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Post by Dave on Sept 22, 2008 5:34:06 GMT
Hello folks! I thought that you might care to hear about the latest developments on the way to the next release. Here's a list of some of the more obvious changes that have taken place since the last version was released: - Multiple profiles - you can have up to 5 profiles at once, so you can have separate campaigns for roommates/family members, etc. Plus, custom LW avatars are available for each profile - Direct Downloading - You can download both the needed .zip files from Project Aon, as well as any gamebook cover art that exists on the gamebooks.org site. - History tracking - this will track both your travels through each book, and the details of all of your battles for each book. - Weapon equipping - the game no longer assumes that you are automatically weilding your most powerful weapon. So, if you don't want to use the Sommerswerd, you don't have to! (BUT, if a section choice asks "If you have the Sommerswerd,..." you still gotta go there.) - By the Book/Hardcore/and custom gameplay rules - Just wait until you check out the options! Plus, possibillty of getting in the Hall of Fame, if you play by certain "official" rules. As a bonus, you have great control over how the Archery contest is played out. - In-game customizing - Adjust apperance of paper/button styles/font colors/just about everything in-game, to get the appearance to match your preferences easily, and without messing wth a cryptic settings file. I'm just listing the stuff I've completed/nearly completed. I'm now "this close" to being able to load books up and start editing/playing them. The very next thing I'm working on is loading a book to play it. Tons of work/hours have gone into this rewrite - and it's really coming along nicely. I don't have the kind of time I'd like to have for working on it, but it continues to progress steadily. I may get some screenshots up for you guys one of these days... But it would mostly be just menu screens - some of those are pretty nice, though. Just thought I'd let you know how it's going!
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bugger
Kai Lord
I try every doorknob...
Posts: 16
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Post by bugger on Sept 22, 2008 21:01:45 GMT
Seriously, I really want to thank you for your dedication to this project, and what's more, for sharing it with us...I can't really wait to play with all the books once again. hope to see news about it soon (real life permitting
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Post by commentator on Sept 29, 2008 16:38:30 GMT
Wow, sounds fantastic. You're doing an amazing job there.
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Post by Dave on Oct 29, 2008 18:57:45 GMT
Update: Progress continues - I think I just finished the Editor completely! I now have a very functional & efficient Item/Combat/Section editor - I estimate that producing a fully playable book will take only about 20% of the time that it used to, perhaps even less!
2 more large things remain to be developed - the new and improved Action Chart (which should be vastly superior to the old one), and what I call the Inventory Manager (A behind the scenes bit of business dealing with Lone Wolf's interaction with objects).
After that, it'll be mostly testing and bug-fixes, tweaks here and there, and a few new art assets. I'm hoping to complete at least one, if not both, of the large projects by the end of Thanksgiving break.
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Post by mckinstry on Oct 30, 2008 13:04:16 GMT
Congratz Dave, great work. I eagerly await the next release, force myself not to reread the books till then
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Post by Dave on Nov 12, 2008 20:31:14 GMT
For the early November update (I hope to do a late November as well!) : New/improved/finished features include : - Integration of the fan-art from Project Aon's flegling days (before illustrator permissions has been granted), with the user-selectable option to either 1) Display only original book art, 2) display fan-art *and* original art, but only showing fan-art when there is no original art to display, or 3) display fan-art and original art, and using fan-art even when there is an original to display. Did that make any sense? It's quite nice in-game... and you can click the fan-art to see a large version, to appreciate the detail and love that went into making them. - Foundation of Inventory Manager is laid - And it's much more generalized and flexible than before. I've already got several inventory management functions up and running perfectly, and expect that the rest will be quite painless to implement. - Finished getting book 1 ready to play. Have begun testing on it, though until I get the action chart/inventory manager finished, I can't test some sections. Almost there though!
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Post by jdb1984 on Nov 15, 2008 19:04:33 GMT
- Direct Downloading - You can download both the needed .zip files from Project Aon, as well as any gamebook cover art that exists on the gamebooks.org site. So by downloading the Zip file to the folder, it'll convert itself to a useable version of the book in the program?
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Post by Dave on Nov 15, 2008 19:44:25 GMT
All of the text and pictures for the books are contained in the .zip files. So, Seventh Sense downloads the .zip files and interprets them so the reader can play the books with automatic action chart tracking, auto-limitation of choices based on what items/disciplines/etc Lone Wolf has.
So, for the user, it's a simple matter of starting up Seventh Sense, and then clicking the "Download" button... You only have to do this the first time - it stores the .zip in the Seventh Sense install folders, so you can play later whether you are connected online or not.
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Post by Dave on Nov 22, 2008 1:30:32 GMT
Well, it's not particularly late November, but I did just want to say that the following things have been finished:
-New tab system: the tabs now match whichever paper you're using, and look a little more in style with the books. -New scroll bar system: the scroll bar is much less "techy" looking, and fits right in with the page better. It also functions more like a browser scroll bar - you can click on it, and drag it up and down even when the mouse moves off, or click it on a part of the "empty scroller" area to jump the scroller/page to that location. -Inventory manager is all finished: It has complete functionality, including dealing with lost items/money that you can recover, depositing and withdrawing storage/monastery items/money, dealing with the different currencies of the first 20 books (Crowns, Lune, Kika), and will only need minor additions once I start dealing with Arrows and Fireseeds.
Someone do correct me if there are more than those 3 currencies used in the first 20 books... I still haven't actually read 13-20... but I will! (Originally, I was only going to have Seventh Sense do the first 12 books, since they are the ones I physically own and have read, but I changed my mind when I began the rewrite, and now the goal is do the first 20 books, and it really shouldn't be too hard...)
The only major coding left to be done is the new and improved Action Chart... It's going to be a real job, but I've got Thanksgiving break coming up, and will be recovering from surgery, so plenty of time lying around to work on the program. I have some grand designs for this action chart - let's hope they all pan out!
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Post by outspaced on Nov 22, 2008 11:15:23 GMT
You don't come across any other currencies in Books 13-20 than Crowns, Lune, Kika.
In Books 21-28, you can also get Torqs (1 Torq = 1 Gold Crown), Nobles (1 Noble = 1 Gold Crown) and Ren (10 Ren = 1 Gold Crown).
Hope your surgery goes OK. Looking forward to this very, very much.
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Post by Dave on Nov 22, 2008 19:55:19 GMT
Thanks for the clarification, outspaced. I'm glad to know that I got it right!
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Post by Dave on Dec 5, 2008 2:06:49 GMT
For an Early December (or really *late* November) update:
I've got half of the action chart finished. It's taking longer than I thought it would, but I'm to the interesting part now (the part that isn't in the previous release of Seventh Sense) - journals, battle history, etc. So, I finally get to use the great contributions and work that the community have helped with in the Journal Entries thread. Other good news is that the action chart is working great so far (You can directly use potions/eat meals/equip weapons by clicking a button next to that item), and most of what's needed for the Magnakai/Grandmaster series is already in place.
Maps are working perfectly and are lovely to look at. You can also click *any* illustration (fan art or original) in the book and view a large version of it, to appreciate the detail and craftsmanship of the fine illustrations throughout.
Combats are working great. Potions/Meals/armor/skills all working as expected. I still need to do some testing on the optional weapon rules (special bonuses with certain weapons, +3 vs. Kraan, that sort of thing...) but I think it will pull together nicely.
One can now successfully play an entire book start to finish!
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Post by Dave on Dec 22, 2008 7:42:55 GMT
Mid-December update : Just finished putting in all of book 2 - (Okay, so I still have the two complex gambling sections to do, but I'll pattern it largely after how I did it last time, so it's practically done, right? ) Need to do a little more coding, and I can commence testing book 2 (I'm creating some code that will help to speed up the testing a little - which will help in all successive books as well). The Action Chart is working and looking really nice. The journals and battle histories look really great. All that needs finished is the user-entered notes page, and the storage/monastery and lost/recoverable items pages. Still need to finish a few menus - like the ones where you can actually select all of the cool "house rules" gameplay stuff, and finish a few extra art assets... Shouldn't be tough, just have to take a little time to do it! All in all, it's still moving forward at a rapid pace... I have a feeling once Christmas hits, though, it'll be on the back burner again. Alas!
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Post by Doomy on Dec 22, 2008 8:14:25 GMT
Just finished putting in all of book 2 - (Okay, so I still have the two complex gambling sections to do, but I'll pattern it largely after how I did it last time, so it's practically done, right? ) Don't forget to implement the ability to bet more than one crown at a time in Cartwheel. I'm glad the project continues apace. Looking forward to it!
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Post by Dave on Dec 22, 2008 23:22:26 GMT
I won't forget - but I won't be allowing multiple bets on one roll. I mean, you can only bet on one number at a time, but you will be able to bet as much as you want on that one number.
High stakes Cartwheel!
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