Discuss the massively-multiplayer home defense game.
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Good ideas there, DrNoid, especially about the idea of a headless client polling the server for recordings to check.
There are some simple checks that the PHP server can do to catch walking through walls and a few other things. I'll be putting those in place, for sure.
There's no way to catch people turning the shroud off, though.... except doing everything on the server!
Yeah, when in doubt about something like this, check the recorded game.
Look in the recordedGames folder, and copy the appropriate file into the playbackGame folder.
When you launch Castle Doctrine, it will immediately start playing back that game for you. You can watch exactly how you played last time, and see all the details, and see if the bug is caught in the recorded game. If it is, please send me the recorded game file!
As far as buyable maps breaking the game, the idea is to have them be REALLY expensive.... something to shoot for, and only affordable after you become rich. Maybe $10K or $20K, plus some fraction of the target house's value.
So, you have to be rich to buy one, which means you have a lot to lose if you fail to understand the map perfectly.
This is a way to tempt the rich back into playing the robbing game, and make the rich vulnerable to robbers again (even if they have 24-bit combination locks protected by 9-thick walls).
This will also lessen the value of simple combo locks. You will need to design a house that is tricky to understand EVEN if you have a map of it (which is more interesting).
But, you know, for the small-fry who has $5000 in their house.... who is going to pay $10K to get a map of your house? No one!
Also, the map will be fixed at the time you buy it, and may fall out-of-date with the owner's house, as the owner changes it. This will give the rich incentive to change their houses, which will put themselves at risk (having to self-test a changing house). And, once you buy a map, you will RUSH to understand it before the owner has a chance to change the house, which means you will be taking a bigger risk, not fully understanding the map, etc.
The wife and kids standing still until they see the robber is a good idea! You're right that the RPS guy mistakenly reported it working this way.
The wife and kids serving as extra backup lives is a really good idea.... would be really cool to "take over" one of them, and see them dressed in robber clothes (Dad's dead, Emma, so it's up to you to go out robbing now). Could add drama as your lives dwindle. Though I worry that it is an extra, necessary layer.... I try to keep my designs as simple as possible. Also, insta-death is really dramatic already.
Thank you!
This is caused by some kind of server-side bug.
It may have had something to do with deadlocks that I've been fixing. I think they're all fixed now.
Anyway, when you see one of these bugs, PLEASE quit the game right away and send me your latest recordedGame file.
This should never happen as long as you are actually editing. If you leave the computer for 5+ minutes without editing, then it should happen. But otherwise, it's caused by a server-side bug that needs tracking!
Please send all bug reports to me by email.
And yes, I am interested in hearing about any and all bugs!
I'm guessing the game is trying to pick a weird resolution that your macbook SAYS it supports, but that it doesn't really support (the game asks for a list of available resolutions, and then picks the smallest available one to save CPU). This happened on someone else's macbook too. In your case, the problem is compounded by whatever resolutions are supported by the mirroring.
So, to fix this, try changing the game settings (settings folder) to use a resolution that you KNOW is good for HDMI mirroring on your TV. Edit screenWidth and screenHeight with TextEdit.
All these names are pulled from the US Social Security database of names, and are era-appropriate for the 1991 period of the game (using real probability distributions for names from the era). And the different family members have age-appropriate names for that era (matching the year they were born). So, for example, your wife might be named Donna, but not your daughter. Well, she might be named Donna, but with a much smaller chance.
Yeah, it's called a CAPTCHA.
I really hate those, though.... so that will be a last resort. Email confirmation will usually block bots, I think.
But that won't work for guest posts. I really don't want to turn off guest posts.
Very cool stuff here!
One thing this makes me realize is how HARD a good house can be to figure out, even if you have a map of the whole thing. So those people who cheat by turning the shroud off don't necessarily help themselves that much. After all, in Deadly Rooms of Death (DROD), you get to see the whole map, and there's still a puzzle to solve.
Anyway, it's clear that buyable maps (v6) won't break the game. If anything, it will make it much more interesting (simple 24-button combo locks that rely on simple hidden circuits will no longer be viable).
Also, I just disabled guest posting of new topics, and forced email confirmation for registrations.
Guests can still post replies, though. We'll see how that goes.
Yeah, thanks everyone who has been reporting these to me! It's been really helpful.
If you happen to install The Castle Doctrine in an unwriteable spot on Windows 8, like the "Program Files" folder, then Windows will silently send all files written by the game into a sandbox location, perhaps:
C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\CastleDoctrine_v5\
Thus, if you're looking for your recordedGames files and can't find them, they might be in there.
Maybe someday!
But I have a lot of other stuff to worry about right now (like getting the game through alpha).
As admin, I can watch someone's self test to see if they cheated when submitting their house.
And I can confirm that this house does indeed have a solution. The shrine for the dead spouse is a nice touch!
That thing you're standing on there is actually a wire bridge, not a switch. So, you stepping on that is not what turns on the electric floor (it must be a timing or position thing, using dogs behind the walls).
Steam rejected SID back in the day.
I have one game on Steam now (Inside a Star-filled Sky).
Banned him, Colorfusion.
Ominipotent: when you watch a tape, the tape plays by YOUR client's rules. So, if the player cheated, you will see them literally walking through a closed door (for example). The tape just records their moves (up, down, left, right) and the spots where they use a tool. During playback, you're seeing a full simulation of those moves on the house map.
Okay, fixed now. It blocked new users from joining the game. I'm emailing everyone who was affected.
Really sorry about this!
Okay, fixed now. It blocked new users from joining the game. I'm emailing everyone who was affected.
Really sorry about this!
Oh man! Looks like I broke something...
Taking a look now.
Good point!
On the list for v6.
Here's my address directly: jasonrohrer@fastmail.fm
Looks like you've been able to download the game, but have NOT successfully logged into the game server?
Can you email me your latest recordedGame file? That would help me figure out what's going on.
Yes, that's correct about when your house is saved post-robbery.
v6 will let you watch security tapes before editing/testing your house again.
Could have been something suspicious! It's hard to tell, given that report, though.
Yeah, I have thought about that!
Problem is that the game has non-negligible load time (to parse all the gameElements files). So, invoking it repeatedly for each check (like, the server PHP code invoking the headless game over and over) would be too slow.
A more attractive idea is to "farm out" robbery logs to be checked in the background by randomly-chosen players' game clients. A cool idea, but it would require a ton of programming work to pull it off.
Yeah, rmmh, this chart is a heroic effort! Amazing.
It is possible to be careful, though!
Like, place chihuahuas instead of pit bulls for testing, and then drop in pit bulls before the final test.
The electric floors and trapdoors are harder to test, though.
In v6, there will be a "light box" tile that lights up when powered, but is not deadly. Like a disco floor tile. So, that will help you test electric floor and trapdoor traps (and maybe even door traps) without dying!
Anyway, once this is in place, it will be possible to play the game without ever dying, if you are careful. And I really like that aesthetic: the feeling of needing to be very careful.
And the drama created by this tension is priceless:
i literally just sat at my computer staring at my dead pixel body for like 5 minutes.
I want to make a game where you stare at your dead body for 5 minutes.