Alright! So, it's not as exciting as a new version of KarBOOM being released. But I'd really appreciate some help making sure the forum is all good.

KarBOOM's "official" forum.

It seems to have working ['b'], ['i'], ['u'], ['url'], ['url='], and ['img'] tags. Tear it up, post all over the place. I didn't really know what sections to have, so suggest stuff, post stuff, look at stuff, etc. Help me make it good!

Come to think of it, I should really add a page system so that threads and topics can't get too huge. Maybe I'll get that done tonight.

So of course, you're all wondering how do I register!? Register at the login page here. Test out the forum, please, but don't post pornographic material. I don't want to see it, and it's not the place for it. I don't want to have to remove stuff, but in that kind of situation I will. Please do give me suggestions and test stuff out. If any of you have concerns about the forum system itself (especially those of you experienced in that area) ask whatever questions you like. I really appreciate input, and want to make this a secure system.

An email address is required to activate an account -- this is for a couple of reasons. One is to reduce bot-created accounts, and the other is so that your account is safer. There isn't a password recovery system yet, but there will be and it will send it to your email address provided. Later on when KarBOOM is bigger and people are paying for upgraded accounts (that's the dream, anyway), I don't want people losing accounts because their passwords weren't properly secure, or for whatever reason. If an email address is always associated with an account, at least they can always get it back!

Enter your details carefully: I don't want to have to make changes manually if you don't like your username. Pick a password that you don't use with other services -- the system may not be as secure as it will be later on. Those of you "in the know" can help me with that.

KarBOOM Online play (when it comes out, which should be soon) will require an "upgraded" account to play online. At the moment, all accounts are automatically "upgraded" on creation (I can't really expect people to pay anything for it in this state, and I need testers). When there are more users and the game is a little further along in development new users will need to pay to upgrade, but accounts that were already upgraded (even for free) will stay upgraded. In brief: Join now = never pay.

But if you're just joining to play later (rather than help test the forum), you're probably best off waiting a bit until things are running really smoothly. Don't worry, I'll announce in advance before an upgraded account costs money.

Thanks,

Jibb

You could add different game modes that depend on the level that is currently loaded.
For example a race mode with more and less dangerous tracks.
Even though it looks like sh*t, I've spend a lot of time on the following sketch:


(Imagine a wider path)

I've made the same post in your forum (yeah, free updates/ upgrades!). Should I/ we still post here?

Wow, that's an impressive sketch!

darkinferno recently reminded me about a race mode as well. It's a car game, so it should definitely have a race mode. I need to put a to-do list on the web-site, really, so I don't lose track of anything.

Regarding posting here or KarBOOM's forum, I'd say definitely post there, and it's up to you whether or not to post here still as well. I'll be keeping an eye on both. When there are updates I will still update this thread so the GS community knows.

Jibb

That's right, I'm finally kicking KarBOOM 0.2 out the door and I need you guys to test it out! It has been a lot of effort to get it working online, and before I make a big deal out of it all over the rest of the internet, I'd really like you guys to help me find any bugs or urgent issues, and basically make sure it actually works.

DOWNLOAD 0.2 NOW



Basically, I'm aware that the online mode is light on features. But every release of this game is a work in progress, anyway, so as long as there are no urgent matters, I'm keen to get as many people playing this as possible.

So please test this to pieces, and hopefully you'll have fun. Give me lots of feedback, and I'll take it all.

Check out the README that's included. It describes the changes in detail, but here's the short version:

• ONLINE PLAY! Play against other players! If you're hosting, please make sure you are forwarding port 2300 to your PC if necessary. If you see a server in the lobby that is highlighted in red, it is because someone has had trouble connecting to that server even though they are connected to the internet. Unfortunately, this only helps the clients, as I'm yet to implement a way by which the server checks if players are having trouble.
• BOOST mutator! Boost! Just what this game needed. Try it and see how it works. [Y] button on XBox 360 controller, CTRL if you're the cursor-keys keyboard player, or either of your shoulder keys if you're another keyboard player (Q or E for the WSAD player, for example).
• THIEF mutator! In any score-based mode, a knockout will take away some of their points. But it's most interesting in Life-limit mode: knockout another player and not only will they lose a life, but you'll gain one! It makes for some really drawn-out games, even if all players only start with 1 life.
• AA: Anti-aliasing, yo. Don't be shy to enable it in the options menu -- I don't think it's very performance hungry (hard to tell on my GeForce GTX 580), and because it is a shader/view trick it toggles on and off instantly.
• TWEAKS and FIXES: Explosions are now a little more gentle, players are given more time before exploding out the ring, particle shadows are fixed, replay mode no longer brings back players who have run out of lives.

To play online you need an online account. You can create an account at KarBOOM.net. This account will automatically be "upgraded" to let you play online (otherwise it would only act as a forum account). Once 500 people have joined it will cost $5 or so for new accounts to be upgraded (that is assuming I get the Paypal system working by the time 500 people join), but if your account is already upgraded it will stay upgraded for free, for good.

The forum still needs some work, but is at least usable at this stage.

Thanks for your support, everyone!

Due to time-of-day stuff, I won't actually be hosting a game until at least tomorrow. I still have to set up port-forwarding. I did as much testing as I could from home with the help of my brothers, but for all I know you guys won't be able to play at all. Please let me know how it goes!

Jibb

EDIT: Oh, and btw, ENTER to chat.

Awesome!

Hosting a server seems to work, I'm missing bots (in multiplayer mode), though.
The game crashes when I click "join online game".
The handling is great (tried with XBox Controller), the BOOST mutator is awesome.
The handbrake is nice, too, but it is ~20% too strong.

It would be nice if the game saved the login information (check a box first).

That's not good Do you mean when opening the lobby, or when joining an online game from the lobby screen?

I'm online now and hopefully got port-forwarding working properly (I haven't actually done it before). If anyone wants to join me, now would be great! If it doesn't work, say so here so I can find out, please
It just locks the wheels, so I guess it's a matter of the wheels having too much friction -- or recovering friction too easily? (since the friction varies as difference between wheel speed and ground speed increases)
Glad you think so I've been meaning to add that for a while!
Did you have anyone join? I agree about the bots being available online, but I figured they're non-essential for the first online release. I will keep them in mind for future versions.
I was thinking about that. Never got around to it, as much as I frustrated myself having to type in my username and password every time I tested something (usually twice, since I was testing a client and a server).

Thanks for giving it a go!

Jibb

EDIT: Okay, off to bed for me. I couldn't reproduce a crash -- it froze for a few seconds while trying to connect to a server that had disconnected since the lobby's last refresh, but then it just said "connection failed" and refreshed the list.

EDIT2: It's worth noting that it failed to inform the lobby server of the issue, so when it refreshed the server was not listed in red. I need to see about that -- I think that's a pretty important feature.

EDIT3: No... that issue was only with the lobby scripts online. It has been fixed, and doesn't require an update. I guess I'm going to wait until everyone's awake again to see if people can actually connect to each other.

EDIT4: I got a bit carried away... 0.2.1 is in the works. So far, servers are notified when someone has trouble connecting. I won't release 0.2.1 until 0.2 has been properly tested by you guys, though, so that 0.2.1 can be a bit more substantial than that.

"Do you mean when opening the lobby, or when joining an online game from the lobby screen?"

I've tried it again: The game crashes when I open the lobby.

"Did you have anyone join?"

No, sorry.

Same problem over here. The exe crashes if I try to open the lobby screen.

Changing the textfield pressing TAB and login with ENTER, would be nice, too.

Great to see a new release!

The lobby doesn't always crash, I could connect to my own server.
Saving login information would be great, as GorNaKosh said.

some little suggestions:
The game doesn't show up in the taskbar until I moved it around.
I succeeded to log in 3 times... maybe it is a good thing to prevent this in later releases(to prevent account sharing)
for testing it might be an idea to lower the fps_max variable, so multiple clients can run smooth on a single computer.
It is not important, but you could hide the "login succeeded" bar after a few seconds.

getting count down then blank terrain in offline mode. no cars etc.