Very minor cosmetic issue in 2.0

[nullard]

Hey Xaa, I just started playing MageWorld and I'm hooked =)

Just thought I'd point out that the new feature in 2.0 of 'sprinting' by holding shift makes the running animation continue even when Pooky should be swimming.

[Ghost]

even though that is probably something I would change I will quote Xaa yet a second time! "if you find a bug, it's a feature"

[Xaa]

nullard said:

Hey Xaa, I just started playing MageWorld and I'm hooked =)

Just thought I'd point out that the new feature in 2.0 of 'sprinting' by holding shift makes the running animation continue even when Pooky should be swimming.

So don't make her run from land into the water - stop, then use it again after she starts swimming.

[Xaa]

Ghost said:

even though that is probably something I would change I will quote Xaa yet a second time! "if you find a bug, it's a feature"

Heh. If you knew how tough it was to get that to work, you wouldn't say "well, I'd fix it." It's not that easy. Just making the character swim in water and walk on land takes three interacting skrits that total about a quarter of a meg.

Characters in DS aren't designed to have more than one "walk" animation. So, Mageworld uses a fairly sophisticated system to get them to do it which reads terrain type and movement speed, and when the 'walk' animation is called, it calls the correct animation based on the terrain type you are currently in and your anticipated movement speed. But, once an animation BEGINS playing, the game engine won't allow you to just abort it and begin another if the action which initiated the animation (in this case, walking) is still going on. Transitions to/from water initiate a "stop" command, which ends the "walk" movement so the character will load the correct animation for continued movement thereafter. Meanwhile, the "shift" key is an additional element to this, and overrides the "stop" command in some cases, depending on the situation - you're spending mana for this, it doesn't last long, and you don't want the additional movement you gain from it to be wasted making the character look pretty.

Of course, this only scratches the surface. Those little footsteps you hear when the character moves around don't come automatically - DS has no provision in it to do it. All that is additional code I had to create. And, in Mageworld 2.0, the sounds you make walking are different if you aren't wearing boots. And, even more, taking your boots off and sneaking around really IS sneaking around - you get bonuses when using the "stealth" skill if your character is making quiet footsteps instead of noisy ones.

None of this came overnight. Mageworld 1.0 literally took 18 months to complete, and getting from 1.0 to 2.0 took 5 more months. Basically, we're looking at a mod that's been built by one guy working for two years. That the character still runs instead of swimming when you're holding the "shift" key SOUNDS like it would be an easy fix. But, it's not. To fix it would literally require a new game engine, as the basic problem is engine limits, not coding errors.