A few more feature requests

[DilloDude]

I would like to be able to group actors in two ways:

1. Create actor group, call it enemies. Then you can add enemy01, cannon, and crab to enemies. Then on collisions, you can say collision with any side of enemies.
2. Selecting multiple actors: in events, such as collision, select three things or more, eg. collision with any side of enemy01, connon, crab.

Also there should be a "Destroyer Actor" for destroy actor events:

Code: Select all

if (strcmp(destroyer.name, "Bomb") == 0)
{
    CreteActor("Explosion", "Exp01", "no parent", "no path", 0, 0, false);
}

There are more things, but I can't think of them off the top of my head so I'll dd them later.

[DilloDude]

I also think you should have more control over paths: be able to edit their length after creation, and have more features for path setup, maybe edd things like waits, repeats, and any other things that might be useful. You should also, rather than setting frames of path, set a path velocity on the actor that follows it. Also, ways of creating paths in-game: either player drawn or actor drawn, so maybe a 'createPathPoint' function, and maybe a 'deletePathPoint' function as well.

[DilloDude]

I think you should be able to get different 'versions': If you already have a previous version, you should be able to by an 'update' package, with only the extra stuff, so it would be cheaper. For the demo version, you should have different packages to choose from, but you could only get one. So you might have

• 30 day trial: lasts 30 days.
• 10/20 dy trial: dosen't last as long, but only counts the time you have it open.
• 20 use trial: lets you use it twenty times (down side is you can leave it open for ages).
• Limited use trial: Lets you use it as much as you want, but with license restrictions (can't sell games) and other features not available.
• etc.

[Game A Gogo]

I always wonder why those ting was not impleted!

[DilloDude]

You should also, rather than setting frames of path, set a path velocity on the actor that follows it.a 'createPathPoint' function, and maybe a 'deletePathPoint' function as well.

And have a pathpos variable. So on create actor, change path to path1, set path_velocity to 3, set pathpos to cloneindex * 10. Then if you create five of those actors, they will all follow the path one after another.

[DilloDude]

Something else useful would be a way of saving variables in the executable or dat file, with a password. So you can't delete the saved variable without deleting the game, and you can't change it unless you know the password. That way you could have security with things you don't wnt the user to be able to change.

[DilloDude]

You should be able to do key up events with more than one key, so I can say on keyup->right, left, up or down do script, instead of having four different events or any key.

[Fuzzy]

I do not want to see unlimited time/limited use versions.

Such a move would reduce Makslanes income.

A person who is not dedicated has little reason to stick around after the demo expires. People who are less than dedicated tend not to help others, and they also tend not to make much effort to learn for themselves.

The forum would be flooded with new users. While this seems to be good, it makes it hard to sort out who to help, and really, busy people like Makslane cannot help everyone. You'd see his terrific response time disappear, or development would slow.

Slow steady growth is more sustainable than rapid growth. I can think of several members of GE forum that still remain long after they lost their trial versions. Game a gogo would be one example. Dedicated people tend to find the means of getting a copy of GE, and they are the people that are going to produce games.

[DilloDude]

A recent thought of mine is a way to find collision direction. I thought of ways you could have this, but I found the simplest and best way is this: have two variables stored in acollision event (maybe inside a special collision struct) which are x and y coordinates of the location where the collision (the overlapping of pixels) took place. So if one pixel of one actor intersects another pixel of another, at will return the x and y coordinates of that pixel. For more than one pixel, it could find the average of all coordinates. Then I could fin

Code: Select all

direction(x, y, collidepixelx, collidepixely)

and could use it to find direction. It would be really useful in an idea for a simple (yet complex) game project I have in mind. But I don't think there is a way to do it yet (all there is is standard top, bottom, left and right collisions, which are determined by things like that, but cannot be accessed easily). Correct me if I'm wrong (and tell me how).

[irblinx]

I would like to be able to group actors in two ways:

1. Create actor group, call it enemies. Then you can add enemy01, cannon, and crab to enemies. Then on collisions, you can say collision with any side of enemies.
2. Selecting multiple actors: in events, such as collision, select three things or more, eg. collision with any side of enemy01, connon, crab.

Totally agree with these, it would be a huge help to be able to either reference more than one actor in a collision or refer to them by group name (preferable).

Licensing

As for the licensing, the current situation is a strange one and it seems like better value to just keep buying the basic version whenever you feel that you need the latest fixes/additions.

Personally I don't think you should have to pay for bug fixes anyway, surely a bug is something that is wrong with the software and so fixes to this should be free of charge.

Plus making the paid for updates time dependant seems a bit unfair when you have so long between releases due to the major overhaul you are currently doing.

I'd suggest all minor version releases, i.e 1.3.1 to 1.3.9 which would be bug fixes and small changes.

Then the major updates 1.4, 1.5 etc would be bringing in big new features.

Revision changes 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 would be for step changes such as your the interface change that you're working on now.

Defining the releases as such would make it clearer to your customers exactly what to expect for their money. For example:

Basic License $20 = unlimited minor release updates, no major version updates
(i.e. buy v2.0.0 and get all versions up to v2.0.9)
Silver Package $40 = unlimited major version updates, no revisions
(i.e. buy v2.0.0 and get all versions up to v2.9)
Gold Package $80 = unlimited major version updates + 1 revision
(i.e. buy v2.0.0 and get all versions up to v3.9)

I can't really see any reason to change the 30 day trial, it seems perfectly fair to me.

[willg101]

That's very well thought out! I was a little disappointed becuase I only got two updates with the silver package, but I figured It was still a fair trade considering how far Makslane really has dropped the price!

I can't really see any reason to change the 30 day trial, it seems perfectly fair to me.

Yes, absolutely. If we keep making 5 demos and 5 different types of GE Professionals, we'll be where Microsoft is at, making 7 versions of the same basic Vista "to fit everyone's needs best"...while at the same time confusing everyone. I mean, can you imagine if we had even two types of demos. Someone asks a question here then gets an answer. Only to find out that solution doesn't work with their version of GE/demo. What a waste of time & what a headache!

[Fuzzy]

What a waste of time & what a headache!

Especially for poor Makslane!

That bug fix/major version is pretty good though. Of course, anyone left behind one version would suffer under certain bugs, but thats no different than now.

[Game A Gogo]

I would like to be able to group actors in two ways:

1. Create actor group, call it enemies. Then you can add enemy01, cannon, and crab to enemies. Then on collisions, you can say collision with any side of enemies.
2. Selecting multiple actors: in events, such as collision, select three things or more, eg. collision with any side of enemy01, connon, crab.

Totally agree with these, it would be a huge help to be able to either reference more than one actor in a collision or refer to them by group name (preferable).

Licensing

As for the licensing, the current situation is a strange one and it seems like better value to just keep buying the basic version whenever you feel that you need the latest fixes/additions.

Personally I don't think you should have to pay for bug fixes anyway, surely a bug is something that is wrong with the software and so fixes to this should be free of charge.

Plus making the paid for updates time dependant seems a bit unfair when you have so long between releases due to the major overhaul you are currently doing.

I'd suggest all minor version releases, i.e 1.3.1 to 1.3.9 which would be bug fixes and small changes.

Then the major updates 1.4, 1.5 etc would be bringing in big new features.

Revision changes 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 would be for step changes such as your the interface change that you're working on now.

Defining the releases as such would make it clearer to your customers exactly what to expect for their money. For example:

Basic License $20 = unlimited minor release updates, no major version updates
(i.e. buy v2.0.0 and get all versions up to v2.0.9)
Silver Package $40 = unlimited major version updates, no revisions
(i.e. buy v2.0.0 and get all versions up to v2.9)
Gold Package $80 = unlimited major version updates + 1 revision
(i.e. buy v2.0.0 and get all versions up to v3.9)

I can't really see any reason to change the 30 day trial, it seems perfectly fair to me.

WOW , its like you read my unreadeble memory! i like the idea!

[pavel329]

it seems like your all asking alot of makslane.i'd rather it not be less depending on script.script is wat makes it GE.instead of the sims.without script all we would do is place objects and choose a simple action.i'm really fine the way ge is.

[Novice]

it seems like your all asking alot of makslane.i'd rather it not be less depending on script.script is wat makes it GE.instead of the sims.without script all we would do is place objects and choose a simple action.i'm really fine the way ge is.

He is right.