ZED Online - a fork of the Zod Engine

[city slicker]

thats the most crucial element for z. in a game so fast with multiple battlefields you cant afford to micromanage the units in so basic orders. if you can do that its gonna be even better than the original in every way. keep up!

[DaMarkov]

That's my aim, the make it closer to the original.
Apart from units getting stuck. That happened a lot in the original.
Still a lot of work to be done with units getting stuck on bridges and when entering repair facilities.
It would already help to show to player the path the unit takes. In zod engine it only shows the end point but not the path.
Giving that kind of feedback to the player would already improve things a lot I believe.

[DaMarkov]

Speaking about controls: For custom controls, did I forget anything or are these options OK?

[city slicker]

fort key maybe?
as for the previous post the most diffivult i thing is to determine whether the unit auto grab a flag or a grenade or a vehicle when in combat so maybe a force button (maybe double click) will do!

[DaMarkov]

fort key maybe?

Already done since v0.2.2 I think. Can be configured under options->hotkeys. Default is the home key.

as for the previous post the most diffivult i thing is to determine whether the unit auto grab a flag or a grenade or a vehicle when in combat so maybe a force button (maybe double click) will do!

I agree. I want to solve this two fold. One one hand show the player where the unit is going (already working on that, but it's a bit buggy).
On the other hand for short moves, currently I think 150 pixels or so. No auto grab will be performed. Also I redesigned the dodge move for these kind of short "micro waypoints". But there is still a lot to be done.
If it doesn't work out, I will add a force move, but I would prefer if the game would be more intelligent about these kind of situations.

[SteelGhost]

Found some beta screenshots of Z on the Internet


From top right, there is a keypad from A to L. What would this have been used for?

"Tough Rob"... I'm going to assume the 'rob' is short for 'robot'. Note that this Tough uses Pyro's avatar.

In addition to the health bar, there is another bar below with what looks like a Download icon. What does it indicate?

Next, the red and blue bars appear to show the relative amount of units on both sides. They were moved to the bottom in the final.

The two green counters must be showing the currently active units, and how many enemies have been killed.



Also, tanks had a team-colored flag on the back

[DaMarkov]

super interesting!! Where did you find these pictures?

I have no real idea what the letters A-L could be used for.
Maybe the had the idea of grouping units together and giving them a letter.
And letting the icon flash when the group was under attack or something.

The additional health bar could be for vehicles.
One health bar for the driver and one for the vehicle. The icon looks like the cursor when entering a vehicle.
I think the flag image is still in the final build. I saw at some point a flag without any animation and was wondering where it was used.
Minimap was also different T, U, Z buttons instead of T, D, Z. I guess U stands for units. Also we can see the difference when T is enabled/disabled.
At that time it didn't show the terrain, just the streets and factories.

[SteelGhost]

The additional health bar could be for vehicles.
One health bar for the driver and one for the vehicle. The icon looks like the cursor when entering a vehicle.

The second image shows Sniper in a vehicle, but the bar is empty.

I wish that was a thing in the game. It would help elaborate how the driver sniping works.

[DaMarkov]

The additional health bar could be for vehicles.
One health bar for the driver and one for the vehicle. The icon looks like the cursor when entering a vehicle.

The second image shows Sniper in a vehicle, but the bar is empty.

I wish that was a thing in the game. It would help elaborate how the driver sniping works.

Would make sense to have two health bars at an early stage of development. Maybe at at time robots could leave their vehicle.
I don't know if driver sniping was initially planned or an afterthought.
It would make sense to remove the health bar if it's not relevant for driver sniping and robots can't leave their vehicle.

[KOHAGEN]

Благодарю за проделанную работу над ремейком лучшей игры 90х
Но только установив игру версии 0.2.2, сразу же столкнулся с проблемами.
1. Загрузка Russian fan-translation происходит не за один раз, а по кускам. То-есть, мне приходится раз 5 запускать ZED Online Updater и нажимать загрузку языкового пакета, чтобы он загрузился полностью. За раз загружается всего по несколько звуковых файлов.
2. При любом уменьшении Mouse sensitivity, мышка начинает залипать. (Мышка A4Tech Bloody P93)
3. В классическом DOS управлении, третья кнопка мышки возвращала к выбору последнего маршрута, или наоборот позволяла отказаться от выбора и перейти к другим действиям. Тут этого нет и играть без этого очень неудобно.
4. В DOS версии при выборе объекта курсором, экран сразу автоматически смещался к этому объекту. Здесь же этого не происходит. Очень не комфортно так играть, особенно при низких разрешениях.
5. При указании атаковать технику, солдаты ведут себя неадекватно, и уж точно не по классически.
6. При игре в режиме Software SDL2, после проигрыша или победы на уровне, игра очень долго никуда дальше не переходит. Минут 10 нужно ждать.
7. Если стреляешь танком в производственное здание и не добив его переводишь цель на другой объект, то он всё равно продолжает стрелять в это здание.
8. Пехота простреливает сквозь производственные здания.
9. Перед тем, как расстрелянному зданию взорваться, оно не предупреждает сбоем на таймере + : ++ (Обычно я расстреливал здания до уровня + : ++, чтобы они не восстанавливались, но и не взрывались, чтобы ремонтная бригада не отремонтировала).

Играл при настройках Software SDL2 640x480
Железо: i7-4710MQ, DDR3 32GB 1600MHz, GeForce GTX 870M 3GB, Mouse A4Tech Bloody P93, Win-8.1

P.S: В игре не хватает тёплого лампового сглаживания, как на CRT мониторах ^_^

[DaMarkov]

Is there anyone who can translate this bug report for me? I understand only half of it

[KOHAGEN]

Is there anyone who can translate this bug report for me? I understand only half of it

Sorry about my English
Here is tried through Yandex the interpreter translate more correctly >>> https://translate.yandex.ru/?lang=en-ru

Thank you for your work on the remake of the best game of the 90s
But only after installing the game version 0.2.2, immediately ran into problems.
1. Downloading Russian fan-translation does not happen at once, but in pieces. That is, I have to run ZED Online Updater 5 times and click download language pack to make it fully loaded. Only a few audio files are downloaded at a time.
2. At any decrease in Mouse sensitivity, the mouse begins to stick. (Mouse A4Tech Bloody P93)
3. In classic DOS management, the third mouse button returned to the choice of the last route, or Vice versa allowed to abandon the choice and move on to other actions. Here it is not and play without it is very uncomfortable.
4. In DOS version, when you select an object with the cursor, the screen immediately automatically shifted to this object. It doesn't happen here. It is not comfortable to play like this, especially at low resolutions.
5. When you specify to attack the technique, soldiers behave inadequately, and certainly not on classically.
6. When playing in Software SDL2 mode, after losing or winning a level, the game does not go anywhere else for a very long time. 10 minutes have to wait.
7. If you shoot a tank at a production building and do not finish it, you transfer the target to another object, then it still continues to shoot at this building.
8. Infantry shoots and kills through the walls of industrial buildings. This was not in the classics.
9. Before the plant explodes, it does not warn by crashing on the+: ++ timer, as in the DOS version. (I used to shoot buildings down to+: ++ so they wouldn't recover, but they wouldn't explode either, so the repair crew wouldn't repair them).

Played under settings Software SDL2 640x480
Hardware: i7-4710MQ, 32GB DDR3 1600MHz, GeForce GTX 870M 3GB, Mouse A4Tech Bloody P93, Win-8.1

P.S: The game lacks anti-aliasing in the settings to be like in DOS on CRT monitors ^_^

[DaMarkov]

1. Downloading Russian fan-translation does not happen at once, but in pieces. That is, I have to run ZED Online Updater 5 times and click download language pack to make it fully loaded. Only a few audio files are downloaded at a time.

I didn't test that yet. But I should point out that not all sound files have a Russian translation, so for some things the English sound files are used.

2. At any decrease in Mouse sensitivity, the mouse begins to stick. (Mouse A4Tech Bloody P93)

I tested setting the sensitivity to 50% and it's a bit sticky. But not too terrible. Will see what I can do about that.

3. In classic DOS management, the third mouse button returned to the choice of the last route, or Vice versa allowed to abandon the choice and move on to other actions. Here it is not and play without it is very uncomfortable.

Tested in Z DOS: There the middle mouse button de-selects all units. I have added this to classic controls in the next version (0.2.3). Thanks a lot!

4. In DOS version, when you select an object with the cursor, the screen immediately automatically shifted to this object. It doesn't happen here. It is not comfortable to play like this, especially at low resolutions.

Thanks again!! Added to the next version for classic control.

5. When you specify to attack the technique, for some reason there is also a cross of the destination point on the ground, which is very confusing. Yes and at all under such team, soldiers behave inadequately, and certainly not on classically.

Hmm, so you mean when you attack a building (?) the path the unit takes is not clear? What do you mean by "soldiers behave inadequately"?

6. When playing in Software SDL2 mode, after losing or winning a level, the game does not go anywhere else for a very long time. 10 minutes have to wait.

Tested this on level 1 with SDL2 renderer. Lost by doing nothing, everything worked fine. Did this happen on a specific level? Are you using the windows or linux version? Were cutscenes enabled?

7. If you shoot a tank at a production building and do not finish it, you transfer the target to another object, then it still continues to shoot at this building.

I have an idea what you mean, but need to do more testing on this.

8. Infantry shoots and kills through the walls of industrial buildings. This was not in the classics.

This will be a bit complicated to fix, so don't expect this to be fixed in the near future.

9. Before the plant explodes, it does not warn by crashing on the+: ++ timer, as in the DOS version. (I used to shoot buildings down to+: ++ so they wouldn't recover, but they wouldn't explode either, so the repair crew wouldn't repair them).

True, that's not implemented. But that feature is not too important, right? If you shoot a building till the timer says "+:++" the enemy could just destroy the building by himself and then repair it. It only takes a few seconds longer for the enemy.

P.S: The game lacks anti-aliasing in the settings to be like in DOS on CRT monitors ^_^

Next version will also disable Vsync ^^. When playing in OpenGL in fullscreen I think the difference between anti-aliasing and no anti-aliasing is almost not noticeable since there is no 3D geometry, but I should test this again.
You could try to force anti-aliasing in your driver settings and check if you see a difference.

[KOHAGEN]

Thank you for your work

I didn't test that yet. But I should point out that not all sound files have a Russian translation, so for some things the English sound files are used.

When you first download a language pack, only a few files are downloaded, and the game has no voices at all, neither Russian nor English.
On the second attempt to upload, a little more files are uploaded, and the voices are already starting to appear.
To download all 95 files, you need to click the download button a lot of times.
Perhaps this is somehow connected with the speed of our Internet in 1 Megabit and restrictions in the game on the duration of the download.

Hmm, so you mean when you attack a building (?) the path the unit takes is not clear? What do you mean by "soldiers behave inadequately"?

It is very difficult to explain this in English. There's a lot going on that's not classic Contused AI =)

Tested this on level 1 with SDL2 renderer. Lost by doing nothing, everything worked fine. Did this happen on a specific level? Are you using the windows or linux version? Were cutscenes enabled?

And you try to pass the level, and not lose
At all levels in Single Player. SDL2 640x480 fullscreen. Cutscenes Enabled. Windows 8.1 x64. Tried on Intel HD Graphics 4600 and GeForce GTX 870M. The result is the same.
There are no problems on OpenGL.

True, that's not implemented. But that feature is not too important, right? If you shoot a building till the timer says "+:++" the enemy could just destroy the building by himself and then repair it. It only takes a few seconds longer for the enemy.

Some levels I only at the expense of this and won =) Otherwise it did not work
This greatly expands the possibilities of tactics, especially in multiplayer!

P.S: I also noticed that unlike the DOS version, the animation of smoke coming out of the pipes of captured buildings is slow and ragged.

[DaMarkov]

When you first download a language pack, only a few files are downloaded, and the game has no voices at all, neither Russian nor English.
On the second attempt to upload, a little more files are uploaded, and the voices are already starting to appear.
To download all 95 files, you need to click the download button a lot of times.
Perhaps this is somehow connected with the speed of our Internet in 1 Megabit and restrictions in the game on the duration of the download.

That might be the reason. Since the program is trying to download multiple files at once. It might run into some kind of timeout with that connection speed.

Tested this on level 1 with SDL2 renderer. Lost by doing nothing, everything worked fine. Did this happen on a specific level? Are you using the windows or linux version? Were cutscenes enabled?

And you try to pass the level, and not lose
At all levels in Single Player. SDL2 640x480 fullscreen. Cutscenes Enabled. Windows 8.1 x64. Tried on Intel HD Graphics 4600 and GeForce GTX 870M. The result is the same.
There are no problems on OpenGL.

Tested this again and it worked. I will try to release the next version in 1 or 2 weeks. Maybe this get resolved automatically.

True, that's not implemented. But that feature is not too important, right? If you shoot a building till the timer says "+:++" the enemy could just destroy the building by himself and then repair it. It only takes a few seconds longer for the enemy.

Some levels I only at the expense of this and won =) Otherwise it did not work
This greatly expands the possibilities of tactics, especially in multiplayer!

I don't see how it greatly expands the tactics. The enemy just has to destroy his own building before repairing it. It's a small annoyance to the enemy.

I implemented 'focus camera to unit' when selecting a unit. I didn't really like it, so it will be optional in the next version: