Planet Cloudius IX

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Commander Spleen
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Commander Spleen »

So I happened to upgrade to Wine 4.0 for an unrelated purpose and gave this another try. Now it runs properly.

Very nice engine overall. The camera and physics are surprisingly comfortable. Sound effects and music create a sufficiently Keenish atmosphere.

Level design is interesting and flows well. Though the two I've played still have a bit of a linear left-to-right feel but the trees and some undergound areas break it up nicely. Hopefully the environoments become a bit more intricate later on.

The storyline is somewhat uninspiring but at least it can be ignored without affecting gameplay.

Background and foreground anti-aliased scaling is a bit sketchy but somehow it suits the style. Realistic ultra high-res backgrounds in other games often detract too much attention from the rest of the content.

I see my spikey blob critter was put to good use. Seems I was channeling a similar vibe to this planet you've created with those drawings I posted. About time I get back to drawing some of that stuff. It looks much easier to work those into this engine without having to crunch everything into retro formats, so I may be far more useful for collaborating on future mod projects.

Glad to hear native Linux support will be possible. It would have been an unfortunate waste if this project was locked into to a Windows binary.
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Roobar
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Roobar »

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad that its working now. I would be happy if you continue to post your thoughts here as you progress further in the game. Design-wise, you can expect more intricate levels for sure. I hope that there's something for everyone to enjoy in that regard.
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Nisaba
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Nisaba »

Commander Spleen wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 2:17 So I happened to upgrade to Wine 4.0 for an unrelated purpose and gave this another try. Now it runs properly.
[...]
can share all Wine your specs, please? Would make things do much easier for me as I'd like to try things myself as well.
out now (link) : Image
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Commander Spleen
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Commander Spleen »

Feature request: Make point items collectible while sliding down poles.

Also, at first I thought there was no lives system but just noticed it uses the original lives mechanic. Checked the help text and discovered the quickload key. I will use that emulate infinite-lives/per-level scoring.

Wine 4.0 was installed using the Stable version instructions here: https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu

There were problems with the keyboard at first. I ran winecfg and activated the option to let the window manager control the windows and that seemed to fix it.

keengine.ini settings posted above have been modified to match my laptop's native resolution and set it to full screen mode by default:

Code: Select all

[GRAPHICS]
BPP               = 32
DRIVER            = GL
HEIGHT            = 768
HZ                = 60
INTEGER SCALING   = 1
KEEP ASPECT RATIO = 1
WIDTH             = 1366
WINDOWED          = 0
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K1n9_Duk3
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Commander Spleen wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 2:17Background and foreground anti-aliased scaling is a bit sketchy but somehow it suits the style. Realistic ultra high-res backgrounds in other games often detract too much attention from the rest of the content.
That "anti-aliased" scaling is actually baked into the image itself. I hate it when games go for a pixelated retro look but still use modern image scaling all over the place, so the big chunky pixels don't all have the same size. KEENGINE doesn't do that, at least not in-game (the shrinking in the intro and the tilted text scroller are the only exceptions).
Commander Spleen wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 13:01 Feature request: Make point items collectible while sliding down poles.
Maybe at some point. In Keen 4-6, this was possible because every single sprite frame had its own hitbox. KEENGINE doesn't support that. I had planned to add something like this in the future, but it would make it much more difficult to add or modify the sprites, since you would also have to edit all the hitbox settings and can't just replace one PNG image with another one.
Commander Spleen wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 13:01 Also, at first I thought there was no lives system but just noticed it uses the original lives mechanic. Checked the help text and discovered the quickload key. I will use that emulate infinite-lives/per-level scoring.
I'm not sure if you've noticed, but when you die and restart from a checkpoint, the game doesn't actually load a saved game. It just respawns the player character at the last checkpoint object, so all of the items you've collected after you touched the checkpoint will stay collected (and all the enemies you stunned will stay stunned). Unless you actually restart the level (or return to the world map), you don't need to worry about gaining more than the total amount of points in the level. In other words, the checkpoints work more like the ones in BioMenace and less like the ones in Atroxian Realm.

Oh yeah, and the engine actually keeps statistics on how many times you died or saved your game. I don't think PCIX has any scripts that punish or mock you for save scumming, but other games/mods might. :evil
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Commander Spleen
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Commander Spleen »

K1n9Duk3 wrote:In Keen 4-6, this was possible because every single sprite frame had its own hitbox. KEENGINE doesn't support that. I had planned to add something like this in the future, but it would make it much more difficult to add or modify the sprites, since you would also have to edit all the hitbox settings and can't just replace one PNG image with another one.
Maybe you could add an extra tileinfo parameter that works the same as a point item but with a slightly extended hitbox? Easier said than done I know, but at least that wouldn't require additional work once implemented. Though perhaps it would look awkward if the graphic position isn't also modified in the process.
K1n9Duk3 wrote:Unless you actually restart the level (or return to the world map), you don't need to worry about gaining more than the total amount of points in the level.
That's just the thing, though. By allowing the option to leave the level and keep the points, there exists a massive loophole wherein all you need is a level with a single 1UP, a bunch of point items and a death hazard to create an infinite score.

Code: Select all

10 ENTER LEVEL
20 GET EXTRA LIFE
30 GET SOME POINTS
40 DROWN
50 EXIT TO MAP
60 GOTO 10
At that point you might as well just be mashing F10+I. No save scumming required.

Image

The checkpoint system is interesting on its own and I'll reserve my judgement on that until I've played some more, but without resetting the score on a total level fail it isn't solving anything, and with it I don't really see much point in a global lives limit in the first place (maybe a limited number of deaths during each level before it boots you?)
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K1n9_Duk3
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

If you don't like that particular exploit, then don't use it. And if somebody else uses it, then that still doesn't affect your gameplay experience in any way.

I didn't say that the checkpoints were "solving anything". I just wanted to point out that if you want to emulate per-level scoring by quicksaving, you don't need to quicksave after passing the first checkpoint since the checkpoint allows you to keep playing without respawning any score items.

If that's not enough for you, then go ahead and keep using quicksave and quickload. That's why they exist. I won't tell you how to play/enjoy the game.

The primary goal for KEENGINE was to emulate the Keen Galaxy score/lives system. And since I don't really care about the score all that much, the exploits never bothered me. I guess it would be nice to have the option to let the engine reset the score/ammo/lives/whatever when restarting a level or returning to the world map after dying in the level. But I think that should be something that the developer/modder has to decide. If you (as a player) don't agree with that, you could still modify the game/mod and play your modded version instead.
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Nisaba »

Commander Spleen wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 13:01 [...]
Wine 4.0 was installed using the Stable version instructions here: https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu

There were problems with the keyboard at first. I ran winecfg and activated the option to let the window manager control the windows and that seemed to fix it.

keengine.ini settings posted above have been modified to match my laptop's native resolution and set it to full screen mode by default:

Code: Select all

[GRAPHICS]
BPP               = 32
DRIVER            = GL
HEIGHT            = 768
HZ                = 60
INTEGER SCALING   = 1
KEEP ASPECT RATIO = 1
WIDTH             = 1366
WINDOWED          = 0
Awesome! thanks for sharing!!!
out now (link) : Image
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Kohntarkosz_
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Kohntarkosz_ »

Oh this looks gorgeous. Roobar, the logo you sent me the other week finally makes sense now. :)
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Syllypryde »

Has anyone actually completed the game yet? I have completed it on easy and medium. Soon I will start the next difficulty. I believe I have found the majority of the secret areas, plus all the secret levels. Due to my refusal to swallow my pride and use in level saving or quick save, I have been unable to beat two of the challenge levels, Parkour and Sandy Tower. I do have a few questions here and there concerning a couple things I haven’t be able to figure out.
.niarb ym fo
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Roobar
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Roobar »

Yeah sure. Ask. You're the first one reporting to complete the game so far. You can as well download a newer version if you were playing on the initial version and you are planning to play on hard. The latest update adjust several places on hard as well. How many secret levels did you find? And I'm curious to know which big secrets you found or stood out for you without revealing too much for others? I can say that you haven't played all of the levels because if you manage to beat Sandy Tower, you may be able to play and find more cool things ;).
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by stayfrosty »

The link on page 1 doesn't seem to work for me :garg
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Roobar
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by Roobar »

I've tested it and it works. Try again maybe?
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by stayfrosty »

I get a "This webpage is not available"

I'm on android. Anybody got it on dropbox? Game looks raaaad!
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Re: Planet Cloudius IX

Post by stayfrosty »

The web page at https://gamejolt.com/games/PCIX/365252 might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
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