Others Artifact [v0.79.21] [Mesmerizers]

[blkhawk]

I bought the game because some of the themes are right up my alley but after running into some bugs I decided to take a look under the hood so to speak and the code is a bit... odd.

The places with the bugs I looked at that have a style I have only seen when somebody with very little experience tries to extend stuff that already exists and does that by replicating what they already know or what is there already. Stuff that makes the code concise is missing and the places where mistakes can introduce bugs skyrocket. I haven't looked that much but this is a good example:

$lunchArousal is 6 or 6.5 or 7 or 7.5 or 8 or 8.5 or 9 or 9.5

this could be replaced with

$lunchArousal >= 6

Or this that is somewhat worse:

$lunchArousal is not 6 or 6.5 or 7 or 7.5 or 8 or 8.5 or 9 or 9.5

can be replaced with

$lunchArousal < 6


This is a really good example how a bug can get introduced - if any of the dots are missing this would still work but the value wouldn't trigger it anymore:

$lunchArousal is 6 or 6.5 or 7 or 75 or 8 or 8 or 9 or 9.5

Another thing I noticed was that frequently conditions that exclude each other are tested multiple times in a row - like those two conditions above that are mutually exclusive yet occur right next to each other. normally you use a if-else conditional structure there and its used plenty of times in the code just not in these odd places.

My guess we have more than one author of this stuff maybe the programming for the game was started by somebody somewhat competent and now somebody else tries to extend it who has not enough experience with programming in general.

From what I saw it doesn't seem at the point where it collapses under its own weight yet but whoever is expending it is probably taking an order of magnitude longer to do stuff and is making a lot of mistakes.


MSMRZZRS I assume you are the Author - maybe get help?

 

[7ucK]

is there a full game of this?

 

[Anonnymous18100]

is there a full game of this?

0.7 is out on patreon

 

[SkyBlaze]

My guess we have more than one author of this stuff maybe the programming for the game was started by somebody somewhat competent and now somebody else tries to extend it who has not enough experience with programming in general.

MSMRZZRS I assume you are the Author - maybe get help?

I noticed the same thing from the amount of bug fix updates after 0.75.x , it is telling when there are so many bugs after one update.

MSMRZZRS I would agree with the suggestion above, either hire a programmer or take a break to learn programming standards, because continueing as you are will lead your game to a state where it will be terribly difficult to add new stuff and/or fix old stuff.

A game that is late but well made is better than a game that is quick but badly made.

 

[blkhawk]

A game that is late but well made is better than a game that is quick but badly made.

I don't think quick is the issue here - The code gets ever more unmaintainable and unexpandable because everything is duplicated until nothing can be extended anymore and the author burns out. I hadn't really looked at the code enough when I posted the first time. its way worse than I thought. The reason why you see more bugs is that the code probably has reached a point where it cannot be extended anymore without changing even simple things is that each thing needs to be changed in a hundreds near identical but sometime slightly different places.

for instance each NPC has the same code just copied and the used variables are changed with a new prefix.
Stuff like Text strings and everything are also duplicated to a degree of eldritch insanity. Not only has each character its own cup-sizes (not cup-size SIZES like a list of "AAA,AA,A,B...") but also each possible select-able racial variation a character has its own cup-sizes. Same goes for Names. I know that that way you can have different weightings but there are ways to do this easier by far.

You can make Husks in the game thus generating an unique NPC. This is not something that is done dynamical. Each is coded in. You can have Husks all the way from $husk1 up to $husk50. There are 7 racial variations. That is 350 times just for the Husks that Tit sizes are defined. This is not the only variable like that for instance each race has male and female variations and each has first and last names (yes male and female last names are selected separately and re-defined for each husk for each "race").

At the same time the code is commented and ordered in places in the way I imagine you would arrange far too many deck chairs on the promenade of a sinking ocean-liner.

MSMRZZRS I want to give a few Hints on how to fix this mess but I fear I can't be too brief about it because the you seem to be missing even the programming concepts behind them thus can't apply them effectively. But I also don't want to spend all Sunday on looking up the specific sugarcube syntax and testing the code before posting the examples here. So this ain't for direct copy and pasting:

There are only a few concepts you are missing that has gotten your code into this mess. As i see them these are:

* What are Arrays (and Objects)
* What is a Loop
* How can I format numbers for display so they don't look like Ass.0000000012

First Arrays are nice - they let you put more than one thing in a variable. Like a String. For instance :

set $cupSizes to ['AA', 'A','B','C','D']

This could be defined once globally. You can access each size by referencing it like this:

$cupSizes[1] The value this returns is 'A' (Arrays start at 0 generally).

So if you have say 50 Huskies that all have a cup-size what do you do? You use a Loop - A "for" loop is especially useful here because it gives you a counter $variable you can use. You can even give them names at the same time.

set $allMyHuskies to 50
set $huskies to []

<<for _i to 0; _i lt $allMyHuskies; _i++>>
<<$huskies[_i].name = $names.random()>>
<<$huskies[_i].cupSize = $cupSizes.random()>>
<</for>>

I am using an Array for the huskies here as well but its not an Array of strings like the cupSizes is but an Array of Objects - an Object is like a collection of other variables you reference by name under it. That way you can tie a lot of different types values together in one neat bundle.

The last concept is functions to transform numbers easily. You use widely use a decimal scale to describe stats and instead of just using a numeric variable you transform for display you use unwieldy lists of values you select from.

Normally you would just use a twice as big variable internally then divide by 2 and limit the decimal places to 1 for display by using ".tofixed(1)" on it. This approach gets you output like: 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 and so on without the need to laboriously defining each value manually for a list. This would definitively be good for the Player stats that frequently show to many decimals.

Another way one could use is to abuse an Array and the build in .random function it has - just define your list in an array ONCE - then just reference it like this: << $husky[_i].dickSize = $numberlist.random(1,16)>>

Anyway I have spend FAR too much time on this and I hope you lean something and get your game into a state were you can add onto it again without introducing more and more bugs.

 

[JJATH]

Does anyone have 0.75?

 

[SuperNovAA]

Hey, this game is playable with a joiplay? for android I mean.

 

[MSMRZZRS]

The actual answer is that when I first began the game, I was not too familiar with coding. I began to learn more as I progressed, and now I'm actually taking a course in a whole different engine because as I've come along, I've realized just how booty Twine is. I wish Artifact was made in Sugarcube, but it's Harlowe.

These days I'm mainly just trying to maintain uniformity, improve what's already there, and build onto it all while keeping a monthly release schedule. As of this latest update that I'm about to post, the main structure of the game is nearly complete, so luckily there really is not much coding left to do (comparatively), it's mainly just the images and actual content of the game that need to catch up.

 

[MSMRZZRS]

Artifact v0.76 - Release and Changelog
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+Added a new main quest, complete with two possible new sex scenes
+Added new doll body sets

• Female / Fit (body, faces, hair, eyes, chest)
• Female / Average (body, faces, hair, eyes, chest)

+Added Melissa blowjob scene (image only)
+Added husks' images to their spot in the boiler room (not all husks will have all body parts yet)
+Added a toggle option for fullscreen that appears when first booting up the game. (As much as I'd like the game to automatically switch to or from fullscreen by remembering your preferences whenever you boot it up, it simply is not possible with this game engine since it requires user input to go fullscreen. The best I can do in these circumstances is to present the fullscreen option as early and effortlessly as possible.)
*Expanded the drain encounter
*Professors and staff no longer eat from the cafeteria, except on rare occasions
*Reformatted boiler room husks for easier navigation and cleaner look
*Taking your free meal from the cafeteria should now function properly, as should purchasing additional meals
*Fixed images for Dr. Howard's scenes
*Fixed issue with Dr. Hartmann occasionally being unable to do his rant
*Fixed missing text in the Ghouls chapter of the fragments
*Fixed potential issue with being unable to leave Archaeology lab under certain scenarios
*Fixed potential progression issue in the red light encounter
*Increased Boiler Room visibility in Student Center
*Fixed issue that resulted in certain library quest text being visible even after its relevant quest had progressed
-Removed many of the “broken link” images, although some few may still remain
-Removed duplicate links from Archaeology Building Bathroom

 

[Nerro]

If I'm not into futa or genderbender, am I gonna like this game?

 

[PinkNova]

Awww, kind of disappointed that this is mainly text based when that's an awesome cover art.

 

[derp752]

Almost all the picture links are broken for me

 

[LB1990]

I'm still trying to figure how this thing work, i just had sex with a female, and idk how she had a dick now... I didn't asked for it x)

The game seem great and all but you are really lost, you are just asked to go to the library and that's all. And the countdown of 180 days doesn't help either because one day is done really quick and you are still wondering "what i should do".

You have access to 30 locations and you can visit 2/3 at most per day before it's night, and you can miss some event too.

 

[RDFozz]

Spoiler

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...
"Attractive Slacker"
You are a stereotypical 'Bad Boy'. Every morning you have a bonner.

I dunno - eating Herb Tarlek for breakfast every day would get repetitive pretty quickly, don't cha know.

Spoiler: joke explained

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[testyv1]

The actual answer is that when I first began the game, I was not too familiar with coding. I began to learn more as I progressed, and now I'm actually taking a course in a whole different engine because as I've come along, I've realized just how booty Twine is. I wish Artifact was made in Sugarcube, but it's Harlowe.

These days I'm mainly just trying to maintain uniformity, improve what's already there, and build onto it all while keeping a monthly release schedule. As of this latest update that I'm about to post, the main structure of the game is nearly complete, so luckily there really is not much coding left to do (comparatively), it's mainly just the images and actual content of the game that need to catch up.

Your business plan sucks, no one wants to pay you to learn how to code. Release your initial shit to tfgames, here, etc while you're learning and then come back and sell your next game once you know what the fuck you're doing.

 

[Perveckt]

Almost all the picture links are broken for me

Same issue any one have idea on how to fix it? All the art is well done and beautiful so was pretty disapointed when i couldn't actually see most of them. Fix that and i think this could be a fun game. Far as people talking about not knowing what to do it's pretty simple. Corupt every one.

Slight bug i found near end of my play through is you can just spam click flirt and eventually have sex with them irrelivant of time of day.

 

[JunkPanda]

Where is the save file located?

 

[Harabec]

So I have an issue with the html version. Nothing saves. No setup saves. No game saves. No folder created in appdata. Basically need to play whole game in one shot. And if an update comes along, start from scratch again.

 

[SasugaRyzeSama]

Almost all the picture links are broken for me

Same issue any one have idea on how to fix it? All the art is well done and beautiful so was pretty disapointed when i couldn't actually see most of them. Fix that and i think this could be a fun game. Far as people talking about not knowing what to do it's pretty simple. Corupt every one.

Slight bug i found near end of my play through is you can just spam click flirt and eventually have sex with them irrelivant of time of day.

It's not they are broken, they are not there. As in, in the demo there is limited amount of art.

 

[dumbass55]

Finally I can play as an anti-simp