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The information below is for testers, but anyone with bug reports, suggestions, feature requests, etc is of course welcome to post here.


Thanks for offering to help test the game. I hope you enjoy playing it despite it's imperfect state! I'm eager to hear feedback and criticism on pretty much every aspect of the game, but especially the following:

1. Gameplay
I think this is the most important thing, because if the core gameplay isn't fun who will care that the characters can be customized? Testers, please play the game and tell me honestly what you think. What aspects are fun and what aspects could be more fun? How is the difficulty? What things would you do to improve it? Of course please report any bugs you encounter.

2. Customization
Please mess around with the customization features; there's bound to be plenty of bugs and issues I haven't considered. You don't need to create content you would ever share with others. Just play around and see if you can do the things you're supposed to be able to do. Try creating a character or two and writing a little bit of story for her. Again, what you write doesn't have to be anything serious, but see if things really work.

3. Story & writing
Please give me constructive criticism on the story and the writing for the built-in characters. What do you think of the characters? If there are bits that you think should be rewritten for any reason, please don't hesitate to tell me. I realize some of the story (including the premise) may be corny, so maybe you have suggestions on how it could be better? Of course also report any bad spelling or typos or anything else that's off.

4. Documentation
Is the help file which explains how to do all the customization stuff easy to read and easy to understand? Please tell me if any parts aren't clear. I want the customization process to be easy and fun as much as possible.

5. Any other suggestions you have!
Don't hold back. If you have something to say which could help me improve the game I want to hear it.



07-01-2011
Well it seems that nobody yet has gotten a good ending (a non-generic ending). This tells me that it might be too difficult or maybe unfair?

A good ending requires:
1. The character is in a state of Love or Lovesick
2. You have completed her story route

Everyone seems to be doing well with the first requirement.
The second requirement is tricky because you have to make some correct choices along the way AND some of those choices require that you pass an attribute check. Attribute checks are in multiples of 10; either 20, 30, 40, or 50. (So if you get an attribute up to 50, you'll pass any checks involving it in story events)

I suppose the problem is that it's not clear what attribute checks are coming up for a given character. Also, with the longer stories, you might simply be running out of time to complete them.

For the next release I'm going to make it a little easier to pass attribute checks by making it easier to raise attributes. I might also add a means of getting in-game hints for characters.



07-05-2011
I didn't intend to put out a new release so soon, but there really have been a sleugh of bug reports and changes in the last two days. Testers, please grab the new release (v0.4).

I should have mentioned this earlier but if you encounter a serious bug I'd be greatly appreciative if you can send me a save file prior to the bug's occurrence. The game autosaves each day during the status screen where you can spend orbs so you can use that file. There are a few bugs that have been reported now which I've not able to reproduce and seeing the save file could help me out a ton.



08-01-2011
I can see myself tweaking this game and adding new features for awhile to come, or for as long as people are interested in it, but I'll stop calling it a beta when we get to the point where any new releases will not render saves and records incompatible. There are still a few changes I'm considering that could possibly do that.

Here's some of the ideas for new features in consideration:
- "mental notes" about a character can be reviewed
- generic event for walking to school together
- support for BxB (only if there is interest)
- support for dual character endings
- Mouse support
- additional mini-games

The top two of those will likely make it into the game in the near future.



08-21-2011
The new version, among other things, finally fixes the "script is hanging" error which people with slow computer sometimes encounter after the ending before or during the credits roll. Well, I think I fixed it. If anyone still gets that error at the end of the game, please let me know! I don't have any older computers around the house with which to test it on.

Posts

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
After this nobody will be looking inside profiles files.

But I like my comments in the profiles! Besides, it gives more character to the character! Well, sometimes, anyway...


*Edit: Played around with the character editor a bit. While the music player isn't enabled yet (or so I assume), I think it's mostly intuitive. The notations for the custom response screen certainly helps, that's for sure!

I opened up my quad-tech, just to see how that worked. Sure enough, it asked me which character to load. Though, to be honest, I'm uncertain how one would go about making a multiple-character profile using this program yet.

Anyway, I'm going to download a few of the pre-made tachie on the custom content tab (or maybe make some quick ones of my own), and see if I can't made a gal (or two) from basically scratch with this.


*Edit 2: Well, that's odd. Masako and each characters in the quad-tech load fine. However, if I attempt to load content that was saved via the editor, the system just closes itself. There seems to be some messages in the DOS window (error console?), but I cannot read them. The whole program closes too fast for me to read/capture any of the messages, sadly.
author=Marrend
But I like my comments in the profiles! Besides, it gives more character to the character! Well, sometimes, anyway...

You can manually add comments to a file in the old way if you don't plan on overwriting it again.

*Edit: Played around with the character editor a bit. While the music player isn't enabled yet (or so I assume), I think it's mostly intuitive. The notations for the custom response screen certainly helps, that's for sure!

Did the music player not work? It should.

I opened up my quad-tech, just to see how that worked. Sure enough, it asked me which character to load. Though, to be honest, I'm uncertain how one would go about making a multiple-character profile using this program yet.

When you save to a file it will first check to see what profile IDs are in that file. If the ID you are writing is there, it will prompt you to overwrite. If the ID you are writing is not there, it will prompt you to append.

*Edit 2: Well, that's odd. Masako and each characters in the quad-tech load fine. However, if I attempt to load content that was saved via the editor, the system just closes itself. There seems to be some messages in the DOS window (error console?), but I cannot read them. The whole program closes too fast for me to read/capture any of the messages, sadly.

Hmm, what changes did you make before saving? Does this happen with any saved profile you open that was created in the editor?

edit: If you run the game from a DOS window I think you'll be able to see the message, which would really help me. Here's one way to do that:
1. Rename the app to something simple like "cust.exe" (this will make later steps easier)
2. Open up a DOS window. In WinXP you can do this by start->run->type "cmd"
3. Navigate to the game's main directory using "cd". "cd program files", "cd enterbrain", cd "heartache 101" should it.
4. Type "cust" to launch the app.
5. Try to duplicate the problem you had before. When the game crashes, the message ought to show up in the DOS window from which you launched the app.
Where is the character editor link?

{edit}
Found it :p
I believe the profiler isn't saving the work you do in a proper way. Once I save it, it becomes an unreadable file, both to the game engine and the profiler itself.

This is for a completely new toon, a dude test toon used in a single story.

Check it out see if you figure it out.


*edit*
it's a extension problem. You have to manually add ".txt" at the end of file. Also link removed.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Sadly, I don't have Windows XP on my laptop. I have Windows 7, which, as far as I can tell, doesn't have the "Run" command in the Start Menu. However, I could still attempt to run it via a DOS emulator that I've got to see how that goes.

As for how profiles generated via the editor look versus profiles that are generated by hand look, I compared the generated one with Masako (That's so her, though! Being looked up to like that!). The differences between the two files were so minimal, it wasn't even funny.


*Edit: Oh wait, you said to use "Command Prompt". That's different. One moment...
It worked! Text dump time!

Error: Theme music 'Built-in/happy' not found in the 'Music' directory for ID=26 in file 'C:\GamesRPGM\RPGMXP\Project\Heartache 101\custom\Profiles\test_profile.txt'C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/wxruby-ruby19-2.0.1-x86-mingw32/lib/wx/classes/bitmap.rb:41:in `block in <class:Bitmap>': Bitmap file does not exist: Tachie/26\26-neutral.png (ArgumentError)
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:1
268:in `new'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:1
268:in `update_tachie'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:1
314:in `update_data'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:2
039:in `open_file'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:1
637:in `block in make_menu_bar'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:2
794:in `call'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:2
794:in `process_event'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:2
794:in `on_run'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:2
794:in `main_loop'
from C:/Users/Marrend/AppData/Local/Temp/sebA520.tmp/src/customizer.rb:2
794:in `<main>'


Now, deciphering that? That's another story!
author=marrend
I have Windows 7, which, as far as I can tell, doesn't have the "Run" comman

in the search bar of the start menu, type in "run" and it will find it for you. It's under "Programs" subheading.

Also, I am now getting an error after fixing the profile for bacon (don't ask). Here is a screenie of the error:



*edit*
It might be useful if I included the files in questions:
http://www.mediafire.com/?iim7xjke3ul3gc7
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I think I just figured something: the program was looking for the "Music/Built-in" sub-directory in my "custom" directory. It didn't find either the "Built-in" sub-directory, or "happy.mp3" for that matter. That could be a reason for an auto close, I guess.

Gonna try moving stuff around so that the program sees the "base" directory, and what-not. I know I'm not going to mess with the built-in stuffs, but I'll back 'em up just to be on the safe side.

Keeping my fingers crossed!


*Edit: Yes! The character generator loaded the content without closing itself! And I didn't get an error message when I booted the game! +15 testing!

Moral of the story: Make sure all the resources of the character, are located in one "base" directory!


*Edit2: Oh, the character generator program should be in said base directory! Proof: I tried opening the custom content (the one that worked not moments before, mind you) from the copy of the character generator that was in the "custom" directory, and, of course, it auto closed.
As to the extension problem, that's surprising. On my end it doesn't matter if the file has no extension. Maybe there's something about Windows 7 and extensions that I don't know about?

As to the problem Marrend reported, big thanks for that. There's two things going on there. It can't find that music file for some reason; I'm not sure why. The other problem is the one that is crashing the app. There's an incorrect path to an image, a "\" that should be a "/". (this is an annoying thing about programming on windows heh) I'll get to fixing that right away.

As to the problem dude reported, big thanks. That's a careless error that's been in the game all this time; will be fixed in the next release.


Just to clarify, I am running Windows XP Pro. I wouldn't install Windows 7 on my computer even if it was gifted to me.

In my case, when I hit the save command in the profiler, it only offers to save it as "all files" and not a .txt file. Maybe since you tested it by modding an existing profile, there was no problem, but when you start from scratch, you have to rename the file to include the .txt

Hope that made sense.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I dunno what's going on with the music playback, but the only buttons that were available to me (meaning not grayed out) were "Browse" and "Apply". "Play", "Pause", and "Stop" do nothing. And yes, I just attempted them. Then again, the program is displaying that Masako's (yes, her again) theme song is "0:00". Might have something to do with it.

For fun and profit, I re-named Masako's profile (She should get a medal!) to not have an extension. Now, we know I run Windows 7, right? She loaded in the character editor fine for me.

dude, are you still having problems with Bacon and the character generator? Because he loaded fine for me. Well, after I recognized that he needed to look at the "Built-in" directory, anyway (I put custom content into the "custom" directory out of force of habit).


*Edit: @dude: Okay, I'm game. Throwdown!
I whipped up a totally new custom character, adding just a neutral pose (Sorry, Masako!). Saved it as "test". Note the lack of extension. It failed, but after remembering that I was still working in the "custom" directory, I moved things around again. It then loaded fine. Since I sincerely doubt that there's an issue with what one's OS is, and the fact that the file is still, basically, a TXT file, I've no idea how Bacon cannot be loaded with dude's rig. Outside, of course, of the extenuating circumstances that I've been talking about.
@dude
On my WinXP system it works whether or not you start from scratch. There's gotta be a logical explanation for this discrepancy but I can't think of it.

For that matter, I can't duplicate Marrend's problem either even though I kind of know what it is. The "\" "/" conflict doesn't crash things on my end.

@Marrend, it wasn't the music issue that was crashing the app, it was a problem loading a tachie.
The play, plause, and stop buttons are greyed out because it couldn't find the music file "happy.mp3" in the "Music" directory. But it IS there, right?

edit: Excuse me I am wrong! It WAS the music issue that was causing the other issue. So I need to get to the bottom of the music issue....

Also, when you attempt to launch the app from a directory other than the game's main directory it should pop up a dialog box telling you that it can't find "Profiles". Did it do that?
author=flowerthief
Also, when you attempt to launch the app from a directory other than the game's main directory it should pop up a dialog box telling you that it can't find "Profiles". Did it do that?


I can testify to it working on my end. I tried opening it from my download folder and got the error. A readme file might be handy because I had to (gasp!) think for a minute where to put the program.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Yeah, I kinda realized that it was a music error that was crashing the app (That's sooo much easier as a reference!). In fact, I suspect that it wasn't the "/" versus "\" conflict at all!

As for the music not playing, or the greyed-out options, I was looking at Masako's profile while I was doing the latest test. The app didn't crash when it loaded her profile, so I assume that the "/" versus "\" conflict may be in effect here rather than at boot-up. Which is still pretty messed up!

Information: My "custom" directory has all the sub-directories that the base Heartache directory has: "Profiles", "Music", "Tachie", and "Story". It also has a "PSD" directory as a kind of back-up for the tachie. Anyway, the point of having those directories is so that my zip files will have the proper directory structure, and extract nice and smooth. Convenience is a pro move, I hear!


*Edit: Okay, the ugly truth is finally revealed. The reason why Bacon isn't loading for dude is because the editor is looking at his download folder, not where Bacon is actually located. As it's looking at his download folder, I doubt it has a "Music/Built-in" sub-directory with which it can find "happy/mp3" in!

Listen to me! I know what I'm talking about!
So what steps should I take to correct the matter, marrend? I thought the game engine only looked inside its owned folders for data.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
If you're talking about getting Bacon to open with the character editor, I have a good idea of what the problem is. If you're talking about the error you mentioned before, the one that you posted a screenshot for, it's not something I can provide assistance with, sadly.

So, at the expense of potentially looking like an idiot, which is it?
I got bacon's file to open, I had to rename it from bacon's profile to bacon's profile.txt

I was hoping for the screen shot fix, but thanks for trying :)

On another unrelated subject, does Bacon run on Story Test without errors?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I got bacon's file to open, I had to rename it from bacon's profile to bacon's profile.txt

I seriously doubt that you had to rename the file to have an extension:

I whipped up a totally new custom character, adding just a neutral pose (Sorry, Masako!). Saved it as "test". Note the lack of extension. It failed, but after remembering that I was still working in the "custom" directory, I moved things around again. It then loaded fine. Since I sincerely doubt that there's an issue with what one's OS is, and the fact that the file is still, basically, a TXT file, I've no idea how Bacon cannot be loaded with dude's rig. Outside, of course, of the extenuating circumstances that I've been talking about.

However, if you got Bacon to load in the character editor, that's all that really matters!

On another unrelated subject, does Bacon run on Story Test without errors?

Right now, Bacon crashes the main game before it finishes booting up with an error message. The one you did a screen shot of, actually. So I'd have to say "no". That's just on my end, though.
Bacon not loading in the main game will have to wait until I put up the next release of the main game (the problem took all of 2 seconds to fix, but sorry you'll have to wait)
edit: if you need a workaround, make "PLACE = Game Center" come before "INTRODUCE = 22"

Bacon Hayatola is an awesome name btw. It sounds Japanese but....

Anyway, here's an update of the app: Character Customizer v0.2
Please tell me if you still have any of the issues from before. Error-handling is a bit more robust, so if the same problems exist, hopefully we'll at least have an inkling what they are.

edit: link removed. more current version can be found later in this thread

Don't worry about bacon too much, he is just a dummy made for the purpose of testing the new app. I thought my error was related to the profiler app, not the game itself. -10 awesome points for not reading your previous post carefully.

Although this Bacon talk is kinda funny. I can only imagine what someone reading through this forum for the first time would think.
You guys both get tons of awesome points for doing this testing. As to how many points I mean by tons, I dunno, I'll let Drew Carey decide.