XCOMRL

ARRP: Alien Raid Resistance Party

by Kyzrati on 20110918 , under

The 2011 ARRP release is here! Check out the Files page for a download link. I've worked on X@COM for about 70 days now, so I guess that makes this a 70DRL release, too! :)

The demo scenario can be pretty damn hard, and then sometimes you can just get really unlucky. I only tested it a few times, in one of which an alien not far from the Avenger started with a Blaster Launcher... Needless to say we all died a fiery death, roasted in an impervious shell of our own making!

You can also luck out and not meet too many tough aliens, but they'll probably get you eventually. You'll definitely last a lot longer if you commandeer alien weaponry (no time for research!) and/or find secret weapons.

The alien AI is very basic (didn't spend more than a few hours adding it), and is nothing like the AI the game will use, but it does come in multiple varieties so don't expect all the enemies to behave identically.

There has been very little real playtesting so far, and I've been coding lots of new content up until just a moment ago, so don't blame me if it explodes. Seems fine when I run it, though, so do your worst. Come to think of it, explosions are good, as long as they're properly aimed...

I will entertain requests for simple updates to make the demo more fun, but don't request anything major--coding it is fun and all, but takes time away from core development. I'll also be updating the demo with new gameplay features as they become available for testing.

Some specific notes:
  • The game could be quite a bit faster, but I compiled the release build with most of the assertions intact, so you'll actually get specific error messages if something does go wrong.
  • Check out the FOV options. The original had none, but everyone seems to want things like highlighting. I'm not yet sure it's a great idea, since it removes some of the suspense, and X-COM is all about suspense.
  • There wasn't enough time to update the latest libtcod, so there's no mouse wheel support for zooming--that will come soon.
  • Oh, and look out for Sigmund.

While I'm at it, may as well put up a fun screenshot. This is what the ARRP map gen's first run produced:
 
Oh the havoc one misplaced variable can wreak on a calculation :)

Never fear, you can now advance your soldiers without the danger of buildings and terrain rearranging themselves around you.

Now go shoot something already!
10 comments more...

10 comments

  • jice
    September 18, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    Awesome ! It's far more advanced than I expected.
    I got the chance to kill a few of the little bastards, then it stopped with following error :
    FATAL ERROR : EntityAI::moveTowardGoal : no goal

  • Kyzrati
    September 19, 2011 at 9:09 AM

    Thanks for the heads up! I should've put in more actual internal solutions for errors that pop up (esp. in AI), but I didn't really have time. I've uploaded a new version (same verno) which internally corrects AI errors without crashing.

  • Kyzrati
    September 22, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    Hm, sorry about that. I don't have a Linux install on my current computer, and don't plan on having one until I build my next computer, which could be a long way off. As I understand it, you should be able to download from the web the two required dlls (mentioned in the readme) and put those in your windows/system32 directory under Wine and it should work. I'll add this information to the files page. Or did you already try getting the proper dlls and it didn't work?

  • Joshua Day
    September 22, 2011 at 10:54 AM

    The trouble was that the installer (vcredist_x86.exe) would crash when I tried to run it; I pulled the relevant dlls off a shady dll site and everything's running smooth! The game is lovely, from what I've seen so far. Thanks for making this.

  • Kyzrati
    September 22, 2011 at 1:33 PM

    Shady DLL site, yep, that's where I generally get them :) Glad to know that method works on Linux. Thanks for the support, and I hope the game'll just keep getting better!

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2011 at 6:24 PM

    This is very cool, just wondering if you are at all open to being convinced to go open source? It would certainly help with things like linux builds and such, even if you still want to retain 100% control over the project. Sorry if this has already been discussed to death...

  • Kyzrati
    September 24, 2011 at 8:27 AM

    Well, the project is very young, so it hasn't been discussed to death *yet*, but I certainly expect it to be :)

    Open sourcing: I'd really like to retain control over the entire game, and don't want to see a bunch of other little clones out there (especially likely given the fanbase...). Also, the game is based on a huge personal C++ library I've spent many years working on, and would rather not release. I should add that, while not open source, there is still plenty of room for the community in X@COM development. The game is very moddable since all data (even visual effects and later some parts of the interface and mechanics) is loaded from text files, and once it gets far enough along I'll most likely start a forum to discuss the direction and content of the game.

    Linux: If there's enough interest (and I'm pretty sure there will be), I'll put out builds eventually. Right now the blog readership is mostly Windows (80%+) and some Linux (10%+), though if/when the number of people interested in the game goes up, the latter percentage could mean something. As it stands, X@COM is relatively unknown, and the few interested Linux players can run it in Wine. It's only a tech demo right now, anyway-- still some time before something closer to the real experience comes out!

  • Tito / Pedro / Jaunmakenro
    October 5, 2011 at 10:56 PM

    I just spend almost an hour blasting off aliens, and it's great game. Plasma rifle seems insanely powerfull !
    I didn't figured out how to easily switch weapon to use grenades and my game endend with a "fatal error".

    Great job. Greetings from France

  • Kyzrati
    October 6, 2011 at 6:24 AM

    Thanks for playing! All the weapons have the same stats as the original (except for the secret weapons, which I made up), and plasma weapons are definitely powerful against your inexperienced, unarmored rookies :) The game's not very fair at present. Not intended to be winnable at this stage.

    Press F1 for help. "R/L" refers to right/left hand, respectively (lower case / capital commands).

    For future reference, it helps if players can provide me with the specific error, which, if it doesn't appear on the screen, can be found in the x@com.log file. I don't really have much time to playtest myself, so I don't know some of the issues that may only be encountered after longer periods of play.

    The current public release does have a few bugs I've squashed for the upcoming version.

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.