Castle Paradox

[Bob the Hamster]

We are very very close to a new stable release. I would greatly appreciate it if everybody could Download the release-candidate and test it out. If it is indeed worthy of being called "stable", we could be making it official within a week.

Lots of cool new features are available in this, so if you haven't been keeping up with the nightly builds already, please check whatsnew.txt to see what is new.

[Pepsi Ranger]

The new layer system has a bit of a decapitation problem. When I added Layer 3 to the map, but gave it a different tileset from the default, my Layer 2 tiles all but vanished. I still have all layers set for visibility. When I bring Layer 3 back to the default tileset (or the matching number), everything returns to normal.

I didn't change any other layer from the standard positioning.

I'm pretty sure the problem is that it isn't recognizing transparent tiles, and is instead turning everything from the overhead tile layers invisible. There may also be a corruption problem because when I give Layer 3 a palette from a different map (but don't lay any tiles), it bungs up all of Layer 2's tiles.

I am, at least, able to add a third layer, but the tileset has to match the default for it keep from wrecking the visuals.
_________________
Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[Bob the Hamster]

That sounds like a bug alright. Investigations commencing...

[TMC]

I've tried numerous games and maps, but can't reproduce this. Need more information:

[NeoSpade]

In the general game data section, the new enemy death animations can't be set as the global default.

[Buni Pickney]

Under Draw Hero Graphics, rotating either a frame or a full set to the side (where the dimensions would be incompatible) causes the graphic to look really messed up, so you may want to simply prevent this from being an option or truncate what gets rotated in this case. It doesn't seem to mess other graphics up to rotate them, presumably because most OHR graphics are square.

[TMC]

[NeoSpade]

[Pepsi Ranger]

I think it may be a misunderstanding about how the new layer system works. I tried doing this with an old version of Tightfloss Maiden that didn't have multiple layers installed and I didn't run into any of the problems I stated above.

I am confused as to why the tilesets (those above the selected entry point) seem to revert to default every time I add a new layer. It seems like I have to keep watching for unintended changes, like a default tileset for Layer 0 becoming "tileset 1" when the default is 6. Stuff like that.

The decapitation problem happened when I inserted a layer while highlighting Layer 0. I didn't realize that the other layers were pushed down wherever the insertion point occurred. So what I was probably seeing was my former Layer 2 (which became Layer 3) getting scrambled when I gave Layer 3 (the former Layer 2, which was still active on the map) a new (and mostly empty) tileset.

At the end of the day, I think the problem came down to a lack of updated documentation explaining the behavoir, or a tired game author who wasn't paying close attention to what he was doing.

The only real problem I can forsee persisting is the notion that everything above the insertion point reverts to the default tileset (or in one case, changes the tileset), and that can become a matter of confusion if you're working with 130+ tilesets and can't remember which ones the map was supposed to use. Other than that, I think we can disregard the original complaint for now. I would just clarify the new layer behavior in the F1 help menu, as it is clearly different than Ubersetsung's behavior.

No need to panic (or hold the new release) on account of this.

Of course, it may be that I'm not seeing the cause for the tileset reverting, either, and maybe we should just wait for other complaints on the matter before calling this problem an actual problem.

And for the record, I insert my layers through the main menu. I never use Ctrl+L.
_________________
Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[Buni Pickney]

I can still reproduce both of the problems in the latest nightly. Well, here's the screenshot set...I used a game that I had been building in xocolatl+2 and upgraded it to the new nightly version, if that helps. By the way, this only happens if you rotate the picture where it doesn't normally fit and then go back to the hero graphic sets.

[NeoSpade]

I've found another bug, this one's in game, it doesn't recognise joysticks anymore, I tried the same joystick in both the stable release and the release candidate, and stable picks it up find.

Is this a bug, or is joystick support just out or?

[TMC]

[Bob the Hamster]

I'll try to dig up my joystick and test this evening.

Neospade, was the joystick plugged in before game started? or did you plug it in after game was running? I vaguely remember something about the joystick being ignored if it wasn't attached at the title screen.

Also, can you check if the joystick still works with the old fb backend? To test, run:

game.exe -gfx fb

[NeoSpade]

I plugged in before I started game.exe, I ran it with both the Stable and the Release candidate.
It works fine with Xo+2, but fails to register with the new nightly (I downloaded the latest just then just to be sure)
I tried it with the old backend, to no avail, so it isn't that which is causing the problem.

[Bob the Hamster]

Teeemcee just found and fixed the joystick bug. It affected all backends. I am currently forcing an early nightly build so y'all can test.