new project

[Commodore]

I uploaded a demo.
QP: this shows my workaround.

I wanted space to be traversable by the player, not just an object so I could more easily connect areas. the downside is enemies have to stake out a clear area to place player clones and can't hunt you down like I wanted.

[Dr. Dos]

Complete Obliteration of Space

Also you saved on the title screen.

[Commodore]

curses!

[Commodore]

fixed with more stuff.

[Commodore]

http://zzt.org/upload//spacefor.zip

new title is space fork.

some fixes and some more detail in places. Enemy generation is now counted better, but it still can break. tell me about any bugs please.

[Commodore]

Okay so i returned to this and the major thing preventing it all from working properly is still the silly enemy counting thing. Maybe some brainstorming would help:

I use a duplicator to make an object. The object's first command is a forced step /n which means it will only continue on when it spawns outside of the duplicator. The object then sends a message to @count saying there is a new object. When the object dies, it sends a message to @count saying there is one fewer object. This is all in an effort to limit the number of objects, at a certain point, @count will tell a blocker to move in front of the duplicator preventing new objects.

Errors can happen in a few ways. The blocker in particular is troublesome, bonking into generated objects at inopportune times or moving too late and letting object number limit+1 escape, screwing the whole works. The counter must also deal with conflicting sent messages, so sometimes in the middle of being told to increase the counter, it receives a message to decrease, and locking would only cause messages to be lost.

tl;dr: Is there any way to count & limit the number of objects a duplicator makes?

[Jotz]

Could you make the enemies decrement the counter themselves upon duplication and die if the counter is zero?

[bitbot]

I'm making a space game, a open-ended sort of affair with a combat engine and some quests. Energy management and things will factor in. Sort of like those old star trek games.

We are traveling at warp speed. How did you manage to beam aboard this ship?

I'm making a request for sci-fi names for planets, starbases, quadrants etc or space-themed zzt art

Commodore LXIV from Space Quest V

Now I need some content! Like a title screen! I'm often intimated by drawing in zzt, that's why I like taking care of the code side first.

TITLE.ZIP

(917 Bytes) Downloaded 2502 times

[Commodore]

I am so going to use that. Love the font!

[bitbot]

Glad you like it! It took a few rehashes before going with a retrofit look. The image links back to the C64 game it's based on. The ZIP includes a Star Trek jingle too! Feel free to tweak as needed.

[Commodore]

The image links back to the C64 game it's based on.

HAHA! I knew something about it tickled my fancy. I've probably seen that title screen somewhere before, as I've scoured the web in search of Super Star Trek style games. Still haven't found one as good as EGA Trek (although THIS is the version I first played, and it's still a good version). My game is certainly inspired by SST, so it fits quite well.

[bitbot]

Flashback. I'm reminded of an ansi-based Star Trek game I picked up at a dollar store (along with Hugo's House of Horrors and Pharoah's Tomb) as a kid. It was a bit too cerebral for me. Can't seem to find it anywhere now though. I always preferred the aesthetic of Star Wars but the new Trek flicks got me hooked! The Space Quest series is also really cool and nostalgic. May I suggest giving it a touch of humor? Not to denounce your artwork, but if you'd like me to do some cutscenes, it'd be no trouble at all.

[Commodore]

My enjoyment of super star trek games is probably only loosely connected to my enjoyment of star trek, I like the gameplay, and have always wanted to mix it with Rogue. Considering SST and Rogue came from the same workstation/main frame era I'm surprised it hasn't been done sooner.

I don't know if i'm in the need for any cutscenes, but I had an idea for a few locations, (pauses typing to open paint....)

spacedock.png (147.74 KiB) Viewed 70775 times

Basically the area the player navigates is in a little window over the scene. I wanted to do a few locations like that, the baccarat game was to be one as well, but that engine was not working the way I wanted it to, so I need a new gambling game, or to make up for a complex game for a bunch of simple ones.

[bitbot]

Nice diagram! That's a good way to get some scenery in. It's challenging, but I'll see if I can whip something up.

I like the idea of combining SST and Rogue. I tried to make a rogue clone once but it doesn't translate well into ZZT... but Kroz does. Stylistically, I would draw inspiration from that (as Sweeney did) but add elements from different rogue-likes.

Baccarat would've been cool. Not sure of a good alternative but this random SQ6 mini-game came to mind. lol

[bitbot]

Basically the area the player navigates is in a little window over the scene.

I imported the outline to literally draw over it. Can you describe the scene in as much detail as possible?