2.1

[Craig]

The main focus of the next update will be an overhaul of the games audio quality.

It will feature a large number of high quality, unique sound effects for all kinds of actions in the game, including different sound effects depending on what blocks you are manipulating and what tools you are using. Combat sounds, GUI sounds, the works.

Final update log:

Additions/Changes:
* World saving stability greatly improved.
* World file size reduced in some cases.

* Major Audio System overhaul.
* 100+ new Sound effects.
* 41 Full length Music Tracks - Over 3.5 hours of music.
* Song Shuffle.
* Audio notification when a player joins your world.

* Global Skills Highscore Table.
* Title Screen Settings - Carry your settings to all maps.

* Massive update of new Script commands.
* Full Script command documentation available in game.

* More varied terrain generation.
* Terrain generation parameters exposed.
* Natural Flat world.

* Animated Liquid Physics.
* Weather: Rain, Hail, Fog.
* New Path, Wall and Line Creative tools.
* Multiple clipboards in inventory supported.

* HUD Compass.
* HUD Position Adjuster.
* Player Waypoints.

* All NPCs are now unlocked.
* NPCs can now be named.
* NPC blocks now work like Mob Spawn blocks.
* New progress screen for Unlockable Avatars.

* Zone Folders supported.
* Component Folders supported.
* Script Folders supported.
* History Folders supported.

* Sun and Moon back glow.
* Improved sunrise/sunset lighting.

* New Skilling and WIP Map Attributes.
* Proximity Detector block replaces Proximity Mine.
* One Way Glass and Steel Spikes now support multi-texture.
* Upside down Steel Spikes.
* New Item: Binoculars.

Bug Fixes:
* Zone Builder.
* Clipboard Replace.
* Photo Album bluescreen.
* Join Session bluescreeen.
* Marker block fixes.
* CopyRegion script command.
* Max Sign text limit fixed.
* Other Script fixes.
* Phantom WIFI Power problems.
* Spider Rings no longer work on Invisible Barriers.
* Lag caused by large zones.
* Sections of map not loading (void sections).
* Mob Spanwer fixes.
* Over 100 other fixes and internal improvements.

[Craig]

2.1 will feature 'near' infinite flat worlds.

The maps will be 512 blocks high.

You will be able to control the ground level just like you can now.

You will be able to control the horizontal size to one of the following:

256 x 256
512 x 512
1024 x 1024
2048 x 2048
4096 x 4096
8192 x 8192
16384 x 16384
32768 x 32768
Infinite

A new flat type called Natural will also be added. This will have grass on top, then the usual dirt, clay, sandstone etc layers down to rhyolite and bedrock. Just like a flat survival map would be, but without caves and ores. The ground height is not changeable with this type.

The reason to only release flat worlds initially is to get infinite worlds to the public but also give us more time to improve the terrain generation. Because once the terrain generation is released, you will likely need to create a new world if we go and change the terrain again, so we need to get the terrain as close to what we want it to be on its first release.

Releasing only flat worlds first will also give us an opportunity to iron out any kinks caused by infinite worlds before releasing them proper, kind of like an infinite worlds beta.

And finally, I don't want future updates to take up to a year again, so if we have a big feature, releasing it in stages like this is a way to mitigate that problem.

[Craig]

Miss Cellany is doing the gigantic task of sourcing and organizing all the audio files for this update.

She said if anybody has any suggestions, to pm her.

A gigantic thank you to Miss Cellany!

[Craig]

Conversion of Pre 2.1 Flat worlds to 2.1 Flat worlds is mostly finished.

The conversion was necessary because the world data structures had to be redesigned a bit to allow for super large worlds. Existing Flat worlds must be converted to take advantage of super large worlds.

So in 2.1 you will be able to load your existing Flat worlds and have them take advantage of super large worlds, if you want them to, it is a choice.

[Craig]

[Craig]

Here is the HUD compass and HUD adjuster.

The adjuster allows you to push the HUD elements to the edge of your screen and bypass the necessary Title Safe Area restrictions.

Below is the normal HUD position, with arrows indicating possible adjustment.


Below is an adjusted HUD


And below is the same, but with an alternative compass position

[Craig]

[Craig]

[Craig]

Script Folders now supported.

[Craig]

Script Folders:



Component Folders:



The System Component Pack is now nicely organized:

[Craig]

Updated script command list: (Items in Orange are new)
I will update this list as it changes, rather than make a new post.

AddBlock [x,y,z] [block] [aux]
AddPickup [x,y,z] [item] [qty]
CaveIn [x,y,z] [seed]
CCTV [x,y,z] [n|s|e|w] [millisecs] [admin]
ClearBlock [x,y,z]
ClearRegion [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [percent]
Commit
CopyBlock [x,y,z] [x,y,z]
CopyRegion [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [x,y,z]
FillRegion [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [block]
Fog [x,z] [radius] [duration] [intensity] [r,g,b] [visibility]
Hail [x,z] [radius] [duration] [intensity] [r,g,b] [minsize,maxsize]
History [name] [delete] [player]
Inventory [player|x,y,z] [add|take|clear] [item] [qty]
Inventory [x,y,z] [player] [*move] [item] [qty]
Inventory [player] [x,y,z] [*move] [item] [qty]
Inventory [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [add|take|clear|copy|*move] [item] [qty]
Inventory [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [copy|*move]
Marker [name] [delete|x,z] [admin]
MoveBlock [x,y,z] [x,y,z]
MoveRegion [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [x,y,z]
Notify [message[gamertag]] [local|global]
Paste [pack:component] [x,y,z] [facing] [copytype]
Permission [permission] [on|off]
ReplaceRegion [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [block1] [block2]
Rain [x,z] [radius] [duration] [intensity] [r,g,b]
Script [name]
SetPower [x,y,z] [on|off]
SetSwitch [x,y,z] [on|off|toggle]
SpawnMob [x,y,z] [mobtype]
Teleport [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [absolute|relative]
Teleport [player] [x,y,z]
Text [x,y,z] [text[gamertag]] [page|name]
Texture [x,y,z] [id]
Wait [millisecs]
Waypoint [delete|x,z]
Zone [name] [delete] [x,y,z] [x,y,z] [edit=on|off] [pvp=on|off] [fly=on|off] [mobs=on|off] [script=name]

Conditionals:
If
CanEquip [item] [true|false]
HasAction [item] [action] [true|false]
HasAction [item] [action] [compare] [qty]
HasHistory [name] [player|global] [true|false]
HasHistory [name] [player|global] [compare] [count]
HasInventory [player|x,y,z] [item] [true|false]
HasInventory [player|x,y,z] [item] [compare] [count]
HasMarker [name] [true|false]
HasPermission [permission] [true|false]
HasSkill [skill] [compare] [level]
IsAvatar [avatar] [true|false]
IsBlock [x,y,z] [block] [true|false]
IsCombat [true|false]
IsDistance [x,y,z] [compare] [distance]
IsFiniteResources [true|false]
IsPowered [x,y,z] [true|false]
IsSkills [true|false]
IsRandom [x,y]
IsTime [player] [compare] [seconds]
Then
Elseif
Else
Endif

[Craig]

You can now name NPC's.

When you open an NPC dialogue, adjacent blocks are powered, allowing a script to be executed via an adjacent script block. When the dialogue is closed, the power is stopped, allowing another script to be executed via the script block.

Scripts can both set NPC text and query if a player has viewed the text, allowing dynamic NPC dialogue to be created, rewards to be given, etc.

[Craig]

Blocks that are powered by Switches, Buttons and other blocks, except pressure plates, has changed.

For blocks other than switches and buttons, the blocks powered are:

West, North, East, South, Above, Below.

For switches and buttons, the blocks powered are the 4 blocks on the plane of the switch or button.

e.g.
If the switch is on the ground, the center, west, north, east, south blocks, one block below the switch are powered.
If the switch is on the ceiling, the center, west, north, east, south blocks, one block above the switch are powered.
If the switch is on the west face, the center, north, above, south, below blocks, one block to the east of the switch are powered.
If the switch is on the east face, the center, north, above, south, below blocks, one block to the west of the switch are powered.
If the switch is on the north face, the center, west, above, east, below blocks, one block to the south of the switch are powered.
If the switch is on the south face, the center, west, above, east, below blocks, one block to the north of the switch are powered.

Another way to explain this, whichever block the switch or button is attached to, that block and the 4 blocks adjacent on the plane of the attachment face, are powered.

Blocks diagonally adjacent are no longer powered.

If you foresee these changes causing any problems, please post about them here: http://totalminerforums.net/index.php?board=31.0

[Craig]

A screen has been added to the unlockable avatars screen which shows exactly what you still have left to do to unlock each avatar.

And all bugged avatars are now fixed as far as I know.

[Craig]

In the last two days I have replaced the audio engine in Total Miner to use XACT rather than the XNA audio types. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff827590.aspx

This has the following benefits:

* No more pauses/freezes/lock ups/frame rate glitches when sounds or songs are loaded and played. XACT does not hold up the main thread when a track is played (like the XNA audio types do), so all these hiccups are gone.

* XACT supports playing large audio files via streaming, so we can now play entire songs in the game and it use less RAM than the game currently uses when playing severly cut down versions of songs. It really is nice being able to listen to a song for a few minutes rather than a few seconds.

* XACT supports true 3D sound. So when that mob is walking around behind you, it actually sounds like it's behind you.

* RAM usage. Using XACT has allowed me to cut down the sound effect RAM footprint from 26Mb to 9Mb and the song RAM footprint from 5Mb to 0.5Mb. Thats a 21.5Mb win that the game can use for other things (also equals less out of memory errors).

* XACT significantly cuts down the complexity of the audio management code in the game.