Firebrand

Changes to compilation process

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I’ve finished with the basic steps to allow building of resource files (PK3 files) for KRPG, I’ve created some batch files that automatically explore the current directories and set them on variables, then build the resource files, the next step is to add this final step to the original compiling process and make some tests on it.

After I make a small test on my local computer, I’ll finally commit these changes and post some information on how to build, so that anyone, developers and users alike can build the latest SVN revision for this project, and if enough interest is generated, I’ll extend this functionality to KA too :).

UPDATE 16/11/2010: The new batch files have been committed to our SVN repository, the process now goes smoothly :), I’ll document this ASAP.

I’ve also uploaded a lot of converted spritesheets and the new travel map image so that it can be used in-game, this is really going to speed up the development process IMHO, stay tuned for more nice things coming along! 😀

Spriting month!!

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Hi there! It’s been a long time since we have posted a blog entry, so I decided I would give you a small progress update of our work on the project.

I’ve been busy working on the conversion of our sprite sheets to normal sprites usable for various objects in-game, like enemies, player weapons, decorations, etc. It’s been a bit slow and tedious work, but it will give us a huge boost on the work we’ll be able to do code wise, it will allow us to implement new enemies using DECORATE and VavoomC to provide interesting new attacks for enemies and nice looking new weapons for all the player classes in our RPG project. The latest additions for DECORATE in Vavoom will make it easier to work with adding new weapons and for fixing the existing ones.

It might take another month (or longer) to convert the spritesheets to normal enemies, I hope to make it faster… I’m looking for a way to automatize part of the task to make it faster. Unfortunately I’m having some hardware issues on my end and I’m unable to work on this as I would like 🙁 .

Ramborc and Sahadia have been busy working on the story and locations for the RPG, the progress has been good on this part too and we already have planned most of the locations the players will visit throughout the game. Ramborc has also been importing new textures for giving life to these locations and make them look good in-game.

Crimson Wizard has been working on additions for AI for both Korax Arena’s bots and enemies in our RPG MOD, which will enhance the game in the RPG MOD and allow us to implement further gameplay modes on KA.

This is the work we are doing as of now, as

Korax Arena v1.1 BETA released

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It’s finally here, a BETA version of Korax Arena 1.1, this release brings many improvements over the past version, it fixes many bugs and adds great stuff for gameplay, here are the main fixes for this version.

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CHANGES IN 1.1 BETA
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FIXES:
– Many, many fixes to bots AI, bots will now react differently depending certain conditions in battles.
– Fixed many crashes in CTF and KTH gameplay modes.
– Many internal data structures changed to improve speed of the game.
– Rebalanced weapon damage rates, there should not be any “tank” weapons anymore ;).
– Fixed crashes with tracer projectiles in team gameplay modes.
– Fixed some friendly minotaur crashes in team gameplay modes.
– Fixed invulnerability powerups will now appear in-game.
– Fixed heretic actors dropping invisible items.
– Fixed super shotgun so that it changes to another weapon when out of ammo.
– Fixed bots choosing friendly minotaur as target in coop game.
– Fixed experience was given for any destructible object that the player smashes.
– Fixed setting of pitch angles for bots.
– Fixed that under certain circumstances float bobbing items could be spawned inside of 3d floors.
– Fixed armor pickups were gathered by player even if he had max armor value.
– Fixed not all items were properly destroyed on team selection screen.

CHANGES:
– Bots won’t use alternate attacks if they don’t have enough ammo for them.
– Bots won’t use repulsion alternate attacks when using melee weapons.
– Made player get less experience on higher levels from killing both players and monsters.
– Some more maps are compatible with domination gameplay mode.

ADDITIONS:
– Added Survival gameplay mode, it consists of players fighting against waves of monsters, each wave becomes more difficult as the game progresses, almost all maps can be used to play this game mode, be ready for some nice surprises! 👿
– Random powerup pickups.
– Random weapon pickups.
– Random fire weapon pickups.
– Spectators and fliying spectators at the beginning of certain game modes.
– Hero class now has more projectile weapons and is more balanced to be equally efficient as the original Hexen classes.

You can download this release here. We are releasing this so that you can help us test the new features and fixes, we are already working on a new map pack and some other nice surprises for a later patch.

The editing package will be updated ASAP, adding support for the latest changes in the game.

If you spot any bugs, please report them on the forums, so that they can be fixed in a later patch, thanks for your support and enjoy the release! 😀

[Archived Comments]

New Korax Arena version coming around the corner

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We are pleased to allow you to preview some of the new things that the next KA version will have, just to name a few, there will be a new gameplay mode called survival, which consists in surviving as many waves of monsters with the help of all the players, as the game progresses the monster waves get bigger and spawn more difficult monsters, the plus this gameplay mode offers is that you will fight all the monsters from heretic and hexen (and a few other surprises if you survive long enough 👿 ). We’ll also have some revamped maps from previous versions of KA and some more maps that will work on multiple gameplay modes, the usual bug fixes here and there and many other nice things :).

For now I’ll leave you with a couple of shots from survival gameplay mode and other stuff, stay tuned it’s not long before KA’s next version arrives!

280809 2808091 2808092 2808093 2808094 2808095

We have also been working on improving the forums too, we want the community alive again, that’s why we have added custom titles (which were a blast before updating the forum software ;)), we have added the possibility of quick replying to topics if you go to the bottom of the thread, you’ll notice a reply box, no more hitting reply button, and that’s just the beginning… get to the forums to see the rest! Enjoy!

EDIT: Further screenshots can be found here.

[Archived Comments]

Community Rollups

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We have just finished adding new stuff to the website for our community, our main concern was to inform you all about progress we have on our project and allow you to share stuff with us and other community members, we have been thinking on ways of doing this easily for everyone 🙂 .

That’s when SF.net began adding hosted apps to project pages, then was when the idea hit us…. we could use these apps to help us communicate our progress with you all in a convenient way, this is what we came up with:

  • Installed and using TaskFreak! you can see what is actually being worked on on each project we are doing.
  • Added a changelog, this one will tell you the most recent things added code-wise.
  • Added a gallery, this gallery has albums for each of our project, what’s the best way of advertising our projects? With images! And what could be better than allowing our very same users (and the developers 😉 ) to upload cool screenshots of our projects in action 🙂 . These albums will also contain some preview screens of work in progress stuff, so stay tuned to them, so you all can comment on the screens you like 😉 .
  • Added a guest book, this one will allow you to praise our site and projects as you feel fit 😉 .

And this is just the beginning, we are planning even more cool things, we’ll be talking on them as they become available, for now, begin enjoying the new stuff up and running that the Korax Team prepared for it’s community, as a ‘thank you’ for your support!

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