Caveman 3.0 Beta 12 released!

posted in Caveman
Published December 17, 2014
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Caveman 3.0 Beta 12 released!

PLAY NOW!
http://rocklandsoftware.net/beta.php

Game info:
http://rocklandsoftware.net/Caveman.php


New for beta 12:
---------------------------------------------
* refactored and improved AI
* give orders to party members
* sound effects
* music
* animations for actions

details:
* following band members now keep up during cross country movement.
* band member AI uses best weapon
* band member AI leaves temp shelter on hostile encounter
* band member AI: stops action if animals nearby. animal must now be within 50, not 100. warriors, companions, tamed, subdued, captured, and non attack_AI animals are now excluded.
* game now checks for encounters once per party, not once per BM. doesn't check encounters for BMs who are within 300 of a BM who has already had their encounters checked.
* fixed: don't let 2 bm's butcher same animal!
* band member AI: attack orders: doesn't attack wounded fleeing thief? cant catch - target too fast?
fixed: was comparing target run speed vs BM walk speed for "skip if target is to fast to catch"
* new AI and orders menu design
* new bandmember AI done
* new orders menu done
* compiles with no warnings with all warnings turned on. fixed a half dozen non-explicit conversions, made them explicit.
* compiles with no warnings in static code analysis. fixed a few potential range check errors, and a couple of possibly uninitialized variables.
* made new band member AI use sprint speed
* made new band member AI play correct animations
* animal and avian AI done
* model animal fatigue
* model animal (flunkey) sneak detection
* set "animal taking fire variables" in check_missile_collision code
* avian version of do_orders
* new avian AI
* load and save animal[a].diving
* collision maps
* ambient sfx
* water sfx
* fire sfx
* BM atttack sfx
* play action animations w/ ani camera view
* finished animal attack sfx
* npc attack sfx
* bm take non-missile hit sfx
* npc take non-missile hit sfx
* code for animal take non-missile hit sfx
* takehit sfx for all animals
* random grunts - caveman ambient audio
* missile hitting tgt sfx
* code to play action sfx
* assign sfx's to all actions
* assign make/repair sfx's to all object types
* get/find sfx for all object types
* sfx when learn skills that use male/female voice (singing and talking type skills)
* ocean sfx when near ocean
* action anis
* stop all wavs when quit game.
* don't let player tab to dead BM
* music
* all audio working
* no random sfx at high game speeds - runs out of voices
* destroy_finished voices added to run_song, stop_all_wavs, and play_ambient_audio
* music starts at title screen now - not main menu
* when possible, uses sfx/wav # != -1, not Zvoice_is_playing to determine if a wav is playing
* use shift select for give bm item
* band member menu: show bm name and relations
* abandon current hut and take over this one: i suspect they will lose all their stuff at the old hut!
when hut is abandoned, instead of asking player if they want to abandon their old hut and take this one over,
create an abandoned hut world object that weathers away over time.
player can take it over at any time.
abandoned hut actions: takeover, inspect, demolish.
added abandoned_hut object, and inspect and demolish actions for abandoned_huts
* remove non-hostiles over time when gamespeed > 128x
* increased volume of smallherd_takehit.wav
* fixed defend ai: now only attacks if tgt is within 50.
* tutor: automatically stops cross country movement when the player first finds water, food, and rocks.
* audio: fixed: didnt check for voice ptr=0 in voice is playing
* doesn't switch to action ani fast enough? was calling startani with params reversed!
* fixed: cave hyena attak sfx is lame
2 likes 10 comments

Comments

Norman Barrows
December 28, 2014 03:50 PM
IceCave

I wanted to try the beta because the screenshots gave me a some-kind nostalgic feeling :D

Sadly upon downloading I get the message (roughly translated)

"This program is from an unknown publisher and possibly dangerous. Windows has rendered the software harmless."

Well there it goes. :/

Is an installer for a beta really needed? :)

December 30, 2014 12:38 PM
Norman Barrows

>> "This program is from an unknown publisher and possibly dangerous. Windows has rendered the software harmless."

yes, the file is not veri-signed.

December 30, 2014 02:30 PM
Migi0027

honestly these kinds of security messages are useless.

December 30, 2014 04:47 PM
Norman Barrows

>> honestly these kinds of security messages are useless.

not entirely.

verisign IS a legitimate attempt to provide some sort of guarantee of safety in software downloaded from the web.

however, its also anti-competitive, as it creates a a barrier to entry for small businesses like me, who don't have the spare pocket change just lying about to get a verisign certificate. so in that respect its yet another way that MS et al can try to keep the little guy down, and some companies that buy into the scheme (such as verisign) can make a buck at it to boot its probably not the first time this pattern has ocurred in computing history - especially desktop computing history.

January 09, 2015 09:07 PM
polyfrag

Wow, it's so good. But the GUI and sounds are inane.

Less text please. We all know WASD + E. I don't know if my computer can take so much vegetation.

January 22, 2015 05:04 AM
Norman Barrows

Wow, it's so good. But the GUI and sounds are inane.

Less text please. We all know WASD + E. I don't know if my computer can take so much vegetation.

One person has mentioned readability issues with the text vs backgrounds, and smaller text vs the size of the text in the original version from 2000.

One person mentioned readability issues with the text (o vs 0 vs 6) but decided it was fine once you got used to it.

Audio has yet to have the whammy put on it. Better things are yet to come in that respect.

Not everyone knows wasd. I recently completed a very successful offsite testing session where all the testers were hard core console only players. none of them had every played on a PC before - just PS and Xbox. But they took to it like a fish to water!

The game has a very minimalist UI - just idiot lights when your stats get low. Only the tutorial shows messages like "use wasd to move".

The game is being developed using a single core running at 1.3Ghz and a laptop motherboard onboard graphics chip. total draw calls are kept under 15,000 per render. the game is limited to 15 fps, and typically runs at 20+ fps with the limiter off on a single core at 1.3Ghz. so there's usually some processing power to spare. this is done intentionally, so that when things get hot and heavy, you've got some "room to maneuver" before performance is impacted. If you think thats bad, just wait til i go dx11 with instancing. I've already tested drawing 30,000+ plants. looks fantastic, but it won't run fast enough without instancing. : (

February 05, 2015 02:19 AM
Norman Barrows

Wow, it's so good. But the GUI and sounds are inane.

Less text please. We all know WASD + E. I don't know if my computer can take so much vegetation.

The look of the GUI is designed to reflect the type of game - thus the stone backgrounds and somewhat primitive (inane as you put it) carved Caveman font. The font in the original version from 2000 was twice as big and even more childish looking. I've always wanted to use Papyrus, but its not free, and not all PCs have it. I was using a wide version of MS comic, but d3dxfonts are slow compared to d3dxsprites. so i switched to a custom d3dxsprite based Caveman font, more like the custom font in the original game.

Actually inane-ness was apparently one of the popular charms and selling points of the original version. Your band members would bitch at you when they were hungry or cold, etc. When you quit, they'd say stuff like "Don't leave me here!". When you'd continue a saved game, they'd say things like "A big animal came by while you were gone!". The "bitch ani" is still on the todo list. That inane-ness you refer to comes from the original version of the game - and probably stems from is original design being heavily influenced by The SIms. All the sound effects are those used in the original version. I found a cracked copy of the v1.3 demo with full wav files online.

February 09, 2015 11:47 PM
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