My awesome ISP Freethought Internet emailed me out of the blue the other day saying they had found an old backup of the Netshift¹ database and did I want it. I really thought that thing was lost to the wind.
Seriously considering converting all the levels and sticking them in the new level pit.
¹ Netshift was a short-lived Flash port of Blackshift with about half the features, but with an online level-sharing community.
I'm curious, is this Netshift gen 1 or gen 2? I'm sure I had at least 10 levels in each, all of which I'd be super happy to be able to see again.
ReplyDeleteNot sure, actually. Do any of these look familiar? http://pastebin.com/Te1s3Vkt
DeleteUmm, do different characters stand for different elements used in the level editor? I can't really tell what any of this says.
DeleteAnyway, I second Xindaris' statement ;-)
Yeah, that's right. Sorry for the lack of graphics.
DeleteI thought so, because the first one seems to have some arrows made of wall blocks(?) as hints. I don't think I would recognise my own levels like that, though. Well, maybe, if a particularly noticealbe shape would strike me ^^
DeleteAbout the gen1 question: The maps having the same size just made me assume that it's from the netshift beta, but I'm not sure anymore.
Can they be played? Beta was fine and fun. I can probably resurrect some of my old levels it that is possible!
ReplyDeleteA lot of them should play okay, if they aren't too sensitive to things like bullet speed. Also I'd have to add directional missiles back in, which I wasn't going to do, but a lot of Netshift levels used them.
DeleteAwesome! I never knew what happened to NetShift, I really liked it. Could this mean the resurrection of the game, or could these levels be converted into Blackshift 2 levels and put them into the game somewhere?
ReplyDeleteP.s. Oh hey this was posted on my birthday... =\
Oh and P-L-E-A-S-E put this game on Steam Greenlight if/when it's done.
DeleteI'd rather convert the levels. Resurrecting Netshift would mean running two very similar online games simultaneously, which doesn't sound fun.
DeleteI've got my eye on Greenlight, but will probably sell independently at first.
Just loaded up Level 100 in Blackshifts level editor and the game crashed claiming that the file was corrupted, in this case how did you use the alternate tile-set if you made all the levels in that level editor?
DeleteAlso the fact that you're doing early access testing soon sounds exiting, is the game really that far into development?
The standard levels all have a flag set that causes the level editor to refuse to open them. Should be true of levels 0-99 as well.
DeleteAnd, yeah, the new game is pretty far along. Working on the web services at the moment — updater, level pit, etc. Need to make sure that stuff works before early access starts.
Is there a way to change the flag? And what sort of program would you reccommend to open a .map file in?
ReplyDeleteId be interested in early access testing, are you only inviting specific people?
It's a custom file format used only by Blackshift, so the only programs you'll be able to open it with are Blackshift or a hex editor :)
DeleteI haven't started the early access program yet, but I'll announce it on here when I do.
Alright, cool. Did you use a hex editor yourself to edit the flags?
DeleteNope. Could have done, but I just made the debug build of the game always set the flags.
DeleteRob, I tried to log on to the website but you didn't send me a key! Waddup?
ReplyDeleteI haven't sent anyone any keys yet!
DeleteOh, okay!
Delete