Looking for Beta Testers for new RS related program.

[Shinjula]

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*................................................ Version 0.1 Now Up

 

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Ok new version is now up on the website which solves the problem with the Runtime Error 380, which was caused by it incorrectly calculating the change values for the scrollbars when the screen was smaller than the window size. Its quite viewable on 1280x960, theres only a tiny amount of the quest list missing off the right hand side, but it does include the scroll bar for the quest list. Im afraid those on smaller screen will just have to use the bottom scroll bar. That scroll bar by the way wil not be part of the final version, it's just a cludge I added to allow my husband to use the application on his laptop.

 

 

 

I've also fixed the problem with the Save option, it wasn't correctly creating a Profiles directory, but it does now :) And I've added some code to allow you to type in your character name and just tap return instead of hitting the GET STATS button as requested. Good idea that one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>>>This is a great idea, but doesnt tip.it already have one of these already? Im probably mistaken but whatever.

 

No, i dont believe it does, there are plenty of quest guides but nothing to help you organise the information in them such as what skills might be best for you to train or how the quests link up together. I could be wrong, but I've never seen one anywhere.

[darkblade986]

 

>>>This is a great idea, but doesnt tip.it already have one of these already? Im probably mistaken but whatever.

 

No, i dont believe it does, there are plenty of quest guides but nothing to help you organise the information in them such as what skills might be best for you to train or how the quests link up together. I could be wrong, but I've never seen one anywhere.

 

 

 

I believe he was referring to our quest calculator. All our calculator does is tell you what the quest is, what its prerequisites are based on required Skills and Quests, and tells you what their rewards are. It doesn't necessarily show how every quest links up with another quest.

[Crunchbag]

I downloaded and installed. On the first run, it crashed out after attempting to retrieve my stats but I think this was down to Norton blocking the connection as it worked fine on the second run, after I allowed it to connect to the internet.

 

 

 

Its a pretty nice program, though it definitely still needs some work. Some of my thoughts:

 

- Could make it clearer, perhaps with a dialog on first run, that right click can be used to quickly mark quests complete

 

- A "cleared all" button would be nice

 

- It would be good if it could better handle quests that are completed without the required stats (ie with potion)

 

- A choice of resolutions would be good but that isn't a big deal

 

-The installer seemed reluctant to install into subdirectories.

 

 

 

Otherwise, a very nice program :thumbsup:! I'm looking forward to future releases.

 

 

 

Specs

 

Intel dual core ~2.8GHz

 

1Gb RAM

 

Vista Home Premium

[REDACTED]

Windows OS : Windows XP SP2

 

AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 4400+

 

2.31GHz

 

3GB Ram

 

AMD

 

ATi Radeon HD 3400 Series

 

 

 

It ran first time (yay)

 

 

 

I really like it, it is a unique take to the whole quest management, placing it on this spider web makes it very easy to navigate.

 

 

 

Just some CC now :)

 

 

 

The size is a bit of a tricky one to work with I guess, however if at all possible, perhaps make it auto detect screen resolution and draw to that area? (I don't know how this was coded, so I can't say much) I'm fine with scrollbar and all, I just found them to be really sluggish (Much unlike the one for the quest list, which glides effortlessly for me)

 

 

 

I don't know if this is a bug or if its intended, but when I click on an icon in the little circle, and select Completed, it ends up in the completed quests box, however when I click it again/or right click (to make it uncompleted) it hops over to the left side of the big circle?

 

 

 

And I don't know if this is a problem my end (Because of my custom theme) or if its in the application itself, but I find the green a tad difficult to read on such a light background (If its my problem, sorry)

 

[hide=Picture][/hide]

 

 

 

But yeah, I really like it, and I noticed the sound it makes when moving something around :P

 

The XP/Skill reward pages are great as well, simply because it is so easy to read.

 

 

 

Awesome job :D

[Shinjula]

Crunchbag

 

>>>I downloaded and installed. On the first run, it crashed out after attempting to retrieve my stats but I think this was down to Norton blocking the connection as it worked fine on the second run, after I allowed it to connect to the internet.

 

Yep that sounds like Norton to me :)

 

 

 

>>>Its a pretty nice program, though it definitely still needs some work. Some of my thoughts:

 

>>>- Could make it clearer, perhaps with a dialog on first run, that right click can be used to quickly mark quests complete

 

OK Not sure quite what you mean here, but tell me a little more about what you'd expect and I'll get right on it.

 

 

 

>>>- A "cleared all" button would be nice

 

Cleared all what? There is a Show all Hide all button, or do you mean a completed all quests button so that if you've done most of the quests you can click it and then mark ones you haven't done as incomplete? If so that's not a bad idea at all, and I'll have a look at where I can fit it into the interface - that's half the problem I've had with this program, theres just so much stuff to fit in which is why it takes so much screen size.

 

 

 

>>>- It would be good if it could better handle quests that are completed without the required stats (ie with potion)

 

That's a really good point and not something I'd considered, I'd also better look into handling any parts which can be done with an assist.

 

 

 

>>>- A choice of resolutions would be good but that isn't a big deal

 

That's the big one :) I'll talk more about it further down

 

 

 

>>>-The installer seemed reluctant to install into subdirectories.

 

Not sure if theres anything I can do about that, its the standard Visual Basic installer package which I get very few options with. There is a scripted installer creator called NSIS which I've used before but its very complicated and dealing with shared files has to be scripted very carefully. I will almost certainly use it for the final release but hopefully people wont mind if I stick with the standard one for the moment. You can after all simply move the directory about manually should you choose to.

 

 

 

>>>Otherwise, a very nice program :thumbsup:! I'm looking forward to future releases.

 

Thanks really appreciate the response.

 

 

 

"AWCADDET"

 

>>>It ran first time (yay)

 

>>>I really like it, it is a unique take to the whole quest management, placing it on this spider web makes it very easy to navigate.

 

Whoot, so glad its not in a state where its working on pretty much everyones systems first time

 

 

 

>>>The size is a bit of a tricky one to work with I guess, however if at all possible, perhaps make it auto detect screen resolution and draw to that area? (I don't know how this was coded, so I can't say much) I'm fine with scrollbar and all, I just found them to be really sluggish (Much unlike the one for the quest list, which glides effortlessly for me)

 

This as I mentioned above is the big one. It really does need to be resizable. I had a quick look at what I would need to do to sort that out and it's a mammoth task. There are limited places I can cut area off, I can do things such as reducing the fonts on the quest list, losing width on the quest list, shrinking the circle, but getting them to all work in sync is quite tricky. I'd love to get it working but I'm leaving it for version 2. At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting every bug out of the current system.

 

 

 

>>>I don't know if this is a bug or if its intended, but when I click on an icon in the little circle, and select Completed, it ends up in the completed quests box, however when I click it again/or right click (to make it uncompleted) it hops over to the left side of the big circle?

 

That sounds like a bug to me, can you tell me which quest it was and I'll see if I can duplicate it.

 

 

 

>>>And I don't know if this is a problem my end (Because of my custom theme) or if its in the application itself, but I find the green a tad difficult to read on such a light background (If its my problem, sorry)

 

Not sure whats happening there. It should be independant of your system palette, but i'll go back and check. It should definately not be that colour, it should be a nice black so you can easily read the green, let me know if you see the same thing happening elsewhere.

 

 

 

>>>But yeah, I really like it, and I noticed the sound it makes when moving something around :P

 

>>>The XP/Skill reward pages are great as well, simply because it is so easy to read.

 

>>>Awesome job :D

 

 

 

Thanks so much for your help. It's really good to get such constructive critisism, and i'm really chuffed you all like it.

[Ixindor]

May I ask, what the purpose of this program is? I have most of the quests done (I haven't done Rocking Out and any quest after, which is 4 I think?!?). So will this benefit me in anyway?

[Shinjula]

Probably not Ixindor. I wrote this program cos I'd started a new character and wanted to know what quests to do and what skills to train to do em. I also get a bit of use from it just messing around and seeing how the quests all fit together.

 

 

 

If you only have four quests left to do itll be of limited use to you.

 

 

 

Mind you, if you wouldnt mind downloading it to check if it works and give it a quick look around that would however help me with my Beta Testing

[saif]

bump

[bored321]

Not bad!

 

I really like the idea, tho i think it would have been better to create a online version of it using javascript / flash/ java ect..

 

Would make updating it every time a new quest arrived easier (You could even automate it) rather than downloading updates everytime.

 

 

 

However the main issue for me was the screen size on my laptop, didn't find any problems which are not already listed.

[Shinjula]

bored321 Well as I said, that would be great, but as i dont know how to program in any of those languages unfortunately not possible.

 

But as far as updating it when a new quest comes out, all you have to do is open the options panel and click the update quests button and itll go fetch new data for you (once I've encoded it at least), that shouldnt be a problem

 

 

 

 

 

Of course if anyone here knows enough Java/Javascript and Visual Basic to be able to convert it I'd be quite content to share my source code.

[jcfc]

I'd just like to say that I love the look of this program! :) Also here's a lil bit of code that a friend knocked up when I was making a client for a different game (assuming you're using VB 08!) It resizes all your stuff for you to fit the screen resolution. It really helped with all the complaints that I was getting. Then they decide that a client that has links to calculators is better than built-in calculators. Oh well.

 

 

 

    Private Sub Sizecontrols(ByVal page As Control)

       Dim screenheight As Integer = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height

       Dim screenwidth As Integer = Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width

       For Each ctrl As Control In page.Controls

           ctrl.Height = Convert.ToInt32(ctrl.Height / 768 * screenheight)

           ctrl.Width = Convert.ToInt32(ctrl.Width / 1024 * screenwidth)

           ctrl.Location = New Point(ctrl.Location.X / 1024 * screenwidth, ctrl.Location.Y / 768 * screenheight)

           If ctrl.Controls.Count > 0 Then

               Sizecontrols(ctrl)

           End If

       Next

   End Sub

 

 

 

You may have this already, but yeah. Oh, and the 1024/768, I believe you change that to your current screen resolution (the one that you made the program in). Any chance of the program being open source at all?

[buzz_knight]

i notice that you have to confirm you have done quests in the order you have done them..

 

 

 

as in you can't say you have done recruitment drive without selecting you have done drudic ritual first.. maybe have it so if you confirmed you have done the parent quest the children ones should also show completed.

[Shinjula]

Er, Buzz Knight, thats not quite right, if you right click a quest in the quest list (on the right hand side) to mark it as complete it it will offer you the opportunity to mark all its parent quests as complete too. I havent implemented that on the smaller information page though, which I presume is what your referring to.

 

 

 

I thought I'd leave that one as just a toggle which is greyed out if the quest requirements arent complete, I'm not quite sure why I did it that way, so if you think its important that I change that I'll consider it. I think it was to do with the fact that you cant see whats going on underneath it.

[Crunchbag]

 

>>>Its a pretty nice program, though it definitely still needs some work. Some of my thoughts:

 

>>>- Could make it clearer, perhaps with a dialog on first run, that right click can be used to quickly mark quests complete

 

OK Not sure quite what you mean here, but tell me a little more about what you'd expect and I'll get right on it.

 

 

 

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point was that, for me at least, right clicking to mark a quest as complete wasn't immediately obvious. I know that you mention it on the download page but I have to admit that I only skimmed it. My suggestion was to have a dialogue box the first time you run the program to tell you the basic controls, though on reflection this seems a somewhat clumsy way of doing things.

 

 

 

 

>>>- A "cleared all" button would be nice

 

Cleared all what? There is a Show all Hide all button, or do you mean a completed all quests button so that if you've done most of the quests you can click it and then mark ones you haven't done as incomplete? If so that's not a bad idea at all, and I'll have a look at where I can fit it into the interface - that's half the problem I've had with this program, theres just so much stuff to fit in which is why it takes so much screen size.

 

 

 

 

Again, apologies for my lack of clarity. I meant that a button that marked all quests as done would be useful, in a similar way to the "mark all" button on TipIts quest list. Also, kudos on keeping the number of commands manageable, a lot of devs seem unable to resist squeezing commands in anywhere they can (yes, i realise the irony of pointing this out while asking for a new command).

 

 

 

Keep up the great work! :D

[Shinjula]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point was that, for me at least, right clicking to mark a quest as complete wasn't immediately obvious. I know that you mention it on the download page but I have to admit that I only skimmed it. My suggestion was to have a dialogue box the first time you run the program to tell you the basic controls, though on reflection this seems a somewhat clumsy way of doing things.

 

Not a problem. I will be writing a complete context sensitive help once the debugging is sorted out, but til then I'm afraid youll just have to put up with what little I've cobbled together on the site.

 

 

 

Again, apologies for my lack of clarity. I meant that a button that marked all quests as done would be useful, in a similar way to the "mark all" button on TipIts quest list. Also, kudos on keeping the number of commands manageable, a lot of devs seem unable to resist squeezing commands in anywhere they can (yes, i realise the irony of pointing this out while asking for a new command).

 

 

 

Keep up the great work! :D

 

Yep, it seems like a good idea, I'm just not sure where I'm going to put it.

[Crunchbag]

Just so you know, your program installs and runs fine under Linux using Wine, it can retrieve skill levels and seems to work pretty much normally except for the right click, which does nothing, making it somewhat tedious to use.

[Jys]

If you haven't been told yet, One Small Favor requires Druidic Ritual, Shilo Village, and Rune Mysteries. Not Druidic Ritual, Shilo Village, and Watchtower.

[smilieboy34]

At this stage, will it work on Macs?

[Shinjula]

jys072595 - Ooh thanks for that, didnt notice that one.

 

 

 

Sorry its not going to work on Mac's, visual basic is a windows only thingy and as I have no access to a mac thats unlikely to change. Sorry that the Right click doesnt work under linux, I do have access to a linux machine but that doesnt imply ill be able to get it running, I will have a look though.

[RichieMcD]

Yuck, VB.

 

 

 

Unless you want to post a program of similar or better capabilities then don't be commenting negatively on his.

 

 

 

Looks great, going to be making a Mac compatible version?

[Shinjula]

I think most of us were just ignoring the guy who said Yuck VB, he was such an obvious troll. i see so little point in bothering to contradict him.

 

 

 

As to a mac version, Fraid not, I only know how to program visual basic. I've never got the hang of Java at all.

[smilieboy34]

Eh, thats ok. I play WoW now anyways :P

[craven_range]

Will download tonight.

 

I only have 137QP so this will be interesting :D

 

 

 

I might start questing as a result

[Shinjula]

Oooh, that'd be lovely if I'd inspired someone to quest :)

 

 

 

I'd like to move on to one of the questions I had which I hoped the people testing it would give me their opinions on.

 

 

 

Current the Show/Hide by Questlines buttons in the options have not been implemented. This is because I wanted to get everyone's opinions on what they should be.

 

 

 

Here's the Questlines I've thought might be worth including in the list :

 

* Desert Quests

 

* Dwarf Quests

 

* Vampire Quests

 

* Pirate Quests

 

* Elf Quests

 

* Gnome Quests

 

* Sea Slug Quests

 

* Cave Goblin Quests

 

* Troll Quests

 

* Ogre Quests

 

* White Knight Quests

 

* Ghost Quests

 

* Fairy Quests

 

* King Arthur Quests

 

* Jungle Quests

 

* Cat Quests

 

* Relleka/Lunar/Barbarian Quests

 

 

 

First off, could you give me your opinions on which of those YOU think should be in the list. We might find when we actually look at what counts as part of the Questlines that there are either so few or that theres enough crossover with other Questlines that some of the categories can be ignored (I'm think of the Ghost ones here)

 

 

 

Secondly, I'd like your opinions on what quests should be included in those questlines. Since the list is quite long I'd like to concentrate for the moment on the first five, so I'd like you to tell me which quests you think should belong to

 

* Desert Quests

 

* Dwarf Quests

 

* Vampire Quests

 

* Pirate Quests

 

* Elf Quests

 

and we'll move on to the others once we've done those.

[Shinjula]

Well thats obviously a question no ones interested in answering :) I'll make another separate thread to look for an answer.

 

 

 

Meanwhile I'll keep this one bumped so that anyone who finds any error has somewhere to post them. Equally you can report error to the e-mail address listed on the website.