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#26
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Posted 22 October 2010 - 04:24 PM
I believe the quote in your post answers your question. He said plug-in support and multiplayer have to wait till after v1.0. Just be patient, Kas.
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#28
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Posted 16 January 2011 - 08:26 PM
#30
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Posted 17 January 2011 - 03:29 AM
This may not be counted as a bug, but the default key configuration is still problematic for those of us without number pads.
Could the number-pad-less situation be detected and accounted for on the first run? I know this isn't the behaviour of the original Ares, but then, when the original Ares came out, all keyboards had number pads.
Could the number-pad-less situation be detected and accounted for on the first run? I know this isn't the behaviour of the original Ares, but then, when the original Ares came out, all keyboards had number pads.
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#31
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Posted 17 January 2011 - 10:01 AM
Hmm. Is there any agreement about what the keyboard setup should be when not using a numpad? I personally use arrows to move, WASD for computer, Q/E for zoom, and ZXC for select friendly/hostile/base. That shifts some keys that were right-handed under the numpad configuration over to the left, though.
I'm not sure how I feel about a "decide defaults based on first run" feature. I can certainly agree that there's merit in indicating to the user that there is be a problem with their key configuration such as a non-existent key. I would imagine this taking the form of a blinking "Options" button on the main screen, and a blinking "Key Controls" button on the options screen, in the same manner that keys blink in the key controls screen when duplicates are assigned. Issue 58.
By the way, I have no idea how the keyboard layout can be detected. Pointers welcome.
I'm not sure how I feel about a "decide defaults based on first run" feature. I can certainly agree that there's merit in indicating to the user that there is be a problem with their key configuration such as a non-existent key. I would imagine this taking the form of a blinking "Options" button on the main screen, and a blinking "Key Controls" button on the options screen, in the same manner that keys blink in the key controls screen when duplicates are assigned. Issue 58.
By the way, I have no idea how the keyboard layout can be detected. Pointers welcome.
#32
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Posted 18 January 2011 - 04:07 PM
Hmm. Is there any agreement about what the keyboard setup should be when not using a numpad? I personally use arrows to move, WASD for computer, Q/E for zoom, and ZXC for select friendly/hostile/base. That shifts some keys that were right-handed under the numpad configuration over to the left, though.
That seems pretty good to me. Really, you need about four hands to cover all the controls regardless of how they're configured. Where would you put zoom to all/closest/hostile? Maybe comma, period, and slash? That would put them just above and to the left of the maneuvering controls, similar to the default configuration.
I'm not sure how I feel about a "decide defaults based on first run" feature. I can certainly agree that there's merit in indicating to the user that there is be a problem with their key configuration such as a non-existent key. I would imagine this taking the form of a blinking "Options" button on the main screen, and a blinking "Key Controls" button on the options screen, in the same manner that keys blink in the key controls screen when duplicates are assigned. Issue 58.
By the way, I have no idea how the keyboard layout can be detected. Pointers welcome.
By the way, I have no idea how the keyboard layout can be detected. Pointers welcome.
Maybe the reset to default button should choose a configuration based on your hardware, if you figure out how to determine that. Or it could bring up a dialog giving you a choice of configurations. If you want to get fancy, maybe you could allow saving and loading custom configurations there.
By the way, how is the graphics performance overhaul going?
#33
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Posted 18 January 2011 - 04:29 PM
That seems pretty good to me. Really, you need about four hands to cover all the controls regardless of how they're configured. Where would you put zoom to all/closest/hostile? Maybe comma, period, and slash? That would put them just above and to the left of the maneuvering controls, similar to the default configuration.
I don't know–I don't use them. My left hand is well-trained to find WASD, so it's always faster to use Q/E to zoom than to find the shortcuts. The only shortcut I use is F8 (control ship), which I should probably move to something nearer to one of my hands (R? V? Forward slash?).
QUOTE
Maybe the reset to default button should choose a configuration based on your hardware, if you figure out how to determine that. Or it could bring up a dialog giving you a choice of configurations. If you want to get fancy, maybe you could allow saving and loading custom configurations there.
Is there a reset-to-default button? I think a save/load preset mechanism shows promise, but I'm not ready to start thinking about interface layout changes yet, as that's a data change rather than a code change.
QUOTE
By the way, how is the graphics performance overhaul going?
Alright. I got sprites to render in OpenGL recently, including the static effect for shields/cloaking, which was the complicated part. I've been working on beams, after which come sector lines and the instruments panels. I expect I'll need to convert the DirectText routines over too, which is probably the only difficult part remaining (but even easy parts take time when there are a lot of them).
#34
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Posted 18 January 2011 - 04:40 PM
Obvious keypad detector as a stopgap (but not a real solution) is to look for the substring 'MacBook' in the hw.model sysctl, but I think there are desktop keyboards without number pads now, and there are certainly those who plug in external keyboards that do have number pads to the laptops.
"I'm against human cloning. Also against identical twins." -mrxak
"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin
"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin
#35
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Posted 18 January 2011 - 05:19 PM
I use a MacBook. But, ordinarily, I plug in an external keyboard. But, it doesn't have a numpad. But, before I implemented the Options screen, I plugged in a separate numpad. There's might be a way of detecting layouts, but it's probably complicated. Also, if I recall, OSX wasn't sure what the layout of the numpad was when I plugged it in.
While I'm here, allow me to advertise a few alternate ways of finding out about Antares releases:
While I'm here, allow me to advertise a few alternate ways of finding out about Antares releases:
- arescentral.org has an RSS feed. There may be things other than Antares releases posted there–in fact, the site is open to guest posts if you fork the repo and add to the articles/ directory.
- There is an antares-announce group on Google Groups.
- I keep the topic of #antares set to the current release and release date
#36
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Posted 18 January 2011 - 08:55 PM
Pallas Athene, on Jan 18 2011, 04:29 PM, said:
I don't know–I don't use them. My left hand is well-trained to find WASD, so it's always faster to use Q/E to zoom than to find the shortcuts. The only shortcut I use is F8 (control ship), which I should probably move to something nearer to one of my hands (R? V? Forward slash?).
I mostly use the default controls because I'm used to them. (For speedrunning I change warp to c so don't have to take my hand off the weapon keys.) I find zoom to all and closest hostile very handy, so if you don't have a better idea, I stand by my suggestion of comma, period, and slash for the dynamic zoom modes. I can see changing transfer control to something more handy, but I wouldn't change the default.
Pallas Athene, on Jan 18 2011, 04:29 PM, said:
Is there a reset-to-default button? I think a save/load preset mechanism shows promise, but I'm not ready to start thinking about interface layout changes yet, as that's a data change rather than a code change.
Apparently not. I must have been thinking of practically every other game I've ever played. I was thinking you could change it to bring up a window (which could be OS X style), but I guess you'd have to add a button. Another option would be to store the key bindings in a separate text file, so they could be manually backed up and edited, which would be better than nothing at least.
Pallas Athene, on Jan 18 2011, 04:29 PM, said:
Alright. I got sprites to render in OpenGL recently, including the static effect for shields/cloaking, which was the complicated part. I've been working on beams, after which come sector lines and the instruments panels. I expect I'll need to convert the DirectText routines over too, which is probably the only difficult part remaining (but even easy parts take time when there are a lot of them).
Well, keep up the good work.
#37
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Posted 18 January 2011 - 10:14 PM
Why not just have a small thing pop up when the game first starts asking the player whether they want to use the default keyboard layout for keyboards with numberpads or for those without? Solves the auto-detect issue, at least as a stopgap, better than prophile's method.
VXI
#38
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Posted 19 January 2011 - 04:57 AM
While I remember (I have an exam today, so I'll investigate afterwards) - there appears to be some magic in the usage tables in the HID section of IOKit which can tell whether a device has a numeric keypad or not (or, more specifically, any specific keys from the keypad).
"I'm against human cloning. Also against identical twins." -mrxak
"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin
"We don't live to work. We live to live, work is just something that we have to do to live." -Chamrin
#39
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Posted 25 January 2011 - 07:55 PM
@Pallas
Good to see Antares still going.
Downloading now
EDIT:
Just been playing it.
Very nicely done.
I got Ares going recently through Fluffy Bunny — an update of Sheepshaver.
Antares gameplay is as good as on Fluffy Bunny, thought it crashed when I launched it initially and it couldn't find an internet connection to download its dependent files.
On controls, I'm an inverted T user for motion; piloting with my right hand and shooting with my left. Glad to see that I could re-assign the keys. I use an MBP with an external keyboard.
I also like the way that you have put everything in Application support, good for adding third party scenarios
Well, off to play the rest of the scenarios now.
Very nice work, congratulations on the rebirth of Ares as Antares!
I'll report any bugs.
Good to see Antares still going.
Downloading now
EDIT:
Just been playing it.
Very nicely done.
I got Ares going recently through Fluffy Bunny — an update of Sheepshaver.
Antares gameplay is as good as on Fluffy Bunny, thought it crashed when I launched it initially and it couldn't find an internet connection to download its dependent files.
On controls, I'm an inverted T user for motion; piloting with my right hand and shooting with my left. Glad to see that I could re-assign the keys. I use an MBP with an external keyboard.
I also like the way that you have put everything in Application support, good for adding third party scenarios
Well, off to play the rest of the scenarios now.
Very nice work, congratulations on the rebirth of Ares as Antares!
I'll report any bugs.
This post has been edited by Lord Commander Anic: 26 January 2011 - 11:46 AM
Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...
#40
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Posted 06 February 2011 - 01:31 AM
I can't believe I forgot to post in this topic. I've played Antares completely. And reliving the Ares experience was awesome. Sure there's an imperfection here and there, but all the important parts and most of the unimportant parts are in place and accurate to my memory. All it is lacking is multiplayer and Hera, but considering that both of those would take significant work, to understate it, I'm fine without them (my nostalgia was completely fulfilled with single player anyway since I only got to tinker with multiplayer and Hera for about a month compared to the years I had access to Ares).
The only gameplay issue I noticed that wasn't recorded anywhere I saw was that Mission 12, Make Way, the Catharans seem to produce a crapton of ships at a very fast rate without them holding any bunkers. It felt like they were keeping pace with me when I owned both bunkers and was spamming Cruisers. Far faster than I remember and this speed doesn't seem to match anywhere else in the game (barring ownership of resource-generators) and isn't mentioned in the Ares walkthrough I wrote years back.
The only gameplay issue I noticed that wasn't recorded anywhere I saw was that Mission 12, Make Way, the Catharans seem to produce a crapton of ships at a very fast rate without them holding any bunkers. It felt like they were keeping pace with me when I owned both bunkers and was spamming Cruisers. Far faster than I remember and this speed doesn't seem to match anywhere else in the game (barring ownership of resource-generators) and isn't mentioned in the Ares walkthrough I wrote years back.
#41
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Posted 06 February 2011 - 01:59 PM
Your impression is correct. The Cantharans' income is multiplied by 3 on that mission. This is the largest factor in the game. Usually it's around 1.5 to 2. I recommend flying around assassinating their transports, assault transports, and engineering pods. This increases the odds that they'll build more.
#42
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Posted 07 February 2011 - 05:14 PM
Wow, I hadn't been looking into Antares, I didn't realize that the singleplayer campagin was totally playable. This is awesome.
Currently making Possession 2, a game where you play as a ghost and possess your enemies.
#43
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Posted 08 February 2011 - 04:11 PM
NMS, on 06 February 2011 - 01:59 PM, said:
Your impression is correct. The Cantharans' income is multiplied by 3 on that mission. This is the largest factor in the game. Usually it's around 1.5 to 2. I recommend flying around assassinating their transports, assault transports, and engineering pods. This increases the odds that they'll build more.
Jeeze, my impression was scarily accurate. Maybe my memory is hazy, or it may be that my Performa had a somewhat out of date version of Ares, but I don't remember them building that fast.
Also, I'm updating my ancient Ares FAQ from a long time ago. It doesn't contain ship and weapon stats at all and I'd like to get my hands on them. Unfortunately, I don't have access to Classic to open up Hera or the Ares Race Guide and I know zilch about programming to try cracking open source code to look. Is there anyway I can get this information for my guide?
#44
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Posted 02 March 2011 - 09:39 AM
Lord Commander Anic, on 25 January 2011 - 07:55 PM, said:
@Pallas
EDIT:
Just been playing it.
Very nicely done.
I got Ares going recently through Fluffy Bunny — an update of Sheepshaver.
Antares gameplay is as good as on Fluffy Bunny, thought it crashed when I launched it initially and it couldn't find an internet connection to download its dependent files.
EDIT:
Just been playing it.
Very nicely done.
I got Ares going recently through Fluffy Bunny — an update of Sheepshaver.
Antares gameplay is as good as on Fluffy Bunny, thought it crashed when I launched it initially and it couldn't find an internet connection to download its dependent files.
Can you please tell me where I can get my hands on Fluffy bunny?
I have "Chubby Bunny" installed & Ares was NOT playable at that point in the sheepshaver emulation...
Also, a google search on Fluffy bunny only returned one mention of it in conjunction with search term 'sheepshaver' and that site was warned as a malware site by my Google Chrome browser so i decided not to risk it... eeep!
,,Steampunk's not dead''
#45
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Posted 16 March 2011 - 08:45 PM
Er oops.
It's Chubby Bunny I was using (just checked). There is no Fluffy bunny I'm afraid, I just remembered its name incorrectly
Version 4.01 — I had no issues at all with running Ares on it.
Antares however is actually better than running the game on Bunny. I've been comparing the two. So no more bunnies for me, for Ares anyway.
It's Chubby Bunny I was using (just checked). There is no Fluffy bunny I'm afraid, I just remembered its name incorrectly
Version 4.01 — I had no issues at all with running Ares on it.
Antares however is actually better than running the game on Bunny. I've been comparing the two. So no more bunnies for me, for Ares anyway.
Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...
#46
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Posted 26 March 2011 - 01:58 PM
Hey there. I know this room isn't the right place for a comment like this, so feel free to delete, but... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I have been waiting for this game to return for DECADES. I will sleep well tonight knowing that Ares didn't die. I'm a Ruby/Java dev but if there's *any* way I can help contribute to this project, please let me know!!
Cheers!
Anthony B
Cheers!
Anthony B
#47
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Posted 27 March 2011 - 08:27 PM
NMS, on 06 February 2011 - 01:59 PM, said:
Your impression is correct. The Cantharans' income is multiplied by 3 on that mission. This is the largest factor in the game. Usually it's around 1.5 to 2. I recommend flying around assassinating their transports, assault transports, and engineering pods. This increases the odds that they'll build more.
They do? Heh, I always swam straight through that level, holding the bunkers with carrier fleets, gunships with cruiser escorts, and plowing down the Cantharan planet with heavy destroyers and kitchen sinks.
#48
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Posted 28 March 2011 - 04:30 PM
I think you're remembering wrong. You can only build carriers and HDs in mission 17 (and in my opinion it's not worth it). You do get an Obish battleship, which is basically a carrier without the fighters, if you protect the cargo ships.
#49
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Posted 28 March 2011 - 07:44 PM
Oh. Oh! That one.
Yeah, I do remember having a tough time with that mission, but the Obish destroyer made everything much easier if you know how to handle it.
Yeah, I do remember having a tough time with that mission, but the Obish destroyer made everything much easier if you know how to handle it.
#50
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Posted 30 March 2011 - 04:58 PM
"Make Way" — That's my favourite mission in the game. Took me ages to get past it first time round, er a decade ago or whenever it was!
Works just as well in Antares.
@Pallas
Btw — I did get a crash to OS in Mission 18 early on during a large battle, but it didn't replicate second and third times round so it may have been due to something local to my Mac.
Works just as well in Antares.
@Pallas
Btw — I did get a crash to OS in Mission 18 early on during a large battle, but it didn't replicate second and third times round so it may have been due to something local to my Mac.
Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...
