Change log - feature additions and bug fixes in active development

[Chris]

Since my last post, I have:

• Put my to-do list into an Excel spreadsheet with priority scores to help me prioritise the most important Mayhem Intergalactic work.
• Worked on the upcoming strategy guide.
• Fixed some achievements-related code which I'd modified since the last release.
• Installed a new hard drive and put Windows on it. Still getting all my apps installed (network card driver, Firefox, Thunderbird, graphics driver, and TextPad were first, in that order!) so my productivity will be slightly lowered temporarily. As I type this, I'm copying Mayhem Intergalactic's development files from my backup CD and installing TortoiseSVN - all I need now is a build environment and I can start developing again. Oh, and Steam. I haven't put Linux on this hard drive yet either.
• Driven around for hours in a fruitless search to find someone to help me with the lodging requirements for IRS form W-7 so that Valve can send me a percentage of the money which all you really cool people gave them for Mayhem Intergalactic*. I may have to do something drastic like pay an accountant. Gasp.

* It goes without saying that those of you who paid Fastspring or SoftCartPro or BMT Micro rather than Valve are also really cool people.

[Chris]

I've finished installing my build environment and libraries, and can now compile the game again. It crashes though on startup, since I have the newest version of the SDL include files but haven't updated the corresponding DLLs yet.   Easy enough fix. Will do it tomorrow, since I'm falling asleep in my chair here.

Heh - just realised I can't read the fancy new Excel spreadsheet version of my to-do list, since I haven't installed Excel yet. And I thought there was no need to find a decent plain-text spreadsheet format to save it in - so much for that notion. I'm pretty sure my metal detector is picking up a smidgen of irony around here someplace.

[Kumlekar]

hm, at least you have a metal detector, I have to detect it by guess work.  I believe open office should be able to use excell files.

[Chris]

Yeah, it can. I've now installed Excel though, so it doesn't matter.

[Chris]

I can now compile and run the game on my new system, and I believe I've fixed the two crash bugs reported by Kumlekar here.

I'm noticing some popping in the music though. I've had one person report this before but have never been able to reproduce it, so on balance this is probably a good thing.  

Edit: OK, I just needed to double the size of the audio buffer and the music is all smooth again. That was easily fixed. (Technical note: Audio buffer size is also configurable now, in case anyone ever needs to change that; put buffersize=X into options.ini under [sound3]. X must be a power of 2; e.g. 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 are all acceptable values. The default is 2048; previously it was 1024. Higher values fix popping, but increase the latency between sounds being issued and actually played. So if you set it too high, explosion sounds will occur after you see the explosion on-screen! The same problem occurs for all other sound effects, including button-pressing, chat messages, and battle noise.)

I also had a small bug in my new achievements code for the non-Steam version, which I hadn't tested yet. It works now. That makes a grand total of four bugs fixed today.

[PLAYLIFE]

What are you working on now?

[Kumlekar]

lol, its only been 5 days, give the guy a break.

[PLAYLIFE]

lol, its only been 5 days, give the guy a break.

I'm just asking. It's not like he NEEDS to answer. I actually don't know if this game has any development left in it or just bug fixing and that's it.

I do also wish that you'd give ME a break. You are attacking every post I make in this forum. Seriously!

[Chris]

It's a fair question. Five days is a long time on the internet, after all.

I have been taking a bit of a break from dev work. University is starting to intrude (how very rude of it!), and what time I have been spending on Mayhem Intergalactic has been minor stuff - some necessary server administration to make the site more stable, a few website tweaks, and putting together some infrastructure to help me track conversions better (in indie gamedev lingo, a "conversion" is a demo download that results in a sale). Better conversion tracking means that I'll be able to make more informed marketing decisions, which is important if MI is ever going to sustain the boost (in terms of player numbers etc.) that Steam has given it.

Here are the top items from my to-do list, in their current loosely-defined order of priority (which is no guarantee of completion in this order, or even of completion at all):

1. Sort out tax forms (yeah, this is still not done - I need to find some spare time during the week to ring the embassy, as a next step)
2. Work on strategy guide (I need to incorporate Kumlekar's and Jp's excellent feedback and then iterate on it some more before final proofreading and formatting)
3. Better conversion tracking infrastructure (been working on this a bit)
4. Linux port (shouldn't be difficult, just tedious; I need to extend my build system a bit and do compatibility testing)
5. Mac port (a little hairier, since Objective-C and D are not on direct speaking terms)
6. Improve AI

Adding the contributed translations is close to the top of the remaining items.

I haven't yet decided whether to leave 4 and 5 where they are or let them slide a bit. There's something to be said for having improved AI already in place before launching on additional platforms.

Fun data point: There are currently 171 items on the to-do list. Most of those will never be implemented.

[Chris]

Let it be known that I hate having to pay this much exclusive attention to university.

[Kumlekar]

trust me, I kow the feeling, between teaching 7th grade english, and my classes, the last thing I want to do when I get home is play mayhem or work on maps for it.  I'll probably do something next week.  I'm eagerly awaiting seneraio functionality!

[Kumlekar]

Just wondering what you've been doing.  I know you said you've been busy with school, but has there been any progress towards the next update?

[Chris]

Just more conversion tracking work I'm afraid. This normally wouldn't take so long, it's just been spread out so much!

After this week I have two weeks of lecture break. I still have plenty of assignments to be getting on with, but without the distraction of lectures I might be able to get something done, so watch this space.

[Kumlekar]

Watching as ordered Sir!

[Kumlekar]

The watching has taken place but nothing has been reported from the front lines sir!

(Translation: anything happening? I just finished my finals, wondering if anyone has been online.)