Alpha test v0.6.10

[oskarwiksten]

When I loaded 6.10.a3 it was ok, but when i go to load a game, after "loading resources" it goes back to load character screen.

That is the exact behavior I experienced and it's caused by heap memory shortage.

I have a potential fix ready for this issue, and I am interested in getting in touch with someone that can reproduce this on their device that wants to test whether the proposed fix really works.

If you want to help test this proposed fix, the please contact me by email or PM and I'll email you an APK that you may verify with. If this fix works out ok, it will be included in the next alpha version.

The fix itself is a major change in how the game handles resources. Instead of loading all graphical resources during the "Loading resources"-screen, the game instead loads only the required resources when you change maps. The effect of this is also that the initial loading phase is slightly faster, but in turn there is a 1s delay when loading a new map for the first time. With this fix, I have been able to successfully run the game in the emulator on a device with only 16MB max heap size. This should be great news to those of you with devices that have restricted memory sizes, such as HTC Hero.

/Oskar

[qasur]

With Oskar's alpha4 up-and-running on my HTC Hero (it does work!) I can get to business.

So far, the skills seem to be working fine. I've re-opened my old save file a few times (not saving in between) to test out the skills, and so far they are all working (not close enough to leveling to test the +1 HP/skill point/level one yet though).

As far as game play goes, I want to second the same situation I read above where when I go to attack, I see the results before I see anything else. Something is slowed down when I attack. I don't see damage until long after results are posted, a few seconds, and even then, sometimes I never see it. Also, I've noticed that when fighting Wurms and getting fatigued, it does not end my attacks if I have enough AP left to move; I have 14 AP (2 for the Skills and 2 for Shadow of the Slayer) with JoF (-1 AP), but I can still only swing once (leaving me with exactly 6 AP, enough to move... but I have "End Turn" to move on.

Will post more soon.

[Pyrizzle]

So far, the skills seem to be working fine. I've re-opened my old save file a few times (not saving in between) to test out the skills, and so far they are all working (not close enough to leveling to test the +1 HP/skill point/level one yet though).

I started a new character and put my first skill into Increased Fortitude. The skill works perfectly, i now have increased fortitude lvl 2 and regeration lvl 2 and combat speed lvl 1

I'm now plotting out my next few skills...
The trick is to look ahead at what you might want to get in the future and work your way twards that goal. (also it is sometimes very useful to wait on using your skill points until you hit a lvl or stat requirment needed)

for example:
you get your first skill point at lvl 4 but i saved it until i hit lvl 5 so i can use it for Increased Fortitude (which has a requirement of lvl 5 player to use)

The newest update runs so smooth on my phone. All good so far

[oskarwiksten]

With Oskar's alpha4 up-and-running on my HTC Hero (it does work!) I can get to business.

Excellent. Thanks for taking the time to test it, qasur! (The version you got also includes the new "Optimized drawing"-setting, that is disabled by default, which might explain the laggy animations).

I will post a new version (alpha4 or beta1) shortly for everyone to test, that includes this and other changes.

One step closer to release on Android Market! Almost there now.

[oskarwiksten]

I have posted the beta1 version of v0.6.10 in the usual download location now:
http://code.google.com/p/andors-trail/downloads/list

This version contains:

• Conversation corrections (see below)
• Quest adjustments to "Lost sheep" that was unresolvable in some situations before.
• Major refactoring of how much memory the games uses (it now uses a lot less memory than before). This will allow devices with a lower max heap size, such as HTC Hero, to run the game without having force-close.
• Option "optimized drawing" (default disabled), that solves a lot of display problems related to regeneration, in particular on Samsung Galaxy S2 devices. In versions prior to this version, "optimized drawing" was always enabled. If you never experienced any display problems before, you might want to enable this setting.
• Display active conditions on the monster info dialog.
• Bugfix: Monster conditions now only affect the monster that gets the condition (and not all monsters of the same type).
• Bugfix: Active conditions on monsters are now persisted if you save&load a game (they were lost before).
• Updated link to forums in "about" ( http://andorstrail.com/ ).

Special thanks go out to Nero and qasur that have verified the two major refactorings that this version includes!

Also a big thanks to all of you that have reported the issues that you have found on the previous alpha versions!

One step closer to release

When you put the mode to show a quick notification of what has dropped. If 1 item dropped it, says "1 items" when it should say "1 item"

Fixed.

#2 Flows through the veins, conversation problem. If i give gold to Buceth. Conversation continued :
- first ..you seem to realize... thats ok
- and next ..... You again..... thats wrong

Fixed.

#3 After completed Cheap cuts. Lost sheep stays in quest list. Status in progress. Earlier I say to Tinlyn somethink like " i only kill"

You naughty person, killing innocent sheep with critical damage weapons. Tinlyn might be back for you in the future...
I was able to reproduce this by doing the following steps. Is this what you also did?
1) Talk to Tinlyn but do not accept quest (only get one line in the quest log on "Lost sheep")
2) Talk to Benbyr. Accept "Cheap cuts" quest
3) Complete "Cheap cuts" quest
4) Lost sheep is still in quest log and unresolvable. Only shows first line of log ("On the road to Feygard, I met ...")

This should now be fixed. You can talk to Tinlyn again to fix your questlog, and the quest should be marked as completed. Thanks for reporting it!

When starting The quest from Jan to kill Irogotu he asks "Really? You think you could help? hm, maybe you could. Beware of those bugs though, they're really tuff basterds. if you really want to help, go find Irogotu down in the cave, and get me back Gandir's ring"
My 3 options:
-Sure
-Backround
-Bye

This is a remnant of the old conversation interface. For those of you that didn't get the chance to enjoy it, it didn't have the radio buttons for selecting replies, but instead only three large regular buttons on the bottom. This really limited the amount of text that we could put into replies, hence the short phrases you see there.
Anyway, I have now changed the replies to "Sure, I'll help.", "Can you tell me the story again?" and "Never mind, goodbye.". Thanks for reporting it!

Code: Select all

{tinlyn_story_1|Hello there. You wounldn\'t happen to want to help an old shepherd do you?|||{{What\'s the problem?|tinlyn_story_2||||}}|};

should be "wouldn\'t"

Fixed.

Found another typo. This one however is an old one see as its in Villgard. A lot of the villagers say "seeyou".

Fixed.

The guards and patrol captain in the foaming flask tavern still have a conversation option asking if they have seen Rincel even after I have completed the Rincel quest.
Shouldn't be a conversation option after the quest is completed.

Hm, this is a bit tricky. We currently do not support this with the current conversation interface code. Replies can change visiblity according to a certain quest stage, and only one. Once you reach a certain queststage, you will have the option of selecting such a reply. But we cannot remove quest stages, and we cannot have queststages that reduce the visibility of the replies.
Tricky. It would require quite a large change for such a minor effect. For now, let's keep it this way. Maybe we will re-do the conversation code some time in the future.

When I sell 20 Izthel claws to Gauward, it says I gained 2 items, but doesn't tell me what they are.

As you already figured out, Gauward gives two health potions. His dialogue is now modified to indicate this: "Oh wow, you managed to get twenty of those claws? That's excellent, thank you! Here's some gold and some extra health potions for your troubles."

Thanks again for all the feedback on the alpha & beta versions!

[oskarwiksten]

Beta 2 is now uploaded:
http://code.google.com/p/andors-trail/downloads/list

Beta1 contained a bug that made the game FC if you left a map while one of the gray messages on the top of the screen was shown, such as the message you get when you die that states how much exp you lose. This has been fixed for beta2. Beta2 also includes a lot of spelling corrections to dialogue and questlog.

Another step closer to release

[Sarumar]

Bug ?
My current BC is 40% when i get dazed (=BC 0%) and look my statistics block chance stat is missing

[Gottkaiser]

With the Beta version I'm now facing some really annoying problems with Andor's trail:
1) The smallest problem is, that the longer time it now takes to load new maps seriously breaks the flow of the game IMO. It would be cool if the application would somehow manage to decide wether the heap memory is bigger or smaller than required and then change between the two types of loading the map graphics
2) The game is continually lagging during the fights, the damage numbers are lagging, the fight declaration lines do not appear sometimes
3) The loot dialogue box does not show up sometimes, the loot icon disappears sometimes during the fight if I fight with two enemys (I kill the first, he drops something, I fight against the second, the drop icon from the first disappears)
These problems IMO seriously damage the gaming experience of the game
I play with a HTC wildfire s
Don't like to be the guy who only complains , but I really love the game and just want to help making it even better
So I probably just have to take this burden

[AngelRN]

I don't know if this is just being way too picky, but I noticed a couple small grammatical errors.

Talion in Loneford says, "He will do almost anything to oppose all actions that in some way are extend the reach of the Shadow." There's a little bit of verb tense confusion, should either be "are extending" or remove "are".

Gauward b/t Loneford & Brimhaven says, "... no one rarely comes here..." This should probably be "no one comes here" or "anyone/people rarely come here". If no one rarely does something, then it's a like a double negative. (BTW- any chance of ever being able to take a snooze here?)

I know that these are supposed to be conversations, so I understand that they are not speaking in 100% proper & grammatically correct English, but those just bugged me.

Also, I just downloaded beta 2, and it seems like there's a lag in the animations during battles, or they're kind of jerky. I haven't noticed this with any of the other versions I had downloaded (alpha 1 & 3, now beta 2). I did reboot my phone (HTC Evo) to see if it made a difference, but it didn't.

Now I have many other things I'm supposed to be doing, must stop playing.

[ctnbeh13]

Gottkaiser & AngelRN,

I believe for you to be concerned as being perceived as a complainer, or too picky, it shows you to be people of character. If you had no concern, you probably would have a greater reason to be so, but wouldn't. A quick example would be; a mother or father who regularly beats their child, seldom, if ever, asks themselves, "Could I be a better parent?"

Oskar has told me before, as I had a similar concern as yours, that anything you discover that is in error in the game, from the smallest issues of punctuation, spelling, or grammar, all the way up to any odd game play behavior that you may encounter, is appreciated when submitted. Oskar desires to optimize and refine this game in every way possible until it's complete. So, for whatever it's worth coming from me, you are simply doing your part to make the game play experience better for all. Taking the time to submit issues such as yours is especially important as some are limited to a specific brand and/or model of a device.

For the benefit of whoever may tackle the troubleshooting and code revision process for the report you submitted; did you enable "Optimized drawing" under "Preferences"?