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Incline NEO Scavenger: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival RPG

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
:negative:

Regressions: https://bluebottlegames.com/content/we-may-have-problem

We May Have a Problem

screenshot-2018-08-28.jpg


Hey Folks! Looks like the new build isn't all it's cracked up to be. So far, out of two tests reported by users, only one had any amount of success. And even that was wanting.

It appears the game won't even launch on a Windows 7 64-bit machine. Just crashes the moment the app window opens. After hearing this reported, I spent most of my morning finding a Win7 machine here to test with, and at least I can verify the crash locally. Unfortunately, not much info to go on in the crash. Though poking around the internet seems to point to an issue with setting the renderer/context.

The other user reported fairly smooth sailing at first. But after a while, the app grew slower, and eventually crashed. And did not appear to save the game during.

Neither of these are an improvement over the Flash build. And are, in fact, probably worse. Releasing this build would cut-off anyone earlier than Windows 8 for certain (either due to this rendering bug, or the 32bit/64bit discrepancy). And anyone with more recent Windows would see an eventual crash while playing. Potentially due to a memory leak.

I'm going to have to think hard on this tonight. I might poke around the code a bit more tomorrow, as I finally got a small test app to repro the bug on Win 7, which is faster than a full game build. But this is leaving a really sour taste in my mouth. And I'm not interested in spending another couple weeks (or months) rebuilding the game with a new rendering architecture.

This might have to wait until I have more time to tease it apart and put it back together again. But like I said, I'll have to think about it tonight.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014

https://bluebottlegames.com/content/close-maybe-not-close-enough

Close, but Maybe Not Close Enough

screenshot-2018-08-29.jpg


Hey Folks! I decided to give it another day of my time, as a few more ideas occurred to me overnight. And I did make a little bit of progress. But I'm not sure it'll be enough to make it worthwhile.

My first few attempts at rebuilding it with different Lime/OpenFL lib versions didn't help, but I was eventually able to trace the app's renderer setup and force it to use software rendering (Cairo). And this actually launched! I was even able to get as far as the opening cryo encounter, but it crashed on the map. Probably due to some gpu calls needed by the tilemaps. And it was probably a no-go anyway, since the framerate was extremely slow.

Later, when I stumbled upon yet another thread with Lars's input, I found his tips for forcing Lime to use ANGLE, which is an API translator for DirectX that supports OpenGL calls. Basically, Google made a layer you can sandwich between your app and DirectX so the app calls OpenGL stuff, and ANGLE translates that to DirectX.

The good news is that this actually worked! The bad news, as you can see in today's image, is that it's only partially working. Seemingly at random, buttons are displaying the wrong image. Usually another image on the screen. Each time the app runs, they break in different ways. Fullscreen causes a massive slowdown in framerate. The creature sprites are missing.

In short, it's like I'm back to where I started several weeks ago when I first started fixing graphics issues. And all this just to get it working on Win7 64-bit with certain gpus. I haven't even looked at the memory leak stuff. And I'm still not sure this would even run on an XP or Win7 32-bit machine, even if I compiled with the 32bit flags.

I think we may be out of luck. As far as I can tell, I've got a lot more work to do before this would be ready for release. And I don't think I can afford the hit in my schedule. Space prototype has already been on ice for over a month, and there's only so much cash left in the reserves to see it through to something worth selling.

One possibility I can explore, I guess, is hiring a contractor to pick up where I've left off. Maybe they can spend a few weeks fixing it up so the OS coverage is good. But for now, I think I need a break from this exercise. I'm bummed.
 

mwnn85

Savant
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
210
Unfortunate that Dan's having a bit of nightmare.
It's a nice gesture to try and release an improved version of Neo Scavenger in anticipation of his next game - without the drawbacks of Flash/other limitations.
Not a bad idea from a marketing perspective either.
In an ideal world you'd want to maintain one copy of the game and have that run across as many systems as possible.
Even just as a user it seems like there's always 20 different ways of doing simple tasks and every vendor has their own quirks.

I don't know what the current best practice is for targeting multiple platforms.
Whether it's Unity, SDL2, Allegro or something else entirely.
That's what most of the successful ported games / open source games I've played appear to use.
Then you've got the likes of Factorio but those guys must be autistic savants when you consider the complexity and how smoothly it runs.

Personally I just run the Windows version through the latest Wine and don't suffer from the fullscreen issue in Linux.
Valve have added Proton (Wine) recently to the Steam Client in an attempt to make it easier to run Windows-only apps.
Compatibility is a bit hit and miss but it's bound to get better over time with Gabe pouring $$$ into it.
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Filthy Kalinite
Patron
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
19,110
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Bubbles In Memoria
https://bluebottlegames.com/content/neo-scavenger-map-unity
NEO Scavenger Map in Unity

dcfedor

onDecember 14, 2018
screenshot-2018-12-14.jpg

Hey Folks! Notice anything unusual about today's screenshot? If you guessed "that's a Unity workspace," you're right!

As mentioned yesterday, I'm working on a tool to help record footage for the upcoming teaser video. And today's screenshot shows current progress. I've got the NEO Scavenger hexes loaded into Unity, randomly arranged in a map. I've got a handful of creature sprites loaded in, and they randomly walk around from hex-to-hex. I've got rain sprites, camera scrolling, and a few surprises as we scan towards the horizon :)

It's pretty close to ready. I've sent it off to Joshua to see if it'll work for him, and there are maybe a few details more to add. But all together, pretty cool! It was interesting seeing what I could scrape together from existing assets, and how quickly it could be assembled in Unity.

Now, before anyone asks, no, this isn't a very significant step towards a NEO Scavenger 2 in Unity. What you see here is what you get: paper thin hex and creature sprites randomly placed around the screen. No game logic at all. Sorry :)

Anyway, next week I'll probably start on some of the other shots we need for the video. Going to have to make a few scenes and effects to cover all the bases.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!
 

Avonaeon

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 20, 2010
Messages
593
Location
Denmark
Finally got into the game proper over the weekend. First time in a while I've had that one-more-turn itch, but this one definitely did that for me. Looking forward to playing this for many hours more, great game!
 

Bigg Boss

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
7,528
Finally got into the game proper over the weekend. First time in a while I've had that one-more-turn itch, but this one definitely did that for me. Looking forward to playing this for many hours more, great game!

No, that is crabs. Dump the broad and play more videogames.

Oh you are a developer. Go make more vidgy games. Haha.
 

AgentFransis

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
979
Been playing this like crazy for a week and finally made it to the end today. Amazing game. The mechanics, the atmosphere, the great sound effects and the sprinkled lore. Wasn't a big fan of the instadeath text adventures (though the writing is great), though most of them are reasonably doable without trial and error I suppose.

The challenge does taper off too quickly for my tastes after you get over the initial hurdle and get a good kit (compared to say Nethack where the start is gentler but the difficulty curves up a lot higher). In my winning playthrough I spent a lot of effort to pimp out my kit. I found a gas mask and night vision goggles and thoroughly scavenged the swamp, I got the eye augmentations, I ganked DMC guards for their armor and weapons. When I headed north I was fully armored, had a military shotgun with around 30 rounds, had a compound bow with a bunch of arrows and had a stock of pills and a nano-medkit for emergencies but I didn't even need all that at all.

It's not like tougher enemies appear as you near the end game. Yeah there are more cultists and dogmen up north but if you do the Saginaw encounter the cultists mostly go away (I barely saw any in any case) and the dogmen are no threat when you have ranged weapons and make sure to sleep in the open with lots of noise traps. Even fighting Marta's army in Greyhawk was a cakewalk, they didn't even have any ranged weapons so I just bowed them down. And what few looters I meet along the way mostly avoided me.

Story progression is also weird. I was sure after Greyhawk I would get to fight the Merga Wraith as a final boss but then the game suddenly just ends. I reloaded just so I could kill him. Of course when fighting this fucker all that firepower was completely useless. After unloading around 15 shells, 15 slugs and 30 arrows all I managed to do is land one good hit on his head and give him a concussion. Killed him with deadly trap in the end.

Also got the blue rot after Saginaw and managed to survive after three days of resting, drinking tannin tea and popping Amoxicillin pills (took 10). Also popped in to the ATN for the treatment and popped 2 nano medkit charges but that didn't seem to do too much.
 

MrBuzzKill

Arcane
Joined
Aug 31, 2013
Messages
650
Been playing this like crazy for a week and finally made it to the end today. Amazing game. The mechanics, the atmosphere, the great sound effects and the sprinkled lore. Wasn't a big fan of the instadeath text adventures (though the writing is great), though most of them are reasonably doable without trial and error I suppose.

The challenge does taper off too quickly for my tastes after you get over the initial hurdle and get a good kit (compared to say Nethack where the start is gentler but the difficulty curves up a lot higher). In my winning playthrough I spent a lot of effort to pimp out my kit. I found a gas mask and night vision goggles and thoroughly scavenged the swamp, I got the eye augmentations, I ganked DMC guards for their armor and weapons. When I headed north I was fully armored, had a military shotgun with around 30 rounds, had a compound bow with a bunch of arrows and had a stock of pills and a nano-medkit for emergencies but I didn't even need all that at all.
[/spoiler]

That's the thing I like about this game... from your description, the items and situations that would be completely mundane in any other RPG have huge importance in this one. Like in real life, I suppose. As in, having a loaded shotgun in a dangerous real life situation is a pretty big deal. I fucking love scarcity as a core gameplay concept in RPGs. A lot of stories from the game seem like real-life stories, except cool because they happen in a dangerous post-apocalyptic wasteland.
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
Patron
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
5,898
Location
The land of ice and snow.
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Also got the blue rot after Saginaw and managed to survive after three days of resting, drinking tannin tea and popping Amoxicillin pills (took 10). Also popped in to the ATN for the treatment and popped 2 nano medkit charges but that didn't seem to do too much.
You got a bit lucky here.
 

AgentFransis

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
979
Also got the blue rot after Saginaw and managed to survive after three days of resting, drinking tannin tea and popping Amoxicillin pills (took 10). Also popped in to the ATN for the treatment and popped 2 nano medkit charges but that didn't seem to do too much.
You got a bit lucky here.
Potentially. I don't know if it's a reliable indicator but I was keeping a close eye on my immune system strength meter and using tannin and Amoxicylin has always kept it in the green. The wiki also supports this by suggesting that using a lot of Amoxicylin greatly increases the chances of survival. Of course after spoiling myself I know I should have just gotten the cure from the Blue Frog king.

That's the thing I like about this game... from your description, the items and situations that would be completely mundane in any other RPG have huge importance in this one. Like in real life, I suppose. As in, having a loaded shotgun in a dangerous real life situation is a pretty big deal. I fucking love scarcity as a core gameplay concept in RPGs. A lot of stories from the game seem like real-life stories, except cool because they happen in a dangerous post-apocalyptic wasteland.
I agree completely, the scarcity is what makes this game great. The trouble is that the "weak end game" thwarted my expected catharsis of overcoming a great final challenge using all the tools and knowledge you gathered along the way. Basically it's just an issue of expectations adjustment on my part where I was expecting something akin to a traditional roguelike ending where the game throws harder and harder things at you towards the end culminating in a climactic showdown, while I should obviously have been expecting the more Fallouty ending where the linearity of the story is really just an illusion and you can essentially beat the game naked if you know what you're doing.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
why neo scavenger is a cool game:
in the first few moments you can beat a dogman to death with your bare hands while recording it and take the tape as a souvenir of you being a complete badass
The name of the item is literally:
image.png
 

AgentFransis

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
979
It seems our friendly neighborhood warlord read the suggestion I left on his Patreon a couple of months ago. Will be good to see a nice surge of sales now.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Oh interesting! I'm flying home today, but I'll have to check this out once I'm back in the office!

I don't know if you're able to do it remotely, but it might be a good idea to do a small 25% sale or something in lieu of this. Underrail had a similar situation with this, and seemed to make a killing over the next few days with a sale in place.
 

dcfedor

Blue Bottle Games
Developer
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
111
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Back in the home saddle again, and yeah, was a pretty significant bump. Was a bit like cryo stasis before, and this week, NS spilled out onto the floor of the facility wondering what the hell just happened :)

Re: discounts, it was way too sudden to react in time, but they are a-comin'. (In fact, this is the first ever time GOG.com personally emailed me to see if I wanted to do a discount related to a video. Wild.)

Between this, and showing Ostranauts at PAX, it honestly felt like a launch week or something. My ears haven't been buzzing like this in years!

And as for:

How does the game handle saves?

Terribly :)

It was built in Flash, which means it saves files to some esoteric (and ephemeral) cookies folder that inevitably gets blown away any time your CPU fans spin-up. Some day, SOME DAY, I will return and haul that corpse up from the Flash pit to reanimate it in a dedicated desktop engine. And that day will be GLORIOUS.

But for now, accept my apologies in advance.
 

Lady_Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
1,879,250
Finally found a build that can easily survive the early game:

- Strong and Athletic, build spears and equip two to hunt for dog meat
- Strong skill means you get the Dogman coat against hypothermia right away
- Trapping skill to start fires from nothing and cure meat
- Only needed luck to get a lake close-by and a couple towns for decent loot

Even healed myself back after losing blood and getting infected. The water and food routine gets kind of repetitive though.
 

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