Xeno Fighters R (2019 GM Studio Port)

A place for people with an interest in developing new shmups.
User avatar
ZacharyB
Posts: 571
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:16 am
Location: Queens NY
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by ZacharyB »

I just downloaded the game for the first time a few days ago. It's a lot of fun to play. The many ships create a whole new game with every playthrough.

I was a big fan of the original. The revision will be incredible when it's finally complete.

Since you're in a game design class, and possibly pursuing a career in this field, I think the game would make an excellent addition to your resume.
Skyknight
Posts: 512
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 7:27 pm
Location: Orleans, MA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by Skyknight »

I decided to take one of you at your word to Alluro, and see what would happen if the mission descriptions were "filtered" through BabelFish for a Raiden Fighters Jet feel. First, the description I came up with for 3A (the in-game will probably be shorter than this):

While the Midwest base lived through Silver Banshee's final onslaught, having to switch emphasis to defense meant we lost track of one of the more important fronts BRES is fighting on, if their supply flows were anything to go by. The good news is, we've found one of their lesser fronts in the First Chechen War, a front where they're also protecting a supply factory. We believe the factory is supplying that same lost front, so it's imperative that we remove its defenders and destroy it. We've already staked out a position to contain the BRES forces in an abandoned town, but the problem is the arrival of a pair of siege tanks. We cannot afford to lose our Chechnya foothold if we are to find out where they're sending the bulk of their troops and supplies, and why. Destroy what you can of the BRES force, but make especially certain to destroy the siege tanks before they loosen our holdings, especially since they'd still maintain a measure of their own foothold.

Now, the BabelFish recursion, after expanding contractions...

The basis of the American Nakanishi section while having lived final of the Silver Banshee make with onslaught, us the flow of supply going, with BRES rather than fighting it does not convert importance to the defense which means the fact that the important frontal one track/truck is lost with anything, the [te]. Us you found good news, and the first Chechen war which protects the factory of supply, there is frontal their a little frontal one. We us remove the protection person, the thing same it believes and/or and it destroys that the front part where it is gone, the thing factory where therefore that is imperative having supplied. We because BRES power is included in the town which is already given up enclosed position with the post, but problem is arrival of the encircling tank of group. As for us those send most of the troop and supply somewhere, if and why it should inspect, it is not possible to be able lose our footholds of Chechnya. But especially after still maintaining the measurement of itself foothold, before loosening our possession ones to with, it can make, BRES power verify the thing in order especially to make the fact that the encircling tank is destroyed.

I only fixed the name of Silver Banshee (van sea of the silver?) and the spelling for Chechen and Chechnya.

I think we want a slightly more adept web translator for this sort of recursion...
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

I see no reason for having a Raiden Fighters feel to the mission descriptions. If memory serves me right the original RF scripts weren't that long anyway.

If possible, liquidate it to a few sentences, then put it through Babelfish and see the result, though I still would prefer your scripting style over the RF feel. On the other hand I still have no idea how mission descriptions will be implemented in Xeno Fighters R, though if it's anything like how he did it with XFEX your style should fit in perfectly without modification.
User avatar
Twiddle
Posts: 5012
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2006 11:28 pm
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by Twiddle »

Alluro and I had an "instant comedy" Engrish method by changing English to Japanese to English by way of Google Translate. The original VAF Squadron story text had gems like "four brave pilots took to boats" as a result.
so long and tanks for all the spacefish
unban shw
<Megalixir> now that i know garegga is faggot central i can disregard it entirely
<Megalixir> i'm stuck in a hobby with gays
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

I always found it funny when you put a quote or something through that process. :P

I guess it's merely my opinion as it has no basis on anything factual but I don't see a need for one (I'd use Google Translate rather than Babelfish though, I trust Google more).
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

Updates:

*Amada Vipros - Impact Missile: Greatly increased rapid-fire rate and significantly increased damage dealt by the missiles. Sped up explosion animations.
*Two new medals added:
**Achievement medal: Appears when fulfilling certain requirements. Example: "Pandamonium" Achievement: Survive one fullcycle of EX-3 boss Ziyudee's second phase attack patterns without dying or using bombs.
**EX Medal: Appears when fulfilling certain requirements. Allows the player to enter an EX stage after completing the current stage (objective success or fail). Example: To access Stage EX-1 (Gemini Canyon) from Stage 3-B, get a x10 destruction on midboss Teramanta.
*Stage 4-A: New fairy opportunity, slight enemy wave change.
*Death now breaks chains.

Future tasks:

*Implement continue function in Arcade mode. The player can select a new ship after continuing. Scores will be reset and the ones digit of the score will represent the number of credits used. There will be unlimited credits. However, in Stage 5-C, 8-2, 9, and the EX stages, continuing will restart the stages from the beginning. Medal ranks will also be reset to initial (10pts.) when continuing in those aforementioned stages. The game will pause during the continue function; this was not possible in the original Xeno Fighters EX without some massively overwrought coding workaround in Multimedia Fusion v1.2.
*General coding cleanup and efficiency fixes.
Last edited by EddyMRA on Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
emphatic
Posts: 7923
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:47 pm
Location: Alingsås, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by emphatic »

Nice. Idea for the ship select on continue: Make the selection BIG, with three ships visible (the middle/selected one is slightly bigger) and moving to the left/right just moves the ship selection along. If this is possible. Would be nice if the game paused during the ship select as well.
Image | My games - http://www.emphatic.se | (Click) I have YEN stickers for sale
RegalSin wrote:Street Fighters. We need to aviod them when we activate time accellerator.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

emphatic wrote:Nice. Idea for the ship select on continue: Make the selection BIG, with three ships visible (the middle/selected one is slightly bigger) and moving to the left/right just moves the ship selection along. If this is possible. Would be nice if the game paused during the ship select as well.
Great idea. And, most definitely, the game will pause during ship select. Multimedia Fusion v1.2 did not have any straightforward way to pause the game (without some needlessly overwrought coding workaround), so that's why the game continued to run during the continue/ship select sequence in the original Xeno Fighters EX. I was in the middle of editing the post, adding this to the continue and ship select info:

There will be unlimited credits. However, in Stage 5-C, 8-2, 9, and the EX stages, continuing will restart the stages from the beginning. Medal ranks will also be reset to initial (10pts.) when continuing in those aforementioned stages.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Idea for the ship select on continue: Make the selection BIG, with three ships visible (the middle/selected one is slightly bigger) and moving to the left/right just moves the ship selection along. If this is possible.
I'm pretty certain Game Maker allows for upscaling sprites via draw functions, so upsizing the sprite itself should be easy to do on a coding level without actually having to modify the sprite, right?
**Achievement medal: Appears when fulfilling certain requirements. Example: "Pandamonium" Achievement: Survive one fullcycle of EX-3 boss Ziyudee's second phase attack patterns without dying or using bombs.
I've always wanted to see something like this in Raiden to help promote the style of gameplay that it was meant to be played by for scoring. Is this how it'll be used in XF-R or just a reward for difficult parts of stages in general?

EDIT: Small tip - if you have performance issues with the game, reduce your screen resolution. I find that even on a legacy machine XF-R runs at 100% speed by changing resolution from over 1024x768 to 640x480 or less (but too less and the aspect will be wrong and it'll look all crap).
User avatar
S20-TBL
Posts: 440
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:48 am
Location: Frying over a jungle and saving the nature
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by S20-TBL »

Great game, been playing it in bursts. Farthest I've reached is Stage WTF against Black Heart (having never played Garegga, I now know why people fear that thing so much).

Guess I'll have to wait until the v1.0 release for the new ships. Can't wait to see what Alluro put in there, hopefully somebody from Gunbird 1/2 or Batrider gets put in. Currently I use Lord British and Winbee a lot; compared to the others they're a couple of screen-clearing beasts IMHO. I dunno if they'll get balanced out as that ripple laser is ungodly powerful, but then again I'm not complaining. :D
--Papilio v0.9 Beta now on itch.io! (development thread)--
Xyga wrote:Blondest eyelashes ever.
User avatar
S20-TBL
Posts: 440
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:48 am
Location: Frying over a jungle and saving the nature
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by S20-TBL »

Bug report. Just as I entered Stage EX-1 after finishing 3-A the game encountered an error and crashed. Dunno if this is a known issue.

The computer I was using during this session is an AMD 9550 quad with 4GB RAM and a GeForce 9600 GT, running Windows XP SP3.
--Papilio v0.9 Beta now on itch.io! (development thread)--
Xyga wrote:Blondest eyelashes ever.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

S20-TBL wrote:Bug report. Just as I entered Stage EX-1 after finishing 3-A the game encountered an error and crashed. Dunno if this is a known issue.

The computer I was using during this session is an AMD 9550 quad with 4GB RAM and a GeForce 9600 GT, running Windows XP SP3.
I get that problem too, but they happen so rarely that I can't pinpoint the cause.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Alluro wrote:
S20-TBL wrote:Bug report. Just as I entered Stage EX-1 after finishing 3-A the game encountered an error and crashed. Dunno if this is a known issue.

The computer I was using during this session is an AMD 9550 quad with 4GB RAM and a GeForce 9600 GT, running Windows XP SP3.
I get that problem too, but they happen so rarely that I can't pinpoint the cause.
I think I've had this only once or twice in my entire time playing this game, along with the SHIFT key autofire break that's new to v0.6 this is a mystery I have yet to solve. Mine's a Dual Core with XP SP3 as well.
Out of curiosity, do any of yous remember what ship you were using at the time? I think mine might have been the Lord British but it was so long ago I couldn't remember.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

BPzeBanshee wrote:
Alluro wrote:
S20-TBL wrote:Bug report. Just as I entered Stage EX-1 after finishing 3-A the game encountered an error and crashed. Dunno if this is a known issue.

The computer I was using during this session is an AMD 9550 quad with 4GB RAM and a GeForce 9600 GT, running Windows XP SP3.
I get that problem too, but they happen so rarely that I can't pinpoint the cause.
I think I've had this only once or twice in my entire time playing this game, along with the SHIFT key autofire break that's new to v0.6 this is a mystery I have yet to solve. Mine's a Dual Core with XP SP3 as well.
Out of curiosity, do any of yous remember what ship you were using at the time? I think mine might have been the Lord British but it was so long ago I couldn't remember.
He said he was using the Lord British as well. That could be something for me to test for.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
S20-TBL
Posts: 440
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:48 am
Location: Frying over a jungle and saving the nature
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by S20-TBL »

Alluro wrote:He said he was using the Lord British as well. That could be something for me to test for.
Sorry, I forgot to mention the ship type. I was using Winbee (Gwinbee alternate) at the time IIRC.

It works fine on my home desktop (Intel Core I5 with 4GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 4770, running on XP SP3) and no real problems occur when transitioning from 3-A/3-B to the next stage.

EDIT: Different bug, but not a game-breaking one. During the Game Over screen, if you were performing a chain at the time of death you can still see the combo timer count down to zero before the screen transitions to the high score table. In addition it's not greyed out like the rest of the text.

EDIT 2: So as not to spam the thread, I just decided I'd edit this post. :P I just finished all the Arcade stages with Lord British and would like to report some findings.

First, related to the above glitch, I also noticed that the in-game message text that displays bonuses achieved and objectives accomplished/failed also doesn't grey out and become inactive during the Game Over screen, in tandem with the combo timer. Instead it continues to display as it normally would, flashing and scrolling to the top of the screen before disappearing.

Also, I encountered another crash bug--this time on my OWN computer. Just as I exited Stage 3-B and went into 4-A, the game encountered an error. However, it continued to run normally despite the error message, and it was only when I clicked on one of the buttons in the error message window that the game finally exited. I was using Hikaru to test out her survivability (she seems like another overpowered character, only somewhere in between Lord British and Winbee, but her slow speed and narrow Formation Option frontal coverage seem to balance this out).

Speaking of Hikaru, Lord British and Winbee, it seems I've figured out why they're a tad overpowered compared to the rest. It's their Slave shield powerup, or rather its durability. Maybe reducing the shield to 3 hits a pop would help balance them out more.

Lastly, I noticed something rather odd during my Lord British run. Right after the fight with Ziyudee, I was left without any shields, but when I started Stage WTF I had full Shields on. This has happened to me twice or thrice; the other time appears to be when I exited stage 3-A and went to 4-A.
--Papilio v0.9 Beta now on itch.io! (development thread)--
Xyga wrote:Blondest eyelashes ever.
User avatar
S20-TBL
Posts: 440
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:48 am
Location: Frying over a jungle and saving the nature
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by S20-TBL »

New Bug Reports: I discovered another weird crash. I was messing around with Solvalou in Conquest mode, playing through stage EX-6 (San Diego Hell). Midway through the stage I was called down to dinner and had to exit the game, so I tapped ESC and...

...I got stuck on this screen.

http://i830.photobucket.com/albums/zz22 ... ash003.jpg

I tried pressing ESC again, hit the Return key, nada. Several Ctrl+Alt+Dels and attempts to halt the game process later, the program finally told me it encountered an error and will close.

Another weird glitch involves Michelle and her alternate. When I use a bomb, the invincibility wears off around halfway into the bomb animation, meaning I could still die by colliding with an enemy. If this happens and Michelle respawns after dying, she will still be firing off the bomb's beam attack until it fades out. The duration of the bomb attack after respawning depends on when Michelle was killed during the bomb animation.

Also, I tried replacing the Stage 1 BGM with an MP3 track that was encoded at 192kbps, but the game wouldn't play it, instead emitting a short high-pitched sound during the transition screen. When I replaced the track with one encoded at 160kbps it played normally.

(Question for Alluro: would you prefer we did bug reports by posting in here? Or will it be more efficient and less cluttering to send you a PM instead? I'm just concerned this could end up cluttering the whole thread)
--Papilio v0.9 Beta now on itch.io! (development thread)--
Xyga wrote:Blondest eyelashes ever.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

Bombers do not make you invincible in this game. I forgot to destroy the bomber of Michelle on death, so that's an oversight. Some of the ships like the Twinbee ones and the Strikers P-38 are unpolished. They will very likely be scrapped.

Sound problems and crashing are very likely caused by the outdated DLLs included with the game. I will include the latest versions of the DLLs come the next version release.

Also, some of the more unbalanced ships are meant to be unlocked later on in the game. Some, like the Gradius ships using their shields, will be unlocked by beating certain EX stages.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

I've gone and scrapped the Twinbee fighters (Twinbee, Winbee, Gwinbee) and the Strikers P-38. With the Strikers P-38 gone, its alt, the A6M Zero, will become a standalone fighter. Those fighters are the most difficult to balance effectively. I'm considering giving Michelle the boot too, but that fighter at least is quite balanced out.

I will replace the scrapped fighters with the Gemini Blue and Gemini Red. With the addition of these ships, the entire VAF Squadron/Xeno Fighters EX roster is now in the game. When both ships are done, I will post screenshots and/or videos. These ships will be unlocked in Stage EX-1.

At least one more cameo fighter will be added, and that's the Golden Bat from Battle Garegga.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Hmm, this is quite a few interesting mystery bugs being brought to light here. I still have nothing new in my investigations myself.

Alluro, I can understand you cringing at the mere thought of this, but is it possible to implement some sort of debug mode where all the variables just get dumped to a file? I'm thinking if the error was something that was code-based and not just Game Maker engine itself being dodgy surely something would come up from a function like that?
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

BPzeBanshee wrote:Hmm, this is quite a few interesting mystery bugs being brought to light here. I still have nothing new in my investigations myself.

Alluro, I can understand you cringing at the mere thought of this, but is it possible to implement some sort of debug mode where all the variables just get dumped to a file? I'm thinking if the error was something that was code-based and not just Game Maker engine itself being dodgy surely something would come up from a function like that?
How in the world can I find out the cause of the bugs S20-TBL reported if they almost never happen to me? I cannot deal with "mystery bugs" if I do not even experience them. Stuff like Michelle's bomb staying active after respawn are indeed bugs that are code based and can be fixed promptly. But stuff such as the game crashing under ludicrously obscure conditions and a screenshot that provides no information to me do not help me at all, and are not fixable by code because I do not even know where to look to fix those problems since I cannot reproduce them.

Game Maker just does not like certain computer configurations. SHMUP member Udderdude also ran into a glut of problems with XFR, such as a boss attack pattern getting messed up, but I cannot reproduce his bugs at all, nor has anyone else reported the same bugs. Excuse me if I sound annoyed or blunt, but think about it from my perspective. It's frustrating when I get bug reports where I cannot reproduce the bug and having to tell the reporter that it's an obscure bug. If I am to address these bugs, I need to have access to their computer setups, a luxury I do not have.
Last edited by EddyMRA on Tue Oct 12, 2010 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
emphatic
Posts: 7923
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:47 pm
Location: Alingsås, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by emphatic »

Alluro wrote:Sound problems and crashing are very likely caused by the outdated DLLs included with the game.
Perhaps giving S20-TBL an updated .dll-pack will help iron out at least some of these "mystery bugs"?
Image | My games - http://www.emphatic.se | (Click) I have YEN stickers for sale
RegalSin wrote:Street Fighters. We need to aviod them when we activate time accellerator.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

emphatic wrote:
Alluro wrote:Sound problems and crashing are very likely caused by the outdated DLLs included with the game.
Perhaps giving S20-TBL an updated .dll-pack will help iron out at least some of these "mystery bugs"?
Here are the latest versions of the DLLs: http://www.sendspace.com/file/kapivv

Just overwrite the older DLLs with these newer ones. I personally have not run into any stability problems using these DLLs in not only Xeno Fighters, but also Super Mario Fusion Revival (where stability problems were rampant with the older DLLs).
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Alluro wrote:How in the world can I find out the cause of the bugs S20-TBL reported if they almost never happen to me? I cannot deal with "mystery bugs" if I do not even experience them. Stuff like Michelle's bomb staying active after respawn are indeed bugs that are code based and can be fixed promptly. But stuff such as the game crashing under ludicrously obscure conditions and a screenshot that provides no information to me do not help me at all, and are not fixable by code because I do not even know where to look to fix those problems since I cannot reproduce them.

Game Maker just does not like certain computer configurations. SHMUP member Udderdude also ran into a glut of problems with XFR, such as a boss attack pattern getting messed up, but I cannot reproduce his bugs at all, nor has anyone else reported the same bugs. Excuse me if I sound annoyed or blunt, but think about it from my perspective. It's frustrating when I get bug reports where I cannot reproduce the bug and having to tell the reporter that it's an obscure bug. If I am to address these bugs, I need to have access to their computer setups, a luxury I do not have.
I understand your frustration with rare issues like these and I certainly don't expect you to fix these issues overnight or anything unrealistic as such, a debug function was merely my suggestion as an alternative route to spotting problems on a deeper level.
For the record, I haven't had an issue like this in ages so it's as much of a mystery to me as to you.

@S20-TBL: To get a better idea of the kind of computer you're using, would you mind getting a report of your computer(s) specs using AIDA32? I'm curious to see what kind of hardware you're using to cause crashes like these.
Also, if you're using a school computer, check for school-based security programs (ie stuff that wont let you run EXEs, lets teachers remote access your PC, that kinda stuff). Stuff like LanSchool will deliberately sabotage your game program as you run it and if that's the cause you're pretty much screwed. Then there's the renowned issues with anything integrated.
User avatar
S20-TBL
Posts: 440
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:48 am
Location: Frying over a jungle and saving the nature
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by S20-TBL »

BPzeBanshee wrote:@S20-TBL: To get a better idea of the kind of computer you're using, would you mind getting a report of your computer(s) specs using AIDA32? I'm curious to see what kind of hardware you're using to cause crashes like these.
Also, if you're using a school computer, check for school-based security programs (ie stuff that wont let you run EXEs, lets teachers remote access your PC, that kinda stuff). Stuff like LanSchool will deliberately sabotage your game program as you run it and if that's the cause you're pretty much screwed. Then there's the renowned issues with anything integrated.
BPzeBanshee: Thanks for the suggestion. I have Belarc both at home and in the office, so I think I could also use that. As for remote security programs, we have some installed on our servers, but so far none of them have been reactivated ever since the IT overhaul some months ago, and certainly none that block executables (that one was removed outright). Either way, my home computer (where the glitches also happen) doesn't have any of those, so I believe they can be ruled out.

Alluro: Thanks for the DLLs, I'll be sure to test these out. The above problems may indeed be caused by instability, either on the machines or the game files. In either case I have more solid data for you as I have experienced another crash earlier at work, and since it's basically the same as several crashes I experienced at home on a different PC, I think I can pinpoint at least two conditions for it now.
  • 1) It almost always involves entering stage 4-A. A second after the level starts, right before the first wave of powerup-carrying popcorns appear, the game either freezes immediately or gives me a Windows error message. For the latter, the game will run normally in the background until I click on the game window again, at which point it finally freezes; so far this version has happened twice.

    2) Most often it involves me coming from Stage 3-B, though I also remember crashing at least once or twice after coming from 3-A. So far I have crashed using the Raiden Mk. II Beta, Hikaru, the Amada Vipros, the Strikers P-38 and a couple other ships (either the Blue Javelin or the Judge Spear).

    3) I don't know if score has anything to do with it, but during the crashes my score was somewhere around 60+million. There might also be other factors such as bomb stock or lives left; further playing may clear this up.
The odd thing is that it normally doesn't happen, so I'm guessing there's a certain set of conditions for it to occur. In any case, I'm sorry for any trouble caused.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

And by "access to the computer setups" I mean I need to actually physically have those computers with me to test the game. Giving me a list of crashing conditions will help me not at all, since those conditions do not cause the game to crash for me.

I hope using the updated DLLs will help solve some of these problems. When I had crashes on my machine, it's caused by me entering EX-1 in arcade mode, about 5 seconds in. That's what happens to me most often when I ever encounter a crash in the game. However, updating to the latest DLLs a week ago, I've not experienced a crash since.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
BPzeBanshee
Posts: 4859
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:59 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

BPzeBanshee: Thanks for the suggestion. I have Belarc both at home and in the office, so I think I could also use that. As for remote security programs, we have some installed on our servers, but so far none of them have been reactivated ever since the IT overhaul some months ago, and certainly none that block executables (that one was removed outright). Either way, my home computer (where the glitches also happen) doesn't have any of those, so I believe they can be ruled out.
Just had a brief look at Belarc, that's the better one to use. AIDA32 is the one I've been using for years and is way outdated, it still calls Vista "Windows Longhorn". :P

I'm going to start another investigation with problem computers I've dealt with in relation to Xeno Fighters R. I don't believe its really any fault of the program itself but something within the hardware or software of said machines. Hopefully a collection of Belarc report files on each problem computer will reveal to me what the culprit is.
In the meantime, could you try downloading the game again? This is a bit of a long shot but the matter could be just be simply corrupt files playing up.
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

Gemini Blue and Gemini Red are 100% complete. They replace the scrapped Twinbee fighters and the scrapped Strikers P-38.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cZBnOvjcY (Video is not processed as of this post)

The Gemini Blue and Red are the only ships whose main shot is never upgraded when you collect powerups. To offset this. the subweapons of these two ships are quite powerful, although some of them are rather awkward to use. The Gemini Wing ships are also the only ships (so far) that have a dual-bomber system (explained in their profiles).

GEMINI BLUE
SPD: 3
ATK: 4
COV: 2
RPD: 2
BOM: 2

Power-up Scheme: Simultaneous Missile/Laser
Slaves: Raiden Fighters standard

Description: The Gemini Blue is an average-speed fighter. Its subweapons are based on the Gunball powers. It is not particularly powerful, but fully powered up Lasers and Missiles provide a lot of screen coverage.

MISSILE: Gemini Homing Missile
Standard homing missiles. Fully powered up, Gemini Blue shoots out 8 of these missiles at once.

LASER: 3-Way Shot
This weapon pierces through enemies. However, it fires quite slowly and offers almost no frontal attack capabilities. When powered up, only the flanked shots gain power. Effective use of this weapon is to use the flank shots to deal the most damage to large enemies, especially bosses.

BOMBER: Dual Gunball Type 1
Deploying this bomber while holding down the Shot button releases a Wide Beam, which extends the full width of the screen and sweeps upwards quickly. Not a particularly powerful Bomber, but its quick deploy time makes it an effective panic bomb.

With a neutral press of the Bomb button, a Spark Hurricane is released. Circular sparks rotate outward from the Gemini Blue, damaging enemies and canceling out bullets. The individual sparks are not too damaging, but overlapping an enemy while using Spark Hurricane deals tremendous damage to large enemies.

A Gunball icon denotes what type of Bomber is active.

GEMINI RED
SPD: 2
ATK: 5
COV: 2
RPD: 3
BOM: 2

Power-up Scheme: Alternating Missile/Laser
Slaves: Raiden Fighters standard

Description: The Gemini Red is slower than the Gemini Blue. However, its subweapons pack a significantly larger punch. Unlike the Gemini Blue's subweapons, which are based on Gunball Powers, the Gemini Red's subweapons are based on boss attacks. The other big difference is the Gemini Red uses either its Laser weapon or Missile weapon at any one time (the Gemini Blue uses both at the same time).

MISSILE: Bubble Mine
Based on the attack by the Stage 1 Green Walrus Boss, bubbles are released from the Gemini Red. The slowly float up the screen. They explode when they collide with an enemy or after a set amount of time. When they explode, a all-direction burst of fire is released. This weapon is extremely effective against popcorn enemies, but almost ineffective against large enemies, unless the bubbles themselves hit the enemies.

LASER: Cyclopean Laser
Fires a supremely powerful laser beam, based on the primary attack of the Stage 2 boss, Twin Cyclops. The laser beam pierces enemies and deals tremendous damage at full power. However, this weapon is very awkward to use. It fires straight ahead when the Gemini Red is not moving horizontally. When moving side to side, however, it fires in 45-degree diagonal directions depending on the horizontal movement. Mastering this weapon can result in striking multiple large enemies in different locations at one time.

BOMBER: Dual Gunball Type 2
Deploying this bomber while holding down the Shot button releases a Wide Beam, which extends the full width of the screen and sweeps upwards quickly. Not a particularly powerful Bomber, but its quick deploy time makes it an effective panic bomb.

With a neutral press of the Bomb button, a Swinging Fire Bar is unleashed. This is a very powerful swath of flame that deals catastrophic damage to anything it touches. It lasts for a significant amount of time as well. When the Swinging Fire Bar is active, the Gemini Red's subweapons are disabled; only its main shot is active. The Gemini Red is also vulnerable from the sides, as the firebar only protects a 90 degree arc in front of the ship.

A Gunball icon denotes what type of Bomber is active.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
Kaiser
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:20 am

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by Kaiser »

What is the next step to 0.7 Alluro? HOW ABOUT taking on 3-A/5-C and 6-B? :D
Zenodyne R - My 2nd Steam Shmup
EddyMRA
Posts: 798
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:36 am
Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by EddyMRA »

Kaiser wrote:What is the next step to 0.7 Alluro? HOW ABOUT taking on 3-A/5-C and 6-B? :D
I've been doing a lot of other stuff in XF, mainly streamlining the code. Yep, new stages are part of the picture too.
The age of Alluro and JudgeSpear is over.
User avatar
emphatic
Posts: 7923
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:47 pm
Location: Alingsås, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Xeno Fighters R (v0.6 Beta Final)

Post by emphatic »

Wow, I love Gemini Wing so I hope I can unlock these ships some time. 8)

Great work!
Image | My games - http://www.emphatic.se | (Click) I have YEN stickers for sale
RegalSin wrote:Street Fighters. We need to aviod them when we activate time accellerator.
Post Reply