Knuckle Cracker

Creeper World 3 => Upcoming Release Chatter => Topic started by: knucracker on May 13, 2014, 06:23:48 PM

Title: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 13, 2014, 06:23:48 PM
Topic for discussion of CW3:A prior to the Kong launch.
See here for the game link:
http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=16211.msg118080#msg118080

Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Asbestos on May 13, 2014, 07:04:25 PM
Finally, a CW3 Flash game!
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Gameboytm101 on May 13, 2014, 07:05:32 PM
It's not working for me. I have unity installed, there should be no problems.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 13, 2014, 07:15:15 PM
Go here and make sure you web player is up to date. 
https://unity3d.com/webplayer

What do you see when you try to launch it?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Gameboytm101 on May 13, 2014, 07:21:43 PM
Um, it fixed itself. But what happened was REALLY weird. So weird in fact it broke my browser and I had to restart it. Can't exactly describe it.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Asbestos on May 13, 2014, 09:29:16 PM
I installed Unity, and then waited for it to load. When it finished loading, Unity crashed.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: weekendgamer on May 13, 2014, 11:14:02 PM
Did anyone else notice how similar its tutorial is to the CW1 tutorial?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Gameboytm101 on May 13, 2014, 11:15:34 PM
Yup...
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Mikoz on May 14, 2014, 02:12:54 AM
Hotkeys are buggy for some reason. No matter what tab I open, 1 makes collector, 2 - relay, etc.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 14, 2014, 09:01:27 AM
Quote from: Mikoz on May 14, 2014, 02:12:54 AM
Hotkeys are buggy for some reason. No matter what tab I open, 1 makes collector, 2 - relay, etc.

Change the settings
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: SuperDan on May 14, 2014, 10:23:18 AM
I'm not sure if this is intended/trivial/whatever, but in the tutorial level, you can place the nullifier anywhere(and it works), not just on the green square(as opposed to the collector or command node)
The pulse cannon can be moved anywhere but is only "accepted" when it get moved to the green square.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 14, 2014, 11:38:30 AM
Yeah, those things are expected.  I decided to give advice on where to put the nullifier, but still allow it to be built anywhere.  On the pulse cannon you only advance to the next stage of the tutorial once you put it in the green square.

Interestingly, I had to add a number of things to CRPL to make this tutorial.  It is patterned after the old original CW1 tutorial, but things like make a unit not be selectable had to be added to CRPL. 
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Clean0nion on May 14, 2014, 12:54:06 PM
Ooh, can we have an API for that?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 14, 2014, 12:58:38 PM
Quote from: Clean0nion on May 14, 2014, 12:54:06 PM
Ooh, can we have an API for that?

How about you create a few maps with the existing APIs before you ask for more? :)
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: SuperDan on May 14, 2014, 01:24:08 PM
I noticed a visual bug with anti-creeper- a purple line sometimes goes through the AC at the visual middle of the map when you move by right clicking.
See the attached screenshot.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 14, 2014, 01:27:09 PM
Do you play the game with it set to fill the browser?  If so, this is probably because the browser width or height isn't an even number.  If you resize I bet the line will go away.  The desktop game enforces an even width and height, but the browser games doesn't (I didn't really think about it till now).
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 14, 2014, 01:29:00 PM
Quote from: Clean0nion on May 14, 2014, 12:54:06 PM
Ooh, can we have an API for that?

I'll make a deal with you....  I'll give you ('you' meaning anyone reading this message:) ) the APIs if you add them to the wiki for me :)  Below are the new things I have added but have not put in the wiki

==========
--? [reference remove var by name].
:UserCancelAction callback [whenever a user initiates a cancel action.]
SetUnitSelectableOverride(bool) [allows a player unit to be made non-selectable].
HideOpeningConversation()
StringReplace(string, old, new)
PersistCore(bool) [can be used to prevent a core from being persisted in a save game]
ShowGameEventTag(color, icon, line1, line2, targetPixelX, targetPixelY)
     [Color: "RED", "GREEN", "BLUE", "PURPLE", "CYAN", "YELLOW", "GRAY", "BLACK"]
     [icon:  "NONE","INFO","CRPLCORE","COLLECTOR","RELAY","REACTOR","SHIELD","OREMINE","SIPHON","TERP","GUPPY","PULSECANNON","MORTAR","STRAFER",
             "BOMBER","NULLIFIER","SPRAYER","BEAM","SNIPER","FORGE","BERTHA","THOR","EMITTER","ANTIEMITTER","SPORETOWER","RUNNERNEST","AETOWER",
             "INHIBITOR","POWERZONE","OREDEPOSIT","TOTEM","MESSAGEARTIFACT","SHIELDKEY","RESOURCEPACK","TECHARTIFACT","AOO"]
========
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: SuperDan on May 14, 2014, 01:59:55 PM
Quote from: virgilw on May 14, 2014, 01:27:09 PM
Do you play the game with it set to fill the browser?  If so, this is probably because the browser width or height isn't an even number.  If you resize I bet the line will go away.  The desktop game enforces an even width and height, but the browser games doesn't (I didn't really think about it till now).
That makes perfect sense, seeing as I did play with it set to fill my browser, and it only happened when I zoomed in and "fine-tuned" with right-clicking.
Just out of interest, is there a reason it only happens with anti-Creeper? ???
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Clean0nion on May 14, 2014, 03:29:42 PM
Quote from: Karsten75 on May 14, 2014, 12:58:38 PM
Quote from: Clean0nion on May 14, 2014, 12:54:06 PM
Ooh, can we have an API for that?

How about you create a few maps with the existing APIs before you ask for more? :)
Oi. I'm just a very slow worker.

Also, I love how flipmitters have been canonised.

PS Wiki'ing now.

Alright. All done.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Gameboytm101 on May 14, 2014, 03:59:09 PM
QuoteI have no idea what ShowGameEventTag and StringReplace do.

I believe, judging by the name, "ShowGameEventTag" is what causes those Unit Destruction Tags to pop up (i.e. "Emitter Destroyed" "Mortar Lost" "Spore Tower Soon" etc)
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Clean0nion on May 14, 2014, 05:48:19 PM
Quick question: should --? be --! or should I just leave it as it is?

Also, does SetUnitSelectableOverride take a UID, or just the bool? Because as far as I know there's no way to apply this script to a player unit without it
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: cooltv27 on May 14, 2014, 08:50:10 PM
Fun game, whole time I wanted terps to play with, still couldnt build them on the last level, but thanks for giving me 2 to play with
found a bug though, currently on the last level and about to beat it. the top middle box thing with the emitter and the creeper teleporter I have a mortar on the PZ and a collector to the right in the corner, I want to fill the rest with strafers but I cant build it between them when I can build other things

after a bit more testing I cant build strafers bombers or guppies there
just a little bug I found by messing around

never mind found out it was just the air exclusion tower, could you make it so that when placing anything affected by the AET it shows the areas of effect of them
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 15, 2014, 10:35:27 AM
Yep... just updated the web build to show the AE fields when you are trying to build an air unit.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: mzimmer74 on May 15, 2014, 12:05:07 PM
Nice introduction to CW3!  Some good challenges but nothing that would make a new player completely confused.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: exostum on May 15, 2014, 01:01:39 PM
Tested and finished all map. Great work. You are assured to have a 5 Star on kongregate when it get published on it.

Here comes the final screenshot

Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 15, 2014, 01:25:43 PM
That might be fairly described as a full blown case of "Spore Intolerance" :)
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: exostum on May 15, 2014, 02:41:54 PM
Ho, indeed. I got paranoid with beam when I lost one of my terp against a spore that didn't get intercepted by my first barrage of beam so I declared war on spore lol  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Grayzzur on May 15, 2014, 03:22:56 PM
Quote from: exostum on May 15, 2014, 02:41:54 PM
Ho, indeed. I got paranoid with beam when I lost one of my terp against a spore that didn't get intercepted by my first barrage of beam so I declared war on spore lol  ;D ;D
Tip for next time: PZ Beams are a Spore's nightmare.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 15, 2014, 03:33:32 PM
Quote from: exostum on May 15, 2014, 01:01:39 PM

Here comes the final screenshot

I would have commented, but I couldn't identify the map under all those Beams... :P
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Tjgalon on May 15, 2014, 08:35:33 PM
My nets off for a couple days, so I can't bug test it, but I will be there at kong to give it a 5. Kong was how I found creeper world, to start with.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: miquelfire on May 16, 2014, 09:07:42 AM
I wonder, where is the save data for this version?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 16, 2014, 09:45:14 AM
Quote from: miquelfire on May 16, 2014, 09:07:42 AM
I wonder, where is the save data for this version?

%appdata%\Unity\WebPlayerPrefs\knucklecracker_2ecom\
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 16, 2014, 09:57:20 AM
On a different note. Can someone else please check this. it might have been just coincidence.

played a mission again, and it said I got the exact same time (down to a 10th of a second) - which I submitted, but I wonder if there is a glitch in score submission?

Maybe Virgil can check submitted scores for the "Initiating" map?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Mefi on May 16, 2014, 11:29:10 AM
Works good for me but will test it more
I played 1st map twice with improved times 2nd time and it's ok
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Tjgalon on May 23, 2014, 06:01:12 PM
Got my net back, 5 star it, of course, and have 6 maps done. It really funny being so good, and reading tutorial stuff, hehe.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: ZackNAttack on May 24, 2014, 03:02:03 PM
Guess what?  ???
CW3:A hit JIG!
Proof (http://jayisgames.com/games/creeper-world-3-abraxis/)
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: cooltv27 on May 28, 2014, 08:03:37 AM
so I was messing around on a few maps I liked when I noticed something on experiment
the left-center emitter has some digi growth almost under it
it really doesnt affect gameplay at all because no digi is going to grow there, but just something I found
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: MizInIA on May 28, 2014, 09:13:19 AM
i really like the mechanics on how the ore fills the Command Nodes. I like that it fills closest to the mine first.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 28, 2014, 09:15:08 AM
Quote from: MizInIA on May 28, 2014, 09:13:19 AM
i really like the mechanics on how the ore fills the Command Nodes. I like that it fills closest to the mine first.

In one of the recent updates to the game Virgil finally relented and changed the algoritm from round-robing to nearest-first. It's now rolled out on the desktop game as well. Apparently he had it in the code already,  he just had to change one line of code. :)
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 28, 2014, 09:55:54 AM
Yeah, I had done all the work already... except actually enable it.  Not sure how I missed that step, but I like it better now as well.  You can thank K75 for reminding me to finally check and make the change.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: MizInIA on May 28, 2014, 10:56:26 AM
Quote from: virgilw on May 28, 2014, 09:55:54 AM
Yeah, I had done all the work already... except actually enable it.  Not sure how I missed that step, but I like it better now as well.  You can thank K75 for reminding me to finally check and make the change.
Thanks Karsten :)
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: miquelfire on May 29, 2014, 02:24:43 PM
I thought something was different with the ore. I wondered why when I looked up recently, one CN would have no AC, but others would have tons, and I hadn't built anything to use the AC yet.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Tjgalon on May 29, 2014, 10:02:04 PM
So, does it make a big difference in the way ac is used this way?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Grayzzur on May 29, 2014, 10:13:40 PM
I guess if you're strapped for AC and your CN's are spread out, there's potentially less distance for packets to travel to get to your sprayers or bombers. They'll all go to the nearest CN, then on to the weapon, instead of 1/3rd of them going to the farthest CN first. I haven't noticed it making much of a difference in most maps.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Karsten75 on May 29, 2014, 10:45:46 PM
Quote from: Grayzzur on May 29, 2014, 10:13:40 PM
I guess if you're strapped for AC and your CN's are spread out, there's potentially less distance for packets to travel to get to your sprayers or bombers. They'll all go to the nearest CN, then on to the weapon, instead of 1/3rd of them going to the farthest CN first. I haven't noticed it making much of a difference in most maps.

CS Map 447 is an example of where it made a significant difference. There also is a map in the new CW:A game where it made a difference.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Tjgalon on May 30, 2014, 08:20:00 PM
I guess since most maps lately i play on only have one CN, or when I get three, i normally don't seprate them, till close to the end, lol.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: J on June 01, 2014, 08:58:00 AM
I have some problems with CW3:A on kong. If I finish a mission and go to the submit score screen, the game suddenly is a lot slower, my entire web browser just hangs and does nothing (I can easily take up to a minute before the game notices my mouse is hovering over a button). Had to use task manager after the second mission. If I play the game on knucklecracker, I don't have any problems. Any idea what causes it?
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on June 01, 2014, 09:16:31 AM
Very odd...   The binaries on both sites should be identical (I upload the same version to each site).  I will be putting up a new version later today, though, so lets check back and see if that makes an difference.

Now, that said, even though the binaries are exactly the same the version on Kong does more.  This is because the game tries to make calls into javascript to post data into the kong stats tables. It does then when you visit the scores posting dialog in the game. When running at KnuckleCracker, these calls do nothing because there are not such javascript calls on the web page.  When running on Kong, the javascript calls exist and the game makes them.  After that, what happens is dependent on whatever Kong does in those javascript calls.  They really should be little more than making a request back to kong to submit some data, though.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: J on June 07, 2014, 04:52:12 PM
Decided to give kong another go. Started the interrupt missions and after some time I couldn't do anything annymore. I had to sit back and watch at x4 speed while my browser didn't react to anything. Luckily Lia interrupted me and the game reacted to input again. After unpausing (speed was still x4) the game went into a sit back and watch state again and I had to use task manager to quit. Is the game constantly contacting kong api or something like that? I've never experienced anything like this before (other kong games and CW3:A on KC).
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on June 07, 2014, 07:00:52 PM
No, the game only makes calls to kong at start and when you finish a mission.  Those calls are made to javascript on the page with the game.

The only thing I can figure is it has something to do with the Unity player and your browser.  If you could try another browser, or uninstall and reinstall the unity player that might make a difference.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Tjgalon on June 08, 2014, 03:45:44 AM
Very sweet on badges, I bet that will make the game jump a bit more in popularity. As a badge hunter my self, I do love easy badges, and since i am good at Creeper world, they were easy to earn, hehe.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: GoodMorning on February 15, 2016, 01:07:20 AM
I approve of the Kongregate releases.

I originally found the Creeper world series on Kongregate, but then shifted to knucklecracker.com after finishing everything but Evermore.
(Evermore loaded faster and ad-free)

Following the release of Abraxis, I finally decided to purchase a CW3 (One of exactly two games I have though it worth paying for.)

I would argue that the Creeper Nation (good name) may have grown more due to Kong releases than any other single cause.

May this good fortune continue.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: unagitan on May 08, 2017, 07:05:53 PM
Any info on abraxis coming to steam or anyway to purchasing it? Unable to play it regardless of browser.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: GoodMorning on May 08, 2017, 07:48:57 PM
V has uploaded the mission files to the forum some time ago, although I don't recall which board. Probably the Coders Corner. Unity support is fading in-browser, but there are no plans I am aware of to move CW3:A to another medium.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: Builder17 on May 09, 2017, 08:36:41 AM
https://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=20267.msg141479#msg141479

Probably demo versions as well could have download link to these files in easily playable form somehow, I think?

Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 09, 2017, 09:05:27 AM
The browser version of CW3:A has been released using Unity's webgl export. It will use asm.js (javascript) and webgl in your browser to run the game and the unity engine. It takes a LOT of memory.  Like close to 1GB of memory.  So if you experience problems running the web version check to see how much free system memory you have and that sort of thing.  If the browser won't allow a giant allocation of memory, the game won't run. 

It's kind of ridiculous how things have ended up.  Plugins are bad these days, so the alternative is to run a virtual environment inside the javascript engine in the browser. That in turn allocations a giant array (chunk of memory) to serve as the main memory for this virtual environment. It 'works', it just makes me laugh when I compare this to what game developers could do with 2K of memory and a few buffers on an atari 2600.

Anyway, I'm working up to an announcement soon and as part of that I will see if I can do something about maybe a stand-alone release of CW3:A.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: GoodMorning on May 09, 2017, 05:28:05 PM
Quote from: virgilw on May 09, 2017, 09:05:27 AM
The browser version [...] will use [...] javascript [...] close to 1GB of memory.

It's kind of ridiculous how things have ended up.  Plugins are bad these days, so the alternative is to run a virtual environment inside the javascript engine in the browser.

It 'works', it just makes me laugh when I compare this to what game developers could do with 2K of memory and a few buffers on an atari 2600.

Excuse my heavy editing of that quote, but - really? That's the "solution"?

Then again, Steam also has fullscreen desktop applications that are written in JS running in emulator shells - so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.
Title: Re: Creeper World 3: Abraxis
Post by: knucracker on May 09, 2017, 06:09:19 PM
Yep, it is actually even crazier.
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/04/29/on-the-future-of-web-publishing-in-unity/

That was written back in 2014 when Unity was just starting this initiative.  I'm very impressed that they stuck with it and have basically gotten that stack working. DotNet bytecode to C++ to javascript (asm.js) cross compiling. 

The future seems to be headed towards webassembly ( http://webassembly.org/ ).  That will at least help with the download size of some things.  But yeah, it's still a crazy world where the javascript virtual machine built into browsers has become the replacement execution environment for all 'plugins'