Fixed the two main bugs

The weapon selector now works with the heal spell. I used ♪'s graphic.

The map editor now shows ♪'s new enemies. The graphic had been shortened (probably by not deselecting trim white space on the import to director). If the hieght of the tlk_mr4Objects doesn't divide by exactly 32, the map editor just discards the excess. In this case, to get 14 rows, the graphic needed to be 448 pixels high (or more) but it was only ...[click title to read more]...

There should be small arrows in the map editor on each screen's edges that indicate where is a backgroundsactive object on an adjacent screen.

It would help making many maps where you need to align walls/forest/whatever with each other in adjacent screens.

I really want to get away from Shockwave. It is a dying platform (dying?? it's basically undead at this point) and it causes us so many problems. Especially those of us who are not on Windows. (although it's not really great even on that platform).

But what to move to?

Java?
Vala? (C# compiled to C and then to native applications)
.NET/mono? (C#)
Flash?
Python?


Well, I've been thinking about that again recently as well.

What about.... Javascript!

Wait wuh?

It's been getti ...[click title to read more]...

Full Title:
Merlin Open 22 - Editable Data, Code, Shrouders Maps and more!

Wow! There is a lot of new stuff in this latest MR.

First there are two new maps. They are polar opposites in their approach.

Scrub Fort from cjfcjfjc is all about the power of the c-blast you quickly become mega powerful and destroy screenfuls of enemies with ease.

Citadel from ♪ on the other hand gives you the heal blast and a few troops and pitches you against a fortress featuring never-before-seen background g ...[click title to read more]...

Although as of writing MR Evolution is all the rage, I wanted to have a look back at what I've been doing in MR Open. I think that being able to set additional properties in the map files with simple text editing would be pretty good. Things like data on the creator; this could affect the credits and generic cutscenes. I suppose that a proper name of the map (for map editor etc) and a short description would be pretty good too.

These properties are entirely optional to fill, but could be read ...[click title to read more]...

It would be a very good thing to have passage indicators on the edges of the screen you're viewing when editing the active background. Ones that show, where the next room doesn't have any walls yet.

This enables the editor to place screen edges in the wanted places much more easily, as well as assist aligning the walls properly from one screen to the next. It could be as simple as using the green arrows on the tiles where the next screen doesn't have any active background at the very edge.

I'm experimenting with doing documentation on Google docs.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=djb3xf2_3dpt7stfk


The idea is that if there are errors or whatever you can correct them without having to go through me.

Please let me know what you think or if you'd prefer a wiki for this sort of thing.

I seem to have reached a limit in terms of new rows that I can add to the objects tile sheet in the map editor, which is making it rather difficult to add more enemies. It just ignores new lines downward, as well as on the sides. If anybody knows of a solution, it would be pretty awesome!

Also, I recommend getting the director mx 2004 demo (and fireworks! yay google! they still exist in 2004 form!) to all you peeps!

May I ask why the heck there are trees in BGpassive?????
I mean, I used them in my colosseum and wasn't paying attencion - now all seven maps in it have trees you can walk through, mostly>_<

If you were have trouble getting Merlin 25 to work, give this one a try.

It's basically the same but ♪ and myself have made some adjustments to try to get things more stable.

Have a go of it and let us know your experiences.

http://themetalbox.com/downloads/merlin_open_26.zip

The other type of data (besides bitmaps) that is still locked up is the screen info.

Rather cunningly, I use directors screen layout facilities to design the screens you see in the game.

Director has a timeline, although the whole MR program runs in frame 1.

That leaves the rest of the time line to use for screen designs. When you start the program, you'll see the scripts load, then the screen goes black for a few seconds, then the menu appears.

One of the things the game is doing du ...[click title to read more]...

Note to self: fix this.

Following earlier discussion on version control, it became apparant that git was the favourite option. I had not tried it before, but boy is it fast!

How to install git on ubuntu:
http://kibyegon.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/how-to-install-git-on-ubuntu-lucid-10-04/

You may need to get a public key for gitourious
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-30709.html

then you can try this and see if you get a copy of merlin open
git clone git@gitorious.org:merlin-s-revenge-open/merlin-s ...[click title to read more]...

Brainstorm control ideas: go!


My thoughts is to have the first finger pressed to bring up a dpad, then the second can charge/release. For summoning, one could maybe drag'n'drop soldiers out of the sidebar?

Changing spells could be another bar, or some kind of finger motion... or shake could bring up the weapon manager?
it could also bring up pause...


Thoughts!? Suggestions very needed!

What are all the commands in the Cutscenes
On Mr open?