From f1b86909b7cc7888425301987dcc6063b1b16830 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Julie Marchant Date: Wed, 22 May 2019 22:11:21 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Updated the readme to be more informative. --- README.txt | 98 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 96 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt index daaecb7..7a68f15 100644 --- a/README.txt +++ b/README.txt @@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ compared to the original: * There are several gameplay changes. These changes were mostly done to balance the game better. However, if you want the original experience, - "Classic" difficulty approximates it as closely as possible. + "Classic" difficulty emulates it as closely as possible (see the + CLASSIC DIFFICULTY DIFFERENCES section to read about the few + differences that exist). * Much of the dialog has been changed. There are various reasons for this; some of these include fixing bad writing, making the dialog @@ -44,6 +46,97 @@ compared to the original: else. I'll let you figure out what the new method to access the cheat menu is. :) +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CLASSIC DIFFICULTY DIFFERENCES + +Classic difficulty is designed to emulate the experience of version 1.1 +of the game (the last version released by Parallel Realities) as closely +as possible. However, there are a few minor differences in addition to +the changes to graphics, sound, and dialog: + +* Where targets are is shown via arrows at the edge of the screen, and + all targets are indicated in this way; the main target is indicated + with text that says "Target", unless the target is one of the cast of + named characters, and all named characters have their arrows indicated + with their respective arrows. In contrast, version 1.1 only had an + optional arrow that rested in the middle of the screen and pointed in + the general direction of the active (main) target. + +* The active (main) target of the Poswic mission is Sid Wilson. In + version 1.1, the active target was instead the executive transport. + The practical effect of this is that Sid Wilson's shield is indicated + in this mission, whereas it wasn't in version 1.1. + +* Attachments to "boss"-like enemies have damage inflicted on them + immediately applied to the boss itself. Version 1.1 did not do this + until the attachment was completely destroyed. + +* In the Venus mission, Kline starts some distance away directly to the + right and immediately begins combat. In contrast, version 1.1 spawned + Kline much closer to the player (to the point where his ship was + visible on the screen) and a bit further down, unmoving until a string + of dialog boxes finished being displayed. This change was made to + accommodate new music and dialog. + +* Similar to the above, the time spent to accommodate Kline's banter + when he first appears in the Elamale mission is different from version + 1.1 in order to accommodate new music and dialog. + +* Version 1.1 had a bug in the shop which caused selling something to + redeem half the cost of the next item, rather than half the cost of + the item being sold. This led to the last item in a series being sold + for nothing (actually a result of undefined behavior), and it also + allowed the player to continuously gain money by buying and selling + the first permanent cooling upgrade. This bug is fixed in the current + release (including Classic difficulty). + +* Version 1.1 had some overflow bugs, most notably with plasma ammo. + The effect of this bug was that you could sometimes gain too much + plasma ammo, resulting in the recorded amount being lower than before + the powerup was picked up. These bugs are fixed in the current + release (including Classic difficulty). + +* The Odeon mission in version 1.1 had a broken event with undefined + behavior. Players saw it as a message from Sid Wilson saying that + Ursula was running away, followed by an error message. In fact the + source code never defined a fail condition for Ursula running away, so + if the event had been defined properly, all it would have done is + render the mission unwinnable. The current release simply removes the + broken event entirely (including for Classic difficulty). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +GENERATING CONFIGURE SCRIPT + +If you contribute to Project: Starfighter's source code, you will need +to know how to generate a configure script for compiling the program. +NOTE: This is for developers only. End-users simply compiling releases +of Starfighter from source can ignore this section and skip straight to +the COMPILING FROM SOURCE section. + +The following components are required to generate the configure script: + +* Autoconf +* Automake +* pkg-config + +Once these dependencies are installed, simply do the following from a +terminal window: + + autoreconf -vif + +The arguments are technically optional, but recommended. + +If for some reason you need to remove all of these files from your +directory, you can do so via the following command (requires Git): + + git clean -fdx + +Note: automatically generated files are listed in .gitignore, so you +generally don't actually have to do this. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ COMPILING FROM SOURCE @@ -53,7 +146,8 @@ Project: Starfighter depends on the following libraries to build: * SDL2_image * SDL2_mixer -Once you have all dependencies installed, you can do the following: +Once you have all dependencies installed, you can do the following from +a terminal window: ./configure make