Version 1.15.2 beta

[Janis Legzdinsh]

I just created a new beta version for you to play with. It's available here.

[jjim]

I have just run the beta 1.15.2 by copying the unzipped contents  of the download into my vavoom directory ( overwriting  old files when promted by windows xp).<br>I have run in all 3 modes for strife and it appears that there is still the problem with voices repeating unless run in open al where there is no music.<br>Have i missed  something or has there been no changes to strife support in this upgrade?  

[Catsy]

Anything in particular that we should test heavily, try to repro, or watch out for?

[Janis Legzdinsh]

The main improvement was in Strife support, where a lots of things (mostly enemies) should work better now. As of repeating voices, I thought that I fixed that.

[jjim]

Maybe i have installed the beta files incorectly - I just copied the new basev  , OpenAL 32.dll and vavm95sv files over the top of the existing ones in my vavoom directory.<br>Then ran the existing vavoom launcher for strife.<br>This resulted in the same repeating voices.<br>Thanking you for your patience Janis  - Please advise.<br>

[Janis Legzdinsh]

Ooops, I put the wrong exe file (it should be vavoom95 not vavm95sv). The new version is here

[Catsy]

Okay, so far I'm noticing /major/ improvements.<br><br>- Repeating voices seem to be fixed. Congratulations!<br>- Guards now correctly cycle through their occasional "jog" frame when standing in place.<br>- Townsfolk now "wander" as appropriate, and go through the correct idle animations. The wanderings, however, do not appear to be as varied or far away from their origin point as they should be. Townsfolk, I seem to remember, should be able to wander anywhere, even across sectors, as long as they don't have to go up or down.<br>- Blackbird! She now talks to you for the first few blurb. Her blurb for Irale seems to be missing. Also missing was her middle intro blurb about the Front, but I think I know why that was missing--when you cross a linedef to trigger a Blackbird blurb while another is already running, it should interrupt the previous one. Instead, the current one keeps playing and the new one does not play.<br><br>Some more issues I noticed, none of which are likely new in this version:<br><br>- The MIDI music is still cutting off in /all/ games after a short time. It seems to be linked to the number of sound effects which get played, because sometimes it will last for minutes, and other times I'll get into a big fray quickly and it will cut off very soon.<br>- Dialogue voices need to get cut off when you end dialogue before playback is finished. Right now they continue playing even after you're no longer talking to them.<br>- Need to add a vertical distance check for conversation: player can initiate conversation with an entity who is an appropriate XY distance away, but far above or below them. To test this, start a game on Veteran and go to Sanctuary, you can sometimes talk to the guard at the top of the first lift on the right.<br>- Crash bug: press F2 (or whatever you have save bound to), then press F2 again. Vavoom crashes with the following error: Segmentation Violation - Stack trace: (Window.Hide) <- VWindow::SetVisibility <- TProgs::ExecuteFunction <- (MN_SetMenu) <- Host_Frame<br>This crash also repros with F3/Load.<br>- There is a switch in Harris's tavern room which is supposed to be revealed on the wall when he dies. This switch opens the secret area in his room. This does not occur upon his death as it should.<br><br>I will test further and let you know what I find.

[Catsy]

Okay, upon further play, I've reached a blocking bug. Two of them, actually. Both of them have to do with switches which cannot be activated.<br><br>The first is in the "cleaner" job you can do for the mayor. The switch in the Sewage Plant to open up the door to the power coupling cannot be activated. This blocks that quest path, and you must do the "squeamish" job for the mayor in order to progress.<br><br>The second occurs when you return to the power plant. After talking to the guy who opens with "work, sleep and get tortured", he tells you to bring the switches up using the walkway. After doing so, there are two lifts on either side that are used to get up and talk to Ketrick. However, the switches for these lifts cannot be activated.<br><br>Also, I've noticed a problem with jumping. After doing the "suicide run" to open up the core, you can jump over the railing and get in there to score some power cells. However, the railing cannot be jumped in Vavoom.<br><br>Other things:<br>- Sentinels now work! They activate, follow, and attack you. Yay!<br>- The spider things still seem to be broken. They won't walk on the ceiling, they won't activate unless you shoot them, and when they get face-to-face with you, they can't hurt you.<br>- Ceiling turrets are still broken. They will not activate until shot, then they cycle through one frame of attack animation on the ceiling before dropping to the ground to continue attacking. They /do/, however, hurt you.<br>- Alarm linedefs do not appear to work--or at least, they don't set off the alarms.<br>- You still cannot buy an ammo satchel from the armory.<br>- You cannot be healed by the medic.<br>- The weapons trainer says you are not ready even when you should have a training token.<br>- The medic successfully installs a stamina upgrade in you, but it appears to have no effect. Your max health is still 100.<br>- When using an armor, you appear to get the benefit of it (you cannot use another until you've been hurt), but the armor type and amount does not appear on the left-hand side of your HUD.<br>- When picking up an armor, the correct behavior in the original Strife is to use it immediately if you do not already have armor. Vavoom simply picks it up and puts it in your inventory. Personally, I /prefer/ Vavoom's behavior, but I mention this for accuracy.<br>- In the original Strife, medkits would automatically be used if you took a fatal blow. Vavoom does not do this, and it is a very nice feature.

[Janis Legzdinsh]

Theoretically NPCs can walk everywhere.<br><br>Those non-played Blackbird voices are activated by another line special that requires some quest. It's not implemented.<br><br>I don't think that Haris has this special action on his first conversation frame, after talking to him and then killing it should open the secret.<br><br>Some line specials requiring quest are not implemented yet.<br><br>Line blocking by texture also isn't implemented.<br><br>Actually it's alarm indicators that doesn't work. The alarm does go off, i.e. monsters start attacking you.<br><br>Healing and out of ammo are not yet implemented. And weapon training upgrade doesn't work because you don't have the tokken. In conversations only medical tokken is given and probably there's a hack that also gives you training token and possibly also a quest.<br><br>Max health isn't affected yet, only punch strength.<br><br>Armor in status bar should be prety easy to do.

[Catsy]

I don't think that Haris has this special action on his first conversation frame, after talking to him and then killing it should open the secret.

<br><br>The secret does not open even after talking to Harris and killing him. It doesn't matter which conversation frame you kill him after, I've tested them all.<br><br>Also, on a related note, when you have the Chalice in your inventory and you enter the tavern, it is supposed to set off the alarms. That is why Harris gives you the line "I know this looks like a set-up". This does not occur. <br><br>

Line blocking by texture also isn't implemented.

<br><br>Ah, is that why you can't jump over railings? The engine thinks they're blocking linedefs? That would make sense.<br><br>

Healing and out of ammo are not yet implemented. And weapon training upgrade doesn't work because you don't have the tokken. In conversations only medical tokken is given and probably there's a hack that also gives you training token and possibly also a quest.

<br><br>Fair enough, just thought I'd mention them. You're doing /amazing/ work, though! <br><br>

Armor in status bar should be prety easy to do.

<br><br>Should be. Let me know if you need a screen shot of what it should look like, although I think you mentioned you have the original game.

[jjim]

Thanks for the new .exe file <br>Big improvement - a few bugs like talking to someone who isn't there when getting on the lift in the sanctuary- but some really good fixes.Please Don't stop the good work.

[hawkwind]

Ditto from me......... ;D

[ToXiCFLUFF]

Awesome stuff!

[Chilvence]

[quote author=Catsy link=board=betas;num=1076348904;start=0#9 date=02/10/04 at 20:13:39]<br><br>Also, on a related note, when you have the Chalice in your inventory and you enter the tavern, it is supposed to set off the alarms. That is why Harris gives you the line "I know this looks like a set-up". This does not occur. [/quote]<br><br>Heh, you can actually sneak in with the chalice by dropping it in front of you and then picking it up slowly. Do this 30 times inching your way to the door and the alarms dont go off <br>

[Catsy]

Harris's secret will now open upon his death. I don't know why it didn't before, as I tested it pretty well, but I'm not complaining. :><br><br>

Heh, you can actually sneak in with the chalice by dropping it in front of you and then picking it up slowly. Do this 30 times inching your way to the door and the alarms dont go off

<br><br>Yeah, but I usually just talk to Harris to get the xbow ammo, then kill him to open up his secret. <br><br>We got further than before this time, Janis! I appear to be stuck after the power station quest, as Macil doesn't realize I blew up the core, and won't give me my next assignment. I'm guessing this is just an unimplemented quest thing, so I'm looking forward to the next installment.<br><br>A suggestion, btw--I'm not sure how you currently have the quests set up, aside from noticing things like QUEST_StoleChalice in the progs, but if we're going to effectively test your progress in the game, it's going to be necessary to have a way to set the quest flags from the console. Since Vavoom often pukes if you try to load a savegame with older progs, we can't just pick up where we left off--we'll have to play the entire game from beginning to end to properly test the giving of quests and such.<br><br>While I don't have a problem playing Strife over and over again this will eventually get tedious in the later levels. Having a text file with an index of the quests and being able to type something like "set QUEST_WasInFrontBase=1" in the console would be invaluable for testing purposes.