Quark Robot dev blog

Week #17 update

Quark Robot -

The editor doesn't get much done apart from little tweaks since it was the first area of the project I started on. All functionality of the original is present and has been for over a year now. New features and enhancements this week allow for greater speed when using the keyboard to paint a puzzle, a config tweak for puzzle pros and support to move the toolbox anywhere on the screen.

A local scoreboard was added this week - a much requested and long overdue feature. It works the same as the Original Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge but with some updates to the UI. You can read all about it the scoreboard post.


Welcome to the hall-of-fame!

A name in parenthesis and in bold is the finder of the bug/quirk. Thanks to all, I really do appreciate your time and support. Cheers!

Editor

  • increased the default lives for runners in two-player mode when testing to 5 (Jared)
  • added support via the configuration file to adjust the default number of lives you start with for two-player puzzles; (Jared)
  • default is 5, max limit is 99
  • single-player puzzles remain at 1 life
  • adjust <PlayTestLives>
  • pressing the ESCAPE shortcut will paste a selected region instead of asking you if you want to exit;
  • this matches MS Paint behaviour
  • fixed bug in World Dialog that caused the incorrect background to show when selecting the secret world
  • toolbox will snap to the nearest position within the editor if toolbox position was out-of-bounds (manual config edit or toggling full-screen)

Just in case you aren't a regular blog reader, support for full-screen without pillarboxes was added last build. You can read about this feature in the week #12 update. Now we've no longer got vertical black bars and more screen real estate, why not add support to allow the editor toolbox to move anywhere on the screen?


See more of what you edit by moving the toolbox in full-screen

If you're in windowed mode, the toolbox can move anywhere within the red box in the image above. If you're in full-screen mode then you can move the toolbox anywhere on the screen. The Original allowed this when toggling full-screen with the Windows compatibility settings (don't check "Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution") which was incredibly handy when spending a lot of time editing puzzles by not having to constantly move the toolbox out of the way.

If you're in full-screen mode and the toolbox is outside of the default 640x480 game window, it will be set to the nearest position within the editor window. Remember, you can set the toolbox back to the default position anytime by double-clicking on the toolbox border.

The editor now allows the use of the 1983 keyboard edit shortcuts, suggested by Jeffrey. Of course, you don't have to be making puzzles with the Original/secret theme in order to use them. Combine this with TAB key support and you can nearly use the keyboard entirely to create puzzles without touching your mouse.

  • 0 = delete a tile
  • 1 = paint blastable
  • 2 = paint solid
  • 3 = paint ladder
  • 4 = paint monkey bar
  • 5 = paint fall-through/trapdoor
  • 6 = paint exit ladder
  • 7 = paint gold coin
  • 8 = paint Mad Monk
  • 9 = paint Jake Peril
  • arrow keys can be used to move the mouse cursor

Remember to read up on how to get the most out the editor to speed up your puzzle creation.

Game

  • when adding extra lives (cheat cough cheat) using the keyboard, you can now hold the keys down to rapidly add lives as per the original (Jared)
  • fixed bug when attempting to kill a runner that is not in the puzzle (Howie)
  • fixed bug that prevented a runner from throwing goo at the base of a ladder
  • buried gold and tools that are covered in goop will now show in debug mode (Paige, Alexis)
  • fixed bug that killed all runners when Jake's CTRL+K shortcut was pressed (Paige, Alexis)
  • you will no longer be prompted to save your game when quitting if you haven't moved or played any puzzles - the game will quit and return straight to the main menu
  • runners and monks now stand closer to blocks if they were running in goop and hit a solid object (Jared)
  • fixed bug when setting up rope traps repeatedly (Alexis, Paige)
  • points accumulated in a puzzle no longer get removed if you die/restart (Jeffrey)

General

  • improved accuracy of tooltip positions
  • added support to turn balloon tooltips off as per the Original (Jared);
  • by default, tooltips are turned on
  • toggle with the EnableBalloonHelp property in the configuration file
  • tweaked the conditions that tooltips use to appear
  • added local scoreboard system
  • gamepad left & right triggers can now be used as the mouse buttons
  • fixed bug that did not correctly save the full-screen state when exiting the game

Bugs being worked on

  • blocks blasted instantly 'healing' and crushing a monk - timing dependent (Jayde)
  • case-sensitive filename support not working correctly on Linux machines

What I'll probably do next week

  • LAN lobby