Kakashi's Guild

Overlays

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:36:00 GMT

The reason I'm writing this blog post is to help out people who are in the dark on how to handle overlays well. (I've been asked what's the problem in someone's code when it involves adding an icon to the overlays and it's been quite annoying since I've had to repeat myself to various people about it.)

Well here it goes, most of this stuff is copy/pasted from my Megaman source and I commented out the lines so it'll make it easier to understand and modify for you own purpose.

Overlay code:

//This is defined for atom/movable, but it could be changed based on what you need it for.
atom/movable

    //The Overlays list, that will have our overlays in readable datums.
    var/list/Overlays
    
    proc
    
        //This proc only accepts only /image arguments 
        overlayAdd()
            
            //Checks if the list is initialized, and if not, the list gets initialized
            if(!Overlays)Overlays=new
            
            //Loops through all the /image objects in the arguments
            for(var/image/I in args)
                //Adds each one to the Overlays list
                Overlays.Add(I)
                
            //Call the update proc
            overlayUpdate()

        //All the arguments can either be text strings 
        //that correspond to the tag on a /image object in the Overlays list
        //or /image objects that are equivalent to objects already existing in the list.
        overlayRem()
        
            //Loops through the arguments
            for(var/ in args)
                //Checks to make sure there's something in the Overlays list
                if(Overlays && Overlays.len)
                    //Variable I that is of type /image
                    var/image/I
                    //The following if checks if the argument is a tag,
                    //and if so, it will use locate() to retrieve an image with that tag.
                    if(istext(o))
                        I=locate(o)
                    
                    //The following else if checks if the argument is an image
                    //and if so it set's I equal to the argument
                    else if(istype(o,/image))
                        I=o
                    
                    //Removes I from the Overlays list and checks if the Overlays list should
                    //be cleaned up.
                    Overlays.Remove(I)
                    if(!Overlays.len)Overlays=null
                    
                else
                    //Breaks if there is nothing in the Overlays list to remove
                    break
                    
            //Call the update proc
            overlayUpdate()

        //This proc should be called whenever the Overlays list is updated,
        //or if anything inside the Overlays list is updated.
        overlayUpdate()
        
            //Nulls overlays list
            overlays=null
            
            //Searches for all the /image objects in the Overlays list,
            //and adds it to the overlays list.
            for(var/image/I in Overlays)
                overlays.Add(I)

//This proc is pretty self-explanatory, it returns a /image given certain arguments
proc/Image(icon/icon,icon_state,atom/ loc,pixel_x=0,pixel_y=0,layer=FLY_LAYER,tag)
    var/image/I=new
    I.icon=icon
    I.icon_state=icon_state
    I.loc=loc
    I.pixel_x=pixel_x
    I.pixel_y=pixel_y
    I.layer=layer
    I.tag=tag
    return I

Some simple examples of use:

overlayAdd(Image('sword.dmi'))
//with icon_state
overlayAdd(Image('sword.dmi',"wield"))

This method of handling overlays is foolproof and works every time given that you use it correctly. (It has worked for me every time, but this code is altered from the actual code I use in my game, so it'd be great if someone tested it and let me know if it works well.)

Megaman Wars, From one of it's Former Staff

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:34:54 GMT

Megaman Wars, a Game that has existed for quite a long time. Originally Owned Fully by Dixon, the game was known as BYOND's first Pseudo-Megaman game as far as I personally have seen, in that it included abilities, was 2-D, and actually included a working battle system AND gravity System. MMW was definately the first PVP focused Megaman Game on BYOND.

But that is where it all goes downhill.

When you join Megaman Wars, you're introduced to a 'fancy' battle screen in which you see a bunch of characters posing, or doing fancy attacks. Thing is, you probably won't see any of these fuckers for the next month of 24 hour playing, I didn't.

When you click the part that says "Start", you're introduced to a screen that shows you 3 boxes, containing Megaman, Protoman, and Bass.

Now I want to get this off my chest, you're best off going with Protoman IF you want to SERIOUSLY play this. He's got the same shooting speed as the other two, but his damage is sufficiently higher than the other two (who are exact clones of each other!) and he moves basically as fast as they dash! His shots take about 5 hits to kill a single opponent, they take 7 or 9 hits, I forget which. Regardless this is the first obvious flaw you'll notice in this game: Megaman is always shafted into a pit of Fail.

At this point, we can proceed to... ah crap, never mind I never got to play, the moment I walk out of Spawn some random asshole named BloodTerror X came out of nowhere with this Mutant Zero Wannabe and killed me. Oh well let's try again! ...What the Hell!? Where did that White-Violet Zero Come from!? WTF HE iS POUNDING THE AIR AND KILLING MY HEALTH!? Oh joy now this fag Darkkenezin killed me! Okay let's come out... *DIE* GOD DAMNIT WHY DID THOSE SHOTS FLY THROUGH THE WALL AND KILL ME!? IT didn't Tell me who it is either! Lemme ask on chat... what? The owner can shoot through walls!? AH FUCK NO!

Two Deaths later (@ 5 Deaths) you're finally introduced to your newest character, say hello to the Yellow Worker's hat named "Mettaur" (Or Mettool). This guy not only moves slow as hell, but has a shot WEAKER than Megaman and Bass', and by pressing the 7 Button, I hide in my helmet! Bwa ha ha NO-ONE CAN HURT ME! ... Wait... why is that Blue Zero staring at me... how is he spider-manning and hiding on the ceiling... WTF HE DROPPED DOWN AND KILLED ME ANYHOW!? WHY!? *Asks Chat* ... So these Area of Effect Attacks break guard... Ok... Lemme get back in as Protoman then! HA EAT BUSTER! YES! Finally I kill someone! 5 Shots in and BAM!

Now I found you you Blue Zero Fucker Wannabe! *Spams Shots and hits 5 times* WAIT! WHY DIDN'T HE DIE! *Asks Chat* ... Immune to... Guns... Oh Come the fuck on!

Yes, this does happen folks, today I had a friend of mine log in for the first time into this game, and that's exactly his experience.

I will not deny, I was once a Mod (and at one point, Manager) of this game. I was liked by a few really, hated by afew, y'know the deal. I was known as MMW's first person to legally unlock Nightmare Zero (Hint to the Fanboys: His Req is over 10,000 CCKs, you can't miss him after that, I would know, when FlameSlash, another host, use to host, he haxed his stats in EVERY direction to find out!). Ironically, the reason I was fired is cause I was actually being a manager and enforcing the rules :S. What do you fucking know?

Back on target, now we have been playing for a while. After Jumping like a Madman, I unlock this guy with this double-barrel gun thingy that shoots flames and pounds the ground to jump high named "Fefnir". After killing about 10 people with little life left (which takes FOREVER cause Nobody leaves you with 3 or less life since everyone HITS FUCKING HARD), I get this small dashy guy with a Sword! (Megaman Zero - Zero). At 30 CCKs (Close Call Kills btw) I get the White Suited guy with the Flashy Sword named Colonel! Yay an Average character!

Well seems we got lucky, the only thing we can do is wake up early and pray to kill some unsuspecting newbies for easy kills and stats.

I will say this now:

Omega (The big yellow thing on the login): 1000 PKs if I remember, if not, definately 10k.

Shadowman (Blue guy that's a Zero from MMX4 Rip with a hoody who shoots a hundred shuriken a second): 1000 CCKs.

Wanna know how to unlock NZ? Look high up above. He's somewhere above 10,000 CCKs FOR BYOND MEMBERS! You should unlock Shadowman.EXE around 4500 Kills!

However what you WANT to unlock is Sigma and Xeron, at 5000 Kills (Sigma) and Xeron (15,000 Kills). These two fuckers are the Rape Squad of MMW.

Once you get your sigma-Os, beg a Mod to let you into "UnderGround Lab". Press 3 so you go invisible, then go between the conveyer belt areas. Right below there's a platform hovering in the middle. Turn visible here so you know you're standing right. Now just press 3 anytime someone drops down and spam your 7, you're guaranteed to knock people into spikes for easy wins!

MMW's biggest problem comes from "Hall Shooting" to be honest. You'll know when someone does it. When you see an endless stream of shots crawling across the ground and can't see the source, or see the source and don't see a target, that's a hall shooter. These are your classic nOObs with no skill who purposefully hide in corners where they can't be damaged without you getting in front of their attack stream, thus allowing them to obtain easy kills and cheap Lulz. For this reason, HolyDoomKnight, the 2nd owner, made "Flame Heatnix", a Bird that literally craps exploding fireballs from it's ass DOWN to the ground, where it explodes and does damage to anything nearby (includin heatnix itself if too close). Now this would be fine and dandy, if it weren't for the fact that Heatnix's tend to fly high outside of the shooting or slashing ranges of ground based characters.

In Exchange, Holy Created "Shield Shelldon", a flying Oyster which shoots shells, has a shield, and turns invisible. Now this sounds fine and dandy, until the shelldon appears. You'll know when you're fighting a shelldon too, they'll appear, fire a single shot, then disappear in a rainbow ball. Then they'll reappear and hit you again. If you try to spam shots along the grond, he'll appear, and "Close" his shell, and pull a Mettaur, reflecting any shot or sword attack (the latter don't get damaged).

In exchange, this brings out the "Duos", these are big hulking Swiss Dudes who pound their fist into the grond. These fags pound Non-Stop trying to kill Shelldons, and Fail.

And ths is where you encounter somethng worse, The Athenas! THis custom's a real bitch. She moves fast, shoots flames rapidly and in BOTH directions, has a sword, and can lay down Near-Auto Kill mines (You try moving towards a mine more than once, you will die).

You get the idea, MMW is a game of Abuse this chara trends! This is how it's always been, nobody uses their favorite character, and when they do, they are called nOObs for it since ironically everyone's favorite character tends to be overpowered!

Wow, this is so respectful!

The Staff

As a FORMER member of the staff, I will say this: yes, they do got rules in their own lil hidden forum only they can see. However, nobody ever fuckin follows it!

One of the most common Admins, Inu-Kun, has his dick too high up HOly's Ass for Holy to do anythng about him, and Inu's makin all sorts of Bullshit rules and demanding nerfs on many characters who Frankly, just don't deserve it. Based on Holy's belief "The later you get it, the better it should be", many of these characters are wrongly nerfed. I agree they needed nerf, but it's funny seeing how easily Holy obeys Inu-Kun, considering Inu-Kun owns a Rival Game!

The Staff recieve Bonuses as following:

Moderator: Obtain Access to Shadowman.EXE, free of charge.
Manager: See Moderator, plus gains access to Sigma, Xeron, and Nightmare Zero (Violet Zero) free of charge. Recently, "Dixon" (a Clone of Cloud), "Green biker Dude" (Fag that can self destruct on death for damage), and other characters have been made avalible here

Admin: Gains access to charas players cannot obtain except as admin. It's every player's dream to suck Holy's dick enough to obtain this Rank. You can tell Admins by their green font.

Owners: These Silver Fonted Fuckers have everything of course, and 3 exist. HDK, Toel (who isn't bad at all, but is often removed of all power and can't do a thing cause Holy doesn't like Toel doing what he should), and of course, the idiot who abandoned the game, Dixon!

In short, barring a select few people: The staff is corrupt, no exceptions.

Funny note: Don't use any good characters that are Customs when Inu's on. He hates them with a fashion and will shut them off for no reason!

THe Gameplay:

This is simple: 7 OFTEN Translates to slashing or AoE attacks, 9 to shoting or guard, 3 to invis or guard, and 1 to crazy stupid abilities.

Character's come in 4 classes: Suck, Okay, Good, and WTF. You can properly assign characters as such:

Suck: Everything you gain within a month, excluding Duo and Heatnix.

Okay: Shadowman.EXE, Shadowman, Grenademan, you'll figue it out.

Good: Sigma, Xeron, Legendary Warrior X, Shelldon, Pure Strain Zero, if you see it used commonly by normal players often, this is it's class.

WTF: Athena, Nightmare Zero, Plague, Sniper Joe X, HDK (Sigma Head), Dixon, basically everything you gain after half a year of non-stop playing.

Graphics

Ripped from Megaman games, and the only thing honestly done right. Doesn't excuse the fact the stages are poorly designed for Holy to abuse his cheap characters in.

Closing: Horrible Balance, horrible planning, and horible execution. Megaman Wars is ran by horrible staff who can't agree on "Balance" if you PAID them. The owner is a power hungry pig who puts me to Shame who uses only three characters (Beat, the Bird, in which he spam kills peope as they leave spawn), HDK (AkA Sigma Head, a Character you CANNOT kill due to how fucking cheap it's made without a miracle), or the above listed "Plague".

Yeah, I'm just gonna stop here.

Kakashi's Programming Challenge #1

Tue, 20 May 2008 14:11:38 GMT

This guild has been close to dead for about a few weeks now and I want to liven up a little bit. To start, I will try to have a programming challenge ready for you guys every month, just for fun. The winner will appear in this guild's "Wall of Fame" and there can be up to 2 winners per challenge. I will try to make them harder and harder every week. You may send entries to kakashi24142@hotmail.com (that's also my MSN)

The winners will the programmers who have the most efficient and readable code. There is no size limit.
(I won't have time on weekdays to check over entries.) You may NOT use libraries or demos. (On special challenges, I will allow them.) I can tell if you copy/pasted so don't bother. (It is very easy to tell programming styles apart.)

Now with the introduction set aside, I present you my first challenge:

---------
KPC#1
---------

Make a Minimap that can appear on the screen, browser, a pop-up window, or in some interface control that can adjust to any size specified by the programmer who uses it through arguments.

The Minimap should be able to display the entire world or a certain range.

What you can't do:
-Use libraries/demos.
-Have another programmer program it for you. (I would laugh to death if anyone does this.)

What you can do:
-Learn how minimaps can be displayed from current libraries or think of your own way of displaying them.

*Please let me know if you're going to submit an entry. (Just post a comment/IM me/Email me.)

All submissions due by: Sunday, June 1, 2008. (Just get them in before 12:00 AM of the next day.)

Prize:?
If I really am impressed, I might possibly buy someone a membership or pay in cash (for those who are already members and don't care to renew it right now).
---------

On a side note, if anyone is good with CSS, I would really appreciate help redesigning this guild since the guild looks somewhat like crap compared to the others.

Preview of K_Dialogue

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:24:23 GMT

Hello everyone, it's been quite sometime since I've made my last blog post, but I'm still here! And I've been working on a library called K_Dialogue and here's a preview of what it is capable of:

NOTE: Don't mind the cut-off part of the y's, the icon that has all the letters is messed up, I will fix it by the time of release.

For both of those, I used mugshots from MMBN 6 Gregar to use as an example. The dialogue they say is completely made up by me to also use as an example.

K_Dialogue currently features:
-Musgshots(Size: 32x32)
-Text printed on the screen
-If a word is much too long to fit on a line the Dialogoue/Print() proc will crash.
-Basic chat box for the background.
-Heavily commented code so that you can understand how it works.
-When a long string is passed as an argument the same type of thing that occurs in GBA games occurs here, the previous text is erased and the remaining text is printed (if there is still remaining text after that it will go on until there is no more remaining text.)

Will soon feature:
-Customizable size of the chat box( although it already adjusts to the screen based on the value of client.view and already checks for that too).
-Bigger Mugshot size(possibly, I have to think about this.)
-A command that trigger the access to the next part of the string rather than having it automatically be done.(Waits for user input.)

Libraries to anticipate:
-K_Administration
-K_Artificial_Intelligence
-K_Minimap(this is a maybe, this minimap is supposed to be in the browser, but I need to work things out)
-K_Server_Control-Allows complete control of all the servers of a certain game. (Obviously, only the servers of your game.)
-K_Map_Handler(This is a big iffy, I might or might not do this based on my mood.)

New Libraries!

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:24:56 GMT

Hello everyone! I have released two new libraries:
K_Pixel_Movement:
-This library focuses on efficient and smooth pixel movement.(I added a few lines of code so that the camera follows each movement, this only works for users with BYOND v4.0 Build 413+). Not only does this library support movement, it also supports collision. I used Rectangle Box Collision for the type of collision as opposed to the Circular Collision(in which you compare the radii and distance).
K_Network_Save:
-This library allows you to save players' savefiles on a remote server and with you making a few modifications. It also supports loading and deleting savefiles on that server.

If there are any bugs please either leave comments on this post or post in the guild forums or contact me on MSN at kakashi24142@hotmail.com

I'm Back

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:37:24 GMT

It's been a while since I've been with BYOND and the reason I "mysteriously" disappeared is because 1.) I got a bit mad that my Megaman game was all screwed up (Give me a break I'm a young teenager with mood swings) , 2.) I started getting more busy with life mainly because I had to take a lot of placement tests for High School.

(Note: It wasn't my programming that screwed up the Megaman game, ask Masterdan if you like, he's seen the source.)

Anyways I've been working with C++ for a week and that kind of enhanced my understanding of object-oriented programming. Right now I'm in the mood to program a game.

I'm willing to program any original game (I don't mind a few ripped icons, but ripped code I can't stand).

Requirements:
-Must have at least 1-2 pixel artists that are fairly active and can make decent icons.
(My past experiences with lack of pixel artists forced me to ask of this.)
-The type of game can be anything. I prefer Anime though(shocking right?).
-I prefer to code in 3.5 due to past experiences, but 4.0 is completely fine.

Btw, if you assume I'm a "noobish" programmer due to my name, think again.

I have two more standardized tests to take this year(one tomorrow and one a week or two from now) so I'll need a bit of preparation. Pleas bear with me for the next few weeks.

My HTML Input

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:42:58 GMT

Loosely based off of sd_Alert(proc names and variable names are the same and the method of processing is the same). Anyone may use this and edit it to their heart's content. Here is the link. I hope to get support on this since this is my first library. I will be posting some tutorials/guides shortly.

Kakashi's Skins Guide

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 12:49:24 GMT

Kakashi24142 - Owner/Programmer of Bleach: Vaizard's Awakening

Hello everyone, I decided to make a guide on skins on MS Word. Click Here to Download Post comments please. No flaming, only constructive criticism. This is not the best guide in the world but it covers the basics .

Kakashi's Boolean Expression Tips

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:32:00 GMT

Kakashi24142 - Owner/Programmer of Bleach: Vaizard's Awakening

Hello everyone, and welcome to my Boolean Expression Tips. Boolean Expression are true/false expressions.

Robust Code in Boolean expressions (True/False expressions)

//lets say I want to check if a mob's variable was on, I will show you the wrong way to do it, then the right way.

//Wrong Way:
if(attackable == 1)
//put statements and etc. here
if(attackable == 0)
//put statements and etc. here

//Right Way:
if(attackable)
//put statements/arguments and etc. here
if(!attackable)
//put statements/arguments and etc. here

//The reason you would use attackable and !attackable is because the variable might've been attackable = 2 or attackable = null. In those cases attackable == 1 and attackable == 0 won't cut it. Also !attackable would check if attackable is 0, null, or "". if(attackable) would check for any value that's not 0, null, or "". I would like to thank DarkCampaigner for pointing out my mistake.

Toggling the values of Boolean expressions (Changing variable values from 1 to 0 and 0 to 1)

 
//Now I will show you how to code the OK way, the wrong way and the best way to toggle variables from 0 to 1 and vice-versa.
In this example, I will be trying to toggle my density.

//The OK way:
if(density)
   density = 0
else
   density = 1

//The wrong way:
if(density == 1)
   density = 0
else
   density = 1

//The best way:
density=!density

//I bet that you are surprised that a code that normally takes up 4 lines can be shortened to 1!
//Well lets go over each example and discuss why they are wrong, OK, or the best. 

//The OK example was just OK because it could have  been shortened to 1 line, and it's OK because it's robust. It uses density instead of density == 1.

//The Wrong example was wrong and you should know why it's wrong if you understood/read the first tip. If you still don't know whats wrong with it: it's not robust.

//The best example was the best because it was short, and got to the point. You might not have understood what it was doing, so I'll explain. Density = !Density can be read as 'Density is set to not density'. That just plainly means just make it opposite. So lets say density was one, the density would become 0 or null. If it was 0 or null, it would become 1 because 1 is the opposite of 0 (Remember that 1 is true and 0 is false).

And that's it for my Boolean Expression Tips. Thanks for reading and I hope this has helped you.

Macro System Poll

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:41:11 GMT