Lunar Gravitar beta 4

[Shockman]

new,

- Synced system map planets (zoom)
- High score saving (top 10)
- Extra ship every 25,000 points (up to 9 ships total)
- Title page (2. One with high score table, one with scoring info)
- Options on own page (F2)
- It use to count down ships during lander crashes (without feedback). You can not end the game by crashing the lander anymore, though it will still end if you run it out of fuel. I don't know how this will end up in the end. I might just give one lander for the attempt at 5 landings and a crash and running out of fuel will return you to the system map, with the flags already planted retained, and you can pick up another lander next visit.
- More improvements


Still to do,

- .ini file for all permanent options and high scores (high scores are in the registry for now)
- Improvements to last lone planet
- Some graphics balance.
- Any new ideas or techniques to use.

This will be the last beta, then many of the cheats will probably be gone.

 

[Shockman]

I'm really sorry for the three that already downloaded this, but it has a bug that would cause you to loose control. It was the most pestering bug I created in this and thought I had it squashed 4 time now.

I finally got that fixed, fingers crossed, but I believe the lander part is working perfectly now.

The only other change that is in this is the ship reserve display has been optimized.

A fixed version is now posted.

Sorry again for the problem. Thanks for you interest.

 

[Shockman]

I feel like McEnroe did when he double faulted. More like when he did not believe it was called right.

I find this stuff because I have been playing the hell out of it as a player/tester more than a developer.

It had some reserve ship stuff still in it when I had rewrote the routine to not need it but it got in the way at system 2.

I also made it where if you go off the bottom of the screen you go back to the system you came from. This can only happen if invincible, but when it did you can easily get lost.

I will throw the .ini file in tomorrow, and incorporate most of the cheat code into skill levels. I might post it as version 1 at YoYo day after.

 

[Shockman]

This is getting weird.

I work on something till it seems fixed, test it, compile it, and post it.

Then I get back to it in search of the other areas to fix and find the same problem pop up again. The point is that the lander will sometimes still make a fine landing and it not register sometimes. It's always the first landing. if this happens you need to crash and the next landings work. It really costs nothing as it is.

I think I got it fixed again, and testing the compiled version seems to confirm it.

This is really much more complex than it appears, but I will not stop until it is 100% stable.

I even found one more instance of a skewed reserve ship readout that I need to track down.

The fact that it is a hard game makes the job more difficult and some of the problems are related to the cheats that are in it for now.

If you hold up just a day or two I will post a version when I can repeatedly play through, as far as I can, without any bugs.

 

[Shockman]

Lunar Gravitar will be out out beta next release. It will still need testing though.

The snake planet I think is too hard, and probably because it is squished a bit horizontally. It is winnable, but there is a very small margin for error.

For skill levels I went with three,

EASY _ This level has no invisible landscapes and no reverse gravity, except for the orbital gravity on planet 4 and 10, and planet 12 when is only reversed gravity and only shows up when every other planet in system 3 is completed.

Normal _ Also has no invisible landscapes, but it does have reversed gravity at levels 2 and 4. Invisible landscapes is hard, and so is reversed gravity in the tunnel levels. Which means the game is going to default to Hard, which means Normal is a bad choice of titles for this level.

Hard _ As you gathered has invisible landscapes and reversed gravity on levels 2 and 4. It is also a poorly titled level. In truth when it comes to completing every planet the titles should be Hard, Harder, and Hardest, or instead of the suffix a number of preceding 'Very'.

The cheats are still in but only as hot keys now.

The only thing that really needs done at this point is building the .ini file to save the options in. I dread this most because of the monotony of it, but it always goes easier than I expect.

I wonder if it would work if I just did a save state on exit of the options page each time? It seems that it would. One line of code and 1/4 second delay.

I left the HD version far behind. I doubt if anyone wants it. It would take probably 2 1/2 hours to make the conversion.

i think I'm going to fall asleep angain befor it is donre tho