Post by Casteele in Farm Drone Prototype comments

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Interesting concept, but too many flaws.

(1) when using the itch.io app, it installs and executes the files locally instead of via a web server. This means any *.gz (GNU gzip) files must be unzipped locally, and the main index.html file needs to be edited to load the files without the .gz extension.

(2) It needs a tutorial to figure out how to play. It took me awhile to figure out that I needed to run a "random" action from the two choices ("use: shovel" and "sell") until I had randomly earned enough money to buy other commands/upgrades.

(3) The "is over" always follows the path to the right, regardless of whether true or not. I put my first node as "is over: tree", and it still took the code path to the right, never to the left. [You might also re-word it as true/false, to avoid confusion with "right" having two meanings: (a) Correctness, as in "that is the right answer", and (b) Directional, as in "turn right at the next intersection."]

(4) Sieve never seems to get any seeds to plant or sell. It also fails silently, still using the soil. If it is randomly determined whether or not a seed is obtained from dirt/soil, it should be noted...

(5) Descriptions should provide more information and insight. I.E., What _exactly_ does the shovel do? It appears to dig up AND till the ground AND put a load of dirt on top of the drone's item stack. So you need to do something with the dirt: Either sell it, or sieve it for seeds. I can sell it without problem, but sieve fails as per (4) above.

Perhaps a shovel should only dig up dirt, and fail if anything but ground. Then add another tool, a hoe, to till the ground. (You might even add branching logic to follow a different pah when a node/command fails.)

The "compare" node needs to be able to "compare" the top of the drone's item stack: Is it dirt? Is it a seed? Et cetera.

Timon * 12 years ago

Hey thanks a lot for the feedback. This is a very early prototype so naturally there are still a lot of flaws.

(1) That's unfortunate. You have to play it in the browser I guess.

(2) The tutorial is definitely on the priority list but so far I've been too lazy to make one.

(3) I've already fixed this yesterday. just need to upload the new version

(4) It seems to work fine for me. When I have dirt on the drone and call sieve it turns the dirt into a seed 100% of the time for me.

(5) You're right I didn't put much effort into the descriptions.

Casteele2 years ago (2 edits)

Re: (1) -- Fortunately, for me, I already un-gzipped the files and edited the index file. I also run a Linux machine with an Apache web server, so I can always set it up locally, anyhow.

I was mostly letting you know that this is a common issue with WebGL Itch games. The same problem exists if someone wants to download the game to play offline. You can probably make a note of such issues in the game description here.

The only solution I can think of is to provide a a separate "offline" version that contains all the game files in a single zip file, but the game files themselves are already un-gzipped within the zip file. I.E.: Unzip the offline zip file in to a directory of the user's choice, and load the index.html in their web browser to play.

Re: (2) -- I suggest, for now, brief instructions in the game description.

Re: (4) -- I found the problem: The "Use" node kept reverting back to "Shovel" after dragging and placing it. Not certain if this was something within the game or something I was doing incorrectly. It works if I drag and place the node first, then change it to use the Sieve tool.

As an additional side note, you may want to adjust the placement detection to be a little more "forgiving". Sometimes, I drop a node that does not actually "fall" in to the code slot. Instead, it just sits there near the slot. Perhaps give a visual indication when a node is fully in a slot by outlining it in a different color, as well.

EDIT: Just saw you uploaded a new version, and installed it. I like the changes and re-organization -- it is a bit more intuitive and logical. I will play with it further...

EDIT: Yay! The updated version is working! Right now, my drone is programmed as:

Main:

1. IsOver:Tree -- True: [ Harvest, Sell ]

2. IsOver:Bush -- True: [ Harvest, Sell ]

3. IsOver:TilledSoil -- True: [ Use:Shovel, Use:Sieve, Plant ]

4. IsOver:Ground -- True: [ Use:Shovel, Use:Sieve, Plant ]

5. RepeatUntilStop

5.1.ChooseRandom:

5.1.1. CanMove:Forward -- True: [ Move:Forward, Stop ]

5.1.2. CanMove:Back -- True: [ Move:Back, Stop ]

5.1.3. CanMove:Left -- True: [ Move:Left, Stop ]

5.1.4. CanMove:Right -- True: [ Move:Right, Stop ]

Thus, the Drone will try to Harvest and Sell. Then it will obtain a Seed to Plant. Finally, it will repeatedly try to move in a random direction until it succeeds.

(The Harvest/Sell, Seed/Plant, and Move/Random are actually Execute-able functions in my actual code with additional fail-safe logic, such as only Harvest-ing when CanHarvest is True, etc.)

Timon * 12 years ago

Cool that's a pretty good setup. Your feedback helped a lot!