Druid TC

In essence the entirety of the universe we live in - every aspect - can be attributed to the matrimony of chemistry and physics, and the relatively simple and few principles that govern them; principles such as gravity, atomic bonding, kinetic theory et cetera, which have shaped the way a number of particles interact.

Thus, what are your thoughts on a complete simulation of the development of the universe, run by computers? Obviously, we are aeons away from achieving the processing power needed to simulate enough subatomic particles to cover the head of a pin. Hypothetically, however, such a venture could yield answers to a great many questions that we cannot answer within the constraints of real life. With what frequency does life pervade the universe, and in what extremest conditions can it exist? What are the chances of a habitable universe even forming, or what new constructions could be created if the variables were only slightly different? What will happen at the end of the universe, or maybe we could run it in reverse and see what happened at the beginning? Could we effectively create intelligent life within the simulation, maybe learn from their discoveries? Heck, maybe we are the intelligent life within the simulation of some alien civilisation.

The possibilities are endless. What is certain is that such information would be immeasurably invaluable, and I believe that in our thirst for knowledge, human efforts will eventually culminate in such a venture becoming a reality - what's not so likely is whether we will have enough time in existence to develop computers capable of enough processing power to simulate what is estimated to be about 10⁸⁰ different atoms simultaneously (and exponentially more subatomic particles).

For further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Run
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-body_simulation
http://boingboing.net/2011/09/30/simulating-the-universe.html
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/100927.html
http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html
http://www.nugae.com/philosophy/simulate.pdf

Moogle-girl has successfully ignited the craze for forum-fiction, and inspired my to write my own. So here goes. I have a host of ideas, but I don't know how long this is going to pan out to be. The prologue, I know, isn't GMC-specific, but it will be. Just wait for later chapters.

It follows the stories of several members, as they are faced with an evil of great magnitude.

Don't expect it to be updated too often; school starts tomorrow so I'm unsure how much free time will be available to me.

OWING TO RECENT PROBLEMS WITH POST CHARACTER LIMITS, THE STORY IS NOW HOSTED AT GOOGLE DOCS, AND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE FORUM. LINKS TO EACH PART ARE AS FOLLOWS.

Full Story - https://docs.google....Q1pwQ25vS0NSeFk

Prologue - https://docs.google....5VCpafYkq0/edit

Chapter 1 - https://docs.google....6Zouvfu9eY/edit

Chapter 2 - https://docs.google....q4GLkDtDG4/edit

Chapter 3 - https://docs.google....OCM6M-CUVk/edit

Chapter 4 - https://docs.google....SGjV6KKuA8/edit

Chapter 5 - https://docs.google....m3BtJDvqC4/edit

Chapter 6 - https://docs.google....bDzg9NaVRk/edit

Chapter 7 - https://docs.google....uGKCPcpNhI/edit

Chapter 8 - https://docs.google....tNw8ArQpsY/edit

Chapter 9 - https://docs.google....3HcTkb2bF4/edit

Chapter 10 - https://docs.google....GD2rSS_3LI/edit

I'm sure we all have our different ways of solving the problems we encounter while programming; some may simply persist on their own, some scrutinise the manual, others post a new topic in the Q&A forum. But I'm sure many of us share the habit of looking through old topics in the Q&A forum, in the hopes of finding one dealing with the same issue. And a lot of the time, this is successful. However, it really tests my patience when I see topics like this:

http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=548088&st=0&p=4035083&hl=+never%20+mind%20+solved&fromsearch=1&#entry4035083
http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=536514&st=0&p=3937547&hl=+never%20+mind%20+solved&fromsearch=1&#entry3937547
http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=550692&st=0&p=4056119&hl=never%20mind%20solved&fromsearch=1&#entry4056119

I apologise for having shone the spotlight on these users, but I did not personally encounter them while searching for an issue with one of my games; they were simply returned by a search for 'never mind solved' and illustrate the point I am about to convey.

Can you see the recurring problem with these topics?

If not, I shall elaborate: Each has professed to having been 'solved', yet none explain how they were solved. If I had encountered an obstacle during programming, and had found one of these topics because they demonstrated the same problem, I would be no closer to solving it and would be left with options only to PM the OP or to start a new topic.

I therefore wish just to remind people that topics posted in the Q&A section are not just for your benefit. They will undoubtedly help further anonymous users such as myself, who have experienced the same issue and wish to learn from your mistakes. Is it too much to ask that you add a quick analogy of your approach to the solution? You don't need to copy out the entire code, just point people in the right direction. Believe me, it will be more helpful than you realise.

Thank you,

~Druid TC

I've been working on a small platform RPG and have just made the checkpoint mechanism. The intention is that when the player saves at a checkpoint, all the activated mechanisms (lever-operated doors etc.) are added to a list that was created at the start of the game. Then when the player respawns after having died, all the instances on the list are activated again.

list_activated is a global variable initialised by obj_init before the game starts, to which a ds_list is assigned.

In the room start event, the following code is executed:

var i;

for (i=0; ds_list_find_value(list_activated,i)!=-1; i+=1) {
    with (ds_list_find_value(list_activated,i)) {activated = 1}}

When run, this code freezes the game. I know it is this specific snippet because commenting it removes the problem. I would normally attribute this problem to the for-loop being infinite, but cannot find any reason why it would be. Also, at this point, the list has no values in it.

Any help appreciated,

~Druid TC

EDIT: Just realised that I had confused ds_list_find_value and ds_list_find_index; the latter returns -1 if the value is not present in the list, but the former returns 0 if the position is empty. So it should have been:

var i;

for (i=0; ds_list_find_value(list_activated,i)!=0; i+=1) {
    with (ds_list_find_value(list_activated,i)) {activated = 1}}

I've made a small program which allows the player to assemble 'towers' from a variety of components (fuel cells, accelerators etc.), for use in a tower defence game. Pieces are selected from three drop-down menus (labelled 'weapons', 'power' and 'utility') and placed onto a grid. Different components react with each other in different ways; for example, a solar cell connected to four machine guns will give each one a power rating of +1. Each one will fire a bullet at a slow rate and a low velocity. If two of these guns are then further connected to an accelerator, they fill fire bullets at a higher rate. The overall output of the gun can then be calculated, which would in this case be two bullets being fired every two seconds and another two being fired every one-and-a-half seconds.

My question is: if this mechanic were to be used in a tower defence game (the player designs their own towers and places them on the map) how should they be represented in-game? Obviously, since they can potentially be made on a 144x144 pixel grid, a scaled-down version is out of the question. I would also prefer to stray from the idea of giving all towers the same sprite (ie. any with a lot of machine guns will just get the default machine gun sprite), but what are your views?

~Druid TC