I now have a basic, but effective, Wizard Selection Screen in place..
This uses the new config files to read in the wizard_options.ini file and use the text information held in there for the menus and to directly set up the wizards. Unlike previous menu systems I’ve written, the information is not transfered into seperate menu variables, but parsed directly from the text each frame. This might be too slow in a fast paced arcade game when used ingame, but for Chaos it’s not going to be a problem. It will also make it easier to code in new menu options and process them as well. In addition, the variables in the text can be used to deal with how the menu options are shown on the screen to some extent.
Unfortunately, my strengths do not lie in clean, modular, reusable abstract code like menu programming. So, the code is a bit hackerish I’m afraid, but is mostly data-driven and is effective. 
The next demo release will let you pick a combination of wizards (human, computer or off), as in Chaos Funk.
June 6, 2007 at 4:42 pm
looks like it;s coming along nicely!
one thing i noticed in windowed mode I can’t move the mouse pointer off the window. Is that a PTK thing?
June 6, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Adam: I’ll look into that..
June 6, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I have never heard of PTK before. Is it easy to use?
June 6, 2007 at 6:48 pm
PTK is very easy to use, and while it has all the basic features neeeded, I do wish it had a few more. Plus, the development is slow I’m afraid.
I prefer the user-interfaces of other libraries I’ve used, but PTK can work in OpenGL or DirectX as well as having all the basics, so it’s a good choice.
June 6, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Just spotted something odd about magic fire – is the animation running backwards?! – it looks like it might be intended to go the other way around, as the fire looks like it’s shrinking instead of growing (or is it me?)
It also looks like the sides of the fire are being ‘clipped’ a bit, which contrasts with the nice glow effect you’ve added. Don’t know if anyone else has noticed this?
Please keep up the good work anyhow – fantastic (and speedy!) job so far.
June 6, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Yes, the animation was wrong. I’ve now corrected that. It also does have clipped edges. The glow is a bit too strong, I’ll rectify that at some point..
June 6, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Hey, I’ve made alternate graphics for all the creatures. They don’t animate, but I could work on that if you like them. Is there an email address I can send them to?
June 7, 2007 at 7:31 am
Sounds good! Could you send them to:
Thinking _ Machine @ Hotmail . com
(with no spaces)
Cheers!
June 7, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I think there is a bug with the raise dead spell. I’m pretty sure I saw a computer opponent raise a creature, but when I right clicked, it highlited as belonging to the original wizard that cast it, who has been dead a few turns. Then the wizard that raised it killed it, because I guess the game treated it as an enemy creature.
June 7, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Also, an enemy gorilla walked right into a square surrounded by another wizards magic fire, so you might want to make the AI more afraid of fire than it is.
June 7, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I’ll have to look at the raise dead bit again. Are you sure another wizard didn’t cast subversion?
June 7, 2007 at 6:26 pm
I’m pretty sure the creature was dead, and then he cast something on it, and it was alive.
June 7, 2007 at 6:27 pm
And the color it highlighted as belonged to a dead wizard.