[Release] Compo4all MAME - ladder/scoreboard competition for classic arcade games :)


Hmmm, what is weird is that the score only shows in the current month score, NOT on the all time list.  

CJ
There is definately some sort of funny business going on there, but not sure what; the server had a defined restart right at that second as well, oddly enough, and there was a few submissions going on at once; but the .hi file submitted at the time, did decode to be that score (and another crazy high one.)

I suspect a parsing error in the .hi file .. I could bump that one over form my custom code to the plugin we have now fo rHiToText, which also knows dkong .. or we could see how it goes, could have been something fluky.

jeff
 
Okay, querying the 'exec info' is into the server; not quite fully populated yet for all the indies, but its in for Microbes, and all the arcade titles.

That'll give you something to chew on for a couple days; I've added pseudocode to the compo4all sdk wiki, and in PM, so running stuff shouldn't be too bad, or at least getting 90% there

Now to modify c4a-mame, and also gargoyle, hsatari, battlejewels, ... :eek: :eek:

jeff

edit: and lets hope I didn't break it all :eek:
 
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Notaz releases Super Hexagon into the mix.. woowoo :)

I've just posted an updated BattleJewels to the repo, now with Compo4All support :)

BJ was a tough one to drop in .. its a complex and subtle game with a lot of strategies, so I'm having a hard time working out a good scoring method; let me know if you get any creative ideas :)

- when you start it up, you can 'start new compo4all game', which is basicly a group of presets; you can save and load this game, and it'll do savestates/suspends as needed; but that shouldn't effect your score.

- when you load a game, the slot list will show 'compo4all' to differentiate those slots from normal game slots

- c4a mode implies Gladiator class, and implies always-refill the board mode (AI has a fighting chance; in non-refill mode, the AI performs poorly.)

- the 'score' submitted to C4A is simply - wins minus losses, where the result is more than 0. ex: if you've won 5 matches, and lost 3, it'll submit a 2 for you.

This is a simple scheme, but .. at first I was going to score for faster victories, but didn't want to penalize slow deliberate players over wreckless fast players; I can't award pure-experience-points as score since its an RPG and experience just goes up and up; I didn't want to score based on experience per match, since you might fluke into a victory, or get a random loot drop thats insanely over powered etc, and most matches are fairly linear experience reward .. theres a lot of factors, but consistent playstyle tends to end up around the same ballpark per matchup; etc etc.. so much to worry about!

We'll see how this scoring method words; or maybe I'll have to open up several score tables in C4A for BattleJewels, so you can see how you rate in multiple dimensions.. speed, numebr of wins in a row, number of spells used per match, etc etc..

Right now it implies Gladiator (warrior class) for C4A; a simpler straight forward class, and one where the matches tend not to drag out; for healer class they can reaaaly drag on; the rogue tends to damage-over-time the opponent after he scores a few levels and get some abilities and skills, but a healer opponent can drag that out, etc etc.. but the gladiator usually ends up with some abilities that let him finish the match quicker, at least more controllanbly than the others..

.. but if you like BJ, you'll end up doing a lot of matches, and getting into the gear options and abilities and so forth..

game is self documenting (hit 'Y' a lot), but some of the options don't stand clear:

- 'q' may be pressed to bring up a 'suspend' type menu.. forcing a savestate, or letting you quick-quit the game, return to menu etc

- when buying spells/abilities .. the higher point count may mean a better ability, but more likely it just means an off-class ability; the warrior, wanting a rogue ability.. it'll cost him a lot of pick-points, since its not his tree; peopel tend ot think 'oh, that ability must be awesome, it costs a lot'.. but no, it just is off-class (like trying to get Stealth for the Gladiator. Awesome combo, but cost you 3 picks to get; the Gladiators ore abilities are all 1 pick, and pretty good.)

... well, I hope this brings BJ to a whole new generation of players; I didnt' have preview pics on it before which may have turned off a lot of potential players, but I hope C4A brings more life to it again.

I'm pretty proud of BJ .. spent a lot of time making it a few years back; made it during the Dark Days, when my first daughter was born; writing games on zero sleep is weird, but its something I do when I have kids apparently :p And it even worke dout pretty well.. good looking, really good AI (I mean, it can be good, and it can be bad; it has AI moods, intelligence and aggressiveness levels, etc; you'll see it throw a move to try and sucker you, you'll see it play well or badly depending on things, it'll try to use abilities to screw with you as you get more levels... etc.)

If anyone is a seriously good pixel artist, let me know.. so much more to do in BJ, its tempting to pick it up and rewrite half of it.. it was meant to be head to head multiplayer, but I never added that; it needs a 'paper doll' inventory screen so I need a huge pile of little artworks for items; it needs an overworld map with quests :p it needs art for new resolution sizes (you can see some lettergoxing here..) etc.

I hope you enjoy!

jeff
 
Awesome news, but surely pausing and savestates shouldn't affect your score. Your score will still only effect an update to the online high scores if you're online when you quit though, as you said.


(Sorry, I guess the affect/effect thing is my version of your EXCESSIVE SHOUTING thing)
 
S'okay effect and affect are different; given the speed I wrote that I'm more surprised you didn't pick on 30 other things :) honestly, we should all pause and reread and fix before hitting post :0
 
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did a quick hack on the main menu artwork to get a marquee.. what do you think of this?

I really suck at pixel art these days :)
 

bj-c4a-marquee.jpg
 
I'm not going to quibble over what's "pixel art", but looks okay to me :)
 
I didn't make the BJ artwork; the above I just clipped from the main menu :)

'Ste' (not seen him around these parts in years) was also not an artist, but was outstanding with a pixel editor for sure; he made the 'jewels' in the game, and the large fonts and general layouts; he went after folks for the dragon and somie of th eother nice things, and got license for them etc. So he did great assembly and some great little stuff.. but he's not around anymore I think.

So yeah, BJ seems worth of a v2 with major changes, but thats the artsiest of the games I've worked on.. probably already has 50 or more little pieces of art, and needs hundreds more :p (And when you start adding new art, it generally means redoing all the old assets as well, for stylistic consistency)

jeff
 
at least Microbes can say '35 stars' now, like it wants to.

Ah a tempting feature! for Rescue I might want to say "3 girls, 6 monsters and 12 gems"  lol.


Or "3.24 girls" with monsters and gems counting as fractions of a girl :p


I guess I'd better stick to scalar positive integer "points", don't want to make your life too difficult Skeezix!


At the moment I'm using:

find girl     10


rescue girl  100


kill monster  10


gem/gold       1

I might put a "time penalty" in there too, like -1 point per minute or something.

And maybe a "survival bonus" if you survive and get back outside the cave, rather than dying or getting stuck...
 
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@skeezix: I did not follow this thread for a long time so sorry if this has been ansered already:

Is there already an easy way to implement c4a to our own applications? What has to be done for this? How much do you have to do on your side?

An HowTo would be great, maybe a sticky thread if there is already a solution for this, so that everyone can implement c4a profiles in their games.
 
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@skeezix: I did not follow this thread for a long time so sorry if this has been ansered already:

Is there already an easy way to implement c4a to our own applications? What has to be done for this? How much do you have to do on your side?

An HowTo would be great, maybe a sticky thread if there is already a solution for this, so that everyone can implement c4a profiles in their games.
http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/12127-release-compo4all-mame-ladderscoreboard-competition-for-classic-arcade-games/page-18#entry237182
There's a couple of Wiki pages up, though mostly they cover the server/launcher side. We really need to update the client information
 
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@skeezix: I did not follow this thread for a long time so sorry if this has been ansered already:

Is there already an easy way to implement c4a to our own applications? What has to be done for this? How much do you have to do on your side?

An HowTo would be great, maybe a sticky thread if there is already a solution for this, so that everyone can implement c4a profiles in their games.
the thread first post has a few points of interest in it.. I update it on occasion to link to these items. But yes, as pmprog notes.. we really need to clean up and organize more ;)

Essentially, adding the client into your pnd is trivial, I just need a conf file updated on the server to make it turn on your game, and good to go. (And sending marquee artwork to milkshake for the c4a website.)

jeff
 
I uploaded a new version of my game Rescue, with compo4all high scores.

So, let's see if you can get a score!

1 point for gems, 10 points for killing a monster, 10 points for finding a girl, 100 points for rescuing a girl.  It's not very easy.
 
I wonder if you could help, i have tried roms for pulstar and sf2 and nothing works... can someone point me into the right website, pls? :)
 
I think it is high time for some PRIZES in this "compo4all" shenanigans.

There is now a weekly Excellent Chocolate Competition
for the best compo4all score in
Rescue !!!
author ineligible while stocks last not to be used in combination with any other offers conditions apply the judge's decision is final.

Don't let _wb_ take home the prize this week, with a measly 45 points!!

Important Links:

I know you're excited about the chocolate, but can you play The Game ???

Do you have what it takes?  Are you man, woman, or child enough ??  Let's find out !!!  Click the diamond today !!!

gem.jpg


Haha it's kind of fun being an ineffectual spammer.
 
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