  19. Hope its not dead rogue survivor last update whas around same date till now no news *sad*

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  20. Roguedjack said that he is working, making a program (game?) for some company of sorts. He didn't say what kind of program it was however, but as with all programming it takes a HUGE amount of time to get done. (Obviously taking in account the kind of program and size of it that you are trying to make)

    He will probably return by the middle of the next year; he has gone way too far with the game to drop off now.

    As for Serial Kicked I don't know, he may be probably coding in secret as to release everything later on.

    Sorry for my strange English since it isn't my first language.

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  21. thank you for the info :) aint my first to so no worrys.

    PS: same guy at Nov 1, 2011 1:59:00 PM

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  22. Deader than Rogue Survivor

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  23. it will raise from the grave dont worry lol

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