>I was to do some sort of interim bug fix,
>but the stability of EA has been very good from the numbers,
Hmmm... stable as in not crashing, but other that I'm not sure I would say it's beyond needing fixes.
Some pretty darn frustrating ones in fact (i.e. having to hit buttons multiple times, buggy library pallettes, continue points not working, etc. etc. etc.) that make it very difficult to create a fully functioning game of more than 2 levels.
>I have fixed the D.E.P issue which caused some DBPro based executables to fail,
Is this the "mash the button several times before it kicks in" bug? What I mean is this the buggy behavior many systems have where even though you click a dialog button nothing seems to happen and you often have to click it several times (notable during entity editing for example)
>I have already recoded some parts of the collision system to simply
>code around some other charater related bugs
Well that *sounds* like a good thing, but I guess we will have to see it in action. Player collision works great, enemy collision definately does not (but you know this of course and physics sounds like it will ultimately resolve those issues any ways)
>Work on both physics and multiplayer go very well, so I do NOT
>anticipate a huge slip on our deadlines
That will surprise me. These seem like much more complicated issues to program around, but I'm no programmer so I defer judgement to you. It will be absolutely great if multiplayer & physics go in swiftly and easily. I certainly hope that they do. Your hair (what's left of it) will no doubt be greatfull
>My personal goal is to stay as much on target as possible,
>even if it means ditching a 'great little idea', until
>V1 is as good as done
Well I can understand that train of thought. I personally want to see the most important issues fixed and improved. Specifically -
* Better memory allotment (releasing memory when exiting program and also releasing memory FROM the editor TO the test game during testing, etc.)
* Better memory usage. Even with 512 MB of RAM and a 256 MB video card I still get bizarre video glitches in the editor (weird gaps in the library pallettes when they fill up, scroll bars jumping around whenever a child window gets focus, etc.)
* Better timing (something just doesn't seem right with the way entities divy up time cycles and it only takes 2 or 3 enemies to start throwing off script firing in them - enemies begin sliding across the floor, trying to run the wrong direction to get to players, etc.)
* Better pathfinding for enemies (which I'm not convinced is just an issue of appropriate scripting, but is more likely because of the above mentioned memory struggles)
Sure I would love MORE than those things, but I'm willing to work around whatever limitations are necessary so long as I can use the software and it's fast, stable and functions as a finished product.
>If anyone wants to resolve their bug ahead of V1, get involved in the beta testing when we annouce it!
When will this be? The original beta test was hand selected by TGC and when EA came out we were denied direct access to the bug database (and understandably so) to keep it from becoming overloaded. For nearly a year I have wanted to have a more active involvement with the development of FPSC, but it remains up to you guys to let us have a louder voice.
So for now this post is all I can do
Strictly speaking I want to use FPSC as a development tool so I'm interested in seeing it achieve all the potential that it can.
As always please read this as constructive criticism and not destructive complaining.
Thx for your time
