What I've done this week##
This week was mainly playing catch-up on my TODO list.
Even though Jason Summers no longer maintains his site, Jason's Lode Runner Archive is still the best spot on the internet for all things Presage Lode Runner (that's The Legend Returns, The Mad Monks' Revenge and Lode Runner 2).
Editor
- fixed bug that caused a crash when copying tiles and then clicking on the active tile button
Game
- added support for blocks to rapidly heal to match the original when blasting has not yet finished and a monk is standing on it - IE; the monk is too close to you when you blast means the block won't be blown away allowing the monk to walk across and eat you.
- this is somewhat different to the original; the Rewrite will skip more of the block heal animation depending on how close the monk is to our hero. The original is little odd. I can't work out if there is a particular pattern to it so I've matched it as close as I can, plus, what makes sense to the overall feel of the game
- every time you cheat (skip puzzle or ask for an extra life) your score is reset - this matches the original. You don't get something for nothing!
- fixed bug that removed secret exits doors when there isn't one
- AI;
- monks now will now randomly pick up gold "monk who passes by a treasure will pick it up (exactly?) 40% of the time"
- monks now drop gold at random "how far he will carry it is much more complicated, but the median distance is about 7 or 8 tiles"
General
- the intro logos and the Sierra/Jeff Tunnell Productions animation was moved from the main menu to the main XNA entry class;
- added support for the game to work without the music tracks;
- I'm tossing up on the idea of having the music tracks as a separate DLC for people who either don't want it or have a limited download limit - 25mb VS 150mb is quite a difference
- Switched over non-blog post images (like my TigSource thread) to Microsoft Azure storage;
- this is mainly due to the Ghost blogging platform not providing support to easily host files outside of blog posts
- Azure will also allow us to store demos and other files
Along with the new UI came the single and two-player game dialog.
Same functionality as the original
What I'll probably do next week
- monk AI; this is the key to the game being accurate as possible
- monks waiting when falling vertical
- save game format deciphered or some headway made