Knights & Dragons: The Endless Quest

[volcanic]

To Matman:
Have you tried to replace all the drawstring in update.c with textobjs and see the differences of fps?
I wonder how much speed gain if take out drawstring.
And I also know textobj is better but it has a number limit( for most cases 20 is enough but I prefer limitless.)
Though characters in drawstring is in sprite que which max value is 500 but I can use drawstringtoscreen.

To PW:
Score#.c is only triggered when your score changes.
That's why your level info doesn't show.
To fix this is easy.
Just call the script in your onspawnscript.

[utunnels]

Text objects also use sprites when drawing strings.
The benefit is less drawstring code clustering around and you have a timer, which is quite good for temporary messages. When using drawstring, you have to count the time manually and have to use an upate script.

Another alternate way is using an invisible entity, store the strings in entityvar and use an update function to check the entity and draw necessary stuff on screen.
This way you need multiple script/entity files, but also get the benefits such as binding, lifespan, gravity, bouncing and interacting with animation script.

[Pierwolf]

Thanks Volcanic, now it seems to work.

for anyone here having problem with saves on the psp, have you tested the game with the latest builds released (3708 and 3709)? it seems Utunnels has fixed the problem.   

[flemw1234]

How do I unlock all the characters from the beginning, is there a simple way to do this? I'd like to do it to test my palette swaps out?

Also will there be any problems changing some of the names of the characters? I'd just prefer keeping to class names likes fighter, cleric as opposed to names Mordred, Arthur, etc.

Thanks again Pierwolf for the great mod...

[Pierwolf]

How do I unlock all the characters from the beginning, is there a simple way to do this? I'd like to do it to test my palette swaps out?

Also will there be any problems changing some of the names of the characters? I'd just prefer keeping to class names likes fighter, cleric as opposed to names Mordred, Arthur, etc.

Thanks again Pierwolf for the great mod...

 i don't understand the questions sorry... 
have you unpacked the mod?

[flemw1234]

How do I unlock all the characters from the beginning, is there a simple way to do this? I'd like to do it to test my palette swaps out?

Also will there be any problems changing some of the names of the characters? I'd just prefer keeping to class names likes fighter, cleric as opposed to names Mordred, Arthur, etc.

Thanks again Pierwolf for the great mod...

 i don't understand the questions sorry... 
have you unpacked the mod?

Sorry I didn't clarify...

1.) I have your mod unpacked and I've been adding new palettes for the classes, etc. is there a way to unlock the character classes which are unlocked by playing the game without playing the game to get them first (ie. starting a new game and having access to them all)? what do I need to edit to make them all available from new game?

2.) If I go into the header of those classes and change the names of some of the characters "for example changing "Arthur" into a class appropriate name like "Champion" will it affect anything other then what is displayed in the game?...

[Pierwolf]

Sorry I didn't clarify...

1.) I have your mod unpacked and I've been adding new palettes for the classes, etc. is there a way to unlock the character classes which are unlocked by playing the game without playing the game to get them first (ie. starting a new game and having access to them all)? what do I need to edit to make them all available from new game?

2.) If I go into the header of those classes and change the names of some of the characters "for example changing "Arthur" into a class appropriate name like "Champion" will it affect anything other then what is displayed in the game?...

ok, understood now.

1) you have to edit the levels.txt file and delete the lines: ifcomplete 1
2) anything, you can change them.

[darknior]

@flemw1234 ... do you will release your work or give it to @Pierwolf for the next release if it is cool :p
Adding new palettes is a good idea

[Blastyrant]

all tests done on the PSP build....

on the intro screen, when riding the horse, the only way to leave is to move the horse to the icon that says "go". as soon as that icon appears you should be able to leave the screen by moving to any point on the right hand side. currently you can only leave if you touch the "go ->" icon.

what is the point of the gold sacks that characters drop? i do not see any place to spend coins. i also do no not see my EXP or anything going up after picking them up. are they just there for fun? it would be awesome if you could buy weapon/armor value upgrades in town with the gold.

when i am in town i try to walk to the barrels to get more life but i end up going out the door. the collision point for the doors should be right up on them so you need to be standing directly under the archway to leave.

as for the psp save bug, i've just tested using an old build of your pak file and openbor 3709, all seems to be working so far.

there is still a sound bug when things are fading out. when the 2nd level on the horse ends, it fades to black. the sound cuts out 2 times. you hear a sound.. then nothing.. then a sound again.. then finally nothing.

[Pierwolf]

all tests done on the PSP build....

on the intro screen, when riding the horse, the only way to leave is to move the horse to the icon that says "go". as soon as that icon appears you should be able to leave the screen by moving to any point on the right hand side. currently you can only leave if you touch the "go ->" icon.

it's ok like this.

what is the point of the gold sacks that characters drop? i do not see any place to spend coins. i also do no not see my EXP or anything going up after picking them up. are they just there for fun? it would be awesome if you could buy weapon/armor value upgrades in town with the gold.

i don't understand... the gold sacks give you xp.

when i am in town i try to walk to the barrels to get more life but i end up going out the door. the collision point for the doors should be right up on them so you need to be standing directly under the archway to leave.

this will be fixed in the next release. i will eliminate the barrels, i've made that when you enter the tavern you refill the hp automatically, so you will need them no more.

as for the psp save bug, i've just tested using an old build of your pak file and openbor 3709, all seems to be working so far.

good.

there is still a sound bug when things are fading out. when the 2nd level on the horse ends, it fades to black. the sound cuts out 2 times. you hear a sound.. then nothing.. then a sound again.. then finally nothing.

this not depends on me.

[volcanic]

Very good mod.
All the praise is cut.

Here are my suggestions:
*The heroes fly too high too far when hit.
*You’d better change to another animation rather than spawn “levelup” text when level up.
*If possible please change the appearance (at least the weapon’s ) when you reach a certain level.

[utunnels]

I think Pierwolf prefers the KOD feeling that players have actually lower gravity. Not a problem to me. The real annoyance is the default AI when there are many enemies on screen. It is too hard to block and counter.

BTW, I found a bug.  I forgot which stage it is, but it seems you made certain npc type enemy at the beginning of the level. If I don't "take" to him with my sword, the game will get stuck because I can't go back to finish him.

[flemw1234]

ok, understood now.

1) you have to edit the levels.txt file and delete the lines: ifcomplete 1
2) anything, you can change them.

Thanks for the ifcomplete line, but I tried changing the name "Arthur" inside the file Arthur.txt to "Crusader" saved it and now it fails to load, I figured this wasn't attached in anyway because it was the actual filename that was referrenced, is there something I'm missing?

@flemw1234 ... do you will release your work or give it to @Pierwolf for the next release if it is cool :p
Adding new palettes is a good idea

Perhaps if Pier is okay with it, but I'm doing it just using the altpalette line and changing the entire base sheet and resaving it for each new color (long story short the remaps hardly ever work right for me) I might add that I'm doing an irrgegular number of new palettes some characters get a few more, others alot

[BeasTie]

Just a heads up, not sure if anyone noticed but seems more could be done to optimize this mod if it becomes necessary for console, handhelds etc.

Others might not think it's that important but,

Everything is still in .GIF format rather than .PNG and from just a quick look most images have a bigger palette than is necessary. 
They all have a full 256 colour palette but most only need less than 100 colours.  Example Arthur uses arthur.gif as it's palette, it's a 256 colour palette but he really only needs 48 of those colours.

Only had a brief look but it looks like everthing is kinda using the same/similar palette, but it's running in 16bit so this is a lot of unnecessary data.  It wouldn't be too hard to batch convert the .gif to .png and a text editor will auto replace .gif with .png in the text files without much fuss.  The remaps would have to be redone thou.

There was still thumbs.db files in there too so might be some unneeded files lying around too (like the .act files) you can get rid of.
Anything that could be of use to future modders or tweakers is nice to leave in thou.

Anyhow diddn't mean this to be a lengthy post sorry, hope I made some sense. 

@Pierwolf - Once again great work on this mod, I'm sure people will be having fun with this for years to come.

[utunnels]

Reducing colors won't optimize anything (maybe a bit help on file size). The engine will use 256 for every character nonetheless.

Removing those thumb.db is the way to go, though it won't help much.