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Masjin is a team-based online shooter thing with flavours from TF2 and maybe a bit of Minecraft. The game is under heavy development, but it's playable and according to the players has offered some fun!

Players can select from 5 classes, which are:

• Cybermason: A class that can dig walls even without any digging machines. Cybermasons are also much better at using the diggers.
• Scientist: These guys heal team members automatically just by standing near them. They also regenerate hitpoints over time.
• Fighter: Fighters have much more powerful guns in comparison to the two other classes, so they're ideal for attacking.
• Ninja: Ninjas can't shoot and have less HP, but have pretty powerful swords instead. They also jump higher and have natural cloaking.
• Engineer: Engineers can create items even in the field, and they can repair turrets by standing near them.

Even though the classes are present, the main emphasis is on the different machines and vehicles the players can use. These include stuff like diggers, airplanes, mech suits and turrets.

(http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1226/geh.gif)(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/2007/eay.gif)(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4587/aquai.gif)(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/3294/chopper.gif)(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5921/bangbang.png)(http://www.hempuli.com/bomb.gif)(http://www.hempuli.com/stomp.gif)(http://www.hempuli.com/rawcket.gif)(http://www.hempuli.com/ninja.gif)(http://www.hempuli.com/kill.gif)

FINAL VERSION GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)
In the lobby, you can create games by typing to the textbox in the upper-right corner and pressing 'create', and when joining you'll have to press 'refresh', the select a game and press 'join public'. For joining a private game, type the name of the game to the textbox and press 'join/create private'.

C = shoot
X = jump
Z = use/pickup
(More precise control listing can be found from the in-game control adjustment screen!)
Please note: The game is far from finished. This is my first time ever doing online code, so it's a bit sloppy and buggy. Weird, possibly even game-breaking bugs are an everyday thing, so don't hesitate to reconnect in case something happens. I'm quite sure I will never 'finish' this totally, so there will always be some weird bugs, some of which may be even out of my skill to be fixed. The game is also rather memory-heavy, albeit the update 1.62 helped a lot.

(Old thread: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=17137.0)

Credits
Music by Artem Bank
Stuff by me
Sound effects made with SFXR by DrPetter

ALSO WATCH THE TRAILER:
(http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg228/scaled.php?server=228&filename=hmmv.png&res=medium) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObviBfeedJs)

looks great, link? *edit: there it is!*

Yeah, I'd assume that once the vehicles can be destroyed, the whole 'too easy to lose vehicles to the other team' thing won't be a problem.

Also, one of the updates fixed my framerate issues, now it's running at around 60-70 :)

I've been playing and enjoying a lot. Last round, though, our team went triple scientist and absolutely destroyed the other team. They didn't get a second captured. Scientist teams are severely broken, basically.

I see. I'll do something about that in the next version, hehe.

Version 1.63 is out! There aren't very many updates here, but anyway:

• Bigfixeeess
• Portable turret! (Which may be horribly broken, we'll see)
• The safety areas heal you now
• Speed implants, that give you a permanent speed boost until you die.

VERSION 1.63 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I was on that triple scientist team. All you have to do is not allow scientists to heal each other. I've been loving the game, it's taken many hours of productivity from me =P

I posted two threads on reddit to publicize it a little and get people to play and directed them to your site. It's the least I could do for such great free games. Keep doing what you're doing Hempuli!

reddit threads:
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/gjl8y/masjin_an_online_teambased_tf2styled_2d/
http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/gk8x9/masjin_an_online_teambased_tf2styled_2d/

Thanks a lot for that, JCSopko! Also I'm glad to see that most of the replies are positive.  :beer:
I guess making scientists not heal other scientists is a good idea. Implementing that now. I'll also try to add either
a) Research or
b) Destructable vehicles
to the next update. The problem with the latter is that it'd require the ability to build more of them, which in turn would basically require a whole new fabricator. Oh well. Also The biggest reason why I've been hesitating to add vehicle destruction is that even now the game is very susceptible to random bugs with the object IDs. I'll try to explain:
  When you enter a vehicle, the game sends data about who entered the vehicle, and also the personal ID of the vehicle to identify which one it was. All vehicles belong to the main category 'items' (wow ain't I smart :laughter:), so the IDs are spread to all vehicles and items. Anyway, when the other players receive the message, their game will check which object has the same ID, and see you driving that object.
  So then, if it happens that the IDs somehow are not in sync, for example if the message of entering one hasn't reached all players, or some player has exploded a bomb and due to lag/messaging error it hasn't exploded for other players, the IDs will be mixed up. This can be seen in the occasions where a player seems to be flying an invisible plane and such. So, if a vehicle is destroyed, the game needs to mark its ID as 'free', and send that same data to all other players. Since there's so much data going everywhere, the chance of losing this message is not very high but anyway still there, and it may happen that one player doesn't get it that the vehicle is not there anymore, leading to more extremely funny bugs.

The best answer to this would be forcing resending of all items every once in a while. I'm not sure how laggy that is, though. I probably ought to experiment a bit.

tl; dr: The destructable vehicles can bug!

Edit: it also looks like the new mini turret isn't working like it should. Making a quickfix 1.63b now and then beginning to work on the bigger changes of 1.64!

Hempuli, you never cease to amaze me with your awesome game ideas man  :beer:

Oh and how about changing Engineers over to Ninjas? Maybe give them the ability to poison other characters and drain some HP over time? Possibly a small chance to deliver a knockout blow which incapacitates a character for (X) amount of seconds?

And plus... they'd be NINJAS!   :handknifeR::ninja: :handknifeR:

Maybe... :ninja:

Anyway, here's the update 1.63b. Changelog:

• Fixed one enormous bug with the new turrets
• Made the scientists not heal scientists
• Added autoupdating (the game looks automatically for updates once every day, after which you'll have to do it manually)
  
• Added a new fabricator for machines. This'll be necessary when I add destroyable vehicles.

VERSION 1.63b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I'll try to get 1.64 done today but it's not sure if I can make it!

Version 1.64 is coming up nicely, though there's still some work to be done. Also I'm quite sure the first released version with destroyable vehicles will be rather unstable.

EDIT: Uh oh, while working on this I bumped to an ENORMOUS HUGELICIOUS bug and I'm now spending time fixing it. I'm nor sure if this is a good or bad thing.

EDIT EDIT: Oh PHEW, looks like the bug wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. I mean, it was bad in that it had the chance of completely frickin' breaking the game but fixing it isn't too big of a problem (or so it seems)!

1.64 is out! Changelog:

• Vehicles can be destroyed now! This is probably hilariously buggy at the moment, so please report all weird things as usual. :)
• Fixed a huge bug in item management. Basically all the vehicles/items that the round started with were reset for each player joining, which resulted in stupid bugs.
• Other small bugs are now fixed, again again
• Cybermasons can now also dig ore! This is crucial since the diggers may disappear as the game goes on.

EDIT: As I expected, there were some rather awful bugs, so I made a quickfix update.

VERSION 1.64b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

EDIT: It seems that a bug where certain players or all players in one team (usually blue) become invincible is becoming pretty usual. I need to find out why. Ughh...

Go! Hempuli Go!  :handjoystick: :eyebrows: :handjoystick: We keep on playing!

The destructible vehicles are so prone to bugging that I guess I'll have to remove the feature from the game for now.  :P

Tomorrow I can't work on the game much, but from now on the main emphasis will be on fixing some bugs (unless I get carries away with designing new items). Mostly I mean the invincibility bug. Which is *really* *annoying*.

I remember from messing around with artificial lag a long time ago, if the host is lagging, bullets move slower on his screen. They won't do damage if they miss for him but hit for others. This may be why the invincibility bug happens, and probably why there are delays when taking damage. Damage should be probably be handled locally.

I guess you're right. Nonetheless, I'll try to find out at which point the damage message gets lost, or if the player IDs bug somehow, thus leading to the damage not working.
(What's really weird as well is that the mini-turrets also become invincible very easily)

Since bullets and stuff travel in a straight line, you can easily interpolate the line the bullet travels, or even just send a vector when you shoot a bullet.

That is not the problem here; the bullets fly and everyone sees them, but once they hit a player the damage message somehow gets lost. Since the messages get lost so rarely usually I'd be ready to bet that it's a coding bug, but on the other hand clientside damage shouldn't bring any new bugs. Unless someone writes a macro that shoots bullets infinitely fast.

EDIT: No update today. Sorry folks! Tomorrow I'll make 1.65 with clientside bullets and hopefully lots of bugfixing. Also ability to host/select other servers.

Sorry, misunderstood the problem :P but anyway, do the bullets keep sending x and y coords?

Had a lot of fun playing this for about half an hour!

I like the simplicity of it. It reminds me of an old freeware game called Taso, and ya, mixed with a bit of Minecraft and possibly Liero?

I was a bit confused about how to dig properly. With the cybermason I just shot the ground until finally I dug through. However, I saw other players who were fighters or other classes who were digging a lot faster than me, and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong!

I'll definitely come back and play this every now and then to see how it goes...

Aww, thanks moooosh and ReefPirate! :) You two chose a bit bad moment to try the game since the 1.64 update made it a lot more 'unstable' in the sense that it's more usual to get invisible vehicles and other desynchronation bugs between players.


Yeah, actually TASO was one main source of inspiration to Masjin. I mentioned it in the original post but I guess not many know that game. Liero wasn't really in my mind while making thus, but the games do have their similarities.

As a cybermason, stand next to a wall and hold the shooting button. You're digging if you can see debris flying all around your character. If you've seen other classes digging very quickly without a digger, they're probably just bugging. As I said, you and mooosh chose a moment to play the game where the amount of bugs is higher than normally, I'm afraid.

That's hilarious... I thought I detected some TASO in there! I haven't played it in probably 10 years or something, and I remember looking for it a while ago but not finding it. It really wasn't popular at all, but it was a cool game.

And ya, I saw fighters climbing/digging through the dirt like crazy in the last game I played, with no diggers. Must be glitching out :P Oh well, keep working away at it, and hopefully it'll smooth itself out.

Maybe now vehicles can be destroyed there's a use for the engineer? When a vehicle blows up, it can leave behind a pile of "wreckage", and if the engineer stands in the wreckage for long enough, they fix the vehicle and it can be used again?

Looking at the gifs, this looks really fun!  Reminds me of xpilot, which I played a few times at uni, and it was the only time - bar playing doom - when I actually got up in time for breakfast!  Since I didn't actually have to get up, having played all night...

Don't suppose... any chance of a linux version?  I suppose I can run a vm and stuff, but I'm very lazy :-[

I'm afraid I need to remove the vehicle damage right after it was added, at least just to see if it was the reason we got a lot of bugging in this version.

Seems like I just finished version 1.65! Changelog:

• Destroyable vehicles removed for the sake of bugs.
• Damage should be fully or at least mostly clientside now, which should fix some bugs.
• The game now remembers your last-entered nickname.
• You can change the server and port in the 'server.txt', but the hosting app isn't ready yet!
• Boosted both turrets and speed chips.
• You can now only see games that use the same version as you in the lobby. This should make it harder to break the games of other people by barging in with an outdated version!
• A new item, the Spy ID! I really like the concept, hopefully you will as well.

VERSION 1.65 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

hughperkins: Nope, sorry. It's importable. Try wine, it should work to some extent!

Next thing I'll work on will be research. RESEAAAARRCH

For me it works perfectly on wine. except for the auto update everything is ok (wine version 1.2.2)  ;D

Once again I had to update to 1.65b because of stupid buggery. I hope the vehicle bugs have been fixed for good now, there was one really stupid mistake I had made that basically made dying in vehicles make the vehicles bug for all but you.

Get it from up there! Also attempted to fix a couple other bugs.

So I got the idea from a bug where it looked like a player could ride two vehicles at once, but... what if the engineer could fuse two vehicles together to make a new one with abilities from both original vehicles?? (would require ore?)

I think it'd be also cool if engineers could move faster in a vehicle, or if shots from a vehicle with an engineer did more damage than normal vehicles.

Also, aren't the bought vehicles a bit overpriced?

I think I'll ditch the whole engineer class in favour to one with more clear advantages. I reduced the price of the vehicles, but I guess some may still be quite expensive.

(There wont probably be an update today due to a family party thing, but I'll get back to it tomorrow (or if I'm lucky, later today).)

What about changing the current scientist to a medic and having
a new more cybermasonish scientist (mostly avoiding the battle and doing the research things)?

I haven't noticed this before, but it's really easy to shoot through blocks. You might want to check the collisions again.

Can't say I'd have noticed that, but I made it more secure just in case.

I think engineers could work well if they could function as mobile item makers. It'd fit their support role well if they could put together some mines to hold off attackers without relinquishing the control point.

I can still make the gunshot sound when pressing c while I'm dead.

1.66b is here!

Changelog:

• Buffed flashbangs, rockets, turrets
• Made the Spy ID also change your name!
• A new item, the napalm bottle
• Bugfixing, lots of small stuff
• Spruces!

Here's an utter failure of a .gif to show how the turrets work:
(http://www.hempuli.com/dead.gif)


VERSION 1.66b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)
EDIT: NOTE THAT THE TURRET BUGS! It shoots and hurts teammates as well. Sorry about that.

Next things on the list:
-research
-fourth class
-An in-game changelog!

Sweet. Keep it coming! I'm addicted to this game already...

One thought I was having was that it does seem like a team that spends a lot of money doesn't really get a huge advantage over, say, a team full of fighters and one mason who don't spend any money. Perhaps to get people more interested in digging you could make the advantages for digging for minerals a little more pronounced? I'm not sure of any ideas at the moment... Maybe research could be based more on the minerals, and research gets you some relatively OP weapons?

I like the bombs, don't get me wrong :)

Buying vehicles is a waste of money, because once you buy it, the other team will use it just as much as your team. I think you should make vehicles team based, but not in a 'only red team can use red vehicles' way. Make it so you have to stand by an enemy vehicle holding the use button for a few seconds to 'pick the lock' and get in. the vehicle would keep it's colour, but wouldn't be locked again until the original team uses it. This makes the vehicle easier to get back if your team was the one to build it. A symbol showing that it's locked would be helpful, but make it only appear when you're close to the vehicle, to reduce clutter.

This will also counter another problem I've had, where the game host can sometimes run to the other base and steal their digger before they can join the server and load the map.

I think you should buff turrets, but make them get destroyed if you destroy the block their on. This way they are better at defending, but have a clear weakness. Wait, I forgot they could be built on solid (Steel? Concrete?) ground. (Was thinking of land mines) Another idea is that you could buff them, but give them a set-up time.
All this is assuming you haven't buffed them in the newest version, I haven't played it yet.

A neat idea would be to randomize the point's Y position. This already kind of happens with the ground being at different heights above/through it, but a midair point would be cool with the flying vehicles and builders. A few different point designs would be cool too. (Laying out the blocks in it in different patterns.)

EDIT: Making rockets slightly homing on enemies in vehicles would be neat.

http://soundcloud.com/redshojin/sets/masjin-wip/

HO SHIT!

(Note: Most all of that needs to be mixed better.)

Mixing aside (which sounds OK to me anyways... not my specialty) what is that?? New theme-song or something? I like it.

I agree about rockets being more of an anti-vehicle kind of weapon. Keep them only semi-useful against people, but extra damage + slight homing against vehicles would be cool.

I agree that the digger-stealing is very annoying... But I wouldn't want to see it removed as a strategy. It adds a cool dynamic to the early game, where you have to rush to your digger to make sure it isn't hijacked. Now, the host being able to get there before anyone else is a cheap tactic that should be minimized... But you could counter this with a 30-second match start timer or something. So the host, and no one else, can move for 30-seconds (or less, 30 is just an example).

The first is the Main title/menu music, the second is the current gameplay music. Both will be expanded and mixed better.

About the Vehicle stealing; I agree that the current style of gameplay supports the way of "fly the thing to the battlefield - die - the enemy has it now", and the digger stealing in the beginning of the round is especially annoying. However, I'd myself prefer some other way than making the vehicles 'owned' by a certain team. Of course, if there are no other choices, I'll do that anyway.

As for the host/early player thievery, I'll make it so that the enemy base will be blocked until there are more than 1 player playing.

Also, my intention is to add at least 1 new type of ore that'd be used specifically for research. Research itself should be some kind of a meaningful thing to spend ore on, since it'd grant bonuses to your team only.
  Researching will have two parts: 'actual' research and upgrading. 'Actual' research is basically like unlocking new vehicles/items - there's a tech tree and the scientists click on the stuff they want to research at a time. Some of the currently existing items will probably be made unavailable at the beginning, so they must be researched first.
  As for the upgrading, it will mostly be related to character health/speed and such. I'm not totally sure what kind of things could be upgraded, since that kind of stuff has a high chance of breaking the already flimsy balance of the game. Health upgrades are a must, but damage is something I wouldn't want to touch, and movement speed is something that might cause more trouble than aid when upgraded.

Today's update will hopefully add some simple researching, fix certain bugs and maybe add another new item. The lightsaber is something that'd require pretty extensive coding but man the idea sounds amazing to me!  :addicted:
EDIT: Another thing I should really look into is the round winning and the losing/winning screens. The way the timers reset is really curious, and it's no fun when the game reports that people have won/lost even though the round is still running. Hmm.

Hemp, what about if someone tries to use a vehicle they don't own it takes 30 seconds or so to "hotwire" it? Also if you do this have the 4th class be a Carjacker or something that reduces this time to 10 seconds or so (?)

Just an idea!

I think this can work. I agree that taking the enemies vehicles is not a bad thing. (Had some nice fights around the digger for instance)

I don't think carjacker class would add something. What i am curious at is what the research will do to the game balance. Especially if your talking about another ore, their should be a difference in the speed you mine the diamond and the research ore. We will see...

I was really just trying to think of a better way of having team-owned vehicles because I don't want to ever see 'only red team can use red vehicles'. Also, I was thinking just a 5 second timer for hijacking vehicles. Just enough time for any nearby teammates to try to save the vehicle.

A good upgrade would be jump hight. Maybe grenade upgrades would be cool? Whenever someone on your team throws a grenade it gets a bigger blast radius? Sorting it by which team made it would work too, since grenade stealing doesn't happen very much anyways. Researching lower prices would be nice too.

Round winning/losing should be completely server based. No matter what each player has on their timers, when the server's timer reaches zero, it sends a win/lose message to each player, and they show the win/lose screen.

An idea I had was to make vehicles even cheaper, but give them a build time.

1.67 is out! Changelog:

• Bugfixes, such as the one related to turrets.
• Implemented the vehicle lock discussed above.
• A new item, the loyalty chip, that instantly makes a "teamless" machine locked to your team.
• You can now view a changelog for the new updates.
• Really unfinished research. You can currently only research bonus health up to 200 hp.
• Missiles now do more damage to people in vehicles.

EDIT: AAAGAGASFSAF The health research happens for both teams! Man I'm stupid, haha. Gotta fix that quickly.

VERSION 1.67 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

Also shojin, I think the distorted guitar might be quite overwhelming in the in-game music. It kind of drowns the other instruments. Otherwise it's great as always.

After playing today, there is one thing I feel missing, and that is the ability to control the different in-game menu's (when building a vehicle or researching something, etc) with your keyboard. The rest of the game is completely controlled with the keyboard, and needing to switch to the mouse slows down gameplay.

Of course, this is just a little suggestion  :P.

It is an awesome game. I played it for about three quarters of an hour or something, and I really enjoyed it, and I want to go back and play more when I have time.

Yep... I left that compressed guitar channel on. WHOOPS!

I agree and wonder why I haven't done this yet.

Are you going to have the ability to change your game type when starting a server? I feel like death match and king of the hill (which you've already play tested) Are awesome, but I miss having death match now - even if I like king of the hill.

Another variant you could make would be capture the flag. That makes defending your base a whole lot more important.

Also, for another vehicle/research-able thing (perhaps you carry it - like the rocket launcher) would be a deploy-able turret, which lasts until it's killed, auto targets and shoots at the enemy, but has a slight delay before it starts firing so that the enemy has a chance to kill it - maybe insta-death from a rocket launcher or something?

We already have that.

I agree about selecting gametypes, and that CTF would be fun.

So it is! Don't mind me.

Bugs I found out while playing today:

-Sometimes you cannot see mining machines of the other team. You can see blocks disappear, but the 'digging effect' (the mud flying around) is also invisible.

-At one point, somebody could use two vehicles at one time

-Planes can very easily get stuck on the Engineering Deck. You cannot get them out there anymore.

-One time, it was possible for me to join a server were one side had already won (0 seconds left)




I was thinking about the Ninja idea somebody told earlier. I think this would be a great idea. The major part of the game seems to be jump-based: dig a hole between the opponents base and the control room is Strategy #1.  Having a person who can jump just a little higher than the others would be interesting. Also, the ninja could have a built-in stealth-cloaker, so that when he is standing still, he becomes invisible. He obviously should have less firepower than the Fighters should have.

You could use the Ninja as a unlockable research option as well: People can become ninja's only after a scientist has unlocked it. Then the ninja's can be a bit stronger than what I said above, of course.

I really like the ninja idea too  :ninja: . it could have some kind of wall-jump it would be great for turning around the game when one team has dug a huge hole in front of your base. It could be weaker than other classes in HP and attack but have the built-in cloak to compensate. I think it would really make the game more fluent.

Another way of achieving this result could be adding a rope item (spelunky-like), that could be shot down. But sometimes there is no ceiling that i could attach to.

(http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/4624/ninjaq.png)


shojin & mokesmoe: yeah, at least CTF will be in. Also I've thought of some sort of base defending mode, but haven't really got ideas of how that'd work.

Qqwy: The two first are stuff I'm afraid I can't help with too much. From what it seems, sometimes the game fails to send enough data to tell other players that you've entered/left a vehicle, thus making it bug. If this happens, the player looking weird should be asked to reconnect. I'm trying to find out why it happens, but in the worst case it really can't be fixed.
 The engineering deck thing is a really idiotic design choice I left in place. Removing that hole to the next update.
 As I've said earlier, the round winning is very wonky with all the timer resetting and such. Once I feel like not being lazy, I'll for sure look at it.

When it comes to the fourth class thing, there seem to be two potential options:

• Ninja/'Spy': Basically stealth-based offence. Higher jump, perhaps even doublejump? Slightly worse damage but some extra skill, like the auto-cloaking.
• Engineer a lá mokesmoe: A class that can create items without being in the base. This could easily be hugely OP and is probably a bit difficult to implement, but I like the idea. Also they could unlock vehicles faster, perhaps?

Today there wont be an update or the update will be very small, because I've had a long day and tomorrow will be another.

It's really hard to say anything about this because there was only one other guy playing with me. It looks good and from what I've played it plays well too.

The lifts were a bit annoying because they block jumps or something. I think holding jump should be the same as holding up as far as lifts go.

I found another bug while playing: When a bomb goes off near a Builder vehicle while this Builder is just putting down a block while the 'earthquake' of the bomb happens, the background-block of the built block will be misplaced, and not properly on the tile-grid. Its small and circumstantial, but whatever  :P.

1.68 is here!

As I said, this is a small update:

• Small graphical update to the locks
• Cooldown to weapons
• Cooldown as a research subject!
• bugfixes and tweaks
• I made the lobby a bit less busy. Now you'll know when someone joins a game.
• The teams start now with 300 money.

VERSION 1.68b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)
EDIT: The cooldown was bad.

I wasn't the one who suggested the engineer as a mobile item maker, but anyway: A way to make him not OP would be to give him a build time where he has to stand still while making the item.

on the other hand...

Random ninja ideas!*:
 - Have a natural cloak that is better than item based. If he stops moving before the cloak runs out, it starts charging from there and he doesn't get revealed; (Think Cloak and Dagger from TF2) or just have it last longer once he starts moving.
 - Have him run up walls. Maybe overhangs would stop him, unless he had a jetpack.
 - A sword instead of a gun?
 - Maybe make natural cloak a researched ability?
 - Give him 75 health and 15 per upgrade. (always 75%)

PS: Have an expensive research upgrade that increases jump hight to 3 blocks

*(not necessarily good ideas)


EDIT: There should be a setup time instead of waiting for more than one player. Actually, it should just lock you in your base, instead of out of theirs. I joined a server about 30 seconds after it was made and I was the third one there. We had already lost all of our vehicles and had a big ditch in front of our base. The second player shouldn't have to win a 1 on 1 duel against someone just outside of the base who can reach the digger before him in order for his team to have a chance in the game.
Basically I'm irritated that if I join a game in progress I have a 50/50 chance that I've already lost. I'm not saying it's an impossible to beat strategy, but it's nearly impossible to win after it's been done, and almost no one seems to know how to stop it. [/rant]

Actually, I though of another way to help stop the problem:
Hey everyone! When you join a new server, head straight to your own digger and protect it!

I like. Especially the sword idea - it certainly equals out with the wall running or higher jump. The natural cloak as you explained it is perfect for this character.


This.

I like the idea of being able to build items on the fly, but the ninja just keeps sounding more and more attractive. Also, I kept mixing up the engineer and cybermason when the engineer was still in the game, so have a character that looks completely different would be nice. I suggest black suit with team coloured bandanna.
Also, the lower health probably isn't necessary. Leave it out at first, and put it in if he's OP.

I like the idea of a sword: Highly Effective in Direct Combat, but of course not a gun that can shoot far :P.



Another 'bug':
-When buying more than six Speed + items, you cannot get faster anymore but you can waste your money on it.
-You can go outside of your base when you are the only player. Not when in a Vehicle, but you can carry an item. This means:

1. You can set up mines all over the place
2. As a cybermason you can dig the whole map, altough slow, you get tons of funds.
3. You can already unlock the Turret of the opponent



And another feature Request:
-Have a list of the players that are online in both teams. At this point there is no way to know how many players there are in one team exept counting -wich is difficult because of the killing/respawning etc.
-Add a sound for when you drill minerals :D
-Show how many players are on wich game while in the Lobby. You might also change 'Person joined a Game' with: 'Person joined Gamename'.


Hope this helps :D

I think just having the names coloured in the chat/show players screen would be enough for now.

Also, like I said earliar: make the beginning walls solid, not team-walls. However, don't have these walls if you start a private server. There wouldn't be abuse if your playing with friends on a private server, and the walls would be annoying if you want to play by yourself to test something.

Hmm. Yeah, I guess the ninja will be in the next update. Coding the sword will be a bit annoying (I passionately detest swinging animations), but otherwise it shouldn't be too difficult. I spent 3 hours away while writing this post, so there have been some new responses. Let's see:

about the ninja features:

• He'll have less HP and 'worse' weapon as in it's melee. It might have a pretty good damage to compensate a bit, though.
• The natural cloak sounds good to me, but it being a researchable thing isn't, unless you mean that it'd still be applied only to the ninja class. Everyone having a natural cloak would be quite silly. ;)
• I actually prefer higher jump or double jump over wallrunning. Not only are they easier to code, they also have more use in the cases of trenches or such.

-I'll make it so that the teams are locked to their respective base until there are at least 2 players. Regarding the private game, I guess the host should be able to decide whether to remove them or not. More about that below.
-Since there'll be gamemodes and other stuff that'll change between games, I guess I'll need to implement a game option screen that'll appear for the host before he actually hosts anything. There he can select the gamemode, starting money and such. Maybe also whether the level is somewhat even, a canyon or a mountain etc.
-Regarding what mokesmoe said about the engineer vs. ninja issue: The limit to classes is 32 at the moment, so adding a fifth class isn't too much of a trouble. Of course the idea needs to be fleshed out first, but technically it's possible.

Qqwy:
-The speed implant/chip thing is indeed a bit stupid design from my part. I'll make it so that you can only buy it once per life.
-This other one will be taken care of.
-I agree with mokesmoe, I'd rather just colour the names. Now that the fake ID is in, I'm kind of wondering about that as well, though.
-The sounds are something I slapped on very quickly. I've thought of working on them more once shojin gets the music ready.
-As embarrassing as it is to admit, I haven't found a good way to show the player count in the lobby! I agree that it'd be ace, though!

Oh awesome, good!! Remember, you can't beat ninjas for coolness!

I mentioned poisoning before for them, but what about if his melee sword hits can / could inflict poison to others and their HP could tick away slowly?

I intend to add poison gas bombs as an item. :)

1.69 is now ready. There's some tweaking but the only big addition is the ninja. Anyway:

• Made the lobby even nicer
• Added the ninja
• Ninja cloaking is a research subject
• Fixed two really stupid bugs and a couple smaller ones
• Altered the prices a bit

VERSION 1.69 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

Next things to work on:

• More tweaking (keyboard-controlled menus, bugfixing to the round ending etc).
• New gamemodes.
• A couple more items and research subjects.
• Some kind of a summary screen with statistics and details about the teams.

Poison gas bombs sound awsome! are only the ninjas able to use them? or everybody?
If everybody: can the ninja use it more efective?

Am working now but i can't wait to play as a ninja.

I'm on the fence about this one. Maybe extending his cloak could be a researchable thing - and you could give him the standard cloak right away?

Player count in the lobby could be a little (xx) in bold after the title of the room. You can limit the room name characters to accommodate it.

Allright.


Because the overpoweredness of Ninja's. Some possible suggestions:

-Reduce the rate Ninja's can swing their swords per second
-Reduce their health even further (to 50%)
-Make it unable for the Ninja's to use specific vehicles/items, such as the Driller and the Builder, for instance.

I'll decrease the damage from 30 to 25, and make there to be slight cooldown to the sword.
I guess I'll make 1.69b today, but I'll try to get the poison gas bomb in for that.

Another few ideas if that is not enough for the ninjas:
-Reduce the length of the sword
-Make ninjas move Slower than other classes(but that isnt very ninja-like...)
-Make ninjas visible trough the use of items while wanting to be invisible.(in fact, what happens now already, unintentional)

No, please don't do that. That is VERY un-ninja-like.

Make them have a cloak, but terrible shitty defense and lower HP or something. You can keep their attack power the same and a boost to using the poison bomb.

Or... Ninjas have poison immunity perhaps?

Ideas for the research thing:
-Make the health upgrade only for soldiers
-Researchable healing speed upgrades for the scientist
-Researchable digging speed upgrades for the cybermason
-Researchable running speed upgrades for the ninja?

-Possibly an researchable thing for ninjas: have the idle animation for vehicles look like there's no one in?

/agree

EDIT: Also, random idea that's probably really hard to do and don't listen to me at all:
If two ninjas attack each other at the same time, a button mashing ATE event pops up where the ninjas have their swords locked. The one who mashes the fastest in the small 5 second time period lives!

Or not.

(http://www.hempuli.com/ninja.gif)

1.69b is out. It balances the ninja a bit (hopefully not too much), and adds a new item, the poison bomb! Now ninjas can't attack at all when flashbanged, but on the other hand they can't get poisoned!

@Filth: Excellent ideas! I need to tweak the research code a bit though, I just realized that I've coded it in the most time-consuming way possible. Expect several new research subjects for the next update! :)

What about whenever two ninjas attack each other at the same time (the swords clash), they'll do much less damage ? The battles would probably last a bit too long, but it'd have the awesome swordfight feel to it.

Also, the exclamation and question mark thing could also be a cheap research.

I just can't help myself - 1.69c is here.

• More bugfixes
• Another new item, the radar - reveals invisible units! This may be VERY VERY overpowered, though!
• More balancing to the ninja and such.
• Base code for the rest of the research subjects; they're not implemented yet.

VERSION 1.69c GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I also added that ninja sword-clashing in! Cool concept. :)
EDIT: Seems like the radars break up other code really badly. hrmph.

could the 'Y' key be a shortcut for teamspeak?

There was a guy on the point who had lagged out but his character was still there and we couldn't kill him. We couldn't win and we were sad.

EDIT: I have some time now, so here's my usual long post.

I feel that ninjas serve a purpose, but not the intended one. They were supposed to be ambush units, which they kinda of are, but their best use right now is stealing stuff. They seem a bit underpowered in combat, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I think their cloak should be a two stage upgrade. Stage one is like it is right now, but a bit cheaper. Stage two would change it to a 'cloak and dagger' style cloak so they can sneak around to their hearts content. Also, Ninjas should be hidden from radars when not moving. (Maybe only on stage two?)

Also, here's my dumb idea of the day: Dirt grenade. Makes 5 square of dirt in a cross, but only if those squares are empty. It should have a small knockback effect just before making the dirt to help clear the squares for filling.
Wait! Looks like two ideas: Laser. Does one damage per frame while it's hitting an enemy. Maybe piercing? Maybe cybermasons and mine with it?


Ok guys, tactics time. For this I will assume 4 is a full team. (although this will still be helpful for different team sises)
At the start of the match have one cybermason start digging, (I will refer to this cybermason as the miner) and the rest of the team go to the point. Bring a cybermason to the point at first so you can dig to it if you need to. If you want you can send someone with a jetpack to attack their miner. Inversely if you see someone going past you, retreat and defend your miner. You should be spending most of your money on upgrades, and some on items too. Vehicles usually aren't worth it, although a second digger can be useful if they've set up a wall. Once you have control of the point, bring a builder over to set up a defense, or dig a moat. (Preferably both, if you have time.) Once you've gotten all the health upgrades, you don't need a designated miner anymore. Have 1 scientist, 2 soldiers, and one utility. the utility can be a ninja to steal the enemy's stuff, a cybermason to get more minerals if you're low and to set up defenses. He should spend a lot of time as the engineer if he gets released. Turrets are useful to aid in defending.

I have to eat now so I will talk more about retaking the point when I get back.

I think that the Cybermasons are underpoewered right now. I think that they need to drill even faster than they do now.


Expect my guide tomorrow btw.

I agree with mokesmoe on ninjas needing better stealth, something more akin to the cloak and dagger, like a cloak meter that goes down when you move, but slowly recharges.

Also, the current investment for ninja stealth is quite a bit. Maybe they should start out with a pretty short-lived cloak that can be incrementally upgraded?

As I said earlier, the research code was done in an awful way so adding any research subjects was a pain. I'm now reworking it, so expect at least these to appear as research subjects:

-Digging speed (cybermasons only? I'm not sure)
-More levels to the ninja cloak (thanks mokesmoe)
-Ore yield (one block of ore gives more, this'll be pretty expensive though)
-(Scientist healing) (I'm not totally sure about this)
-More potent poison (I think of adding some different ways to poison people other than the poison grenade)
-Others that are currently slipping my mind

Also I think I'll separate a bomb fabricator from the 'general fabricator' because there'll be way more bomb-type items than any other types. Now let's see the suggestions:
 mokesmoe: I agree with you mostly. I think the radar should show even ninjas, but it's currently not in anyway because it was so buggy. The dirt bomb idea is great, but I'm not sure about the laser. You mean like those lasers that instantly stretch until they hit a wall? Your comment about 'vehicles not being worth it' concerns me; is this related to the gamemode or do you think they're generally totally useless? I'd like to make them less so if that's the case, do tell how they could be improved!
 I also think the cybermasons aren't very useful at the moment. Since all the other classes have some abilities that aid them in battle, should the cybermason get something similar?

Make diggers much more slower to use for non-masons. You could also remove the diggers in the base.
The choppers are fine, people don't just really know about them. The planes, however, are pointless. They are pretty much only for getting to the middle quicker than running.

Oh and guys:
-Stop shooting blindly with the turret
-Stop jumping around with the mech without a good purpose
-Don't take a vehicle or an item with you every time you respawn
 :-X

And also, a Chopper is NOT worth your $ 370 when you could invest in the Ninja Cloak instead. I really think the Chopper is too expensive for its purpose(transporting another unit) right now.

The stratety you have to play if you want to win is this:
Step 1: Buy a second Digger from your 300 starting
Step 2: Get two people digging
Step 3: Steal the digger(s) of the other team before they steal your digger(s)
Step 4: As soon as you have enough money, buy the Ninja Cloak and the Health + Upgrades
Step 5: NOW buy weaponry and vehicles.

Many (new) players start with step five, wich is of course the most fun but a bomb is a one-time investment while the Ninja Cloaks and the Health + will work for the rest of the game.




For other ways of poison: It might be interesting to have a upgrade to the Poison Bomb wich makes it work as a Pass-The-Stick. When Person A gets hit by the bomb, he gets poisoned. Then he walks past person B, who gets poisoned as well just by A walking past him. Person B passes Person C a little later, who then gets poisoned. Etc.



btw Hempuli: If you want a few other Bomb ideas*:
-A bomb that has a small explosion, but falls apart in four smaller bombs wich fly away a little by the first explosion, and then detonate two seconds later.
-A Homing Missile Launcher, wich works similar to a Rocket Launcher(maybe less strong) and will home to the closest person. If nobody is close enough, it will come back and hit YOU.
*ideas are brainstormy, and possibly bad ideas. Dont hit me. ???

Also, an upgrade to equip Diggers with Guns could be interesting, to make it easier to defend your Digger.

about the vehicles: I can see the plane being a protagonist in a ctf game. I imagine pretty nice plane fights and much more 'useful' use of the stationary tower.

And the  :ninja: could start being a more specialized backstabber. Having an expensive upgrade that makes him even weaker but with a fast-killing backstab. So if you want to kill him you just put enough spacebetween you and him, but he can hide and surprise you if well used.

Isn't the chopper mainly used for getting everyone in and obliterating everything at the moment? No one uses it for transporting others.
(This is one of the reasons why I suggested splitting it to a battle chopper and a transport chopper)


This would probably work as a new bomb? Infection bomb or something.


What's the point? You can really easily leave the digger when you have to.

Yeah. Nobody uses the Chopper for that. It is a highly-expensive thing that maybe flies a little easier than an Airplane, but is just not worth 370 to try to kill everybody with it. You should wait and buy a Mecha Suit or a Orb instead.

It's tiring to play the game with new people who just randomly waste all your money. But I guess that's part of the game  :lol:.
Yes, or an Upgrade the Scientists could make to have the Poison Bomb this additional effect.

True.





Oh, and Hempuli: I tought of another idea of making the Cybermason more balanced: Make him immune to Mines.(when he walks or drives past them, they dont trigger)

Nice brainstorming here!  :handclap: :)
I'm in a hurry (and not sure if I'll get an update out today), but from what I've read here I like most of the suggestions and such. The infection bomb idea is great! ;D
 I guess I'll lower the price of most vehicles, but also I hope that the other gamemodes will bring use for the plane and the chopper.
 The next update will have more variety to the ninja cloak upgrade, since I got the researching working better now.
 It kind of concerns me to see how the diggers are the 'main' point of the game, it seems that getting ahold of the diggers equals winning in larger games. This is something I'd like to take care of, hopefully making the cybermasons better will help.

Oh, and here is your daily Bug Report  ;D;

-Sometimes, Gemstones appear above the ground. This mostly happens on levels where the Control Room is placed high as well.
-When getting killed while having a Machine Menu(buy items, buy vehicles) open, you cannot move and you have to press R to respawn.

1.7 is now finished! Kinda cool, and seeing that I started counting at 1.46 or so the game has progressed quite a few versions! Anyway:

• Lowered prices again.
• Added two new research subjects, digging speed and healing. Also added one new level to ninja research.
• Made the poison more potent.
• New item, the dirt bomb!
• I redesigned the control point to make it less tight.
• Radar is now back, hopefully it works this time around.
• Bugfixes, mostly small but I hopefully fixed one bigger one, related to joining to games.

VERSION 1.7 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

Dhegg took a screenshot of this nice round:
(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/5299/masjin.jpg)

Make the cybermasons dig non-ore blocks as fast as a digger. That will make their ability more effective in combat situations.

I never thought of buying a second digger right off the bat, but that sound like a good idea.
I don't think the game relying on diggers is a bad thing. In starcraft ,for example, you need to have SCVs at all times, and if your opponent messes with them, you are set back a bit. But also just like starcraft, if you have nothing to attack with, the opponent will win.

I'm gonna stop myself here because I'm getting into the habit of posting before playing the newest version because I'm already at the thread.

EDIT: Ninjas should be able to swing their swords in vehicles. (not digger of course)
Bases should have a built-in radar so people can't spawncamp while invisible. Maybe walking into someone invisible should reveal them?
Also, you need to stop dirt bombs from changing the background. You can't tell where the point is after a few have been thrown there.

Another idea that would be useful but probably a huge pain to program would be host migration. When the host leaves, it makes someone else the host.
A way to see ping would be cool too.

updated quickly to 1.7b just because the ninja was a bit op again, and there were silly bugs about.

Change the current napalm to 'frag grenade' and change the graphics, then make a new napalm that actually functions like napalm. The new napalm would make a few fire sprites that fall around it, which damage people, and last about 5 seconds. This would be useful for defending, or killing people on the point when there's no exits. (Although the current napalm already does the latter)

The new updates are amazing. I really like the cloak-and-dagger Ninja. The same goes for the Dirt Bomb. However, the latter seems to be overpowered. I'd suggest making the dirt-radius one tile less, because when you are creating a gap trap one or two dirt bombs can completely ruin everything. Builders are unnessecary and slow now because of the Dirt Bomb.

Maybe the napalm would be more interesting if the fire stuck to vehicles like it caught on fire. making it a more specific weapon.

Hempuli, are you maybe at some point releasing a Flash or Java Application of this too? I'm sure there will be people on Mac's and Linuxes that would love to play this.



Oh, and I think the balance of the different characters/costs/speeds is kindof okay right now  :). Good job :tearsofjoy:!

Thanks for the compliments!

Unfortunately, I've used a lot of code that is unportable at the moment. Also the flash/java ports from MMF are prone to slow down very quickly, thus making porting a game like this very flimsy to port. This means that I can't really port it (unless someone is ready to code it from scratch on flash, which I for sure can't do!). There is a Lacewing library for flash, apparently, so technically porting through recoding wouldn't be *that* much of a problem, but then again the game is pretty complex.

I decided to update to 1.71 after all. Really small stuff this time:

• New logo
• Made the winning/losing screens better. Still needs a lot of work though!
• Balanced some prices
• Fixed bugs
• Players now get a radar in the beginning of the round, and dirt bombs don't work at the control point.

VERSION 1.71 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

OK I managed to break the ninja cloak, wait a second!!
Should be fixed now. Please redownload if you already did!

By the Way, I can now officially declare that I have the Tetris Effect with Masjin :screamy:.

 :)

If you stand right next to the turret, it can't hurt you. Don't know if that's a bug or intentional.

Big news!

1.72 is out, and with it comes:

• Capture the flag!
• A menu where you can set some parameters for the game before hosting.
• The game list now shows the number of players.
• The builder is now slightly faster.

I guess that's all, but I'd consider a new gamemode a *big* thing! :)

VERSION 1.72 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

EDIT: This'll probably be very buggy! I already fixed one so redownload please!

(http://i53.tinypic.com/2cpwcwn.png)

I didn't really get to actually try the CTF, because every game had totally absurd amounts of money and there were turrets everywhere.

What about a research making soldiers able to bail out from vehicles?

Why did you post the manual on JIG but not here?

EDIT: Starting money only affects blue team. Red gets nothing.

It was nearly 5 AM when I noted the JIG post and decided to write a manual. I'll link it to other places later.

The money thing is a bit shady because it has worked for me every time, unless the starting money was too high, around 32 000. However that isn't very logical, so there might be a case of the data getting lost before reaching the player. I'm looking to it.

No update today, sorry. I've been in a hurry because of studies.

EDIT: Oh, and I wrote a small manual for newcomers:
http://www.hempuli.com/manual.txt

I have 2 suggestions Hemp

1) Is there somehow a way to prevent the game to be ended when the person who created it leaves? Im not sure of the technical limitations of MMF, but could you transfer ownership to a still connected player? Or some other way to prevent it.

2) Like i said im not sure of the technical limitations but games can last as short as 5-10 minutes to 40+, and all the minerals can be mined in less than 5, which kind of is annoying, especially in CTF, all you need to do is rush the other team since they cant make any more turrets or anything. Let me also say i have only managed to complete 1 out of 5 games, literally, because of this.

Just suggestions.

EDIT: Also, im not sure if this is intentional, but you cant respawn while holding items

EDIT 2: You can score a point without having your own flag at your base? That doesnt seem right o.o

ANOTHER SUGGESTION: Able to set the number of players below 14 when creating a game(lol cluttered post)

EDIT 3: The enemy team can mass turrets inside of your base, right next to your flag and get some really damn easy captures.

How about not allowing enemies to lay turrets in the other team's base?  That might solve that problem.

Turrets are generally pretty easy to take out, especially with bombs. I don't see turretting the opponent's base as being that much of an issue. Sometimes, though, it seems like turrets will lose track of who set them up, and dying to them will give messages like "ƒƒƒ was killed by !". When this happens, sometimes the turrets will be impossible to kill, which can make things a bit difficult.

On a different note, would a minimap or some other way of viewing more of the screen at once (camera scroll, maybe?) be possible? It would help a lot when you're using the cannons, or when you're trying to find your flag and return it to base.

Speaking of returning the flag to base, it seems unintuitive that you can capture the flag without having your own team's flag in base.

On yet another note, the builder seems to not be seeing very much use, and I think there are a number of factors for this (note that changing all at once might overpower it):

It's a very slow vehicle, which makes getting it to where it's needed a time consuming task

The blocks that the builder creates are very fast to dig through, like dirt. It might not hurt anything if they took as long to dig through as mineral patches

3 minerals for a block is a lot, especially when your team is losing, which seems to be one of the times where the builder can be most useful.

All that said, the builder does seem to have two uses: Sealing off a trench to help ensure a victory once your team has taken control of the game, or building some walls to help defend from incoming vehicle/flag stealers.

Wow, some excellent points here! The only thing I can't implement is the one related to the game host. There's certain data that isn't sent to other players, so if the host left the game would bug.

There certainly needs to be another way to get ore, but for my life I can't think of any good alternative sources that were infinite but wouldn't make the cybermason useless!

I was able to play this the other night and thought it was really fun however I had a lot of problems getting the vehicles to do anything :(

I know you can get inside them by pressing Z but aside from getting the plane or mech to move right and left I couldn't figure out how to shoot (or the plane to fly)and I was pressing every key on the keyboard (I believe).

The ninja was as fun as advertised  :ninja:

Also yeah it was kind of annoying to contantly get kicked out of a game every 5-10 minutes but what are you gonna' do?

I wrote a 'slightly bigger' Masjin Guide a few days ago(last wednesday/thursday/friday). I sent it to your mail, but it seems you haven't gotten it yet. In there is a list of all the items and all Vehicles and their uses too.

My guide has not listed the new gamemodes however, obviously  :P, since it was written at the time of 1.7b

I didn't share it with everyone right away, since I was wondering what you would find about it first (there are probably some errors in there...).

And now, while I'm home after flying for nine hours in the plane, lets try out some new Capture the Flag games :D.

~Qqwy

And something else. Bugtime!

1. It is impossible to change your class sometimes. You can press the 'change class' button as much as you want, nothing happens
2. This bug has been around here for a while: When you áre able to change your class, you can change your class while respawning for 10 seconds, to set the timer down to 5 seconds. (i.e., you are killed, and while you still have 8 seconds left you change your class, then the timer times from 5 and down).
3. Joining the Lobby can take very long(especially after quitting/finishing a game). You can see the userlist but not the games or what is said. There is no 'joined the Lobby' message.
4. When a game has a long gamename, the amount of players cannot be seen fully anymore.

And some new ideas:

New gamemodes:
-Flag Madness. There is only one flag(or maybe another item, a ball or orb or special staff or something, to not become confused with the current Capture the Flag), and the team needs to keep it in posession. For each second in posession, the seconds of your team go down, just as in the Control Room mode.
-Survival. Each team has 100(or any other number) lives. Goal is to kill off all lives of the opponent before the lives of your team are depleted.


A few more gameideas:
-Red Minerals. These can be rendered somewhere at the bottom of the map, and give more(three times as much as a normal block?) money on mining.
-The possibility to have a bigger map( more blocks between the bases). Also, it might be interesting to try out how the game would work if there is space behind the bases.(and another entrance on the Flight and Entrance floors). You could even try what would happen if you would make the game 'loop around on itself'. Might be very hard, because there are two ways to get from the Red to Blue base, but I dunno. Just an idea :P.
-A Flying Vehicle called Rocket, wich flies VERY FAST but steering is VERY DIFFICULT since it mainly steers in a curve up and then down again. It cannot shoot but fly from one point to the other very fast.



Also, right now there are some players that 'troll' as many people call it. They are players that try to make their team lose on purpose. (i.e., go sit in the Turret and shoot at their own teammates the whole time, making sure that nobody leaves the base normally. Or drive the miners from the own team to the opponents base. Or buy crap on purpose.


Hempuli, I like this game so much! Thank you   :tearsofjoy:

A generic single flag CTF would probably work much better.

What would that mean? Flag spawns in the middle every time?

Yeah, like the current one, but with one flag spawning in the middle.

EDIT: Is the server down?

Make Cybermasons earn a mineral for each time they shoot an opponent. Helps add more minerals to the game, and makes cybermasons more useful. You could also make them earn on kill, but if multiple people are shooting at one guy it could get annoying to not earn half the time.

Same problem here. Masjin says the 'Connecting to Server' message indefinitly.

1)I too am having problems with connecting
2)how about buildable "Mines" where if a player is on one it slowly increases ore,
this can also be locked(takes longer to unlock).
3)new gameplay modes:
i)free for all death match
ii)zombies
iii)team bomb
4)more maps/map editor(i can make maps if needed)
5)choice of player limit in rooms(14 is sometimes too many)

I really post way too much in this thread...

About the mines, I don't really like the idea of having the teams rewarded ore for spending ore. Mokesmoe's idea sounds really good. It could be a research as well so that the longer the game goes on the more ore you get.

What do you mean with 'team bomb'?
Choice of player limit, definitely.

I feel like a mine type of structure or something could be nice, but it would have to be extremely expensive. Although i do like the idea of more maps/map editor or something.

And yeah the server seems to be down.

bomb can be played more than one way
1) one central (powerful)bomb that has to be planted in the opponents bas and if not disarmed it blows up and kills everyone in the base and scores 1 point
2)2 bombs(one for each team), objective the same
3)get to the opponents base and arm the bomb(fixed bomb in both bases) apart from that same rules as before

I've got an idea for a new Research option:
-Team-friendly Mines.

Could be interesting.

Woe, such a surge of suggestions!

As I said, I'll be preoccupied with studying a bit in the coming days so updates will be scarce and big stuff like new gamemodes wont be added. I'll be trying to fix any bugs that occur, but some of these are rather shady.

It seems that the server is indeed down! The alternative server doesn't work either. Uh oh, this is pretty bad!

Hrrm, there isn't probably much else to do but to wait and hope. However, here's the server app. It's unfinished but *should* work:
www.hempuli.com/Server.exe

It hosts a server on your IP. For joining players, go to the 'server.txt' and set the 'address' to the IP.

I like the idea of cybermasons earning money through damage, but simply making them accumulate money from all damage would overflow the packet flow so I'd rather make them get money by killing people. Implementing that.

GladOS & Qqwy: It seems your mails fell into the spam folder; looking at them now.
EDIT: Qqwy, nice manual! I'll fix the grammatical things but otherwise I think it's great. Thanks for the compliments in the QA section, haha
As for GladOS, I'll send you a PM.

oh i forgot to mention that you dont have to unlock the manned turrets to use the other teams.
this should be fixed

Maybe you could make Ore grow over time, if that's possible.
That would get rid of ore depleting and would keep the cybermason's relevance.
you could implement this in one of two ways:

    1)Ore grows on preexisting dirt blocks (There is no problem rising form that, but it's not very interesting either)

    2)New Ore blocks grow on empty squares. That way not only more ore is available to keep the game going, but also the whole game evolves during time making the digging more interesting and strategic.
The problem with this is ore growing on tunnels and just making it frustrating instead of interesting, but maybe you could make it so that ore starts growing when a certain percentage of ore has been dug and make it more probable to grow onn larger dug out areas like trenches than on 1 block wide tunnels.

ps: keep up the good work, I waiting to see what other game modes you introduce

Do bombs do damage to turrets? Does object interaction ever encounter problems like that?

After playing Capture The Flag for a while:

-Bombs do not seem to damage turrets, making them very hard to destroy.
-Turrets even shoot at people using Spy ID's. I think this should be changed  :P.
-Turrets don't shoot at invisible units. Nice :D.


A question: do you really want to show the CTF point while in Control Room mode? And to show the Control Room while in CTF mode?

-Ninjas while using a shooting vehicle still count as Invisible, and can destroy Turrets easily this way.

-I like it how Ninjas in Mecha Suits can jump higher, but are unable to shoot :D.




Oh, and about the not-being-able-to-change-class bug: this appears to happen in Control Room mode only.




And now I have a big feature request... the implementation of a High-Score system, wich would list:
-The number of Wins/Losses
-The number of Kills/Deaths.
And maybe:
-The people that have been in the same team as Person X the most.
-The person that killed Person X the most.
-The person that Person X killed the most.
-Person X's favorite item/class/vehicle.


Anyhow, I have another idea with the highscores. You might implement some kind of Tier-System. I.e., the option to start games that are only for players with a certain winning-amount. Why would you do this?
a. This prevents new people from getting confused or irritated by the I-can-never-win-or-kill-anybody feeling.
b. This prevents new people to completely screw over the strategies of the more experienced players on the same team.
c. This prevents Trolling(people who make their team lose on purpose will never get high rankings)

So, you could implement some option to 'start a game for everyone' and an option to 'start a game for players like me'.


Think about it  ;).


Another, much smaller feature-request:
Is it possible to at the Server List what kind of gamemode the game is using? (a small flag or a control room next to the name or someting.)

I don't agree with letting only certain winning-amount players, but a player ranking system sounds alright;
having some indicators like "This game has highly ranked players" and such.
There could be a kicking/whitelist system.

Phew, the server downtime was temporary.

piper65: For the next update I'll test mokesmoe's suggestiong; the cybermasons earn money by killing an enemy unit. Kinda illogical but derp.

The bombs do damage turrets, but keep in mind that the damage is only 70-ish and the turrets have 200 hp! So bombs should be used as additional firepower rather than the only method. The 'unkillable turrets' -bug is something very similar to the earlier unkillable player bug, but this time I can't make damage serverside so I should find some way to absolutely ensure that they work. My hunch is that as the game goes on, the channel master sees how the turret is destroyed but somehow fails to tell about it to the others, thus making the turret unkillable. Another cause would be desyncing IDs, as I think I said earlier. :/

Filth: Because the server I use is public, currently I can't do any permanent bans or blacklists. I can merely kick players temporarily. Hopefully I can fix that once Lacewing is updated a bit.

Qqwy:
-Good catch on the spy ID, fixing that
-For the next update, the CTF points will be removed. I don't see much problem with the Control point but I guess it could be removed for CTF as well.
-That ninja bug is a bit annoying because I think I've done my best to make ninjas visible when using vehicles. Oh well, trying to fix that.
-The not-being-able-to-change-class bug is fixed.

The 'highscore list' could be implemented as some sort of a personal ranking. I personally dislike stuff like that but I guess it would be doable. Also something similar will be the 'summary screen' with similar data related to a single game.

I think a mostly-bugfix update will be out today, though I'll see if I can add some new item.

I just made a few screens in-game that I want to share with you guys :D.


Sometimes, Nature is very nice to your team:

(http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8302/masjinstrangecrplacemen.png)
This makes it very easy for the Blue team to make a Fissure between Red and the Control Room.

(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7619/naturalbetter.png)
This makes it very hard for Blue to enter the Red base in CTF mode.


In the same game as where the last screen is from, we (red) managed to build a gigantic bridge from one side to the other. Blue was totally under our control...

(http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/3904/notwhatwewant.png)
Until this happened. Somehow I managed as a Ninja to kill a blue person that had the red flag, while he was in the Blue Spawnroom. The red flag is stuck in there...

Also, we were somehow unable to pick up the Blue flag at some point. It was very strange. Nobody won, altough Blue was far behind Red in points.




--
At least I'm finally able to play CTF competitively for a bit now. Ninja-stealing for the win  ;D.

Awww, that's sad to hear!

Since I can't for my life figure out the bug related to the CTF, I'll add a special button for the host that forces an update on the scores, flag locations and ownerships! This is hopefully a temporary solution, but should make it possible to keep a game going even if there was a bug. The flags are located always based on the host, so this kind of a "panic button" should have virtually 0% chance of failing.

Except an update tonight!

Hi, Hempuli!

Translated from Russian online translator for Google)

After a review of your beautiful game in gamin.ru appeared много Russian players. Would not want to move Masjin into other languages? I will be glad to help.

Also not bad to do a little wiki or manual with descriptions of features characters and equipment.

Yes, I have thought of that myself as well. The only problem is displaying the cyrillic letters, and showing shortened words (e.g. Gravity bomb -> Grav. B.) and such.

So yes, it'd be great if you or someone could make a translation!

I could try that, I guess. I have a firm grasp both on russian (it being my native language) and english. Though I'm pretty lazy and so it'd be slow (especially as I'm mostly unwilling to rip the text stuff out of the game myself), but most likely good in the end. I don't think there's that much text in it, so if you provide the files with the text, I'd be able to finish it by... sunday, I guess? This date could be delayed, because I have a certain other project to take care of, but eh, I'll try not to miss it.

It'd be a great way to counter the Spy ID perhaps.

Greater than simply just shooting?  :-\


What about a research which shows your team's mines ?

1.73!

Changelog:

• Lots of bugfixes!
• New item, the levitating mine
• You can now select the shape of the level
• Pressing F1 in-game makes everyone update the flag positions
• Cybermasons now get money from kills.

One feature I forgot was the game mode in the game name, duh. Adding that later, I'm way too tired now. :yawn:

VERSION 1.73 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

(translated from Russian)
As well as Urist mtsdorf can try to translate into Russian. Best of all - in the form of text. Language resources get connected externally? Such as dat.txt or server.txt

And the gaming issue - kibermasons can create their own blocks?) observed it in the game, but could not repeat)

mdogx, there is a specific vehicle (the builder) for that.
If you saw a cybermason building walls on his own, there was a bug. My apologies.

Here's all the text of the game:
http://www.hempuli.com/Russian.txt

Basically I'd need every line to be written in russian. I'm not sure how well I can display cyrillic letters, but I'll try!

Hempuli, If you want to, I can create a German and Dutch version of the game   :).


The new additions are awesome. The different terrain choosing works great, and the maps are very strange sometimes, creating very different experiences. Also, the Builder is not underpowered anymore, especially in the pre-gap levels.

I think I found one bug however:
-When a Ninja gets into an Opponents base to steal the flag, and there are turrets all around it, and he gets revealed by a Radar, then the turrets do not start shooting.


Also, thanks very much for the Spy ID update xD. What is even more awesome is that your own turrets start shooting you if you have a Spy ID, but you don't get any damage. Seems very convincing to me. Awesome! :D


The new Levitating Mine is interesting, however it might be too visible( It screams I'm an explosive flower all over the place :P) but we will see how much it will get used.

The game as it is now seems pretty well balanced  :).



I have another small feature request ( :-[ ... I think the game would get a little less chaotic if you would add the next messages in the game:
-In the lobby, the 'Player XXX joined the game' is only shown once out of five or something.. might be a bug?
-Have a 'Player X Quit Masjin' message in the lobby.

-In the game, when the team the flag is from steals the 'flag-stealer' and reclaims their flag, could there be some  message like: 'Blue regained their flag' ?



Maybe an 'Red Captured the Control Room' message when they are alone in the control room? This message isn't as much needed as the ones above, however.

-I'm still voting for Player-Colors in the chat  :-[



And another few ideas:
-Filth's research option to show (with a big floating arrow or something :P) your team's mines sounds fine to me.
-A research option that changes your normal bombs into 'Fragment Bombs', bombs that explode once, then shatter in four pieces, and explode again with an even bigger explosion.





__


There are some pretty interesting strategies going on now, in the game. I am getting better at CTF now too, albeit slowly and I'm still not as good as Turn is in it  ;D. But he really is an amazing player. Anyhow, only once played CTF against him, so I am not sure. But whatever... My point is, there are some pretty interesting strategies going on, with the different maptypes, gametypes, different amount of starting money, capture time, players, preferences of the players, etc.








Hempuli: If you want to I can try to create some kind of background-music for the game. But only if you want it ofc  ;).


Have a nice day everybody.

~Qqwy/accident  :)

2 Days ago i hosted a game, i didn't quit the game but it still stopped and flung everybody out.


@ Qqwy: I would like a Dutch version of the game.

Have another  bug, in fact its more of gameplay issue. When both teams have eachothers flag, nobody can make a point and both teams can hide in their Spawn Rooms. In that way you can stall the game indefinitly. Of course you can try to make some kind of truce with the other team, but you can be certain that this is not going to work. I think that it would be better if people who have a flag are unable to enter their own Spawn Room.


Oh, and I want to drop the line I said about the Levitating Mines. They are awesome items and you should keep them like this. You can create very nice strategies with them.

nakgranoth: Ik zal zien wat ik kan doen. (I shall see what I can do).

:D

~Qqwy/accident  :)

(clumsily translated from Russian online translator for Google)

I have prepared a draft of the translation.
It would be ideal to connect it externally)

If you have any recommendations on the length of words - for example, specify them with an * in the text, try to find a synonym for a smaller length.

books.23rd.ru\others\Russian.txt (http://books.23rd.ru\others\Russian.txt)

Your link seems to be broken... :(.

Strange, works for me)
Try without "www":
http://books.23rd.ru/others/Russian.txt

Or here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4558995/others/Russian.txt

(still translated from Russian online translator for Google)

By the way, version 1.73 for some unknown reason I can not create your own server. Does not respond to pressing "Create Publi game ". In a chat write that the problem is not with me alone.

That's because he wrote \ instead of /
Comments on the translation:
It's "присоединиться"
I'd advise finding a better translation for cybermason, like, say, "строитель" or "шахтер", because just transliteration is... ugh.
"Cloaker" could be translated as "плащ-хамелеон" or something akin to that. I admit it's hard to find a translation for that that still fits the text field.
I can't seem to find a better translation for "dirt bomb", either, but what it is now sounds a bit wrong.
Why not use the direct translation for the word "orb", "шар"?
I assume you didn't use "вертолет" for "chopper" because of the lack of space?
"Экскаватор" is completely wrong, because it's named after a different core principle of digging than what is used by the digger.
There are some minor typos but I assume they'll be fixed./me is useless and can only give sagely (not really) advice because someone was faster than him.

I second that.

Also, I can translate it to spanish if you are interested in more localization

I agree wholeheartedly with the spawn point, and with all of Qqwy's suggestions apart from the coloured nicknames. :P (Music is being composed by shojin so I don't think I need help for that!)

Version 1.74 coming up tonight, with emphasis on adding bugfixes, Russian and small finetuning.

(As a side note, I'd never have thought that those three courses of Russian I took would come in handy at a time like this! Knowing the cyrillic letters is a big help here.)

DERRP.

I just found out that MMF 2 doesn't support cyrillic letters by default! You need to buy unicode letters as an add-on that costs a whopping 50 bucks. So yeah, that means that any non-stationary text (class descriptions, chat text, player nicknames) can't be turned to Russian. I'm really sorry about this but it's kinda unrelated to me at the moment. I'll see if I'll buy the unicode add-on.

Basically this means that getting Russian into the game costs 50 $.
At the moment I lack the money, but later on I'll be able to make it.
If someone wants to support the addition, feel free to donate at www.hempuli.com! Blame Clickteam for this. :droop:

I made a dutch translation of the text:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mmv0f90i39caaiv/Dutch%20Text%20of%20Masjin.txt (http://www.mediafire.com/file/mmv0f90i39caaiv/Dutch%20Text%20of%20Masjin.txt)

(Note, the original english text isn't shown anymore... if you want to I can change that back.)

A few notes:


-It could be that on some points the text is too long.
-I did not translate the word Cybermason. I don't know of any dutch word for it, and I think Cybermason itself simply sounds great.
-I hope I did not make any major mistakes about the meaning of the text. i.e, disconnecting from a game and disconnecting from the internet have two different words. However, it was hard to know wich meant wich.
-You missed 'Ninja' in the wordslist, altough that would be Ninja in Dutch too :P.

Hempuli: Would it be okay if I try to make some interesting music for Masjin?

1.74 is here. Updates:

• Bugfixes galore
• I tried to do the fixes to the lobby that Qqwy suggested, but they do not seem to work! Harrumph
• Two new research subjects, 'building' and 'yield'!
• You can no longer take the flag to the spawn point

VERSION 1.74b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

As I said, there's no language selection right now because of that freaking stupid 'add-on' thing. Basically I need 50 bucks to implement it! If you want to help, check the paypal button at the bottom of www.hempuli.com!

EMERGENCY UPDATE:
Whoops, broke a lot of stuff. Sorry! Fixed them now.

This was the bug I was having, Hempuli:
I couldn't leave red spawn. It was very odd.

(http://image.bayimg.com/oahogaadk.jpg)

I think I know what causes that. And for curiosity, here's the changelog related to you for that round:

ƒƒƒ joined the game!
ƒƒƒ left the game!
ƒƒƒ joined the game!
ƒƒƒ has chosen the blue team!
ƒƒƒ has been assigned to the red team!
ƒƒƒ has to select his/her team!
ƒƒƒ has to select his/her team!
ƒƒƒ has to select his/her team!

Read from top to bottom. Kinda curious. And it newer showed answers to those three 'ƒƒƒ has to select his/her team!' -messages!

I've reversed my opinion on turrets, they are a bit very game-breaking in CTF.

Do rockets do bonus damage to turrets? They should. I think that would be a very elegant solution to the turret problem. They'd still be good, but it would help stop turret clumping, and would give rockets more of a use. As it is, there's almost no reason to get a rocket instead of one of the various types of bombs.

translated from Russian online translator for Google)

Urist McDorf, thank.
This is a rough translation to clog the line. Edit a file before the release of course you need. In addition cybermason seems wonderful name)

Hempuli‽
I hope the problem will be solved. While perhaps realizing Russian site with a manual on Maszhin)

ƒƒƒ, good point since the missiles already do extra damage to vehicles. Added!

I've had a really busy day today, so no update! Sorry guys. The next update will feature another new gamemode, the one I originally planned for the game: 'hold the oddball'!
It has been already suggested by others in this very thread, but the idea is basically holding a specific item for a set time, kinda like a mix of CTF and Control point with only one flag.

I only saw one bug today :P :

While being a Red Ninja (both Cloaks active) and having a Spy ID, I suddently got the Red Flag. Maybe the engine wrongly assumed that I was the blue player who just had the flag... I don't know. I do know however that I couldn't bring the flag back to our place, and I couldn't score a point for blue. When I was killed, the blue people were unable to reclaim their flag. Strange...

And also, no problem with not having an update this day. I mean, the amount of about six updates a week is astonishing. We can see that you really care for this project, and that's great  ;)! Thanks, Hempuli.

If something like that happens, ask the host to press F1! In fact I'd be happy to see if the emergency button works at all :P
Thanks for the compliments!

F1 only works for the host? Okay :).


Another small problem we just found out. There was this guy (named drumms, not that it matters). He was claiming to have huge lag, but he moved EXTREMELY fast in Masjin, and he shot EXTREMELY fast as well. He was some kind of superperson, being everywhere at once and killing everybody and then disappearing again. I don't know what was happening, if he really had lag, if he was using some kind of autoclick software or that something else was happening.


Oh, and another tiny bug: When pressing down and then Z to put an item down where you are standing, when the room you are standing is only 1 space high, the item will swoop up trough the ceiling until the next open place.

 :).


Have a nice evening. I will be gone the next couple of days, at family for easter. So... enjoy my absence or something?  :P. I'm eager to find out how Masjin is after these few days   :handshakeL: :) :handshakeR:!

im showing this game to a few friends of mine and it would be really cool if more people showed up on the lobby right about now !!!! 

for some reason this thing is not working at all. we cant find each other's servers and apparently there's no games going on.

also joining a private game is sort of confusing

Strange.

Do you guys are sure that:
-You have the same version
-You have seen the 'joined the lobby chat' after connecting in Masjin.
-You have tried refreshing a few times to see the game of te other person.
-You don't have a older version of Masjin.(games made in newer versions of Masjin are invisible for older versions to prevent game-breaking)

to play on a private game what you have to do is:
know what you are calling the game
one person sets the game settings and clicks [join/create private game]
the other person makes sure the name is the same and [click join/create private game]

Suggestions:

-An option for game hosts that lets both teams start with all upgrades. I think this would result in two different kinds of Masjin we can enjoy.

-A suggestion from someone I met through Masjin: a "socialize" game mode that has no win condition. Players can dig and build as they like, and just have fun. This would be one place where the "all upgrades" option would come in handy.

-An option for game hosts that makes it so it doesn't cost any money to build blocks. This would also come in handy for socialize mode.

-An in-game display, maybe displayed in small letters over the score, that tells players what game mode the current game is in. So for Capture the Flag it would say:

Capture the Flag
10 10

EDIT:
-"Dual mode," a mode where the first team to fulfill either the CTF objective or the KotH objective wins. I think this would be boring in many situations, but with lots of players this sounds awesome. You'd have to balance the score numbers so it's neither objective is easier to fulfill than the other.

-yes
-yes
-and buying items?
-yes
-awesome idea
and how about buildable team bricks(so one team can go through and the other cant)
and sellable items?
(1/2 or 3/4 their original price[may lead to stealing items?{more spy fun!}])

Hey Hempuli,

Yesterday i had some problems with the team balance.
One time it was 1 against 5 when the game started and the other time 2-4.

Maybe it's because, when a couple of people end up on the level chosing screen at the same time it won't recognize that somebody allready chose the collor and thus sending you to the same team.

came across a little problem on ctf, if you resawn while holding the flag your stuck.
you cant cross your own walls

May I suggest auto fire on pressing down the attack button? My finger is dead...

I'm back from Germany. Lets see what has happened here...


(Responses are in bold)



Then I have a questions for Hempuli as well:
-Might a game with more than 14 players be possible at some point? Or are there some hard-coded issues with that exept the lag that a bad internet-connection of certain hosts could create?
-I still think that it would be great to (maybe game hosts can turn this on/off)) make stuff bought in the other base cost money of the other team.
-Make the unlocking of vehicles slower, the Loyality Chip cheaper, and creat an upgrade to increase the stealing time of vehicles. You might even make scientists faster-stealers or something. Could be interesting.

@GLaDOS: Seems to be a bug caused by the fixing of the earlier flag-in-spawn-room bug. The game still thinks you have the flag and so doesn't let you move trough the spawnroom walls.

Well. Personally, when you're building stuff with lots of starting minerals, I'm still not too fond of the idea of a finite supply of minerals. So being able to give all upgrades sounds fun.

I still like the idea of using the opponent's minerals at their shops, but it sounds like that could be pretty overpowered in certain situations.

EDIT: It'd be interesting to be able to see the opponent's mineral count, even if it's only when you're at their base.

I come bearing gifts of updates on the musical front. The main update is to the gameplay track itself that some of you play test. To future comments on the main theme (k): I know that the organ is too loud now. Also, all of the guitar is scratch tracks that will get replaced later.

http://soundcloud.com/redshojin/sets/masjin-wip/

I have dreamed there are chickens in this game, you must add chickens!!!
(Oh and auto fire, please!)

I haven't felt like working on this for a while again, but let's see if I could get some updates going soon.

-The 'sandbox' -mode sounds nice, but I agree that removing prices would be a bit redundant since the maximum money amount covers everything anyway.
-The gamemode tooltip is a good idea.
-Currently the 14-player limit is partially hardcoded, so it wont be changed anytime soon.
-No chickens.
-I guess I agree about the unlocking. It's quite slow already, but the loyalty chips could be more useful.
-buying stuff with enemy money is something that is doable, even quite easy, but I really fear it'd make the game really imbalanced. Even currently a team with a couple good players can dominate, but that'd be even worse if they could just buy useless junk with all the money of the other team.

1.75 is out! Changelog:

• Two new gamemodes, sandbox and 'hold the flag', the latter of which may be horribly broken!
• bugfixes
• Some price balancing

A relatively small update, I guess, but it's better than nothing.

VERSION 1.75 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

we were playing some sandbox and First:
There was a counter for the CP for 2 of the players, the host didnt see it.

Second:
It would be really freakin awwsome if you could save the levels and later load them and play cp in it or capture the flag. Maybe just save it into an xml file and load it from the client pc?

i could use my hangar!

(http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/hangar.jpg)

in relation to the spending enemy money idea, if you combined it with my idea of being able to sell items it may balance it a bit?

This is very much doable. Implementing it for the next version. Also, the counter bug is just my own mistake; fixing that as well.


On the other hand, a dominating team could buy expensive stuff, like helicopters, with the other team's money, then fly them to their own base and sell them. So no, I don't think that'd really help the situation. :(

I am sorry to be nagging about this, but am I the only one his fingers get tired(painful) after playing a bit?
I find it hard to shoot rapidly after a while, it's very high rate bullets and you have to press for each one. :/

I don't know what to think about the shooting. I know Hempuli allready tried some things out in the past that just didnt seem to work and allways came back to this. I'm not sure how it works now? Has it got a speed limit on how fast you can press?

I guess autofire could work, but i'v had to see it first. But i guess it also comes to the question if spamming the bullets is really that fun of a tactic. Personally i think it is fun and tacticle. If there ever going to be more weapon types i would change it. shotgun is per-press, while machine gun is automatic, etc

Well, in some games(mostly FPS) you benefit from shooting singles, because auto fire is inaccurate. Not because the gun shoots away randomly, but because it recoils a little and then you need to maintain your aim while doing so. But it's not random spitting the bullets all over the place.
It would make sense to not enable auto fire, if there was a benefit of not autofiring, like more accuracy. But as of now, the people with stronger fingers have an advatage, because there is not reason not to shoot automatically. Killing with the gun is more dealing as much damage as possible, rather than landing a few accurate deadly shots. But, I am not sure how the FPS recoil would translate into a 2D game.
You could make the character get pushed back due to recoil...

New idea
Part 1) game looping - when one game finishes it makes a new game exactly the same(maybe with team shuffle)
Part 2) map rotation - choice map types to cycle through
Item that makes vehicles invisible(like loyalty chip you have to get inside it then it turns invisible can see the player unless they are a ninja or have cloak)
Spy lvl 3 auto spy I'd (unless attacked or attacking)

Hempuli, totally unrelated but I was playing Excavatorrr last night and got the hand of midas. What does that item do exactly, increase the amount of $$ you get from gold piles?

Sorry and thanks!

No problem! When you pick up the hand, you can still attack - all damage done to enemies creates money when you hold the hand. If you look for a highscore, virtually the only way is to avoid enemies until you locate that item. :P

I think it'd be nice if, in sandbox mode, you didn't have to have more than one player to exit the bases. In other words, are the start-up blocks necessary in sandbox mode?

No.

There has been some stuff keeping me from working on games, but after this weekend's ludum dare I think I can get back to this!

1 more idea, a link to this forum and your website under a credits tab maybe?
would be easier to check on progress

idea for a game mode - hide n seek
1 one team is invisible(hiders)
2 one team is visible(seekers)
3 ground is full of tunnels at the start
4 all hiders have one hp
5 all weapons are short range
6 teams swap after everyone is found or time runs out

Bugs:

1) Players were able to press R to respawn, even when they were holding a flag. This made players become stuck in the base, and the only solution we found was to have that player rejoin the game.

2) Sometimes I couldn't see the score in a mode with score, and sometimes I saw a score in sandbox mode. Also, sometimes the mode label in the lobby was wrong (for example, the label read "(CTF)" when it was really king of the hill)

Also, I still think an in-game display about the current game mode would be useful! Also, displays of how much money each team has, preferably in their respective bases.

EDIT: Hold the flag mode seems a little difficult to get balanced games with.

FURTHER EDIT: It's pretty surprising how easy it is to run out of money, even after starting with 10000 ore :( I'd still like to suggest the "all upgrades" and "no item cost" options.

EVEN FURTHER EDITS (SORRY!):

1) It seems a bit unnatural that the turrets can't detect players in vehicles. It also seems unnatural that they'd attack allies when they're wearing the spy ID. And I think it'd be kinda fun if turrets attacked opponents' turrets --- you could have turret battles!

2) Do miners earn money when the turrets they place destroy players? I think that'd be fun, but it might be a bit overpowered.

3) I think an option to have three teams would be interesting; it seems like the option to have just one more team would create some interesting dynamics(?). For example, two-team games seem kinda boring with three players because the side with two players have a big advantage. But what about a three-team game with four players? Then the two teams with one person each could gang up on the two-player team as needed. Having three teams might even make "hold the flag" mode viable.

In three-team mode, maybe you could make it so players can exit their bases even without three people in the game, but make it so they can't score until all teams have at least one person. The thing about having more than two teams is that, even if one of the teams is a lot weaker than the others, it seems that the weak team would be able to bide their time and build up resources while the other two teams are occupied with each other.

The hide-and-seek idea sounds fun!

Where would the third base go?
And although it would help low player counts, it would be worse for high player counts. It would be a lot harder to get a big team. 1v2 is bad, but 1v1 is boring too, and 2v2 isn't that great either. So it wouldn't really solve the low player counts.

I'd suggest replacing the middle control point with the third base, or putting the third base deep underground.

On the contrary (?), I feel that, for example, 1v1v1 wouldn't be as uninteresting as 1v1 or 2v2 because there'd constantly be more movement than in a two player game.

...On second thought, I guess the problem of balancing attacking and defense would remain. Perhaps one player could easily shut themselves in their own base while the other two are occupied with each other. Perhaps each player would have free reign over the base of another, forming a little circle of attacking relationships. I guess it has potential to be a terrible idea.

Nevertheless, I feel that it'd be worth a shot.

What about free for all deathmatch with random spawns around the map?

What ever happened to the regular team deathmatch option also? It seems like that disappeared after king of the hill went live.

Facebook Group for Masjin
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_222598661087587 (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_222598661087587)

Sorry for being so much elsewhere! Let's go through these:

-Most of the bugs reported are such I can and will fix.
-I mostly agree about stuff with the turrets, and as far as I know, the cybermason does indeed get money for turret kills.
-Third base is something I wont implement for the reasons mokesmoe mentioned. In a 2D platformer there's simply no possible way to locate a third or fourth base without making it imbalanced.
-Hide & Seek would be pretty silly with the seekers buying a ton of radars and the hiders packing into one underground room, then sealing it off.
-shojin: there never was 'regular team deathmatch' as a gamemode as in a mode that can be won somehow. Kills and deaths were counted but before King of the hill, the rounds never ended. Might be cool, though! All-on-all deathmatch wouldn't work due to the team-based structure of the game.

I'll try to get an update out today or tomorrow, but I can't promise anything at the moment. University exams are coming closer...! :(

Launching yourself with gravity bombs is really fun. Seems to work especially well when you're in a builder.

Also, weird things happen when you throw a gravity bomb at a turret and get in. You get launched somewhere in the middle of the map and turn invisible. You can still shoot the turret, but your view is out in the middle of the map. When you exit the turret, your character appears in the middle of the map.

Oh right, this one! It's been mentioned a few times, I just always manage to forget it. Fixin'!

Well, the third base and hide-and-seek are pretty giant suggestions, though. I'd be reluctant to turn them down until we're all certain that they're not fun.

I hadn't thought of using gravity bombs like that, ha ha!

Nearing completion. The organ will be louder, drums a little quieter. Otherwise it sets well I think.

Guitars are near final, mixing and I think the solo will get re-done.

http://soundcloud.com/redshojin/k

I don't think hide and seek would be very good, but you have a point that we don't know until we try it. The down side of all these of adding really different gamemodes is that since there are only one or two servers at a time due to the small playerbase, it can turn off people who want to play a normal big game. I haven't played at all recently because it's always infinite money sandbox games and I would rather just play a normal game.

The third base would be underpowered if it was underground, as it is harder to ascend than descend. Also, being in the middle means it would be fighting both sides more than they would be fighting eachother.

my two cents:
-A third base will always be positioned wrong when having only a 2-dimensional game in the way Masjin is. When one base is 'in the middle' of the other two, it will be hunted down earlier/easier than the other bases. The only way I can think of is totally overhaul the bases and the map in a way that the map loops, so that a person from Base A can go to B on the right, and C on the left. From B you can go to B on the right and C on the left.

But that again wouldn't work with the Control Room and would make the game very chaotic. I think two teams is the best.

-Hide and Seek seems a very strange gamemode to me. I think the 'seekers' team will be greatly overpowered. And I simply think it won't be much fun.

A possibly better idea would be to have a 'Deathmatch' game, where both team start with X lives, and you have to kill off all lives of the opponents team before the lives of your team run out. The main goal is not a flag or something, but to kill-and-not-be-killed.


Shojin: Your music is coming together very well  :). I really enjoy listening it. Good job! Only got one question: Is k the music for the menu or for the game? Since it doesn't loop.

Menu. And that's the exact same gametype I said I wanted back. I don't know why Hempuli is hesitant (if he is.) It was the original one after all.

I got stuck in the base, when I respawned with the flag. I think that's not supposed to happen.

I must concede that those last few points are very convincing. You'd have to have players hopping over the middle base for the outside bases to be attacking each other.

Although, with hide-and-seek I feel that the hiders would be more overpowered than the seekers. I still think that one might be worth experimenting with.

Also, is it just me that has trouble hosting a game with more than 10000 money? I've been in another host's game with around three times that, I think. When I click the host (start?) button, it won't start a game until I bring the money count down.

Version 1.76 is here. Changelog:

• New gamemode, 'score'! This is basically the team deathmatch idea suggested earlier.
• The gamemodes should be more reliable now, i.e. you shouldn't get stuff related to the wrong gamemode now.
• Fixed several bugs, including the one related to respawning with a flag. You can now respawn with them, but they'll be sent back to their original place if you do so. Also the weird turret bug was fixed.
• In sandbox, you're no longer restricted to the base if playing alone.

Shojin, I just have problems keeping all these suggestions in my mind, so implementing them takes some time! :crazy:

VERSION 1.76 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

ok so the dirt bombs don't make dirt any more, they make what looks like an explosion on each square and then when you walk over them they disappear, also is the team block removal in sandbox new, if so its not in the changelog.

I just checked and they do work. Keep in mind that the control point and the bases can't have dirt in them! Nevermind, I'll check what this is about. The block removal is something suggested in this very thread, seems like it didn't make it to the changelog. Adding.

EDIT: seems like the dirt bugs if you play alone. Whoops.

ok so after that game i have an idea
no turrets on top of each other because people troll

I could see how this would be a useful accommodation, but

1) What would happen if a player who wasn't aware of the feature tried to stack turrets? Would the turret item just stay held by the player until he moved to an open spot?

2) While I feel like there's some strategy behind stacking turrets, depending on the way bullets interact with turrets, the strategy might make it easier to destroy multiple stacked turrets at once. How *do* the bullets interact with turrets, anyway?

stacking turrets is something that isn't exactly 'a bug', but I think I'll fix it nonetheless. Even though it doesn't matter much, having ten turrets on top of each other looks kinda glitchy and the system shouldn't work like that.

It may or may not be beneficial to turn off healing at the base in score mode. It kinda seems easy to camp, although I guess it also seems easy to puppy guard.

new ideas
1 oppoite of the void level - a wall level
2 new vehicle(s) - teleport gates(need an in and an out)
3 jump upgrade(s)
4 freeze grenade
5 the manned turrets could fire bombs and such
6 emp - disables vehicles and turrets temporarily
tell me what you thin

EDIT:
7 Armour - holdable item that reduces damage
8 telescope - holdable item that increases FOV
9 only 1 of each teleports are allowed per team and are destroyable
10 phoenix down - revives player after death(costs alot, maybe 1000)
11 new vehicle - tank - can't jump, very strong, enduring, g.bomb pushes it very little etc.
12 an upgrade that allows players to build over walls and it makes them team walls?
14 suicide bomb - invisible while holding, kills you and does alot of damage to very close things
15 sniper turret - shoots over longer range, does less damage
i think that should do for now :ninja:

You know what might make hold the flag viable? If it was free for all. That is, only one person wins, the others chase the guy with the flag. Sounds fun to me.

No.



By wall and void level I assume you mean the lever generation? It is random, but it does seem to favour valleys more than hills.
I like the idea of passive held items, since it's almost like character customization.
The tank doesn't sound very useful without jumping. Perhaps a hover like system that is quite slow and only moves up 1 or 2 blocks max? Something to make uneven terrain still a pain, but not impossible to pass.
I don't like the idea of the suicide bomb, and it would be OP with ninjas.
I like the idea of building team walls, but How to build them would be awkward. Maybe you can press jump while selecting where to place the block to change the type of block you place?
Everything else sound good.

the levels are randomly generated but you can choose the basic shape when you make a game
with the block maybe you could build over other walls to convert them, but your idea sound good you would need some kind of indicator though

Wow, I just tried this game and it can be great but I cant check it solo :(
Maybe we would all play together at the same time?

SO MUCH FUN.
I played a few rounds with some friends just now, oh god. So fun!

I think we've finished the main title theme!

http://soundcloud.com/redshojin/k

Also:
http://artembank.bandcamp.com/album/masjin

I think its time a votekick system was introduced for trollers, spammers and abusive players

Sorry for my extended absence!

I've been and will be really really really busy until next Tuesday due to University-related reasons. After that, I'll start going through whatever suggestions and bug reports have been made here. Try to be patient! :wizard:

any updates planned?

good question GLaDOS.

I have the feeling it's dieing, while it has sooo much potential.
Offcoarse i understand Hempuli if he doesn't want to work on it anymore,
it should stay a hobby or you should get a decent pay.

But again if i look at the potential, i think you could make a payed version out of this. I would pay 10 bucks for a more complete version.

Hello everyone!

As you see, the game has quite much died. I'll admit that I'm not hugely interested in doing any big changes to it anymore, since I think I achieved what I was looking for: making a working online multiplayer game that works on some level. And here we are.

Anyway, I feel sad about the fact that it's very rare to meet any players anymore on the server (unless there are some secret Masjin parties somewhere (which is unlikely)). Therefore I thought it'd be nice to do one last big update, and then call the game finished for good.

In case some of the players note this, could it be possible to get some suggestions as to what could be tweaked to make the game more interesting? There are quite a lot of items and vehicles already, but for example research subjects could be added, and existing things tweaked.

I'll try and get in this week to finish up the music so it can be part of the big patch - if you'd like? I think I can pretty much get the gameplay music finished in a day if I just go ahead and get down to school and do it.

That'd be ace!

Hats. Or something similar. It worked for Pocket Protector, it'll work for you. The idea is that you implement an element of ingame competition; It's not just about winning games, it's about winning games wearing loot to impress other players. I can see three ways to go about this:
1. Have accessories be randomly received, like in TF2.
2. Implement an achievement system, where accessories are awarded for completing achievements.
3. Have accessories be purchased through a form of currency related to the number of kills you rack up.

I'm sorry, but I think I disagree with all three points here :P, with the reasoning:
1. In such a small game with low-resolution graphics, accessories would be nigh unnoticeable unless they heavily impacted gameplay, in which case they'd add imbalance to the game.
2. Achievements are really silly in my opinion. I'm ok with game giving player awards for doing some weird stuff that isn't obvious right away, but I usually much prefer more 'physical' rewards. In a game like this the reward for being good is getting a good K/D ratio or winning lots of rounds; I think that's enough. :shrug2:
3. Well, same as in 1 and 2.

In general I think such 'accessory' approach wouldn't fit the game due to the reasons listed earlier; I have some bad experiences about buyable/achievable bonuses either being totally useless or imbalancing the game. Overall I can't see the accessories being worth the work they require. :lol:

Anyway, here's a list of things I intend to add at the moment (at least, suggestions are welcomed!):

• Level editor. Create your own map and play with others. This isn't very hard to implement and players receive the map automatically as they join.
• In-game statistic menu. This was wanted a long time ago, but I guess now would be the time to actually implement it! With my current knowledge, I should be able to display Kills, Deaths and Team, possibly others too.
• Player 'history', i.e. a list of won rounds, lost rounds, total kills and deaths etc etc. Not very useful but I guess people like these!

Sorry Sir Raptor if I sounded harsh or such!

I was gonna actually ask for stats, but awesome!

How about bringing back the basic deathmatch gametype (out of curiosity, is that None or Score?), or allowing people to exit the base right away with a checkbox?

How about making a gametype to reach something underground that's randomly placed and retrieve something from that area?

Or a capture the flag where the flag is in the middle, and both teams battle to grab the one flag?

That's Score. The other suggestion might be worthwhile.

That's already in as 'hold the flag'. The former gamemode suggestion would be very very similar.

Gotchya.

INFINIMASJIN!

Ok, so I made a bit of a list yesterday:

• Level editor
• In-game status/game data screen
• Player 'accounts' and then status pages for them
• Diagonal tiles for the builder (finally!)
• Musics & sound effects
• Proper readme & some more stuff into the main menus
• Post-game summary for a finished round

All of these should be relatively easy to implement, with the most difficult being the in-game/post-game summary screen, because that needs treading into many unused parts of the code!

Could I get some sort of deadline? I know you wanna do the patch soon, but getting into the school studio during the summer is a little weird with timing.

I'll try to get this done in a week. I can make a small update with the music later, though, in case you wont make it in time. I'm quite sure I'll be adding sound effects to this version, though.

As another note, diagonal ramps are now buildable! Next I'll tackle the editor.

I'm scheduled for Friday at school - hope I fit into the update!

Don't stress it too much; I can happily add them later.

Anyway, behold THIS:
(http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9331/bridge.png)

Unfortunately the ramps need to have that slightly ugly background square to them due to coding reasons!

Work on the editor is pretty quick:
(http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5194/editorl.png)
Harrumph, Imageshack didn't like the picture.

There's currently one problem I can foresee about the editor - the layers. Since I want to minimize the data sent between the host and the players, there's only one layer used/sent during gameplay. However, practically there're two layers - foreground and background. When making slopes and other tiles that don't fill the whole tile with their sprite, I'm quite sure players would want to choose which background texture to use (mainly between grey tile, dirt and air), but with the editor and the whole game basically working on one layer, this is highly troublesome to implement.
  Easiest solution would be to just make every tile have a preset background that 'came with' the tile upon placement. This brings some problems, too, as seen in that bridge screenshot above; in some cases it'd be neat to be able to not have the background tile preset. Another way would be providing three variations of every tile; one with every possible background. That'd be all kinds of dumb, coding- and UI-wise.

I'll try to think a way to do this!

A bit slower progress today, had some other business to do and ended up adding some code for the personal status list & in-game status screen.

I still haven't figured out how to do the layer thing. Hmm!

I think It might be done.. heh.

http://artembank.bandcamp.com/album/masjin

As Shojin said above, music is now finished and added to the game! Sounds really slick and cool. Now I just gotta add the rest of the sound effects.

Now I've implemented both player profiles as well as a nice status screen, which lists games you've played, your 'favourite' class, kills, deaths, lost games and won games. Next to work on the in-game status thing.
(http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg838/scaled.php?server=838&filename=profileqy.png&res=medium)

E: I also added the in-game status screen! As you see below, I still need to add team-specific colours, as well as order the names according to team instead of just having them in random order.
(http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5480/statusdq.png)

Sorry for the triple post, but now I've also edited the game menus and added a proper readme! Only some sound related things and the level editor are left to be handled!

Woooooooooooooooooo

Sweet.

Oh screw it. I'll release it as it is now and add the editor tomorrow. It's not very hard to implement but it's not very important to me either so I guess a small update later will do. Anyway, here's Full Version 1.0! New is (as you know already):

• Player profiles
• Profile-specific statistics for your delight
• New, improved menus
• A proper readme (WOAH)
• Musics and more sound effects
• In-game summary thing (accessible via SPACE)
• Some bugfixes
• Some price balancing
• Builders can now build ramps

FULL VERSION 1.0 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

EDIT: I want to make a trailer of sorts, so I think I need to organize a game tomorrow so that I can record the fun!
Things left to do are the level editor, some refining to the in-game summary thing, and fixing certain things with the game menus (they work but there are a couple annoying things related to them). Enjoy!

I must say, team deathmatch is amazing.

Just had a ton of fun with Bood_War, Ashkin, Hempuli, and Shojin. This game is truly awesome, and I think if more people were exposed to it they would be hooked as well.

Game is in dire need of a tutorial level or something, though. That's honestly probably why it isn't getting more attention! D:
It took me probably a half hour to get completely acquainted with the game, thanks to your guys' help. Seriously needs some kind of beginner's walkthrough.

Aside from that, great, great, great game.  :)
I can only imagine how much more fun it would have been with more people playing.

[EDIT]
@Bood_War
Yeah. And we had such epic battles underground. Who'd have thought it huh? Super awesome.

OMNOMNOM IT'S ALL FUN AND AMAZING

I'm everywhere.

Also, could i possibly get a first post mention of the soundtrack? Or just where ever it'll be promoted from.

Thanks for the game! And yeah, sure; send me an angry letter if you ever notice me forgetting to mention your name.

Should probably mention that Carl Hengen was the guy I wrote it with.


Also, what's TAB do? Looks like a duplicate of show chat, except that I want to use it for the status screen, but it's hardcoded for something else.

Also, I'll just list some of the things I'd like to see tinkered with:
Turrets being more effective
Speed chip getting nerfed a bit
Ninja invisibility with SOME items (possibly through the upgrades?)
Larger motion sensor radius
Checkbox to remove base barriers at the start of a game.

I intended the tab to be used for that purpose, but it seems it is hardcoded to flip through buttons and text boxes (a lá browsers) and I can't affect that. Really unfortunate and stupid! :(

-I've buffed turrets now
-Speed chip has been nerfed now (I already got complaints for that)
-I'll think about the ninja invisibility thing
-Radar radius has been increased
-I'll have to add this, yeah!

(When I say they have been added, I mean that I've changed the thing but have yet to upload a fixed version). Also I need to add a volume slider.

Ok, I made another update to tweak a couple things. Changelog:

• Fixed a couple more bugs
• Turrets have been buffed
• Speed+ chip has been nerfed
• There're now 3 items that become invisible with the ninja cloak; they've been marked with a small ninja head (It may be that the ninja is now insanely overpowered!)
• Radar radius has been increased
• cybermasons can now fix turrets by standing next to them (hopefully this doesn't make them too OP; we'll see)
• The safety blocks can be turned off when hosting a game
• Balanced the audio a bit
• More price balancing

I also uploaded a neat youtube trailer.
(http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg228/scaled.php?server=228&filename=hmmv.png&res=medium) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObviBfeedJs)

FULL VERSION 1.1 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I think it'd be good if the cybermason had to drill them for them to be fixed. Also, shouldn't anything be fixable? It'd give another use to the class.  :)
Maybe you could make the repairs cost minerals, too.

'Hey Ozoh why can you walk through the dirt'
;D

Cool video, bro.
Everything recorded on today?

Damn I need to play this game more often.

Ace idea!

Another small update. Changelog:

• Fixed more bugs (nothing very remarkable though)
• Added a new level layout variation
• New item, the hand tele! With it, you can teleport to any teammate who's also holding one. Kinda weird but we'll see what'll happen.

FULL VERSION 1.2 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

Hey, looks like you aren't as done with this as you thought you were!

A great game designer once said, "a game is never finished. The developer just quits working on it."

For the sake of everyone's sanity, I hope the hand tele cannot be used by anyone holding a flag.

whoops








Yeah, I guess a game like this where adding new stuff is relatively easy it's very hard to say that 'NOW I'M DONE'. I started talking about a final version solely because I want to move onto other projects!

EDIT: Made teleporting impossible while carrying the flag!

Nooooo you can't be done, I just found out about this game! NOOOOO

Can we host our own servers?

Eff it, I'll just download it and figure it out myself  8)

Ok, more bugfixes and stuff in version 1.3. Changelog:

• A new really silly domination system; get enough kills during one 'life' and you'll get complimentary messages! (teamkills count but I'm working on that  :-[) Also these dominations can be seen in the status summary screen.
• You can now see the upgrades of your team without looking into the research menu; they appear as neat little icons on the right-hand side of the screen!
• Missile packs buffed to be a bit more worthwhile
• You no longer can teleport when holding a flag (what a stupid thing to forget, haha)

FULL VERSION 1.3 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I demand dedicated server support, so people can host unlimited "Score" based matches, where the deathmatch never ends. :D

This would be awesome!

hopefully the fix is to make a separate list of domination lines for those who some how TK enough people in a row with out getting killed/banned/kicked.

"Killer92 is a frickin' jerk!"

Until the entire map gets dug out.

as we were talking about it in game, to get a game on steam follow this link
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/FAQ.php

Edit: Ideas
Choice of team balance(maybe just for sandbox)
choice of respawn time + different for suicide/team kill
spies with spy id look like the class of the person they are disguised as?

Please submit this game to steam. That'd be amazing!

It would be awesome if this got on Steam.

I'd say it needs some more polish(effects/transitions/sfx), and a thorough tutorial/this-is-how-you-play-the-game before you try to submit it, though.

I agree that the game is very bare-bones and would need more polish to be submit-worthy. I'll look at that link, though, seems interesting!

EDIT: Seems though that Steam required their SDK integrated to whatever game submitted, so I guess that's a no anyway.

Not for submission.
If your game gets approved then they give you the SDK to use.

What's the problem there?

I can't integrate it since the game wasn't coded using a programming language.

You're using MMF2, right?

Nifflas' Saira is up on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/48900), and it seems to have been made in MMF2 (http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=180527). Dunno if the Steam TOS changed since then, but Nifflas claimed that he wasn't required to integrate Steamworks (http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=221721#Post221721).

Edit: Faerie Solitaire was also made in MMF2 (http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=206236), and has Steam achievements (http://steamcommunity.com/stats/FaerieSolitaire/achievements). The devs apparently already made an extension to interface with the Steam API. So Steamworks integration is a solved problem, depending on how friendly the devs are. :):handthumbsupR:

What a suprice.
I came back from a three week road trip through Europe and Masjin is finished.
I'm verry happy! You did a great job. (i donated some money to)

noticed a bug in the profile creation. It says 10 or fewer letters but if you put in 10 the ok box or whatever it says gets effectively greyed out so you can only have a 9 letter name.

Huh. Gotta fix that.

Next week I'll try to get done an update with one more (!) item and a test for a new gamemode (!!). Thanks for Vauat for the suggestions - it's basically a race to gather ore. I'm not sure if it'll work, but we'll see!

Also I need to fix a certain really annoying bug in mines/turrets, where their 'owner' isn't transmitted to new players, thus leading the killing message look like "Idiot was killed by !" I've silently thought about letting this bug slide as too small to care about, but a couple days ago this nameless character actually got on a killing spree due to the bugged deaths! Woop.

Whoa, this dude called Steelkenny made a really neat fanmade trailer for Masjin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvrPSkzxg04

I'm working on the update, expect it to appear later today.

Version 1.4 is out (urgh)! Changelog:

• New item, the mucous grenade (I actually misspelled that one but it kind of fits, still). It slows people down; mainly created against the speed+ chip.
• Speed+ chip has been returned back to its former glory due to player feedback.
• The mines now remember who put them down, so there should be no more 'killed by !' -messages on that part. There's still the same bug with some other weapons, though.
• New gamemode, 'Ore race'! I fear this may be magnificently boring, but I kind of like the idea so we'll see what happens! The idea is to collect all the ore. As an interesting sidenote, I haven't tested if it's winnable, derp.
• Some small bugfixes.
• More domination lines; 5 in total. Some people are really good at this game, huh. :-\
• You can see every player's skill streak in the in-game status window.

FULL VERSION 1.4b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

EDIT: Had to update to 1.4b because there were several stupid bugs. Should work better now!

Hempuli, I'm glad that you're still working on this. I also noticed you're the dev of FallOver! which was one of the few indie games I actually was intrigued enough to find and play on my own.

Anyway, back on topic, I love that you're still improving and adding to it, but in my time zone, no one seems to be playing too much. If there was a way to set up a persistent server, it might be easier for "organic" games to happen.

I dunno. I'm just nagging. I would really like to play this game with friends, and none of my friends have picked it up. :(

Yeah, this is a bit of a problem. I can't do much about it, though, especially since the longer the games continue, the more prone they are to bugs; short games are best for my crappy code.

Suggestions:
Nerf the missiles: if you can kill someone instantly from across the map, I'd call it unfair.
Classic mode: a mode for those who want to play with engineers and have 2 planes and a helicopter ready in base.
Dump the newest level design: It's horrible.
The plane should be a little bit less pricey.

Otherwise I would call it finished. Great job nerffing the turrets btw.

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments! Let's go through these:
- I guess this is true.
- Why would anyone want to play a class that's useless? I guess allowing startup vehicles would be a good idea, though.
- I agree, it doesn't work.
- I need to reduce the price of both the plane and the chopper, I think.

Been playing this a lot lately, love it. Too bad there's not enough people aware of its awesomeness! Just thought of something, maybe a flame thrower item? Like rocket launcher but it shoots the flames from the molotov cocktail... :eyebrows: Probably already heard suggestion for clans, not really that important. But maybe assists (if possible) since 90% of my kills seem to get "stolen".

You have a great game concept and the engine looks to be in good condition.  I like the homage to the old school gaming.

Now that the game appears to be stable, I'd like to see a little more polish around usability.  That will open you up to a larger gaming crowd.  It took me a lot of experimenting around and pushing buttons to figure out how to play it.  A lot of people would give up earlier than I did.

It's winable, but it really should end earlier. Like if there's 100 ore left, the winning team has 102 ore and the losing team has only 1 - there's no way they can win anymore.

Yeah, I got some good suggestions on how to balance it; those will be in the next update.

BarkingGator: I agree. I'm pretty bad at making things obvious to the player ;I

Can you embed videos into MMF2?

If so, a cool little video-tutorial for your game would be pretty sweet.  :)
I think your game is fundamentally simple enough to cover in a short video, too.

One more thing to mention. When someone plants a portable turret and leaves the game, that turret becomes indestructible. That should be fixed and the new grenade thingy should either last longer or cost less.

The mucous grenade will be buffed a lot in the next update.
That turret bug is a nice catch; I thought the invincibility was because of certain other things but I'll look into your theory.

Hahah, oh man. I found a very very long-time bug that's so stupid that I can't quite believe I've managed to make such a mistake. Basically, there was a bug where either team would get the 'YOUR TEAM LOST' -message even though the game was clearly still going, causing the whole team to disconnect.
  The explanation to the bug was very simple but very idiotic as well. With the Lacewing protocol I'm using, all on-line data I send are sent as 'stacks', which is basically a group of various values. Most of the stuff the game does are sent using 2 bytes (numbers ranging from 0 to 255), with the former telling the game what the latter is supposed to mean.
  When a team wins or loses, the channel master sends such a 2-part 'code' to tell the players who won and who lost. However, in this case I had accidentally made the Orb-vehicle use the same code as the winning condition, thus making a team autodisconnect everytime a player with a certain player ID entered an Orb.

DUUUUHHH!  >:(
Oh well, now that one's fixed - what a relief.

Could you use this bug to make an escort or VIP mode?

Wait, you may already have that. When I get home. In 6 hours.

Fudge

Version 1.5 ready! Changelog:

• A little tutorial-like thing added. It's a bit empty at the moment, I need to add more stuff to it.
• Mucus grenade buffed a lot!
• Hand tele made ninja-cloakable
• Fixed lots of small bugs and a couple bigger ones!
• Added a nice little tooltip to the shop screen to give a bit of information about the items.
• Removed that dumb level type.
• In ore race, a team earns 5 ore by killing someone in the opposing team.

FULL VERSION 1.5b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

EDIT: Had to make that 1.5b because teleporting WAS possible with a flag!

Great!,

Really love the ninja tele being cloaked; opens up a lot of nice team tactics.
Tutorial looks great.

But nobodies there to play ATM :(

CTF made me think of something for you to think about adding, maybe.

A riot shield item the player can have? Can't shoot or get shot from the direction he's facing. Could add up to be a nice tactical element...eh? Block a direction while people build something/heal. Guard a flag carrier... don't know just sounds really cool in theory to me.

I was covering the whole level in dirt and noticed something shocking: When you buy something from the engineering thing, the newest item goes behind all the older ones, that caused a lot of wasted dirt grenades. Also the new ramps aren't breakable from the front.

HEMPULI YOUR GAME GOT FEATURED ON INDIEGAMESCOM!

http://indiegames.com/2011/08/freeware_game_pick_masjin_arvi.html

Now get some servers going :)

Oh, and congrats!

This is where I'd cross my fingers for a spike in soundtrack sales, but then I realize that I give all my music away for "pay what you want" (free in most people's minds.) Damn.

Wee! I saw Cassandra playing some days ago and she mentioned she might want to do a writeup. Now this is nice. :)

As for the game, there aren't currently that many new features I can think of, mostly some balancing issues and a couple small bugs. Do keep posting any suggestions/weirdnesses here so that I can get some meat to the next update.

A non-flying vehicle that can drive up walls and ceilings. Pressing jump will let you fall off the wall/ceiling.

Played for a little bit, I found the miner class to be quite boring.  The rest were pretty fun.

Miner is like medic in tf2, its not one newbies flock to. It needs a bit more knowledge of the game.

Currently, you can use the enemy computers at their base.  This can be cool sometimes, but it also means that if you get into the enemy base while your team has a decent pile of resources and the enemy is distracted, you can rapidly build a bunch of turrets around their computers, making it very tough for them to deploy...  is that intentional?

Also, the scientists seem a bit underpowered to me.  Healing is useful, sure, but all of the other classes have a much, much more dramatic impact on the game, and tend to allow strategies that wouldn't otherwise be available.  It seems to get used a lot less than the other classes, too.

Maybe a passive buff when standing within 2 blocks of a scientist? Like maybe healing?

I don't really see how they are underpowered. Even one healing tick can turn the 1v1s to your favour, and when there's lots of space they can be better than soldiers.

I agree totally! the Scientist is not underpowered, with buffed health regen and a jetpack it is really hard to beat one.

About using the computer in the enemies base. I think it's tacticly a big advantage to the team that is allready better (if it was not you would kick them out) - but only in Score and maybe CTF. In other gametypes it's not smart to stay in the enemies base, because it's wasting time. But maybe more important! It will stop the turret spam in enemy base.

...although, I meant to add, the main thing the game needs is dedicated servers.

If you mean dedicated servers hosting matches i think it's a good idea. For 10 people i don't think you need to have a extra server for the main handling of information (chat, acounts, etc). It would be nice to have some software to run dedicated match servers, although there needs to be money or people willing to host a server on their super computers.  :)

If I were to get a dedicated server, I'd have to start asking money for the game in some form. Hats? :durr:

Anyhoo, I'm in No More Sweden at the moment so no updates for a couple days. I've been fixing loads of little annoying bugs.

Ok, back to work on this - expect an update this week.

would you accept donations for a dedicated server?

Technically yes, but first I should find out some information about dedicated servers in general. Also if I were to start a dedicated server, in the long run I should find some more reliable source of money than donations. Currently I'll try to polish the game as much as possible, and worry about the server later.

Better than running the dedicated server yourself: work on a dedicated server client so that anyone who wants to help can just run it on their amazing machines. But like you said, its a completely different thing to look into.

1.6 is out! Very small update today, gentlemen, because I've been preoccupied by various other things. However, there are some neat little fixes/changes here:

• Turrets should now work proper. No more nameless killers! Also if a player logs off, his turrets disappear.
• You can't use the fabricators and such in the enemy base. This kinda sucks, I know, but there were some really annoying tactics around.
• There was a silly bug in the Ore Race that made it horrendously unfair for the red team, but now it's fixed.

FULL VERSION 1.6 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I'm beginning to really consider adding the engineer back, making him what was suggested earlier, a moving fabricator.

I can't wait to spam gravity grenades. I assume a build time will make most spamming not as useful, but since gravity grenade last a while, they might work. Maybe a separate build time for different items? I don't see gravity spam being a huge problem though.

I'm not sure what'd be the best approach to making the engineers not ridiculously powerful. Currently I'm quite sure I'll at least make the prices a bit higher, and allow only certain items for this engineer ability. Build time might be a good idea, but in case more extreme restriction was needed, it could be so that the Engineer selects a singular item he can duplicate in the base, and afterwards he can only create those items until he returns to the base.

For this next version I'll make it without building times or such; only upped price and item limits. We'll see how stupid that gets!

VERSION 1.7 is upon us! Changelog:

• New class, the engineer! Stand still and press Z to open his own special fabricator. Since there are no other downsides but increased price, I imagine they'll need some balancing. But hey, they're here anyhoo.
• Moved the turret healing ability from cybermasons to engineers.
• Fixed a couple weird bugs.
• The game now shows information about the gamemode as you join.
• You can leave a buy menu just by clicking anywhere.
• There was a really easily exploitable builder glitch that allowed basically unlimited griefing; fixed that and trying it again makes you suicide so don't even try!
• Fixed a really dumb bug about money. Protip: when you send signed bytes remember to check if the value sent is between -128-128!

FULL VERSION 1.7 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

Updated to 1.7b to fix these:

• There were some really dumb ways to exploit the safety zone to kill people in there; thanks PiJokra!
• There was a bug with the engineer turning into a ninja if he changed to the class mid-game.
• A couple small tweaks.

Link's the same!

Something like that would make a fun feature to the game, imo.

I was running this in Linux under wine at around v 1.4., but as of the last couple updates I can't get in.  I thought the server was down at first, but it seems like with every update I can't make any progress on connecting, so I started to think it's on my end.  What's going on?  :(

Mmm, sometimes when I play (mostly when I am alone in the none-mode) and I trow a dirtbom, this happens. Is that a bug? :P
(http://g2f.nl/q231vh)

Also, sometimes people look, and behave like an orb, while they aren't an orb:
(http://g2f.nl/jn2xox)

And this is one bug to:
Well, the enginiers can't...
(http://g2f.nl/jfqsph)


and the last bug for today :+)
Sometimes airplanes which are going to the left, have the sprite of an airplane going right, and same for right.

The last one happens if the player is engineer. It's a stupid piece of code I made at a time when I thought only 4 classes would be needed. I'm slowly working on these.

More suggestions:

-A bat glider: A hand glider, that turns invisible when a ninja rides it. It could function like the airplane, but be a little slower and shoot slower. Great for stealth bomb drops.

-A stationary teleport tower thingy: A thingy that you could teleport to.

-More block types with the builder: let us make some upside-down ramps with it.

And then some visual improvements:
Make the flag change the direction it's facing, when the player moves.
Same thing with the little missile icon on the missile launcher.
Make a snowy level type... Please?

Also, how about spiked blocks?

I really like the animated gifs you used in the 1st post (also, the game ;) )
What program did you use to make them?

What about holograms? :P

-The glider is a neat idea I guess, but on the other hand they don't really that much variety to the game, since they're 'ninja airplanes' by definition. Also I wouldn't want to add any items that are worthwhile to exactly one class.

-I like the stationary teleport, but on the other hand it wouldn't probably add that much new to the game. Such teleport would be needed to be guarded by players, and it could wreck any other teammate trying to use a hand tele for some other purpose than teleporting to the stationary teleport.

-I'll add upside-down ramps, at least.

-The flag changing direction wouldn't really make sense, though - since it flaps in the wind, it should always flap to the same direction. Not that it really makes a difference, the game isn't exactly the most realistic one, heh.

-I'll do that with the missile box, yeah.

-The different level types are something that I've been meaning to add for quite some time. I'll try to do the effort.

Ozeotropo: I recorded them using Camstudio and then just opened the .avi -files in a GIF editor (Animation Shop in this case, don't really recommend it though).

PiJokra: How would they work?

I am just overflowing with ideas now:
-A key item: A key to unlock vehicles immidiately
-A scanner turret: A turret with a scanner; countermeasure for ninjas
-Antidote grenade: something my friend wants for countering the poison gas
-A tank-like thing that could travel up walls and disarm mines by driving over them.
-Let other players use the engineer as a field fabricator
-The ability to ban people for the server host?

I like the idea of the tank. Slow moving, heavy armored, heavy gun. Riding up walls, or maybe short flight like the digger (thats easier in programming). Disarming mines is also a nice aspect, but maybe his armor takes a bit of damage.

- using the engineer as field fabricator is cool; i dont have the feeling engineers are overpowerd. But maybe the answer is that engineers should drop a lot of items around :)
- ban is also a good thing.



 

1) person buys an hologram
2) person pressed "Z"
3) person walks to the place were the hologram should be setted
4) an hologram of the person wich places the hologram will be displayed
5) the hologram will be there for 2 minutes...

 ;) ;D

And maybe some sort of bomb that you stick on a vehicle, and when someone enters the vehicle, it explodes causing a lot of damage...


+1

I think a hologram that works closer to the Halo Reach hologram would work better. When you press the button it runs in the direction you are currently moving, standing still if you aren't moving. If it takes damage in any way, it flickers.

If you have to stand still for a while to use it, it would be useless in battle. Also, 2 minutes is way too long.


Scanner turret is pointless, just put a scanner next to a turret.
If people in the field want something from an engineer, ask the engineer to make it for them. We want to encourage teamwork.
Poison should be countered by scientists, not a grenade.

A glider could be useful to other classes if it was really cheap. Maybe a glider item instead of a vehicle? Have it give a slower fall, and bonus speed while falling. Probably a bit cheaper than the jetpack.

I quite much agree with mokesmoe's points, though at the moment poison is stronger than scientist's heal (I'm not sure if this is so with level 3 healing, though).

-I wouldn't want to add that key, because since most players anyway start the games with billions of money, the tactical part added by the locks would become useless. In ore race, for example, the fact that neither team can just rush and instantly steal the opposing team's digger adds some fairness to the mode.
-Many people have suggested the tank, so I guess I'll think about it.
-I'm afraid "real" banning isn't entirely possible due to Lacewings slightly lacking features, but I will add a simple system for easy banning.
-The hologram is a neat idea, but since it'd need to inherit all the features of the player, it'd be somewhat tough to code. I guess I'll give it a try.

I'll try to get a version with at least the banning and bigfixes out today.

I think a mode where everyone's on the same team and the objective is to defend against waves of AI enemies (kinda like Paradise Fort?) would be fun. With a mode like that, you'd all be able to cooperate and make an awesome base! I think a lot of Masjin's fun comes from what I'll call "anthill mechanics"--- that is, building stuff and digging--- and I don't really think any of the current modes allows full enjoyment of that.

Also, I think I may have said this a while ago, but: for some of the modes, such as ore race and score, I think it'd be fun to have free-for-all games, where everyone has his own score and just a single player wins. Currently, matches often become unfair and unfun because of uneven numbers of players on each team. A free-for-all option might add a fun diplomacy aspect to the game.

Also, some issues:

-The dirt bomb can't make dirt within a base, so I think they should remain throw-able when they're thrown in a base. Currently, when you throw a dirt bomb in a base, it just disappears... This change would make the dirt bomb work like the mine--- if you try to throw it, it just gets dropped without being set.

-EDIT: I still think there should be an option to make everything free, and to start with all upgrades. Currently, my friends and I typically start the game with 9999 minerals (why is there a cap...?) and get all upgrades right off. And if it's a long game we do run out of minerals for buying items and vehicles.

It may be useful to think of resource management to be an additional competitive aspect to the game, alongside the physics and the building and stuff, rather than something that always has to be attached to them. They're effectively not attached to them, so we might as well be spared of the trouble of having to scramble for the shop at the start of the game.

-EDIT: Do turrets aim for vehicles yet?

I like your way of thinking mokesmoe. But the scientist doesn't heal himself at the rate he heals others, so he is left taking the full force of the poison. I was just thinking a healing AoE thingy which could heal sicentists too.

lasttea999: Both of those game mode ideas have some immense problems with implementing, though. Free-for-all would suffer from the fact that the level changes over time, thus making it impossible to make spawn points work without bias. Using the current layout would of course be impossible as well. Fending off against hordes of monsters is a neat idea, but ultimately has the same problems as the free-for-all; it'd require a redesign on the bases (basically removing both and placing the players in the middle) and otherwise forcing recoding of large parts of the gameplay code (you see, the current system isn't quite fit for showing several NPC characters move around for every player).

-I'll fix that dirt bomb thing, good catch. I'll consider the 'no money' -mode; I guess players who just want to build stuff peacefully would rather not have a hard limit on their building. For competitive modes a 'no money' setting would seem just really pointless in my opinion, especially with the implementing of the engineer class. I think the limit of starting money is somewhere near 32000 due to the fact that the money amounts are sent as signed integers (In order to allow both adding and subtracting).

-Turrets *should* aim for vehicles, I'll need to check if I actually remembered to fix this, though.

How about just using different layouts for those modes? Have a couple different layouts, and use whatever works for each mode. Like, a map with several small (indestructible) spawn points and random spawing.

Although, I could totally see network-related programming being a pretty big deterrent, yes.

Also, for the defense game I was thinking of something like, having the base to one side and having the enemies swarm from the other. It'd be like defending against a siege.

Again, I would consider what resource management brings to the game, and whether it should be a necessary thing for all players to enjoy. Some people just want to enjoy the combat and building aspects with no restrictions, I think, although I guess the engineer would be pretty good without that restriction. Still, he already suffers from things like not being able to shop while around enemies (because he'll get killed while shopping), and only being able to hold one item at a time.

By the way, the last time I played this game was a while back, and I really like some of the usability improvements you've made, such as the tutorial, the explanations of the modes, and the score display. And despite what I said, I really like being able to make items with the engineer. ;)

Thanks.

Version 1.8 is like, totally out. Changelog:

• Added banning! Banned players are put into a blacklist in the game folder, so you can conveniently remove them if needed. Type '/ban USERNAME' in-game to ban a player. Due to me using an outdated version of Lacewing, bans are username-based so they're VERY easy to dodge. Working on that; I'll try to update Lacewing and hope it doesn't break everything.
• Mucus grenade buffed significantly, maybe even too significantly!
• Engineer's shop changed a lot; now you need to stand still a while before you get to the shop, but at least the prices are back to normal.
• Added two more slopes to the builder.
• Joining a game should be much less of a hassle. I fear though that there might be bugs in this.

FULL VERSION 1.8b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

edit: the joining bug became even worse! Let's see if a b-version can help.

Is that ban only for a day, for an hour, or for one round?

I played a bit tonight (as "Bryce"). The game could use a manual of some kind, although I know this could be a problem since the game is a work in progress. It was fun and pretty addicting; it reminded me of Anamaton.

Could there be a pick-up that would give a gun upgrade? I kept feeling overpowered when I wasn't a fighter.

Things that happened to me that are not necessarily bad or good:

- I had trouble climbing out of the mines or I had trouble going across the overland.
- I frantically jumped around a lot shooting in close quarters.
- My team ran out of money.
- I didn't use any bombs or bomb-like things.
- My lifespan was fairly short.
- Sometimes I was confused about how to win, except in the last game which was a King of the Hill game.
- I found a robot but it was stuck somewhere.
- I got in the builder and built things, but I don't know if they were useful.
- I became invisible and hid from people.
- I had a standoff with a ninja.
- I was talked to in a foreign language that showed up as gibberish characters.
- I used a jetpack a lot.
- I found it easier to get to an enemy base through the tunnels.
- I wasn't sure what to do when I got to the enemy base.
- I shot a lot of ships down with the turret.
- I didn't really fly planes because it felt selfish.
- I played a doctor but only healed myself.
- I played an engineer but I didn't build much.
- I played a miner and got killed a lot.
- Can you shoot down your own vehicles or was someone using that cloak thing on me?
- I built walls around enemy vehicles, but I think it wouldn't have been a big deal to use a change loyalty thing on them.

That's all I remember now. I played for about an hour.

Gratz Hempuli, you got featured on RPS (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/05/tiny-team-fortress-2d-masjin/).

Teehee, even got a mention of the music in the comments.

Hey, Hempuli, I thought of a bonafide suggestion. It'd be cool if, after a map hoster leaves a game, someone else could be assigned, or if the map hoster could have a chance to assign someone. Also, I think I pressed a button that made a game I hosted close? Or it just closed randomly. I'm not sure. And maybe a map hoster could make adjustments so that everyone wasn't booted to the lobby for a new map. Some people get collectively bored doing one thing (like hold the center point) and want to switch to a new game style.

 :handpointR: :handpointR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Yzdm-AsR8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Yzdm-AsR8)

Special thanks to Bryce, Wowzer, and Phlebotron

(http://i.imgur.com/aQ6c1.png)

great! I'm still waiting for the level editor Hemp promised.

Duuude! How long did this all take...?

Suddenly a huge bug appeared and I'm totally unable to find the reason for it. The next update will be delayed, unfortunately.

EDIT: Oh joy, apparently the owner of the public server did some magics that caused all blasted data stacks not to work. Oh well, I'll contact him tomorrow.

Man, I got my ass kicked in Masjin today. I've been on losing teams before, and generally get killed a bit more than I kill, but playing against a couple of experts wasn't that fun. Actually it was stressful. They were nice enough about it, though.

How do you pronounce Masjin?

Really been enjoying this game. I'm thinking I may make a thread on facepunch, a forum I frequent; it's a big community and it would be great to see more players :)

Yeah, it kind of surprises me that one can be a 'skilled' player in Masjin, but apparently this is so and there are a few really good players around. I don't have the slightest idea how to pronounce it, possibly Mas-yin.

Hempuli is it possible to make a leaderboard?
You collect all this info of accounts, but can you also output them in a php script to show to the world?

Haha, we've now spent 3-4 days with Jamie, trying to squish all the bugs in this new version. In fact, he has already released build #20 because of this.

Hopefully we'll soon get a working game and a dedicated server!

nahk: that's very much doable but I'm not sure if I want to make the effort :I

Got the first donation from the Masjin album - makes me all giddy inside.

If you want i can write a php list script that you then only have to connect to the server database.

Bug found; 1.9 will be out tomorrow.

1.9 is out! Due to the nearly week-long fight with the new server build, I didn't get nearly any of the larger updates promised in, but at least there are some other things solved! Changelog (as far as I remember, ugh):

• New server build! This is most probably a good thing, and will later allow IP-bans and such.
• Dedicated server! Thanks, Jamie and Mathias, you guys rock!
• New research subject - shopping time for the engineers!
• Ninja cloak was removed from research; it's now available right away.
• Various bugfixes
• If a player breaks down (is left swimming mid-air, immortal etc), the game attempts to remove them so that they can't spoil the game for others.
• Emoticons (sorta!) - push number buttons and experience beauty!
• Something else, possibly, can't just remember what

FULL VERSION 1.9 GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

(http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg52/scaled.php?server=52&filename=bubblec.png&res=medium)

You know what'd be a cool upgrade? Adding new items to the engineer's personal shop. Maybe start off with fewer than the current default, end up with more than the current default?

How about an option of taking off some/all items in a certain game?
And a vehicle/item that could blow up levitating and normal mines without taking damage.

(http://g2f.nl/e5910v)
...

Tell me how to do that  ;D

btw, I see a lot of bugs are gone, happy to see that ^^


*But I HATE it that you solved the turretbugt, now I got shot while being in a vehicle... :/*

EDIT

(http://g2f.nl/vm1wox)
Eum

(http://g2f.nl/wjxmto)
EDIT; this was an score-game, so that CTF-thing on the storage-level, what is it doing there?!

Some more bugs;

• sometimes there is some sort of 1 black frame...
• If you are a ninja and are in an orb, and you want to drop something pressing z, you leave the vehicle with your bomb 
• That "losing your lasertower", very weird, but it only happens to bleu, never to red

Things

• A separate 'drop item' button :(
• The mech is ridiculous in the two tile high corridors.
• The turrets are annoying. What about making them more powerful and limiting them to one/player?
• Mining for ore is still pretty dull. Make the ore more likely to appear in the middle or something (...Dig Dug rocks?)
• The mucus grenade should disappear before it becomes nearly invisible.
• Now that we have the emoticons, the ! and ? marks could be a research or an item  (forcing people to use the 'heal' icon).
• The ninja icon is useful (you can inform others that there's a stealthed enemy near), but do we need the others?

Oh, and please take another server :/

How come? I haven't seen any problems with it, and if anything, it should be better since there's no other traffic.
 Also, I didn't quite understand your bug reports. The one with invisible walls is an old one that might have become less rare with the latest update; I'll look to it. But what do you mean with the 'black frame', or 'losing your lasertower'?

Filth:
Pretty nice points, though why would you need a separate drop button? I think that might just clutter the controls even more. The point about the emoticons is interesting; I'll think about changing the "!"-mark. I added the other class marks mostly since I already had one for the ninja and had space left for more. (The questionmark is mostly there to show that the flashbang has hit, so I'd rather not remove it.)

(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4894/editor2.png)
Been working on the level editor.

Losing lasertower: (or do I have bad eyes, and is there a lasertower on the balcony?)
Black frame: yes, eum, sometimes, the screen of masjin gets black for a second...

And I can't wait 'till the room-editor :D

Also some questions about the editor; is the only mode going to be score?, because it is inpossible to do CP if the maker didn't make the CP..., or the creator didn't make dirt, so no ore-race,...

Duuude!  ;D

EDIT:

I'm guessing the editor has certain restrictions that require you to accommodate all modes. There is a flag symbol in the screenie, after all.

The editor will allow placing control points, spawn points, flag spawn points and areas where construction of walls is prohibited.

PiJokra: Smugness doesn't help much here; what I meant was that do you know some specific procedure that triggers that bug? I know the gravity bomb could mess it up badly, but that one's fixed.

Hello there, everybody. I hope you still remember me. Inside of Masjin I call myself Accident. It's been a long time since I visited, and I'm really happy to see the new updates. :) I'm pleased to see that you continued working on it, Hempuli.


I was thinking... I have no idea how many frequent Masjin players there are right now, but what would you guys think of a Masjin Competition? :D

@Hempuli:

Great that your still working on the editor. I think it can quadrouple the enjoyment (if levels are well designed).

@Qqwy:

A competition would nice and there are some frequent players.

I've been thinking about Masjin all day, and a few new things came in mind:

List of new ideas/requests:

-Possible new item: Black Hole Generator. More or less the opposite of the Gravity Bomb. What it does is suck all players/objects/vehicles into one tiny spot in the middle for a few seconds. Can be used to prevent planes from entering your base, for instance.

-Possible new item: Digger Bomb. More or less the opposite of the dirt bomb. Destroys a few ground/builder blocks around itself when it explodes, along with giving minor damage to anybody who is near. Could be another countermeasure against people building walls everywhere with builders. Of course we already have the miner, but this is a little different(for instance, destroy stuff from above by dropping it from a plane).

-Possible new vehicle: Tank. I know, this has been requested a lot of times in the past, mostly been rejected because it can be blocked easily by building someting in front of it. But what if we would make it an vehicle with incredible shooting power(like the turret), armor(or make it so that the bullets of the tank deflect other bullets) and make it move slow, but have the option to drill blocks and use a jetpack(wich lasts long, but takes a long time to rise as well). This might overcome the limitations of the earlier tank-ideas and be a fun addition to the game.

-Possible new game option: League play. This would be an option available when hosting a new game. This means that whenever anybody joins, he is not automatically put in a team, but he can see who the people in both colors are, and he can always decide which color to pick. This would mainly be helpful when trying to play games with pre-chosen teams, for instance, a competition. :D.

-Possible new upgrade: 'Leeching'. I don't know if this is a good name, but anyway :P. What this does is add a few(20?) HP to you whenever you manage to kill somebody. Works for all your teammembers of course. Could come in handy in risky situations.

-Idea for more music. I really like the music Masjin has got, and I think sojin did a great job. However, what do you think about adding another song that starts playing when one team has nearly won? (i.e., only needs to capture the last two flags/ only needs to stay in the room for twenty or less seconds, only needs to kill two more persons, etc).

-Day/Night change: The day is like Masjin is right now, but maybe with a sun in the sky. When it gets night, everything gets somewhat darker(so its harder to see stuff). However, a small light-circle around people(only the ones in your team can see it?) and a bigger one around vehicles(locked vehicle lights are only visible for the team that locked it) makes it possible to still see stuff.


The follwing is quite ambitious. You don't have to read it, if you don't want to :P.




-Wheater. I also really like the idea of a snowy-landscape. What if randomly the wheater changes in Masjin:
      -Sunshine. Normal. Nothing happens, exept that water and snow that is exposed to the surface slowly disappears over time.
     -Rain.  raindrops falling everywhere. On tiles that are exposed to the surface there might form water. This water can partly or fully cover tiles. Water will flow down until there is a solid block below it(or another block filled with water). Water will distribute its filled-percentage equally to the blocks on the side of it, if there is nothing there. When people are too long inside water that fully covers their head, they will suffocate. However, water also makes it possible to swim upwards distances you would've normally not be able to jump. Swimming handling is like the jetpack, but a bit slower.
     -Snow. Snowflakes falling everywhere. On tiles that are exposed to the surface there might form snow. This snow is 'slippery' and players will slide further when they stop moving.



List of Bugs/weird things:
-Health packs still activate if you have full health, rendering them useless since when you have walked all the way to the enemies base, it will already be used up.

-Somehow, I managed to 'place' a mine inside an ore block, but it did not get its special placed sprite, it simply looked as if the mine was suspended in mid-air in the ore block. It did make its 'Boomgh' sound it makes when it gets placed. However, it did not explode while you walked over it. This happened a couple of times. I was able to pick up the mines again as well O_o.

-Sometimes when saying chat messages, my name isn't there anymore. It seems this has to do something with timeouts maybe? Happens both in the lobby as in-game. It seems only to happen after Masjin loses focus :o. Maybe this has to do something with my internet-connection or with the new server. I don't know.

Masjin Competition
I first want to hear Hempuli's opinion on this. At least it is great to hear that there are people still frequently visiting Masjin  ;D.

If Hempuli will try to add the League function, that will be perfect. Otherwise, we'll just have to find another way to organize things.

Other things I want to say:

I really like the way the Level Editor looks. I totally agree with nahkranoth. A question about that: Is it possible to make the level bigger than it normally is? Like, more space between the bases?

Besides of that, keep up the good work. I really like the new Eingeneers, and all the other cool added features. If I ever can help you with something, tell me  :).

~Accident

I'm glad you like the music - but here's where I attempt to crush your dreams.

Situational music tends to become very hectic to use. Yes, it could be alright for CTF and KotH - but really? For about thirty seconds? In deathmatch only a few deaths left would go by in an instant. Okay, so we up the values a little bit so it isn't completely jarring to suddenly have new music while playing.

The problem with that logic is that the host can set how much is needed to win a round. This would work great for higher values, however, if they want to have a very quick game, then we'll reach the predetermined switching point a lot sooner.

So make it a percentage of the amount needed to win and round up. We come back to having the music kick in for a few seconds in the end because the 'to win' score was too low, or having this supposedly quick tune play for a very long time because it was set extremely high.

Also, I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure he implemented infinity games. I'm not sure if that would break anything when the game tries to calculate when to play this track.

Also, making music is hard yo. If Hempuli wants me to, I'll do it - I'm just wondering if it's needed.

;) You are probably right. Thanks for your reply.




About the connection problem:

It seems to happen at multiple people. It makes the game unplayable. After being inside of the Lobby or a game for somewhere between a second and a minute, the game 'disconnects' without telling you about it. other players vanish, you are completely left alone being unable to pick up flags etc. Also, when trying to chat, you won't be able to see your name, so you only see a ':'. The only thing to do against it as a player is quitting out of the server screen and reconnecting, or by restarting Masjin.

I am guessing this has to do something with the server. I think players time out too soon or the server just drops connections or something like that. One or another, it is a mayor pain in the ass :concerned:...

Nope, don't know what triggers it. That lasertower was just gone, I was walking to it, and suddenly it dissepeared



This already exists, it is called a "bomb"...

I dont beleave a normal bomb actually removes blocks. I don't remember it ever doing that. A mine destroys the block it is placed on. But a normal bomb only explodes killing everybody :P.

Then try it xD

I did. Multiple times :P. I'm smart enough not to answer someting before re-trying it to see if I'm wrong  :P. It might also be just my client, but my bombs don't explode ground blocks.


By the way, do you have the Connection problem as well, PiJoKra?

I have some connectionproblems :P
Which one do you mean? xD

I mean the one where, somewhere between about 5 seconds and 4 minutes Masjin 'disconnects' from the server without notice. After that has happened, in both the lobby chat as the in-game chat your name doesn't appear anymore before messages(you only see the ":"). Of course, other players don't see your messages anymore, and the other players will vanish from your screen very fast, leaving you all alone. It's still possible to mine stuff and to use everything(but the real game won't update, of course, since you've lost connection with the others), except things like flags. Also, when trying to place mines now, you will hear the 'mine place' sound, but the mine will just have its unplaced graphic inside the block you placed it on, and it won't be active. Strange enough, you are able to pick it up again with Z while standing on top of the block.

This problem has happened for me the whole day yesterday. I could play for thirty seconds, and then I'd have to reconnect/restart Masjin.

That's the problem I'm talking about. :) It doesn't seem to happen at everyone. I know Vauav(if I remembered his name correctly) experiences the same problems. Might be because we both live in Europe?

I think the cause of this is server-side.




Also, about the bomb discussion  :P. It seems you are right, but it doesnt happen every time O_o... I've tried setting off bombs multiple times. It seems to destroy some builder blocks, but it didn't destroy ground blocks earlier. Strange... might be a bug.

Have a nice day, :)

~Accident

As far as I know, bombs destroy dirt but not ore. I've never had that disconnecting problem so can't help you there.

While playing around with Masjin, I found two more bugs that happen at the beginning while you are still the only one in your game. You can use these bugs to influence the game before somebody else has joined. The first bug lets you create blocks with the builder to block off your base before the start of the game, and the second bug lets you smuggle items inside of the spawn room.

I made a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32whrO7_kuI) about these two bugs, since it's hard to explain in just words.

~Accident

Yeah, I'd really love to hear more info about that bug, because it seems darn serious; I'm quite sure it's related to the new lacewing build, but I haven't seen it by myself this far! It sounds like something that is really annoying to fix, though. :( Try to find out when this exactly happens and report that, since these kinds of bugs I'd really not want to tolerate! :) I actually got similar problems earlier and they were related to my router; the creators of the extension said however that they added a way to avoid it (and it has sure worked for me!)

Ugh, I've been away from home for a coupla days and these comments have really started piling!! Let's see what I can answer here:

-The medikit 'bug' is one that is partially intentional due to the way things are coded; the client doesn't keep track of other people's health, so coding it to be 'dynamic' would require some semi-massive extra work. What do you think, should engineers be able to create medikits?

-Weather is a very simple addition. I've been intending to make both the different environments and weather effects for a while, but then I'd have to draw all the new assets and that's kinda kept me from doing it. I'll try!

-Black hole bomb seems to be a really frequent request, so I guess I'll do it! Also I'm going to replace molotov cocktail because no-one ever uses that (successfully)!

-Would the 'leeching' be a buyable ability?

-Bomb should indeed tear normal dirt away. If it doesn't, something's bugging!

Qqwy: hahah, neither of those are related to playing alone, but yeah, gonna fix those; the item-smuggling bug is particularly hilarious. I'm sad to hear that you're having problems with the server, though; I'll report that to the creators.

About the server gub: Any more detailed than what I've told so far I cannot get. I'm sorry, but that's all the symptomes known to me.
However, I can guess what's going on. It's only a guess, so I might fairly well be wrong, but I think that the server rejects connections based on a too low lag-amount. I.e., if my internet connection happens to react slower than half a second, the server simply stops sending me information, and I'm stuck in this memory of the past on my own :P.

Again, it is only a guess, it can be something completely different.

-I thought of adding 'leeching' as a buy-once upgrade, but maybe it is better to add it as an item similar to Speed+, so that it has to be bought every time again... I don't know. I would try the first option first, and the second option if the first one seems to be overpowered.

-Please don't replace the Molotov Cocktail. I use it :P, and it still is a very dangerous item to kill people. Especially in small rooms. It might be good to make the Eingeneer able to create these as well.

-Yes, I think the Eigeneer should be able to create Medikits. Maybe another, easier to add way to more properly use it than right now is that you 'activate' the medikit by pressing Z again, after you've picked it up. It will stay activated until you drop it by pressing Z again.

Hmm... that's about it. Oh, and if you want, I would love to help and draw a nice pixely nightsky etc. for you.


~Accident

Jep, have that problem to :/

And yeah, molotov is very unhandy, so that can be putted away xD

Off-topic:

Vauat xP

So does this bug appear every single time you try to play, or only sometimes?

Only sometimes, that is what is making it so weird, because if it was freciently, it was easier to know how this bug comes...

However, this is the bug. you are playing and suddenly this happens *how can I leave, if I am still in the room?*
(http://g2f.nl/t6i4am)
And then everything you do comes with the message: <space>:<message> instead of PiJoKra:<message>

Oh, and this is a bug to, wich always happens when I have that connectionbug:

(http://g2f.nl/6wuc96)
I put a mine somewere, and instead of changing into an active mine, it stucks into the ground...

Really, what's wrong with the molotov coctail :screamy:?


And now, time to talk about the annoying bug. 8)

And yes, you will see the 'Player left, and his turrets have been deleted!' message when the bug starts.


About the time the bug happens. The first day I started playing, wich is three days ago now, there were no problems at all. It worked fine. However, yesterday and today, the problem happened EVERY TIME. However, it took somewhere between a few seconds and a few minutes before the connection was lost again.


This bug made me think a bit about the 500-mile email case (http://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html). (go on, read it, it's a quite entertaining story  :) )

What I think that is happening is that the server drops a connection after your connection lags a few miliseconds. Of course the player should be dropped out of the game if his connection would not response for more than a second or so, but this already happens after a few miliseconds(since there is no real lag before the connection is lost). Maybe there is some configuration value of Lacewing that has another default value now than before?

I don't know why it happens, but I know that Vauat(thanks for the fix by the way, PiJoKra :P) lives in Germany, and I live in The Netherlands. I don't know where the server is located, but it might be that our connection has a little slower pingtime than another connection located somewhere else because that other connection is physically closer to the server.(less cables, faster response).

I wonder, where do you live, PiJoKra?


Then the other problem(I don't believe this is directly related)  is that a player is not notificated right when he drops out off the game because the connection is lost. You don't see the 'Timed Out, Disconnect' screen, but simply keep on playing without noticing anything has changed, until you try to chat or you discover that there are no other players anymore.


Again, my deductions might be completely wrong :durr:.

Let's fix this... :noir:


~Accident

The problem isn't probably with the ping, because the server is located in the US and I'm connecting from Finland. The reason you don't get any proper message is because instead of leaving the game, the bug kicks you out of the server altogether.

I'm 100% sure now that this is a Lacewing thing and I suspect it is related to sending data on the server. When Jamie and I were testing, I kept getting a very similar bug, except it was more 'controlled' (i.e. it happened only when certain actions were made), and mostly in the lobby. I've contacted Jamie about this, but since it seems so random and I don't myself get it, I'm not sure how quickly he can find the reason.

Problem is, I'm using their dedicated server which has already updated to Lacewing #19; the earlier stable build was #17. I can't really revert back to #17 anymore, either.

Here's a suggestion on what you could try to do; it'd really help with locating the bug - change the 'port' in the 'server.txt' to '6129' instead of '65002' (which is should be now). Then open a couple games at the same time (or organize other people to do the same) and see if the bug still happens. That'd be really helpful!

In other news, I'm going to be very busy with university the coming days, so the next update will be delayed somewhat (I'd of course also rather get this fixed before releasing!)

Yesss, I couldn't remember who made this game and now I've found it.

In the Netherlands to :P

I hope it is easy to solve that bug, because I can't wait for Masjin 2 (I think that after "1.9" comes "2" :P)  with the level-editor!

EDIT: I can't connect on masjin D: D:
When I am on masjin, and want to press the red button with "connect" on it, there doesn't happen anything, it keeps saying 'connecting to the server'

yay :P
after 1.9 will probably come 1.9.1, and then 1.9.2, and so on :p. just kidding. however, I do hope that this bug gets fixed soon. unfortunately, I'm unable to access my laptop with Masjin on it right now. I will try to connect using port 6129 asap, wheen I get it back ;).

Whoops, looks like I typoed there; I meant 6121 instead of 6129! Sorry about that!  :-[

allright. I tested connecting through 6121 with two different accounts on the same computer. until now, everything went fine. It seems the bug doesnt happen this way. However, I was only able to test on another computer(but using the same router as my actual computer), only against myself since there were no others at this time, and only for five minutes.

It also seems that the 65002 connection is completely down at  the moment. I tried using a 3rd account using 65002, but it simply wouldnt connect to the server. Was this on purpose? :P

I hope this data was useful =D.

~Accident

hi i tried to click the link to download your game but then i realized who cares this game sucks so bye

Can you tell why you think it sucks? It could be that you are super genious and we are not. :monoclepop:

I think this looks really cool  8)

Thanks, Qqwy. And yeah, it seems that 65002 is totally down now. I'll make a quick 1.9b update that changes it to 6121 instead!

How can you change the connection from 65002 to 6121? I can't find how to change xD

there is a file called: server
open it in notepad,etc and change port=*** to port=6121

good luck

yep, 'server.txt' . Its in the same folder as Masjin.

Thanks, Hempuli. When Im getting access to my own computer again, Ill tell you if it is fixed. :)

Thanks ^^
I think that should be "changeble" in-game :P (maybe something for next update)

Hey Hemp.

I found a bug where you can remove items from the game.
Grab an item... go to top edge (against the edge of the level) of a base and press DOWN + DROP.

It moves upward and stays in the top corner of the game.

Seems like I finally should fix that one! It's been around forever, but fixing it has just always been of so much effort. It's also a bit annoying to fix.

Does the disconnection bug persist in 6121?

(http://g2f.nl/lq20tg)
Never seen this menu, maybe you shoold make it easier to find ;)
for the people who also doesn't know were it is: change profile > click on your profile > look in the left corner of the window ^^

An old bug: when you host score, and then leave due to an interneterror, the room changes into a room for control point, with a cashamount of €0. Very weird xD

Sorry folks!

Had to put out an update that doesn't have the map editor, because the old port wasn't working. 1.9b has a couple bugfixes, but mostly it's the same thing; hopefully now there'll be more activity since the users wont be confused about the ports anymore! Also I need to see if this helps fixing the disconnection thing!

FULL VERSION 1.9b GET! (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)

I did not have any disconnection problems since the new version, so I guess the bug is fixed  ;D!

Thanks a lot, Hempuli :).

That's totally sweet!  :)

I also didn't have connectionbugs anymore  :)
But another bug: when you get absolute dominations, the counting doesn't start again...

Should it? You're racking up the same skill streak, anyway!

how are people even able to stay alive so long O-o...

I always seem to have the lower hand in gunfights, I dont know why. Any tips, PiJoKra? :D

Allright, two new bugs:

-When a game is 'Full' (there are 14/14 people) you will get rejected from the game. However, you will also get the 'joined the lobby!' message and your name will appear multiple times in the usernamebar of the lobby.

-When a game is finished but its name still appears in the lobby, when trying to join, it will give you the "This game seems to have already ended" message with a 'back to lobby' button. However, this screen is resized weirdly(the old Masjin menu size?) making the text hard to read, and the button hitbox is off, you have to click below the button to actually continue. Also, you won't go back to the lobby, you will go back to the main menu. This main mny will also be resized weirdly in the same way.

Another bug, and this one is very weird so I don't know why this happen, is that sometimes you can't use the Z-button... no items or vehicles that you can use. After rejoining the bug is still there. I am not the only one who has this problem sometimes...

...And another idea.

Some people have noted that the Molotov Coktail is an unnecesary item, and not many people use it anymore. So, I was thinking for a way to make it more useful again:

The item should become 'hidden' when held by a scientist. So that a scientist could hold it and look like a normal scientist for all other players.

What do you think? Also, maybe eingeneers should be able to build it as well.

~Accident

p.s. my streak score is skyrocketing ^.^

I don't think that'd really fit the idea nor looks of the cocktail, but something like that could definitely be neat. I'm going to replace the cocktail with another bomb of sorts, but I'll keep that suggestion in mind. Also I'll fix thet lobby thing :I

PiJokra: that's really really weird; I've no idea what could cause it. I'll try to look up some stuff but I can't guarantee I'll find anything.

You could make the molitov particles be affected by gravity and linger on the ground for a couple seconds, like a real molitov.

Hmm... I don't know, but I always wondered about the flask the scientist holds in the class selection screen. Also, I always have a picture in my head when thinking about a molotov cocktail about some crazy guy in a lab coat. I don't know why :wtf:. Is it just me?

But whatever :P. I look forward to the new bomb :).

There are actually two options for the next bomb; I'd like to hear some opinions.

1) Black Hole bomb - It has been suggested at least thrice here, so I guess people would like to see it. Basically it'd be the opposite of gravity bomb, sucking people to the center of the explosion instead of pushing people away. I'm not sure how useful this'd be, but it could be used nicely in conjunction with a mine.

2) Remote-controlled bomb/missile - Basically a floating bomb/missile that the player could move about for a short while before detonating it. Could do wonders against turrets and people trying to hide in hard-to-reach places.

So what do you think?

The blackhole-bomb :D

A bug:
When you use an orb to drop a bomb, and presses Z when you are in air, you just leave the orb, with the bomb in your hands...

And maybe you can make it so, that when you respaw, you can't get killed...

Another thing, can you make an online database, so if you accedently delete masjin, you still have your sprees (yes, this happend to all of my sprees :()

I think both bomb ideas are great :D.

The 'Online Leaderboards' would be a nice touch too :P.

Also, another bug. Especially in maps with many players so there is a little lag, it is possible to shoot trough the wall of the Spawn Room, as well as use the Ninja's katana to hit people there. Even kill people who are still trying to regenerate health. I think that's a bit unfair.

What if the blackhole bomb would suck you in and spit you out in a random part of the map? (Above ground) I think the idea of people getting sucked in is nice in combination with other objects indeed.

Remote control is also a nice idea. Great for "spying" also.

That's one idea I've thought about, but then again it'd kind of take the tactical element away due to the randomness.

(http://PiJoKra.nl/zooi/masjinbug.png)
...
Since yesterday this always happens...

Maybe no one's online?

His name doesn't appear in the userlist, which essentially means that he has disconnected from the server. DUH! I'll see what I can do.

EDIT: Same happens to me now! Since one can get to the lobby, the server must still be up, but somehow instantly disconnect the player upon connecting. I'll tell Jamie and see what we'll find out! :)

EDIT EDIT: All fixed up!

HELP!!
I can't connect to masjin:
(http://PiJoKra.nl/zooi/masjinbug2.png)
xD
This happens me alot btw

PiJoKra,
You are joking, right?

xD

I'm assuming so, haha.

NO  >:(
Not joking, this really happens :(
*Testing if it happens today to*

EDIT: No, still happens ><

reinstal doesnt work?
right port number?

else i wouldnt know, it worked fine for me yesterday.

Portnumber is right, but maybe it has someting to do with the auto updater. that button, for updates, is unpresseble to...

Found problem, I didn't have an account (?!?!?!), it is deleted ><
Again lost my sprees  >:(
(fix that account deleting-bug, please  :'()

We both know that you're just too good for Masjin  :laughter: .

There really shouldn't be any way to delete accounts accidentally except for visiting the profile-selection window or downloading the game to a different folder than where the data files are!

Something seems to be wrong at this moment.
Nobody can join a game.
It loads the leveldata but then just time out.

Jep, Nahk, you are right :-X


 8)

This is once again a bug with the server that I can't fix myself. Port 6122 seems to work, but I'll get in touch with Jamie as soon as possible.

Any luck on getting towards fixing this issue, or contacting someone how can?  I just tried to  play with some people and got the same error.

This is from aaaages ago, but I thought I should reply:  This is what I meant, yes.  Not dedicated servers run by the dev, but just something that anyone can use to set up a dedicated server, rather than having to use the game's client and play in the match themselves (I believe it even closes it after each match, so it's currently impossible for anyone to just devote their machine to acting as a server.)

 think the game has a large enough fanbase that at least one or two people would run this if it were available, and there are some big gaming groups that might turn their attention to Masjin and do it if they could.

I haven't been able to contact Jamie during the past days, unfortunately. :( I'll try to get the thing fixed asap, though! Port 6122 still works fine, though.
6121 works again! :)

For another note, I'm stopping development of Masjin for a while due to the IGF; the deadline is 17th, after which I can get back to fixing the multitude of bugs everywhere.

Back to work on this one! Level editor will be out this week if everything goes Smooth~

GOOD news! Go Hemp, Go Hemp, Go Hemp!   :handshakeL::biglaff::handshakeR:

YEAH :D
*Hopefully you will do the liquid, as you doubt yesterday...  :P*

Guess not everything went smooth? :)
Let's give Hempuli some positive energy: "Hooray for Hemp!"   :handshakeL::eyebrows: :handshakeR:

I was just logging in in tigsource to say that xD
So here I say it:

You can do it!  :handshakeL: ;D :handshakeR:  :handshakeL: ;D :handshakeR:

EDIT:
It is 11/11/11 (and were I live 11:11 too ^^), isnt it a good date to post a new version? xD

Hey, Hempuli!
I just made a Class Idea that you MAY like… You may want to edit alot, such as balance fixes ;)

Sniper Class:
(http://g2f.nl/nbbn61) <- Picture.

Description:
"Snipers have the most damaging bullets in Masjin,
they have alot of features,
but overall it's a weak class if you don't use it like you should."

Hope you like it :D

Cool class, but maybe no aming with the mouse (but just like the other shooting classes)

Maybe he can press the use key to stop moving and change to the cannon's controls. And maybe not let him use items at all to avoid problems with using the use key.
Or maybe not let him shoot un-aimed and make shoot enter the aiming state, and use leave it. That way you can still use items.

Also, slower firing speed. Give him less health and take away the items do more damage.

Yeah that would be an option.

And less health? Do you want him to be one hitted ?or what :P
I think his view distance must be VERY far tough.
that your sniper is at the far right side.

Otherwise it would be way underpowered I think.

(http://g2f.nl/r1j6uj)
The sniper shoots his nearly unavoidable bullet. The team follows to deal with the lower healthed enemy.

Once again, i'm not forcing hempuli to anything  ;)

I think this could work better as an item.

It is inevitable. If there are guns in a game, someone will want to be a sniper.

TF2 does a lot of things different than most shooters, but even it still has a sniper.

I never heard of TF2. Lol.
Mayby you could call him a ghost. (The snipers on starcraft are called like that :))

I first want that Hempuli makes the editor and then solves the bugs, then the sniper. :P

But unfortunately I can't solve all the bugs, only most. I've started wondering if restarting from scratch might help a bit with this...

Believe it or not, the level editor is still coming up! I just got caught in the tangles of what me might be able to call a "life"! Apologies for this!

On the subject of the sniper: I really like the idea, but I fear that any character with huge range on top of ludicrous damage could easily dominate the game in context of things work in Masjin. Assuming the class worked like Your Average Sniper (very fast bullets, some kind of laser scope thing, headshots?) the compensating factors (loading time, less health + other things steelkenny suggested) wouldn't matter since a player using the class could just build a secret floating hideout, from which he'd just shoot at everything moving. The characters aren't too agile, and unlike with games like TF2 you don't have to deal with the third dimension, so scoring a hit wouldn't be that hard, and if the hit dealt as much damage as suggested, it'd quite much decimate any class in two hits, three with full upgrades.

Huh? Life? What's that?  :)


Jk, anyways, how do you build a floating secret hideout?
(http://g2f.nl/h500if)
It doesn't matter how you build it, you will allways show a road to your secret base.
In a normal game there are allways some flying people, no matter if it's tech, jetpack, or gravity bomb.
and the more you defend your base, the less angle you can shoot your sniper. So yeah.

Anyways, lower reload time and lower damage could work?
1.5 seconds, 45 damage? (3-5 hits or 2-3 hits) which makes it kinda weak,
You would need 7.5 seconds to kill a full upraded guy, without missing any bullet, which WILL be very unlikely.
A shooter can bring a full upgraded class down in less than 3 seconds and sometimes an unupgraded ninja or engineer in 1 second.

What if we had a "scope" item that gave you the ability to aim in with the shoot button and un-aim with use (like my sniper suggestion) but lowered your fire rate while using it?

Hemp said something about that black hole bomb and remote missile will be the last, because that will be filling the screen.
He also said something about replacing the bottle, because it's unused and worthless because it's the only item without something special.
Could be wrong tough :handpointL::)

But the sniper IS that item  :)

To be honest, I'd feel more at home with the item solution. The idea of being able to essentially become a cannon is kinda interesting!

Currently the "final" items (who am I kidding) will be black hole bomb, homing/remote-controlled missile and one additional item. What would you guys think if that last item was such a 'sniper'? Possibly not exactly a sniper but with similar concept?

I also thought of possibly making another turret-like item, but one that'd work like a dispenser. I'll have too see how I'd implement it, though, since it could easily become way too spammable and buggy.

EDIT: Oh, and I think I'll release a test version of the level editor with some features missing at first. It's quite much 100% guaranteed that something will break up horribly, so it might be better to get the basic stuff stable before implementing it all.

Aha, I see :)
Oh, and I just discovered how molotov could be powerfull... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ueBORWiAI)
Hope that more people will use it now. It may still get a buff tough (making it hold out longer) :)

The best time I've had this game is still that time I saw Hempuli log on with two accounts then disappear, then I correctly guessed the private server he made first try. Skills.

This feat is slightly diminished by the fact that my private test game is always named 'test'. Still cool, though, of course.

May we knoow what that item is? :)

I think he's implying that he doesn't know yet.

This sniper item could also be a "mobile turret" vehicle.

Mobile turret eh... Nty, I allready hate turrets lol.

What COULD be handy is an invinsible scout, so you can scout the enemy base easily without getting caught. Could be spotted by radars or contact tough :)

I think he meant turning the possible 'sniper' item into a vehicle that'd basically work like the cannons in the bases, except with the ability to move about.

oh... mayby?

What about the mine-immume-tanks?
PJK said sumfin bout that.

That mineimmume tank wasn't my idea :P
It is a cool idea tough

Can you also diseable minespam? (like you can't put turrest next to each other), that there is always a space of 2 between them?

That might indeed be a good idea!

totally agree. so frustrating when someone makes a line of mines... :handthumbsdownL::(:handthumbsdownR:

Better idea, an anti-mine: an item that can be put on the ground like a mine, but when you place it, you cant place a mine on that spot.

No, It's too easy to destroy blocks.

Also, a tip for getting rid of mines, dig into the mined block from the side to get rid of the mine.

Does the game have grenades or any other throwable explosive? I can't remember.

Anyway.
If it does...
Why not have those blow up the mines? If someone made a big line of mines then that would presumably cause a nice chain reaction which would destroy all of them.

If the game doesn't...

Then consider it. Because throwable gravity-affected projectiles are awesome in such gravity-affected games.

The game does have grenades, and the grenades destroy any blocks in the radius, and if a block is destroyed, the mine on it goes away too.

A row of mines isn't hard to deal with unless you just run towards the other base blindly.

I like that idea.

More explosions => more fun   8)

The graphics are soo sweet.

The Graphix FTW

I find it curious that you copypasted the whole of Red Hiding Hood here. Though I must admit that the scrolling text fits it well.

Progress is there but quite slow, sorry about that. :(

As a student, i understand.

The little red riding hood was completely random lulz.   :-\
Anyways, progress doesn't have to be fast :)

It has to be good :)

fast and good ftw.

Lalala.
Y this topic so quiet?

Personally i'm waiting for a word from Hempuli that everything is finished.
But i'm also verry busy with school, and so is Hempuli, i can imagine.

Personally, i put my own game on a hold because i first want to clear my endexam.
I wouldn't be supriced if Hempuli did the same.

Hey hemp!
Quick question, why is HTF and CP max 230 points? It would be so much more fun with 1500 or sumfin!

That's because I'm using bytes to send the time left, and bytes can only get values between 0-255 (or -128-127, but that's not related). I've been intending to change that since it'd be quite simple. Thanks for reminding!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

There we go, level editor is in!

Due to how much work this was, none of the other intended additions are yet in. I'm 100% the editor has one or two enormous annoying bugs, so please report them all! Known ones:

• Sometimes clicking the 'custom' button does nothing. Reconnect if this happens, it's a stupid thing caused by an extension and I'm looking for alternatives. Same goes for the load and save buttons in the editor!
• BEEP BOOP BOOP

VERSION XYZ(?!!) GET (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)
Here's a test level you can use if you don't feel like using the editor! (http://www.hempuli.com/Testlevel.msj)

In the leveleditor, I cant use tab and the arrowkeys at the same time. Also my view goes up when I wantn to select an item in the editor...

Edit: maybe that you can choos whish classes are allowed>?

What's the "custom" button?  :giggle:

It's for playing the custom levels! Download the example I linked and a experience new, interesting level design.

I LOVE IT!!!
It's gorgious! I hope for some interesting level designs coming.

My first idea:
(http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/masjinLvl1.gif)
Defending diamond from the other team.
You can find it here (http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/MASJIN/Nahk1.rar)

Oh.

Btw, a warning message for leaving masjin editor would be SOOOOO FRIKKING HANDY.

I exited 3 times in 10 minutes...

I have some bugs:

-When i place any vehicle or turret, it wont appear when i load the game.

-A spawn machine isn't bounded to a team

-When saving a file it turns it into name.msj.msj on my windows 7

-Some weird blocks appeared when i loaded, that aren't in the leveleditor.
(http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/bug.jpg)

I know how hard it sucks to make a landscape. Drawing all those lines..

Just landscape! Instant download, no wait time, no website opens. (http://g2f.nl/95jwle)

(http://s8.postimage.org/iwsxe1ir7/levelimg.png)
Get your diggers from the other side and dig to the control point. There are also research and fabrication machines in the middle and some mechs on the top floor.


I have the same bugs. Also, none of the vehicles appear.

Great! makes my levelcreation faster.

The vehicles were left out intentionally due to wanting to get this out. Sorry! I marked them with red crosses but apparently forgot to update the actual in-game sprite.

-Fabricators etc. are not teambound at the moment, yeah. Is this a huge problem?

-The savefiles get double .msj if you save over an existing file, because it offers name 'X.msj' instead of just 'X'. I'm not sure what'd be the best way to go about this.

-I'll check what might cause those mystery blocks.

Its good  :handmetalL: :)

Oh, and don't forget:
Some PCs just can't, and that is anoying. Maybe an other way to use the editor?

EDIT: Version XYZ has a lot of bugs ingame. One of the biggest is that when someone drops a bomb, it explodes, but you dont lose hp, but a few minutes later, you suddenly see the explosion, and get a lot of damage. (Dont know a better way to subscribe this bug).

When jumping on a bleu or red block (respawzone) with a tech, all the players inside it get a lot of damage...

Also a lot of lags...

Those extra blocks look just like the control point in the middle of the map normally.

That's a sharp remark, it's also in the middle of the map.


-Fabricators etc. are not teambound at the moment, yeah. Is this a huge problem?
It's not terrible, and maybe takes a later place in the bugfixing, but
i do think it's vital to avoid turret spamm.

I'm not sure what you mean...?

Also PiJokra: I haven't noted anything like that during the games I've played. :o

He was refering to the bug with strange blocks appearing (i made a screenshot of)
I have to say that it was once, it never occured again.

Whoa, you're right!

Ugh... Now that's one nasty bug there.

I'll get working on these once Ludum Dare ends!

Great, your joining ludum, i cant wait to see what you come up with.


Some editor mode suggestions:
- I think an exit warning message is indeed a good idea like SteelKenny suggested earlier.
- A copy function would be awesome; i hate it to copy and mirror a base i made for blue to the red side
- The tile counter starts (top/left) at [0,0] While a human counts from 1.
- Starting Items (like in the original level, where you start out with some items)

Also i made a new map:

Skelletors revenge (and it's only score)
(http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/MASJIN/Nahk2.gif)
(http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/MASJIN/Nahk2b.gif)

You can get it here (http://www.joeyvanderkaaij.com/random/MASJIN/Nahk3SkelletonSCORE.rar)

Time for a map competition   :handshakeL::):handshakeR::handshakeL::):handshakeR::handshakeL::):handshakeR::handshakeL::):handshakeR:

Yeah Pijorka and me where talking about that too.

How about a map competition to create a map pack (multiple maps) out of it?
So top-5 will make it into a downloadable map pack. (i can donate server space)
Or (if hempuli is up for that) are included in the game.

-We should set a date as deadline.
-Then we need someone to host the maps with a good connection,
so we can play and rate the maps.
-Then give points to the map.

But i think we should wait just a bit with that till after hempuli got the most bugs out.
I still have problems with those weird blocks spawning and they are clearly from the original map (there are blocks from the original bases in one of my maps)

I think it's a petty if someones map got excluded by bugs not caused by him.

This looks amazing. Let's see if I can try it out.

---edited

Already did. Had some trouble figuring out why the connect button wasn't clickable :P
Also every-time I would respawn I couldn't see my character, only pan the camera around.

Hope to be able to play it better at a later time. It looks real fun.

(http://g2f.nl/gpehz7)

Do you guys think I should implement the possibility to have multiple spawnpoints? So that the game would choose one of them randomly?

I'll try to implement the vehicles and fix some bugs today or tomorrow!

EDIT: I also need to add something to make people believe it's actually me playing! :D
vvv Sure thing!

Yes, sounds great. It solves the problem of camping :)
And togle itemselect in the editor. I can't use tab and mouse xD

Sound like a good idea!
And you can put it off if you dont want it by just placing 1 spawn block,
so no forcing.

For your bugfixing:

The weird blocks spawning in the loaded map that arent there in editor mode
and kind of resamble the original level:
They seem to be put in there when saving the file, because everytime i load it
you get the same weird blocks appearing, on the same place.

If you load the map in the editor, they're gone, right? Also, can you confirm that the blocks are located in the same places as in the original level, and if so, do only the white blocks appear weirdly or are there other misplaced block types?


What would you suggest as a replacement? Might spacebar work?

No, nothing works. Keyboard + mouse just wont work  :shrug2:
Maybe only mouse?

Yes if i load it in the editor they are gone.
I'm pretty sure they are located at the same place.
And indeed only the white blocks, no other type, not even half white blocks

I'm still not sure what you mean; they don't work *at all* or you just don't like the layout?

Also thanks nahk, I'll check what could be causing that. :)

When I press a button on my keyboard, I can't move my mouse. So when I have to press the tab, I can't select the item I want in the editor...

Huh, strange. I'll make it so that pressing space makes it appear until you press space again, then.

EDIT: I realized how dumb that'd be anyway right after posting. Fix'd it to this post.

I have a laptop, no middlemousebutton :)

Well then, update out. Changelog:

• New item, the black hole bomb! I fear it's too cheap right now, but we'll see!
• Hopefully fixed the bugs in the level creation!
• Vehicles can now be placed in the editor!
• The gamemode limits go now to 999 instead of 250! I didn't test this fully, though, so I hope you report any bugs here.
• People with good enough streak leave a red particle effect. Look out!
• Added myself a particle effect to further separate me from other players, nyah nyah!
  
  • Mechs can no longer instakill people in short corridors!
  • Improved the napalm bombs a lot!
  
  VERSION GET (http://www.hempuli.com/Masjin.exe)
  

Like the new update, espessialy the new editor (Going to make some awesome maps :D)
and black hole bombs ftw

(http://g2f.nl/wt01yl)

hurr durr

(http://www.hempuli.com/kill.gif)

The chance that there are so many bombs at one spot is very small xD

But cool bomb tough ^^

There is something weird going on with the new selection in the editor.
When i use space to select a tile, it will sometimes select another tile when i try to place it in the top of the screen. It looks like the clickcheck isn't stopped when closing the selection menu. Hope it made sense.

Some bugs:
Dirt with a background behind it isn't diggable.
Neutral flag over a CP doesn't spawn a flag.
My placed turrets don't work.
I mysteriously lost the ability to choose a custom map, but then got it again just as mysteriously. Closing the program didn't fix it, but it fixed itself as I was typing this post with the game open in the background.
I have two diggers on each side, and only one of them starts out locked.

Didn't see any particle effect for characters with a streak.

EDIT: Just had a real match on my map, and the turrets worked fine. Odd.

It's a completely under ground map, and people seemed to like it. Now I have to add ore manually. A way to generate ore in custom maps would be nice, although you would have to redo the generation so it doesn't stick out everywhere or overwrite stuff, which might be a pain.

I'll probably just use the spray tool in paint.

Most of these reported bugs make me facepalm constantly due to how obvious they were. Yeah, going to fix them.

Mokesmoe: the "lost the ability to choose custom map" thing is the same as "inability to save/load in level editor". The extension I use to handle the save/load dialogue is horribly buggy, and often refuses to work. I'm looking for an alternative right now.

I'll wait until the bugs are fixed to post my map so there isn't one tile of the control point that doesn't work. (Where the neutral flag spawns.)

A tip for map-makers: you can open the map file in paint. (Or other graphics progeams probably) The way everything is stored as colours makes it hard to see and impractical to make the map there. You can still use it for copy/pasting, filling, and fliping/rotating. (You'll have to change slopes by hand though.) Also, the spray paint tool works great for adding ore.


The ability to scroll the editor with the arrow keys would be nice. Also the pre-game walls.



And the game wont let me log in as Hempuli. Clever. (I just wanted to see the particle effects.)

Some competition ideas you could make :)

Create an item - You pick the best 5 items out - Vote system - Best item comes ingame :)
Create a vihicle - You pick the best 5 vihicles out - Vote system - Best vihicle comes ingame :)
Create a map - see above

Or mayby clan competitions.
People make a group of 3 people, you make a pyramid structure and those have to fight each other :D

You remember the bug I could walk in the savezone? There is a new one who looks familiar:
(http://pijokra.nl/zooi/masjin_bug8.png)
[url deleted]

What:	Red blocks gone
How:	Because someone made a very big black hole explosion, and it almost crashed
Fun:	Me: Yes ;D They: No  >:(
Working on:	Only me ;D

The bug on video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpuk6t04gpg)
Also, Hempuli. I (Because I wanted to look for bugs :), I do it for you!) am able to let games crash. Buy a millions of bombs, throw a black hole bomb. Lagg kills everyone.

Hmm... Thanks for telling me. I'm not sure how to help that other than removing the item effect from the bomb, though. :(

I'll look into that safezone bug, though. Shouldn't be very complicated to fix.

EDIT: Oh wait, durrr, the reason for the former is pretty obvious when I look at that video -> it's the huge amount of particles coming from the basic bombs. That's an easy fix, then! Thanks guys!

Odd; I can't reproduce this!

No, the neutral flag doesn't work when they overlap, so I removed one square of the cp where the flag spawns.
If I did have them overlapping, then posting the map now would be fine as it would work fine once the bug was fixed.

EDIT: Or apparently it is fixed? But I haven't updated since I first saw the bug! I am confused!



In that case, here's the map:
http://www.mediafire.com/?y3nuaaoxh1sa0sm
(http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/3645/undergroundd.png)

EDIT: I seem to have a problem where whenever someone types Russian (and probably other) characters, all I see is a bunch of vowels with accents.

Yes, that's been there forever. I think it's mostly because of your language settings; can't really help it atm (MMF really sucks in the way that it doesn't natively support unicode).

It doesn't really matter because I can't read Russian anyways; I just thought I should mention it.

Ah. So that's the reason why when I say AAAEAEOAA (or sumfin) to a player he isn't listening -_-

Just call him "wlad", his previous name... ;)

*bump*
(http://pijokra.nl/zooi/masjin_bug10.png)

Yep, another bug (I am searching for them, sorry xD)
The tower has movet to here, but I can't get out...

If you can find out why this happens, I can easily fix it. I'm quite sure neither gravity nor black hole bombs cause this anymore.

I see two cannons there, maybe it's related to the duplicating items glitch that happens to laggy clients.
(Would make it hard to test, unfortunately.)

*bump*


It's the black hole :P
Just tested it :)

It's too bad more people don't play this game, this this looks like tons of fun.

I dreamed about playing machine last night. Haven't played it for a long, long time, because nobodies online when i am.

I play this game loads with like 8 friends. It works perfectly, never had any real problems with lag. But the game is lacking controller support. Please please please let me use my Xbox Controller  :handjoystick:

-bump-

I found the red/blue squares go away bug.

You just have to press CTRL. Probably used for debugging?