I’ve taken a bunch of popular requests and complaints in regard to the existing gameplay engine and decided to finally do something about them. A lot of the major issues were related to the free-for-all mode, mainly where you could be attacking another player and you wouldn’t get the kill credit because they’d kill themselves right in time. Well not anymore! You now get the full credit for pressuring another player to kill their character. You can also now see how many kills that player has in FFA by looking above their head!

Other players’ scores will appear next to their name as shown in the picture above. This is a response to the complaint where you would never know how close players are to each other. You let your guard down for one second thinking you’ve got a lead but then bam, “Roach has 19/20 kills!?” Woops.

I’m not going to go into full detail anymore, but here’s a list of everything that’s been changed!

Spherack Reloaded – Client Changes in Build 069

• Fix glitch where weapons can obtain the properties of others during map changes
• Suicides in Free-For-All now reward the last person to damage the suicidal character
• Direct hits from the grenade launcher now instantly kill players
• HP now regenerates slower based on how much energy your character has
• Fixed an issue with the auto-updater on Windows 7
• Fixed Spherack’s internal error-reporting function
• Added visible player scores to free-for-all mode

Spherack Reloaded – Server Changes in Build 069

• Code and graphic output optimized to reduce RAM usage by up to 60%
• Server now displays more status information through website
• Fixed an issue with the auto-updater in Windows 7

I hope everyone’s excited for and will try out the new build! Grab a couple friends one night and play a round!

Also, I’m holding another public online match to introduce more people to Spherack. Join us tonight, April 7th at 8pm Eastern Time. We’ll be playing on ZNet-IV. Be sure to RSVP to the Facebook event to let us know you’re coming!

Click here to go to the Download Page!

Spherack v3.2.068 is now available for download! This build features a brand new map, mp_alley, as pictured to the left. As you can probably tell, it’s built with a brand-new tileset and everything, and also is the first map to feature interactive scenery as part of my mission to make gameplay even more exciting than it already is.

Also in build 68, I’ve fixed mp_gray, which you may know for lagging or even crashing the game. This was due to an issue the game’s physics engine had with the slopes in the level, so I’ve removed them, meaning the map works once more for all!

Lastly on the list of exciting things that happened this build: I’ve updated the server’s default settings to make it easier for newer server-owners to launch their own games. The default score limit is now 20 (compared to 100) and the auto-rotation of modes and maps is also enabled by default.

So what are you waiting for? Pull a few friends aside, and grab the new version!

Click Here to Download!

So in short, everything looks the same, acts the same, but works a little differently. Simple benefit is, you can see what servers are online and you don’t have to worry about your own servers getting booted off the list for unexplained reasons.

Lastly, because people weren’t in favor of using an installer to download the game, I’ve made it available to download only through a ZIP file. I also rewrote some of the filenames and locations for a few files, which means anyone who has a copy of the game installed already will have to remove it from their system and download this release, because it won’t be available through auto-update. To download the game, click here.

Enjoy!

I know, I know, its only been about a week or so since the last update to Z-Updater, you’re all probably thinking I’m crazy or something. Well you see the thing is… perhaps. Anyway, because of the title, you’re probably thinking this new version does some crazy thing which makes setting things up three times as fast and much easier. You’re right!

Forget the need to edit source code, in v1.6 all you have to do is set three variables in an ini file and Z-Updater is ready to go! It almost can’t get easier! So if you’re looking for a fast but excellent software updater, you’ve found it right here. Head on here to download!

Yes, the source is still included for those of you who like to mock my sloppy coding.

I’ve just released the latest build of Z-Updater, the first released update to the code in 786 days. This build starts off small by completely replacing the interface with a much cleaner and simplistic design. The original design was very bulky, so now its gone! Also, the updater is now designed to be much less obtrusive when launching an application. If no update is available, you no longer will have to hit “Okay, cool, just start my program.” The only time you and your users will realizing you’re running an updater is when you actually release an update.

The updater still downloads updates in small increments, (Patch 1, Patch 2, Patch 3) but as long as people stay up-to-date with the latest patches here and there, it’ll save them time in the long run and you bandwidth. Compared to my other, “GML Patch” you won’t have to re-release a gigantic patch file just to change the readme.

Lastly, this build fixes the issue with not having an “Updates” folder. One of my mistakes with the last version was not including a note saying “You MUST have an updates folder.” The program now makes the folder itself if you don’t have it. Clever.

Well, if you’re interested, stroll on over to SourceForge and give it a download! Enjoy.

As for videos, Alex and I will probably be trying to film a new episode of Nardy Network News sometime late this week if we get a chance, so be on the lookout for that!

That’s right, one of the major features you’ve all been waiting for have arrived! (I’ve stopped procrastinating) Rather than just killing each other with one gun, you can now choose between the Thompson, a Shotgun, and the Grenade Launcher over the area of now, five maps.

What are you waiting for? Go over to the game page and download it now!

Well I just finished working on a slight update to GML Patch earlier and now here’s the release. This really is a really minor update but hey, it’s something, right? All of the changes lied in the Update.exe file. (Updated source included) The main issue I saw was when it would launch, the window would only show after the update was completed, thus leaving the user clueless for a moment as to what’s going on.

List of Changes…

• Fixed issue where window would appear after update is completed instead of during it
• Removed changelog button by default (can be easily re-inserted in VB.NET)
• Revised the updater window design

Click here to download GMLPatch_4_0_1