Hi, if you're an enthusiastic Ardentryst fan, go ahead and grab the testing release of v1.71
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ardentryst/files/ardentryst/1.71%20Comet/ardentryst1.71.tar.gz/download

and if you're a package manager, see if it's got everything required for a package.

I need to know whether it contains any showstopper bugs, but also if it works properly when installed system-wide (i.e. it handles save files locally in ~/.ardentryst/ properly etc.)

Any other comments, fixes, or additions, please post here as soon as you can! Thanks. I'd love to get this release out fairly quickly

If you've played v1.71 somewhat, please post your experience here, whether it runs smoothly, without bugs, that sort of thing. I'd really like to know especially if there's anything weird, because this will probably be the version most widely distributed!

Thanks

hey, the sound in 1.71 is terribly garbled, it was (mostly) alright in 1.70. sorry, I've not tested more, because this is pretty much show-stopping for me. this is on Ubuntu 9.04. I don't think this is related, but here's the output from the terminal, just in case:

./ardentryst.py:24: DeprecationWarning: the sha module is deprecated; use the hashlib module instead
import smtplib, email, math, sha, md5
./ardentryst.py:24: DeprecationWarning: the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead
import smtplib, email, math, sha, md5
Ext.reader.Sax2 not found

if run for the second time, there's no sound at all. it's the same whether it's installed system-wide, or run from it's directory.

Oh this would be because I forced the sampling rate to 44100.
I'll leave that alone now...

Added to the TODO for 1.72 stable release.

wonder what's wrong with that, that's a standard sample rate nowadays, everything else works well in 44 kHz, 48 kHz even, on my motherboard-integrated soundchip. anyway, this is about music as well as sound, I don't know if I was clear enough on that. any chance for a quick temporary patch reversing this change? I'd like to test more than a main menu.

edit: scratch that, I got the sound working perfectly on an older Ubuntu version. must be some audio libraries issue or something.

If I don't specify the sample rate, it chooses a stable one. Which sometimes is 22KHz (I think... maybe I'm just delusional. I don't trust the information it gives me about what sample rate it is, I just hear it) on Windows. Even though 44KHz works just fine. Well, I thought it did. There was some crackling and stuff after one loop of the music, which would go away if the volume was changed (the in-game volume)

Strange, I'll revert the change. I'm putting together a list of things to change so that I don't have to make a 1.72, 1.73, 1.74, 1.75.. etc. Less testing and less file transferring = less hassle.

don't rush it, this may be something on my system's side, I'm using some non-default sound libraries and codecs, this could be because of that. still, it's strange that this is an issue with Ardentryst only, and only with 1.71. I'll try to isolate this issue, and get back to you.

right, one minor, but long-standing bug: phantom halberd's description at the shop is truncated at the 'minimum range' stat, and the 'maximum range' stat is not shown at all. it's drawn off-screen, basically. and there's no way to scroll down the text (or I haven't found one).

edit: it's the same with halberd of wrath.

now, this is not a bug, but a usability issue: in menus, pressing up while the uppermost option is highlighted should jump to the lowermost option. likewise, pressing down while the lowermost option is chosen should highlight the uppermost option. in shops this should go left from 'buy' to exit', and right from 'exit' to 'buy'. basically, all menus should wrap. such is the de facto standard nowadays, it saves many keypresses. and fingers.

Haha, I thought about that. Decided against it because it might confuse people. I think I will keep the interface as it is in this game in the series just because so many people are used to it already.

As for the halberd, yes, the shop code is very raw. I changed the font size after I did the shops, forgetting to make sure everything still fitted. I'll see what I can do about that...

edit: In relation to the sound, Ardentryst uses pygame over SDL to get sound. In 1.71, sound is initialised given the parameters 44.1KHz, 16 bit stereo, and 1024 byte buffer size (off the top of my head) however before then (1.7 and previous) it was just initialised without those parameters, so it would pick a suitable mode by itself (more compatibility)

aha! I've found the culprit. sorry it took so long. it looks like this was a bug in 1.2.2rc1 Ogg Vorbis decoder library. the sound works fine with the newest 1.2.3 Vorbis release, and since it's unlikely that any distro would ship with this particular faulty release candidate, I guess there's no need to revert your changes after all. I apologise for the confusion, that's what I get for using test versions of system libraries.

edit: I'll do a few additional checks, just in case, but don't let it hold you back, or something.

there's a missing space in the description of 'fire' ability. it's "(...)to sway the flames higher or lower.Mana cost(...)". should be "(...)to sway the flames higher or lower. Mana cost(...)" also, I'd think there should be a dot after the mana cost in all skills, it's just a normal sentence, even if it ends with "MP".

in regard to wrapping menus, I really don't think anyone would complain about that. people are accustomed to wrapping menus, basically everything else has had these for years now, especially console-style, keyboard or pad-driven games. Ardentryst just begs to be played with a pad. wrapping menus would make a whole lot of a difference for the better, IMNSHO. you'll obviously do as you see fit (you're the boss), but you'd understand my pain if you had a repetitive strain injury from pressing keys and buttons for the last twenty years.

edit: more problems with dots. in the 'Q' menu some options' descriptions end with dots, while most don't. 'View quests." and 'Exit this game and return to the Main Menu.' end with dots, all others don't. the descriptions are normal sentences as well, and should all end with dots. sorry for not finding anything more critical.

now, about the 'help' section. the 'Press X to exit and UP and DOWN to scroll' message overlaps the main help text at the bottom, making it illegible. you should probably cut one line of text from the bottom. I guess cutting one line of text from the top would not be a bad idea either. it would let the text 'breathe', it looks a bit cluttered now.

on the screen which shows the time needed for attaining timegems (right when one enters the level), the times should be justified to the right. it looks shaky now.

also, it would be nice to be able to change the game options from the 'Q' menu. it's a bit of a hassle to have to quit to the main menu just to change from fullscreen to windowed mode, for example.

Yes, I think that has to do with the font size being changed too. I haven't been through the help section in such a long time. I'll add that to the TODO.

As for the options menu, it's more of a design flaw than anything else. It may be a bit hard to get between the Q menu and the options menu because they could potentially be in different source files. O_O

umm, you don't know that? idk Python, but what kind of programming language would force you to have a whole project in one source file? :|

anyway, I did some extra sound checks, tried different sound libs etc., and everything seems to be working fine now, so I think it's safe to force 44 kHz sound after all.

about the install.sh script: it's failing on a fresh system, some distros obviously ship without /usr/share/games directory. please add '-p' to 'mkdir /usr/share/games/ardentryst', so it reads 'mkdir -p /usr/share/games/ardentryst', this'll take care of that. also, it would be nice to have an uninstall function as well.

Okay, I'll look into that. I said 'potentially', because it depends whether you open it from in a level or on the world map.

I'm getting a crash while renaming my character. traceback when ran from the game directory:

An error has occurred.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./ardentryst.py", line 4718, in <module>
main()
File "./ardentryst.py", line 4419, in main
handle_game(Game, True)
File "./ardentryst.py", line 2984, in handle_game
r = Ingame_Menu((screen, Data, Fonts, p1c, soundbox, ticker, Game, player, False))
File "/home/thr/ardentryst1.71/play_level.py", line 1593, in Ingame_Menu
tempgobj = cPickle.load(open(os.path.join("Saves", game.savefilename),"r"))
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'Saves/thr.asf'

and when ran from system-wide installation:

An error has occurred.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/games/ardentryst/ardentryst.py", line 4718, in <module>
main()
File "/usr/share/games/ardentryst/ardentryst.py", line 4419, in main
handle_game(Game, True)
File "/usr/share/games/ardentryst/ardentryst.py", line 2984, in handle_game
r = Ingame_Menu((screen, Data, Fonts, p1c, soundbox, ticker, Game, player, False))
File "/usr/share/games/ardentryst/play_level.py", line 1593, in Ingame_Menu
tempgobj = cPickle.load(open(os.path.join("Saves", game.savefilename),"r"))
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'Saves/thr.asf'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/games/ardentryst/ardentryst.py", line 4722, in <module>
handleException(e)
File "/usr/share/games/ardentryst/ardentryst.py", line 683, in handleException
open("bugreport.txt", "w").write(open(os.path.join(SAVEDIRECTORY, "log.txt"), "r").read())
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'bugreport.txt'

looks like it's looking for the save file in the game directory, instead of ~/.ardentryst.

now, I'm not sure if this can be considered a bug, but when entering a new level, the wand cursor appears for a short while, without touching the mouse. it's a bit confusing. on the other hand, this could be considered a tip that a mouse can be used in this context. though it's only useful for seeing the descriptions of gui elements, correct?

also, is it ok to upload scores with this version? I'd like to test this feature as well. or would you prefer that I stop now? you may never release 1.72 if I go on like this.

haha. It's quite alright. I was afraid I had missed some changes when moving from game directory saves to home directory saves. I'll add that to the todo.

As for the mouse cursor, I'll hide it by default.

EDIT: You probably won't be able to submit from version 1.71 yet, but try anyway. I'll have a look at it now.

EDIT 2: Okay, you should be able to submit from 1.71 now. Have fun.

no luck, I'm getting 'invalid SHC'. ;(

Oh, are you on Windows? Anyway, I just updated the SHC list. Try again

no, I wasn't on Windows. and yes, it works now.

Okay, excellent!

As for the renaming bug..

That's annoying. I don't have immediate access to the SAVEDIRECTORY variable from there. But just letting you know that I've isolated the problem now.

EDIT

I just read about the Ogg Vorbis library that you were using. If anyone else has problems with the v1.71 sound, please pipe up! I think I missed that post..

Also for the grammatical errors, I'll go through and fix them I know how annoying it is when spelling errors (and others) get through to a game's final release!

the sound issue that I've encountered should be of no consequence now, it was only present in a single testing Vorbis version, and it's fixed now. it does not relate to Ardentryst at all, and I really don't think there's anything you should be doing about it. again - sorry for the confusion.

about grammatical errors - I've found none, though I went out of my way to find some. but getting rid of orthographic errors will give the game that 'polished' feel.

when moving FAST to the left, the screen lags behind the character. it's quite possible to have the character completely off-screen in this way. I kinda like it, it gives the game that old sidescroller feel. so it's not a bug for me, I'm just mentioning it because it may be considered a limitation of sorts.

and one more thing - when finished with Mt. Malevolence, the character is not moved towards the next location. this is inconsistent with all other locations with only two exits. were you planning to place an extra shop in the vicinity?

now, my biggest gripe with the game - it needs more content. it feels incomplete, much like a demo version. the engine is good, the gameplay is fine, graphics and sounds are nice, but the game itself is too short, quests and skills are too few. I understand that you know very well about this, but since it looks like you've set your mind on new projects now, please at least consider releasing the game editor. level editor and user-generated content would add greatly to the value of the game, and would considerably extend it's life.

good luck man.

I will definitely put together a map editor for the public, it will be a fresh rewrite since the map editor I use is very hacked together and unprofessional

Add it to the list of a bajillion things I want to do on top of the stuff I have to do x_x

As for the content. I am planning a continuation of the story in Ardentryst 2. I am a full-time uni student so getting in the hours of work is a little hard at the moment.

Also for the level exit.. hmm. It may be something I missed. I'll add it to my list of stuff to check/fix.

Windows XP; pygame 1.9.1; Python 2.6.2; Nyx; Super Crossbow, Sorcerer's Hat, Ring of Fortune, and Grip Boots equipped.
I managed to get an IndexError on Frosty Frolic when I killed a Wasp, turned around, and killed a bat thingy (flust?). I managed to get a similar error in a different part of the same level in 1.70, too. An except: pass line on the enemy killing routine might work, but I haven't looked into the source enough to know how buggy that would be, nor do I know whether it was the wasp or the bat that caused the error (or the player somehow? The traceback includes PLAYER.arrow_tick()).

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Python26\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst.py", line 4718, in <module>
main()
File "C:\Python26\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst.py", line 4406, in main
handle_game(Game)
File "C:\Python26\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst.py", line 3085, in handle_game
PLAYLOCALS)#, "DEMO.dem")
File "C:\Python26\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst1.71\play_level.py", line 2884, in playlevel
PLAYER.arrow_tick()
File "C:\Python26\ardentryst1.71\ardentryst1.71\play_level.py", line 5323, in arrow_tick
lm = LEVEL.map[int(arrow.x/40)][int(arrow.y/40)]
IndexError: list index out of range

Those line numbers scare me, by the way.

I think the arrow went out of the map.
I'll look into this a little later, thanks!!

Edit:
The music appears to be messed up. :(
(I'm using python 2.5.4, pygame 1.8.0, and Windows Vista)
The music wouldn't turn back to normal until I modified the "Conch.py" file.

pygame.mixer.init(22050, -16, 2)

The sound files' sample rate is 44100 right?
Maybe there's just a glitch with pygame 1.8.0?
I hope this information helps.

Well the sound is always a bit picky..

I have found a bug which sometimes occurs in Radkelu's cave:

If I do the implosion-spell just after I'm being pulled into the hollow, while I'm still falling, sometimes (but not always), I instantly die.

This bug has occured about five times, but I have not yet been able to reproduce it on purpose (and I don't know whether it will occur on other spells either).


Anyway, it's a great game and this is the only bug I have found.

Edit:
I've found (remembered) another bug:
When you have a lot of different items (at least 16), then the list of your inventory will flow over the black field in the shops.

Edit2:
Oh, and, rather an inconsistency than a bug: When I finish "Mt. Malevolence", I will not to the next level automatically.

The bugs mentioned in edits 1 and 2 are known I don't know anything about dying instantly from using implosion though...