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Work in Progress / Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense

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Xander
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 11:35 Edited at: 22nd Jul 2004 13:45
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I have completed the latest demo of Firewall, a huge update since the last. There is now an arena mode, game music, robot tactics, and much more. Go to the site to see the features and download the demo (and the latest patch).

http://www.freewebs.com/boltsoftware

Here is a small sampling of Firewall:
http://www.dbspot.com/bolt/firewall1.jpg

Click here to see some of the new special effects in Firewall:
http://www.dbspot.com/bolt/firewall2.jpg

Please post your feedback on it, I am finishing it up to show it to publishers soon.

Thank you,
Xander

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Retro Addict
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 11:37
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As soon as I think this game can't get any better, you prove me wrong. Excellent game! Even move addicting...

PC Specs: AMD 1800+ 512M DDR, Radeon 128meg DDR - DB v1.13

To DB or not to DB............duh DB!
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Peter H
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 12:08
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the arena sounds fun!


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
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The Lynx
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 13:07
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Fantastico! I am insanely addicted to the first demo, and this looks great. Downloading now...

Oh no! Chrissy had used her powers to turn herself into a hideous man-eating giant!
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The Nerd
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 19:19
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IS THE game made in dbc?
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hyrichter
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 23:02 Edited at: 4th Jul 2004 23:03
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Yes, Firewall is made in DBC, as is Hijacker and all the StarWraith series. Seeing quality games like this coming from DBC makes me feel better that I wasn't able to get DBPro.

I haven't got around to downloading this, but it looks awesome! I really enjoyed the demo from the showcase. We need more original computer game ideas like this. Keep up the good work.

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ReD_eYe
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Posted: 4th Jul 2004 23:51 Edited at: 4th Jul 2004 23:56
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Although the latest version of starwraith is made in dbp and i vaguely remember bolt was considering an upgrade?

But anywayz, this is looking fantastic!

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Xander
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Posted: 5th Jul 2004 03:01 Edited at: 5th Jul 2004 05:04
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Thanks everyone.

Yes, Firewall is still a DB Classic game. I will never convert it to DB Pro, but if I end up making a sequel it will be in DB Pro with multiplayer and everything.

I forgot one very important thing in the manual: the awesome music was composed by Lance Vaughn.

I would like some frame rate readings from anybody that could tell me along with their system specifications. Hold down the "~" key (above tab) to get a reading in the lower left of the screen. Thanks.

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Benjamin
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Posted: 5th Jul 2004 03:11
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Eh..the key above tab on this keyboard is ²

Projects in progress: Lerioonia, Crescent
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MiR
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 07:17 Edited at: 6th Jul 2004 07:18
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On a French keybaord it is. On my Spànish one it´s º.

Libera tu mente y te liberaras.
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Turoid
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 07:55
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I get an error after i have downloaded the file, the file is corrupted.. And im NOT using a download accelerator..

if I = 1 then I = 1 else I = 0

Current project>> "MagEasy" simple 2D game creator..
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Xander
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 10:22 Edited at: 7th Jul 2004 10:22
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Fine, the tilde is not always above tab...

Has anyone successfully downloaded it and played it?

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Lost in Thought
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 11:19
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I have ... looks great. Between 30 and 50 FPS on my machine depending on the explosions.

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real skwirle
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 11:36
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Wow, that's amazing work, from gameplay to graphics. I was just going to play for a couple minutes and report back the frame rate, but ended up playing for almost an hour (and I don't even like RTS games ).

Ran consistently at 20 fps on my rather slow PC, but I would've guessed higher since everything was quite smooth, even with multiple explosions and effects. Again, very impressive!
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The Lynx
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 13:13
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http://www.freewebs.com/boltsoftware



Oh no! Chrissy had used her powers to turn herself into a hideous man-eating giant!
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MikeS
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 13:34
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Excellent as always Bolt.(Spent a good two hours playing)

System Specs:
1.8 ghz Radeon 8500 1024 ddr ram

Got around 30 fps in areas of battle with 5-10 robots
Got around 50 fps when 1-5 robots were on screen.
---------------------
I also tried the arena mode out and got around 40 fps. I also thought it was an excellent addition to this game. In fact, I think I may go play some more now.



A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
(Formerly known as Yellow)
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zenassem
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 14:31 Edited at: 6th Jul 2004 14:37
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Probably up there with one of the most professional looking designs, and layouts I have seen.

Nice intro clip.
crisp graphics models, textures, and 2D elements, nice graphic/sound F/X, clear displays/menus.


It took a long time to install, about the same time it took to install Quake III; but well worth it.

The only problems I noticed were:

- In the arena practice: Under selecting robots; the text was garbled for the price and description area in the center of the screen. Not really garbled, but it looked as though the text was being displyed in triplicate slightly offset from eachother making it nearly impossible to read. All other text was fine. My video card has the latest drivers, latest directX etc...

- Besides loading time, (pentium III 1.2 ghz) when I exited the program my hard-drive indicator was chugging away for about 3 minutes before I was able to do anything. Under task manger the CPU use percentage looked ok. It could have been other things rather than your program, including multiple runs of my own code all-day before trying so I'll check bask with you.

"Or perhaps, the game recognized my horrible play, and I actually did get a virus from it. Talk about a game with pressure!"

All I can say is, "Spectacular!".

~zen


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MikeS
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Posted: 6th Jul 2004 14:54
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After playing again, here's a few suggustions I have to make things a little more polished.

1.) Have an in game menu. Even if the options are just resume and quit, it's stil nice to have in the instance I accidently press escape.

2.) I found a bug. Seems there is some kind of offset on the text on the options menu when you're selecting your robots for the battle. Here's a screenshot
http://curvedbasic.dbspot.com/thisisforboltfirewall.JPG
(See my system specs above)

3.) I like how you click when you want to see the introduction at the start rather than the other way around. It's a nit-pick thing, but just thought I'd comment on that.

Well, these were nit-picky things, but I just wanted to point them out from my perspective for you.

Keep up the great work Bolt. This game remains #1 on my DBC created games list.



A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.
(Formerly known as Yellow)
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Xander
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Posted: 7th Jul 2004 10:33 Edited at: 7th Jul 2004 10:40
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Thank you everyone

I looked at the screenshot and it appears as if the text is writing twice, once smaller and then once larger. I have often noticed that text writes twice in compiled games, but not when running from the editor. Strange, but it has happened before. I will take off the text size changing stuff in the menu loops to remove this problem. Thanks.

On older versions of Firewall the game would quit to the main menu if escape was hit. Now it pauses it, waiting for a second escape press to go to the main menu. It isn't really a menu, but a menu would get in the way if you wanted to do stuff while it is paused, which you can.
-You can still change the game speed and zoom level, despite them being removed from the display:
-Page Up/Down = zoom in/out
- -/+ (number pad) = speed down/up

There is a small pause after clicking to view intro before it changes the texture on the loading object. I will fix that...

Sorry for the long installing and loading times, I have made it as efficient as possible, there isn't much else I can do...at least the game runs at a decent speed on most computers
There are a couple things that I used to speed it up:
-The effects (explosions, debris, shockwaves, sparks) are updated only every third frame.
-Robots move only every other frame.
This way the cursor can respond better to user input, always a good thing

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Xander
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Posted: 8th Jul 2004 10:22 Edited at: 10th Jul 2004 12:54
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I have completed the 3.02 patch. This will fix the funny text on the robot selection screens, remove the pause before loading the intro, and fix some Poster robot intelligence.

You can download it from my site, or just click here:
http://www.dbspot.com/bolt/firewallpatch.zip

It is only 700 KB, just a new .exe file.

[EDIT] I am finishing up a new patch, this one fixes some big problems with Wreckers walking backwards when retreating

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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SFSW
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Posted: 11th Jul 2004 01:20
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Quote: "Although the latest version of starwraith is made in dbp..."


Nope. So far, every game I've written has been in DBC. I may switch at some point in the coming years, but currently everything I've done and am working on is in DBC.
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Jess T
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Posted: 11th Jul 2004 01:39
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wow, just goes to show that Damn great commercial games can be made in the supposedly less-advanced language, with titles like Stair Wraith and Firewall being pumped out by obviously dedicated developers.

Great work... Everyone

Jess.


Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
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Magpie
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Posted: 11th Jul 2004 01:41
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Text often is displayed twice on DBC games when you compile them - but only when you change the font/size/bold in a loop. This was rectified in DBP (and maybe in some versions of DBC I don´t know about) This is a fault in the roots of DBC not an anomaly in your program.


If you have any questions about any of our projects you can email any member of Cogworks at trunito15262@hotmail.com.
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walaber
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Posted: 11th Jul 2004 13:10
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Bolt - as usual, this is a fantastic update to a fantastic game! I played 2 rounds yesterday, and REALLY like all of the new improvements. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a publisher interested in this game.

The only possible complaint is the load time, but I doubt much can be done there...

either way, glorious game... congrats!! I'm personally amazed you've stuck with one project for so long!

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!

Athlon XP 2400+ || DDR-SDRAM 1GB || Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 AGP 8x 128MB
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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 11th Jul 2004 23:26
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Mine says "severe exeption"

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Turoid
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Posted: 12th Jul 2004 19:36
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damn I always get the message file corrupted I want to play the game

if I = 1 then I = 1 else I = 0

Current project>> "MagEasy" simple 2D game creator..
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Xander
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Posted: 13th Jul 2004 13:35
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I have completed the v3.03 update. It is just a small patch to replace the existing .exe file. It removes some Wrecker bugs where they walked backwards, often into danger . It can be downloaded here:

http://www.dbspot.com/bolt/firewallpatch.zip

Or from the site...

http://www.freewebs.com/boltsoftware

Megaton: severe exception is a memory issue. When does it give you that message?

Jopie: does your virus scanner say it is corrupted? If it does, just ignore it. I promise you I am not trying to send any viruses.

Magpie: thanks for the tip, I will try to keep the size unchanged in the main loop for the next update.

I am off to write some emails to publishers, hopefully I can get a deal made before college starts. I want to tell people I am a commercial video game developer

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Three Score
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Posted: 13th Jul 2004 16:00
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awesome good game i have searched for games like these but most of them suck thanks for building something good and 3-d

has your ending began or has your beginning ended
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ZoneMaster
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Posted: 14th Jul 2004 03:19
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Firewall is getting close to going beta so I wanted to let everyone know that hasn't tried this awesome 3-D strategy game to goto BOLT Software and download the demo. The latest version is 3.03 with the patch installed.

The game itself and the patch may be both downloaded from the website below.

Please check it out at: http://www.freewebs.com/boltsoftware

2nd in Command,
Executive Officer,
Black Ice Klan [BIK]
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Jess T
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Posted: 14th Jul 2004 19:47
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Erm, Zone, we already know...

Who are you? And why are you posting info about things we already know? And making new threads ( which I deleted as it seemed to be a mistake )?

Jess.


Team EOD :: Programmer/Logical Engineer/All-Round Nice Guy
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Xander
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Posted: 15th Jul 2004 13:32
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Some people were having problems with the latest Firewall versions. I noticed that I was trying out texture compression when loading some textures. I removed this, hopefully that was the problem.

Download the latest patch, 3.04, to remove texture compression. Hopefully this will speed up loading a little bit too.

http://www.dbspot.com/bolt/Firewallpatch.zip

(Megaton, this might help you)

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Turoid
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Posted: 16th Jul 2004 03:54
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Quote: "does your virus scanner say it is corrupted"


No it doesn't. when i try to install it, then the installer say that the file is corrupted. I'm using windows xp, could that be the problem?

if I = 1 then I = 1 else I = 0

Current project>> "MagEasy" simple 2D game creator..
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Xander
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Posted: 17th Jul 2004 13:01
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Jopie: have you tried redownloading it? It probably just downloaded incorrectly...No one else has this problem, and I am sure some of them use Windows XP.

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
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CPU
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Posted: 18th Jul 2004 10:19
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Awsome game bolt, runs nice and smooth... one or two questions:
A. What software packages did you use for the textures and models? (the 2d stuff is some of the best I've seen!)

B. How did you handel and organize such a large game?

CPU

Sparring - Loved by many, Pefected by few.

I'm going to live forever, or DIE IN THE ATTEMPT!!!"
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Xander
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Posted: 18th Jul 2004 13:49
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Thanks CPU, I love to answer peoples' questions about Firewall

When I first began Firewall, I used Anim8or, like many beginners who start with DB. I used Anim8or for about 6 months, then I gave in and bought Milkshape. I remodeled all of the robots in Milkshape, reducing their poly count and improving the appearance. I always used the free version of LithUnwrap to texture my models, a great package, especially considering it is free! Now for 2D work...I actually used a very old version of Corel Photopaint, from 1993; over 10 years old! The specs for it are hilarous: 4 MB RAM, 386 processor, Windows 3.1 It works pretty well, except once in a while it freezes the computer when I try to save it: very very annoying. It happens about every 50 times I try to save. Oh well, better than buying a new package...

To tell you the truth, I never thought Firewall would be such a big game. I started it last April just to see if I could make a game better than Gridz (a very old RTS for the Mac, it is sort of 3D, but has pathetic control for an RTS). Now I laugh at Gridz when I play it once in a while. Firewall started with spheres as posters, cubes as hackers, and cones as wreckers. They moved around on a grid and built posts and wreckers destroyed other robots by running into them. I got the basic controls and intelligence perfected, then created simple models for the posters, hackers, and wreckers (the Basik robots are actually those robots ) I then got the basic computer intelligence down, then added some front end menus (the first versions of Firewall had 2D menus). Then I added drones, bases, and more robots. I just kept adding features like more robots and better intelligence. I then switched to a 3D front end, and kept adding features until I am where I am now. Almost ready to publish . I never thought I would create a program over 10,000 lines long!
To make a good game, just perfect the basics, then add features until it appears complete...and make sure to get feedback from people who are experienced at playing games, like the great people on this board who have helped me perfect Firewall.
One more thing: make sure to finish one task before starting another. Otherwise you have many things left unfinished and it gets really stressful.

Good Luck, and Thank You

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Peter H
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Posted: 20th Jul 2004 06:32
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Quote: "which I deleted as it seemed to be a mistake "

whoa! reality smack!... i just remembered that Jess is a moderator


Formerly known as "DarkWing Duck"
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aks74u
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Posted: 20th Jul 2004 08:06
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I love the game but it runs really slow on my computer...When i turned off all of the performance things in options i got an error and the game shutoff. I was just wondering on a way to make it play faster without the error.


thx

Over And Out.
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Xander
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Posted: 20th Jul 2004 11:51
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Sorry about that aks74u, I haven't tried turning off the graphics lately. I will try it and fix any problems that arise. Thank you for bringing it up

A large speed up is to change the screen resolution down to 640x480, then restart the game. It will be easier on poor video cards.

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Tapewormz
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Posted: 20th Jul 2004 14:01
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This game is very fun. I like everything about it.

Quote: " Timesoft - Your wife is death. How? NO idea.
But it is murder. REVENGE!!!!!!!!!"

Hands down the funniest synopsis for a game ever. All your base are belong to us!
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Xander
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2004 13:58
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Thank you Tapewormz

I have added a great new feature: drone fields. Now you can put drones anywhere you want and they will power up all robots that are near them! It is fun to make a bunch of drones in one spot, put a few shooters there for a really strong defense. Or, build some range and power drones and a couple shooting Posters and Hackers for a really powerful offense.

This new patch will also allow the special effects to be taken off and the game will still run

Go to the site to download the patch:
http://www.freewebs.com/boltsoftware

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Retro Addict
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2004 22:01
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Is it just me or can anyone stop after playing just ONE game? This game runs smoother than many commercial games of it's type. Count me in on buying the retail version...

PC Specs: AMD 1800+ 512M DDR, Radeon 128meg DDR - DB v1.13

To DB or not to DB............duh DB!
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Xander
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Posted: 27th Jul 2004 07:45
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Okay, I have created a new update, the drone fields didn't work very well before, I had made a stupid typo I also replaced the Anti-Ammo base texture, it looks better and doesn't hide things anymore. There are also some new screenshots on the site.

Want to see something kind of funny? There was a bug in the story mode where everyone had infinite points, check it out:
http://www.dbspot.com/bolt/website/bug.jpg

Download the demo from the site:
http://www.freewebs.com/boltsoftware

Yeah! I broke 1000 visits on my website!

Thanks to everyone for their feedback, keep it coming

Xander Moser of Bolt Software
Firewall: Your Computer's First Defense - Real Time Strategy game
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Philip
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Posted: 2nd Aug 2004 05:47
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Now I'm back online properly after my 4 months off I shall be downloading the latest version ASAP.

Philip

What do you mean, bears aren't supposed to wear hats and a tie? P3.2ghz / 1 gig / GeForce FX 5900 128meg / WinXP home
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