The issues people have encountered here using Coldstone are ones we're working with Beenox on to get them taken care of. Please continue to post any problems or limitations you encounter, so we make sure we get them taken care of.
(feel free to use this thread to post said issues to)
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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Some people's minds are like cement: all mixed up and permanently set...
It seems to me that whenever a person posts a problem, limitation, or frustration on this board, we are attacked by one or two people. I, for one, hesitate to post anything anymore. While the person doesn't actually flame people, he does hurt people, usually by using sarcasm or by using colorful and witty language to imply to the person who wrote that it was an ignorant post. I continue to read the posts in order to see if there are any good ideas or to see if a question I might have has been answered. I do have some questions, but I hesitate to post them.
There's also some excellent people who really DO want to help us. But this other is just too much for me to want to deal with.
I want you to know that, despite the problems, I think that Coldstone is brilliant. I've had my share of frustrations, but that just goes with trying to figure out the demands of the application program. I continue to build my game. Thank you very much!!! Well done.
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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
Debra, I am sorry that the atmosphere here can cause that reaction in you. I do my best to keep the forum running smoothly, but obviously I can't be here all the time. If I miss an incident, and you feel that I should have taken action, please feel free to drop me an email and I'll be more than willing to deal with the incident.
I believe that the Coldstone board shouldn't feel oppresive to anyone, and if I see members causing the atmosphere here to degrade to such a level, I will take action against them, whomever they are. Please let me know of anything that's troublilng you, and it will be dealt with.
And lastly, I apologise for that topic. I didn't foresee how badly it could be seen, and thus have removed it from the public view. If you have any further concerns, please let me know.
-Andiyar
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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"
Would this be mainly for bug reports, I assume? I'm sure you and/or beenox have seen (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/glennfield/ColdstoneBugs.html")Glenn's Indispensible Bug List(/url).
Or, if this is a wish list, then I sure wouldn't mind a change in fonts. There are other features I would like to see implemented, but they would take a fair deal of programming. I would think that fonts would be relatively painless (think, I haven't done a lot of programming).
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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
"Logic is futile"-Scott Adams
Quote
Originally posted by Debra:
**It seems to me that whenever a person posts a problem, limitation, or frustration on this board, we are attacked by one or two people. I, for one, hesitate to post anything anymore. While the person doesn't actually flame people, he does hurt people, usually by using sarcasm or by using colorful and witty language to imply to the person who wrote that it was an ignorant post. I continue to read the posts in order to see if there are any good ideas or to see if a question I might have has been answered. I do have some questions, but I hesitate to post them.
There's also some excellent people who really DO want to help us. But this other is just too much for me to want to deal with.
I want you to know that, despite the problems, I think that Coldstone is brilliant. I've had my share of frustrations, but that just goes with trying to figure out the demands of the application program. I continue to build my game. Thank you very much!!! Well done.
**
I have had too many experiences similar to what Debra describes. I am breaking my silence for this post only; I will continue to read but not participate until the level of discourse improves.
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"I know the stranger's name."
Turandot
Quote
Originally posted by Debra:
**It seems to me that whenever a person posts a problem, limitation, or frustration on this board, we are attacked by one or two people. I, for one, hesitate to post anything anymore. While the person doesn't actually flame people, he does hurt people, usually by using sarcasm or by using colorful and witty language to imply to the person who wrote that it was an ignorant post. I continue to read the posts in order to see if there are any good ideas or to see if a question I might have has been answered. I do have some questions, but I hesitate to post them.
**
I have seen this in my short time on the board. The most recent was someone wondered if you could do scrolling dialogue. I thought it was a really good idea but the topic degenerated almost instantly into a series of complaints and name calling.
I have made suggestions for improved documentation, but I think those weren't targetted so much because they were imbedded in other discussion.
I wonder about something: I see posts in the archives locked for this reason, but they are still there, and it might be reinforcing for some of our more childish members (I don't mean the chronological children,they seem more mature) to be able to look up their posts.
I think it might be an idea to actually PULL them from the archives. Sometimes ANY attention, even negative attention is cool to some people.
Also I noticed that someone commented that karma points were taken away because someone capitalized forge's name. I sympathize with forge here as des is also capitalized (improperly). But I think that if karma points are taken away for things less than things like flaming or list nastiness, it may lose it's sting. Keep in mind here that I wouldn't dream of advising a god or goddess to say nothing of a blessed or honored individual, but thru my job I do know about reinforcement and behavioral psychology, to which I speak. I also think that some people's person moral code does not extend to the net, so they can not act in a respectful way without external controls.
Someone here suggested a "wish list" type post. Maybe that might work better, and I'll go and start that out.
--des
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Bugs I'd like to see addressed(either fixed or a "it's a real basic problem so it will not be fixed"):
Many variables are set so they can not exceed a value of 32,000 or so. Short int I think. The variables that I am aware of that should be enlarged are: Cost and experience. I am sure there are others.
Spell durations are wacky. If you cast multiple spells with durations the first spell cast will lose its duration and become permanent. Something in the spell queue must be messing up somewhere.
NPC's that kill themselves through spell use(casting an offensive spell that targets allies) will cause a crash.
NPC's that are killed through NPC_Control ("kill" instead of "delete") do not have their death event run.
If the player is taken to a new map with a teleport action but is outside the bounds of the new map, a crash can sometimes occur. (ie, a player is at coords (300,450) and is taken to a new map with dimensions of 50X50) - There should be a check on the end of the teleport event, before the player is placed, that if their coordinates exceed the maximum coordinates for the map that the player be placed at the maximum coordinates of the map.
Memory leak in the animation editor under pre-OS X. As you add items to the editor and the tile browser keeps being loaded for tile selection, memory is allocated but never freed. I can eat through 200 MBs of memory after adding 16 frames of a 400X200 pixel animation. Once memory is completely used Coldstone freezes.
NPC's that are given items through the NPC creation wizard Items tab seem to have an infinite supply of the item given. In the case of a healing potion this will make the NPC quaff unlimited potions rapidly. It would be nice either to be able to set how many of an item to give to the NPC or to have a better artificial AI.
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::in a clear state of mind::
NPCs do not obey the bounds of they're; range(walk around initial position), attack delay, nor they're line of sight.
i havee set they're range to 0, they're attack delay to 20,000us/ms, and LOS to 0 and still NPCs with said stats will unge at an attaacker in under 5 seconds of proximity.
Inability to set damage max/min to absolute zero. the character is limited to causing 1-3 damage every time, however the actual editor accepts values of 0/0 as valid....however spells do except and respect 0/0 for values.
Hardwired buttons; x,z the inability to negate their actions when they are counterproductive to the game environment.(non violent game that takes advantage of the full architecture of CGE).
when using a (semi-)transparent load screen without a fade action locations will load with unpredictable/odd results (copyright pending...work in progress...technical screenshots available upon request.)
Engine does not truly recognize 0 collision when it comes to animations assigned to NPCs...you cannot pass through them, they occupy an entire movement tile and are still subject to attack(however you cannot attack them through contact).
Attack animations do not complete when, killing a character with a teleport action attached.
png graphics;
with sharp transparencies are negated.
with white is nulled and the alpha channel is not regarded.
colors with a hue/saturation value between 97-100% are regarded as pure white and are also nulled/masked out out.
true 32bit color support.
dialog boxes use a draw command to post text, which makes for;
huge dialog boxes
truncated/separated texts
when EXP points are granted manually, using an attribute wizard action do not fire the events on the skillTable.
problem implementing clickable stamps in a map location with a declared player animation...ie the stamps have a linked action to them but the engine does not recieve and registers the clicks(add foreground,add background,add...the PC predictably follows to the coordinates of the click and the event does not fire.)
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I don't know if these are bugs exactly, but I guess any input may be helpful.
-zero doesn't mean zero, be it movement, damage, or whatever
-the more fields that accept tag values the better
-no scroll bars in dialog boxes
-we can't set the frame in which damage is dealt/projectiles are launched in the attack animation
-when the movement tiles are set to low numbers, npcs squiggle around the map like hyper-insane two year olds on crack
-it seems to be impossible to continue the game after the player's death--the game ends without running any actions set to that event
-um. no api controller. is that a bug? heh. sorry.
Thanks for listening.
myshkyn
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"I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."
I would like to build my game.
I would a product that is capable of building a working game without "registration" notice errors, no sound and no animations.
Right now Coldstone seems to be doing just that- Growing cold.
I wonder what would happen if Macromedia released a product that was as unfinished? They might be sewed.
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Let's stick to bugs and skip the commentary for this thread folks.
Commentary, gripes, etc, can be done in a different thread. This one was opened for only one thing so let's keep on topic.
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Here's my list:
-Being able to use conditionals in animations (i.e. loop until...)
-Being able to launch an animation that is layed over the player animation (The animation will be on top or on the same level as the player animation and follow the player wherer he/she goes, but the animations will run seperately; one may loop, one may not, etc.)
-As said before, tag values everywhere possible
-When deleting an NPC, being able to specify a certain coordinate or a range of coordinates
OR
-Give the NPCs a numbering system, so that you can "delete NPC #5" or something of the sort
-Greater power to manipulate NPCs, including moving them, forcing them to cast spells, making invincible NPCs cast spells, and overall more control
-An idea from the Starcraft Map editor: creating locations that could be used in NPC removal, NPC checks (how many...), blocking access (currently, it is a big pain to block access in additions to PoG maps), and all kinds of other things
Most of this is probably not gonna happen, but I just wanted my 2 cents 
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CI-I@()s
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Here is my wish list of sorts:
Better AI and control over hostile Npc's
A layer in the map editor that is specifically for transparencies (For example I want a ghost. I just drop the npc in the transparency layer and the program makes the npc transparent)
A built in timer that can count up or down to what ever number you desire, that does not reset when you reach a new area (unless you want it to) and the ability to link events to the timer. (This would be great for creating strategy games)
An active adaptive ally system. (You can issue commands--like in wing commander-- and your allies will do those command. You can create a sequence of commands to issue your allies ( for example: use a healing potion, then go back and fight the closest demon. Or something as simple as getting the ally (npc) to follow behind you)
The ability to layer sound effects into the landscape and have the ability to have an adaptive volume control on sound effects (I mean as you walk towards the waterfall the sound gets louder and as you move away the sound fades out)
The ability create games that are larger than 1 cd and have the game engine automatically ask for the second disk.
IF NOTHING ELSE: Larger font sizes...please.....
Thanks and keep up the great work!!
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Quote
Originally posted by cgoran:
**Bugs:
Will not build a working version for Mac or PC.
**
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum48/HTML/001666.html#")OPERATOR(/url)
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Perhaps you would like to join us on #coldstone for some real-time help? The best time to catch the most people is around 4-6PM EST, we'd be glad to help.
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Dee:
Yes, this is all side effects of the same bug: the compilation comes to an unexpected halt which prevents the copy of any additional media (sounds, movies, music), prevents the registration process to complete, and finally, prevents the copy of a file needed under Windows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
and
quote:
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- This is definitely a weird bug. It may be caused by RB or maybe it's something within the code of Coldstone that is messing up RB. To put it simple, it reaches the end of a function but doesn't seem to return to the previous function on the stack. Actually, it goes into an infinite loop but since it's in a thread executing in the background, it doesn't freeze the app. Again, there's nothing to conclude from this, just that I'm investigating the problem.
- I would be suprised if it would be directly related to file size (single or multiple). Number of files? Perhaps. However, as David mentioned, PoG was compiled with Coldstone and has probably more files than any of your game.
So, you can't just state that Coldstone won't build any working game. That is simply not true. I haven't isolated the problem yet but it's not a general issue for sure. As soon as I can find what cause this, I should, at least, be able to post a workaround.
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I'm still waiting for that workaround and bug fix Dee.
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round and round the broken record spins.
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