THENECROMANCER'S PROFILE

author=Blindmind
I didn't even know about this patch. Some of these features are pretty cool. :]

I dunno if you'd call it a patch, by strict definition, but it's definitely a meaty upgrade!

author=chana
As for myself, I never understood 20XX, tried and gave up on it (didn't work, whatever...). Your article renewed my interest, thx.

Great :) If you have any questions bring them up on the 20XX game page and someone will be there to help.

haha I didn't even clue in

author=kentona
01/28/2012 12:32 PM
Okay, so! I used that handy tutorial to finally try to run my games!

I noticed that when I am Entering Hero Name, my cursor controls are not limited to just the Enter Hero Name dialog. So when I am entering letters, it is also controlling my character on the map.

Even just one person means it's helping.

I don't look at this page as the one thing that is going to help get people involved. This page is just a segue in the "series". It will not get horribly out of date. How much of this information is going to drastically change? And even when it does, I will be here to update it now that I'm more active in the testing process.

It doesn't state that you can use multiple battle animations in the manual, btw. There is no real good central location for a quick reference of information. It's scattered all about and a new user has to go on a treasure hunt of clicking links to find stuff out. Some might give up rather than search, so if even 1 person does that you haven't done a good enough job presenting this project to new inexperienced users. Us hardcore users will want to search out the info because we know how important this upgrade is and the experienced user is not even going to bother reading these articles because they can figure it out on their own. That's the whole point of these articles, I'm preemptively lending a hand to those who need it. Maybe they aren't speaking up because they are embarrassed that they can't figure it out or maybe they are afraid of what your response might be.

Maybe a new visitor to the site wants a quick glance at the new features to see if they are interested. Maybe it's this document that get's them interested because it's on the front page and accessible with a single click. Then they will seek out more information in the manual and official documentation when they download it.

The 3 articles as a whole are going to raise awareness. Never mind whether or not they can be classified as "tutorials". It's because of these articles that it's getting a spotlight. Someone might log in and say "Hey, maybe I should try this again(or for the first time)". If anything this is strictly advertising and I'm sure someone could write a thesis on how a billboard for Pepsi will make some unsuspecting sap want more Pepsi in his life. If you write a blog and say "Hey, Beta is out" it will quickly disappear from view and you can sit back and twiddle your thumbs as nobody notices. You should have added it as a new download so it shows in the latest downloads and people might think "What's this? Something new from 20xx? Maybe it's finished! *click*". It's got plenty of subscribers and still few people getting involved.

I really fail to see how any of this is useless as a supplement to your information, and if you create a sufficient alternative I would gladly delete all this and every tutorial I write will include links to your information. I'm doing all this because I care about the progress of this engine and want more people to start using it and frankly I don't feel that you are doing enough to make this accessible to everyone so I'm taking matters into my own hands.

Saying "read the manual and get back to me" isn't going to be enough, I'm afraid. That only works for the hardcore users and those who already have a high interest in this. You are alienating new users, especially with the lack of info on the game page.

"Installation: Delete RPG_RT.exe and paste this program where it used to be. There you go."

If someone reads that as they download for the first time to make a game with, they will not get it working in the engine because you have to edit the .ini file and rename it to RPG_RT.exe, iirc. Not everybody is going to read the manual first, even though they should. You already told them how to use it, maybe they want to hurry up and get started.

Here's what you have as a list of features in the description:

Features

Features that 20XX will extend onto your project:
- Fixes the hit list of bugs and annoyances with the original engine
- Many more supported image and sound/music formats
- 32 bit color with alpha images
- Bitmapped fonts let you draw your own font pixel-to-pixel (also 32-bit alpha possible)

If all the information in my article was on the game page, new people wouldn't have to ask what the new features are. Nothing is up front and it should be. There's no sample project or examples of any kind anywhere, either. Just like how people are waiting for this to be finished without helping, you are waiting for everyone to figure stuff out without helping. The link for dream in code goes to the main site. Why not link directly to your space on that site? I see lots of examples where you could do more to present your awesome work and you seem so dead set against my efforts to simplify and centralize information.

Man, all this time spent discussing this issue could have been put to better use :/ I'll leave it at. Do what you will.

If you took all the info from the manual and grouped it together, which is essentially what I did here, it would be longer and include plenty of information that the average person won't need.

Does it tell you when your video card doesn't support shaders? How am I supposed to know if my PC can't do it or if I'm doing something wrong? Giving clear answers to people who know nothing about shaders is not useless.

What your not taking into account is that I will be updating all the tutorials(it says that at the bottom) as time goes on and this isn't meant to replace your manual. Yes, everyone should read the manual and contact you with any questions. I'll make sure to add that in bold letters at the top.

It's easy to say your terms are simple when you fully understand them. Most of the experienced users and computer savvy people will also find it all simple. But I would be willing to bet there are a few users who have attempted to use this and couldn't figure it out; this is aimed at them. All your manuals and text files are raw data dumps. They are not presented in a fashion that eases the beginner user into this engine and provides clear examples of how it works and what it should look like afterwards.

I indicated in the first tutorial that this is "A beginner's guide to 20XX". My reference to putting things in "simpler terms" isn't specific to this tutorialpage and I didn't mean that you were using complicated words. Just the way the idea is presented will be a bit more simple.

Few people have been coming forth to test this out and report on it, which is strange because the download count is so high. I'm simply trying to appeal to a wider audience and help guide any confused people into this without overloading them with information they don't understand/need. I'm not trying to cut you out of the equation.

Indeed it is, well not quite 90%. Mostly because some areas I don't have much experience with so I can't rewrite it in simpler terms or you just did a perfect job of explaining it.

The point of this is it to present all the new features in short form in a single place. If someone reads the manual there is no real "quicklist" of features. They'd have to read the whole thing and sift through the technical jargin and full explanations. Spelling it out in simple terms that everyone can easily view and understand is the real goal here, as in every tutorial. These pages are a fluid read, whereas the PDF file has large text and some explanations finish on the next page. It's a little clunky to read and navigate through.

Also, it's meant as a step 2 in the tutorial "series". If someone is reading these tutorials as their first introduction to 20xx, then I want to provide them with all the information in one place. It's useful to someone who didn't download 20xx and is just checking out these articles because they are there.

Plus I added stuff, including a way to check for shader compatibility :3