Teleporters are cool

I got my level start and end teleporters in yesterday. Which is good, cos now i can see the proper timing when starting and ending a level. Which is an important factor to the fow of the game. Especially if you are like me and counting how long a level lasts, to see if it is tweaked right, and also that it meets the criteria of sweet, fast levels to bring people into the game. Also of course because Trials are only so long.

So i borrowed some graphics that the artist did for Pellmell for now (it looked nice and had enough frames to use). It works quite well. So now the flow is in, i teleport into the game, the enemies start shooting 2 seconds after, and once i have collected all the civilians (though soon, some may die!) the teleporter dutifully appears and waits for you to enter, when it will then fade out over 1 second. Taking you with it, and the level also fades.

I also got in 5 of the level (scene) wall setup/designs. These are wheer all the enemies have to be written and placed. That of course is where there is going to be real fun. I also made a spawn list of places to spawn the civillians at. Makes it much tider than them all appearing in one corner, or worse in walls or in no go areas.

Laters

Dang Saving and Multiple devices

It seems that MS have half written the Saving code for the Xna suite. I would love to of just said i wanna save this file, and it handle it by noticing there are multiple choices and sorting it all out for me. Then keeping which device they chose etc internal to their system.

However they did not do this, so we all (all XBlig devs) have to go and do it ourselves. All of us writing very similar code to handle this situation. then we have to handle issues like the MU being pulled etc. The Xna community of Peers would love to be able to fail for not re-requesting confirmation if somone slects no device. It does get a bit more ocmplex than that but..

Take it from me, this is just not fun code to write. I have actually been there in the trenches on the PS2 and written all that crappy memory cardflow that they demand in their TRCs. If the user has swapped cards put up this message, then if he has a full card put up this one and then go around once more for the memory card dance.

Although i am complaining about MS in this case, it is not a fully heartfelt complaint. Their system is in fact a bit there, unlike the hell of the PS2.

Personally i couldn't care less if some bozo happens to pull out his MU while selecting the MU device. It seems to me he was in fact trying to break it anyway. BOO to you!

But i am not in a situation to ignore this current thread of making our games more robust for the BOZO's out there. Now i love good solid software, i do not like confirmations tbh. I write them into my code, but i do not really agree with a lot of them. The industry has just come to expect them, and maybe games players have to. To me i just am not sure where it should all end ?

Quit ?
Are you sure ?
Are you really sure ?
etc etc.. i know ya get my meaning here.

Well back to the main reason for this post. I cannot find a nice flow diagram of what i need to write to make the MU and hard drive selecting work in a nice manner. One that has confirmations in it, and handles errors and the like. Therefore i need to create one. haha!

Yup i love me some diagrams at times. This one i will vet through the XBlig and Xna community first to see if i can get a good consensus on what we all want. Then i can get on and write it once, not more than once which i also hate, lol.

g'night